Chapter 147: The Poison is Cleared

The cultivation technique showed no reaction. Perhaps the spiritual qi refined during the day was too scarce, or perhaps her current physical condition was unsuited for automatic cultivation.

Yun Qing had no choice but to circulate the Wuji Technique on her own to absorb spiritual qi.

At night, light spiritual qi was far scarcer than during the day, and even less drifted into the range perceptible by her spiritual consciousness.

Yet, as long as her spiritual consciousness perceived the light spiritual qi, it would be attracted to her and fly toward her.

As long as the spiritual qi entered the skin away from the dark toxins, it would enter the meridians, be refined into spiritual power by the Wuji Technique, and be stored in the dantian.

With the Body Tempering Pills and spiritual qi, Yun Qing's hunger value no longer plummeted quite as fast. However, very little spiritual qi successfully entered her meridians. Still, whenever any spiritual qi managed to enter the meridians, it could be refined into spiritual power and stored in the dantian. After completing one full cycle, which took an hour, she had refined a tiny bit of spiritual power.

Even so, she still could not cultivate the technique automatically. Yun Qing decided to clear out all the dark toxins in her body before trying again.

Once the circulation cycle was complete, Yun Qing's cleaning spell was finally no longer grayed out and became available for use.

Because of the past hour of cultivation, black miasma and a foul odor were once again swirling around her body.

It was not that she could tolerate these things; rather, apart from her very first trial instance where she used spells, Yun Qing had never actually used any incantations.

She silently chanted: "Cast Cleaning Spell."

What she had in mind was to clean away the grime left on her body from the newly cleared dark toxins, as well as the strange odor in the air caused by those toxins.

As the cleaning spell took effect, her hands involuntarily moved in a rapid blur, forming intricate gestures she had never performed before. The spiritual power within her dantian surged out swiftly, combining with the spiritual qi in the environment. With an area of effect much larger than the light spiritual qi's destruction of the dark toxins, it pulverized the grime and odor she wished to eliminate, reducing them to particles too microscopic even for spiritual consciousness to detect, stripping them of their original properties.

At this moment, Yun Qing also discovered that the cleaning spell offered two options at the end: first, to gather the newly cleaned debris into a ball and place it at a designated location; second, to let it scatter with the wind.

The dark toxins had already been pulverized by the spiritual qi and were no longer toxic. The debris cleaned by the spell, even if gathered together, would only be the size of a strand of hair. Yun Qing chose to let it scatter with the wind.

Upon completing the cleaning spell, she could no longer see the black miasma surrounding her body, nor could she smell any foul odor, and it had not consumed much of her spiritual power.

Yun Qing sighed with emotion: Spells are truly miraculous. The predecessors plant the trees while the posterity enjoy the shade. If I didn't know the cleaning spell, I'm afraid I would have to scrub away external filth just like I cleared the dark toxins inside my body.

Creating a spell is exceedingly difficult, whereas learning a spell created by predecessors is very easy. It is just like studying—inventing the multiplication table is far, far harder than simply learning it.

Given the chance, I must buy more spells. Relying solely on favorability draws to obtain spells is too limited.

***

The dark toxins trapped within her body could not be extracted directly, leaving her no shortcut of researching an antidote recipe.

Lacking a spell specifically for clearing dark toxins, she had no choice but to use the most primitive method: continuing to absorb spiritual qi bit by bit to battle the dark toxins and cultivate her spiritual power.

She fought on until four or five in the morning, when her energy and spiritual consciousness became utterly exhausted. After casting the cleaning spell once, she returned to her immortal cave to eat her fill and rest.

After sunrise the next day, Yun Qing's speed in clearing the dark toxins was even faster. Light spiritual qi was active during the day, making it easier to enter the range of her spiritual consciousness; more light spiritual qi was attracted to her, and a greater portion of it was successfully refined.

The refined spiritual power could be directed by her will. Yun Qing controlled it to flow out from her dantian, passing through the meridians to be delivered to areas heavily congested with dark toxins. There, it transformed into even tinier micro-particles, permeated out of the meridians, entered the regions affected by the dark toxins, and destroyed them. Afterward, she would ingest a Body Tempering Pill, relying on the nutrients and spiritual qi to repair the damaged parts of her body.

Thus two days passed—which was also the third day since she reached level 41. Pushing herself past her limits with overload cultivation, Yun Qing completely cleared out the very last traces of dark toxins within her body.

By this time, her control and mastery over her spiritual consciousness had reached an exceptional level, entirely different from her state a few days prior.

Her spiritual consciousness now had a range of ten meters. Anything within a radius of ten meters, as long as she concentrated her attention on observing it, would trigger the system to display text introductions identifying the item.

By focusing her spiritual consciousness onto a single point, she could probe as far as fifty meters away, though control was somewhat difficult. If she kept it within twenty meters, the system could still display text descriptions.

After testing her spiritual consciousness, Yun Qing wanted to know whether her face had returned to normal now that she was free of dark toxins, and what she currently looked like. However, it was too dark, and under the illumination of the moonlight, there was only a shadowy silhouette in the water, making it completely impossible to see her features.

On the other hand, the skin on her arms was as smooth as congealed mutton fat, and even her hands, which were accustomed to doing rough work, looked as flawless and untainted by mortal labor as jade.

"Liuli, do I look pretty?"

"Just so-so!"

"A dog can only recognize a dog's appearance."

"Does appearance matter?"

She was truly exhausted. Whether she looked good or not did not require Liuli's affirmation. Returning to her immortal cave, Yun Qing consumed two pieces of roasted meat and a handful of Body Tempering Pills before crashing into sleep.

Two hours later, she woke up full of energy. After eating and drinking her fill, she entered the cultivation chamber.

She silently chanted: "Execute Wuji Technique."

Just like the automatic cultivation of the Universe Breathing Technique, the Wuji Technique began to cultivate automatically.

***

Finally able to cultivate automatically, and capable of stopping at will according to her thoughts, she could ponder other matters while cultivating.

Indeed, the reason cultivation could not be automatic at the beginning was because when spiritual qi entered the body, a portion of it failed to enter the meridians due to the obstruction of the dark toxins, thus falling outside the system's calculation range.

"Liuli, why is there no light spiritual qi in my cultivation chamber?"

"To have light spiritual qi in the cultivation chamber, you are required to place light-attribute treasures inside the wooden house, or plant heavenly materials and earthly treasures that generate light spiritual qi in the farmland."

"I can understand generating light spiritual qi by planting heavenly materials and earthly treasures of the light attribute, but what if I obtain a light-attribute treasure from the outside world? Can that be placed in the wooden house?"

"You can acquire them through the lucky draw, or have them dropped by monsters when they besiege the immortal cave."

Yun Qing could not help complaining: "Such a rip-off lucky draw and monster drops—who knows how many moons it will take to get one."

Liuli offered no reply. Suddenly, Yun Qing gasped in shock: "Oh heavens! Why is the Level 2 energy consumed so fast while I'm cultivating here? How come I only have 76 points of Level 2 energy left?"

"Over the past few days, you rested in the immortal cave several times a day without ever converting energy. You are simply living off your savings. Operating the immortal cave requires energy, growing the Soul-Driving Tree requires energy, entering and exiting requires energy, and resting and cultivating require energy."

"Understood." Yun Qing tossed all the clothes she had soiled over the past few days into the energy converter, along with all her mosquito nutrient solution.

Looking at the sets of mosquito-toxin antidote pills in her system backpack, Yun Qing felt a headache coming on. The pills she had spent ten taels of gold to research were probably never going to earn their cost back.

She had moved far away from Sunshine Town, and the mosquitoes there were presumably all gone now. The poisoned people had also cured themselves through other methods, such as forcing the poison out with inner qi, or using other detoxifying herbs.

Without the giant mosquitoes of Sunshine Town, these mosquito-antidote pills would likely find no buyers.

She hesitated for a moment, yet ultimately could not bear to throw the pills into the energy converter.

In the farmland, there was only a single Soul-Driving Tree, and her villa was not yet fully renovated. To conserve energy, she hadn't planted any other trees for now.

The remaining energy had to be reserved for the Soul-Driving Tree to consume.