Fourth Layer of Qi Refining

The news of the Chen family winning the Little Bamboo Peak competition spread throughout the southern foothills of the Moon Gazing Mountain Range within a single day.

Except for a few reclusive cultivators who remained aloof from worldly affairs, the recorded duels between Chen Xingyuan and Luo Rufeng, and Chen Heng and Luo Yuyan, were essentially circulated through all the market towns, large and small, in the southern foothills.

The main reason for this was that the dueling process in this competition was quite captivating.

Whether it was Chen Xingyuan's cultivation of the ancient and wondrous technique, the Withered Wood Dragon Chant Art, or the Death Substitution Charm Doll that took the blow for Luo Yuyan, or Chen Heng's various schemes to turn defeat into victory.

These all had significant selling points, and the jade slips containing these duel recordings were not expensive.

Most of them were sold for only two or three Spirit Stones.

However, Chen Heng had no time to pay attention to these matters.

It wasn't until the third day after the competition concluded that the Chen family's Great Elder, Chen Xingzhou, personally visited.

"Ming Heng, we owe much of our victory in this competition to you," Chen Xingzhou said with a rare smile.

Ming Heng!?

This meant he had already been recorded in the family genealogy.

Chen Heng responded calmly, "It was merely taking advantage of the opponent's underestimation and a lucky victory. It's not worth mentioning, and I was simply acting in self-defense."

Chen Xingzhou's smile froze for a moment before returning to normal. He sighed, "The matter of the draw was indeed handled improperly by the family, but I can guarantee that the draw lot was not tampered with."

"The list for that day's draw even included my own unworthy son."

Chen Xingzhou had focused on cultivation in his youth, and after becoming an elder, he was busy with administrative affairs. His son was born when he was sixty years old, a late arrival.

Unfortunately, his son's spiritual root quality was average, but as a direct descendant, he was still very doted upon.

Chen Heng listened without saying a word.

Whether the draw was fair or not held no significance for him anymore.

Seeing this, Chen Xingzhou did not dwell on the issue further. He knew that Chen Heng's sense of belonging to the family was currently weak and that he would have to plan for the long term.

"After the competition concluded, the Luo family accepted their defeat and offered compensation for violating the rules."

"However, since Luo Yuyan explicitly stated she had joined Venerable Hanfeng's tutelage."

"The family dared not pressure the Luo family too much. What little we received is all in this storage bag."

"And this is the family's commendation for you."

Chen Xingzhou finished speaking unhurriedly and then took out an exquisite high-grade first-tier storage bag from his sleeve, placing it on the table.

He then got up to leave. He glanced around the simple wooden hut and frowned, "The cave dwelling on the mountainside has been prepared. Ming Heng, you should move out of here as soon as possible."

"The spiritual energy at the foot of the mountain is thin. Don't delay your cultivation."

After handing over all the necessary arrangements, Chen Xingzhou no longer lingered and left directly.

As the Great Elder of the Chen family, he still had many matters to attend to.

He couldn't spend his days doting on a junior who had shown a slight talent for combat.

Moreover, in the path of cultivation, talent often mattered more than combat talent.

After all, cultivators had limited lifespans.

The history of the Chen family recorded many instances of cultivators who became engrossed in improving their combat abilities, neglecting their own cultivation, and ultimately missing their breakthrough opportunities, dying of old age.

After Chen Xingzhou left, Chen Heng picked up the storage bag and began to examine his gains.

As a bastard son with scarce cultivation resources, he attached great importance to this.

For a Qi Refining cultivator, their innate spiritual sense was limited to internal perception, allowing them to browse jade slips, but not to project outwards.

Therefore, Chen Heng had to pick up the storage bag and use his body as a medium to probe his spiritual sense to check its contents.

If he were to successfully reach Foundation Establishment in the future, his spiritual sense would transform into divine sense, which could not only be projected outwards but also sweep across an area of dozens of feet.

This would provide immense convenience in both combat and daily cultivation.

For example, this storage bag, which had no restrictions or cultivator imprints, could be examined with a single glance without even being picked up, revealing its contents.

The space within a high-grade first-tier storage bag was about ten feet square, capable of holding many items.

The first thing that caught his eye was a pile of Spirit Stones, a considerable amount, around five hundred.

To put it in perspective, Chen Heng's annual allowance combined only amounted to sixty Spirit Stones per year.

This sum of Spirit Stones alone was enough to make him quite satisfied.

Next were two mid-grade first-tier precious materials, a bottle of pills, and a token.

There were also two sets of blue magic robes, which were standard Chen family issue, but only mid-grade first-tier.

The two precious materials were an Earth Fire Crystal with fire attributes and Hundred-Year Cold Iron with water attributes, both of considerable size.

Chen Heng's brow twitched unconsciously. Were these materials specifically for refining his Water-Fire Cudgel?

To be honest, he still yearned for the elegance of a sword cultivator wielding their sword, rather than the brute force of a warrior wielding a long staff.

However, at present, the only proficient spell he possessed was the Water Fire Heaven-Reaching Staff Technique.

It was not suitable to change his magical artifact for the time being.

Moreover, the Force Piercing Thousand Jin's Lu Qi enhancement effect is quite suitable when paired with the Water-Fire Cudgel.

The token is a Chen Family identification token. Besides symbolizing identity, it usually records the merit points earned for contributions to the family or for completing missions.

Merit points can be used to exchange for cultivation resources in the treasury, as well as cultivation methods and spells from the Scripture Pavilion.

For now, there's nothing particularly worth investigating. I'll deal with it if the need arises later.

As for the bottle of pills, Chen Heng couldn't discern anything through the storage bag and the bottle itself.

He then took it out of the storage bag.

The moment the bottle cap was opened, a refreshing medicinal aroma instantly filled the air.

He inverted the bottle in his hand and brought it closer for inspection, only to discover it was a pale green pill, no larger than a dragon's eye, with cloud-like patterns on its surface.

Chen Heng thought for a moment and finally recognized it as a Spirit Clearing Pill.

This pill is a rare medicinal pill that can assist cultivators in breaking through bottlenecks, and it's of high-grade first-tier quality.

He had been cultivating for six years and had only ever consumed Golden Bud Grass grown by the Chen Family and their own low-grade first-tier pills, the Golden Bud Pills.

As for this kind of rare breakthrough pill, it was the first time he had seen one.

He just didn't know if it was compensation from the Luo Family or a reward from his own family.

However, this was irrelevant to Chen Heng.

He carefully examined the pill, and after confirming it was genuine.

He eagerly got up and went to the underground cultivation chamber.

He immediately sat cross-legged, swallowed the Spirit Clearing Pill in one gulp, closed his eyes slightly, and assumed the five-hearts-towards-heaven posture.

He had already cultivated to the peak of the third layer of Qi Refining, and his true essence accumulation was more than sufficient.

Otherwise, with just that bit of scheming, he wouldn't have been able to defeat a prodigy like Luo Yuyan, who possessed a wind spirit root.

On the other hand, the ingenious design of the Blade-Hiding Staff would likely be rendered useless in the future now that the recording had been exposed.

The Spirit Clearing Pill dissolved upon entering his mouth, transforming into a clear spiritual energy that flowed into his meridians and acupoints.

Chen Heng immediately circulated the Water Fire Defense Scripture, guiding this spiritual energy in a cycle throughout his body, hoping to use the medicinal power to break through the bottleneck to the fourth layer of Qi Refining.

The fourth, seventh, and tenth layers of Qi Refining are three major obstacles in the cultivation of Qi Refining cultivators, much more difficult than ordinary breakthroughs.

Once surpassed, the true essence within the body will undergo certain changes, and the cultivator's overall strength will also advance a step.

This is likely also the reason why the three rounds of competition were divided into late, mid, and early Qi Refining stages.

Since he had the precious breakthrough pill, the Spirit Clearing Pill, Chen Heng naturally sought to break through.

Although, with his mid-grade spiritual root aptitude.

It shouldn't be difficult to break through to the fourth layer of Qi Refining after patiently honing his skills for a period of time.

However, in the path of cultivation, one step behind means falling behind at every step, so he naturally had to seize the opportunity and strive for the peak.

Of course, the most important thing was to explore whether he could sacrifice Yao Beasts to the mysterious Profound Mirror again to obtain further Lu Qi enhancements.

At this moment, the river of true essence gathered in Chen Heng's dantian began to surge.

An hour later, the underground chamber was suddenly filled with surging spiritual energy.

Chen Heng's pores opened, greedily absorbing the surrounding spiritual energy like a whale drinking water.

The river of true essence in his dantian then connected head to tail, transforming into a vortex, which then expanded rapidly with the influx of external spiritual energy.

It was at this point that the disadvantage of living at the foot of Jade Spring Mountain became apparent.

The spiritual energy was simply too sparse!

Without hesitation, Chen Heng took out all the Spirit Stones from his storage bag, holding one in each hand, to supplement the spiritual energy entering his body.

After an unknown amount of time.

Finally, with a soft "pop," his realm broke through, and a spiritual lake was formed!

Fourth layer of Qi Refining!

Chen Heng's eyes snapped open, his pupils flashing with sharp light. The true essence within him surged, becoming nearly three times more potent than before.

His innate spiritual sense had also become more refined!

Indeed, the gap between mid Qi Refining and early Qi Refining was worlds apart.

And most importantly, after the breakthrough, he could clearly sense that he could once again sacrifice Yao Beasts to the mysterious Profound Mirror in his sea of consciousness to obtain Lu Qi!