Immortal Cultivation: Starting as a Fortune Cultivator - Chapter 14

Three days later!

After undergoing multiple layers of inspections and assessments, and finally swearing the sect’s Dao Oath, Ye Qingxuan and Ye Qingxiao successfully became disciples of the Profound Heaven Sect.

It must be said, the Profound Heaven Sect truly lived up to its status as a hegemon-level power. Even with the lowered difficulty of the assessment, nearly ten percent of the people in the Reception Compound were eliminated.

Although the annual entrance assessment wasn’t excessively difficult and had relaxed standards regarding cultivation talent, perseverance, and other aspects, the Profound Heaven Sect did not lower its standards for evaluating individual character. They would rather go short than make do with a poor substitute; the sect wouldn’t risk spoiling the whole batch for one rotten apple.

Among those who failed was Long Tian, who had clashed with Ye Qingxuan a few days prior. He failed one of the illusion array tests, thus losing his chance to join the Profound Heaven Sect.

In short, the Profound Heaven Sect was not short on disciples!

Since this was only the annual initiation ceremony, no high-ranking members of the Profound Heaven Sect made an appearance.

At most, a figure of Elder rank appeared during the sect Dao Oath segment.

This showed just how little importance the Profound Heaven Sect placed on these annually recruited disciples. The talent of most simply didn’t meet the standards required for the higher-ups to take them as personal disciples.

Shortly after Ye Qingxuan and Ye Qingxiao joined the sect, Mo Tian found them. Under his arrangements, the two were quickly separated.

Ye Qingxiao became a Miscellaneous Duties Disciple of the Profound Heaven Sect. He was taken by Mo Tian to the Miscellaneous Duties Court to cultivate and was required to complete daily assigned tasks for the sect.

Ye Qingxuan, however, as a prospective Fortune Cultivation Disciple, was taken to the Fortune Cultivation Court, a building located at the foot of Profound Heaven Peak.

As a prospective Fortune Cultivator, Ye Qingxuan was completely exempt from any sect tasks. The Profound Heaven Sect would provide him with sufficient cultivation resources for his training.

Essentially, everyone in the Fortune Cultivation Court was in the same situation.

However, those willing to become Fortune Cultivators basically all had very poor talent, typically possessing only one or two spiritual roots.

Those with slightly better talent, who held a glimmer of future prospects, would basically never choose to become Fortune Cultivators.

Therefore, despite being exempt from sect tasks and having sufficient resources provided, the cultivation speed of those in the Fortune Cultivation Court remained extremely slow.

After all this time and journeying, Ye Qingxuan had finally settled down within the Profound Heaven Sect.

After entering the Fortune Cultivation Court, Ye Qingxuan soon received the first cultivation technique of his life—the Earth Origin Art!

The Earth Origin Art was also the dedicated cultivation technique for all prospective Fortune Cultivation Disciples. Every Fortune Cultivation Disciple practiced the Earth Origin Art!

Cultivation techniques were ranked from first to ninth tier. Ye Qingxuan didn’t know the exact tier of the Earth Origin Art, as he had only received the first four layers of the technique for now.

The first four layers of the Earth Origin Art were sufficient for Ye Qingxuan to cultivate up to the Golden Core realm, equivalent to a fourth-tier technique.

After obtaining the Earth Origin Art, Ye Qingxuan eagerly entered his private courtyard. Activating the courtyard’s inherent formation, he began the first cultivation experience of his life.

For the initial stage of cultivation, one needed to sense the spiritual energy between heaven and earth, guide it into the body, and refine it into one’s own spiritual power. Only then could one truly step into the Qi Refinement realm!

Ye Qingxuan sat cross-legged, suppressing his inner excitement, emptying his mind, and striving to sense the spiritual energy in the world.

Time passed quickly in this meditative state. In the blink of an eye, an entire day had gone by.

It wasn’t until late at night when hunger woke him that Ye Qingxuan realized he still hadn’t managed to sense spiritual energy and step into the Qi Refinement realm.

But he wasn’t discouraged. Instead of rushing to continue cultivating, he left his courtyard, went to the Fortune Cultivation Court’s supply point to get enough food, returned to his courtyard, had a full meal, and then chose to sleep soundly, recovering the mental energy consumed that day.

This pattern continued for two days.

On the third day, thanks to the spiritually rich environment within the Profound Heaven Sect and Ye Qingxuan’s own extraordinary soul, he succeeded in sensing spiritual energy during the evening.

He smoothly guided the energy into his body, refined it, and transformed it into his very first strand of spiritual power, officially stepping into the first level of the Qi Refinement realm.

Ye Qingxuan became the first among his batch entering the Fortune Cultivation Court to break through to the Qi Refinement realm.

After his breakthrough, and due to being in an unfamiliar environment, Ye Qingxuan decided to act cautiously and did not report his progress immediately.

His talent wasn’t the highest among his batchmates, so breaking through too quickly seemed unreasonable.

Therefore, after reaching the first level of Qi Refinement, Ye Qingxuan chose to conceal his progress, not wanting to report it and draw attention.

After all, being the first to break through came with no rewards, so there was no need to report it so quickly.

He would just continue cultivating in seclusion within his small courtyard; it was unlikely anyone would pay him much attention anyway.

After breaking through to the Qi Refinement realm, mundane food became unnecessary for him. The spiritual energy his body automatically absorbed during daily life was basically sufficient to provide the energy his body consumed.

And so, Ye Qingxuan began keeping to himself, consolidating his cultivation at the first level of Qi Refinement while secretly monitoring the progress of others in his batch.

During this time, Ye Qingxuan tried to see if he could refine the mysterious pearl in his mind, but it had no effect.

This disappointed him somewhat, but he didn’t feel discouraged. The pearl was in his mind and wasn’t going anywhere; it would be useful to him sooner or later.

After consolidating his newly broken-through cultivation, Ye Qingxuan took out the storage ring given to him by Family Head Ye Yuhong. Using his meager spiritual power, he refined it, successfully binding it to himself and opening the storage ring.

Inside was an 8-cubic-meter space containing the various spirit herb seeds prepared for him by the Family Head, a pile of jade slips and books, and thirty thousand low-grade spirit stones.

With a thought, he took out one spirit stone, then put it back in, feeling a sense of wonder.

“Right, I also have ten Qi Guidance Pills and three hundred low-grade spirit stones!”

He remembered the reward he received for placing first in the family assessment, given to him by Ye Yonglun.

Retrieving the purple pouch Ye Yonglun had given him from his pack, Ye Qingxuan also refined it with his spiritual power and found it to be a storage pouch with a 1-cubic-meter capacity.

He took out the Qi Guidance Pills and the three hundred low-grade spirit stones from the storage pouch, storing the spirit stones inside his ring. He then picked up a Qi Guidance Pill to examine it.

Pills were ranked from first to ninth tier!

The Qi Guidance Pill was a first-tier pill that could increase the speed at which a Qi Refinement realm cultivator drew in spiritual energy, thereby accelerating their cultivation speed.

Driven by curiosity, Ye Qingxuan decided to try cultivating with the aid of a Qi Guidance Pill.

He took one pill, placed it in his mouth, swallowed it, and entered a cultivation state.

Sure enough, with the aid of the Qi Guidance Pill, the speed at which Ye Qingxuan drew in spiritual energy increased by about thirty percent.

Pleased, Ye Qingxuan immediately focused on cultivating, speeding up the refinement of the spiritual energy.

One first-tier Qi Guidance Pill could maintain its effect for two hours!

But soon, Ye Qingxuan noticed a problem.

While his speed of drawing in spiritual energy had indeed increased, his efficiency in converting that energy hadn’t improved much.

After spiritual energy entered the body, the cultivator needed to use their spiritual roots to refine it, transforming the energy into their own spiritual power.

Although drawing in energy was faster with the pill, leading to more energy entering his body, the improvement in conversion efficiency was minimal.

At best, one could say the concentration of energy within his body increased, passively raising the conversion rate by a tiny margin.

Noticing this change, Ye Qingxuan smiled wryly.

“As expected, even in a superior cultivation environment like the Profound Heaven Sect and with the aid of pills, the cultivation speed increase for a single spiritual root is still limited. My talent is ultimately just too low.”

The Profound Heaven Sect had spiritual veins everywhere, with countless high-grade spiritual veins. The concentration of spiritual energy inside was at least a hundred times greater than outside.

But Ye Qingxuan’s cultivation speed within the sect wasn’t a hundred times faster than it would be outside.

All of this was due to the innate limitation in conversion efficiency imposed by his single spiritual root.

Inside the Profound Heaven Sect, without any pill assistance, Ye Qingxuan’s cultivation speed was at most three or four times faster than outside, solely due to the higher spiritual energy concentration.

“Slow is slow, then! There’s plenty of time ahead. Besides, I refuse to believe there isn’t a way to solve this problem within the Profound Heaven Sect.”

Ye Qingxuan thought to himself.

With the backing of the Profound Heaven Sect, he might find solutions to many problems within the sect. This confidence, born from aligning himself with a hegemon-level power, was one of the reasons he had chosen to join the Profound Heaven Sect.