Was he going to die just like that, from two small wounds? Was his body that weak?
The blood had been flowing freely for some time, and the bandage was simply prolonging the inevitable. He understood that.
That would be fine if he had a way to stop the bleeding.
Something external.
His eyes suddenly lit up, and he looked up.
'The system.'
He looked at the system, searching for something. Some button or something that could reactivate that healing ability he had witnessed when he had practically died.
But there was nothing.
In fact, the system remained silent, as if it didn't care. The system windows seemed to stare at him, but they didn't react.
They were simply there with a "bored" or "blank" expression.
Although, naturally, it was just his perception of despair, as the system couldn't have expressions. They were just information windows... nothing more.
For a brief moment, he was filled with frustration, but suddenly, a memory flashed through his mind...
'Healing properties...'
He was sure he had seen that recently... less than an hour ago... maybe a few minutes.
His eyes lit up, and he quickly looked at the system, this time searching for something different.
The inventory.
The three spirit crystals were arranged at the beginning, the information floating when he focused his attention on them, but it wasn't what he was looking for.
He looked at the spirit herbs and flowers he had obtained right in this very courtyard. He quickly scanned the information on all of them and soon found what he was looking for.
[It has healing properties.]
That text blossomed in front of him, at the same time as the Flaming Violet Orchid did.
This orchid flower was perfectly balanced, with each petal the same size as the next. The intensity of its violet petals' color was accentuated by strange spiritual veins that moved across them, feeding them.
These spiritual veins came from the stem and grew at the root. They were essential for keeping them alive, as long as they weren't used.
He read the information about this orchid carefully and slowly.
The words that had healing properties were powerful in their current state, but he didn't know if he could eat them. He remembered that, from what little Xiaotian knew, it was possible to eat some medicinal herbs and flowers. They would be less effective, but they would still work.
But there were others that should not be eaten. They could poison you or kill you by spiritual explosion. Either one was equally dangerous.
'But it's not like I'm going to survive with such serious injuries and such ridiculous blood loss.'
He didn't think twice. Something inside him was surely damaged, which was why the bleeding wouldn't stop. Maybe he didn't feel it because of the adrenaline, but the reality was that he was going to die if he kept thinking nonsense.
Without thinking twice, he grabbed the orchid and began to eat it quickly.
He chewed it a few times before swallowing it.
His interest grew when he realized that this thing was surprisingly delicious. It tasted a bit like ice cream, although with a citrus flavor in the stem. It was really tasty.
'I don't know if one is enough.'
He took out another identical one. 'I only have seven, and they're a thousand years old; I have to save a few. Let's go with two this time.'
He swallowed the second one. As he felt the essence go down his throat, the ice cream and citrus flavors blended into something delicious.
He closed his eyes, entering a state of meditation. Following the little knowledge he had about cultivation, he began to move the spiritual energy within him.
As a child, he received little training in what cultivation was and how to increase it. He only knew that he needed spiritual energy to increase it and that it was created within him, depending on his talent for cultivation.
A higher-level life root would create more spiritual energy than a lower-level one.
It was estimated that a level 1 life root generated approximately 1 kilogram of spirituality per day.
Considering that the average weight of a Spiritual Crystal was half a kilogram, this meant that level 1 could create up to 2 crystals per day.
It was very little, and everyone knows it, especially when you realize that this spirituality is not achieved at a specific time of day but throughout the day.
What's worse, a cultivator's body expends one crystal per day just to stay alive.
'That's like daily caloric expenditure, isn't it? What the cultivator's body expends is spirituality.'
He was sure he had mastered that.
Now, you could say that it doesn't matter, since you can obtain spirituality from external means, such as spiritual crystals, but it's not that easy when you don't have talent.
It should be noted that the root of life is only the means by which a cultivator creates, moves, and processes spiritual energy. It originates in the Dantian, also known as the "Law Core," where it is connected to the spiritual body.
A level 1 life root is limited to absorbing 3 kilograms of spirituality per day through external means, and this limitation does not depend on the cultivator or the body, but on the speed itself. The level of the life root defines the speed at which it creates and absorbs spiritual energy.
This is one of the reasons why those unfortunate souls born with a level 1 life root are marginalized throughout their lives.
Now, let's say you still want to fight against your talent and you have enough daily wealth to spend those 3 external kilograms on your cultivation... that's where the biggest problem comes in.
To reach the next level in your cultivation, you need to "refine and condense" the spiritual energy in your body by a certain percentage. As a cultivator, you can see it—a strange percentage floating above your dantian, reflecting the percentage of spiritual energy you have "refined and condensed."
To advance from the initial stage to the intermediate stage, you need to refine 40% of the spiritual energy indicated by the dantian.
Currently...
'1%...'
That was what he had condensed and refined. He didn't have less because it wasn't possible.
The problem of refining and condensing energy arises from the fact that the root of life has a size determined by its level, and this size is based on the cultivator's spiritual body, which stores all spiritual energy.
A level 1 life root occupies only 15% of the entire spiritual body.
Being only that size and having to move throughout the spiritual body frequently, it takes too long to refine 10% of the energy, since refinement depends on the spiritual energy itself.
For example, you need approximately 20% of spiritual energy from the Initial Stage in a constant process of Refining and Condensing in order to obtain 5% of the Intermediate Stage.
It's too difficult with such a small size!
And then you'd have to replenish that percentage of energy spent...
'I don't even know the process of refining and condensing...' Xiaotian felt really bad about himself, but he wasn't here for nonsense.
He wanted to cultivate, even if only a little bit. He needed to learn how to do it, and now that he wanted these strange herbs to heal him, he decided it was time to try.