Cultivation begins with ice harvesters

Chapter 90: Ascetic Training

In the future, if any one of them advances to the late stage of Qi Refining, and with the combined effect of the Azure Wave Overturning Mountain Formation and the Concealing Spirit Formation, they can stand firmly in the depths of this icy domain, provided that no Foundation Establishment cultivators or second-tier demonic beasts appear.

"While the Azure Wave Overturning Mountain Formation possesses sufficient destructive power, it is ultimately only a first-tier high-grade formation flag. The price of 1,100 spirit stones is still too high. How about 900?"

The practice of asking for exorbitant prices and then negotiating them is particularly prominent among impoverished rogue cultivators, who fight tooth and nail for almost every single spiritual item or spirit stone.

"Senior Brother Meng, although we have been given the opportunity to guard the spirit ice mine, this place is practically destitute. We still need to personally harvest the spirit ice every day. Moreover, this guarding opportunity was obtained under Elder Meng's guidance. The high price of 1,100 spirit stones is really beyond our means. Please understand, Senior Brother."

Liu Zong, on the other hand, mainly used emotional appeals, even bringing up Elder Meng at this moment, with the sole purpose of bargaining to save enough spirit stones. The two were quite in sync in this regard.

"Nine hundred spirit stones are not enough to buy array flags from the Chen family. For the sake of my master, I will not make a single spirit stone in this transaction. It will be a fair deal: one thousand spirit stones. In return, you two must guarantee that all the spirit ice produced in the next two years will be handed over to me for purchase."

With a pained expression, Meng Lan proposed a brand new trade plan: the price of the Canglan Fuyue Formation Flag would be reduced by 100 spirit stones.

"Deal. However, Fellow Daoist Meng needs to bring the Azure Wave Overturning Mountain Formation Flag within three days. As for the spirit stones used to purchase the formation, they will be deducted from the spirit ice earned in each transaction. Of course, the amount of spirit ice earned in each transaction will be reduced by the portion paid to the Chen family."

It is only polite to reciprocate, and a price reduction of a mere hundred spirit stones is clearly insufficient to offset the exclusive trading rights for spirit ice for the next two years.

After all, based on the amount of spirit ice collected in the last two days, after deducting the payment to the Chen family, it can be exchanged for at least four hundred spirit stones per month.

As time goes by and the difficulty of mining spirit ice increases, the number of 95 spirit stones obtained in two days will inevitably be in a state of rapid decline.

Even so, Meng Lan could still earn the most lucrative profits from the two-year-long Lingbing transaction, but naturally, she would need to pay the corresponding price in advance.

"Fellow Daoist Tong is indeed shrewd, obtaining a complete set of array flags with ease. Very well, since we hit it off immediately, it's a deal."

With a wry smile on her face, Meng Lan finally agreed to this win-win deal after a little hesitation.

Half a day later, Meng Lan left with the spirit ice that had been mined. As a qualified merchant, she even summoned a first-grade high-quality mountain-moving spirit turtle to transport large quantities of spirit ice.

The Mountain-Moving Spirit Turtle is a spirit turtle with extremely strong load-bearing capacity, long endurance, gentle temperament, and is good at long-distance transport. It can also glide on ice fields at a considerable speed. Such a first-tier high-grade spirit beast is priced at over three thousand spirit stones.

Three days later, Menglan delivered a brand-new set of Canglan Fuyue Formation Flags as agreed and assisted in setting them up. The moment they were successfully activated, a deep blue light shield enveloped the spirit ice mine. After the light shield stabilized, its color slowly faded until it disappeared.

Unless other cultivators forcibly break in, the great formation will quickly resume its high-frequency operation.

With the return of the Canglan Fuyue Formation and the stabilization of the spiritual ice sales channels, cultivators Tong Bingfeng and Liu Zong began to follow their respective roles, each responsible for a day's mining, while the other naturally focused on cultivation, entering into a arduous yet structured training regimen.

Whenever Tong Bingfeng was in charge of mining spirit ice, he would decisively activate his Great Fang and tirelessly search for traces of Ice Essence Pearls among thousands of first-grade low-grade spirit ice.

However, Ice Element Pearls are scarce, and as more and more are mined, the difficulty of finding and locking onto them naturally increases dramatically, and there are not harvests every day.

Fortunately, one Ice Essence Pearl could sustain his cultivation for five days, thus meeting his daily cultivation needs. With the support of the Ice Essence Pearl, Tong Bingfeng's cultivation progressed rapidly.

Of course, the hundred Watery Pills that I exchanged with Elder Meng have not yet been used up. Every five days, I will refine one of them.

As long as the elixirs are completely eliminated and do not cause any negative effects on the physical body, it can be considered a saving of Ice Essence Pearls.

After all, according to their calculations, the number of Ice Element Beads born in this miniature spirit ice mine should not exceed twenty, and as the number of mines increases, the difficulty of mining each Ice Element Bead will also increase exponentially.

With ample resources, the support of rich spiritual energy within the spirit ice mine, and a steady rhythm of daily arduous cultivation, Tong Bingfeng's cultivation level, though still at the sixth level of Qi Refining, showed obvious improvement every day.

In addition, he also used the first-grade superior-quality Nourishing Source Water, a spiritual water specifically for solidifying the foundation of cultivation, in an orderly manner. Therefore, his cultivation foundation did not falter in the slightest due to the rapid improvement in cultivation, and he continued to steadily improve step by step.

Sun rises and sets, day and night alternate, and time flies by.

In the blink of an eye, three months of guarding the spirit ice mine had slipped away silently. In addition to delivering the full amount of spirit ice to the Chen family envoy as agreed, Tong Bingfeng and Liu Zong also successfully repaid the spirit stones owed for purchasing the Canglan Fuyue Formation.

"I have vaguely reached the bottleneck of the sixth level of Qi Refining. Once I break through it, I can smoothly advance to the seventh level of Qi Refining, step into the threshold of the late stage of Qi Refining, and become a genuine late stage Qi Refining cultivator."

"However, the magical power in the dantian has not yet been truly solidified, and there is still room for further compression. Only by solidifying the magical power in the dantian to the extreme before each advancement in cultivation during the Qi Refining stage will there be a possibility of transforming Qi into liquid in the future, forging a foundation for the Dao, and achieving the Foundation Establishment stage."

Although Tong Bingfeng sensed the threshold of advancement, he still completely suppressed the excitement in his heart. Sharpening the axe before chopping wood was not the best time to consume the innate primordial energy from the water-attribute crystal gourd.

At the same time, he began to plan to buy a puppet as soon as possible to replace cultivators in mining spirit ice, so as to save enough time for cultivation.

According to the current division of labor, each person is responsible for mining spiritual ice for a whole day, which is a huge waste of this precious time that could be used for cultivation.

Puppets are one of the best ways to solve the current predicament. The only thing that needs to be paid is a considerable amount of spirit stones. These puppets, which can replace cultivators in mining spirit ice, are quite valuable.

"Just one puppet can roughly double the time that can be devoted to cultivation, so this investment is definitely worthwhile."