Plant VS Cultivation

Chapter 37: Devoted to Cultivation

Being targeted by an unknown demonic cultivator was certainly not a good thing. However, this also gave Gu Mo a slight sense of relief. Since the other party intended to nurture him, they were unlikely to take action against him in the short term. This provided Gu Mo with a stable period for growth.

Once he became stronger in the future, he wouldn't need to fear that demonic cultivator anymore. With the acquisition of the Breath Concealment Technique, Gu Mo could finally proceed with his cultivation plans. In a state of full dedication, his progress would surpass that of superior spiritual roots.

Two Days Later

After visiting all the servant disciples in the servant quarters, Gu Mo bid farewell to Mai Yunfa and returned alone to the Spirit Plant Hall. Mai Yunfa, on the other hand, stayed behind to transport any servant disciples who reached the Qi Refining Stage and wished to join the Spirit Plant Hall.

Back in his small hut by the spiritual fields, Gu Mo felt a sense of security under the protection of the illusion array. Once Chu Feifei repaired the formation plate, the combined power of the illusion array, the defensive formation, and the Peashooter in the spiritual fields would make it much harder for the unknown demonic cultivator to infiltrate his room unnoticed.

Calming his emotions, Gu Mo replanted the Sunflower and Peashooter from the black mist space into his spiritual field. Then, he began a new round of Spirit Jade Rice cultivation.

Logically speaking, with the Breath Concealment Technique reducing his pressure, Gu Mo could now attempt to cultivate higher-grade spiritual plants. However, since he had already collected Spirit Jade Rice seeds before leaving the Spirit Plant Hall, he had no choice but to plant another season of Spirit Jade Rice.

During this time, Gu Mo planned to increase the number of Sunflowers to ten and reach the introductory level in the Breath Concealment Technique before fully dedicating himself to cultivation.

For someone like Gu Mo, who had mastered all five spiritual farming spells, planting Spirit Jade Rice was a simple task. Within just a few moments, the planting was complete, leaving only the daily maintenance.

With the illusion array and Peashooter in place, Gu Mo had no concerns about pests or rodents sneaking in to damage the crops. All he needed to do was cast the Minor Cloud Rain Technique on the field daily. This freed up the rest of his time to focus on comprehending the Breath Concealment Technique.

Since Gu Mo already understood its principles, his progress was swift. In about a month and a half, he had successfully mastered the technique.

Activating the secret art, his spiritual energy fluctuations disappeared instantly, and even his presence became faint.

"Not bad. This should be enough to avoid detection from Qi Refining cultivators below the Foundation Establishment stage," Gu Mo nodded in satisfaction.

The superiority of the Breath Concealment Technique over the Qi Concealment Art lay in more than just its ability to hide one's presence—it also provided a stronger concealment of cultivation level. At the introductory level, it could prevent detection from cultivators of the same major realm. At the proficient level, it could even block the perception of cultivators one realm higher.

By contrast, the Qi Concealment Art would only achieve the same effect at the masterful level.

As for what benefits the mastery level of the Breath Concealment Technique might bring, Gu Mo had no idea. The version he obtained was incomplete and could only be cultivated to the proficient level. But that made sense—after all, the technique wasn't some cheap secret art. No one would willingly hand over a complete version.

For Gu Mo, though, reaching the proficient level was enough. As long as he could avoid detection from same-rank and slightly higher cultivators, it was sufficient. Concealment from even stronger cultivators was largely meaningless.

His rapid improvement would naturally attract the attention of Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment cultivators, making them suspect he had obtained some sort of opportunity. However, in the eyes of even stronger Golden Core cultivators, this level of progress might not be significant at all.

What low-level cultivators saw as treasures might be mere trash to those of higher cultivation.

During the period when Gu Mo was mastering the Breath Concealment Technique, the number of Sunflowers in his spiritual field reached ten. Initially, he already had five, so gathering enough Sun Essence for the sixth took only ten days. The time required for each additional Sunflower decreased progressively, and by the tenth, it only took a little over five days to gather the necessary Sun Essence.

Now, Gu Mo could harvest ten units of Sun Essence per day. However, since he had only just reached the introductory level of the Breath Concealment Technique, he wasn't yet at the stage where he could cultivate without concern.

Thus, he stored all the Sun Essence in the black mist space. If left outside, it would gradually dissipate, but in the black mist space, it could be preserved for a long time.

"Well then, let's push for proficiency in the Breath Concealment Technique as soon as possible."

Taking a deep breath, Gu Mo continued immersing himself in studying the technique. Since he had already deciphered its principles, progressing to the proficient level was simply a matter of time and effort.

With no need to cultivate spiritual farming spells for now, he devoted all his time to the Breath Concealment Technique, drastically accelerating his progress.

Time Passed

As the third season of Spirit Jade Rice neared maturity, Gu Mo slowly opened his eyes. At this moment, his aura had completely vanished, making him appear no different from an ordinary mortal.

"I've finally reached proficiency."

Letting out a long breath, this was the first time Gu Mo had devoted himself entirely to comprehending a secret technique. Fortunately, the results were satisfying. From the moment he acquired the Breath Concealment Technique, it had taken him just one season of Spirit Jade Rice to cultivate it to the proficient level. If others heard of this, they would surely be shocked beyond belief.

The Breath Concealment Technique wasn't some low-tier minor spell—it was a secret technique far more difficult to cultivate than standard spells. For most people, even reaching the introductory level took years, while proficiency often required more than a decade of dedicated effort.

This was assuming one had decent spiritual roots and comprehension abilities. For an average servant disciple, it might take decades just to get started, and those with poorer aptitude might never succeed.

Yet, with the knowledge from his previous world, Gu Mo had successfully analyzed the principles of the Breath Concealment Technique, allowing him to achieve proficiency within a single season.

"Well then, let's see what it feels like to cultivate at full power."

Now that the Breath Concealment Technique had reached proficiency, Gu Mo no longer had any reservations.

Without hesitation, he took out ten units of Sun Essence and absorbed them. Each unit equaled three days of hard cultivation, so ten units amounted to a month's worth of effort.

In an instant, the energy filled his meridians with surging, sun-infused spiritual power. Without delay, he controlled the energy to expand his second minor circulation pathway.

The forceful impact of the spiritual energy made breaking through seem effortless. However, when the expansion reached one-third of the pathway, the energy began to weaken.

Seeing this, Gu Mo immediately took out another ten units of Sun Essence and absorbed them. Once again, a wave of powerful energy surged through his body, rapidly pushing his meridian expansion forward.

Clearly, he intended to push through to the second level of Qi Refining in one go. After all, he had been stuck at the first level for far too long.

Boom!

Upon absorbing the third set of ten units of Sun Essence, the second minor circulation pathway was completely opened. This marked Gu Mo's official breakthrough into the second level of Qi Refining.