Chapter 49: Five Qi Refine Evil, Gathering Filth into a Core
Although Chen Ming's current status was only that of an ordinary Holy Spirit Disciple, the resources Zhang Peng had given him, which he had not yet used up, were still on his person. At least for the next month or so, he would not need to worry about cultivation resources.
After gaining a clear understanding of the Holy Spirit Cult's situation, Chen Ming returned to his room and began devouring flesh and blood to cultivate. Rank 19 to Rank 20 was a small bottleneck in the early stages and required a considerable amount of spirit power, so Chen Ming still needed a few more days before he could break through.
However, for someone with Chen Ming's talent, this was only a minor issue. From the moment he awakened his Spirit until now, less than a year had passed, yet Chen Ming had already raised his spirit power by 9 ranks. Even among Evil Spirit Masters, this speed was considered outstanding.
Spending within the Holy Spirit Cult was extremely polarized. Most people could barely maintain the minimum standard of daily living. Very few had any spare money to improve themselves, much less spend on anything extra. The income the cult provided was only enough to meet the most basic standards.
Without talent, or without someone willing to invest in them, they could only go outside and carve out their own path.
The next day, Chen Ming quietly went to the mine shaft and dug ore as usual. Since he did not run into any "Child of Fortune" today, and since he himself had no real desire to work hard, he simply went through the motions. In the end, he only met the minimum quota and earned 1 gold coin.
Even so, Chen Ming still made a new discovery about environmental adaptation.
The vile wind that battered the body and Spirit would leave behind impurities and mixed energies inside the body. The reason the next day was designated as a rest day was precisely because too much of this energy accumulated. Even Evil Spirit Masters would quickly run into problems under such conditions, so one day was specially reserved for recovery.
When Chen Ming breathed and cultivated inside the mine, he used the Scorpion Tiger Meditation Technique Zhang Peng had passed on to him. This technique demanded an extremely high level of energy purity, so most of the impurities would be dissolved and expelled before they could settle inside him. Yet Chen Ming discovered that through repeated tempering, he could refine a trace of a special aura from this chaotic energy and integrate it into his own body.
Calling that energy pure would be difficult. It would be more accurate to call it extremely mixed. The gloomy energy from the earth veins, Yin Qi, death Qi, the Yin Qi and earth energy within the ore veins, and many other indescribable energies all gathered together, compressed, and were refined, finally leaving behind a dense, filthy aura.
The human body itself contained filth. If a newborn infant could be regarded as possessing an innate body, then as a person grew and became increasingly connected to the world, constantly consuming food and absorbing the outside world, filth would gradually accumulate within the body.
No one was without filth. The only difference was how much.
As Chen Ming refined this filthy aura, the filth and mixed energies accumulated in his own five viscera and six bowels were slowly drawn out like silk threads and merged into it, greatly strengthening the function of his internal organs and his metabolism.
For an ordinary Spirit Master, this aura would be extremely harmful. Keeping it within the body would greatly affect their condition.
But because of his Spirit, Chen Ming could let this filthy aura gather in his chest without harming himself. If necessary, he could even try to integrate it into his Spirit Abilities to strengthen them, or unleash it all at once as a hidden trump card.
Evil Spirit Masters had countless ways to borrow external power. Many of them used evil techniques to assist their Spirits and Spirit Abilities, changing or strengthening the form of those abilities.
Although the current amount of this filthy aura was very small, so small that even if released it might not directly affect a Spirit Master, Chen Ming still saw a path to further strengthen himself.
If he could gather enough of this energy and release it all at once, it could directly defile the Soul and Physical Body, introducing impurities into the target's Spirit and spirit power and causing extremely severe damage.
Chen Ming named this energy foul aura, not because it smelled foul, but because it had the power to defile the purity of others. Once a person's Origin was tainted by it, then in some ways, it was even more terrifying than poison.
If this foul aura could become strong enough and continue growing within his body, Chen Ming even considered that in the future he might find a way to condense a Filth Core, stripping the negative energies such as death Qi and foul aura from his own body and turning them into a weapon.
Gradually, Chen Ming adjusted his daily routine.
On the first day, he followed the main group into the mine, deliberately seeking out places where the vile wind was heavier. While there, he tempered his control over spirit power and accumulated foul aura through breathing. On the second day, after returning, he first went to buy food and water, then remained in his room cultivating bitterly, further refining his energy and trying to control the foul aura.
After cycling through one day of mining and one day of cultivation for a full month, Chen Ming discovered that he had already developed a clear adaptation to the mine's environment.
Even when he fully activated his spirit power and stirred up the vile wind, the wind carrying those mixed energies could no longer damage either his Spirit or his Physical Body. He could now even use his Meditation Method to rapidly replenish his spirit power while simultaneously extracting foul aura from the vile wind.
Compared to a month ago, Chen Ming could also clearly feel that the purity of his mental force, Physical Body, and spirit power had improved slightly.
This clearly could not be explained by having a powerful Spirit alone. After all, although the Abomination Spirit was extremely strong physically, its mental aspect was practically blank. Physical resistance to the vile wind was understandable, but there was no way it should naturally extend to the Spirit as well.
In Chen Ming's view, this further confirmed that he really did possess a Golden Finger called adaptability.
However, Chen Ming did not get to enjoy that realization for long. At the start of the second month, that strange fellow known as Brother Demon Goat came directly to collect 9 gold coins as monthly interest. Chen Ming said nothing on the surface, but inwardly his teeth itched with hatred.
Damn it, this was outright robbery.
He had been forced into debt unfairly, yet they would not even allow him to repay it early. Either he paid 30 percent monthly interest, or he paid it all in one go.
To put it bluntly, Chen Ming had already begun secretly considering which Evil Spirit Master methods for torturing Souls would be most suitable for this matter.
In the second month, because he had gradually adapted to the mine environment and the foul aura nurtured in his chest and abdomen had also begun to stabilize, Chen Ming rented a small stall in the market and started selling the medicines he refined. However, the results were not ideal at first.
The medicines Chen Ming refined from Spirit Beast blood were genuine good goods, but the base cost was also high. If sold to the outside, most Evil Spirit Masters would not have enough spare money to buy them. And the Evil Spirit Masters who did have spare money might not necessarily look favorably upon Chen Ming, a newcomer hawking medicine.
Moreover, because of his Spirit, and because of the many evil techniques that already existed within the Holy Spirit Cult, Evil Spirit Masters themselves had plenty of ways to recover. Taking all these factors together, Chen Ming's medicine sales were poor at first. After setting up his stall for 7 or 8 days, he had only sold 2 bottles, and both had been bought by Evil Spirit Masters preparing to go outside to rob and kill. There was basically no way he would see them again anytime soon.
With no other choice, Chen Ming's heart darkened a little. He returned to his room and started refining medicine again with his alchemy tools.
This time, however, he deliberately cut corners in the refining process, causing the quality of the finished medicines to drop significantly. In truth, the actual efficiency was even worse.
But when Chen Ming brought these lower quality medicines to the market and sold them cheaply, while also using exaggerated sales talk, quite a few Evil Spirit Masters suddenly became interested in buying his medicine.
After discovering that the prices were not high, the quality was decent, and there were not even any major side effects, Chen Ming's medicine business actually began to improve.
The simplified version of the Boiling Blood Pill and the simplified version of the spirit settling powder sold especially well. Every day he set up his stall, Chen Ming could sell goods worth 3 or 4 gold coins.
One could only say that technology truly changed lives.
Medicines that would not even be considered very impressive in a Wuxia world could already be regarded as quite excellent in the douluo world.
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