Qi Refining Is Within Reach!

"What a fine divine ability."

Meng Nan was pleased with what he heard.

The "Profound Spirit Treasure Ginseng of Ji You" Meng Jian had mentioned was precisely a rare treasure Meng Nan had learned of in his tenth life. It could be called the greatest treasure he had heard of in all ten lives.

In his eighth life,

Meng Nan had sought out more information about Immortal Masters. One rumor he heard told of a Qi Refining Immortal Master named Xi Huairen, who had emerged from Dragon Ridge Mountain. With a mere lift of his hand or turn of his foot, he could move mountains and shift stones. He was extraordinarily powerful.

He had few rivals as soon as he reached Qi Refining.

Meng Nan was intrigued.

After making more detailed inquiries in his ninth and tenth lives, he learned that this Immortal Master had also come from Cha Mountain, and that both his parents had been Primal Qi Rogue Cultivators.

In his early years, Xi Huairen's parents had found a Profound Spirit Treasure Ginseng of Ji You in the western part of Cha Mountain.

This treasure was rare, formed by nature, and contained a strand of innate qi that had not dissipated. It was perfectly suited to a fetus that had just taken shape but had yet to be born.

The mother refined it.

The fetus benefited.

And awakened an innate divine ability.

Xi Huairen had awakened the Mountain Moving divine ability thanks to this Profound Spirit Treasure Ginseng of Ji You.

The moment he reached Qi Refining, he rose to prominence.

The treasure herb Meng Nan was about to take Zhao Xiaoshuang to seek out in reality was this very one.

He had assumed Meng Jian would awaken the Mountain Moving divine ability too.

But now it seemed that the Profound Spirit Treasure Ginseng of Ji You affected everyone differently, awakening different divine abilities in different people.

Xi Huairen had awakened the Mountain Moving divine ability.

Meng Jian, on the other hand, had awakened the Heavenly Eye divine ability.

In terms of power, Mountain Moving seemed stronger.

Compared to the heights Xi Huairen had reached in those past lives, and looking at Meng Jian now, that did seem to be the case.

Still, having a divine ability at all was good enough.

Meng Nan wasn't picky.

He supposed Meng Jian wouldn't be either.

"With the Heavenly Eye divine ability at his side, Second Brother's future will be bright."

"I'll keep looking into the whereabouts of other treasures and try to improve Xingzhe's and the Three Altars' aptitudes as well."

"And Xiaoshuang—"

As he pondered, Meng Nan rummaged through his Storage Bag for jade slips, checking whether any recorded treasures like the Profound Spirit Treasure Ginseng of Ji You.

But treasures of this caliber were hard to come by.

Even when there was a record of one, the details were often hazy, and few people knew of it.

Meng Nan had been a Qi Refining cultivator for nearly a century in this life. He had learned many secrets that had been difficult to uncover in his previous ten lives, but treasures like the Profound Spirit Treasure Ginseng of Ji You were still matters of pure chance.

For now, he had no idea when or where he might find another.

All he could do was keep searching.

Do all one can, then leave the rest to fate.

The matter of the Red Robe General was temporarily settled.

After seeing Meng Jian, Meng Nan had also received He Weiyang and Cao Baoju.

Once everyone had left,

Meng Nan buried himself in cultivation.

In this life, with Deprivation in his possession, Meng Nan's ambitions were even greater—

"Qi Refining has four realms. The second is Heart Flame."

"Once Heart Flame emerges, it can purify one's magic power and refine away turbid qi."

"If I use Deprivation to steal the Heart Flame technique, perhaps I can purify my own Primal Qi and Temper Yuan, Remove Impurities!"

Temper Yuan, Remove Impurities!

This was the crucial step in a Primal Qi cultivator at the peak of their realm breaking through the Three Cavities and advancing to Qi Refining.

Once Primal Qi took shape, it was difficult to purify it further.

Ordinary cultivators at the peak of Primal Qi could only steal the Three Cavities, undergo a Primal Qi baptism, then circulate their cultivation method again and again, painstakingly polishing their Primal Qi. Only then could they make progress and refine it.

But the process was slow and inefficient.

With Heart Flame to help—

"Perhaps it can be done!"

Meng Nan was full of anticipation.

Unfortunately, the Red Robe General practiced the Left Path and had shallow cultivation. He had yet to reach the second realm, and had no Heart Flame.

Meng Nan would have to wait.

"Master Cao."

"Tiansongzi."

These were the two people Meng Nan was waiting on now.

Both had profound cultivation, and had at least reached the Heart Flame realm.

Master Cao, Cao Baoju, was nearing the end of his life. Meng Nan had used Deprivation to imprint his appearance, and was waiting for his death to try to steal the Heart Flame technique.

But Qi Refining Immortal Masters lived for three hundred years. When an Immortal Master was said to be "nearing the end of his life," that could mean a few years or more than a decade. There was no telling.

So Meng Nan couldn't just sit around and wait, or put all his eggs in one basket.

He would have to add Tiansongzi as another candidate.

"I'll start preparing the Red Robe Nightmare Suppression technique. If Master Cao is still alive in a few years, I'll try casting it to curse Tiansongzi to death."

Heart Flame!

That was Meng Nan's ultimate goal in this life.

In the meantime—

Spellcraft.

Alchemy.

Artifact forging.

He had to keep working at all of them.

He also had to figure out how to make money in reality once he advanced to Qi Refining.

"Once I reach Qi Refining in reality, it'll be far harder to kill people above my level, and I won't be able to 'sacrifice' them."

"If I want to keep opening future timelines, I'll have to rely on Spirit Sand."

As a result,

finding a way to earn large quantities of Spirit Sand would naturally become a top priority.

Based on its current growth rate, Meng Nan estimated that after reaching Qi Refining, he would need a thousand catties of Spirit Sand to open a future timeline for the first time.

The amount would keep doubling after that.

The more Spirit Sand, the better.

"I control several Spirit Sand Veins in this life. The two veins at Cang Mountain and Mirror Mountain produce four hundred catties a year between them, and I get a hundred."

"Still too little."

A hundred catties a year.

It would take ten years to save up a thousand.

After that, it would be twenty years, then forty.

At that rate, even over the full three-hundred-year lifespan of a Qi Refining cultivator, he could only open a limited number of timelines.

And he still had to cultivate.

He would have to think of other ways to earn Spirit Sand.

Heart Flame.

Cultivation.

Spirit Sand.

All of these concerned Meng Nan himself, and affected both the present and the future.

But he also had to consider his family.

If he managed to steal the Heart Flame technique through Deprivation, advancing to Qi Refining would be all but certain.

But Zhao Xiaoshuang, Meng Xingzhe, and the others couldn't do that.

So figuring out how to further improve their chances of reaching Qi Refining through normal means was another thing Meng Nan needed to explore in this life.

There were countless threads to unravel.

With his thoughts in order and his plans laid out, Meng Nan threw himself into arduous cultivation.

As for cultivation, he continued painstakingly studying the Lesser Thousand Sword Scripture, constantly contemplating its profound meaning. With the insights he had gained from reaching Qi Refining in this life, he made remarkable progress, and it seemed that even Temper Yuan, Remove Impurities had become easier.

Unfortunately, the process of finding the spark of insight was something one could only understand, not explain. It couldn't be recorded.

Meng Nan could only put in the work and find his own way.

Study the cultivation method.

Steal the Three Cavities.

Meng Nan didn't sit around waiting to steal Heart Flame; he never neglected his regular practice.

That wasn't all.

In addition to cultivation, Meng Nan also devoted himself to mastering spellcraft—

Heavenly Eye Technique!

Wind Gathering Technique!

Giant Spirit God!

Small Thousand Sword Array!

These were the four spells Meng Nan focused on cultivating. He had obtained the Heavenly Eye Technique and Wind Gathering Technique in his sixth life. The former could reveal another person's cultivation and exert a certain degree of spiritual pressure on low-level cultivators. The latter could gather fierce winds and control them at will. It could be used for travel or to attack enemies, and if cultivated to a deep level, it would be no less formidable than Giant Spirit God or the Small Thousand Sword Array.

Spellcraft!

Even an ordinary spell could become powerful if mastered to the extreme.

Take Meng Jian, for example. Besides his innate divine ability, he also cultivated the Five Thunder Technique. This technique was only on par with Wind Gathering Technique, but in Meng Jian's hands, it summoned dancing thunderbolts with a power second only to his Heavenly Eye. It was no less impressive than anyone else's.

Master one move, and you could feast on it for a lifetime.

With the Heavenly Eye and Five Thunder Technique, Meng Jian, despite being only at the fourth layer and third realm, had few rivals among Qi Refining cultivators.

That was specialization.

What Meng Nan needed to do now was specialize too, focusing on these four spells and cultivating them painstakingly, life after life—

Proficiency.

Mastery.

Minor achievement.

Great achievement.

Even reaching minor achievement would count as a modest accomplishment.

With great achievement, he could roam far and wide, and go wherever he pleased in all the world.

But minor achievement was already difficult, let alone great achievement.

Meng Nan had spent a full sixty years cultivating after reaching Primal Qi, yet the four spells had only reached the Proficiency stage. Advancing one level to Mastery was still difficult, while Minor Achievement and Great Achievement remained distant dreams. All he could do was keep at it.

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