The feeling of victory and the excitement of unlocking the "Cultivation" function kept An awake almost all night. He didn't sleep. He didn't dare waste a single second. He sat cross-legged, trying to repeat the process he had accidentally discovered. But replicating that success was harder than he thought. The first time, it was a breakthrough due to intense concentration and a bit of luck. Now, when he tried to recreate it, his mind was distracted. The loud laughter from downstairs, the footsteps in the hallway, even the sound of the wind whistling through the window crack was enough to break his fragile state of concentration. With each failure, he felt a bit of mental energy drain away, leaving a dull headache.
"This won't do," he told himself. "There must be a method, a process."
He opened "An Introduction to Cultivation" again. The book described guiding spiritual energy as a natural process, like breathing. But to An, it was like trying to solve a complex equation without enough data. He decided to apply his own method. Instead of trying to "feel" it vaguely, he used his Basic Analysis skill on himself again, but this time with a specific purpose: to observe the energy flow as he tried to breathe in a certain rhythm described in the book.
He monitored the data. Breathing too fast, the spiritual energy inside became chaotic. Breathing too slow, the pull from the outside was almost nil. After dozens of trials and errors, consuming almost all of his mental energy, he finally found a "sweet spot" – a perfect breathing rhythm that optimized the guidance of spiritual energy.
He focused on that rhythm. He inhaled, feeling a cool stream of air slowly being drawn into his body. He exhaled, eliminating feelings of fatigue. Gradually, a small circulation was established.
Ping.
A notification appeared.
[Spiritual Power: 2/100]
Just one point. More than two hours of intense focus had only yielded one point of Spiritual Power. An sighed, feeling exhausted but also a little satisfied. He had found a method. He could replicate it.
But a new problem arose. He realized that no matter how effective his method was, the cultivation speed was still too slow. He used Basic Analysis on the air in the room again.
[Analysis: Ambient Spiritual Energy - Low concentration, high impurity.]
The book had also mentioned this. Cultivating in places like an inn in a crowded town was like trying to filter clean water from a mud puddle. True cultivators needed so-called "spiritual lands" – places with abundant and pure spiritual energy, or they used precious resources like "spirit stones" to assist them. Both of those things required something An was severely lacking: money.
He looked at his coin pouch. After paying for the room and supplies, he only had two silver coins left. That was just enough for another day. He couldn't just sit here cultivating at a snail's pace while about to be kicked out onto the street. He needed to work. He needed to complete quests. But he also didn't want to give up this feeling of progress. There had to be a way to combine the two.
His gaze fell on the leftover Moonpetal Herbs he had kept for research. A thought flashed in his mind. Basic Analysis had helped him identify them. But that was when he understood nothing about Spiritual Energy. Now, things were different. What would happen if he analyzed them again, but from a new perspective?
He picked up a herb and placed it on the table. He closed his eyes and focused. This time, he didn't just use his mental energy. He carefully drew a tiny fraction of his two precious points of Spiritual Power and channeled it into the active Basic Analysis skill. It was like adding a new filter, a new lens to a microscope.
The world in his perception changed.
Instead of just descriptive text appearing, he "saw" the internal structure of the herb. It was no longer made of plant cells. It was a complex network of faint energy lines, like a micro-circuit diagram. He saw the spiritual energy of heaven and earth being absorbed through the roots, flowing along the stem, and converging at the silver petals. He clearly saw that the medicinal properties weren't an abstract concept, but a specific form of energy, stored in a unique spiritual energy structure.
[Deep Analysis Complete]
[Object: Moonpetal Herb]
[Spiritual Structure Analysis: A simple, stable structure that gathers Yin-attribute spiritual energy. The energy is most concentrated at the root node.]
An's eyes shot open as he panted for breath. His mental energy and one point of Spiritual Power were depleted, but his mind was exploding with new possibilities.
He had found it. His own path.
He wouldn't just be an adventurer gathering materials. He would be the only one who understood their true nature. He could find the most efficient way to harvest them, the best way to refine them, even how to combine them to create new things. Alchemy, talisman crafting, inscription... all those fields were based on understanding Spiritual Qi structures. And he, with his System and analytical mind, was the one who could decode them.
He looked at his last coins, then at the herbs. He was no longer worried. He had a plan. He wouldn't just cultivate. He would analyze the path of cultivation, and turn knowledge into power, into money, and into survival.