Chapter 38

Qian Chen’s vision blurred, and he found himself back in the desolate courtyard where he had been staying; moonlight spilled like water across the small yard, serene and still, with faint insect chirps drifting from all around.

Sensing this familiar scene, Qian Chen frowned, instinctively raising his head to gaze at the moon, studying its phase.

Seeing the moon’s position identical to what it had been before he entered the Cycle Realm, his eyes sharpened, and he swiftly began calculating with his fingers.

To ensure absolute certainty, Qian Chen calculated three times in succession before confirming: this was precisely the next moment after he entered the Cycle Realm—he had spent several days completing tasks in other worlds of the Void, then remained two full days in the Cycle Realm, yet time in the Central Land had not flowed at all.

As if everything that transpired in the Cycle Realm had been nothing but an illusion.

“The time of the Cycle Realm is entirely independent of the Central Land! The power of the Lord of the Cycle surpasses even my expectations.”

Qian Chen sighed in awe.

After returning to the Central Land, his cultivated cultivation had not vanished, proving that all events within the Cycle Realm were not an illusion cast by some great being; his internal qi now surged restlessly, on the verge of bursting through the Xuan Pass, dispersing into heaven and earth, while his spiritual sense faintly yet wondrously resonated with the spiritual energy within dozens of li around him.

All Qian Chen needed to do was stir his mind, and his internal qi would shatter the Xuan Pass, merging with the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.

When internal and external energies combined, transforming the void into substance into a single true qi, he would become a true Qi Refining cultivator, no longer burdened by the embarrassment of relying solely on internal qi to wield magic treasures.

But Qian Chen knew that now, more than ever, he must remain calm and nurture his qi; this first true qi born of internal-external union formed the foundation—if he erred in this step, he would spend years of arduous effort later to slowly purify the impurities from his true qi.

Qian Chen had no intention of lingering in the Qi Refining realm for decades to atone for today’s mistake.

Ordinary sects and grand schools often had sealed meditation chambers, with arrays designed to gather specific spiritual energy and barriers to repel turbid qi; within such chambers, one could sense spiritual energy without contamination.

Yet this had a drawback: it deprived the cultivator of the subtle sensations and complex qi patterns during the breakthrough of perception. Without sharp sensitivity to these complex qi patterns, though one could still gather qi, compared to the true transmissions of the Daoist path, such shortcut cultivators perceived heavenly and earthly qi far too crudely.

Like a colorblind person who sees only black and white, one could still observe heaven and earth, yet inevitably remained coarse.

Later, when practicing spells and divine arts—such as divination and fortune-telling, which required sensing extremely complex qi changes—his innate talent would suffer greatly. Hence, it is said that the Foundation Establishment and Perception breakthroughs directly determine one’s postnatal foundation and talent, intimately tied to a cultivator’s future achievements.

What cultivators commonly refer to as “foundation” is precisely this.

Fortunately, Qian Chen possessed the secret method of the Supreme Dao lineage: the Supreme Perception Scripture. This Dao text, passed down by the Supreme Dao Ancestor, details every secret of perceiving heaven and earth—it is the essential scripture for the Supreme Dao, indeed for the entire Daoist path, to break through the Perception threshold; for heterodox sects, demons, and even gods and Buddhas, it is the supreme secret.

It may not be transmitted to anyone outside the true Daoist lineage.

Qian Chen first released the Heavenly Net Umbrella to hover above his head, activating the Green Silk, which poured down a layer of pure qi—neither hindering his communion with heaven and earth nor allowing impure, dark, filthy, or turbid qi to cling to him, nor permitting external demons to disturb him; this layer of pure qi was exceedingly thick—even if someone sought to take advantage of his meditative state, they could not break through in less than ten or even twenty days.

He then flicked out a Pureness Talisman, releasing a clear light that swept once around the desolate courtyard, cleansing all filth; even the accumulated dark, stagnant qi from years of abandonment was greatly diminished.

Yet Qian Chen remained somewhat dissatisfied—this place still carried too much impure qi. Indeed, it was unfavorable for perception; true Daoist cultivators breaking through Perception either chose sacred mountains and great rivers—places where spiritual energy naturally converged—or, even secular noble families would select a site with perfect feng shui; even heterodox sects never chose a ruined, abandoned courtyard in some remote wilderness for their breakthrough.

But conditions were what they were, and Qian Chen possessed the secret transmission of the Louguan Dao, which did not require heavy reliance on external conditions for the Perception breakthrough.

After all, one only needed to gather one breath of external qi that was utterly pure and untainted by impurities; more complex qi patterns could even serve to refine perception.

Qian Chen silently recited the Supreme Perception Scripture, achieving utter emptiness and stillness, losing all sense of self, gradually sensing the profound and obscure merging with heaven and earth; his spirit perceived a hidden location. He softly uttered a command, expelled his internal qi, and shattered the Xuan Pass. Yet this Xuan Pass was neither the crown of his head nor the Yongquan point at his feet, neither the Dantian nor the Niwan—it was a void concealed three inches before his nose.

Qian Chen’s internal qi shattered the pass here, opening an external pass.

Within this external pass, divine qi brewed—it was the most wondrous point of cultivation, hence called the Xuan Pass One Point.

His entire body’s internal qi surged forth, gathering within the Xuan Pass One Point; Qian Chen felt his body hollow, as if thieves had emptied the house. At that moment, the entire world suddenly became crystal clear in his mind; his perception detached from his eyes, sinking gradually into the essence of qi—every blade of grass, every tree, every stone, every clod of earth shed its surface appearance and returned to its fundamental qi nature.

Qian Chen’s spiritual sense immediately perceived the subtle qualities of qi; even the moonlight falling upon him contained intricate and varied qi entanglements. He classified them using the Qi Discrimination Method: separating yin qi, cold qi, and others. Yin qi could be roughly divided into thirteen types, nine of which were too impure—either tainted with dark qi or excessively gloomy.

In short, they did not conform to the Nine Virtues of spiritual qi as described in the Qi Discrimination Method: spirit, clarity, purity, cleanliness, goodness, beauty, gentleness, harmony, and life.

Qi unsuitable for nurturing life or fostering all things.

Of the remaining four types of qi, there was the pure yin qi of the moon’s essence—the Taiyin Qi; there was a qi possessing yin and cold qualities but with a purer essence—the Bingpo Qi; the rest included Shaoyin Qi, Guanghan Qi, and others.

Qian Chen’s spiritual sense delved deeper, sensing still further distinctions within Taiyin Qi.

It is said that when the Supreme Dao Ancestor once expounded the Dao, he described perceiving qi as divided into a yuan—129,600 distinct types. The Lingbao Dao Ancestor once laughed, claiming he could perceive ten times that number. But after finishing his lecture, when Lingbao returned to the Biyou Palace, he suddenly understood and humbly told his disciples: “I am inferior to the Supreme!”

When his disciples asked why, they learned that the Supreme’s division of a yuan of qi, each with its own nature, represented the ultimate limit of heaven and earth’s differentiation. Lingbao could perceive more than ten times that number, but many of those qi types possessed no meaningful differences—or rather, the subtleties were so extreme that only a Dao Ancestor could perceive them, rendering them meaningless.

The Supreme Dao Ancestor stripped away the unnecessary, eliminating qi attributes useless in the operation of heaven and earth, simplifying qi’s properties.

This utterance established the Dao for heaven and earth. When Lingbao returned to the Biyou Palace, he found the Dao of heaven and earth clearer—the useless attributes no longer existed for heaven and earth; the Great Dao flowed more smoothly…

Only then did he realize that the Supreme embodied the Dao, while Lingbao expounded it—their realms differed.

Thereafter, the Lingbao Dao Ancestor imitated the Supreme, no longer expounding the Dao of heaven and earth, but instead cutting the Dao for himself…

Thus, although Qian Chen could also perceive subtle distinctions within Taiyin Qi, this merely tested the acuity of his spiritual sense; beneath the Primordial Spirit, these deeper properties of Taiyin Qi held no significance.

Like writing on paper—you do not need to distinguish whether the paper is off-white, ivory, pale white, or cream.

“I have perceived only seven subtle properties of Taiyin Qi. The Dao has nine yin—still some distance from the nine discernible by a Primordial Spirit True Person.” Qian Chen smiled faintly… yet he chose only one qi from his spiritual perception: the Pure Celestial Qi, refined and pure, the supreme external qi for perception and union.

Choosing this qi was the accumulated practical experience of countless Daoist elders—it ensured the purity of true qi without being so stringent that it slowed his qi transformation and recovery.

If one sought the purest of the pure, ten times more refined, the qi would be ten times rarer.

Others would cultivate ten days’ worth of magic power in a single day, while you would still be struggling to accumulate enough qi for Core Formation.

This Pure Celestial Qi had another advantage.

Spiritual qi is unevenly distributed across the world—near water, water qi naturally abounds; in deserts, gathering water qi becomes ten times harder. If the qi one perceives and gathers is too extreme—such as the Great Brightness Palace in the North Pole, where its cultivators condense Bingpo Qi—once they leave the North Pole, the Bingpo Qi becomes a hundred times rarer, making cultivation nearly impossible.

As a result, most Great Brightness Palace cultivators could only remain trapped in the North Pole, nicknamed “Cold Whales.”

A mockery of their inability to leave their location—like a whale that cannot leave the sea.

In truth, most cultivators face such difficulties: the qi of the mortal world is impure, so entering it makes gathering and refining qi difficult, forcing them to retreat from society and dwell in places rich with spiritual energy. Yet distancing themselves from society makes it hard to refine their spirit…

The advantage of condensing Pure Celestial Qi is that, though scarce in the mortal world, it becomes increasingly abundant the higher one ascends. This qi is clear and light, thus floating in the Nine Heavens; from any region of the Central Land, one can easily ascend and gather this clear, spiritual qi, transforming it into true qi and magic power.

Qian Chen already possessed a flying treasure—the Flying Cloud Pouch—which he could ride daily upon the clouds to gather Pure Celestial Qi.

Returning to the ground, he could slowly refine it—no matter where he was, his cultivation was never interrupted.

Hence, among heterodox cultivators, there is a common saying: “The stranger the qi, the faster you age; the rarer the qi, the sooner you die!”—mocking cultivators whose condensed qi is so esoteric they are trapped in their caves or locations, unable to associate with peers, until their minds grow dull.

And those old cultivators whose ambition soared higher than the heavens, gathering qi so rare and refined that they spent their entire lives unable to accumulate enough to break through, eventually sitting in meditation until death.

Qian Chen drew in the refined Pure Celestial Qi around him, one thread at a time—often requiring dozens of breaths before his spiritual sense could capture a single strand.

He had refined this pass like a dantian furnace, with inner chambers; one chamber was dedicated solely to storing this qi. After several hours, he had gathered enough clear, spiritual qi, then placed both this clear qi and one breath of internal qi into the Xuan Pass furnace, as if yin and yang rotated, clear and turbid rising and falling; he refined it nine times before uniting internal and external qi.

Like refining an elixir, he produced a single true qi.

That true qi returned to Qian Chen’s body, instantly flowing like a gentle stream throughout his entire form. He opened his eyes; in the dark chamber, a flash of lightning lit the room white. He pointed a finger, and the Flying Cloud Pouch, responding to his true qi, leapt from his robe, transforming into a blessed cloud that lifted him gently into the azure heavens…

The Flying Cloud Pouch rose higher and higher, soon hundreds of zhang above the ground.

The high-altitude winds grew fiercer; previously, Qian Chen would have been unable to endure them. But now, with his true qi formed, he could fully activate the Flying Cloud Pouch’s abilities—the cloud shield deflected the cold wind naturally.

Reaching the cloud layer, he stabilized the Flying Cloud Pouch, closed his eyes, and gathered the Pure Celestial Qi of the Nine Heavens.

In a time a hundred times faster than before, he gathered his second breath of clear qi, following the same method to combine it with his internal qi, quickly producing his second true qi.

From dawn to the moon at its zenith, then from moonset to the sun at its zenith, Qian Chen divided his mind to control the Flying Cloud Pouch while diligently cultivating, until he had refined nearly half his internal qi, his body now filled with a gentle, flowing stream of true qi—then he descended, returning to the desolate courtyard to restore his spirit.