Chapter 8: Spiritual Materials

Mother Li arrived at the spirit plant zone to find Father Li monitoring its condition.

Although the extraction of spiritual energy from this area was meticulously calculated by Mei Yun, their intelligent housekeeper, they remained vigilant against any unforeseen incidents.

“Have you inquired about our son’s spiritual roots?” Father Li softly asked his wife upon her arrival. He had deliberately avoided the topic during yesterday’s celebration for Li Zhen successfully channeling qi into his body.

“Zhen’er didn’t mention it himself,” Mother Li replied with a sigh. “His spiritual roots probably aren’t exceptional. Let’s not ask further; we wouldn’t want to dishearten him!”

Even within the Xian Nation, where strict laws governed secrecy around spiritual matters, parents were generally exempted when seeking knowledge about their children’s spiritual roots—provided the child willingly disclosed them without coercion.

“As long as our son can become a cultivator, what more could we possibly desire!” Father Li forced a smile through his words.

Of course, he harbored some lingering dissatisfaction. When tested years ago, his highest spiritual root value stood at 10 points, just shy of qualifying as low-grade elemental essence. This single-point difference had barred him from breaking through to the intermediate stage of Qi Refinement.

“Don’t bring up the matter of spiritual roots in front of Zhen’er,” Mother Li cautioned her husband.

Unaware of his parents’ conversation, Li Zhen sat in his cultivation room, poised to begin his first practice session at home.

As he activated his spiritual energy supply, Li Zhen immediately sensed the vast disparity between low-grade and high-grade first-rank spirit veins.

After an hour of cultivation, he realized that practicing at home was only about one-third as effective as it would be at school.

“Li Zhen, you have thirty seconds left in your practice session!” Mei Yun’s voice echoed through the training room.

Li Zhen halted his cultivation. Although the effect was just a third of what he could achieve at school, gaining this extra time each day would accumulate significantly over time.

He went to take a shower, and while washing up, he checked his identity bracelet for personal information. He saw that his total spiritual energy had increased to 0.13 units.

“Mei Yun, verify my identity and connect me to the cultivator network!” In the evening, back in his bedroom, Li Zhen instructed the smart housekeeper.

The wall of his bedroom promptly displayed the login status. Li Zhen stared intently at the wall, knowing that the world of the cultivator network was about to open before him.

Upon successful login, the image on the wall spread outwards, transforming into a virtual three-dimensional environment that enveloped him.

He found himself standing on a virtual street, with shops lining both sides.

When accessing the cultivator network, users could choose from various modes. Currently, Li Zhen had three options: anonymous status, stealth mode, and true identity mode.

In anonymous status, others would see him with a generic appearance and physique, revealing no personal information while still allowing interaction with other cultivators.

Stealth mode completely shielded him from all other cultivators on the network, enabling communication only with the intelligent systems present, such as those in virtual shops.

True identity mode displayed Li Zhen as himself within the cultivator network, even allowing him to initiate inquiries about others’ public information, making it known to other cultivators.

Li Zhen chose stealth mode. Given his young age and lack of progress—he hadn’t even reached the first level of Qi Refinement—he preferred to keep his activities secret.

He stood alone on an empty virtual street, a result of shielding himself from other cultivators.

His first destination was the library, where he hoped to find information related to cultivators.

With this thought, his figure vanished from the spot and reappeared at a table inside the library, complete with a display screen.

“Retrieve information on spiritual roots!” Li Zhen instructed the library’s smart system.

Soon, numerous pieces of information about spirit roots appeared on the screen before him. Perhaps details about spirit roots weren’t considered confidential; even with his lowest-tier access as a cultivator, he could still retrieve ample relevant data.

After selectively reviewing materials on spirit roots, he finally understood that with a mid-grade wood spirit root at 21.17, practicing ‘Foundation Qi Refining Technique Version 17’ in an environment with first-class high-quality spiritual veins would significantly enhance his cultivation progress within just an hour compared to others.

In other words, when it came to cultivating, his advancement speed surpassed those with similar spirit roots.

Unsatisfied, Li Zhen searched further through the library for methods to improve his cultivation efficiency. He discovered that ordinary spiritual veins typically contained elements of all five types of spiritual energy: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth.

There was a formation called the Qi Gathering Array which could convert these general spiritual energies into specific elemental forms.

If surrounded by wood attribute spiritual energy during cultivation, his practice effectiveness would naturally see a substantial boost.

However, purchasing such a Qi Gathering Array was even more expensive than acquiring a magical artifact of comparable quality. It wasn’t just beyond his means—it would have been unaffordable for even his parents due to its exorbitant cost.

Li Zhen’s thoughts then turned to the dark green branch stored in his inventory space. He hadn’t yet consumed this particular segment of the branch; previously eating one had already increased his Wood Spirit Root value.

This precious treasure was already in his hands; he could consume it at any time.

He continued searching through the library database but found no information related to dark green branches despite extensive cross-referencing.

Realizing that his search was limited to Qi Refinement stage materials, he began suspecting that the dark green branch might be a second-order spirit material.

Considering how several cultivators had risked everything to steal the dark green branch from a hospital, its value must have been extraordinarily high—high enough to tempt cultivators into such perilous ventures.

Li Zhen suddenly recalled seeing an advertisement when he first entered the virtual street on the Cultivator Network. It was for a magical equipment store offering appraisal services with a free initial assessment for new clients.

He exited the Cultivator Network, retrieved the dark green branch from his storage space, and then re-entered while holding the branch.

The Cultivator Network only scanned items directly carried by cultivators; it couldn’t access contents within spaces like his unique storage area, which wasn’t even a conventional item used by true cultivators.

Li Zhen carried his dark green branch to a shop called ‘Nine Heavens Group Magical Equipment Specialist’. In his mind, the Nine Heavens Group was an intercontinental conglomerate, and Yunxi County’s ‘Nine Heavens Group Magical Equipment Specialist’ was just one of its branches.

Of course, as Li Zhen’s cultivation progressed, his access rights within the cultivator network would also improve. At that time, he could even directly visit the main store of the Nine Heavens Group for inspection. However, at present, he could only log in to the local county store.

He first reviewed the items displayed in the store, then couldn’t help but shake his head with a wry smile of poverty.

In the past, he had pocket money too. His predecessor rarely bought things himself, so he’d saved up around three hundred credit points.

But the cheapest low-grade magical tool in the store cost over two ten-thousand credit points—far beyond what he could afford.

At this moment, he regretted not taking a blade-type magical tool from the hospital instead of just the rune dart; those were worth tens of thousands of credit points.

Fortunately, the first item appraisal was free; otherwise, he really wouldn’t have been able to manage it.

“I wish to appraise a spiritual object!” Li Zhen said to the store’s smart system.

The Nine Heavens Group required vast quantities of materials for refining magical artifacts, making the acquisition of various crafting supplies a core aspect of their business.

“Greetings, cultivator! Please place the item you wish to appraise on the assessment platform!” the intelligent system instructed.

Li Zhen placed the virtual dark green branch onto the appraisal surface. Although it was an imitation, the virtual branch perfectly replicated the external characteristics of a real dark green branch.

A flash of light illuminated the platform. After a few breaths, a set of information materialized above it:

Li Zhen froze. Upon seeing the “Second Rank, Lower Grade” appraisal result, he immediately realized that Winged Wood spelled big trouble.

What remained unclear was whether all cultivators who had knowledge of Winged Wood were now deceased. For such wealth—a second rank, lower grade spirit material—any Qi Refinement cultivator would surely go berserk with desire.

Even late-stage Qi Refinement cultivators were no exception; the more powerful they became, the greater their demand for resources.

“The accuracy of this appraisal cannot be guaranteed,” the intelligent system continued. “For a precise evaluation, please visit the Nine Heavens Group’s magical artifacts store for an in-person assessment. If genuine, our group will acquire the item at the most favorable price!”

Li Zhen had no patience left for such messages. He immediately chose to log off.

Within moments after he signed out, Manager Wang of Yunxi County’s Nine Heavens Group magical artifacts store received a notification.

Manager Wang had set up alerts whenever spiritual items being appraised or sold online reached a certain value threshold. This ensured he was promptly informed about potentially high-value transactions.

So, shortly after Li Zhen uploaded the second-grade low-tier Winged Wood for online appraisal, Manager Wang received his notification.