Chapter 4

After getting the Qi-Gathering Pill, Song Qingming returned to his cave dwelling without stopping, and began to prepare for closed-door cultivation 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-level array at the entrance of the cave dwelling.

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

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

He silently recited in his heart that he must succeed in the 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 his breakthrough this time. Having the experience of a failed breakthrough would also increase the success rate of his breakthrough this time. With the Qi-Gathering Pill this time, there shouldn't be any big 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 his body, impacting the meridians and spiritual acupoints in his body.

The Qi-Gathering Pill is a first-level high-grade spirit elixir. For Song Qingming, who is a low-level cultivator, it contains huge spiritual energy.

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

In the Qi-Refining stage, every time a spiritual acupoint is opened, a meridian for absorbing spiritual energy can be opened, increasing the speed of the body's absorption of spiritual energy, and also strengthening the capacity of one's own dantian. The number of spiritual acupoints and meridians a cultivator opens determines the level of their cultivation. When all nine major spiritual acupoints and meridians are opened, one can reach the peak of the Qi-Refining stage—the ninth level of Qi Refining.

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

It's just that 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. The entire Qinghe County has nearly a thousand cultivators, but there are only six Foundation Establishment cultivators.

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

Song Qingming understood very well that he failed to break through last time because he couldn't gather enough spiritual energy in his dantian, leading to failure when finally breaking through the barrier of the spiritual acupoint.

With the experience of the last time, he carefully operated the "Kunyuan Art" he had cultivated for many years to guide the operation of spiritual energy, and then guided this huge spiritual energy from the dantian to the meridian of the fourth spiritual acupoint in his body bit by bit.

This "Kunyuan Art" 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 the Foundation Establishment stage is the fire-attribute "Red Flame Art" cultivated by the clan leader and a few others.

Song Qingming possesses four-attribute spiritual roots. Because his earth-attribute spiritual root is better, he chose to cultivate 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, finally forming a powerful torrent, rushing toward the barrier at the meridian.

He seemed to hear a loud rumble in his brain.

Song Qingming felt a roar in his body. After a sound in the meridians, a very comfortable feeling suddenly came from all over his body, and the spiritual energy in his dantian increased by a factor of two.

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, he finally broke through to the mid-stage of Qi Refining without any accidents, reaching the fourth level 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 closed-door cultivation 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 spells he had been longing for in the cave dwelling.

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

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

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

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

If it were a person with great supernatural powers, they could turn a thousand miles of fertile land into a desert, or freeze a long river into a glacier, which is all at their will.

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

Song Qingming, who was addicted to various fresh spells, didn't 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 feet away from the cave dwelling. After a "bang," a burst of dust and gravel was raised. A moment later, 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 front at high speed, turning into a blue-black iron sword.

"This sword-controlling technique, I can almost use it skillfully and at will."

In half a month, Song Qingming not only successfully cultivated the "Kunyuan Art" to the fourth level but also learned seven or eight low-level 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 family's Treasure Pavilion to update his cultivation level and received a storage bag he had dreamed of.

A storage bag is a must-have for cultivators in the world of immortal cultivation, but it must be used at least after reaching the mid-stage of Qi Refining and learning to release spiritual power. 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 was only a primary storage bag with a space of only three feet. Even the lowest-level 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 cultivate hard, the Song family will issue a primary 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 and fusing it 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-level mysterious iron sword, a set of low-level five-element array flags, a few low-level talismans, thirty catties of spirit rice, and more than ten spirit stones. This is 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 he has 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)