Looking at the three-colored protective spiritual light around his body, Yang Hong's face turned as bitter as a dried melon.
Fifty-five, fifty-three, eighty-nine.
To fully cultivate the three techniques to max level would require at least 72,000 years of cultivation.
If it were before the change in the Lotus Pond, it would have taken at most ten days to cultivate them to full.
But in the current situation, with poor luck, it might take a hundred days to cultivate them to full.
"The advanced techniques of the Taiyuan World are truly amazing!"
Yang Hong could only sigh helplessly, but he wasn't worried. He had the system.
He summoned Song Yuzhi and began to make some arrangements.
"Husband, you've broken through again? You're sparkling."
Upon seeing Yang Hong, Song Yuzhi's eyes immediately lit up.
Yang Hong, emitting a three-colored glow, looked incredibly majestic,
as if a deity had descended or an immortal had arrived.
Yang Hong suddenly thought, do mortals call cultivators immortals or immortal masters precisely because of this protective spiritual light?
The more Yang Hong thought about it, the more likely it seemed.
"This is protective spiritual light. I was cultivating a few techniques and accidentally triggered it. I can't retract it for now.
So we can't go out for the time being. I have some tasks for you."
"Techniques, Husband, please teach me quickly! This protective spiritual light is too magical, too cool, too mighty."
Hearing that the halo around Yang Hong was due to his techniques, Song Yuzhi's eyes shone even brighter.
Such a halo was perfectly in line with the image of an immortal.
Therefore, Song Yuzhi used three "too"s to express her astonishment.
"Those techniques cannot be taught to you for now. You need to reach the Fusion Realm before you can barely learn them.
Listen to me first."
Yang Hong somewhat understood Song Yuzhi's excitement but would not rashly impart the three techniques.
"Alright, Husband, what are your arrangements?"
Song Yuzhi pouted in disappointment and asked in a low voice.
The few of them had gone through a trial in the secret realm. Although their cultivation had all broken through, it was not so easy to advance to the Fusion Realm.
"It's okay, don't be sad. I've already found a way for you to cultivate rapidly. I will definitely make your cultivation soar."
"Really? Thank you, Husband.
Husband, what is the method?"
Upon hearing that her cultivation could soar, Song Yuzhi immediately perked up, her originally small eyes widening.
"To improve cultivation, we still need to find opportunities.
Now, listen to me."
"Mmm-hmm, Husband, please tell me."
After giving Song Yuzhi, who was still excitedly wide-eyed, a glance, Yang Hong continued once she calmed down.
"First, hand over all the rapid-cultivation fine wines that increase martial arts cultivation to Imperial Grandfather."
"All of them? Husband, do you know how much 'all' is?
The 'Blazing Flames', 'Cold Ice', 'Bitter Water', and 'Green Vine' that increase cultivation, totaling 490,000 catties;
'Clear Spring', 'Flowing Stream', and 'Deep Pool' that expand meridians, totaling 320,000 catties;
'Firework', 'Kitchen Smoke', and 'Cold Stove' that temper the body, totaling 310,000 catties.
Husband, are you sure it's all of them?"
Upon hearing that Yang Hong wanted to give away all the rapid-cultivation fine wines, she immediately reported Yang Hong's current holdings.
"There's so much?"
Yang Hong was also surprised, not expecting he had already accumulated so much fine wine.
After thinking about it, he still decided to bring these wines out.
"How about this, leave 10,000 catties of each type of wine, and send the rest to Imperial Grandfather.
Say it's to clear out the wine cellar to brew new wine."
Song Yuzhi reluctantly nodded and said, "Alright, I'll listen to you."
"Second, check the various plants grown in the 'Listening to the Wind Pavilion' later.
Calculate and leave enough vegetables to supply the entire imperial family. Plant rice, wheat, sorghum, and other staple foods in the remaining plots.
Also, pay attention to preserving seeds and collecting them."
"This is simple. I'll go inform Wang Xifeng right away and have her make the arrangements."
"Third, I need to go into seclusion here at the Lotus Pond for a period of time until this protective spiritual light completely disappears.
So during this time, the ten of you will take turns guarding me outside the Lotus Pond to prevent anyone from discovering my abnormality."
"Husband, don't worry, I guarantee not even a fly will get in."
Hearing this, Song Yuzhi also understood the seriousness of the matter and immediately assured him with a solemn expression.
"Finally, select loyal and reliable girls from the girls in the Listening to the Wind Pavilion, teach them cultivation techniques, and have them join the 'Shadow Phoenix'."
"You don't need to worry about this, Husband. I will select the most loyal girls."
This was something Yang Hong didn't need to worry about. Those girls, having been repeatedly refined by Yang Hong's true qi, would basically not betray him.
Moreover, Song Yuzhi and the others often educated them on loyalty, so everyone was absolutely devoted to Yang Hong.
"Then go make your arrangements. I'm going to start cultivating."
Song Yuzhi turned to get busy, while Yang Hong sat cross-legged and began to circulate the Intermediate Breathing Technique.
His quota for the day's anointment had been used up, so he couldn't improve the cultivation level of the several techniques for now.
However, Yang Hong also had to put in active effort.
His Breathing Technique was incredibly powerful. Not only could it conceal his cultivation,
but it was also miraculous in merging techniques and regulating true qi.
Each cultivation technique produced true qi with certain characteristics.
There was even opposing and contradictory true qi like Fiery True Qi and Profound Water True Qi.
However, under the regulation of the Breathing Technique, Yang Hong had never suffered from qi deviation and could even enhance the power of his techniques.
Now, Yang Hong intended to use the Intermediate Breathing Technique to regulate the three protective spiritual lights on his body.
From noon to the next morning, the results were minimal.
"Is cultivation always this ostentatious?"
After a day of cultivation, Yang Hong had preliminarily integrated the 'Fiery True Art', 'Profound Water True Art', and 'Great Brightness Buddhist Scripture' into the Breathing Technique.
However, the protective spiritual light outside his body was still as dazzling as ever.
At night, Yang Hong no longer needed to light lamps. Everything within a hundred-zhang radius was clearly visible.
In the future, when walking at night, he wouldn't need a flashlight.
However, being such a huge light bulb made him truly unable to face anyone.
He was very curious how cultivators in immortal sects concealed their spiritual light. However, after Yang Hong examined himself and the jade slips collected by Song Yuzhi and the others, there was no information on this aspect.
Clearly, techniques that could trigger protective spiritual light were not ordinary techniques.
For example, the Profound-grade peak technique 'Lion Tiger Roar' that Yang Hong had cultivated before could not trigger protective spiritual light.
...
Yang Hong was truly a person protected by luck. In the following two months, no one came to find him,
including Yang Zixuan, who used to find him every month for a meal, did not appear.
As Yang Hong had predicted, when a technique reached level 99 and maxed out, the anointment system would help perfect the technique.
The perfected technique could indeed completely retract the spiritual light.
Even after Yang Hong cultivated the 'Fiery True Art' to max level, the protective spiritual light of the 'Profound Water True Art' and the 'Great Brightness Buddhist Scripture' could also be retracted by applying qi, due to mutual understanding.
And this only took four days.
During the period of anointing spiritual plants, he triggered multiple thousand-fold returns, greatly shortening the cultivation time of his techniques.
Yang Hong's concern about being discovered turned out to be a false alarm.
Although he was safe now, he did not leave the Lotus Pond.
The martial arts value required for the next technique evolution was simply too much,
so much that it was despair-inducing.
Yang Hong decided to focus on anointing and cultivating at the Lotus Pond.
However, two months later, another accident occurred.