Chapter 24 - Cultivation After gathering a lot of spring water from the mountain, Wang Lin began to make spiritual energy-filled spring water. When it was ten at night, he locked his door. As a precaution, he tied one end of a rope to the door and the other end to his arm so he would know right away if someone opened it. After drinking few large gulps of spring water, he felt his body heat up. He then stared at the bead to enter the dream. In the endless dream space, Wang Lin sat crossed legged as he started to cultivate. When he was cultivating, the lights all around him became more gentle. Wang Lin wasn’t aware of this, but the lights entered his body. After staying there for a day, all the spiritual energy from the water was gone. But this time, he could clearly feel the difference in his body. Before, when he would finish Sun Dazhu’s medication, he felt heat. However, in the most critical moment, all the spiritual energy would scatter. But this time was different. Even though they still scattered, there was still a sliver left in his body. Although it was not a lot, Wang Lin gained a lot of confidence from those results. After considering it for a while, he couldn’t figure out why it was different. So in the end, he could only speculate that it was because of the mysterious stone bead. Because he couldn’t leave the dream of his own will to get more spring water, he could only continue to cultivate for a long time. In the end, he realized that there was a difference between the dream space and outside. Outside, even though he had been cultivating for more than a month, he would feel refreshed and very comfortable after cultivation. But here, after the spiritual energy from the spring water had all dissipated, he didn’t have the refreshed and comfortable feeling, Instead, when he kept cultivating, he felt short of breath. After hesitating for a while, Wang Lin guessed that it was related to the existence of spiritual energy. There was no natural spiritual energy in the dream space. The more he thought, the more he felt he was correct. He frowned, thinking, “If there was only a way to bring in the spring water from outside, it would be all good.” Thinking about it, his heart suddenly skipped a beat as he looked at his own body and revealed a puzzled expression. Wang Lin was very puzzled by the red disciple uniform he had on. He quickly checked the pocket where his bag of holding was and found that it missing. “Clothes can appear in the dream space, but the bag of holding couldn’t appear.” He bitterly thought about it and decided to experiment on what items could or couldn’t be brought into the dream space once he leaves. Time passed by quickly. After 50 hours had passed, the feeling of being torn apart appeared and woke Wang Lin up. He still had a question in his heart. Why could he only stay in the dream for 5 hours? With that question in mind, he filled a gourd with spring water and carried it on his shoulder, ready to enter the dream again. But this time, no matter how he stared at the bead, he didn’t feel the usual drowsiness. Wang Lin was frightened. After thinking for a long time, he contained the fear in his heart and sat down to cultivate. Gradually, as his breathing steadied, the natural spiritual energy was absorbed by his body. As it dissipated, some remained in this body. However, this was still far from the first layer of Qi Condensation. He spent the whole day cultivating. He kept drinking the spring water to keep his body filled with spiritual energy. In addition, he always held the stone bead, hoping to enter the dream space again, but failed to do so every time. Night came. He opened both his eyes and could feel that the spiritual energy in his body had increased by a little. If it was normal, he would be very excited, but he was restless. He looked at the bead again and suddenly felt drowsy. Wang Lin revealed a happy expression as he looked away to expel the drowsiness. He stood up and rubbed his chin while pacing around the room, pondering over what had happened before and after he entered the dream. He finally found the problem. The first two times, he entered with almost no time in between. The third time was 5 hours after the second, and the fourth time was a whole day after the third. Following this logic, there were some restrictions on entering this dream space. To be safe, one should wait 5 hours after a use to guarantee entrance. After resolving that issue, Wang Lin began to prepare to test what he could bring into the dream space. He ended up gathering a lot of things, including three gourds. One was a gourd with some remaining dew, one was empty, and one was filled with spring water. He even put a piece of the broken stone bowl into his pocket. In addition, he took out a sweet potato and a cloth from his bag of holding and bound them to his body before entering the dream again. In the dream space, Wang Lin quickly checked his body. The sweet potato, broken stone bowl, and cloth were all there, but the three gourds and his bag of holding weren’t. He concluded that, without a doubt, there was no spiritual energy within this dream realm, so any normal item, in other words, any item without any spiritual energy, could be brought in. The three gourds and the bag of holding all contained some spiritual energy, therefore, they couldn’t be brought in. Letting out a sigh, Wang Lin began to think bitterly. He couldn’t bring the gourd in there, and the few gulps he took from the gourd before going into the dream space weren’t enough to last him the full duration of his stay. After thinking about this, an idea flashed through his mind. He felt like he had an idea, but couldn’t grasp it. The feeling of an idea just outside of his reach made him go deep into his thoughts, organizing his ideas one by one. After a long time, his expression turned happy as he grasped one key point; the spiritual energy filled water couldn’t be brought in, but the spiritual energy that entered his body didn’t disappear. It was that you couldn’t bring objects with spiritual energy in there, but if he thought carefully, he might find a way. After 50 hours had passed, he quickly left his room and searched the mountain until he found a few wild gourds and took them home. He believed that the three gourds from earlier couldn’t be brought into the dream space because they had been soaked in the spiritual energy water for so long, that the spiritual energy had fused with the gourds Now, he was filling the freshly picked gourds with spiritual energy water. He might be able to trick the bead to bring them into the dream space. After five hours, Wang Lin entered the dream space with four gourds on his shoulder. After entering the dream, Wang Lin was surprised to find that all the gourds were still with him. He opened them and saw that the water was still inside. He took a drink and found them to still be filled with spiritual energy. Without a word, Wang Lin drank a few mouthfuls and started to cultivate. Every time the spiritual energy in his body dissipated, he drank more spring water. Soon, slivers of spiritual energy started to gather in his body, moving his body toward the first layer of Qi Condensation. The lights in the surrounding area started to silently enter his body again. With Wang Lin’s talent, without the mysterious bead and the spiritual energy water, it would’ve been many years before he could achieve the first layer of Qi Condensation. Adding the Qi Scattering Grass to the equation, it would take thirty to fifty years before he would succeed. Taking Sun Dazhu’s medication every day for a month sped up the process. Wang Lin also unknowingly used the Qi Scatter Technique, which got rid of the Qi Scattering Grass. But even then, it would still have taken him ten years. But now, Wang Lin wasn’t lacking any spiritual energy. He had this stone bead that allowed him to train 10x more. The first layer of Qi Condensation was now in sight.