The Science of Cultivation-Chapter 240: Breaking Down the Attributes

When the sun finally went down, Li Lang’s shopping spree finally ended.

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Elder Nong from the Clear Heart Sect quickly bid farewell as they each returned to their own lodging. When Li Lang’s group entered their inn, they found Ma Kong waiting in the lobby with his usual stoic face.

“You’re back,” Zhu Yi greeted. “How was it?”

“Beiyun will come tomorrow.”

That was all the man had to say to satisfy the group. They knew better than to wrestle more words out of him, so they all returned to their rooms. Consistent throughout the journey, Wei Ping, Long Yi, and Li Lang shared a room. It was the safest arrangement when traveling abroad.

The moment Li Lang entered the room, he wasted no time and deployed the Crucible on the ground. Wei Ping and Long Yi tried to chase after their friend, but when they entered, he was already nowhere in sight.

That was because Li Lang had ordered the artifact spirits to directly teleport him into his private chamber.

“Blue, make sure to keep a lookout outside. Alert Wei Ping if someone enters our room in the outside world so he can deal with it.”

“I understand, Master.”

With the trivial matters out of the way, Li Lang took out his haul for the day and allowed Ruby to absorb them. He then dove into Ruby’s artifact space and began playing around with his new toys.

Anyone who knew him would know this was how he would spend the entire night.

Dozens of Earth-grade materials were now at his disposal. He had over two orange crystals’ worth of resources, and that was only because he bought a small sample of each one.

Now that he was at the Foundation Establishment Realm, Ruby naturally could analyze them without taking weeks, unlike before. However, there hadn’t been any updates regarding the new power Ruby suspected of gaining after his breakthrough yet.

Despite the auto-analyzer now being able to complete its work much faster, the sheer quantity of materials Li Lang brought meant it’d take quite some time to get through all of it.

Nevertheless, Li Lang happily digested what he could. He started off with alchemy materials. While he waited for the auto-analyzer to work, he wasted no time and began using those same materials to refine Earth-grade pills.

The recipe for common pills was easily obtainable from the guild, and the process was quite similar to the Mortal-grade version. It was just that the power involved was much more volatile, so additional time and power were needed to tame the energies.

Li Lang started by trying out the traditional methods of alchemy, as he would only attempt his mass-production method when the auto-analyzer had completed its task. That meant he was working with a lack of knowledge regarding the unfamiliar ingredients.

“These Sparking Petals sure are shiny,” he muttered.

Just as he scattered them into his pill cauldron, his vision was robbed from him, as all he could see was the color gray. A short moment later, everything returned to normal. It took him a few seconds before he realized the cauldron had exploded in a bombastic fashion.

“Master, are you okay?” Ruby’s voice resounded throughout the lab.

“Yes—it seems like I’ll need to upgrade my cauldron before attempting any of this in real life. The current ones can’t contain the power within if anything goes wrong. This is going to hurt my wallet.”

Li Lang chuckled to himself and got into it again without any hesitation. While he was rightfully worried if he were to refine Earth-grade materials in real life, he was currently in the artifact space. Thanks to the power of the miraculous artifact known as Ruby, there was no need to fear for his safety. Not only that, it also provided him with unlimited amounts of materials to play around with. It was a dream come true for any dedicated craftsman.

Like that, he explored the wonders of all his new materials. He went from alchemy to brushweaving, and then to artificing. He hadn’t produced any tangible results, but that wasn’t the point. He was happy just growing his familiarity with these new resources. After all, when employing the traditional methods for any crafts, mastery of the ingredients was quintessential to their work.

“I wonder—will the Weave Press be able to create Earth-grade talismans? Or will it be unable to contain the elevated levels of power?” Li Lang muttered to himself.

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“Master! Wake up, master! Can you hear me?”

It took Ruby a dozen tries before Li Lang finally reacted to her shouts.

“Hmm? What is it?”

“It’s morning already, Master! Your friends are waiting for you. Don’t you have something scheduled for today? They say they’ll be late because of you.”

“Oh, right. Jian Beiyun is coming. Well, that works just fine, too. I’ve got a lot of questions to ask about Earth-grade cultivation techniques.”

Li Lang exited his lab and returned to where his companions and students were inside the Crucible. They didn’t idle and quickly returned to the real world.

They arrived at the diner part of the inn and found their acquaintances from Nightmoon Valley already gathered, digging into their breakfast. When they noticed Li Lang’s group approach, one of them waved enthusiastically at them.

“Over here, you guys!”

Disregarding the vigor of the young woman’s actions, the trio strolled over with grace before clasping their fist to the Nightmoon Valley cultivators.

“Good morning Senior Zhu, Senior Ma, and greetings, Senior Jian,” the trio greeted in unison.

“How many times do I have to tell you guys to quit it with the stuffy formal talk?” Jian Beiyun teased with a smile. “Have a seat.”

“Hey! What about me!” the girl sitting in the adjacent seat complained. “How dare you three ignore me!”

“Oh, Princess Sima, good day to you,” Li Lang retorted mockingly.

The young woman growled at him as they got seated. Everyone at the table beside her couldn’t help but chuckle at the childish display.

The waitress came in with perfect timing, delivering some food without even being asked. It managed to stop Sima Xue from blowing her top.

“Okay, okay. Stop acting cute, little Xue. It’s your friends’ first time here. We should introduce them to Sword Saint Isle.”

The young woman in question scoffed in annoyance and turned away from her Senior Brother.

Ignoring her, Jian Beiyun proceeded to go over the unique characteristics of the island. The trio had heard a big part of it the previous day already, but they gave Jian Beiyun face and let him explain from beginning to end without interruption. However, once he was done, Li Lang immediately pestered him with questions. Normally there were no issues with that, but the bad habits of the eccentric former scientist meant he launched a flurry of inquiries that had nothing to do with what Jian Beiyun had talked about at all.

“Senior Jian, do you have any advice for selecting an Earth-grade cultivation technique? I know you went over this briefly before, but I’m trying to understand the difference and impact of selecting a particular attribute. Actually, what attribute is the technique you practice? Is it like Senior Zhu and Senior Ma’s, with light and darkness?”

“Umm, calm down, Li Lang. I can’t answer if you ask several questions at once.”

“Hey! You’re bothering my Senior Brother,” Sima Xue complained, finally rejoining the conversation. “You know, this upcoming event is quite important for him. I will answer your question in his stead!”

Seeing his junior sister stepping in to take his place, Jian Beiyun stealthily exited the interrogation and went to talk to the others at the table instead.

“You?” Li Lang questioned.

“What do you mean, you? Are you looking down on me?”

“Okay, okay. I’ll stop with the jokes,” Li Lang surrendered, putting up both hands. “I wanted some help with making sense of Earth-grade cultivation techniques. So far, I’ve gathered over fifty, but I still don’t have a clue on what type of technique I should pursue.”

“Hmm, I never had to think too much about it,” Sima Xue replied as she put a hand on her chin. “Our Nightmoon Valley has a complete set of cultivation techniques for us to practice. There aren’t a lot of choices for us. Oh, and just so you know, our techniques aren’t of the light and dark attribute. Instead, it’s night and moon, just as our name implies.”

“I see—I’m guessing that isn’t a secret of any kind, then.”

“Yup. Everyone knows about it. Only you country bumpkins somehow don’t!” Sima Xue flashed a victorious smile at having the opportunity to fire one back.

“Please magnanimously educate me.” Li Lang played along, bowed down, and placed his hands together to beg.

“Well, there isn’t much to talk about, is there? Pick a technique, then you’ll be able to gather and manipulate Qi belonging to the attribute it aligns with. That’s it.”

“What about multiple attribute techniques? I’ve seen a few, but they’re so rare in comparison.”

Hearing this question, Sima Xue’s eyes brightened with excitement. It was evident she was eager to share her knowledge.

“Splitting your focus will weaken you most of the time. If you face an opponent of the wood element, and you practice fire and water, you’ll only have half your reserve to counter them. Fire and water also conflict with each other, so you’ll have to execute their techniques separately, or else they’ll grow even weaker. Either way, it’ll result in you gaining minimal advantages in exchange for more weaknesses, so it’s a waste to pick two conflicting attributes.”

The young Nightmoon Valley disciple flashed a self-satisfied smile before continuing.

“Picking two complementing attributes is a different story. You’ll still have to split your Qi reserves in two, which complicates your strengths and weaknesses while requiring you to do twice the work. Only geniuses who can handle the load should practice multiple attributes, or so my master says. And I’m one of these geniuses!”

“I expect nothing less,” Li Lang stated in a monotone voice. “And how do you determine if someone is a genius suited for multi-attribute? Is it aptitude gain?”

“Oh, no, it’s different. My master administered a test to see if I was suitable for controlling two attributes at once. It requires a lot of sensing around and consciously controlling how you absorb ambient Qi to transform them into different attributes at once.”

Absorbing ambient Qi? Doesn’t that mean it’s something to do with the spiritual roots, then?