Fang Hao was wondering how to enter the transport, when a small rectangular door shaped opening appeared in the abdominal region of the giant ladybug. Suppressing his unease, he entered the ladybug, and he saw a large hall with yoga mats spread about. As soon as he occupied a free yoga mat and sat cross-legged, the 'door' closed and he felt a mild jerking sensation behind his navel.
'It has been almost a decade here, and there are still surprises. Weird shit just keeps popping up. What happened to giant lotuses, clouds, birds and other non-insectoid mode of transportation? I am confused now. Is this a giant bug or some sort of magic tool specialized for transportation? I won't have to remain here too long anyway.' thought Fang Hao as he resisted the urge to read about available cultivation manuals then and there.
Within quarter of an hour, Fang Hao had reached his residential cottage. He went inside, uncovered the glowing stones for light, retrieved the catalog for foundation establishment cultivation techniques and started flipping through it. There were roughly seventy or so cultivation techniques which could help a peak Qi Condensation cultivator breakthrough to the Foundation Establishment Stage. Each page was dedicated to one cultivation technique with a brief description.
The first page detailed a Qi Cultivation Manual which he was very familiar with, The Sublime Qi Manual! For Fang Hao and many outer disciples of the Jade Pagoda Sect, it was the first Manual they practiced in the sect to cultivate in the Qi Gathering Realm. Apparently the Manual had instructions on how to cultivate even for the Foundation Establishment Stage. It was the cheapest Cultivation Manual in the catalog, costing only 15,000 contribution points. While it didn't have any affinity / spirit root requirements and was a very stable cultivation method; it was extremely slow, didn't have any associated spells and had lesser chances of success for a breakthrough to the Foundation Establishment Stage with the same resources.
'I guess this Sublime Qi Manual is the plain vanilla no-frills of cultivation manuals. Its slow, requires more foundation establishment pills for success and grants no spells. But it won't conflict with any previous/subsequent cultivation methods. No wonder, we were given the Qi Gathering layer of this manual first to cultivate.'
The next several cultivation methods described were pretty basic. They focused on one attribute and had a couple of spells at most. The advantage of these generic single attribute cultivation techniques was that cultivating them was much faster than the sublime spirit scripture and didn't have very stringent requirements of spirit roots. These cultivation techniques were roughly around 30,000 contribution points each.
Then started the cultivation techniques which required more than one spirit root and provided more powerful spells in general. Among these, the most common attributes Fang Hao encountered were fire, water, earth, wood, metal, lightning, wind, light and dark. Each of these cultivation techniques were worth around 50,000 contribution points. The Thunder-rock Carapace Scripture recommended to him by the Great Elder was among these.
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'So it looks like the five traditional elements along with wind,lightning, light and dark are the most common attributes for spirit roots. So having a life attributed spirit root is a good thing. The Thunder-rock Carapace Scripture seems a very good fit for my requirements. The first spell makes a crystal-like covering over the cultivator's body which greatly improves defense. Each time the crystal-like covering receives damage, it increases the cultivator's speed. Sounds like a spell tailor made for running away!' mused Fang Hao to himself.
'The description is vague about the second spell, but it should be focused on speed and/or defense. This is one of the few cultivation techniques which requires both earth and lightning attributed spirit roots. There are very few life attributed cultivation techniques, though. Let me look through rest of the cultivation methods before I decide. But as of now, Thunder-rock Carapace seems tailor-made for me.' decided Fang Hao as he continued reading the Cultivation Technique brochure.
Near the end of the brochure, the true top tier cultivation techniques were recorded. While these techniques were powerful, they had extremely stringent requirements and similarly high contribution point cost of 100,000. moreover, most of these required permission of an Elder or higher to acquire.
One of these techniques which appealed to Fang Hao was called the Phoenix Echo Scripture. This Scripture had a very stringent requirements. For one, the cultivator had to have innate dominant Fire and Life attributed spirit roots and could not have innate water spirit roots. Moreover, it required transplanting the cultivator with blood of Grade 4 or higher fire-attributed spirit beast descended from phoenixes or vermilion birds. A Grade 4 spirit beast was the equivalent of a Core Formation Cultivator!
The blood of such a spirit beast was obviously very valuable and near impossible to obtain for most Qi Condensation cultivators. This requirement of spirit beast blood could be skipped, but that required the cultivator to have a natural bloodline and/or innate constitution affiliated with phoenixes, which was even more rare. Having a weak bloodline or using low quality blood transplant could create a potentially unsurpassable bottleneck for the cultivator! Despite the harsh requirements, if someone was suitable to cultivate this scripture, he would be undoubtedly much more powerful than his peers in the same stage with a variety of powerful spells and a very fast cultivation speed.
Another of these top-tier cultivation techniques which caught Fang Hao's eye was the Doom Shield Manual. This manual focused on defense/survivability along with weakening foes. Most of the spells it had were focused on defense and self-healing/life-stealing. It required the cultivation of an Earth attributed Body Tempering Method to the peak of Qi Condensation. As for spirit roots, it required dominant Earth, Darkness and Death spirit root. As if that wasn't enough, it required the cultivator to make their blood and marrow to have a corrosive acid-like property through special means or having a qualified bloodline/innate constitution. If someone who was unsuited for this scripture tried to forcefully cultivate the Doom Shield Manual, they would melt into a puddle of flesh from the inside-out.
'No wonder these top-tier cultivation manuals require permission from an Elder. It is not just to keep control over the good stuff, but to stop disasters which over-ambitious cultivators may trap themselves into.' mused Fang Hao as he once more considered his options.
While he was favoring the Thunder-rock Carapace Scripture, this was a major decision on his path of cultivation and he wanted to carefully consider all viable options before committing.