Qi Refining Layer 3

Qi Refining Layer 3

Realm: Qi Refining Layer 2 (87/100)

"Now, I'm not far from the third layer."

"Strength comes first. No matter what dangers lie ahead, every bit of strength I gain gives me another chance to preserve my life when facing them."

"For now, I must first break through to Qi Refining Layer 3."

"Then I need to train my only self-defense combat skill, Spirit Void Finger, to a level sufficient for protection."

"Moreover, the next time I go out, I must remain vigilant at all times."

"At the same time, Spirit Void Finger is far from enough for defense. If I get the chance, I need to buy another, more specialized combat spell."

"On the other hand, if my alchemy can advance another step, then..."

Han Yi laid out all his plans for what came next in his mind.

Then, he directly took out spirit stones and began cultivating.

At this point, he had more than fifty spirit stones on him. Even within the Mystic Pill Sect, that counted as a modest stash among outer sect disciples.

Generally, only outer sect disciples who had reached Qi Refining Layer 4 or above might have so many spirit stones saved up.

As for those who dared to cultivate freely with spirit stones, only inner sect disciples could do so without feeling the pinch.

What other outer sect disciple did not scrimp and save? If they could cultivate using spirit veins, they would never use spirit stones. Even when using spirit stones, they only dared to splurge during breakthroughs.

Cultivation knew no passage of years, and cultivating by absorbing the spiritual qi within spirit stones was even more likely to make low-level cultivators lose themselves in it.

By the time the third spirit stone crumbled into powder, the progress of Qi Refining Layer 2 had reached 99/100.

Han Yi did not press on in one breath and use spirit stones to force a breakthrough.

Instead, he calmed himself and began refining pills.

His frantic progress over such a short time had left his control over spiritual power short of being as natural as opening and closing his hand. Breaking through directly like this carried too much risk.

Haste would not help. The closer one came to a critical moment, the less one could afford to be impatient. Han Yi understood this deeply.

"On one hand, I'll use alchemy to temper my control over spiritual power. On the other, I'll adjust my mindset before the breakthrough."

Han Yi began refining pills.

This time, with the improvement in his alchemy, his success rate for Qi Nourishing Pills had exceeded sixty percent and was closing in on seventy percent.

Every furnace of Qi Nourishing Pills consumed the spiritual power within his body. When recovering, he did not use spirit stones, instead drawing in the scattered spiritual qi drifting through the air.

The greatest drawback of recovering this way was that it was slow—extremely slow.

After each furnace, it took nearly an entire day for him to recover completely.

But its greatest benefit was that Han Yi's control over the spiritual power in his body became increasingly fine and effortless.

The years spent refining pills were dry and monotonous.

Yet Han Yi immersed himself in them, feeling his control over the spiritual power in his body improve bit by bit.

Only quantitative change could bring about qualitative change.

Without accumulating small steps, one could not travel a thousand miles; without gathering tiny streams, one could not form rivers and seas.

When he placed the final furnace of Qi Nourishing Pills into a jade bottle, the jujube tree in the backyard had already sprouted new buds. A thin layer of dead leaves carpeted the courtyard, and the red stains on the courtyard wall had been painted a dark brown.

"Twenty-five batches of raw materials yielded seventeen bottles. By rough calculation, the success rate is seventy percent."

"With such a terrifying alchemy success rate, among outer sect disciples, only those at Qi Refining Layer 6 could achieve it."

"And most importantly, my control over spiritual power has now reached its peak."

"If I don't break through now, when will I?"

Han Yi set down the jade bottle, took a deep breath, and pulled out another jade bottle from his storage bag. Inside lay two pills.

Evil Warding Pills.

He had set these aside when refining Evil Warding Pills before. They counted as preparations he had made in advance for his breakthrough.

After swallowing the Evil Warding Pills, he took out another twenty spirit stones. He held two in each hand, while placing the other sixteen around his body.

Then, he began circulating his cultivation technique and strengthening his spiritual power. The progress that had remained still reached 100/100 after a quarter of an hour.

Half an hour later, Han Yi heard faint, lascivious sounds at his ears.

His heart turned cold. He knew these were the seductive voices of Heavenly Demons.

And he was only breaking through to the third layer. Even if a Heavenly Demon from beyond the realm descended, it would only be a minor Heavenly Demon.

As long as he did not deliberately pay it any heed, with the Evil Warding Pill present, the Heavenly Demon would not dare invade his body. There would basically be no problem.

The lascivious sounds gradually intensified, yet they had not the slightest effect on Han Yi, whose heart was as unyielding as rock.

As one of his hobbies in his previous life, he had stored over 10TB of adult films on his portable hard drive, all meticulously sorted into categories. He had practically become an industry expert.

An hour later.

Han Yi, seated cross-legged, abruptly felt the spiritual power within his body grow denser at a certain instant.

He knew he had broken through.

After the breakthrough, the amount of spiritual power in his body had decreased, but its quality had risen to a whole new level.

Before Qi Refining Layer 6, every breakthrough in a layer was a qualitative transformation.

At the same time, the decadent sounds by his ears vanished as well.

The otherworldly Heavenly Demon that had descended had left.

Han Yi did not rise immediately. Instead, he took the opportunity to consolidate his realm, replacing the spirit stones around him one after another.

Only after a full day did he finally stop.

Only then did Han Yi look at the panel. Once he confirmed that it displayed Qi Refining Layer 3, he finally relaxed.

Name: Han Yi

Lifespan: 21/89

Realm: Qi Refining Layer 3 (3/100)

Cultivation Art: Fire Pill Profound Art (First Glimpse 69/100)

Skills:

Alchemy (Intermediate 3/100)

Spirit Void Finger (Novice Practice 70/100)

Then, when he saw the rest of the information clearly, delight flashed across his face.

His lifespan had risen from eighty-seven to eighty-nine years.

Of course, this lifespan referred to dying peacefully of old age without illness or disaster. In the perilous world of immortal cultivation, that was exceedingly difficult to achieve.

His foundational cultivation art, the Fire Pill Profound Art, had improved slightly, but it was still at the First Glimpse stage.

The other and greatest change was his alchemy.

Without his realizing it, his alchemy had risen another step from First Glimpse, reaching the Intermediate stage.

"Excellent. My alchemy has broken through to a new stage. It must have happened while refining the last one or two batches of Qi Nourishing Pills just now. No wonder the final two batches both succeeded, and each yielded twelve pills."

"Next, I'll continue refining pills. Now that my alchemy has broken through, the success rate for refining Evil Warding Pills should rise as well."

No sooner said than done.

In truth, with his realm breakthrough and the improved quality of his spiritual power, not only had his success rate increased, but even the time needed for alchemy had shortened.

The last time, refining twenty sets of Evil Warding Pill ingredients had taken nearly a month. This time, he succeeded after only around ten days.

Moreover, his success rate had reached a full twenty-five percent.

Twenty sets of raw ingredients produced five batches of pills.

By the Mystic Pill Sect's standards, this was already the level of an Inner Peak disciple's alchemy.

After thinking it over, Han Yi placed two of the jade bottles in a corner of his storage pouch, with no intention of making them public.

"For the first time refining Evil Warding Pills, I can still say that my alchemy improved.

"But for the second time, if my success rate rises another ten percent over the first, and only a few months have passed, that would be far too heaven-defying.

"So, I'll still claim that I only refined three batches.

"That way, it will seem reasonable for an outer-sect disciple assigned elsewhere at Qi Refining Layer 3.

"Also, I can't sell all the Qi Nourishing Pills. Based on the previous sixty-percent success rate, I'll sell thirteen bottles. The remaining four bottles can be kept for my own use or sold elsewhere.

"And that sudden killing intent needs to be guarded against as well."

Han Yi shifted his gaze to the panel, to Spirit Void Finger, his only combat spell.

He let out a soft sigh.

Though Spirit Void Finger was low-grade, it was currently his only combat skill. He could only rely entirely on it.

"No other choice."

"Just grind!!"