**Chapter 58: Another Three Years**

Time flies.

Days turned into months, and months into years, yet the tasks in He Song's hands never seemed to diminish.

After Wei Fan returned from Greenwall Immortal City, He Song immersed himself in the joy of practicing spells.

The Fireball Technique.

The Light Body Technique.

These two spells took He Song a total of twenty days to master fully.

These basic spells were similar to the Spirit Rain Technique and the Spirit Arrow Technique in terms of difficulty.

Naturally, the time required to learn them wasn't significantly different.

With his stronger soul, He Song's speed in mastering spells far surpassed that of other cultivators.

However, even after mastering the Fireball Technique and the Light Body Technique to the point where he could cast them normally without losing effectiveness, He Song still made time to practice them daily.

Practicing spells allowed a cultivator to gain a deeper understanding of the techniques.

It increased their power.

And reduced the time required to cast them.

These were the additional benefits of consistent practice.

In addition to practicing these two spells, He Song's daily cultivation speed had also increased significantly.

Thanks to the mid-grade Qi Gathering Pills Meng Guan had sent back with Wei Fan, He Song's cultivation speed, enhanced by the Spirit Gathering Array and the pills, had become astonishingly fast.

Originally, He Song had estimated that it would take him at least four years to advance from the fourth level of Qi Refining to the fifth level.

But with the Spirit Gathering Array and the Qi Gathering Pills, He Song's cultivation broke through to the fifth level of Qi Refining in just three years.

Although this wasn't a major realm breakthrough, it was still a full year faster than He Song's original estimate.

Such rapid progress filled He Song with both surprise and delight.

The fully operational Spirit Gathering Array, combined with the ten Qi Gathering Pills, had produced unexpectedly excellent results.

This made He Song consider investing all his spirit stones into pills to maintain this incredibly fast cultivation speed.

With such rapid progress, once he reached the late stages of Qi Refining, the resources he could obtain would undoubtedly increase.

Moreover, he could move into a courtyard in the inner circle of the immortal district, significantly improving his quality of life.

However.

After carefully weighing the pros and cons and conducting some personal experiments, He Song shook his head and dismissed the idea.

Qi Gathering Pills cost thirty spirit stones per bottle.

With an annual income of ninety spirit stones, He Song could only afford three bottles of Qi Gathering Pills a year.

Thirty pills would barely last him a month.

If he spent all his spirit stones on pills, he wouldn't have any left to purchase spells.

Buying three bottles of Qi Gathering Pills without saving any spirit stones would likely leave him unable to afford even basic necessities like mortal rice.

Furthermore, after finishing the bottle of Qi Gathering Pills Meng Guan had sent, He Song discovered something.

While Qi Gathering Pills could accelerate his cultivation, they also left behind pill toxins.

After consuming the entire bottle, He Song noticed that by the time he took the tenth pill, its effectiveness had diminished.

Additionally, when circulating his spiritual energy, he found it harder to control than before.

The once-fluid spiritual energy now felt sluggish and obstructed.

However, within a month of stopping the pills, his spiritual energy returned to its original state.

This led He Song to conclude that the pill toxins from ten Qi Gathering Pills took about a month to fully dissipate.

The presence of these toxins was another reason He Song abandoned the idea of relying on pills to rapidly increase his cultivation.

Having spiritual energy that was difficult to control and sluggish was a major disadvantage for any cultivator.

In a fight, such obstructed spiritual energy would make it hard to compete with opponents of the same level.

Even when attempting to break through bottlenecks, this sluggishness would become a significant obstacle.

Moreover.

Since He Song was constantly within the Spirit Gathering Array, the obstruction in his spiritual energy also slowed down his absorption of spiritual energy.

Slower absorption naturally affected the rate at which his spiritual energy grew.

As a result, the rapid increase in spiritual energy from the pills was offset by the slower absorption caused by the pill toxins during the month it took for the toxins to dissipate.

He Song was startled to realize that his cultivation speed after taking the pills was only slightly faster than his normal speed within the Spirit Gathering Array.

It fell far short of his original expectations.

After reaching this conclusion, He Song completely abandoned the idea of spending all his spirit stones on pills to rapidly increase his cultivation.

Spending all his spirit stones on pills versus not spending any and relying solely on the Spirit Gathering Array resulted in almost the same cultivation speed.

In that case, why should he contribute all his spirit stones to alchemists?

It would be better to use those spirit stones to purchase spells, spirit talismans, magical tools, and other items to enhance his strength.

After all.

He Song was always within the Spirit Gathering Array, and his cultivation speed was already much faster than that of ordinary cultivators.

The Spirit Gathering Array was the root cause of all this.

If He Song hadn't successfully set up the Spirit Gathering Array, he wouldn't have achieved such exceptional cultivation speed.

Within the array, He Song's normal cultivation speed far surpassed that of other cultivators.

But this also meant that using pills didn't provide a qualitative improvement in his cultivation speed.

It did, however, save him the expense of buying pills.

Now.

Three years had passed.

He Song's cultivation had successfully broken through to the fifth level of Qi Refining.

This was a small step forward in the mid-stage of Qi Refining. Once he reached the sixth level, he would need to decide whether to attempt a breakthrough on his own or, like Meng Guan, save up spirit stones to purchase a Breakthrough Pill in Greenwall Immortal City.

During these three years, He Song hadn't neglected his study of the *Introduction to Array Formation*.

After three years of diligent study and the experience gained from setting up the Spirit Gathering Array, He Song had fully mastered the Maze Array described in the *Introduction to Array Formation* and successfully carved all the necessary array foundations for its setup.

"The Maze Array—with this array to obscure vision, conceal aura, and confuse the mind, I won't have to worry about the spirit fields I set up outside being discovered. I'm one step closer to establishing my own spirit fields!"

Having just finished carving all the array foundations for the Maze Array, He Song couldn't help but smile.

These past three years had been incredibly fulfilling for He Song.

Cultivation, studying, managing spirit fields, meeting with Wei Fan and other friends, and staying in touch with distant acquaintances through communication spells—all these activities ensured that He Song never felt too lonely.

Now that he had completed carving the foundations for the Maze Array, He Song felt a deep sense of satisfaction.

However, the next step was to set up the array.

He Song's expression grew serious as he scanned his meditation chamber, planning to deploy the Maze Array within it.

(End of Chapter)