Chapter 38: Breaking Through Sensing, Nine Heavens Qi Refining

Brother Qian Chen's eyes blurred, and he returned to the remote courtyard where he was temporarily staying. The small courtyard was filled with moonlight like water, peaceful and quiet, and the faint chirping of insects came from all around.

Sensing all this familiarity, Brother Qian Chen frowned, subconsciously looking up at the moon to observe the moon phase.

Looking at the moon phase that was exactly the same as before he entered the Samsara world, his eyes froze, and then he lowered his head to calculate.

To ensure everything was foolproof, Brother Qian Chen even calculated three times in a row before confirming that this was the very next moment after he entered the Samsara world... He spent several days completing the mission in other worlds of the void, and stayed in the Samsara Land for two full days, yet the time in the Central Plains world did not flow at all.

As if what happened in the Samsara Land was just an illusion.

"The time in the Samsara Land is relatively independent from the Central Plains! It seems that the great power of the Samsara Lord is beyond my expectations."

Brother Qian Chen sighed.

After returning to the Central Plains world, the refined Dao practice did not disappear, indicating that everything that happened in the Samsara Land was not an illusion cast by some great power. At this time, the internal energy of his body was already eager to move, about to break through the mysterious gate and disperse into heaven and earth, and his spiritual sense also vaguely produced a wonderful induction with the heaven and earth energy within dozens of miles around.

As long as Brother Qian Chen had a thought, he could break through the mysterious gate with his internal energy and merge with the heaven and earth energy.

Combining internal and external energy in this way, refining the void into truth, and turning it into a mouthful of true energy, is the proper Qi Refining practitioner, not the embarrassment of only being able to use internal energy to drive magic weapons before.

But Brother Qian Chen knew that the more it was at this time, the more he had to be steady and nourish his energy. This first mouthful of true energy born from the combination of internal and external energy was related to the foundation. If this step went wrong, it would take a lot of hard work in the future to slowly fade away the impurities of the true energy.

Brother Qian Chen didn't want to stay in the Qi Refining realm for decades to make up for today's mistake.

Ordinary sects and major teachings often have closed-door meditation rooms for this step, equipped with arrays to gather spiritual energy and restrictions to block turbid energy. Sensing energy in the meditation room can avoid contamination by turbid energy.

It's just that this also has a disadvantage, which is the lack of various subtle inductions and complex energy tempering of heaven and earth energy when breaking through sensing. The sensitivity to these complex energies is insufficient, and although it does not hinder Qi gathering, it is too rough for the perception of heaven and earth energy relative to the Daoist true transmission.

It's like a colorblind person

If one cultivates magic techniques and divine abilities in the future, such as divination and fortune-telling, which require sensing extremely complex changes in qi, one's aptitude will be very poor. That is why it is said that the two barriers of Foundation Establishment and Sensing are related to one's innate root bone and aptitude, and are closely linked to a cultivator's future achievements.

The foundation that practitioners often speak of refers to these.

Fortunately, Brother Qian Chen possesses the secret technique of the Supreme Dao inheritance, the "Supreme Sensing Scripture." This Daoist book was passed down by the Supreme Dao Ancestor and describes the various key points of sensing heaven and earth. It is a required text for the Supreme Dao, and even the entire Daoist sect, to break through the sensing barrier. For those of the side paths, and even for demons, Buddhas, and gods, it is a supreme secret technique.

It cannot be taught to anyone who is not a true disciple of the Daoist sect.

Brother Qian Chen first released the Heaven Net Umbrella to hang above his head and activated the Green Net. A sheet of clear qi descended; it did not hinder Brother Qian Chen's communication with heaven and earth, but it could prevent the contamination of miscellaneous qi, bad luck, foul qi, and turbid qi, as well as the disturbance of various external demons. This sheet of clear qi was extremely thick; even if someone wanted to plot against him while Brother Qian Chen was in meditation, it would be difficult to break through in ten or eight days.

He then flicked out a Cleansing Talisman, emitting a clear light that swept around this desolate little courtyard, clearing away all kinds of filth. Even the gloomy, stagnant qi that had accumulated from long periods of vacancy dissipated quite a bit.

Brother Qian Chen was still somewhat dissatisfied; the miscellaneous qi here was ultimately too heavy. It was actually unfavorable for sensing. Orthodox Daoist cultivators who break through the sensing barrier either do so in spiritual mountains and great rivers, where spiritual energy naturally gathers. Even children of secular aristocratic families would choose a place with excellent Feng Shui. Even those of the side paths would not randomly choose a desolate, long-vacant, dilapidated house in the wilderness to break through.

But the conditions were as they were, and Brother Qian Chen possessed the secret inheritance of the Supreme Louguan Dao; the sensing barrier did not require too much emphasis on external conditions.

After all, as long as one takes a mouthful of external qi that is extremely pure and avoids miscellaneous filth, that is enough. If other qi is a bit complex, it can even train one's perception.

Brother Qian Chen silently recited the "Supreme Sensing Scripture," reaching a state of extreme emptiness and stillness, forgetting his own body. Gradually, he felt dim and obscure, merging with heaven and earth, his mind perceiving a secret location. He gave a light shout and exhaled internal qi, breaking through the mysterious barrier. This mysterious barrier was not the crown of his head, nor the bubbling spring at his feet, not the Niwan, nor the dantian, but a place hidden in the void three inches in front of his nose.

Brother Qian Chen's internal qi broke through the barrier here, opening up an external aperture.

This external aperture had divine qi brewing within it; it was the most wonderful place for cultivation, hence it is called the Mysterious Barrier Aperture.

His internal qi surged out, hidden within the Mysterious Barrier Aperture. Brother Qian Chen felt his body empty and vast, as if the thieves had left and the building was empty. At this moment, the entire world in Brother Qian Chen's heart suddenly became clear. His perception detached from his eyes and gradually sank into the essence of primordial qi. Every blade of grass, every tree, every stone, every piece of earth, all shed their appearances and fed back the essence of primordial qi.

Brother Qian Chen's spiritual sense immediately perceived the subtle properties of the primordial qi. Just in the falling moonlight, there were various complex primordial qi entangled, each with its own subtlety. Brother Qian Chen distinguished them according to the Qi Discrimination Method, classifying the yin qi, cold qi, and so on. The yin primordial qi could be roughly divided into thirteen types, nine of which were relatively impure, either carrying bad luck or being too gloomy.

In short, they did not quite conform to the nine virtues of spiritual qi mentioned in the Qi Discrimination Method: spiritual, clear, pure, clean, kind, beautiful, soft, harmonious, and living.

They were not primordial qi suitable for nourishing living things or nurturing all things.

Among the remaining four types of primordial qi, there was the pure yin qi of the moon's essence—the Taiyin Primordial Qi; there was also a type of primordial qi with yin and cold properties, whose essence was relatively pure—the Ice Soul Primordial Qi; and the remaining ones included the Lesser Yin Primordial Qi, the Vast Cold Primordial Qi, and so on.

Brother Qian Chen's spiritual sense perceived more deeply and carefully, finding that there were many different properties within the Taiyin Primordial Qi.

It is said that when the Supreme Dao Ancestor lectured on the Dao in the past, he spoke of sensing primordial qi, dividing it into the number of one yuan, as many as 129,600 types. The Lingbao Dao Ancestor once laughed and said that the number he could sense exceeded this by ten times. When the lecture was over and the Lingbao Dao Ancestor returned to the Biyou Palace, he suddenly realized and was immediately ashamed, saying to those around him: "I am not as good as the Supreme!"

The disciples under the Lingbao Dao Ancestor asked for the reason, only to learn that the one yuan of qi divided by the Supreme, each with its own properties, was already the limit of the heaven and earth's fine division. Although the Lingbao Dao Ancestor could sense more than ten times this amount, many of the primordial qi did not have property differences. Or rather, those subtle differences, apart from the Dao Ancestor being able to perceive them, were already meaningless.

The Supreme Dao Ancestor deleted the complex and simplified, removing those primordial qi attributes that were useless in the operation of heaven and earth, simplifying the attributes of primordial qi.

This statement was the Supreme establishing the Dao for heaven and earth. When Lingbao returned to the Biyou Palace, he discovered that the Dao of heaven and earth was clearer, and various useless attributes no longer existed for heaven and earth. The operation of the Great Dao was smoother...

Only then did he know that the Supreme merged with the Dao while Lingbao expounded the Dao, and there was a difference in their realms.

Thereafter, the Lingbao Dao Ancestor imitated the Supreme, no longer expounding the Great Dao of heaven and earth, but instead intercepting the Dao to do so...

Therefore, although Brother Qian Chen could also sense the various property differences within the Taiyin Qi, this only verified the sharpness of his spiritual sense. Below the Primordial Spirit, these deeper attributes of the Taiyin Qi were meaningless.

It is just like writing on paper; you do not need to distinguish whether the paper is off-white, ivory white, light white, or milky white.

"I only perceived seven subtle attributes of this Taiyin Primordial Qi. The Dao has nine yin, which is still some distance from the nine types that a Primordial Spirit True Person can perceive." Brother Qian Chen smiled slightly... but he only chose to adopt a type of clear spiritual qi from his spiritual sense perception. This was the Nine Heavens Clear Qi, refined and pure, and it was a supreme external qi for sensing and merging with the truth.

Adopting this primordial qi is the practical experience of Daoist predecessors over countless years; it can guarantee the purity of true qi without being too harsh in qi collection, which would make refining magic power slow and recovery difficult.

If one takes the essence from the essence and makes it ten times purer, then the primordial qi will be ten times rarer.

The magic power others refine in a day would take you ten days of hard work; naturally, by the time others have broken through to the Primordial Spirit, you are still practicing hard to accumulate primordial qi for Core Formation.

This Nine Heavens Clear Spiritual Qi has another benefit.

The distribution of primordial qi in the world is not uniform. Near the water, there is naturally more water-attribute primordial qi; in the desert, collecting water qi is naturally ten times more difficult. If the distribution of the primordial qi one senses and collects is too extreme, such as the Great Brightness Palace at the North Pole, where cultivators condense Ice Soul Primordial Qi, once they leave the North Pole, the Ice Soul Primordial Qi is a hundred times rarer, making it almost impossible to cultivate.

As a result, most cultivators of the Great Brightness Palace can only be trapped at the North Pole, known as Cold Whales.

Taking the meaning that a whale cannot leave the great ocean... mocking them for being trapped in one place.

In fact, most cultivators have this kind of difficulty. The primordial qi of the mortal world is impure; if one enters the mortal world, collecting qi and practicing qi is difficult, so they can only stay away from the mortal world and live in places full of spiritual energy. And staying away from the mortal world makes it difficult to temper one's heart and nature...

And the benefit of condensing the Nine Heavens Clear Spiritual Qi is that although this kind of primordial qi is relatively rare in the mortal world, as long as one flies upward, the higher one goes, the more abundant the clear spiritual qi becomes. This qi is clear and spiritual, so it floats in the Nine Heavens. From any region in the Central Lands, one can easily collect clear spiritual qi and refine it into true qi and magic power by flying upward.

Brother Qian Chen had long possessed a flying treasure—the Flying Cloud Pocket. Every day, he only needed to ride the cloud qi up to the sky to collect the Nine Heavens Clear Spiritual Qi.

Returning to the ground to refine it slowly, he would not delay his cultivation no matter where he was.

Therefore, there is often a common saying among side-path cultivators: "The stranger the primordial qi, the faster one grows old. The rarer the primordial qi, the sooner one dies!" This mocks those cultivators who condense primordial qi that is too eccentric, resulting in being trapped in a cave dwelling or a certain place, unable to associate with fellow Daoists, and over time, their brains becoming dull from cultivation.

And those old cultivators whose hearts are higher than the sky, who collect primordial qi that is too rare and refined, but end up failing to accumulate enough in their whole lives, unable to break through their realm and only able to sit and die.

Brother Qian Chen collected the refined Nine Heavens Clear Spiritual Qi from around him into the Mysterious Barrier Aperture, thread by thread. It often took dozens of breaths for his spiritual sense to capture a single thread.

He had refined this aperture to be like a pill furnace, with different pill chambers inside. One of the pill chambers was specifically used to store this qi. After several hours, he had collected enough clear spiritual qi. He took that mouthful of clear spiritual qi and a mouthful of internal qi, and put them together into the Mysterious Barrier Aperture furnace, like yin and yang rotating, clear and turbid rising and falling. He refined them nine times like this before merging the internal and external qi into one.

Like refining a pill, he refined a mouthful of true qi.

That mouthful of true qi returned from the mysterious barrier to Brother Qian Chen's body, immediately flowing through his whole body like a trickling stream. Brother Qian Chen opened his eyes, and in the dark, empty room, it was like a flash of lightning, and the whole room turned white. He pointed his finger, and the Flying Cloud Pocket sensed the true qi, jumping out from his bosom and turning into a cloud of auspiciousness, lifting Brother Qian Chen up into the distance, straight into the blue void...

The Flying Cloud Pocket flew higher and higher, soon hundreds of feet off the ground.

The cold wind at high altitude became more urgent; if it were before, Brother Qian Chen would have been unable to bear it. But at this time, his true qi was achieved, and he could truly activate all the wonderful uses of the Flying Cloud Pocket. With a block of the cloud qi, the cold wind naturally bypassed Brother Qian Chen.

Flying to the clouds like this, Brother Qian Chen controlled the Flying Cloud Pocket to stabilize, closed his eyes, and collected the Nine Heavens Clear Spiritual Qi.

It took only a hundred times less time than before for Brother Qian Chen to collect the second mouthful of clear spiritual qi. Following the original method, he refined it with his internal qi, and soon he refined the second mouthful of true qi.

From the sky turning white to the moon reaching the middle of the sky, and then from the moonlight moving down to the sun reaching the middle of the sky, Brother Qian Chen divided his mind to control the Flying Cloud Pocket while practicing hard with all his heart, until he had refined a small half of his internal qi and the true qi in his body was flowing like a stream, only then did he lower the cloud head and return to that desolate little courtyard to recuperate his spirit.