He took a deep breath, sat cross-legged on the meditation cushion, closed his eyes to focus his mind, then raised that piece of bamboo with both hands and pressed it against his forehead.

In an instant, a burst of golden light shot out from the bamboo, within which countless runes seemed to be dancing. The golden light, along with the runes, surged into David Brooks's brow.

After the golden light faded, that piece of bamboo turned into a flurry of ash.

David Brooks's body trembled, and his brow visibly swelled, as if a single horn was growing out. A trace of pain appeared on his face as countless thoughts flooded into his mind, allowing him, in a brief moment, to comprehend a profound cultivation technique.

"The Dual-Polar Divine Demon Body"!

This was a foundational body-refining method, yet it contained the supreme and ultimate principles of the Dao, encompassing heaven and earth, yin and yang, positive and negative, life and death, coming and going, and many other concepts—profound and endless. If one could truly master this method in its entirety, one could ascend to the pinnacle of the Dao and achieve immortality.

However, at present, David Brooks had only received the method of cultivation through the golden bamboo's infusion of intent; he merely knew how to practice this technique, but was still a vast distance away from fully understanding the profound Daoist principles it contained.

David Brooks was not greedy. Following the guidance of the infused intent, he began to cultivate slowly.

This was a very peculiar method. The two main pillars of cultivation in the mortal realm—spiritual energy and brute force—were not required at all for this technique. As a result, his progress was very smooth; even with slightly inferior aptitude, he quickly achieved a minor completion in body refinement.

Practicing this technique to a minor completion once per day was considered a session. After nine minor completions came a major completion, and after nine major completions came a true completion.

The road of cultivation was long, and he could not see what the future would hold, but he could feel that his body was already different from before. He fetched a mirror and looked at himself—his two eyes had turned a faint gold and a faint black!

He was startled for a moment. The residual force of "The Dual-Polar Divine Demon Body" within him gradually dissipated, and his eyes slowly returned to normal. David Brooks pondered for a while, vaguely sensing that this technique was extraordinary, but its true power would only be revealed after at least one major completion.

"Some parts of this technique seem somewhat similar to the 'Three Explanations of the Daoist Canon' and the 'Stellar Tempering Spirit True Method' I read before."

Although the similarities were very slight, he could still detect a faint connection.

He entered his ring space again, looking at that golden bamboo with some confusion. "Could it be that this 'Dual-Polar Divine Demon Body'... was condensed from all the foundational techniques by this golden bamboo?"

The cultivation resources sent over this time had actually been prepared by his parents since the day he was born. In recent years, as David Brooks became more and more dissolute and lost interest in cultivation, his parents were quite helpless, but still held onto a final sliver of hope and never stopped collecting these resources.

Whether it was those three mysterious seeds of unknown origin or those foundational entry-level techniques, all of them had significant backgrounds.

There were dozens of foundational techniques, all of which were the top entry-level methods in the mortal realm. Among them, a few were extremely rare, veritable unique copies.

All these techniques had been "digested" by the golden bamboo, which then gave rise to the unprecedented "Dual-Polar Divine Demon Body"!

After all, David Brooks was just a youth who had never cultivated before. Though he was somewhat clever, his vision and experience were lacking, and he did not realize how much of a sensation this technique would cause if it were made public.

But at the very least, he knew that the secret of these three plants must not be revealed to anyone—not even to his own parents, at least until the time was right.

His father might be a big shot in Qidong County, but Qidong was only one of hundreds of counties in Qianhu Prefecture; Qianhu Prefecture was only one of dozens in Tianhuo Province; Tianhuo Province was only one of dozens in the Taiyan Dynasty. Beyond the Taiyan Dynasty, there were even vaster territories, with several powers no less formidable than the dynasty itself.

Having already reaped the benefits brought by the golden bamboo, he was now curious about what advantages the other gourd and peach tree might bring.

On that peach tree, in just this short time, many flower buds had already appeared. It seemed it would not be long before it blossomed and bore fruit.

With the experience from the golden bamboo, David Brooks guessed that the growth cycles of these three plants must be different from ordinary ones, and should be directly linked to spirit jades.

However, he had already stolen two second-grade spirit jades from his father's study, and getting more would not be so easy.

David Brooks pondered for a while, exited the ring space, and pressed his hand on the table to stand up. Unexpectedly, with a crisp crack, the corner of the table shattered under his palm.

"Hmm?" He looked at his hand, picked up a blue-and-white porcelain teacup from the table, and before he could even test his strength, the teacup shattered with a ping.

David Brooks couldn't help but laugh and cry. "This technique really is extraordinary! Just one minor completion in cultivation, and I already have such results. But... it will take a long time to get used to this."

He became much more cautious, but even so, when he stood up, his heel bumped into the chair and broke off one of its legs.

He tried to go out, but when he reached for the door handle, it snapped off in his hand.