Chapter 4

After obtaining the Qi Gathering Pill, Song Qingming returned to his cave dwelling without stopping, preparing to go into seclusion to break through to the mid-stage of Qi Refining.

After preparing everything, to avoid being disturbed by others, Song Qingming also set up a low-tier formation at the entrance of his cave dwelling.

Feeling that everything was secure, Song Qingming walked to the middle of his cave dwelling, sat cross-legged on a meditation cushion, formed a seal with both hands, and operated the "Quiet Heart Spirit Technique" to calm his somewhat nervous breath.

Taking out a "Clear Heart Talisman" and sticking it to his hand, and adjusting himself to his best state, Song Qingming opened his eyes and looked at this Qi Gathering Pill that he had spent nearly three years of savings to exchange for.

He silently recited to himself that he must succeed in this breakthrough this time, otherwise, he wouldn't know when he would be able to break through again.

Although he had failed once, Song Qingming was still full of confidence in this breakthrough. Having the experience of a failed breakthrough would also increase his success rate this time. With the Qi Gathering Pill this time, there shouldn't be any major problems with the breakthrough.

Song Qingming touched the Qi Gathering Pill in his hand and swallowed it without hesitation.

Slowly, a powerful spiritual energy came from within his body, impacting the meridians and spiritual acupoints in his body.

The Qi Gathering Pill is a first-grade top-quality spirit elixir. For Song Qingming, who is an early-stage cultivator, it contains a huge amount of spiritual energy.

Such a powerful stream of spiritual energy erupted from his dantian, rushing wildly along the three meridians he had already opened, which was also a great test for Song Qingming.

In the Qi Refining stage, opening each spiritual acupoint can open a meridian for absorbing spiritual energy, increasing the body's speed of absorbing spiritual energy, and also strengthening the capacity of one's own dantian. The number of spiritual acupoints and meridians opened by a cultivator determines the level of their cultivation. When all nine major spiritual acupoints and meridians are opened, one can reach the peak cultivation base of the Qi Refining stage—the ninth layer of Qi Refining.

Cultivators in the Qi Refining stage are divided into three levels: the first to third layers of Qi Refining are the early stage of Qi Refining, the fourth to sixth layers are the mid-stage, and the seventh to ninth layers are the late stage. After reaching the ninth layer of Qi Refining, breaking through further can allow one to enter the next major realm and become a rare Foundation Establishment cultivator in this world.

However, the vast majority of cultivators in the cultivation world can only linger in the Qi Refining stage. Less than one in a hundred can break through to Foundation Establishment. There are nearly a thousand cultivators in the entire Qinghe County, but there are only six Foundation Establishment cultivators.

The first three spiritual acupoints of a Qi Refining stage cultivator are the easiest to open, and the increase in dantian capacity is not too much. From the fourth spiritual acupoint onwards, the difficulty increases exponentially. This is also a common occurrence in cultivation. The higher the difficulty, the greater the harvest. Breaking through the bottleneck of the mid-stage of Qi Refining will also double the dantian capacity. The same applies to the bottleneck of the seventh spiritual acupoint in the late stage of Qi Refining.

Song Qingming understood very well that he did not succeed in breaking through last time because he did not gather enough spiritual energy in his dantian, which led to falling short at the last moment when breaking through the spiritual acupoint barrier.

With the experience of the last time, he carefully operated the "Kunyuan Technique," a cultivation technique he had practiced for many years, to guide the spiritual energy to operate, and then guided this huge stream of spiritual energy from his dantian into the meridian of the fourth spiritual acupoint in his body, one thread at a time.

This "Kunyuan Technique" is just a common earth-attribute cultivation technique in the Qi Refining stage, which can only be cultivated to the peak of Qi Refining. The clan has five-element cultivation techniques for the Qi Refining stage, but the only cultivation technique that can be cultivated to Foundation Establishment is the fire-attribute "Red Flame Technique" practiced by the clan leader and a few others.

Song Qingming possesses a four-attribute spirit root. Because his earth-attribute spirit root is better, he chose to practice this cultivation technique that is more suitable for his earth attribute.

A few days later, the spiritual energy in Song Qingming's dantian accumulated more and more, eventually forming a powerful torrent, rushing towards the barrier at the meridian.

He seemed to hear a loud "boom" in his brain.

Song Qingming felt a roar in his body. After a sound in his meridians, a very comfortable feeling spread throughout his body, and the spiritual energy in his dantian increased by more than double.

Slowly operating the cultivation technique again to make the spiritual energy circulate in his body for a week, it finally calmed down. This time, taking the elixir finally broke through to the mid-stage of Qi Refining without any accidents, reaching the fourth layer of Qi Refining.

After spending half a day stabilizing his cultivation base, Song Qingming opened the stone door and walked out of the cave dwelling. From today on, Song Qingming can be considered to have officially become a mid-stage Qi Refining cultivator.

Cooking two bowls of spirit rice in the cave dwelling, Song Qingming relieved the hunger brought by the few days of seclusion and felt that his speed of absorbing spiritual energy had indeed increased by several percent.

Refining the full spiritual energy in the spirit rice he had just eaten, Song Qingming began to study the various magic spells he had been dreaming of in his cave dwelling.

Early-stage Qi Refining cultivators do not have enough cultivation base to gather enough spiritual energy outside their bodies, so they can only perform some low-tier magic spells. If they want to perform higher-level magic spells, they can only barely perform them with the help of spirit talisman-type props. This is very different from the magic spells performed naturally by relying on one's own spiritual energy after the cultivation base is improved, and the power is also very different.

Once a cultivator reaches the mid-stage of Qi Refining, they can have enough spiritual energy to release outside their bodies and easily perform various magic spells. Their fighting ability will also increase a lot. Under normal circumstances, the fighting ability of a fourth-layer Qi Refining cultivator is definitely stronger than that of two third-layer Qi Refining cultivators combined.

"Entanglement Technique," "Sound Transmission Technique," "Breath Concealment Technique," "Earth Spike Technique," "Fireball Technique," "Mind-Fixing Technique," "Wind-Riding Technique," "Object Control Technique."

The power of these low-tier magic spells depends entirely on the depth of the caster's magic power.

If a person with great supernatural powers performs them, they can turn a thousand miles of fertile land into a desert, or condense a long river into a glacier, all according to their wishes.

Of course, for Song Qingming, who has just entered the mid-stage of Qi Refining, this is still a fantasy. The spiritual energy in his body is very limited even if he has reached the mid-stage of Qi Refining. He can only barely perform these low-tier magic spells. If he wants to practice more high-tier magic spells with greater power, he will have to wait until his cultivation base is higher and the spiritual energy in his body is sufficient.

Song Qingming, who was obsessed with various fresh magic spells, did not walk out of the cave dwelling until half a month later.

A green light flew out from Song Qingming's hand and instantly shot at a giant rock more than ten zhang away from the cave dwelling. After a "bang," a cloud of dust and gravel rose. After a while, the dust dissipated, and a corner of the giant rock had already been cut off by the green light.

Song Qingming changed the magic seal in his hand, and the green light flew back to his side at high speed, turning into a green-black iron sword.

"This sword-controlling technique, I can almost use it proficiently and according to my wishes."

In half a month, Song Qingming not only successfully cultivated the "Kunyuan Technique" to the fourth layer but also learned seven or eight low-tier magic spells. Now he can be considered a genuine mid-stage Qi Refining cultivator.

After Song Qingming put away the flying sword in front of him, he went to the clan's Treasury Pavilion to update his cultivation level and received a storage bag he had dreamed of.

A storage bag is an essential item for cultivators in the cultivation world, but one must at least reach the mid-stage of Qi Refining and learn to release spiritual power before they can use it. After a cultivator refines it, as long as they inject some spiritual power into the storage bag and lock the item, they can automatically load and take it out.

The storage bag Song Qingming received is only a low-tier storage bag with a space of only three chi. Even the lowest-tier storage bag is not cheap in the market, costing at least ten spirit stones each. However, in order to encourage the younger generation in the clan to work hard at cultivation, the Song Clan issues a low-tier storage bag for free to everyone in the clan after they break through to the mid-stage of Qi Refining, which can be considered a reward for them.

Releasing a drop of his own essence blood to merge into the storage bag, Song Qingming performed a few magic seals and successfully completed the refining. After counting all his belongings, he put them all into the storage bag.

A low-tier mysterious iron sword, a set of low-tier five-element formation flags, a few low-tier talismans, thirty jin of spirit rice, and a dozen spirit stones. These are all of Song Qingming's belongings now.

Compared to other mid-stage Qi Refining cultivators, he doesn't even have a mid-grade magic tool on him now. It can be said that he is extremely poor. Once he encounters a cultivator of the same level and fights, he will definitely suffer a big loss.

A mid-grade flying sword in the market costs about thirty spirit stones. If he wants to exchange for one, the spirit stones on him are not enough.

Now that he has successfully broken through to the mid-stage of Qi Refining, the next step is to find a way to earn spirit stones, pay back the spirit stones he borrowed from Thirteenth Uncle and the others, and slowly arm himself.

(End of chapter)