After consuming the Foundation Cultivation Pills for three consecutive months, Xiao Fei finally broke through to the fifth level of Qi Condensation.
With his cultivation advancing, he now possessed five streams of spiritual power, each significantly stronger than when he was at the fourth level.
Emerging from his bedroom, he used his Qi Observation Technique to glance at Huang Feifei and found her still at the third level of Qi Condensation, letting out a sigh of relief.
He had almost been caught up by her.
Feeling the surging spiritual power within him, Xiao Fei decided to find a place to test his spells.
The inn run by the small-eyed man had very poor business, with many empty rooms in the backyard and a vacant patch of flat ground in the middle, which was perfect for him to practice his spells.
"Feifei, stand back. Spells are very powerful, so don't get accidentally injured by me!"
Seeing Xiao Fei about to practice his spells, Huang Feifei also came to watch the excitement. She was only at the third level of Qi Condensation and couldn't cast such spells yet, so she could only watch with envy from the side.
Walking to the center of the courtyard, he formed several hand seals in succession and silently recited an incantation in his heart.
With a loud shout, an egg-sized fireball appeared in his hand.
"Go!"
The fireball drifted forward, looking back at intervals, and slowly flew towards a rock.
"Boom!"
The fireball exploded, scattering sparks, and a rock the size of a human head was blasted into powder.
"Wow! That's amazing!"
Huang Feifei cheered from a distance, making Xiao Fei blush a little.
The power of the fireball had at least doubled compared to before.
It was just that the fireball's speed was too slow; at this speed, it was impossible to injure anyone.
He also wanted the fireball to fly faster, but due to insufficient spiritual power and divine sense, it could only be this way.
Next, he changed his hand seals and pointed his finger forward. Spiritual energy gathered in the air, and a wooden spike formed in mid-air, shooting forward.
"Whoosh!"
The wooden spike streaked through the air like a stream of light, hitting a wooden pillar and piercing a small hole in it.
This was a spell from the "Azure Wood Longevity Art," called the Wood Spike Technique.
Perhaps it was because he primarily cultivated wood-elemental techniques, but this wooden spike was extremely fast in the air and quite powerful, though it lacked the explosive force of fire-elemental spells.
Additionally, the "Azure Wood Longevity Art" also contained another spell that he could cultivate now, called the Entangling Technique.
This technique required the seeds of some spiritual plants. It would instantly unleash the full vitality within the seeds using magic, causing the spiritual plants to grow rapidly and entangle enemies.
However, he needed to find seeds of spiritual plants with tough wood.
After casting two spells in succession, feeling he still had some energy left, he took down the peach wood sword artifact from his back.
He communicated his divine sense with the formations on the flying sword and infused spiritual power into it.
After infusing an amount equivalent to two streams of spiritual power, the flying sword rose from his hand and shot forward with a sudden movement.
"Bang!" The flying sword struck the courtyard wall, creating a large hole in the brick and stone wall.
"Wow! Young Master, you're amazing!"
"Shh! Keep your voice down. If the innkeeper finds out, he'll make us pay."
Xiao Fei quickly used his divine sense to control the flying sword; it was purely an accident.
When he wielded the flying sword now, it still felt a bit like a child playing with a broadsword; his control was not very stable.
"Oh!"
Huang Feifei glanced around, and seeing no sign of the small-eyed man, she felt somewhat relieved.
Xiao Fei controlled the flying sword for a while longer, sweating profusely, and only returned to rest after his spiritual power was depleted.
A year later, Xiao Fei's cultivation successfully broke through to the sixth level of Qi Condensation.
While his spiritual power and divine sense greatly increased, he also discovered that consuming Foundation Cultivation Pills had little effect anymore.
Logically, many of the ginseng in his space had a twenty-year medicinal age and should have been more potent. However, the more he ate, the less effective it became, and his cultivation growth had been slow recently.
After much inquiry, it was likely that his body had developed a tolerance from consuming the same type of pill for too long.
The specific situation varied from person to person. For example, Huang Feifei had no such issues, and her cultivation continued to rise, reaching the fifth level of Qi Condensation.
In fact, the best for assisting cultivation were pills refined by cultivators using special techniques.
The Foundation Cultivation Pills that Xiao Fei concocted were only considered common-grade pills, far from the first-grade pills.
Today, after practicing, Xiao Fei went to the market, intending to buy a few pills to try.
The market was still bustling with people, and the sounds of hawking were constant.
Xiao Fei walked and stopped in the market, squatting down to look at anything that caught his interest.
At this moment, he was squatting in front of a stall, examining several talismans in his hand.
"These talismans of yours are too expensive. Can you make them cheaper?"
The stall owner was a young man who seemed to be a talisman craftsman, selling the talismans he drew in the market.
"Fellow Daoist, my talismans are already the cheapest in the entire market.
A Fireball Talisman requires me to fail several times and lose a lot of spiritual materials to create, yet I only sell it for eight spirit stones."
The stall owner picked up a Fireball Talisman and explained it enthusiastically.
"It's still too expensive, it's simply burning spirit stones."
"Fellow Daoist, you can't think of it that way. This is something that can save your life at a critical moment.
You only need to activate a Fireball Talisman to easily release a fireball to attack enemies, consuming almost no spiritual power.
Also, look at this Golden Armor Talisman and Strength Talisman; they are all very useful at critical moments."
Seeing that the stall owner absolutely refused to lower the price further, Xiao Fei took out spirit stones and bought one Golden Armor Talisman and three Fireball Talismans.
This alone cost him over thirty spirit stones.
The spirit stones he had obtained from selling the profound iron ore earlier had been mostly spent on expenses over the years, leaving him with very little.
In the past year, Huang Feifei had also been working as an apprentice in a robe shop, earning some spirit stones to supplement their household expenses.
However, she earned very little; as an apprentice, she only received two spirit stones per month.
Every cultivator needed a means of livelihood, and Huang Feifei was quite dedicated to learning robe making.
Actually, Xiao Fei still had a batch of Four-Leaf Purple Flower Grass in his space that hadn't been sold yet, which should fetch over a hundred spirit stones.
After buying the talismans, he walked around the market for half a circle and finally found a stall selling pills.
"Qi Gathering Pill, first-grade pill, three spirit stones per pill."
"Give me two!"
Xiao Fei took out spirit stones and bought two pills.
"Excuse me, Fellow Daoist, do you have the seeds of the main ingredients for refining Qi Gathering Pills?"
The ancient texts left by Huang Feifei's ancestors contained the formulas for two first-grade pills, one of which was the Qi Gathering Pill.
Xiao Fei intended to learn to refine it himself, but the formula required three types of spiritual herbs, and he hadn't managed to obtain the seeds of these herbs yet.
Various prominent families cultivated a lot of these medicinal materials, but they only sold processed, dried herbs externally, which could not be planted.
"Heh heh! If Fellow Daoist wants seeds, you won't find them in the city. You can only search for wild medicinal herbs outside the city on Lion Peak Ridge.
However, there are demonic beasts on Lion Peak Ridge, and it's quite dangerous.
Most of the raw materials I use for refining pills are harvested wild medicinal herbs, which saves a lot of cost."
"Thank you for the information, Fellow Daoist!"