Qi Refining Level Three

After Mo Hua entered the Immortal Gate, the new year of sect life began.

The Immortal Gate was a First-Grade Sect, and First-Grade Sects stood at the very bottom of the cultivation world.

The sect rankings in the cultivation world were rigidly hierarchical.

When a sect was first established, it first had to be graded, subject to the Dao Court's review and ruling.

The requirements for grading were strict. The sect's assets, the mountain ranges it occupied, the depth of its inherited foundations, whether its Sect Master had moral failings, the cultivation and number of its elders and instructors, the number of disciples it could admit—all were rigorously assessed.

Advancing in grade was even harsher. A sect needed several high-level cultivators stationed there to teach the Dao for a certain number of years before it could apply for advancement at the Celestial Authority Pavilion of the Dao Court.

For any sect, advancing in grade was a matter of the highest importance. It required years of preparation, connections with the Dao Court, and an enormous expenditure of manpower and wealth.

Within the Immortal Gate, only the old Sect Master was a Foundation Establishment cultivator, far from enough to meet the requirements of a Second-Grade Sect. It was estimated that the sect would not qualify for advancement even within the next hundred years.

Moreover, the Immortal Gate's entire estate consisted of only three peaks: Spirit-Connecting Peak, Mysterious-Connecting Peak, and Clear-Connecting Peak.

In the Immortal Gate's Outer Sect, disciples in the early Qi Refining Stage, meaning Levels One through Three, cultivated and studied the Dao on Spirit-Connecting Peak. Mid-stage Qi Refining disciples, Levels Four through Six, were on Mysterious-Connecting Peak. The very few late-stage Qi Refining Outer Sect disciples, Levels Seven through Nine, were also placed on Mysterious-Connecting Peak, since there were too few of them to warrant separate accommodations.

The Inner Sect and personal disciples, along with the sect's Sect Master, elders, and instructors, all resided on Clear-Connecting Peak.

It was said that there had once been an Immortal-Connecting Peak, reserved solely for the Sect Master and elders to live and cultivate on. Later, however, the sect's poor management left it insolvent, so it had tearfully sold the peak.

Without Immortal-Connecting Peak, how could the Immortal Gate still be called the Immortal Gate?

Every Sect Master of the Immortal Gate had vowed to redeem Immortal-Connecting Peak, but sadly, that grand ambition had yet to be realized.

The disciples of each peak in the Immortal Gate were further divided into Classes A, B, C, and D. From Class A downward, the quality of disciples steadily declined, as did the attention and resources the sect invested in them.

Class A generally admitted only the so-called "favored children of heaven." They needed good Spirit Roots, high talent and comprehension, and rapid cultivation.

Of course, if one had connections with the Sect Master or elders, or was willing to donate a considerable sum of Spirit Stones to the sect, one could also enter Class A.

In short, one either had talent, connections, or Spirit Stones.

Class B admitted disciples with ordinary Spirit Roots but decent talent and comprehension, who worked relatively hard and performed well in all subjects.

Class C disciples had ordinary Spirit Roots, ordinary comprehension, and ordinary grades. Class D disciples generally had even poorer Spirit Roots and grades, and could only muddle through their days.

Mo Hua was assigned to Class B. His Spirit Root was ordinary, but he was diligent, and his performance in every subject was fairly good.

Mo Hua was only at Second-Layer Qi Refining, so he ate, lived, and cultivated on Spirit-Connecting Peak, the Immortal Gate's most populous peak.

After entering the sect and greeting the fellow disciples he knew, Mo Hua began a year of study and cultivation.

Even the poorest low-level cultivators would scrape together some Spirit Stones to send their children into a sect to cultivate. At the very least, they could lay down some foundations for cultivation and avoid being utterly ignorant of the many things in the cultivation world. Thus, the Immortal Gate had the most disciples in the early Qi Refining Stage.

Once they reached the middle Qi Refining Stage, however, whether they could continue cultivating depended first on their own talent and second on their family's means.

Some Rogue Cultivator families simply could not scrape together any more Spirit Stones. They could only make their children leave school to help others with Artifact Refining and odd jobs, or learn to head into the mountains to hunt monsters, barely managing to earn a mouthful of food. Annual tuition of one hundred Spirit Stones was no small sum. Otherwise, before the child could amount to anything in cultivation, the entire family would starve to death.

Those who could still remain in the sect to cultivate after reaching the late Qi Refining Stage were even fewer.

Several fellow disciples familiar to Mo Hua had vanished from sight. Only after asking around did he learn that their families were poor and had encountered hardships, leaving them unable to pay the tuition. They could only drop out.

Cultivation was broad and complex, yet profound. Without someone to guide them, who knew how many detours they would take? Leaving school during the early Qi Refining Stage meant that unless they encountered a heaven-shaking stroke of fortune, it would be difficult for them to make any further progress on the Dao Path.

Mo Hua sighed softly, feeling deeply regretful. But his own circumstances were not much better, so he had little time to dwell on it.

Mo Hua attended classes while cultivating, and in his free time, he drew Array Techniques. His days were busy yet fulfilling.

Several months later, before he knew it, Mo Hua broke through to Qi Refining Level Three.

Cultivation during the Qi Refining Stage depended more on perseverance and accumulation. Cultivate every day, build up over time, spend Spirit Stones where they needed to be spent, and a breakthrough would naturally come as water flowed into a channel.

But what Rogue Cultivators lacked most was always Spirit Stones.

Small-realm breakthroughs relied on accumulation. At middle realms, bottlenecks would arise. Breaking through those bottlenecks required corresponding heavenly treasures and earthly materials, or Pills.

As for breakthroughs into major realms, such as from Qi Refining to Foundation Establishment, they depended more on fate. For most low-level Rogue Cultivators, it was a heavenly chasm they could never cross in their entire lives.

Every increase in realm brought immense benefits to a cultivator.

At Qi Refining Level Three, Mo Hua felt that his Lingli had become more abundant, and his divine sense had naturally grown stronger as well.

The Bright Fire Formation that had once been exhausting for him to draw was now easy as turning his hand. He did not even need to rest for long after finishing one.

Though he had expected it, Mo Hua was still delighted.

No wonder so many cultivators endured the tedium of cultivation with their hearts set on raising their realms. Perhaps the plain, unadorned joy gained after such tedium was true joy.

Mo Hua was ten years old and at Qi Refining Level Three. In Class B, this cultivation level placed him above average.

Upon reaching Qi Refining Level Three, Mo Hua needed to choose a cultivation method.

After class one day, Instructor Yan asked several disciples at Qi Refining Level Three to remain behind, Mo Hua among them.

After keeping Mo Hua and the others behind, Instructor Yan got straight to the point.

"This was originally Instructor Zhou's responsibility, but he is feeling slightly unwell, so I will temporarily take his place and speak to you about cultivation methods."

"Lingli is the most important thing to a cultivator. Whether one is a Body Cultivator or a Spirit Cultivator, whether one draws arrays and refines alchemy or refines artifacts and makes talismans, Lingli is needed. If your Lingli is strong, you stand a head taller than others; if it is weak, you fall a head shorter. The most fundamental difference between cultivators is the difference in their Lingli."

"A cultivator's Lingli is determined by cultivation methods, and cultivation methods are determined by Spirit Roots. Whatever Spirit Root you possess determines what cultivation method you should practice, and what cultivation method you practice determines how much Lingli you possess."

"Spirit Roots are inborn, predetermined by heaven, and cannot be changed through later effort. You cannot choose your own Spirit Root. What you can choose is the cultivation method you practice."

"Choosing a suitable cultivation method will greatly benefit your future cultivation. Even with a poorer Spirit Root, if you practice the right method, you can still have a relatively long Dao Path. But if your Spirit Root is superior and you practice the wrong method, it is essentially cutting off your own path to immortality."

"So regardless of whether your Spirit Root is good or poor, you must be exceedingly cautious about cultivation methods..."

"Cultivation methods..." Mo Hua murmured inwardly.

Mo Hua possessed a low-tier middle-grade Small Five Elements Spirit Root. Among those his age in Immortal City, his Spirit Root aptitude was somewhat below average.

He wondered what kind of cultivation method he could learn with his Spirit Root.