Chapter 19

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

He looked at his courtyard, which had been turned into a wasteland because of his breakthrough.

The burned-up pond, the broken artificial stones, the dark tree trunks…

What was originally a beautiful garden had been brutally ravaged.

Li Ming thought to himself that he should find a quiet and secluded place to break through next time.

Otherwise, the aftermath of his breakthrough might just end up destroying his cave abode.

But nevertheless, the results of his training made Li Ming very happy.

The fifth level of the Blazing Sun Body Tempering Art!

The seventh level of the qi refinement stage!

His overall strength had gone up another level.

This was true not only for his body cultivation, but his qi cultivation that had caught up as well.

It could be said that he had advanced by leaps and bounds, reaching the seventh level of the qi refinement stage in such a short time.

For others, it was a very time and energy-consuming process to just practice one path, yet Li Ming could now practice both body and qi without much delay.

But then…

The next question followed.

“I have the [Unobstructed Hundred Meridians], so I don’t have to worry about body tempering too much. As long as I have enough resources, I can maintain this cultivation speed.”

“But as for the qi cultivation side… The [One Qi Art] does not go that much into detail on how to practice qi refinement. I’m not really sure on how I should proceed.”

Li Ming was in a dilemma.

Although the Divine Will Sect was a large sect, it was not to the extent that every disciple would have a personal elder to teach them.

When he switched to body cultivation three years ago, he had been cultivating qi alone.

Therefore, after reaching the seventh level of qi refinement, Li Ming had accumulated a lot of doubts in this area and had nobody to ask.

If he could solve many of these doubts, it would greatly benefit his path to the perfected level of the qi refinement stage.

“Now that I have picked up qi refinement again, I need to have all of these doubts resolved…”

Li Ming pondered in silence.

In fact, there were many seniors that he was familiar with in the sect, and he could ask them for guidance.

However, the problem was that he was not sure if his doubts about qi cultivation were basic problems.

If they were, then if he asked them such simple questions, would he not just be directly exposing the fact that he had poor talent?

In that case, if the elders found out, he would be in a bad situation.

With such a large risk, he felt wary of going through with such a choice.

This left Li Ming a little worried.

“Forget it. I’ll just take things one step at a time.”

He would slowly figure it out when he encountered a bottleneck.

…

“Senior brother, are you there?”

After Li Ming finished tidying up his cave abode, he heard someone calling him from outside the door.

He opened the door and saw that the person who had come to visit him was Chen Qingke, whom he had not seen in a long time.

After so many days, Chen Qingke’s aura had become even more reserved.

Li Ming knew that he was not the only one who was improving. Other cultivators were also practicing diligently.

“Senior brother, how’s your recovery?”

Chen Qingke said as she followed Li Ming inside.

“I’ve recovered a long time ago,” Li Ming replied.

Perhaps for qi refinement cultivators, such serious injuries would take them quite some time to recover.

However, Li Ming had almost completely recovered during those first few days.

This was one of the advantages of tempering one’s body.

Chen Qingke originally wanted to see the situation of Li Ming’s injuries.

Seeing that there was not even a scar left on his hand, she was relieved.

However, she soon found that Li Ming had another breakthrough.

“Senior brother, it’s only been a few days since we last met… You’ve already broken through to this level?”

Chen Qingke was a little surprised, but she was also happy for Li Ming.

After all, it was because Li Ming was obsessed with body refining that he was still at the third level of qi refinement after three years of cultivation, which was also why he had become despised by many disciples of the sect.

Although the Divine Will Sect was full of immortal cultivators, their temperaments were no different from ordinary people. The strong preyed on the weak, and it was natural that the strong were respected.

Now that she saw her Senior Brother Li breaking through the levels of the qi refinement stage consecutively, Chen Qingke had a faint feeling that the genius was making a return.

Li Ming remained humble.

“Don’t forget that I entered the sect three years earlier than you.”

Wait—!

Suddenly, Li Ming looked at Chen Qingke and had an idea.

This little junior sister of his was at the perfected level of the qi refinement stage and was about to enter the foundation establishment stage. She was much stronger than him in this regard alone.

Moreover, she had cultivated qi the entire way. He could probably have some of his doubts resolved through her.

“Senior brother, why are you looking at me like that? Is there something on my face?”

Chen Qingke asked curiously.

“Cough cough…”

Of course, Li Ming could not expose the fact that he was not talented.

Even in front of Junior Sister Chen, he had to maintain the image of a cultivation genius who went astray only because of body cultivation.

As for the fact that he was treading both paths and that he was doing well in both, it was all thanks to the entries.

He could not tell Junior Sister Chen about this.

After all, the entries were his most important secrets, and he could not just reveal them to others.

The method that he thought of to achieve his goal covertly was very simple.

He would beat around the bush!

Li Ming managed to think things through instantly.

He pretended to be profound and said, “Junior sister, after all, you entered the sect much later than me. How about this… Come in, and let me test you on some cultivation knowledge.”

“Okay.” Chen Qingke blinked and nodded.

When she heard Senior Brother Li say that he wanted to test her, she believed him completely and thought that he was really going to ask her some difficult questions.

This kind of conversation between cultivators was actually quite common in the Divine Will Sect.

She followed Li Ming into the cave abode, and both of them sat down.

“Senior brother, go ahead!” Chen Qingke said casually.

Li Ming nodded, wrapped up his doubts, and began asking his junior sister the questions.

Li Ming said, “For my first question, why is the efficiency of absorbing spiritual qi different at different levels of the qi refinement stage?”

“Naturally, it is because one’s true qi has increased,” Chen Qingke said matter-of-factly. “Essence is refined into qi, and qi is refined into spirit. That is why it becomes increasingly difficult to progress the further one goes in cultivation.”

Li Ming thought for a moment and continued asking, “What are the methods to increase one’s sensitivity to the spiritual qi of heaven and earth?”

Chen Qingke answered with great detail, “The Heaven-Human Sensing Technique, the Five Hearts Sutra, and the Meditation Reflection Technique. After sensing the spiritual qi of heaven and earth, you guide the spiritual qi to flow through your meridians according to the circulatory cycle, nurturing the spiritual qi vortex… This way, you can improve your ability to sense spiritual qi.”

“Not bad, not bad.” Li Ming showed a look of approval on his face.

“Senior brother, isn’t this basic knowledge?” Chen Qingke asked.

Li Ming said seriously, “The more basic things are, the more solid your grasp over them must be. Let me ask you another question. How do qi refinement cultivators use their true qi to practice spells? ”

Chen Qingke answered, “In the later stages of qi refinement, after the vortex expands, it will form a core lake. That would then refine one’s physical body, strengthen their internal organs, and allow one to cast off one’s mortal body.”

“At this point, both the body and the true qi can be used to control spells. This applies to all kinds of spells such as ‘Fireball’ or ‘Telekinesis’ or even for controlling flying swords and magical artifacts.”

In the following period of time, Li Ming continued to ask questions about his doubts on qi cultivation, while Chen Qingke continued to answer his questions in detail.

During the question and answer session, Li Ming’s doubts were resolved one by one. His understanding of qi cultivation became much deeper and he was enlightened on a lot of things.

Qi cultivation could also temper one’s body, but it was just a transformation of the body while guiding the spiritual qi.

The contrast between the two allowed Li Ming to suddenly see the light and feel enlightened.

So this was how qi cultivation is like.

What surprised him the most was that after the series of questions and answers, the progress in the progress bars for his qi cultivation entries increased greatly.

If this continued, he would be able to obtain new qi cultivation entries.