Chapter 24: Cultivate

After getting a good amount of spring water from the mountain spring, he returned to his room and began making Spiritual Qi spring water. At night, he locked his door, tied a rope to the door, and the other end to his arm, so that if the door were opened, he would immediately notice.

After drinking several large gulps of spring water, a warm current surged within him. Wang Lin immediately gripped the Stone Bead and entered the dream space.

In the boundless dream, Wang Lin sat cross-legged, breathing and circulating Qi. The glowing bodies around him, as Wang Lin closed his eyes to Cultivate, emitted soft beams of light. The moment they landed on him, they transformed into specks of light, silently entering his body. Wang Lin was completely unaware of all this.

After about a day, the Spiritual Qi from the spring water in his body dissipated completely. However, this time, he clearly felt a difference in his body. In the past, after drinking the medicinal soup, although a warm current would appear, the Spiritual Qi would eventually dissipate entirely as time passed.

But this time was different. Although it still dissipated, a trace of it remained in his body. Though not much, it gave Wang Lin great confidence. He had guessed for a long time, unable to understand the problem, and finally attributed the question to the mysterious Stone Bead.

Because he couldn't leave the dream autonomously and couldn't replenish the spring water, Wang Lin tried breathing and circulating Qi for a long time. He eventually discovered that this dream was different from the outside world. Outside, when he breathed and circulated Qi, although he didn't feel Spiritual Qi entering his body like ants crawling, after persisting for a month, he found that each meditation session left him feeling refreshed and completely comfortable.

But here, after the spring water's Spiritual Qi dissipated, when he breathed and circulated Qi again, he didn't have that comfortable feeling. Instead, if he meditated for too long, he would become short of breath and feel tightness in his chest.

After pondering for a moment, Wang Lin vaguely had a guess in his mind: all of this might be related to Spiritual Qi. There was no Spiritual Qi in the dream space!

The more he thought about it, the more he felt it was correct. He frowned and muttered to himself, "If only I could bring the spring water from outside in, that would be great." Thinking of this, his heart suddenly stirred. He looked down at himself, a puzzled expression on his face.

He was wearing the red clothes of an Inner Sect Disciple, which confused Wang Lin greatly. He quickly touched the spot where his Storage Pouch was, only to find that it had disappeared.

"Clothes can appear in the dream space, but the Storage Pouch cannot…" He pondered for a moment and decided to experiment after he left to see which items could be brought into the dream and which could not.

Time quickly passed. After twenty-five hours, the tearing sensation reappeared, and Wang Lin awoke in reality.

He still had a question: why could he only last for two and a half hours each time? With this question in mind, he poured the spring water into a gourd, put it on his person, and prepared to enter the dream.

But this time, no matter how he stared at the Stone Bead, he felt no drowsiness at all. Wang Lin was startled. Then he thought long and hard, suppressing his worries, and closed his eyes to breathe and circulate Qi.

Gradually, his breathing became steady, and Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi was continuously absorbed into his body. While dissipating, a trace of it also accumulated. However, there was still a long way to go before reaching the first layer of Qi Condensation.

He spent the day breathing and circulating Qi. During this time, he occasionally picked up the spring water gourd, constantly drinking the Spiritual Qi spring water to maintain a state of abundant Spiritual Qi both inside and outside his body.

In addition, he repeatedly held the Stone Bead, wanting to enter the dream, but unfortunately, he was never successful.

Night fell again. He opened his eyes, vaguely sensing that the trace of Spiritual Qi in his body had slightly increased. If it were normally, he would have been very excited, but now, he felt restless. He picked up the Stone Bead again and stared at it. Suddenly, drowsiness surged. Wang Lin's face showed joy, and he quickly averted his gaze. After a while, the drowsiness slightly faded.

He stood up, stroked his chin, and pondered in the room for a long time, recalling the details of his previous four entries into the dream. Finally, he discovered a problem.

The first two entries were consecutive. The third time, he entered after observing the oil lamp for more than two hours. As for the fourth time, there was a whole day's interval.

From this, it could be inferred that there was a certain restriction on entering the dream. The safest method was to have an interval of at least two hours each time to ensure entry.

After solving this problem, Wang Lin began to prepare to experiment with what items could be brought into the dream. He prepared many things for this experiment. First, there were three gourds: one that still contained dew, one empty, and the last one filled with spring water.

The fragments of the broken stone bowl were also tucked into his embrace. Besides these, he also took out sweet potatoes, clothes, and other items from his bag, wrapped them all around himself, and then stared at the Stone Bead, entering the dream.

In the dream, Wang Lin immediately checked his entire body. The sweet potatoes, clothes, and stone bowl fragments were all there, but the three gourds and the Storage Pouch were not.

In his confusion, he suddenly remembered that there was no Spiritual Qi in the dream space. A thought then rose in his mind: everything that could be brought into the dream was ordinary, or rather, these things did not contain any Spiritual Qi.

As for the three gourds and the Storage Pouch, these items all contained more or less Spiritual Qi, so they could not be brought here.

With a light sigh, Wang Lin became troubled. If he couldn't bring the gourds in, just drinking a few sips of spring water before each entry into the dream would not be enough for him to Cultivate here.

Thinking of this, his expression suddenly shifted. It was as if he had grasped something important in his mind, yet also as if he hadn't grasped anything. This ambiguous feeling made him immediately fall into deep thought, racking his brain, and systematically organizing his thoughts along the previous line of reasoning.

After a long while, his face lit up with joy. He had thought of the key to the problem: the spring water was full of Spiritual Qi and couldn't be brought here, but after drinking it, it didn't disappear here.

This meant that it wasn't absolute. As long as he found a way, he might be able to bring the Spiritual Qi spring water in.

After waiting for twenty-five hours, Wang Lin immediately left his room, wandered and searched along the mountain paths, and quickly returned after collecting a few wild gourds.

He believed that the reason the previous three gourds were not brought into the dream was that they had been filled with dew for a long time, causing them to inherently contain a certain amount of Spiritual Qi.

Now, if he used the freshly picked gourds to hold the Spiritual Qi spring water, he might be able to trick the dream and bring them in.

More than two hours later, Wang Lin, with four or five gourds hanging on him, entered the dream. The moment he entered, he immediately checked his body and was pleasantly surprised to find that all the gourds were there.

Opening them, he saw that the spring water inside hadn't disappeared. He took a sip, and it still contained Spiritual Qi. In his excitement, Wang Lin immediately took a big gulp without another word, sat cross-legged, and began to Cultivate with undivided attention.

Whenever the Spiritual Qi in his body dissipated, he would immediately drink a few sips of spring water. Gradually, traces of Spiritual Qi slowly accumulated in his body, gradually changing his constitution and continuously approaching the first layer of the Qi Condensation stage.

The glowing bodies around him once again transformed into specks of light, silently entering his body.

Given Wang Lin's Spiritual Root talent, without the mysterious Stone Bead and without the Spiritual Qi liquid, it would have taken him several years to successfully reach the first layer of Qi Condensation. If he added the Spirit Transformation Plant, it would probably take him thirty to fifty years to succeed.

Sun Dazhu's month-long medicinal soup shortened this process. Wang Lin unintentionally dispersed his cultivation, removing the Spirit Transformation Plant, but even so, it would still take about ten years to Cultivate successfully. But now, Wang Lin did not lack Spiritual Qi and possessed a dream space where time was increased tenfold. The first layer of the Qi Condensation stage was within reach.