A couple of days had passed since Jian had broken through to the 1st Stage of the Essence Condensing Realm. Then again, thanks to the benevolence of the God of Spirit Slag, Qin had also broken through to the 1st Stage of the Essence Condensing Realm on that same day, prompting them to praise the God of Spirit Slag to no end once Qin had successfully broken through.

With their excitement and drive at an all-time high, the two of them made the most out of it as they made quite a few drastic changes to the house they were living in, as well as the farm beside it.

…

“Who knew I actually had a lot of useless stuff?” grumbled Guang Zhenqiang as she slowly made her way to the place the couple were living in, towing along a small wagon of things she had brought over from the house she was previously living in. Just as she was about to complain about her current circumstances yet again, her mood did a 180 as the sight that gradually came into her view shocked her beyond belief.

After all, gone was the simple two-story house the couple lived in, which she had come to know and love whenever she went here. Instead, what greeted her from far away was the sight of a small rustic mansion that had at least twice the living space of their previous house. Beside that was a field of vegetables and greens that spanned as far as the eye could see, its perimeter lined with neat wooden fences.

However, what shocked her the most was not the newly built house, nor was it the neat yet seemingly boundless field. Instead, it was something else.

“Why’s the qi here so dense?” she could not help but mutter to herself, prompting her to wonder what the couple had done during the past few days while she was gone for the qi in the surroundings to be this dense. Though, just as she was about to come up with a few hypotheses behind the increase in density, the couple appeared before her with smiles on their faces, their expressions more relieved than ever before.

At first, Zhenqiang did not find anything out of the ordinary, feeling like the only thing that changed was their living space. However, while conversing with the two for a bit, she could not help but become inwardly shocked as the aura she sensed from them was far stronger than before she left them.

Curious as to why that was the case, Guang Zhenqiang told the two, “Something has been bothering me for quite some time now.”

“What is it, Lady Guang?” Jian asked in response while Qin looked at her with slight confusion. In response, Guang Zhenqiang replied, “I don’t know if it’s just me or not, but why do I feel like your auras have gotten stronger?”

“Oh! That?” Hearing Zhenqiang’s question, the couple could not help but look at each other with a light chuckle before extending one of their palms outward. Just as Zhenqiang was about to ask them what they were planning to do, a small ball of energy appeared on top of their extended palms, prompting her to look at the two with great incredulity in her eyes, finding the current situation unbelievable.

“Wha—“Although she had finally obtained the answer to her question, more questions filled her mind instead as Zhenqiang’s reality seemed to have been warped in front of her. After all, just a few days ago, the couple in front of her were still at the late stages of the Essence Gathering Realm.

“How…” Still in shock, she took in a few deep breaths before looking at the two with a slightly surprised expression, asking them, “How the hell did you two break through to the Essence Condensing Realm this quickly?”

“Haven’t you already noticed, Lady Guang?” Qin replied to her question, letting out a giggle. “We just made use of the denser qi in the surroundings.”

“But still, that doesn’t explain how the two of you were able to break through that qui—“Just as Zhenqiang found the whole situation unbelievable, she could not help but become silent as a thought surfaced in her mind. Pondering over it for a bit in silence, she looked at the two with a somewhat solemn expression before asking them, “Has… has the budding spirit vein grown?”

Hearing that, Jian and Qin went silent. Then, with a slightly serious expression, the two of them slowly nodded their heads, prompting Zhenqiang to become ecstatic as she embraced the two of them, saying, “It is truly your good fortune to have come across a budding spirit vein! To think the budding spirit vein is already at the stage of Qi Infusion!”

“Qi Infusion? What’s that?” Jian asked while the two were still being embraced by Zhenqiang. In fact, he somewhat found it difficult to breathe as she embraced the two of them quite tightly. And that was already considering the fact that the two of them had broken through to the Essence Condensing Realm.

“I’ll explain that to you two later. For now, how about we celebrate your breakthroughs?” said Guang Zhenqiang in response to Jian’s question as she let go of her embrace. With the two taking in a deep breath at the exact moment they were released, the three of them talked for a bit more as they headed into the newly renovated house.

…

With a small array of dishes laid out in front of her, Guang Zhenqiang could not help but have a smile on her face as she placed a bit of everything on her plate, feeling a hint of satisfaction as it had been a while since she had eaten home-cooked food.

Though, while she was savoring every bit of the food she ate, she could not help but notice that the density of qi inside their home was the same as what it was outside. With that in mind, she asked the two, “Have you two been cultivating here since the qi is as dense as outside?”

“After we broke through to the Essence Condensing Realm, yeah.” Jian nodded as he took a bite of his food. “Before then, our bodies were filled up with a great amount of qi from heaven knows where.”

“And that’s what I mean by Qi Infusion,” Zhenqiang said in response to his words, taking a small sip of the drink in her cup. “Once a budding spirit vein has grown to the stage of Qi Infusion, they’ll occasionally send out a large amount of qi to the nearest being that could handle that amount. In that case, it would be you two.”

“I see,” Qin said in understanding as she grabbed seconds for herself. “But how significant is the stage of Qi Infusion for a budding spirit vein?”

“You could say that once a budding spirit vein is at the stage of Qi Infusion, they’re halfway to becoming a true spirit vein,” Zhenqiang replied. “There are a total of three stages before a spirit vein could be considered a true spirit vein: Qi Infusion, Qi Crystallization, and Qi Resonance.”

“Qi Infusion is self-explanatory as it means the spirit vein has the ability to send large amounts of qi to a lucky person,” she continued. “After that comes Qi Crystallization, wherein the spirit vein has the ability to produce Spirit Stones. Since the budding spirit vein near your house can already produce high-grade Spirit Slag, it’s only a matter of time until it starts producing them.”

“Just so you know, most low-level sects have a main spirit vein at the Qi Crystallization stage, with only quite a few making do with spirit veins at Qi Infusion. However, truly powerful sects have spirit veins that are at the Qi Resonance stage at the very least.”

“What does Qi Resonance do?” Jian asked, to which Zhenqiang replied with great awe, “Once a spirit vein achieves Qi Resonance, the density of qi goes up at least tenfold. Not only that, but all the problems you’ve encountered in your cultivation will magically disappear, allowing you to reach higher realms without facing bottlenecks.”

“A lot more things happen during Qi Resonance. However, those two effects are the most sought after,” she concluded.

“Is there a chance the spirit vein near our house reaches the Qi Resonance stage?” Jian asked not long after she was done explaining, gulping down his saliva with a hint of expectation. After all, from how Zhenqiang explained it, once the spirit vein given to them by the God of Spirit Slag underwent Qi Resonance, they would be able to reach the higher realms within days.

“Only time will tell, Jian,” Zhenqiang replied as she let out a light burp. “If it does happen, then it’s the fortune of you two.”

“I guess we have something to expect in the future, then,” Qin said in response as she stood up from her seat, collecting the dishes that the three of them had eaten from. Seeing that, Jian helped her, carrying half of the dishes to the kitchen before starting to help Qin clean them.

While they did that, Zhenqiang asked the two of them, “So, what are your plans now that you two have broken through to the Essence Condensing Realm?”

“Well, we were planning to head to the nearest town to buy some martial techniques to cultivate,” Qin replied while washing the dishes. “After all, the clans we came from didn’t give us any martial techniques other than the cultivation techniques we’re currently cultivating. As you know very well, we left our clans before we could even obtain some.”

Hearing that they were planning to buy martial techniques, Zhenqiang’s interest was piqued. “Is that so? Do you two already have any ideas on what kind of martial techniques you’re going to get?”

“I’ve been thinking about it for a while, but I’ll probably grab a sword technique since it’s the easiest to master,” Jian said as he started to neatly stack the clean plates to the side. “Plus, our Xu clan specializes in swords, so it makes the most sense for me to choose.”

“As for me, I’ll probably grab a palm technique since Father told me back then that I have the talent for it,” Qin said not long after. “I may not be sure if that’s true or not, but it’s not much of a problem if I later find out that palm techniques aren’t for me.”

“Hmm…” Hearing their answers, Zhenqiang went silent for a bit before smiling.

“Since that’s the case, I think I know the perfect place to buy your techniques.”

“Is it far away from our house?”

“A bit, but trust me when I say their techniques are worth the trip.”

“Could you at least tell us why that would be the case?”

“Hehe. That’s something you’ll have to find out for yourself when we get there.”