Steady Cultivation: Starting With the Perk “Work Hard, Rest Hard” Chapter 6: The Effects After Three Days of Rest
Previously on Steady Cultivation: Starting With the Perk “Work Hard, Rest Hard”...
Time zipped by in the span of three days.
Su Yuan stuck to an extremely steady daily schedule.
By day, he joined classes delivered by inner sect seniors. Regardless of the topic, he showed up every time. Occasionally, four sessions filled a single day, and Su Yuan caught them all.
To Su Yuan, relaxation counted as rest anywhere it happened, and the Lecture Hall stood out as the prime spot for it. He picked up useful info there, plus the soothing tones from the senior brothers and sisters acted like the ultimate sleep aids worldwide—Su Yuan dozed off soundly in that environment.
On top of that, the security was unbeatable, leaving zero concerns about mishaps, which added a nice bonus.
Once classes wrapped up, he headed to the Scripture Pavilion for some reading. Certain life stories hooked him so much that hours slipped away unnoticed, forcing him to leave only when the night guard shooed him out reluctantly.
Through this, he soaked up tons of info, like diverse ways to prepare spirit beast meat and spirit vegetables. His stock of theoretical know-how grew rich, even if he lacked a spot to test it out—Immortal Seed Valley offered no wild animals, a real letdown.
Today, Su Yuan made it back way ahead of schedule.
He settled into a cross-legged position inside the cultivation room, eyeing his system interface.
[Name]: Su Yuan[Region]: Green Vine Continent
[Level]: Unknown (2/100)
[Realm]: Qi Refining Stage - First Layer (0/100)
[Effect 1]: Work Hard, Rest Hard: You excel at balancing work and rest. The longer you rest, the better your cultivation effects. Current rest time: 3 days 6.1 hours
Without realizing it, his rest duration had built up past three days!
With all that rest stacked, he could dive into 4.2 hours of joyful cultivation!
A solid eight hours total!
He had held back for ages—finally, time to cultivate without limits!
"Turn on [Work Hard, Rest Hard]!"
The rest time vanished in a flash!
All at once, Su Yuan's thoughts sharpened manyfold!
Every bit of info absorbed over the past days surfaced rapidly, getting etched into memory, grasped, sorted, arranged, and distilled by Su Yuan.
His grasp on cultivation surged ahead.
Within a single hour, he had mastered all he'd observed and absorbed!
His gaze gleamed with intensity, and his mouth curved into a grin reminiscent of Zhang Wei's.
"Exactly as anticipated—mastering one path opens doors to others. My insight into the 'Burning Wood Spirit Tempering Technique's' Meridian Rotation has grown deeper. What once felt fuzzy now clicks perfectly! This boost will surely amp up my cultivation pace!"
Having sorted his knowledge gains, Su Yuan jumped straight into channeling spiritual energy along his meridians!
Right away, the nine threads of spiritual energy from his Dantian stirred under Su Yuan's command, twisting into tri-colored bands that darted through his meridians akin to playful dragons.
As the tri-colored bands flowed along his meridians, they avoided harm and instead left a cozy warmth in their wake, gently fortifying his meridians!
The spiritual energy surged through his meridians with speed and stability, nimble and vibrant, conquering one meridian after another in mere breaths.
In under thirty minutes, the spiritual energy looped back to his Dantian, hauling in an extra 33 threads!
His spiritual energy pool had doubled over, climbing from 30 threads to 63!
Su Yuan kept pushing, diving deeper into cultivation.
For this round, the Meridian Rotation wrapped up even quicker!
And the fresh spiritual energy added jumped to 36 threads!
This rapid advancement left even Su Yuan stunned!
Press on!
The third round bumped it to 39 threads!
The fourth hit 40 threads!
The further he went, the stronger Su Yuan's command of the technique became!
Yet now, advancing got tough—not from skill gaps, but because the surrounding spiritual energy lagged behind his pace!
Su Yuan shrugged it off and pushed forward with cultivation!
Fifth round, sixth round—when the seventh wrapped up, just one hour of the perk's time stayed.
Su Yuan halted the Meridian Rotation at last. At this point, his Dantian held 298 threads of spiritual energy!
Mind-blowing!
Utterly mind-blowing!
This improvement speed shocked Su Yuan to his core. The [Work Hard, Rest Hard] perk's power could rival that of superior or elite spiritual roots.
Still, Su Yuan steadied himself fast and shifted to his third cultivation target.
He kicked off the Spiritual Node building phase of the "Burning Wood Spirit Tempering Technique."
A whopping 90 threads of spiritual energy rallied under Su Yuan's pull.
Thirty threads of fire-attribute spiritual energy swaddled thirty threads of wood-attribute power, whipping up a spinning maelstrom that blasted into his meridians to smash the initial node!
Thirty threads of metal-attribute spiritual energy trailed right after, poised for action.
The debut node sat nearest the Dantian and proved the simplest to crack.
As the fire-attribute spiritual energy slammed in, it battered the node's gateway like a erupting volcano.
The node's inner space ballooned fast from the fire-attribute force, which burned through its supply just as quickly.
Luckily, the wood-attribute spiritual energy fed the blaze to "stir the flames" and offset the fire-attribute's drain.
Once the node stretched to a decent scale, a compressing feel kicked in—the node hinted at snapping back on its own.
Here, the metal-attribute spiritual energy charged forward, outlining the node's edges to brace its space and block any collapse!
The fire-attribute energy bathed the metal-attribute strands, dulling their edge and letting them fuse like molten liquid into the node's lining, slowly locking it in place.
With spiritual energy from all three attributes teaming up, the node swelled to a standard size, then to an outstanding one. By the time the energy depleted, the Spiritual Node stood firm and steady, showing no bounce-back.
Success—the Spiritual Node stood built!
It would naturally process ambient spiritual energy into spiritual power and provide extra storage, boosting his capacity—the perks piled high!
Su Yuan buzzed with excitement. A quick time check showed under half an hour used, leaving ample time to tackle a second node right away.
This round mobilized 180 threads of spiritual energy. Handling them proved trickier, but the perk's boost made Su Yuan feel heaven-sent as he directed the flows mentally for his initial shot at a new node!
Fire-attribute energy cloaked wood-attribute for the opening strike, with metal-attribute trailing to secure the node. After over half an hour of tough stretching, the second Spiritual Node finished at last!
Not every bit of spiritual energy got spent this go.
The fresh second node quivered a bit, hinting at shakiness. It shared a mysterious tie with the first node, like they could connect.
Su Yuan, clued in already, funneled the leftover energy to pierce the barrier between them. Once the power ran dry, the two nodes linked up.
Only then did the second Spiritual Node lock in completely.
"Building Spiritual Nodes sure isn't simple!" Su Yuan let out a breath. "The cultivation road demands grit at every turn!"
With mere ten minutes of the perk left, Su Yuan let it lapse without use, shutting his eyes for a breather.
As the [Work Hard, Rest Hard] perk faded,
Su Yuan took another ten minutes to rest before peeking his eyes open. Straight off, he sensed his awareness had edged sharper and his frame felt invigorated.
Above all, the Spiritual Nodes had started auto-replenishing spiritual energy. The pace crawled, but the hands-off nature marked a win!
Su Yuan peeked at his system interface, noting he wasn't in cultivation mode and could resume stacking rest time—this setup felt super cozy!
[Name]: Su Yuan
[Region]: Green Vine Continent
[Level]: Unknown (2/100)
[Realm]: Qi Refining Stage - First Layer (66/100)
[Effect 1]: Work Hard, Rest Hard: You excel at balancing work and rest. The longer you rest, the better your cultivation effects. Current rest time: 0.1 hours
Right then, Su Yuan pondered if he'd pushed his cultivation too hard.
"Two Spiritual Nodes already—isn't this pace overly swift?"
Su Yuan couldn't shake the worry.
So, he rose, stepped out of his space, and headed to the neighboring door to tap on Zhang Wei's.
Soon enough,
Zhang Wei swung the door wide, eyeing Su Yuan with astonishment.
"You've never dropped by before! What a treat! What's up?" Zhang Wei chuckled.
Su Yuan replied, "I caught some bird chirps from your yard and figured you had upbeat news, so I swung over!"
Zhang Wei held back his glee no more and roared with laughter. "Spot on! I nailed a Spiritual Node! Haha, I nearly flopped at the start, but luck hit—I remembered tips from old classes and cracked it! This step forward rocks!"
"Congrats! How soon for your second Spiritual Node?" Su Yuan probed more.
"Thanks to the first, seven or eight days more," Zhang Wei answered.
Su Yuan's brow creased a tad. "That means missing the first cultivation check—five days are all that's left!"
Zhang Wei dismissed it with a wave. "I'm speedy next to Zhou Wuyou—that dude won't try for two days yet, and to nail it, he'll prep another two before tackling his first node. I'm miles ahead!"
That's hardly speedy!
Su Yuan shot back, "This setup won't cut it, Zhang Wei!"
"What's the issue?" Zhang Wei queried, baffled.
"Why always measure against Zhou Wuyou? Aim at mid-grade spiritual root folks! Know their strides? Can they hit two Spiritual Nodes pre-assessment? Why gauge off the underdogs? Doesn't that drag you down?"
Zhang Wei mulled it over at those words.
"Fair point, I've scoped some intel. One disciple hit 170th in Qi Attraction—his rate suggests he'll scrape two nodes by assessment time. I lag a smidge."
Su Yuan eased with a sigh. "Then, hustle and aim two days sooner. Hitting two nodes pre-assessment would shine."
Zhang Wei eyed him dubiously. "Why the push for my two nodes?"
"Friends look out, right? I fear you'll crack under pressure later!" Su Yuan grinned wryly.
"No way! My head's ironclad!" Zhang Wei's mouth twisted into his signature smug smile. "Among low-grade spiritual root types, I top the list!"
"Incredible! Incredible! Incredible!"
Su Yuan pivoted to go. "Heading to classes—see ya!"
"Hold up!"
"Yeah?" Su Yuan glanced over.
"This... doesn't add up! Even class-going shouldn't look like that—you're squandering hours!" Zhang Wei stated flat-out, itching to counsel Su Yuan.
Su Yuan met his gaze earnestly. "You're solid gold! Hone your cultivation—clock's ticking!"
And with that, Su Yuan departed!
Zhang Wei's face scrunched, picking up on the undertones in Su Yuan's talk.
"What's his deal? Does he even cultivate? Breakdown? I'm stressing he'll shatter dropping from 299th to 700th or 800th!"
Zhang Wei grumbled under his breath.
For no clear reason, urgency gripped him. His easygoing vibe snapped tight, and he rushed back to cultivating.
He grumbled to himself, "Wish he'd skipped the congrats!"
Days rolled on normally.
Su Yuan kept bouncing between Lecture Hall and Scripture Pavilion—skipping no class and booted from the pavilion nightly.
Su Yuan truly savored the satisfaction.
His habits caught eyes among fellow disciples, up until the ninth day hit.
The inner sect senior dishing out the most classes at last clocked Su Yuan.
After seven sessions, Su Yuan alone showed for each—yet looked zoned out throughout. Intrigued, the senior quizzed a servant disciple on Su Yuan's background.
"Say what? Triple spiritual root of metal, wood, and fire? And he sat through all seven of my water-attribute cultivation basics talks? What went through his head?"
The inner sect senior reeled in shock, etching Su Yuan's name deep in memory.
Meantime, amid his reading, Su Yuan caught a system chime.
[Ding! Fame Value +1]
"Huh? What'd I even do?" Su Yuan quizzed the system, puzzled.
The system stayed mum.
Su Yuan had to bottle his questions.
System glitching?
He shook it off and dove back into the book.
In a flash, the tenth day dawned.
All one thousand Immortal Seed disciples assembled anew in the square—the debut cultivation assessment loomed!