Gu Mo, who had been staying at ho, was indeed very strong, but his major flaw was also obvious: he couldn't leave. Plants could stay in one place without moving, but humans couldn't.
Once a person left and lost their connection to the plant line, their combat strength would noticeably decrease, and that would be the best opportunity for the enemy to take action against Gu Mo.
To solve this problem, there was a simple thod: practice a clone technique. The main body could stay at ho, while the clone could travel, seeking cultivation resources. Since it was just a clone, even if it were killed by the enemy, there would be no need to worry.
However, the clone technique itself was very rare, and good ones were even harder to co by.
When Gu Mo beca an official disciple and went to claim his benefits as a true disciple, he also took a look at the sect's collection of martial arts. As a true disciple, all of Qinglu Sect's martial arts were now open to him. It was then that he found a half-version of a divine technique.
A divine-level clone technique, when Gu Mo saw it, he didn't hesitate for a mont and chose to use all his true disciple benefits to exchange for this half divine technique. However, this wasn't enough, and Gu Mo had to use his accumulated sect contributions to make up for the difference. Only then did he barely manage to exchange for this half divine technique.
Upon obtaining the half divine technique, Gu Mo received a specially made inheritance stone. Ordinary jade slips couldn't carry divine-level techniques, so only these special inheritance stones could record them.
This inheritance stone would shatter after a single use, and only Gu Mo could use it, as a precaution to prevent the sect's treasures from leaking out.
Gu Mo had not yet begun to comprehend the half divine technique. After all, comprehending a divine technique was extrely difficult. He planned to take ti to study it after overcoming this current crisis.
For now, Gu Mo needed to focus on improving his cultivation. He didn't know what level of assassin He Shaogang would send to ambush him, but from the murderous intent in He Shaogang's gaze, it was clear that He Shaogang ant to kill him. This ti, the assassination would definitely be a thunderous strike.
The safest way to prepare for He Shaogang's lightning-fast assassination attempt was to reach the Foundation Establishnt stage before setting out.
Although Gu Mo didn't have a second-tier spiritual field, he had 50 dium-grade spirit stones. He could use these 50 dium-grade spirit stones to create a temporary second-tier spiritual field environnt, allowing a second-tier sun flower to condense a complete second-tier sun essence.
In addition, Gu Mo had also received a new cultivation thod, the Qingmu Sutra. However, this cultivation thod didn't co from Qinglu Sect, but was a gift from Elder Qi Chunde, a third-tier spiritual plant master.
Although Qi Chunde had been busy cultivating spiritual plants and did not participate in Qinglu Sect's affairs, his sources of information were never blocked. When he learned that Gu Mo had condensed his spiritual sense at the Qi Refining stage, Qi Chunde was greatly shocked. Such talent was of true disciple caliber even in the Shennong Valley.
Originally, Qi Chunde had so concerns about whether Gu Mo would make it to Foundation Establishnt, but now that he knew it was a certainty, he imdiately passed on the Shennong Valley's basic cultivation thod, the Qingmu Sutra, to Gu Mo. It wasn't that Qi Chunde didn't want to pass on stronger techniques, but the top-level techniques of the Shennong Valley could only be obtained at their inheritance site.
Although it was a basic cultivation thod, the Qingmu Sutra was no ordinary thod. It was a foundation-level technique capable of cultivating all the way to the Golden Core stage, and it was a lower-level technique compared to Shennong Valley's top-tier thods, allowing a seamless transition to them in the future.
Additionally, Qi Chunde also gave Gu Mo a high-quality Foundation Establishnt Pill to aid his breakthrough. With the high-quality Foundation Establishnt Pill, the Qingmu Sutra's thod for Foundation Establishnt, and Gu Mo's own spiritual sense, even if he had inferior spiritual roots, he would still be able to successfully reach the Foundation Establishnt stage.
As for the earlier statent that Qi Chunde would wait until Gu Mo reached Foundation Establishnt before accepting him as a personal disciple and giving him full support—he had completely dismissed it. Qi Chunde had originally said that because he had admired Gu Mo's incredible talent in spiritual plants, but was hesitant due to Gu Mo's background.
Now that he knew Gu Mo's breakthrough to Foundation Establishnt was inevitable, if Qi Chunde continued to wait for Gu Mo to reach Foundation Establishnt before taking action, he would be acting foolishly.
Now that Gu Mo was already a true disciple of Qinglu Sect, if he didn't act soon, soone else might take him away.
In fact, Qi Chunde would have to give Qinglu Sect an explanation if he wanted to take Gu Mo. After all, Gu Mo was no longer the outer disciple he once was but a true disciple of Qinglu Sect, and he had even defeated the third true disciple, which reflected his exceptional talent.
To let go of such a talented individual wouldn't be an easy task for Qinglu Sect, but fortunately, Qi Chunde had already reached a master-disciple agreent with Gu Mo long ago. Back then, Gao Yunrui was present, and as long as he gave Qinglu Sect so explanation, he could still take Gu Mo away.
Taking out the jade slip that recorded the Qingmu Sutra, Gu Mo used his spiritual sense to examine it. Soon, countless pieces of information flooded into his mind. These included not only the content of the technique itself but also Qi Chunde's annotations.
These annotations would help Gu Mo quickly understand the Qingmu Sutra, which was one of the benefits of having a teacher's guidance. Although Gu Mo had joined Qinglu Sect, he had never formally apprenticed to a master, and his cultivation had mostly been self-taught or from the lectures in the Sect's Law Hall.
Fortunately, the Qi Refining technique he cultivated wasn't an advanced one and was easy to comprehend. But now that he had received the Qingmu Sutra, which was obviously on a much higher level than the Qi Refining technique, it would be much harder to understand.
Of course, the improvents he would gain from cultivating the Qingmu Sutra would be much greater.
However, Gu Mo wasn't planning to switch to the Qingmu Sutra just yet. Switching cultivation thods wasn't sothing that could be done in a short ti. For now, he only intended to borrow the Qingmu Sutra's Foundation Establishnt thod, because he needed to use the spirit stone pot thod to condense a complete second-tier sun essence and break through to Foundation Establishnt.
Changing cultivation thods would have to wait until after he overca the current assassination attempt; for now, he needed to focus on rapidly increasing his combat power.
Gu Mo took the flowerpot he had prepared earlier and placed all 50 dium-grade spirit stones into it. That was a total of 5,000 low-grade spirit stones, a fortune that many Qi Refining cultivators might never even see in their lifeti.
But Gu Mo didn't bat an eye as he spent it, because he knew that only by overcoming this crisis would he have the chance to earn more spirit stones in the future.
After burying the spirit stones, Gu Mo planted a second-tier sun flower and placed the pot on the windowsill to get sunlight.
Now, all he had to do was wait.
Ti passed, and as the last rays of sunlight disappeared beneath the horizon, Gu Mo brought the sun flower back inside. At this mont, a golden light was flowing within the flower's petals.
Seeing this, a smile appeared on Gu Mo's face. He had succeeded. The sun flower was now condensing a complete second-tier sun essence, and the golden light flowing within it was the concentrated sun essence.
Although it was a very small strand, this strand was enough to create a qualitative change. For most of the day, Gu Mo had been reading about breakthrough techniques for Foundation Establishnt in the Qingmu Sutra. For Qi Refining cultivators, breaking through to Foundation Establishnt involves compressing the spiritual energy within their bodies until it condenses into a drop of liquid spiritual energy.
No matter how tiny this drop of liquid spiritual energy is, as long as it can be condensed, it counts as the successful completion of the first step in Foundation Establishnt—the breakthrough of spiritual energy.
Next cos the refinent of the soul, condensing the spiritual consciousness to complete the second step of Foundation Establishnt. Only when both steps are achieved can one be considered a true Foundation Establishnt cultivator.
Gu Mo had already completed the spiritual consciousness step; now, he just needed to focus on the spiritual energy aspect.
He chose to collect the solar essence, and imdiately, an illusory small sun appeared. At the sa ti, Gu Mo saw that golden glow he had noticed earlier inside the small sun. This was a complete second-tier solar essence.
After observing the second-tier solar essence for a mont, Gu Mo activated the formation arrays he had set up earlier—illusion formation, concealnt formation, and a defensive formation—surrounding the courtyard he was in.
Although he knew that He Shaogang would not send people to ambush him here, as it was too close to the sect and Gu Mo could call for help from the sect elders in an instant, Gu Mo still set up the formations to ensure the breakthrough would not be interrupted.
Once the formations were activated, Gu Mo imdiately began to refine the second-tier solar essence in his hand. In an instant, the golden light transford into a thread of liquid spiritual energy that entered Gu Mo's body.
The appearance of the liquid spiritual energy seed to trigger a switch within Gu Mo, causing the spiritual energy inside him to rush toward this drop of liquid spiritual energy.
With a continuous influx of spiritual energy, the liquid spiritual energy grew from a thin strand into a rounded drop.
This drop of liquid spiritual energy now rested in Gu Mo's dantian, giving him a heavy sensation. However, the process of liquidification did not stop there. Gu Mo's foundation was twelve tis that of an average cultivator at the sa level. For ordinary Qi Refining cultivators, once they break through to Foundation Establishnt, their entire spiritual energy would condense into at most a single drop of liquid spiritual energy.
But Gu Mo's internal spiritual energy was more than enough to condense twelve drops of liquid spiritual energy. The more liquid spiritual energy condensed at the ti of Foundation Establishnt, the greater the benefits.
This liquid spiritual energy would begin to provide an all-around enhancent to the cultivator, a thorough improvent that only occurs during a major breakthrough.
As Gu Mo had hoped, the twelve drops of liquid spiritual energy surged out of his dantian, and began circulating according to the training cycle of his cultivation thod. In that mont, Gu Mo felt his physical body and soul rapidly improving.
Seeing this, Gu Mo quickly began circulating his Spirit Refining Art to take full advantage of the breakthrough.
But soon, the circulation of the liquid spiritual energy suddenly stalled. This was because Gu Mo's true cultivation level was at the seventh layer of Qi Refining. He had not yet completed the large cycle of his spiritual energy.
"Ah, this..."
Gu Mo, who had been experiencing rapid improvents in both his physical body and soul, was surprised when the improvents ca to an abrupt halt. He imdiately checked what was happening, and after seeing the situation in his body, he was sowhat dumbfounded. Indeed, his breakthrough this ti was sowhat against logic—after all, who has ever seen a Qi Refining cultivator at the seventh layer attempting to break into Foundation Establishnt, and actually succeed?
However, Gu Mo had not anticipated that only half of the breakthrough rewards would be given, and the rest would disappear. Wasn't this a huge loss for him? When he eventually completed the full cycle, would the ungranted breakthrough rewards be restored?
Countless doubts swirled in Gu Mo's mind, but no one could answer them, as his situation was extrely rare.
Though the breakthrough rewards had been halved, the half that Gu Mo did receive was definitely still more than what an ordinary Qi Refining cultivator would gain from a breakthrough. After all, Gu Mo's foundation was exceptionally deep.
At this mont, Gu Mo's physical body was already at the top level of early Foundation Establishnt cultivators, capable of rivaling a mid-Foundation Establishnt cultivator in terms of physical strength. This was thanks to his Spirit Refining Art, which allowed him to gain additional benefits.
His soul had also received significant improvent and could easily rival that of a mid-Foundation Establishnt cultivator. If he were to obtain the full breakthrough rewards, Gu Mo's body and soul would certainly reach mid-Foundation Establishnt levels.
As for his cultivation, there had been almost no increase. After all, this was just a regular courtyard in a marketplace, not a spiritual vein or cave dwelling, so it could not absorb much spiritual energy. Additionally, Gu Mo had consciously controlled his absorption of spiritual energy.
He needed to keep his breakthrough discreet, as making too much noise could ruin the surprise advantage.
Thus, Gu Mo's dantian now contained only six drops of the liquid spiritual energy that had been condensed during the breakthrough. Typically, the initial drop of liquid spiritual energy a cultivator condenses during Foundation Establishnt would be consud with the breakthrough rewards. But since Gu Mo had taken a non-mainstream approach to Foundation Establishnt, only half of the rewards had been granted, leaving him with six drops instead of twelve.
Though only six drops remained, these six drops were the equivalent of half of Gu Mo's original cultivation.
"Well, it's fine," Gu Mo sighed. He had originally planned to follow a gradual path toward refining Qi to perfection before breaking through, but his enemies hadn't given him the chance. He had been forced to take this path.
Fortunately, despite the unexpected turn of events, Gu Mo's combat strength had still been genuinely improved. Now, Gu Mo was truly a Foundation Establishnt cultivator.
His spiritual energy, soul, and body had all reached, or even surpassed, the level of most Foundation Establishnt cultivators.
After the breakthrough, Gu Mo didn't leave the marketplace imdiately. He decided to stay for a few more days to replenish the spiritual energy in his body. After all, he couldn't rely solely on the six drops of spiritual energy to fight his enemies.
Moreover, Gu Mo sensed that these six drops of initial spiritual energy were different from regular spiritual energy. This was confird when he used a complete second-tier solar essence to condense a seventh drop of liquid spiritual energy.
The initial liquid spiritual energy contained a mysterious power, which should be the source of the cultivator's breakthrough rewards.
In other words, when Gu Mo eventually completes the full cycle, could he use these six initial drops of spiritual energy to restore the remaining breakthrough rewards?
Thinking of this, Gu Mo carefully stored these six drops of initial spiritual energy deep within his dantian.
"It looks like it's ti to leave."
Looking at the solar flower, which could no longer condense a complete second-tier solar essence, Gu Mo knew it was ti to go. He had spent a week in the marketplace, and the concentration of spiritual energy in the flowerpot had dropped from second-tier spiritual field quality to first-tier premium spiritual field quality. It could no longer condense a complete second-tier solar essence.
With Gu Mo's current strength, refining a first-tier solar essence would have minimal effect on his cultivation. Only a complete second-tier solar essence could provide him with a noticeable improvent.
This ant that in the future, Gu Mo would need to find a second-tier spiritual field to continue his cultivation. Fortunately, the resource point he was headed to was a second-tier resource point, and it just so happened to have a second-tier spiritual field.
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