Chapter 1 The Limit

“Simultaneously charging and activating ten Lan Seeds is already my limit right now.”

At this moment, Su Zhou was cultivating in the Shao family's old宅 compound in the suburbs.

Standing in the courtyard, he let out a soft shout, and gusts of wind rose around him. His whole body was shrouded in a circle of translucent wind armor, and even his face was blurred.

The simultaneous activation of ten Lan Seeds, the power that erupted in that instant was enough to block a car rushing head-on at seventy yards. Even the slightest overflow of spiritual power caused gusts of wind in the entire courtyard, and several trees shook wildly, as if they were being ravaged by a typhoon.

"That's about it."

Breathing out, Su Zhou slowly withdrew the Lan Armor. He moved his arms, his expression a little serious: "Even for me, the instant activation of ten Lan Seeds' spiritual energy will put pressure on my meridians. Any more, and it would be like a flood overflowing a river, damaging my own body."

"If it were an ordinary person, they would have to activate them one by one, and they would need a 'transformation time' before the battle, unable to use their full strength instantly."

During the Transcendence stage, a Transcendent's rate of spiritual power increase will greatly exceed the rate of physical strengthening, which is also the origin of the name of the Transcendence realm.

Even though Su Zhou's body can be called a perfect physique, his spiritual power talent is equally perfect. Scaled up proportionally, this problem will also plague him.

The solution is not difficult—as long as he cultivates a spiritual organ, all problems will be solved.

"Hmm... Originally, cultivating spiritual organs should be done gradually, slowly cultivating and nourishing the body, and only after nourishing most of the internal organs to the limit can one try."

"But I have a perfect body, and I can skip these most time-consuming hard work. As long as I have enough spiritual power, I can cultivate it."

He sat down cross-legged on the ground. Su Zhou didn't care about the dirt on the ground. He took out the jade bottle given to him by Dao Saint Zhang Qingyun from his pocket, his eyes calm: "That's right, now is the time to use it."

The name of the pill in the jade bottle is 'Five Thunder Spirit Gathering Pill.'

The name of the pill comes from the saying ‘Dao is originally without words, too much talk damages Qi. Gather Qi and preserve the spirit, cherish essence and love oneself.’ It is a secret Transcendent pill passed down by the Zheng Yi Academy, refined with various rare thunder-attributed spiritual materials.

The effect of this spiritual pill happens to be to ‘gather Qi and preserve the spirit’ for thunder-attributed cultivators, and it is used for cultivating Transcendent organs. It can even add some thunder affinity to the user.

Even if one does not cultivate Transcendent organs, it can greatly increase one's spiritual energy cultivation and save many days of hard work.

Zhang Qingyun himself is probably also cultivating spiritual organs now, so he carries such a spiritual pill with him.

On the day of the physical examination, he saw that Su Zhou's talent was extremely high and that he happened to be thunder-attributed, so he simply gave him the pill.

"Dao Saint is indeed a good person, but even he probably couldn't guess that my progress would be so fast."

Generally, after advancing to Transcendence, cultivators need a long time to gradually adapt to their rapidly improving souls and spiritual power. Rash cultivation before adapting is actually harmful.

Su Zhou himself can guess that Dao Saint probably intends to wait until after his Holy Ascension Selection Test, when his cultivation is stable, before teaching him a higher-level cultivation method through official channels, so as not to let himself aim too high and cultivate indiscriminately, damaging his talent.

But Su Zhou is a model of taking one step quickly and then taking every step quickly. He will not stop on the road of cultivation.

Opening the jade bottle, a round, translucent spiritual pill emitting a soft blue light appeared before Su Zhou's eyes.

The spiritual pill was about the size of a human index finger. Although it was translucent, there were bright arcs of electric light flashing within the pill, like a small lightning glass ball.

The smell was strange, like a red-hot iron rod placed in ice water, evaporating a hot steam, mixed with a slight metallic smell.

"Yala, is there anything I need to know before taking this pill...?"

Su Zhou asked Yala, who was watching the news inside the house, in a loud voice: "For example, like the ritual before, do I need to set up a formation to help with absorption or something?"

Yala, who was watching international news on the sofa in the old house, poked her head out. She patiently explained: "In ancient times, Transcendent cultivators, during the Transcendence stage, needed to hunt down demonic beasts and monsters, swallow their hearts or other organs raw, or find various spiritual plants and boil them into a pot of spiritual soup, and eat them to cultivate and advance."

"Why has this ancient ritual been replaced by the technology of spiritual pills and magic potions? It is because pills and magic potions have made advancement simple and foolproof."

Having said that, the meaning is very clear—pills are created to be eaten directly.

Come to think of it, if there really were any special conditions for taking it, Dao Saint would definitely not give him the pill without saying anything.

"That's right."

Su Zhou heard this and felt that it made sense, so he directly swallowed the pill and began to transform its medicinal power.

The grade of this Five Thunder Spirit Gathering Pill is Transcendence, but the refiner's technique is very exquisite, and it may even be Dao Saint himself—as soon as it entered his mouth and came into contact with Su Zhou's own spiritual energy, it collapsed into a mass of pure thunder energy, and then began to move along with Su Zhou's spiritual energy movement, going wherever he wanted it to go.

The taste of the spiritual pill was not very good, like Sprite that had been left for a long time and had lost its fizz, with a lot of rust added to it, sweet and astringent, but its power was very real. Su Zhou probed it slightly and knew that with the power of the spiritual pill and his own power, he would be able to cultivate his first spiritual organ!

As for which part of his body Su Zhou wanted to strengthen for his first Transcendent organ, he had already thought it through.

That is the stomach and intestines—the entire digestive system!

"Food is the supplement of the Dao. Eating wind and drinking dew, abstaining from grains and cultivating truth, is essentially 'eating the spiritual energy of heaven and earth', and not taking anything—not relying on external objects, being self-sufficient, and even forming a cycle, that is the realm of the Ouroboros God."

"What I am cultivating is not the orthodox immortal spirit Dao like the National Teacher or other Daoists, but a path that emphasizes both the body and the soul. Enhancing my digestive ability is undoubtedly the most important thing for me, who does not need to fight for the time being and only needs to accelerate cultivation."

"Moreover, the digestive system is essentially a collection of many organs, and it is also the largest collection of organs. Cultivating it first can save me a lot of effort."

Whether it is Sacred Geometry: Pentagram, or the National Teacher's Five Extremes Divine Thunder True Method, there are methods for shaping spiritual organs. However, the Divine Thunder True Method is the Immortal Spirit Dao, biased towards the five internal organs, or the seven orifices of the eyes, ears, nose, etc. Moreover, it is not really about polishing the body, but about preserving Qi and condensing the spirit, so that when the original body decomposes in the future and the true immortal body is conceived, one can shape the immortal spirit body with the spirituality contained in these organs.

As for Sacred Geometry, it is very balanced. Even fingernails have methods of strengthening. Su Zhou even had a premonition that if he were a monster like an eight-armed snake demon, there would probably be methods in Sacred Geometry to strengthen those messy arms and tentacles.

With distracting thoughts dispelled, Su Zhou condensed spiritual energy and continued to cultivate.

The majestic spiritual power was mobilized and condensed by him in his stomach and intestines. Countless tiny spiritual structures were condensed and embedded by Su Zhou, or rather, took root and sprouted from the depths of the original body, transforming its essence. The spiritual energy of the spiritual pill even gave these spiritual structures the power to be close to thunder and even slightly discharge electricity.

This process is different for everyone, depending on their heart—some people think that the formation of spiritual organs is like forging weapons, requiring constant hammering and beating with spiritual energy. Others think that a large amount of spiritual energy should be sent to the organs, allowing them to temper and strengthen themselves spontaneously under the nourishment.

As for Su Zhou, probably because he has been dealing with sacred trees these days, and there is a Tree of Wisdom in his soul space, he uses a process similar to the growth of trees, taking root and sprouting. Countless tiny spiritual structures were embedded by him deep into the original organs, and grew and strengthened under the infusion of a large amount of spiritual energy, gradually replacing and merging with the original organs.

The moment they are completely fused is when the Transcendent organ is formed.

For one day and one night, Su Zhou cultivated in the old house. He had already told his parents that he might have to cultivate alone for a period of time. Only Shao Qiming came to check on the situation in the middle. After communicating with Yala for a while, he did not disturb Su Zhou and left quietly.

After a whole day, the spiritual power of the Five Thunder Spirit Gathering Pill was exhausted.

Su Zhou also opened his eyes.

"Ha."

Taking a deep breath, with Su Zhou as the center, the spiritual energy within hundreds of meters around was all stirred up, turning into a vortex and being drawn into his mouth—and this breath lasted for a full five minutes!

Every minute, Su Zhou could absorb half of his original total spiritual energy. After five minutes, his total spiritual energy was equivalent to 3.5 times the original amount!

At this time, if someone could see through Su Zhou's abdomen, they would see that his stomach and intestines had become delicate and clean, in a hazy, translucent state. The whole body was like a fluorescent lamp, with spiritual energy flashing slightly with electric arcs, and even the nerves, blood vessels, and even the spiritual energy meridians could be seen clearly.

The first spiritual organ, formed!

At the same time, a thunderous rumble sounded in Su Zhou's abdomen! A violent sense of hunger, as if originating from every part of his body, surged like a tsunami!

"Crap! I actually forgot about this! I've been cultivating for too long, and I haven't eaten for a day!"

Su Zhou, who was originally planning to sigh and celebrate the formation of his first spiritual organ, suddenly changed his expression at this moment. He felt like he was just like the Tree of Wisdom in his soul space, his mind was full of 'hungry, hungry, hungry, hungry, hungry!'

This is not only because he hadn't eaten for a day. The formation of spiritual organs is a very energy-consuming thing, not less than fighting with all his strength for a day and a night. Even if Su Zhou has the Celestial Cycle, the physical consumption is unavoidable.

Moreover, cultivating spiritual organs will temporarily cause a major change in the cultivator's spiritual energy system. Therefore, unless several spiritual organs are reshaped in one breath, each time one is formed, one must wait for a period of time to harmonize the spiritual energy in the body before continuing to cultivate.

Although he was hungry, Su Zhou had already prepared for this situation. Without saying a word, he rushed into the old house. Amidst Yala's lazy congratulations, 'Yo, you finally formed it? Congratulations.', Su Zhou grabbed his mobile phone and dialed Shao Qiming's number.

【What's the matter, A'Zhou?】

"Emergency, brother! Quickly help me order a table of food from any restaurant, I'm starving to death!"

【No problem—I guessed it a long time ago. I'll send you the location, come quickly.】

Several hours later.

After Su Zhou had a hearty meal at a Sichuan restaurant and finally dispelled the indescribable sense of hunger that seemed to be present in every cell of his body, he exhaled comfortably.

Just now, he ate mostly hard dishes, such as grilled fish, golden pork knuckles, big plate chicken, braised pork... The restaurant served dishes one after another, and he emptied them one after another. If it weren't for the fact that there were more and more big eaters after the spiritual energy recovery, the restaurant would have been afraid that Su Zhou would eat himself to death and called the police a long time ago.

With such a meal, Su Zhou ate nearly twenty kilograms of meat, countless side dishes and rice, and the calories were calculated in the tens of thousands.

It has to be said that the digestive system after spiritual organ transformation is indeed much better than the original. At least the speed of replenishing physical strength and nutrients is almost one-third or even half of the effect of his original use of 'Refining Essence into Qi'.

And if he uses Refining Essence into Qi, the speed of absorbing spiritual energy is almost doubled compared to the original... Su Zhou even had a premonition that even if he gnawed on wood, ate spiritual soil, or even ate poison, he could digest them cleanly and turn them into his own strength!

"You've become stronger again."

On the other side, Shao Qiming also accompanied Su Zhou to eat this meal—this time, he ate much more than before, and he solved three dishes and a soup by himself, which is considered a big eater among ordinary people.

Awakening-level cultivators, although it can't be said that the more they eat, the faster they cultivate, but if they cultivate fast, they definitely eat a lot.

"That's because I haven't been stuck by cultivation methods... You know, with Yala's existence, I've always had smooth sailing in this regard."

Su Zhou is very clear about his true advantage—excellent talent is certainly a help for his cultivation, but the most important thing is Yala's existence.

Su Zhou believes that even if he didn't have the original Ying Long bloodline, without a perfect body, as long as Yala is willing to help him and pass on the inheritance, it would only be a slower start. One day, he will still reach the top of this world.

At this time, Yala was soaking in a glass of Coke, leisurely shaking her tail. After hearing Su Zhou mention her name, she raised her tail and nodded reservedly, with an appearance of 'Su Zhou is right, I am just that awesome!'

Some time ago, Shao Qiming was still cultivating the officially released 'Genuine Source Condensation Breathing Method'. This cultivation method is stable, but it is like a stalactite, it takes time to hone hard work.

Sacred Geometry is Yala's fundamental inheritance and cannot be spread, so Su Zhou, after thoroughly comprehending the National Teacher's Divine Thunder True Method, summarized a set of highly efficient cultivation methods that use wood Qi to improve oneself—in fact, it is the National Teacher turning wood Qi into Extreme Yang True Qi, directly using Extreme Yang True Qi to nourish the spirit, instead of turning it into Divine Thunder and then using thunder to nourish the spirit.

After all, Shao Qiming doesn't have thunder talent, and there isn't much wood Qi here. Converting Divine Thunder to nourish the spirit is too wasteful. This set of cultivation methods is quite compatible with Shao Qiming's talent, so Su Zhou taught it to him.

"I know, after you taught me that set of 'Yang Qi Nourishing Spirit Method', I can clearly feel that my cultivation progress is much faster than before. I will definitely be able to advance to the Awakening stage before the Holy Ascension Selection Test, and it is not impossible to even break through a level."

Shao Qiming didn't hide his envy of Su Zhou. He picked up the tea on the table, took a sip, and slowly shook his head: "It's just that I may not be able to help you with anything in this regard in the future."

"Okay, speaking of which, have you thought about which academy to choose as your own? You said you want to go to the newly built Level A Transcendent Academy, but there are three such academies—which one do you plan to go to?"

Shao Qiming rather strongly changed the subject, which was quite useful.

"Which academy?"

Hearing this, Su Zhou was slightly stunned, and his choice-making disorder broke out, almost shouting out unrealistic answers such as 'I want them all!'

Yeah, which academy is better to go to?