Chapter 95: Miscellaneous Thoughts Have Achieved Results!

Strange—why didn’t that thunder art activate? The great demon didn’t even chase out… Could it really just be practicing?

The demonic cultivator watched Feng Xue’s residence from the roof of a civilian house five li away, only relaxing when the thunder qi ceased rising, yet dared not approach, fearing a devastating trap the moment he stepped closer.

This hesitation lasted for hours, until the moon rose high, faint moonlight cascading down, before the demonic cultivator finally let his guard down.

“With the moonlight condensing into dew, the great demon must be in cultivation—clearly has no intention of fighting.”

Thinking this, the demonic cultivator walked again toward Feng Xue’s residence.

Because that intoxicating fragrance had begun to spread once more.

Forcing down the soul’s craving for feedback, the demonic cultivator crept to the villa’s exterior, sensing the thick, unyielding surge of primordial qi within—his eyes nearly turned red.

Yet his willpower was extraordinary; he forcibly suppressed this instinct, carefully approaching the point where the primordial qi gathered—and one glance shattered his composure.

The primordial qi wasn’t gathering—it was pouring directly from the youngling’s body, while the spirit ghost greedily devoured every bit of qi threatening to escape the room, feasting without restraint!

He’d assumed the young man released one “qi packet” each night for the spirit ghost to slowly consume—never imagining this was an entire primordial qi pool, left wide open for the ghost to drink its fill!

“Damn, no wonder there’s zero impurity—anyone with a master like this wouldn’t care about roadside incense offerings!”

The demonic cultivator’s mind was exploding—he wanted to burst through the window, bind the youngling, and drag him back. Even just tonight’s qi output equaled the yield from slaughtering an entire first-rank official’s household!

Even rarer—this qi was voluntarily exuded, utterly free of resentment. If qi stolen through murder was coarse bran mixed with sand and gravel, requiring painstaking sifting to absorb one or two percent, this qi was fine-milled white rice—no matter how you cooked it, just open your belly and eat your fill!

Watching the spirit ghost consume qi without restraint, the demonic cultivator felt like a pauper of eight generations watching a rich man’s idiot son tossing white rice into the river—his heart ached!

But he couldn’t just steal it—

After all, this qi was too strange to come from an uninitiated youth—no one could be sure if some secret technique was at work. If the great demon was too far away to harvest moonlight, and he forcibly seized the qi, he might startle the youngling into demonic deviation—then the trouble would never end.

He came to suffer, not to accumulate karmic debt—and he certainly didn’t want to draw out the old monster behind this youth!

Yet he couldn’t stand idly by while this pure, gleaming qi was wasted on a spirit ghost who didn’t even know the value of fine grain. He pressed himself against the outer wall, cautiously extending his spiritual sense to lick up the faint qi seeping through the walls into his soul.

This act bore a striking resemblance to the old practice during hard times: buying steamed buns and secretly tearing off the sticky crusts (Note ①).

Inside the wall, Mo Ying feasted without restraint; outside, the demonic cultivator licked the escaping qi like scraping plaster off a wall—strangely enough, he now truly felt like a beggar.

But…

“The five-element balance of this qi seems off…”

Having tasted something good, the demonic cultivator couldn’t help but evaluate—yet as he absorbed this qi, its subtle “taste” puzzled him.

“Too yin and cold—feels like excessive kidney qi. This kid looks vigorous, his spirit full, no signs of premature yang leakage. Not weak fire—just strong water… This must be intentional…”

The demonic cultivator analyzed the possible origins of this qi using his experience, finding nothing amiss.

After all, producing such vast quantities of qi was already beyond miracle—it would be stranger if the result were perfectly balanced.

All he now wondered was the principle behind this imbalance.

Ultimately, whether demonic or orthodox, xuan cultivation never strayed from the five elements and yin-yang, qi, will, and incense—ten thousand transformations, one root. Now that he sensed this qi might relate to kidney water, he could deduce from it—even if he couldn’t see the full secret technique, at least he’d have a direction.

Though stealing another sect’s secret arts was taboo, he was already a demonic cultivator—why care?

Besides, the qi was exuding on its own—he merely licked a few mouthfuls. If that alone increased karmic debt, then every cultivator in the past millennia who’d derived new methods from others’ techniques would’ve become demonic cultivators.

Offering himself reassurance, the demonic cultivator licked the qi while deducing possible causes of its imbalance, its potential consequences, and the reasons behind its explosive surge…

“Gone? Where’s my qi? Why’s it gone?”

Perhaps too absorbed—he snapped back to awareness to find the exuded qi vanished. He opened his eyes in shock, then noticed the damned spirit ghost was already “licking the plate!”

“Damn little brat! Ate all night and still lusting after scraps!”

The demonic cultivator cursed inwardly, but seeing the youngling nearly awake, he immediately suppressed his aura, stayed hidden, and slipped quietly away from the house.

Both the spirit ghost and the great demon were blind as bats—he decided he needed to target the smarter little ghost to truly benefit.

As for the entry point, he’d already thought of it. Now, he only needed to wait for the right moment.

…

Feng Xue awoke from sleep, ignoring Mo Ying as she cleaned up the remaining qi. He brought his right index finger and thumb close together—dark electric arcs flickered. Satisfied, he nodded.

“Indeed, my hypothesis is correct: the circulation of ying and wei, the five qi generated by the organs—not only do martial cultivators’ blood and qi split into five elements, but the primordial qi produced under their nourishment does too. Normally, extracting primordial qi causes Zhe Shou, so balance must be maintained to avoid extra damage. But if you amplify one element’s proportion, the resulting magical power shifts accordingly. Yesterday, by accident, while intensely fantasizing, I refined qi and overproduced water-element qi, causing my magical power to turn yin and watery—and thus altered my thunder art…”

As he pondered this theory, Feng Xue’s mind filled with further conjectures—but refining qi through fantasy alone was dreadfully inefficient. Last night’s sleepless effort yielded only a slight elemental shift. To deepen this research, he needed a more efficient method—or better yet, a technique to separate, refine, and store qi.

Opening his over-the-shoulder view, Feng Xue checked the Citiao above his head—no new option appeared. He sighed, shook his head, and walked toward the bathroom, muttering inwardly:

“Sigh—if only I had a skill panel or system… or even a personal elder!”

Note ①: The author never experienced this, but elders mentioned it—it was during the ration ticket era. Families had many children and were hungry. When buying steamed buns from giant steamers, buns stuck together, their crusts adhering. Children dared not steal whole buns, so they’d tear off the stuck crusts and eat them secretly. Parents, seeing missing crusts, assumed they’d been stuck to other buns—but dared not eat too much; if every bun lost its edge, it’d be too obvious.

ps: So some people still argue without even checking.

Why can you keep extracting qi? Because qi itself isn’t equivalent to lifespan.

In this novel, qi follows Traditional Chinese Medicine’s theory of ying, wei, yuan, and zong qi. Ying and wei qi have been explained; zong qi is the “great qi” sustaining heartbeat and pulse—think of it as energy exclusively for smooth muscle.

Yuan qi is one’s innate qi, representing vitality, nourishing the entire body. Insufficient yuan qi leads to aging and death, just as starvation kills from lack of energy—not because skipping a meal instantly kills you.

Through eating, one achieves [Ying Wei Zhou Liu], then [Zang Sheng Wu Qi] (yuan qi)—this is one cycle of qi.

According to this theory, a person’s single maximum extraction limit equals their total innate yuan qi—hence why the protagonist can extract sixty years’ worth. Draining it all kills, but the cause is the body’s loss of nourishment, not the absence of qi. The protagonist’s divine ability locks his life force—like embezzling public funds—as long as he replenishes it before needed.



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(End of Chapter)