Chapter 7: Composite Prohibition

An excellent manual.

However, the Five Elements Technique is not all-powerful.

For cultivators like Chen Mobai, whose spiritual root attributes are not significantly different, the Five Elements Technique is an unrivaled profound art. The spiritual power cultivated through it not only perfectly matches their constitution but also allows for rapid progress.

However, for cultivators with high-grade spiritual root attributes, it is quite mediocre.

For instance, cultivators with Heavenly Spiritual Roots only need to cultivate spiritual power of a single attribute. This not only yields twice the result with half the effort and results in purer magical power, but also means fewer bottlenecks when breaking through to the next realm.

Generally, every cultivator is born with 100 points of spiritual root attributes.

Within the territory of the Immortal Sect's Blessed Lands, every cultivator must undergo a precise spiritual root assessment at a top-tier hospital before entering the Qi Refining stage. Only with a spiritual root evaluation report issued by the assessing hospital can they be admitted to school.

For example, Chen Mobai's attributes are: Metal 23, Wood 27, Water 23, Fire 17, Earth 10.

The Immortal Sect stipulates that if any spiritual root attribute exceeds 20, it indicates possession of that attribute's spiritual root. Chen Mobai, having Metal, Wood, and Water spiritual roots, was barely categorized as a True Spiritual Root cultivator.

This was also why his deskmate Lu Hongsheng felt aggrieved, because his spiritual root attributes were: Metal 8, Wood 25, Water 23, Fire 22, Earth 22.

In reality, his attributes were almost identical to Chen Mobai's, but because his spiritual root attributes were more evenly distributed, the hospital classified him as a four-attribute Pseudo-Spiritual Root.

As for what is known as a Heavenly Spiritual Root, it means that one of the Five Elements attributes has more than 80 points!

This means that even cultivators with Heavenly Spiritual Roots will have spiritual roots of the other four attributes in their bodies, albeit very rarely.

As for the theoretically perfect Heavenly Spiritual Root with 100 points in one attribute, there has been no record of it in the Immortal Sect's tens of thousands of years of history.

The spiritual power cultivated by the Five Elements Technique automatically adapts to match each cultivator's spiritual root attributes. However, even for cultivators with Heavenly Spiritual Roots, the spiritual power produced will be mixed with some elements of the other four attributes, like unnecessary impurities.

The same principle applies to cultivators with variant spiritual roots.

However, none of this was important to Chen Mobai.

He circulated the Five Elements Technique taught by his school, infusing his Five Elements spiritual power into a glass bead. The bead glowed with a multicolored rainbow light, resembling a halo floating up from his palm.

These glass beads are small toys used for training spiritual power control. A Qi Refining first-layer cultivator can control one, but with Chen Mobai's current fifth-layer Qi Refining strength, he should be able to simultaneously control five, making them float freely as he wishes.

However, having just entered the fifth layer of Qi Refining, his realm was not yet stable, so he chose not to push himself.

Following the instructions provided by Old Man Ding, he guided four glass beads towards the right side hall.

With a whoosh.

A wave of water ripples emerged, bouncing off the first glass bead that reached it. Then a second ripple appeared, and a third, deflecting the subsequent beads one by one...

Chen Mobai held his phone, looking at the descriptions of the three spells Old Man Ding had given him, a troubled expression on his face.

He realized that the water ripple restriction in this side hall exhibited characteristics of the Flowing Water Shield, Surging Wave Incantation, and Scale Ripple Art simultaneously. With his current cultivation realm, to break through such a composite restriction, he would either need to use powerful talismans or wait until he broke through to the late stage of Qi Refining to try again.

“Never mind,” he thought. “I'll cultivate first. After all, there will be plenty of time to explore this water mansion later.”

Finally, Chen Mobai checked the time and decided not to waste this mid-grade second-tier spiritual land. He sat cross-legged in the center of the front hall and began his meditation and cultivation.

Earlier today, he had sent a text message to his parents, telling them he would be in seclusion in his room and not to disturb him.

Pure water spiritual energy transformed into blue light particles, refined by the Five Elements Technique. After the Five Elements cycle of mutual generation, it became spiritual power perfectly suited to Chen Mobai's spiritual roots and constitution. It slowly circulated throughout his body, nourishing the meridians and acupoints that had been forcefully opened by consuming elixirs.

Although resources were scarce within the Immortal Sect, thanks to tens of thousands of years of management and resources plundered from expansion wars, the variety of spiritual herbs was essentially complete. Moreover, based on the geomantic patterns and climate of the Blessed Lands, they were cultivated well according to local conditions.

Alchemy, as one of the Immortal Sect's four major disciplines, combined with medicine, allowed for the perfect utilization of medicinal herb properties. This was also the foundation for the Immortal Sect's ability to sustain three hundred million cultivators with a single Earth-Grade One Star resource.

The Immortal Sect possessed elixirs of basically all attributes.

However, there was one type of elixir rarely refined: the Foundation Establishment Pill.

Although the Immortal Sect had collected ancient formulas for this elixir, its refinement was banned by the Immortal Sect five thousand years ago. It wasn't that the elixir itself had issues, but rather that it was simply too wasteful.

The Foundation Establishment Pill was a third-tier low-grade spiritual medicine, but its primary ingredient, the Jade Marrow Golden Ganoderma, was a third-tier high-grade spiritual medicine. Using it to refine Foundation Establishment Pills was an excessive waste of heavenly treasures.

Furthermore, the Jade Marrow Golden Ganoderma could be used to refine an elixir called the "Golden Liquid Jade Reversion Pill," which could assist Foundation Establishment cultivators in forming their Golden Core.

If the Immortal Sect had abundant resources, with Jade Marrow Golden Ganoderma growing in batches in the herb gardens, then using a small amount to refine Foundation Establishment Pills while also refining the Golden Liquid Jade Reversion Pill wouldn't be out of the question.

But the problem was that the Immortal Sect had limited resources. Although the variety of spiritual herbs was complete, Jade Marrow Golden Ganoderma could only be cultivated in two Blessed Lands. Even for refining the Golden Liquid Jade Reversion Pill, it was scarcely enough, so how could it be wasted on refining Foundation Establishment Pills?

Although the lower-tier cultivators disagreed with this Immortal Sect regulation, the biggest difference between a cultivation civilization and a mechanical civilization was that the upper echelons decided everything.

The value of one Golden Core True Person exceeded that of ten Foundation Establishment cultivators. If one had the same Jade Marrow Golden Ganoderma, should it be used to refine a Golden Liquid Jade Reversion Pill or a Foundation Establishment Pill?

The answer was obvious.

Precisely because of this, for cultivators in the Immortal Sect, breaking through to Foundation Establishment was an arduous challenge, almost akin to ascending to heaven.

In ancient times, at least there was hope for the Foundation Establishment Pill, but now, ninety-nine percent of cultivators could only rely on their own efforts to break through.

It was precisely for this reason that cultivators in the Immortal Sect all aspired to enter the Grand Dao Academy.

Because within the Grand Dao Academy, while Foundation Establishment Pills were not refined, they could refine next-tier spiritual medicines that aided Foundation Establishment. Moreover, there were numerous secret methods to increase the success rate of Foundation Establishment, not to mention tens of thousands of Foundation Establishment experiences, ensuring one could always find a suitable match for themselves.

The Purple Fire Pill Chen Mobai used to break through to the fifth layer of Qi Refining was an elixir refined by the local Scarlet Cloud Academy in Danxia City, with only a hundred pills released each month.

Chen Mobai was able to secure a purchasing slot because, on one occasion while selling talismans, he connected with a senior student from Scarlet Cloud Academy. This senior happened to be working part-time as a customer service representative at Scarlet Cloud Academy's official online store and facilitated an internal transaction.

Every type of elixir required corresponding usage instructions and a reputable endorsement.

In the Immortal Sect's ancient past, many cultivators suffered terribly, wishing for death, because they consumed elixirs indiscriminately.

Now, no cultivator dared to consume an elixir without instructions, without an alchemist's signature, or without a certificate of quality, unless it came from a reputable pharmacy.