Chapter 121: A Harsh and Ungrateful Person

Chapter 121: Chapter 121: A Harsh and Ungrateful Person

After the Desolate Fire Sparrow ate all the scattered eggshells on the ground, it fell into a deep sleep.

Li Ping smiled, placed the sleeping little creature into his Spirit Beast Pouch, and then cast a cleaning spell to tidy up the room.

The way Demon Beasts cultivated was different from humans.

Human cultivation relied on Spiritual Roots, using them to refine the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi into their own Magical Power.

Demon Beasts, on the other hand, had no such thing as Spiritual Roots. Furthermore, Demon Beasts below Tier Four had intelligence far inferior to humans and had no Cultivation Techniques to speak of.

Their cultivation mainly relied on tapping into their bloodline to awaken the Innate Divine Abilities within.

The stronger a Demon Beast’s bloodline, the greater its combat strength. Those with top-tier True Spirit Bloodlines could even be more powerful than human Cultivators of the same tier.

Of course, Demon Beasts with True Spirit Bloodlines were extremely rare.

Generally speaking, the combat strength of a Demon Beast was usually inferior to that of a human Cultivator of the same tier.

However, a Demon Beast that reached the Tier Four Transformation Stage would have intelligence that might even surpass humans. They could learn to refine Magical Treasures and use Magic. At that point, there was little difference between a Demon Beast and a human Cultivator.

Some High-tier Demon Beasts, relying on their bloodline talents, could even consistently overpower human Nascent Soul Cultivators.

In fact, it wasn’t just Demon Beasts. As far as Li Ping knew, Spiritual Roots seemed to be unique to humans.

Besides humans, the Tuluo People of the Northern Grassland in the Western Wilderness also had no concept of Spiritual Roots. Every Tuluo person could cultivate, but their method was different from that of humans.

Human Cultivators with Spiritual Roots started by drawing Qi into their bodies from the very beginning of their Qi Refining.

The Tuluo People, however, began their cultivation at the Acquired realm. This realm was somewhat similar to that of human Martial Artists, and it was rumored that human Martial Artists had actually adopted the Tuluo cultivation system.

However, due to the unique nature of their constitution and bloodline, a few talented Tuluo could cultivate the Acquired realm to its peak, break through the bridge between heaven and earth, reverse back to the Innate state, and connect with the outer world. This allowed them to refine Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi into their bodies and become Cultivators.

Mortal human Martial Artists, however, could never achieve this.

Moreover, the Tuluo People’s requirements for their cultivation environment and the difficulty of advancing were both significantly lower than those of human Cultivators.

This was why, despite the barren Spiritual Qi and scarce cultivation resources of the Northern Grassland, the Tuluo People were still powerful enough to invade the kingdoms of Yan and Liang year after year.

...

With the Spirit Beast Pouch hanging from his waist, Li Ping went to the Artifact Refining room next door.

A small, blood-colored banner hovered in the middle of the Artifact Refining room. It shimmered with a hazy, sanguine light, and a bloody mist filled the air around it.

This was the Blood Banner, a Tier Two Top-Grade Spiritual Artifact that Li Ping had taken from two Demon Cultivators he killed on his way back from the Qi Kingdom.

To the side, two Low-Tier puppets were following a program set by Li Ping, mechanically feeding poisons to the Blood Banner at set intervals.

The Blood Banner seemed to have an inexplicable greed for poisons, refining them on its own without needing Li Ping to activate it.

Once refined, the poisons transformed into the Blood Banner’s unique, colorless, and odorless "Blood-Corroding" poison.

Furthermore, the more poisons it refined, the more potent the Blood-Corroding poison became.

When refined to its limit, the Blood-Corroding poison could even threaten a Perfect Foundation Establishment Cultivator!

The poisons fed to the Blood Banner for it to devour and refine came from various sources, some from Spirit Medicines and others from Demon Beasts. He had bought them all on the side last time he went out to sell Pills and purchase medicinal ingredients.

He had realized the immense advantage of poison in combat during his last fight with that pair of Demon Cultivators.

When used effectively, poison was like applying a debuff to the enemy, making it possible to subdue them without a fight. Of course, he wasn’t going to let a powerful tool like the Blood Banner go to waste.

Besides, he didn’t lack Spirit Stones, so he could buy more than enough poisons to feed the Blood Banner. The Blood Banner was perfect for someone like him, who had Spirit Stones to spare.

Seeing that everything was proceeding smoothly, Li Ping nodded in satisfaction.

He turned and left, returning to his Alchemy Room. There, he began to meditate and refine Qi while also concocting Pills.

...

Time passed slowly as Li Ping cultivated. In the blink of an eye, it was the end of the year again.

The five members of the Friends Association still in Fenglan Immortal City gathered on Immortal Peach Mountain.

Zhang Tie had his first child last year and also took a pair of twin sisters as concubines. He was very satisfied with his current life.

He mentioned that after nearly three years of studying Artifact Refining, he was still just a beginner apprentice.

For a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, his talent in Artifact Refining could be described as average at best.

However, he showed no signs of frustration about it.

After all, Foundation Establishment Cultivators could live for over two hundred years. He still had a long life ahead of him and could take his time learning.

Li Ping quite admired his attitude.

’Time rewards the honest and hardworking.’

After three years of arduous cultivation, Gumu Sheng had finally broken through to the Qi Refining Ninth Level this year, putting him just one step away from Foundation Establishment.

Generally speaking, however, a Cultivator with Four Spirit Roots, even with the help of a Foundation Establishment Pill, had a theoretical success rate of no more than thirty percent for reaching Foundation Establishment.

Thus, Gumu Sheng’s actual chances of successfully reaching Foundation Establishment were quite slim.

But Gumu Sheng himself didn’t seem anxious at all, which made Li Ping even more certain that Gumu Sheng was the one who had won the bottle of Jade Heart Liquid—a Foundation Establishment Spiritual Object that could increase the success rate by ten percent—at the Immortal City auction three years ago.

With the help of the Jade Heart Liquid, his chances of success would be similar to those of a Cultivator with Three Spirit Roots.

Li Ping had no intention of exposing his secret.

There was a saying that put it well: ’If you lack ability, be honest. If you want to play games, you’d better be smart enough.’

When honest people run into trouble, others will choose to help them because of their integrity.

Smart people, on the other hand, can rely on their own schemes to gain enough benefits and avoid trouble.

Clearly, Zhang Tie and Gumu Sheng were two such examples.

It was precisely because of Zhang Tie’s simple, honest character and sincere way of doing things that Li Ping favored him and was willing to go to great lengths to help him reach Foundation Establishment.

Conversely, Li Ping didn’t particularly like his quick-witted "third brother," Gumu Sheng, and hadn’t offered him much help.

But Gumu Sheng was smart enough. Through his own shrewd management and by speculating during the beast tide, he had earned a large number of Spirit Stones.

He didn’t need Li Ping’s help; he had enough wealth to acquire the Jade Heart Liquid on his own.

Next was Cheng Yao. A year had passed, and her cultivation was still at the Qi Refining Eighth Level. By her own estimation, she should be able to reach the Qi Refining Ninth Level next year, catching up to Gumu Sheng in terms of cultivation.

This highlighted the importance of a Cultivator’s aptitude. She had Three Spirit Roots, and even though Wang Xingwei had delayed her for a significant amount of time, her cultivation speed was still faster than that of Gumu Sheng, who had Four Spirit Roots.

Finally, there was Bai Qing. Over the past year, he had successfully broken through to the Qi Refining Seventh Level as he had wished, becoming a Qi Refining Seventh Level Cultivator.

With this, all members of the Friends Association, aside from Qi Hanmo who was far away in Jixia, had reached the Late-stage Qi Refining or higher.

In fact, among all the Cultivators in the association, Bai Qing had benefited the most. He was the last to join.

Shortly after he joined, Li Ping broke through to Foundation Establishment and began to give back to the other members of the association.

Relying on the Pills Li Ping gave him each year, and also having Three Spirit Roots, his cultivation speed was much faster than Li Ping’s had been. He was on track to reach Perfect Qi Refining around the age of thirty-six and attempt to break through to the Foundation Establishment stage!

Looking at the progress of the three, Li Ping was filled with emotion.

Eight years had passed since he broke through to the Foundation Establishment Stage.

And with his support, not only had everyone in the association successfully broken through to Late-stage Qi Refining, but they had also produced a Foundation Establishment Cultivator in Zhang Tie.

He had to admit, he felt a great sense of accomplishment.

After reviewing everyone’s cultivation progress, it was time for the Foundation Establishment Fund contribution.

Since Bai Qing had broken through to Late-stage Qi Refining, his required annual contribution automatically increased to thirty Spirit Stones.

Adding the contributions from the other four members, the total in the Foundation Establishment Fund now stood at 2,100 Spirit Stones.

Four years had passed, and before they knew it, they had almost saved up enough for another Foundation Establishment Pill.

Next, the four of them took turns recounting their experiences and any troubles they had encountered over the past year.

Zhang Tie didn’t have much to say. He was a Foundation Establishment Cultivator and the son-in-law of the Meng family.

Given his current status and content personality, he was living a very pleasant life in the Immortal City area and was unlikely to run into any trouble.

Gumu Sheng also hadn’t encountered any problems, but he did mention the child, He Yunyi, whom he had brought to the Immortal City from Zhang Tie’s village.

After giving all the Spirit Stones left by their "sixth brother," Teng Feng, to He Yunyi, Gumu Sheng hadn’t just left him alone. Instead, he regularly checked up on him.

He believed that although the boy was still young, it was already clear that he was a callous, ungrateful person.

According to Gumu Sheng’s observations, in the more than two years since He Yunyi had come to the Immortal City, he hadn’t once returned to his village to visit his parents or relatives, even when he had free time.

With a personality like that, even if he became a successful Cultivator, he probably wouldn’t give back to the village as everyone hoped, nor would he fulfill the last wish of their sixth brother, Teng Feng.

Gumu Sheng mentioned that he somewhat regretted giving all of Teng Feng’s remaining Spirit Stones to He Yunyi.

Li Ping asked him if he had a suitable plan to resolve the matter.

After some thought, Gumu Sheng proposed an idea: he would go to Teng Feng’s village and make some inquiries.

If he found out from the villagers that He Yunyi’s nature was indeed so callous and ungrateful...

...then they would take back the Spirit Stones given to him and, as originally planned, use them to buy supplies in installments to send back to the people of Teng Feng’s village.

If his nature wasn’t the problem, and it was just a psychological reaction to seeing the splendor of the Immortal City after arriving...

...then they would have a frank and open talk with him, clarify that he was expected to give back to the village in the future, and ask if he was willing.

Li Ping and the others agreed with his idea.

Cheng Yao’s simple, routine life offered little to talk about. Her emotional state had visibly improved compared to last year, and Li Ping guessed that she had probably resolved her troubles.

Bai Qing still seemed troubled, likely due to family matters.

After finishing the meeting’s agenda, it was time for the customary lecture.

After Zhang Tie gave the three a night-long lecture...

...Li Ping cheerfully took out Pills from his Storage Bag and distributed them to Gumu Sheng, Cheng Yao, and Bai Qing, encouraging them to cultivate diligently and reach Foundation Establishment soon.