Cultivation begins with ice harvesters

Chapter 11: Peace

With the aid of a mid-grade first-tier flying sword, he could quickly and easily kill all the impoverished cultivators who refused to move away.

"The patrol guards and the market management office were working together to drive all the early-stage Qi Refining cultivators away from the main spirit island. Fortunately, they chose to venture into the Ice Domain today and gained something. Otherwise, under such a series of schemes, they would have had no choice but to swallow their anger."

"Of course, as the main spirit island of the Chen family, it is necessary to leave some rogue cultivators as peripheral vassals. This joint scheme is itself a process of weeding out the dross and selecting the best. Successfully passing this test should bring a period of relative peace."

After witnessing this man-made farce firsthand, Tong Bingfeng felt no less chill in his heart than in the icy northern frontier, but he also found some opportunities in this crisis.

After all, the second-tier low-grade Ice Spirit Island is located in the Ice Sea Market, which is also a stable source of spirit stones for the Chen family, the owners of this place. Its importance is self-evident and beyond doubt.

The operation of a market also requires a large number of low-level cultivators as its foundation. Therefore, after careful selection, Tong Bingfeng is confident enough in his prediction that he will be able to enjoy a period of relative peace in the near future.

In the foreseeable future, neither the patrol guards nor the market management office will easily humiliate low-level cultivators.

As a family with a history spanning thousands of years, we place great importance on our family reputation and need to maintain a basic balance in all aspects.

"Ultimately, it still comes down to the cultivator's own strength. During this peaceful period, we should strive to improve our cultivation as soon as possible, break through the bottleneck, and enter the fourth level of Qi Refining, thus stepping into the mid-stage of Qi Refining."

Tong Bingfeng secretly made up his mind that the current peace was just an external environment and did not mean that he should just sit around and wait to die. On the contrary, as a qualified cultivator who wanted to achieve something on the path of cultivation in the future, he needed to seize this opportunity to work hard and strive.

Unfortunately, he was just an ordinary cultivator with three spiritual roots. To advance his cultivation, he needed to consume a large amount of spiritual resources.

For a rogue cultivator without any powerful allies, the only option was to fight on the icy plains and snatch food from the jaws of beasts.

The expansion of thought did not affect cultivation in any way. Although he was busy during the day and did not immediately refine the spiritual veins and spiritual power, there was a simple array set up in the simple room to ensure that the spiritual power would not leak out.

The Water Spirit Technique circulates along the meridians, and after each major cycle, a stream of pure magical power replenishes the dantian.

A light blue mist, not particularly dense, filled the area, occupying more than 90% of the dantian.

This means that his cultivation has reached the late stage of the third level of Qi Refining, and he is just waiting to reach a certain point to trigger the threshold for cultivation advancement.

The transition from the third to the fourth level of Qi Refining signifies moving from the initial stage to the middle stage of Qi Refining, representing the first relatively formidable bottleneck a cultivator must overcome in their cultivation journey.

Of course, the cultivation world has a variety of ways to deal with this bottleneck. The most convenient way is to buy a mid-grade first-level melting pill from a market shop as an aid, which has at least a 70% chance of advancing to the fourth level of Qi Refining.

The sun sets in the west, and the rabbit rises in the east.

For cultivators, time always flies by during cultivation, and the spiritual energy in the hut has become thin again.

The moment Tong Bingfeng opened his eyes, a bright light flashed by, and a trace of worry was hidden deep in his heart. It was clear that simply relying on the daily, fixed amount of spiritual energy from the first-grade low-level spiritual vein was not enough to meet the basic cultivation needs of a Qi Refining Level 3 cultivator.

"Although we only hunted a low-grade first-tier crystal shrimp today, we have gained a basic understanding of the nearby ice area. With Big Fang's assistance, we will surely reap a much greater reward tomorrow."

"Since there is no way forward, we can only forge a bright future through bloodshed and carnage."

Tong Bingfeng sat cross-legged on a simple futon, pondered for a while, and then, without delay, lay down on the wooden bed to rest.

Although a cultivator at the third level of Qi Refining has absorbed spiritual energy into their body and their overall body has been nourished to a certain extent, they have not yet broken free from the shackles of their physical body. After a day of hard work and fatigue, they still need sufficient rest to recover completely.

Day and night pass by, and time flies.

In the early hours of the next day, on the still pitch-black ice field, under the erosion of the cold wind, a familiar figure once again stood on the ice surface, looking around.

"Although it's cold at this time of year, it's quiet, so I can fully utilize the characteristics of Big Teeth without worrying about being observed or spied on by other cultivators."

Since gaining a relatively clear understanding of the value of Big Teeth's talent in locking onto ice-attribute spiritual power, Tong Bingfeng was naturally unwilling to reveal this secret.

"Big teeth, activate, search, lock spirit."

After observing his surroundings and confirming that there were no other cultivators present, Tong Bingfeng naturally did not hesitate any longer and decisively activated his Big Teeth talent.

"Crunch"

With the active intake of a large amount of cold air, even though he was mentally prepared, when the large amount of cold air surrounded his molars, a wave of unbearable soreness from deep within his gums and teeth caused Tong Bingfeng to involuntarily make an unusual sound.

However, the inside of the large teeth was being eroded by the cold, as if a switch had been flipped instantly, quickly starting up to effectively distinguish all the ice-attribute spiritual power contained in the cold from the inside out, trying to lock onto the first target of the day by distinguishing the slight differences between each strand of different spiritual power.

"Hmm? All the spiritual energy has roughly the same flavor, consistency, and strength?"

"Big Fangs locks onto ice-attribute spiritual power. While it can't be said to be invincible, it's rare for it to come up empty-handed. Today seems to be an unfavorable start."

After a long while, Tong Bingfeng frowned. He was clearly very dissatisfied with the analysis results of the first breath of ice-attribute spiritual power, as he had not obtained any useful information.

Faced with this situation, Tong Bingfeng had no other options. After calming himself down a bit, he strode into the depths of the ice domain.

After all, the large teeth can only be used as an auxiliary search measure within a certain range. To make it effective, it is necessary to first select a suitable ice area.

"This place is more than ten kilometers away from Ice Spirit Island. According to the classification in the jade slip, it should be in an area where low-grade and mid-grade first-tier demonic beasts live together. The number and quality of demonic beasts should have improved."

After a full half-hour of rapid travel, Tong Bingfeng finally stopped, looked around, and then revealed a satisfied expression.