Chapter 4: Return

The path of cultivation begins with Qi Refining and ends with True Immortal.

True Immortals are invisible; all things originate from Qi Refining.

The Qi Refining stage has four minor realms: early stage, mid stage, late stage, and great completion.

Each breakthrough of a minor realm comes with obstacles of varying size.

Heaven-grade spiritual roots, before Nascent Soul formation, proceed smoothly and grandly, encountering no obstacles.

But for someone like Wang Ping with a low-grade spiritual root, each minor realm breakthrough is like continually smashing the stone dam blocking the road.

If in the lower realm, merely breaking through the early stage of Qi Refining would consume years of time.

This is because they lack a large amount of spiritual qi to break through the pass; everyone basically relies on painstaking effort.

In the Spirit Realm, under the scouring of vast, thick, and mighty spiritual qi, that stone dam is like paper; a few scourings already break through the pass and enter a vaster heaven and earth.

Wang Ping suddenly burst with azure light; his dantian rapidly expanded, and under the scouring of this pure spiritual qi, his body continually underwent a transformation akin to shedding the mortal form and being reborn.

His bones became harder, his meridians gradually widened, and the blood throughout his body turned somewhat translucent.

Wang Ping devoted his whole body and mind to the breakthrough, utterly unaware of the passage of outside time.

Upon breaking through to the mid-stage of Qi Refining, his dantian expanded again, able to hold another 360 strands of spiritual power.

Once he reaches great completion of the mid-stage of Qi Refining, his dantian will possess 478 strands of spiritual power.

After the realm breakthrough, Wang Ping continued to inhale and exhale the spiritual qi of heaven and earth; his goal was simple: before leaving, to swallow as much as possible.

Hum!

The cross-legged Wang Ping's body suddenly burst forth a ball of silver light; in a flash, he vanished from the spot.

With Wang Ping's disappearance, the place where he had just been suddenly had a vacuum zone ten zhang in length and breadth.

This vacuum is not the kind that evacuates air; rather, in that space, a kind of pressure prevalent in the Spirit Realm is missing.

As Wang Ping vanished, that pressure returned, and the stone walls on either side, which he deemed indestructible, fell with a crack! crack!

Soon, a pile of rubble appeared on the ground, and irregular half-circles appeared on both sides.

Wang Ping knew nothing of all this.

Lower Realm, Spiritual Universe Realm.

Hundred Kingdoms Alliance, Zhao State, Azure Moon Sect, Azure Bamboo Peak!

In an unnamed mountain cave, Wang Ping opened his eyes, glanced at his surroundings, and silently smiled.

I'm back!

I truly returned from the Spirit Realm!

At this moment, Wang Ping was full of confidence for his future cultivation path.

Feeling the surging spiritual power within him, a powerful feeling arose spontaneously.

Wang Ping knew this was an illusion; the cultivation method says it is a heart demon, the feeling of losing control from power brought by a sudden realm rise, plus he had gone from 40 strands of spiritual power to breakthrough in too short a time.

At the instant of breakthrough, his original 108 strands of spiritual power increased by twenty in a moment; now he has 128 strands.

Thus, this feeling of losing control is even stronger; at this time he must enter seclusion, temper himself, and gain mastery over it.

Another point, also a reason he must enter seclusion: he just broke through, his spiritual power radiating outward; anyone seeing would know he had reached mid-stage Qi Refining.

In three years, a low-grade spiritual root disciple actually broke through to mid-stage Qi Refining; even a fool would know he has a secret.

By then his situation would be extremely dangerous.

Although the sect stipulates that fellow disciples may not kill each other, in this cultivation world there are too many ways to die silently.

During these three years, two or three medium-grade spiritual root disciples occasionally entered the top hundred of the genius list, but soon afterwards vanished without a trace.

The sect once launched a massive investigation, but ultimately came to nothing.

These matters, Wang Ping personally experienced; in his three years at Azure Moon Sect, he remembered one thing: a cultivator without background had best keep a low profile while cultivating.

Otherwise! You will sooner or later be targeted.

Now, this cave dwelling is fairly secluded; it is exactly an ideal place for secluded cultivation.

Wang Ping walked to the corner of the cave dwelling, moved a large stone, and took out three bottles of pills from inside.

Such pills are the commonly seen grain-avoiding pills in the cultivation world; one pellet lets them go ten days without hunger.

Refining such pills is extremely simple, with a high success rate, so they are very common within the sect.

The exchange price is also low; basically one merit point can be traded for one pellet.

The three bottles of grain-avoiding pills in Wang Ping's hand contain sixty pellets, enough for him to go six hundred days without eating.

These are all hidden here by him in advance, in case one day he needs to hide here and may require a large amount of grain-avoiding pills.

He didn't expect to actually use them; he has now made preparations, not going out, for the spiritual medicines outside, without his care, might not grow well.

However, compared to his own life, these things can all be sacrificed.

As for whether anyone will come during his seclusion, he is not worried at all.

When he first entered the sect, due to his low-grade spiritual root and having offended his family, he was assigned to the place where the sect's spiritual qi is weakest.

Here the scenery is beautiful, the view unique, with emerald bamboo covering the hills; it is a good place for cultivating body and nature.

Besides that, the spiritual qi is just a bit thinner.

Azure Moon Sect's outer sect has over a hundred mountain peaks, each with at least dozens of people.

Only Azure Bamboo Peak has him, Wang Ping, alone; the reason is simply that the spiritual qi here is the worst.

Over the three years, only a disciple from the sect's internal inspection task came once; otherwise, the entire Azure Bamboo Peak had only Wang Ping cultivating, organizing spiritual medicines and herbs.

Walking onto the stone bed inside the cave dwelling, Wang Ping sat cross-legged; before beginning consolidation, he again sank his consciousness into his mind sea.

After breaking through to mid-stage, not only did his internal spiritual power increase, but strands of mist also appeared in his mind sea.

Wang Ping knows these are primordial spirit qi; when he reaches Foundation Establishment, this primordial spirit qi will become liquid, at which time his mind sea will become a sea of consciousness, and he will also possess divine sense.

He directed his gaze to the energy grid; indeed, after his trip to the Spirit Realm, the energy within the energy grid, which had originally been full of energy, returned to zero.

Wang Ping's eyes were filled with astonishment; having been in the cultivation world for so long, he had never heard of any treasure that could travel to the spirit realm.

Such a treasure is probably the legendary immortal-family treasure!

From now on, this will be his greatest secret; he can imagine that if even a hint of this were leaked, the tiny Zhao State, which has only a Golden Core True Person, would immediately be surrounded by Nascent Soul True Lords and Divine Transformation Elders.

Just imagining such a scene is chilling.

At the same time, after this trip to the spirit realm, Wang Ping also vaguely guessed what the source of the energy lattice's absorption of energy is.

It might be related to spacetime; after absorbing enough spacetime power for three years in the lower realm, it can open a passage, allowing oneself to enter the spirit realm for the duration of one spirit realm day.

Of course, these are merely his speculations; perhaps only when his cultivation becomes profound will he be able to investigate the secret therein.