Breakthrough to Qi Refining Fifth Layer

Outer Sect Disciples no longer needed to attend morning lessons, and only went to divide up the Spirit Fields in the afternoon.

Xiao Chen slept until he woke naturally, then opened the Yang Qi Breathing Technique, planning to try cultivating it once first.

He first circulated the Basic Breathing Technique through one Small Heavenly Cycle to get a feel for it. Then, following the new cultivation method, he drew Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy into his body and tried to condense Mana.

Unexpectedly, the instant the spiritual energy began to flow, Xiao Chen felt as though he had entered an entirely different world.

A massive amount of spiritual energy surged into his Meridians, fierce and overwhelming, catching him completely off guard.

"The effect is this good!"

For the first time in his life, Xiao Chen felt that the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy around him was so abundant—more than ten times what it had been before.

More importantly, the speed at which the spiritual energy flowed through his Meridians was clearly extraordinarily fast as well.

Even with the disadvantage of his first cultivation session and his unfamiliarity with the new route, a Small Heavenly Cycle that should have taken half an hour took him only fifteen minutes.

Moreover, he even felt that this speed was far from the limit. Once he became proficient, he could probably make it another thirty percent faster.

In other words, a featherweight fighter's tenfold Cultivation Speed effectively allowed him to circulate his cultivation method ten times in the time others spent cultivating once.

"This enhancement really is simple and brutal."

In this state of high-speed cultivation, Xiao Chen could feel his obvious progress.

By the hour of Wei in the afternoon, Xiao Chen had circulated the Yang Qi Breathing Technique more than a hundred times and had completely familiarized himself with this new cultivation method.

He had converted all of his original Mana.

"I heard before that the other senior brothers often need ten days to finish converting their original Mana."

"But I only took half a day. That works out to twenty times the efficiency."

"Could it be that I'm actually a genius?"

Xiao Chen felt his brand-new Mana, finding it a little hard to believe.

It was not until he went to the Spirit Fields that afternoon that he realized why: the workload for Outer Sect Disciples had increased considerably.

A Chore Disciple was only responsible for two mu of Spirit Fields because their abilities were limited.

Every Outer Sect Disciple, meanwhile, had to tend five mu of Spirit Fields, providing the sect with various spiritual rice and low-grade spiritual herbs.

Only after becoming an Inner Sect Disciple could one cast off these Secular Affairs and devote oneself wholeheartedly to cultivation.

Under normal circumstances, a disciple at the Qi Refining Fourth Layer only had six strands of Mana in total.

Casting the Small Cloud and Rain Spell five times would nearly drain them dry, so naturally, converting it progressed very slowly.

It also had quite a significant impact on daily cultivation.

But now that he had tenfold Cultivation Speed, Xiao Chen had taken advantage of the time difference, avoiding a drop in cultivation efficiency caused by work.

In reality, he had gained benefits far beyond merely tenfold Cultivation Speed.

Moreover, after spending One Hour tending to five mu of Spirit Fields, Xiao Chen sat down on the spot to meditate and recover his Mana.

Sure enough, because his rate of absorbing spiritual energy had increased, even his Mana recovery speed had become faster.

This additional effect brought by Hextech was far more powerful than its literal description suggested.

Thus, over the next two months, Xiao Chen immersed himself in the world of cultivation and could not pull himself free.

Unlike the other disciples, who wasted a great deal of time every day tending Spirit Fields and restoring Mana,

Xiao Chen's time efficiency was terrifyingly high. Even during breaks while patrolling the Spirit Fields, he could find time to cultivate his technique once.

Under such circumstances, he could feel tangible progress every day. He became so addicted to cultivation that he did not even have time to interact with the other disciples in his academy.

As a result, it was only when Manager Chen gathered everyone to routinely explain cultivation insights that Xiao Chen discovered Branch 2 actually had so many people.

"Today is our Branch Academy's customary Summer Exchange Meeting. If you have any cultivation-related questions, everyone can discuss them."

Manager Chen was young and promising, while also serving as Branch 2's Instructor.

He had taken the public lectures held once every six months and changed them into academy-wide Exchange Meetings held once every season.

This was meant to help the Branch Disciples accelerate their cultivation, striving to nurture stronger disciples and earn rewards from the sect.

It was Xiao Chen's first time attending such an exchange of insights, and he had originally planned to learn properly.

Yet as he listened, he gradually realized something seemed off.

If the other disciples had not emphasized many of the issues, he would not even have noticed them.

For example, there was the issue of spiritual energy dissipating. Cultivation was like rowing upstream: if one did not advance, one fell back.

If the spiritual energy absorbed into the Dantian on the first day could not be promptly refined into the Meridians, then after waking up the next morning, it would have dissipated until almost nothing remained.

Refining it again would require more trouble, wasting time for nothing.

To deal with this, everyone had come up with all kinds of methods to adjust how they allocated their cultivation time and balance the processes of absorption and refinement.

But Xiao Chen was different. He only needed fifteen minutes to fill his Dantian with spiritual energy, then he could focus solely on refining it.

The other issues were much the same.

In short, his efficient cultivation process covered up nearly every issue of transition, to the point that after listening for half the day, Xiao Chen found that he could not use a single technique.

Others advanced a hundred meters in a day, and even if they retreated fifty meters at night, they found it agonizing.

He advanced a thousand meters in a day, and even if he retreated a hundred meters at night, he was still far ahead.

Fortunately, Xiao Chen had not gained nothing.

As the Exchange Meeting neared its end, one senior brother said that he had recently tried taking Qi Nourishing Pills to break through his realm, with remarkable results.

He also introduced a technique for better absorbing the Medicinal Effect.

As it happened, Xiao Chen still had the Qi Nourishing Pills he had obtained from the Jiang Family.

After returning, he followed that senior brother's method and took Qi Nourishing Pills consecutively. Sure enough, they had some effect.

Although he did not experience the rumored further threefold increase in cultivation efficiency, which left Xiao Chen slightly disappointed,

on the ninth night, when he routinely circulated his cultivation method before bed, inspiration struck. With the aid of the pills, he successfully broke through to the Qi Refining Fifth Layer.

In only two and a half months, he had achieved what took other cultivators two and a half years.

Another two and a half months passed.

Not only had Xiao Chen stabilized his cultivation, he even felt that he was already close to the 6th level of Qi Refining.

So, he took the initiative to visit the Merit Hall and spent the steep price of five Spirit Stones to exchange for a bottle of Qi Nourishing Pills.

Then, on the way, he went to attend the Autumn Exchange Meeting that evening.

Xiao Chen had no intention of hiding his breakthrough.

The main reason was that he still did not know the Aura Concealment Technique.

When Xiao Chen entered the Branch Hall with the cultivation of the Qi Refining Fifth Layer, Manager Chen, a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, noticed it immediately.

Then he shot to his feet. "Xiao Chen! When did you break through?"

"How could you break through?"

"No, what I mean is, how could you break through so fast? Did you also pick up some Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures?"

With Manager Chen's shout, the other Branch Disciples noticed Xiao Chen as well.

At once, their mouths fell open in shock.

Junior Brother Xiao, who had introduced himself as a newcomer at the last Exchange Meeting, had actually broken through to the Qi Refining Fifth Layer in just half a year?

Everyone was utterly shaken. They repeatedly looked Xiao Chen over from head to toe, as though they were looking at a monster.

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