Chapter 17 – The Umbral Yin Ghost Control Technique (2/2)
“It obviously outclasses it.”
With that, Li Qingshan settled down and no longer hesitated. He casually stowed the page away.
His other spoils were nothing more than silver. Originally, Li Qingshan thought the black ox would not care about these worldly objects of white and yellow, but he never expected the black ox to firmly say after hearing him, “Good. Compared to that piece of torn paper, this is what matters!”
He looked down on an ability, yet he placed great focus on the silver. Even for Li Qingshan, who had undergone the black ox’s teachings of eating meat and drinking alcohol, he could not help but feel shocked at a time like this. Brother ox sure was grounded to the secular world.
The black ox could tell what he was thinking. “Haven’t you heard of the four words, wealth, companionship, method, and environment? They’re the crucial requirements to cultivation, and wealth ranks first amongst them.”
Li Qingshan nodded. “No matter what I do, I need a financial foundation.” If the ox had not been providing the most important element so far, food, he would have no way to cultivate even if he possessed the secrets to a divine art right in his hands. “Though, I don’t think I’ll be able to spend too much money!” A sum of over one thousand taels of silver was a tremendous amount. If he only bought alcohol and meat, it could last a very long time.
The black ox said, “You’ve always been asking me just how long you’ll need before you’ll be able to achieve something with the Ox Demon’s Fist of Great Strength.”
“Yeah, but you always refuse to tell me.”
“I can tell you now. At the rate you’re cultivating currently, if nothing unexpected happens, it’ll probably take you ten years before you reach the first layer of the Ox Demon’s Fist of Great Strength, giving you the strength of an ox!”
“Ten years!” Li Qingshan’s mouth hung open in surprise.
“And that’s towards the shorter side of things. If you come across a bottleneck, it’ll be even more difficult to say. The stronger the ability, the harder it is to practise. Do you really think daoist abilities are a peasant’s tricks, where you can achieve something just by some slight practise then proceed to dominate the world? You’d better wake up!”
Li Qingshan felt like a cold bucket of water had been poured over him. All of his joy from killing the witch vanished. “In other words, if I want to complete the Strength of Nine Oxen and Two Tigers, I’ll need one hundred and ten years at the very least?” He could not imagine how he might turn out to be after a hundred and ten years.
“Wrong. Abilities get more difficult the further you practise. It’s nothing surprising if you don’t complete it even in a couple hundred years. However, you don’t have to worry too much. With each layer you achieve, your body will be consolidated, and your lifespan will obviously increase.”
“Then what am I supposed to do!?” Li Qingshan personally believed he had extraordinary willpower, able to endure practise everyday without stopping. However, if he had to last like this for a few hundred years, he felt like he would go crazy just from the thought of it.
The black ox was just about done with its psychological blows. It donned a smug expression of ‘Kid, do you know how powerful it is now?’Then the ox said, “If you want to reduce this time, the simplest method happens to fall on the word, wealth.”
Despite Li Qingshan’s strange expression, a list flew into his hands. The list stated several dozen medicines. “What’s this?”
“To be used to make soup and alcohol. It’s all tricks that even mortals know. It doesn’t matter if you’re missing any medicines from the list as long as you’re not missing the most crucial one.”
“Ginseng!” Li Qingshan already saw the medicine listed at the very top.
This was probably the most common and most easily obtainable spiritual medicine in the world. It was known as the King of Herbs, able to replenish vitality tremendously. In Chinese medicine, there was a soup of revival that would allow people on the brink of death to regain enough of their strength to leave behind their wills. In reality, it was ginseng soup.