Cave Refuge

Dong Tianyu had been so impatient to break through to a higher realm because not only did the Golden Core Stage talk about refining the Golden Core into the Ninth Transformation, but the Nascent Soul Stage also had a similar situation.

Thus, in Dong Tianyu's view, since there were survival points as a guaranteed way to successfully break through, there was no point in him solidifying his foundation or strengthening his basis at a lower realm.

Therefore, instead of having a slight edge over other cultivators of the same realm in battle, Dong Tianyu preferred to dominate the lower realm cultivators with a higher realm.

In most novels, Dong Tianyu's method of cultivation would belong to those antagonists or extras who are trampled underfoot by the protagonist in a battle between different levels.

However, in most cases, the higher one's cultivation level, the combat was almost certainly a victory, not to mention the vast disparity of fighting early-stage cultivators with late-stage expertise within the same realm.

As cultivation progressed to the later stages, battles between parties rarely involved hand-to-hand combat or competing in combat skills, even if it appeared to be close-combat on the surface. During the fight, weapons enhanced by one's cultivation level would become sturdier and sharper.

While others in the Golden Core Stage refined their Golden Cores primarily not to raise the limit of Spirit Energy inside the body but to increase the chances of progressing from Core Breaking to Nascent Soul, they also benefitted from higher quality and greater storage capacity of inner Spirit Energy, which most people considered just additional benefits.

In the eyes of most true cultivators, they could distinguish what is skill and what is the path; the primary purpose of cultivating skills was to protect the path. Therefore, after gaining sufficient strength, most cultivators would not continue to delve deeper.

The reason Dong Tianyu only bought spells from the Hall of Longevity when facing various difficulties was the same; unless necessary, Dong Tianyu preferred to save up the survival points he earned daily, as each point saved would make his future breakthroughs simpler.

However, Dong Tianyu's heart wavered slightly from his original plan when he acquired this special physique due to an unexpected event.

Before, Dong Tianyu had chosen to quickly increase his cultivation level and break through early because he knew his own talent, wishing to advance to the next realm as soon as possible.

After all, breaking through each major realm would extend Dong Tianyu's lifespan, and extending his life limit would allow him to accumulate more survival points, which, in the absence of other options, was indeed the best choice.

Yet, when Dong Tianyu gained this physique, which allowed him to absorb Spirit Energy dramatically during cultivation, his thoughts began to waver.

After all, no one wants to be the cannon fodder at the bottom of their realm. Despite Dong Tianyu's strategy theoretically ranking second-last in his realm.

Theoretically, the ones with the least combat ability are those who directly ingest elixir pills that elevate their cultivation level to a certain realm. These cultivators do not require any cultivation techniques or talent, and as long as they consume the realm-specific elixir pills, their cultivation realm will be forcibly elevated.

In other words, it didn't matter whether the consumer of the elixir pill was human or pig; theoretically, consuming the elixir would elevate one's cultivation realm to a corresponding level.

Of course, precisely because of this, whether it's any organism, after consuming such elixir, they immediately lose the ability to cultivate on their own, meaning anyone who had consumed such forcibly enhancing elixir, even if they later acquired an excellent cultivation method and earnestly practiced, could at most only hasten the recovery rate of Spirit Energy inside their body.

They could never continue to elevate their cultivation realm through cultivation alone. Of course, they weren't entirely unable to enhance their cultivation realm; if they wished to continue to improve, the only way would be to continue consuming higher realm elixir pills or ingest those Heaven and Earth Spiritual Objects that could reshape the meridians inside the body or give ordinary humans a special Spiritual Body.

Dong Tianyu's adventure this time could be considered as acquiring a special Spiritual Body. If Dong Tianyu had previously taken that type of elixir pill, this adventure would have been enough for Dong Tianyu to remodel his body's meridians and regain the ability to cultivate again.

These elixir pills that could enhance one's cultivation level mostly became a natural resource for Cultivating Immortal Families to train Death Soldiers, and the remaining portion turned into a deadly poison used for scheming against geniuses.

Regardless of how incredible a genius's talent for cultivation was, if a method was devised to make them take these cultivation-enhancing elixir pills, it could easily transform the geniuses into individuals incapable of increasing their cultivation level.

Even if these geniuses obtained Heaven and Earth Spiritual Objects that allowed the remodeling of meridians, the meridians that were successfully reconstructed using these Heavenly Spiritual Objects, which originally belonged to the prodigies, would now only become ordinary talents capable of cultivation.

Thus, these special elixir pills became the highest cost-effective poison for stealthily harming prodigious talents.

Of course, these special elixir pills were not without solutions; if one's Cultivation Realm was higher than or the same as the realm enhanced by the elixir pills, then even taking these forcefully Cultivation-enhancing elixir pills would not have any effect.

The materials needed to produce these elixir pills were also extremely precious, so even if someone wanted to use these pills to harm others, they would mostly only use the ones for the Foundation Building Stage, especially since reaching the Golden Core Stage could stabilize a person as the pillar within smaller families or sects.

Therefore, unless there is a deep and major grudge against such extraordinary talents, it is nearly impossible for anyone to want to use these elixir pills to covertly harm another.

It was quite simple for Dong Tianyu to obtain these elixir pills. In the Cave, as long as one had enough Survival Points, Dong Tianyu could choose the method of enhancing his cultivation level without influencing his future cultivation potential to fully satisfy Dong Tianyu's desires.

However, choosing such a method to enhance the cultivation level required an exorbitant amount of Survival Points. If Dong Tianyu acquired an unrestricted modifier, perhaps he might choose this method of improving realms.

Regrettably, Dong Tianyu had not acquired such a modifier, so he could only progress step by step in his cultivation through conventional means, steadily enhancing his own Cultivation Level.

After a period of experimentation, the special constitution that Dong Tianyu had acquired fitted perfectly with the Cultivation Method he practiced.

Through testing, only when his body came into direct contact with the Spirit Energy in the air, would the Spirit Energy be absorbed into his body. This posed a problem, as it meant Dong Tianyu had to constantly be in motion to utilize the benefits of his newly acquired constitution, devouring the surrounding air's Spirit Energy.

Moreover, this contact had to be direct skin contact; theoretically, it meant Dong Tianyu had to be completely naked to achieve the maximum effect.

However, Dong Tianyu's mindset had not fully adjusted yet. So, the sense of shame he had as an ordinary person still lingered, and thus Dong Tianyu could not accept wearing skimpy, revealing clothing—effectively, just a thong.

Originally, if there were no better choice, Dong Tianyu might have eventually abandoned the morals cultivated since childhood for the sake of quickly enhancing his cultivation level.

But the Cultivation Method Dong Tianyu practiced could continuously operate within his body twenty-four hours a day, gathering the surrounding Spirit Power around him.

Normally, because the Cultivation Method was passively operating, even though it attracted the surrounding Spirit Energy to Dong Tianyu, the absorption efficiency was low due to the passive operation of the Cultivation Method. Thus, the speed of absorbing Spirit Energy wasn't as fast as gathering it around him, leading to a majority of the Spirit Energy gathered around Dong Tianyu eventually being wasted, dissipating into the air.