Qi Refining

Evening.

The setting sun slanted westward.

At this hour in midsummer, the sun was no longer scorching. As the clouds and rosy sunset veiled the sky, the heat between heaven and earth was swept away as well.

Beneath the dark-red sky, the evening breeze stirred the curtains of a speeding carriage.

The curtains flickered, revealing a young Daoist in azure robes seated within the carriage.

Young, otherworldly.

If Tu Shan Jun had been here, he would certainly have recognized this man.

The resident immortal master of Eight Directions Prefecture City.

The boy driving the carriage raised his whip high. With a crack, it exploded through the air, suddenly smashing apart a white ghost lurking by the roadside.

Two fine horses raced side by side, and the wheels rumbled onward.

The great city of Liang Capital lay right ahead.

The resident immortal master slowly opened his eyes. Spiritual light shimmered within them as he stared directly at the distant city walls and murmured, "I hope I'm not too late."

That battle had been exceptionally brutal.

The two Attendant immortal masters had died on the spot.

The Green-Faced Fiend had broken through in battle and knocked him unconscious with severe injuries in a single move.

He had thought his path to survival had ended there, yet unexpectedly, he had survived.

The old Daoist from Five Directions Temple and his boy had dug him out of the rubble.

By the time he awoke, three days had already passed.

According to the old Daoist, that Demon Cultivator had already died. However, both the artifact and the corpse had been collected by Liang Capital's Embroidered Uniform Guard.

They had taken away the corpses of the two Attendants from Liang Capital as well.

Thus, the resident immortal master concluded that the Soul Banner artifact had also been taken away and delivered to Liang Capital's Attendant Tower.

It would have been fine if someone from the righteous path obtained it. But if it fell into the hands of someone with a crooked heart, it would absolutely give birth to a fiend.

That Soul Banner was truly extraordinary.

The fiendish ghost raised within it was far from ordinary as well.

The red-haired Green-Faced Ghost was immensely powerful and possessed nimble intelligence.

Cunning and vicious.

Ordinary cultivators were no match for him.

Moreover, the Soul Banner itself had an excellent foundation.

As a disciple of the Five Spirit Sect, he could naturally tell that the artifact was at least mid-grade, perhaps even high-grade.

Even a Qi Refining Third Layer Demon Cultivator could only swing it once before lacking the strength to continue. The chances of it being a High-Grade Artifact were clearly even greater.

He faintly regretted it.

Back then, although he had told the Prefect that he would request aid from his sect, his private desires had swayed him, and he had ultimately failed to send out the command talisman. Now, the artifact had ended up loose in the world, creating further complications instead.

It would have been better to send out the command talisman then and summon an elder from the sect, or a senior brother whose cultivation far surpassed his own.

But regret was too late now. It would be better to find the Soul Banner's whereabouts sooner.

He was certain the Soul Banner was in the hands of a Qi Refiner at Liang Capital's Attendant Tower.

Thus, once his injuries improved, he had rushed here without stopping for even a moment.

He only hoped they did not recognize its value and, preferably, had not yet used the Soul Banner.

If they had already used it, then things truly would be difficult to say.

Later, he had also wondered: could everyone earn the Soul Banner's recognition as Li Qingfeng had?

Otherwise, given that fiendish ghost's strength, it would have devoured its banner master long ago.

The carriage wheels crushed small branches scattered across the road, carrying the resident immortal master's thoughts toward Liang Capital as well.

Old Xiang's condition continued for quite some time.

Tu Shan Jun figured out what to do.

Since the inner qi was abundant but the lack of meridians prevented the completion of the Greater Celestial Circuit, he could guide the excess inner qi into the Soul Banner.

The Soul Banner was an artifact capable of using inner qi with the properties of spiritual power.

Could he not use the Soul Banner as extended meridians, forming an inner and outer circulation to complete the entire Greater Celestial Circuit?

Tu Shan Jun clapped his hands and cried out, "I really am a genius!"

People often said the Innate realm was difficult—difficult because inner qi had to reach perfection, difficult because of the Greater Celestial Circuit, difficult because after reaching the pinnacle, one had to open every acupoint throughout the body, return from the acquired to the Innate, transform all inner qi into spiritual power, and fill the dantian.

Yet what was difficult for ordinary people was easy for Tu Shan Jun.

If inner qi was not full, then eat Yin Soul Pills until it was.

If the Greater Celestial Circuit could not be completed, then use the Soul Banner as an extension to form an inner and outer circulation.

First transform the inner qi into spiritual power, then use that spiritual power to scour the body, open the blocked acupoints, and reverse oneself into the Innate.

If this theory proved true, then even an ordinary person, once in Tu Shan Jun's hands, could swiftly become an Innate martial artist and a Qi Refiner.

Tu Shan Jun had already made his preparations, but Old Xiang felt that he seemed unable to break through.

He could not complete the second step, the cyclical flow and renewal of the Greater Celestial Circuit.

He slightly opened his eyes. The light in them grew ever brighter, but his expression was dim and lost as he asked, "Is this as far as I go?"

The moment he opened his eyes, he felt the Soul Banner in his robes tremble.

Old Xiang propped himself up and took out the Soul Banner, his voice bitter. "Treasure, I..."

Before he could finish, the treasure trembled ceaselessly, as though reminding him of something.

Old Xiang was no fool. How could he fail to understand that the treasure was trying to tell him something?

But what exactly was it?

"Don't tell me you need more inner qi again. Right now, I..."

Old Xiang stopped halfway through his words. As though he had thought of something, his eyes flew wide open.

Since his inner qi was surging, could he send it into the Soul Banner to relieve the pressure?

Whether he could ultimately break through to the Innate realm and become a Qi Refiner or not, he first had to preserve his life.

As soon as the thought came, he acted, directly channeling his inner qi into the Soul Banner.

But after sending it into the Soul Banner, he discovered a fatal problem. Although a circulation could now form within his body,

the remaining inner qi was insufficient to force open the rest of the blocked acupoints.

"Take a pill."

If inner qi was insufficient, he would take a black bead and replenish the inner qi he had lost.

In truth, Old Xiang could draw the inner qi back out of the Soul Banner. But he had never tried it before, and in his anxiety, he did not want to waste time.

Having a method was already good enough. There was no need to follow the most perfect script.

After swallowing a Yin Soul Pill, a vast amount of spiritual qi transformed into inner qi, replenishing his previously insufficient reserves. The circulation continued, forcing open the remaining blocked acupoints.

Rumble.

The acupoints throughout his body burst open, and the Greater Celestial Circuit was achieved.

The acquired returned to the Innate.

His inner qi directly transformed into spiritual power.

Old Xiang began circulating the Nether Spirit Art. Its incantation and technique complemented his spiritual power perfectly, in complete harmony.

In an instant, Old Xiang reached the Qi Refining First Layer.

Qi Refining Second Layer.

Third Layer.

Only upon reaching the Qi Refining Third Layer did Old Xiang stop.

His remaining inner qi had yet to finish transforming, but the technique only had three layers.

The untransformed inner qi became nourishment for his body under the pressure of spiritual power. Yet even more of it overflowed directly from the acupoints of his body and dissipated into heaven and earth.

Old Xiang suddenly opened his eyes. Spiritual light was contained within them, and his qi and blood brimmed throughout his body.

Even his face had grown at least ten years younger.

He had originally been a man in his fifties who looked over sixty. Now, he finally looked somewhat like someone his own age.

He felt as if he had returned to the peak of his qi and blood.

"I made it."

Old Xiang clenched his fists. Though there was no dragon's roar or tiger's howl, he could not help letting out a long breath of clear air.

The invisible shackles around his body shattered completely.

He felt the unrestrained joy of breaking free from a cage.

Old Xiang was overjoyed, but Tu Shan Jun within the banner was vexed.

"If I'd known so much would transform, I should have chosen the Blood Fiend Art for him."

"What a waste of countless amounts of inner qi."

Tu Shan Jun regretted letting Old Xiang choose his own technique.

The Nether Spirit Art only went to the third layer, corresponding to the Qi Refining Third Layer. Without a follow-up technique, the inner qi could not transform at all, causing most of it to go to waste.

But Tu Shan Jun could not be blamed for this either. He had not known it would turn out this way.

Though the memories of those two Rogue Cultivator Attendants contained rumors of martial artists advancing into Qi Refiners, they knew very little.

Instead, Zhao Shixian's initial skill seed had given him much experience concerning martial artists advancing into Qi Refiners.

Even so, its descriptions had been very vague. It only provided a general direction, with none of the finer details.

That was why Tu Shan Jun's understanding of martial artists advancing into Qi Refiners had remained rather shallow.

He had thought that inner qi would at most transform enough to reach the first or second layer. He had never expected it to fail to stop even at the third layer, wasting a large portion besides.

It was simply a major mistake.

If it had been possible, he might have directly reached the fourth or fifth layer.

Tu Shan Jun felt that some exceptionally gifted Innate martial artists might open all one hundred acupoints and transform their spiritual power, charging directly to the seventh or eighth layer.

They would save themselves more than ten years of bitter cultivation.

Of course, the path of martial artists becoming Qi Refiners was itself a route chosen only by those whose spiritual root aptitude was so poor that they could not sense qi at all.

Any cultivator with a Five Spirit Root would not spend decades practicing martial arts, then attempt one final desperate gamble to reverse themselves into the Innate and bet on reaching the late stages of Qi Refining.

If a Five Spirit Root cultivator possessed sufficient perseverance, they could sense qi in three months.

After reversing into the Innate, one's cultivation speed was even a little slower than that of a cultivator with Five Spirit Root aptitude, making it the lowest aptitude in the entire cultivation world.

Five Spirit Roots were called False Spirit Roots.

Reversing into the Innate sounded impressive, but in reality, it was even worse than a False Spirit Root.