Chapter 344: The Ratio Matters

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

Feng Xue held two jade seals, his brow and eyes heavy with fatigue—he had already attempted this volition-absorption method ten times, with consistently poor results.

The first attempt used a low-dose direct extraction and refinement method, which failed without doubt: when volition contacted the soul, it spontaneously formed a “shell,” or, in ghostly terms, a spirit-body that enveloped the soul.

For spirits like ghosts or yin gods who had already lost their physical bodies, this was naturally a beneficial phenomenon—in fact, it was precisely this spirit-body forged by volition that allowed yin spirits to maintain consciousness and avoid spiritual oblivion.

Technically, primordial qi could also be used to forge a spirit-body, but for the living, the body and primordial qi are synchronized; thus, a qi-formed “spirit-body” would merge directly with flesh and blood, reinforcing the bond between spirit and flesh, with the ultimate pinnacle of this path being the Yang Shen realm, where the Yang Shen can exit the body while the physical form remains immortal.

But volition was different: even though Kidorah’s volition closely resembled Feng Xue’s primordial qi, it was only similar—not identical. While not as distinct as alcohol versus gasoline, it could reasonably be understood as gasoline of a different grade.

The most obvious difference was that volition was yin in nature, while primordial qi was yang.

Thus, directly extracting volition could lead to terrifying consequences of spirit-flesh disharmony.

Afterward, Feng Xue experimented with integrating volition into the ying-wei circulation cycle. He successfully divided it into five types of volition resembling the five-element primordial qi, but once it entered the mind sea, the spirit-flesh disharmony problem remained unsolved.

However, this experiment inadvertently resolved the yin-yang balance issue for martial cultivators—a modest but real advancement.

Next came a long series of proportional mixtures: from 1 primordial qi to 9 volition, to 1 volition to 9 primordial qi, and 5 volition to 5 primordial qi, seeking a relatively mild ratio that could extract volition without compromising spirit-flesh cohesion.

Too little primordial qi still caused spirit-flesh disharmony; too much primordial qi, however, masked volition’s distinctive properties.

After ten rounds of fine-tuning, the ratio had now been refined to 73 primordial qi : 27 volition. While the physical body no longer suffered spirit-flesh disharmony at this ratio, the effects of volition remained minimal.

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

At this ratio, the refined spiritual power gained a faint trace of sentience—so slight that had Xiao Lingdang’s records of Bigre’s failed spell trials not been preserved, he might never have noticed this sentience at all.

But after comparison, Feng Xue could now be certain: this spiritual power had subtly brushed against the edge of Bigre’s magical sentience.

He attempted casting the original version of “Cute Bat Sky Ram” using this power—the resulting little bats indeed collapsed and died after flapping a few times.

“Keep refining!”

Even at two-digit precision, Feng Xue’s own soul struggled to control such fine adjustments—but he wanted to know whether further refinement would still yield gains.

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

But considering spirit possession might disrupt soul-body harmony, at this level of precision, he could only quantify the ratios, store them separately in different jade seals, then simultaneously extract and blend them to judge actual effects.

He also had to account for potential losses during the storage and extraction of Yuanqi Technique—this was the fundamental reason for his exhaustion after only a dozen trials.

As primordial qi and volition flowed from the jade seals, mixed, and surged into the mind sea, the ratio of 725 primordial qi : 275 volition improved upon the previous result by a fraction—just a 0.5% adjustment, yet it advanced the sentience of the spiritual power further.

“Assess physical condition!” Feng Xue did not test the spiritual power’s state directly; instead, he gave Xiao Lingdang a numb order. At this precision, bodily erosion could no longer be detected through lifespan changes—he could only rely on the smart wristwatch from the previous civilization, equipped with biological monitoring.

“No abnormalities in mental state. Erosion level below detection threshold. Normal life activities suffice for self-repair.” Xiao Lingdang’s response eased Feng Xue’s tension. Nearby, Liu Yunxi placed a lightly seasoned fish cake on the table and remarked casually:

“So if we refine further, it’ll be 7225:2775?”

“Further refinement is not recommended,” Xiao Lingdang’s virtual projection shook its head.

“Based on current data, recommend adopting the 72:28 ratio.”

“Huh? Doesn’t that ratio cause spirit-flesh disharmony?” Liu Yunxi, who had observed the entire experiment, was baffled—if this ratio was truly better, why bother refining further?

“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 martial cultivation, or body conditioning—strengthens spirit-flesh cohesion.”

“In other words, minor overstepping during cultivation causes damage that the body can heal. The reason for finding 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, the body doesn’t develop resistance to prolonged cultivation—then the ratio must be as precise as possible. If it doesn’t, the body gradually adapts to volition’s 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 voice trailed 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 yang lifespan lost during this experiment could be recovered in a few nights.

Feng Xue had also considered using the Locking Life technique to refine volition, but it failed: Locking Life only preserved lifespan. In other words, even if spirit-flesh disharmony occurred, as long as life was locked, his lifespan wouldn’t decrease, and his soul would remain firmly bound to the body by the Golden 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.

“Haaah…”

He yawned widely, stretched out his limbs, and said:

“Xiao Lingdang, encode this ratio into the Xuanwu Can Tong Qi, leave some correction margin—I’m going to sleep…”

(End of chapter)