In the eyes of the adults guarding this back mountain, they simply thought these two little ones were just being playful, treating this place as their ‘base of operations’. Many people had similar experiences in their childhood, so they didn’t find it strange. However, the real reason Olivia Smith specifically came here was to practice cultivation of true qi.

Olivia Smith called this place a ‘spiritual land’. Others might not notice, but with his analytical ability, he had already discovered over a month ago—when William Parker took him out for a walk—that the unknown aura he named ‘spiritual energy’ in this area was about three-quarters more abundant than in the small courtyard of the The Smith Family city.

Afterwards, Olivia Smith deliberately experimented by meditating and cultivating here. Although the speed of cultivation didn’t improve much, the internal energy he gained was far purer than in other places. At first, William Parker didn’t quite understand, but within a month, he was hooked. Every day after lunch, he would run over here on his own without Olivia Smith having to urge him.

Once inside the fence, the two of them didn’t rush to cultivate, but first spread out to thoroughly check the surroundings. Only after confirming that no monsters had been around did they drop their various bags and packs.

Olivia Smith was the first to find a relatively dry spot to sit down, sitting cross-legged with his palms and soles facing upward, in the five elements facing the sky posture, and began his practice. Meanwhile, William Parker took off the large axe from his back and practiced the Great Wrath Underworld King Axe while also standing guard for Olivia Smith. This was both to prevent monster disturbances and to guard against the unpredictability of people.

In this world, the general method of true qi cultivation was somewhat similar to the so-called ‘ancient martial arts’ developed with high technology in Olivia Smith’s previous life, both focusing on training the internal energy in the lower dantian and the Ren and Du meridians. The difference was that, unlike Earth in the twenty-third century, where people had to rely on the body’s own ‘self-sufficiency’ due to lack of resources, here cultivation was highly dependent on external ‘spiritual energy’. With each breath, external spiritual power was drawn into the dantian to strengthen one’s true qi. The speed of cultivation was simply incomparable to the former.

However, this ‘spiritual energy’ was not just a single type. In fact, the classics on internal arts and martial techniques collected by the The Smith Family recorded the five elements of spiritual power—metal, wood, water, fire, and earth—as well as various derivative spiritual powers based on the five elements, such as wind, thunder, lunar, and solar. After analyzing these unknown substances, Olivia Smith indeed found that some were extremely lively, some were heavy and dense, roughly matching the descriptions in the books.

Therefore, as people cultivated with the help of ‘spiritual energy’, their own internal energy would also be influenced by the external spiritual power, developing different ‘attributes’. Generally, to speed up cultivation and enhance the power of martial techniques, people in this world would choose to train their internal energy with a single or two to three mutually reinforcing five-element attributes.

For example, William Parker practiced the ‘Great Dust Transformation Power’, which mainly trained fire and earth attribute internal energy. The former Little Olivia mainly practiced the Misty Step Cloud True Technique, focusing on water attribute true qi. After Olivia Smith obtained this body and roughly figured out the situation in this world, the first thing he did was switch to the ‘Great Primordial Art’ he found in the The Smith Family library.

As the name suggests, this technique could absorb true qi of any attribute. Of course, one’s own true qi would become mottled and impure, and whether in terms of cultivation speed or future use of true qi, it had no particular strengths, falling far short of other single-attribute internal energy cultivation methods.

However, what Olivia Smith valued was its stability. Although other techniques did offer faster cultivation, in his eyes, the damage they did to the meridians was just as great.

Take fire spiritual power, for example. The so-called ‘fire rises’, and the daily burning of the meridians was no small matter. At first, it might not show, but over time, once a certain level was reached, it would inevitably make the practitioner suffer unbearably. As for earth spiritual power, its heavy and sluggish nature made it extremely hard to control, and after a period of time, it would cause blockages in the meridians.

The other attributes, metal and wood, need not be mentioned. The sharpness of metal was the most dangerous—one careless move could damage the meridians. People in this world had already noticed this; it was said that for thousands of years, no one had managed to cultivate metal attribute internal power to the innate level, and among the The Smith Clan practitioners, not even one in a hundred succeeded. The ‘growth’ property of wood was also a headache. When wood spiritual energy accumulated to a certain degree, it would ‘take root and sprout’ like a plant, forcibly breaking through the outer walls of the meridians, making it extremely hard to control.

As for the water attribute, it seemed harmless, but “water moistens downward.” After long-term nourishment by water true power, the inner walls of the meridians would lose their proper toughness over time.

It was precisely for these reasons that Olivia Smith chose the almost neglected ‘Great Primordial Art’. Although it had no advantages in any aspect, it also caused almost no harm to the tendons and meridians.