Chapter 319: The Ratio Matters

"Tenth attempt at willpower refinement: preparing to record."

Feng Xue held two Jade Seals, his brow and eyes showing signs of fatigue—he had already attempted this willpower absorption scheme ten times, with poor results each time.

The first attempt used a low-dose direct extraction and refinement method, which failed without doubt: when willpower came into contact with the spiritual soul, it spontaneously formed a "shell," or, in ghostly terms, something akin to a spirit-body, enveloping the soul.

For spirits like ghosts or yin gods who had already lost their physical bodies, this was naturally a favorable phenomenon; indeed, the very reason yin spirits could maintain consciousness and avoid dissolving was precisely this spirit-body forged by willpower.

In truth, primordial qi could also be used to forge a ghost-body, but for the living, the body and primordial qi were synchronized, so a qi-formed "ghost-body" would directly merge with flesh and blood, reinforcing the bond between spirit and flesh—this path's pinnacle being the Yang Spirit realm, where the Yang Spirit could exit the body while the physical form remained immortal.

But willpower was different: even though Kidorah's willpower closely resembled Feng Xue's primordial qi, it was merely similar—not identical. Though its composition might not differ as drastically as alcohol from gasoline, it could still be understood as gasoline of a different grade.

The most obvious manifestation was that willpower was yin, while primordial qi was yang.

Thus, directly extracting willpower could lead to terrifying consequences of spirit-flesh discord.

Afterward, Feng Xue experimented with integrating willpower into the ying-wei circulation cycle; though he successfully divided it into five types of willpower resembling the five-element primordial qi, it still failed to resolve the spirit-flesh discord upon entering the mind sea.

But this experiment inadvertently solved the yin-yang balance issue for Wu Xiu, a modest but real advancement.

Next came the long process of proportional blending: ratios from 1 primordial qi to 9 willpower, to 1 willpower to 9 primordial qi, to 5 willpower to 5 primordial qi, and so on, seeking a relatively mild ratio that could extract willpower without compromising spirit-flesh cohesion.

Too little primordial qi, and spirit-flesh discord still occurred; too much primordial qi, and willpower's distinctive traits could not manifest.

After ten rounds of fine-tuning, the current ratio had been refined to 73 primordial qi: 27 willpower—though the physical body no longer suffered spirit-flesh discord at this ratio, the effects produced by willpower remained minimal.

Yes, merely minimal—but there was already a slight result.

That result was that the refined spiritual energy at this ratio now possessed a faint spiritual quality, so slight that had it not been for Xiao Lingdang's archived records of Bi Gelei's failed spell trials—records never deleted—he might never have noticed this spiritual quality at all.

But after comparison, Feng Xue could now be certain: this spiritual energy had subtly touched the edge of Bi Gelei's magical spiritual quality.

He attempted casting the original version of "Cute Bat Fly-Into-Heaven" using this energy; the resulting little bats indeed collapsed and died after flapping a few times.

"Continue refining!"

In truth, once the ratio was precise to two digits, Feng Xue's own spiritual soul could barely control such precision—but he wanted to know whether further refinement would still yield gains.

After all, rather than using a black box blindly, he preferred to have a forward-looking goal to strive for, and to understand why he was doing it.

However, considering that spirit possession might affect the state of soul and body, at this level of precision, he could only quantify the ratios in advance, store them separately in different Jade Seals, then draw and mix them simultaneously to judge the actual effects.

And even then, he had to account for possible losses during the storage and extraction of Yuanqi Extraction Technique—that was the fundamental reason Feng Xue was so exhausted after only a dozen trials.

As primordial qi and willpower flowed from the Jade Seals, mixed, and surged into the mind sea, the ratio of 725 primordial qi: 275 willpower improved the effect slightly over the previous one—though the adjustment was only about five-thousandths, it pushed the spiritual quality of the energy further.

"Check physical condition!" Feng Xue did not test the spiritual energy's state directly; instead, he numbly ordered Xiao Lingdang—this precision level made bodily erosion imperceptible through lifespan changes, so he could only rely on the pre-civilization smart wristwatch with bodily monitoring functions.

"No abnormalities in mental state; erosion below detection precision; normal life activities sufficient for self-repair." Xiao Lingdang's response eased Feng Xue's breath; beside him, Liu Yunxi placed a lightly seasoned fish cake on the table and said casually:

"So if we refine further, it'll be 7225:2775?"

"Not recommended to refine further," Xiao Lingdang's virtual projection shook its head.

"Based on current status, recommend adopting the 72:28 ratio."

"Huh? Doesn't that ratio cause spirit-flesh discord?" Liu Yunxi, who had observed the entire experiment, was baffled—if this ratio was truly better, why refine further before?

"Because the body heals itself," Feng Xue replied offhandedly. "Controlling the ratio to two digits is already my absolute limit; going further makes it impractical for actual cultivation. My daily cultivation time is limited, and the rest of the day—whether living normally, practicing Wu Xiu, or body forging—strengthens spirit-flesh cohesion."

"In other words, slight overages in cultivation cause damage that the body heals naturally. The reason I seek a precise value is to compare after a period of cultivation—for example, after one week, readjust the ratio and see whether the same value still causes erosion."

"If it does, it means the body won't develop resistance through long-term cultivation—then the cultivation ratio must be as precise as possible. If it doesn't, it means the body gradually adapts to willpower erosion—then we can use a ratio slightly beyond the critical threshold, slowly increasing the body's tolerance."

"I see! But this could easily lead to overexertion…" Liu Yunxi's sentence broke off as her eyes flicked to the statue of Su'e Huiye beside them, and she fell silent.

Never mind long-term effects—even the slight yang lifespan lost in this experiment could be recovered in a few nights.

Feng Xue had also considered using the Life Lock technique to refine willpower, but it failed: Life Lock only preserved lifespan—in other words, even if spirit-flesh discord occurred, as long as the lock held, his lifespan wouldn't decrease, and his soul would be tightly bound to the body by the divine finger's power—but once unlocked, the body might instantly expel the spirit.

Before the statue of Su'e Huiye, Feng Xue bathed in its jade-like radiance, as the power of immortality slowly seeped into his body, gently increasing his lifespan.

"Haa…"

He let out a huge yawn, stretched his body vigorously, and said:

"Xiao Lingdang, encode this ratio into the Xuanwu Can Tong Qi, leave some room for adjustment—I'm going to sleep…"

(End of chapter)