"Ding~ You infused the Moonlight White Tea Tree with 360 days of true qi, gaining a two-thousandfold cultivation return, yielding 720,000 days of true qi cultivation."
"Ding~ You have cultivated the 'Myriad Leaves Dancing in the Wind Technique' for 720,000 days. The Myriad Leaves Dancing in the Wind Technique has been upgraded to level 99."
"Ding~ You have 3,000 martial arts (techniques) that have reached maximum level. You can evolve the 'Intermediate Breathing Technique'. Do you wish to evolve?"
This morning, Yang Hong completed the cultivation of another technique, and a peculiar notification popped up from the system.
His 'Intermediate Breathing Technique' could actually evolve.
This was unreasonable.
"System, can I choose to evolve the Intermediate Body Tempering Technique?"
"..."
The system remained as unresponsive as ever.
Yang Hong's cultivation bottleneck was not the breathing technique, but the body tempering technique.
Without the evolution of the body tempering technique, he couldn't break through his cultivation.
"System, if I evolve the breathing technique, will the accumulated martial arts values still be there?"
"..."
The system was like an idiot, completely unwilling to answer him.
Yang Hong fell into a dilemma.
Evolving the body tempering technique required a colossal 30,000 martial arts values, and the 3,000 values he possessed were hard-earned.
He truly didn't want to waste them.
However, since the system had prompted the evolution of the breathing technique, it clearly indicated the necessity of doing so.
"My current cultivation cannot be seen through even by true cultivators of the Nascent Soul realm. There should be no need for evolution.
However, the cultivators from the Imperial Astronomical Bureau of the Great Sui were only at the Fusion realm before. This time, Li Lianshan is already at the late stage of the Golden Core. If a Nascent Soul, or even a Body Integration realm cultivator comes next, can I still conceal my cultivation?"
Previously, when Xi Miaohua was accumulating merit, she had mentioned that a great tribulation was coming, and more and more cultivators from the five great dynasties would appear.
Therefore, the appearance of cultivators with higher cultivation levels was inevitable.
If those high-level cultivators discovered his cultivation, it would likely be very dangerous.
Moreover, evolving the body tempering technique required a staggering 30,000 martial arts values, which could not be accumulated overnight.
The techniques he currently possessed were far from enough to reach this goal.
"Evolve, Intermediate Breathing Technique!"
Yang Hong was always decisive. Once a decision was made, he would execute it immediately.
"Not good!"
The moment the system began evolving the Intermediate Breathing Technique, Yang Hong realized something was wrong.
His body was like a vortex, incessantly absorbing all the spiritual energy in the vicinity.
Within a few breaths, the spiritual energy around the Baolian Pond was completely depleted.
He dared not delay. He immediately took out a storage bag, and with his divine sense, extracted all the spirit stones within.
Working with both hands, he rapidly crushed the spirit stones!
The shattered spirit stones instantly released a vast amount of pure spiritual energy, which was then absorbed by Yang Hong.
"Damn it, this absorption speed is too fast."
While cursing, Yang Hong dared not slow down, two spirit stones in each hand, he increased the speed of crushing them.
The sounds of "crackling" were incessant.
In half an hour, Yang Hong had crushed over 100,000 spirit stones.
Finally, the suction force within Yang Hong's body ceased.
At this point, the spiritual plants near the Baolian Pond had all withered.
This was entirely due to his extremely fast absorption of spiritual energy.
"Is that all?"
Yang Hong crushed another thousand spirit stones and circulated the new breathing technique to recover his previous true qi consumption.
However, apart from a fifty percent increase in spiritual energy absorption speed, Yang Hong found no new effects.
The effect of concealing his aura had also not significantly improved.
This left Yang Hong somewhat surprised.
"This is too perfunctory. The technique's improvement is not obvious."
After experimenting for a long time, Yang Hong could only stop in resignation.
The spiritual energy from the spirit stones he had crushed earlier had all been absorbed.
He had less than a thousand spirit stones remaining.
"A loss~ A huge loss!"
Seeing the effects of the Advanced Breathing Technique, Yang Hong's heart ached.
He decided that he would never evolve the breathing technique again.
However, he overlooked one thing: within half an hour, he had absorbed all the spiritual energy from 100,000 spirit stones.
Such a speed of spiritual energy absorption was something even true cultivators at the peak of the Nascent Soul realm could not achieve.
And this was one of the marvels of the Advanced Breathing Technique.
Furthermore, in subsequent cultivation, especially when cultivating with Song Yuzhi and the others,
The speed at which his true qi became pure increased by one-third compared to before.
This was also an improvement.
"Husband, Xiao Cao has already entered the Qi Refining stage. Do you want to... have her serve you?"
This morning, Song Yuzhi was again trying to expand Yang Hong's retinue.
"Heh heh~ Yuzhi, you're overthinking things. I've always treated Xiao Cao as a sister, and raised her as a sister.
I will never have such thoughts."
Upon hearing Song Yuzhi's suggestion, Yang Hong immediately refused. It was both out of no such inclination and no necessity.
He suddenly thought of the techniques he had learned recently. One of them should be suitable for Xiao Cao to cultivate.
"However, bring her over later, and I will teach her a technique."
"Is it a standalone technique? Husband, is there a technique I can cultivate alone?"
Hearing Yang Hong's words, Song Yuzhi also became interested. She had been out before and naturally knew that cultivators needed suitable techniques to cultivate faster.
Yang Hong replied immediately, "Yes, but your technique is not yet perfected. You'll have to wait until I complete it before I can teach it to you all."
"Alright~"
He intended for everyone to cultivate Earth-grade techniques, or at the very least, top-grade Mysterious-grade techniques.
However, Earth-grade techniques all had protective spiritual light. Song Yuzhi and the others were not Yang Hong, and could not quickly conceal their protective spiritual light.
Thus, he could only ask them to wait a little longer.
Not long after, Xiao Cao came bounding over.
"Sixth Prince, you were looking for me?"
"Yes, I have something good for you."
Yang Hong looked at Xiao Cao, who had grown into a graceful young lady, and felt a touch of emotion.
The once skinny little girl had grown up.
He still remembered how this little girl used her frail body to block the bullying of eunuchs and palace maids.
It was also this little girl who accompanied him through the loneliness and darkness when he first transmigrated.
"Xiao Cao, you must know by now that I can cultivate immortality, right?"
"Mhm mhm~"
Xiao Cao nodded quickly, with an expression that clearly said, "I knew it already."
"Then close your eyes, and I will impart a technique to you."
"Mmm~"
Xiao Cao closed her eyes without hesitation, a hint of blush appearing on her face.
Yang Hong's lips twitched. He could guess some of Xiao Cao's thoughts, but he had no such intentions.
He concentrated slightly, and a faint white light emanated from his right index finger. He extended his finger and touched Xiao Cao's forehead.
The cultivation secrets of the 'Lion Tiger Roar' technique, along with Yang Hong's cultivation insights, were all transmitted into Xiao Cao's mind through his index finger.
This was a Level 4 great art, Spiritual Light Transmission.
Normally, it required a Golden Core realm cultivation to perform. Yang Hong, with his ten million years of cultivation at the Fusion realm, performed it with ease.
"Sixth Prince, is this immortal magic?
It's so miraculous. I've suddenly learned so many things."
Xiao Cao opened her eyes, touched her forehead, and felt an immense sense of disbelief.
"This is a spell. As long as you cultivate diligently, you will be able to learn this spell in the future."
"Ah~ I still have to wait until the future? How long will it take for me to learn spells?"
"Heh heh~ You, just focus on cultivating the foundational technique well. It will be very soon."
Yang Hong comforted her with a light smile.
He dared not say that for Xiao Cao to be able to perform Spiritual Light Transmission, it would take at least a hundred years, possibly longer.
After sending Xiao Cao away, Yang Hong began to consider the cultivation of Song Yuzhi and the others again.