Taking Stock

Cheng Buzheng had not given up sensing the specks of light in the air. The longer he persisted, the more keenly he sensed them.

Half an hour later, he finally drew a red speck of light into his body. Following the cultivation method issued by the sect, the Crimson Fire Technique, he circulated it through his meridians in a Celestial Cycle. As the Spell Technique ran its course, he was only half a cycle away from successfully refining the speck into his dantian.

Suddenly.

His concentration wavered, and the Celestial Cycle failed. The speck immediately dissipated within his meridians.

Cheng Buzheng did not give up. He knew that today was the day he would advance to Qi Refining Level 1.

He let out a soft breath, then closed his eyes halfway and calmed his mind. Sensing the multicolored specks of light in the air, he drew another red one into his body. Having succeeded once before, he found it much easier this time.

Cheng Buzheng proceeded with great care, circulating the Crimson Fire Technique. The speck traveled through his meridians along a Celestial Cycle, passing through his Eight Extraordinary Meridians as it was gradually refined. After that, the process felt natural and became easier by the moment.

Even so, he did not let up in the slightest. Last time, his mind had relaxed, causing the Celestial Cycle to fail and leaving him just one step short of success. Now, though the circulation felt quite effortless,

he knew that until the speck was fully refined, he could not afford even the slightest carelessness.

As he neared the end of the Celestial Cycle, he reached its final, crucial step. Not a single mistake had occurred throughout the circulation, and the full cycle was complete.

The red speck was completely refined, leaving a thread of crimson Spirit Power drifting in the space of his dantian.

In an instant.

The Mental Power in his Sea of Consciousness automatically split off a thread of equal size, which descended to the center of his dantian.

At once.

The thread of red Spirit Power, drifting freely and without restraint through the space of his dantian, suddenly felt itself being invaded. It transformed into a streak of red light and shot toward the center of his dantian, ready to drive the intruder from its territory.

A thread of red Spirit Power and a thread of Divine Sense fiercely entwined.

At the center of his dantian, the two converged and circled around each other.

Cheng Buzheng knew the final, crucial push was about to come!

He sent his will into the space of his dantian, taking command of the entire space. Under his absolute control, the two colliding forces gradually formed a pale-red vortex.

The tiny vortex spun faster and faster, its rotation growing frenzied as the essence of both forces gradually emerged.

Thread after thread of red Magic Power, heavy with substance, hovered beneath the vortex.

The sun rose and the moon set; light turned to dark and dark to light.

In the blink of an eye, nine days passed. Cheng Buzheng sat motionless on his bed, yet earth-shattering changes had taken place within his body.

The instant that thread of red Magic Power appeared,

his mind felt as though it had returned to his mother's embrace, as if he were being born anew. The surrounding spiritual energy surged wildly.

Cheng Buzheng sat cross-legged on the bed, eyes closed halfway, his face wearing a pure, infantlike smile.

From a distance, his body seemed unchanged. But up close, one could see him trembling faintly as black spots were pushed out with each shiver of his flesh.

A faint, foul stench spread through the room.

Time passed slowly. The black spots eventually covered his entire body, as if he were wrapped in a layer of mud. The faint stench from the beginning had become an overpowering reek.

Yet Cheng Buzheng's smile remained as innocent as ever, as if he could not smell the stench at all.

As time passed, the changes within his body took a full nine days to finally subside.

Suddenly.

Cheng Buzheng, still seated cross-legged on the bed, furrowed his brow as he caught a whiff of a pungent stench. He opened his bright, jet-black eyes and saw its source: black impurities, like mud, clinging tightly to his entire body.

He glanced at them but made no move, as though he did not care in the least. Then he closed his eyes halfway and sensed the changes within his body.

Having thoroughly studied the Cultivation Encyclopedia, he knew that upon advancing to Qi Refining Level 1, his Mental Power would automatically transform into Divine Sense.

He immediately probed his Divine Sense, checking whether it could cover a radius of one zhang, as the book said a cultivator at Qi Refining Level 1 could.

Within his Sea of Consciousness was a gray world that seemed boundless. At its center floated a white sphere radiating three-colored light.

The moment he saw the white sphere radiating three-colored light, he could not help but feel that it was the center of this world—and its one and only.

Cheng Buzheng settled his mind within the white sphere and sensed his Divine Sense.

Before long.

The sparse gray clouds in the world of his Sea of Consciousness surged outward as one, extending into reality.

At that moment.

Cheng Buzheng sat cross-legged on the bed, his Divine Sense covering a radius of one zhang. Within that area, he was a god; it seemed as if everything was under his control.

Nothing within that radius could escape his Dharma Eye. Everything was as clear as day, laid bare before him.

Beyond one zhang, he could only probe in a single direction. Beyond ten zhang, however, everything was pitch-black, and he could no longer sense anything.

After experimenting for a long while, he found that no matter which direction he tried, the furthest limit was ten zhang. His Divine Sense could cover every angle without blind spots only within a radius of at most one zhang. No matter how he tested it, the results were the same.

Once he had familiarized himself with it, he examined the other changes within his body.

In the white space of his dantian, a cloud layer of red Magic Power, thin to the extreme yet heavy with substance, hovered beneath a pale-red vortex the size of a grain of rice.

He controlled the weighty cloud with his mind, making it change shape again and again. One moment it became a tiny, almost imperceptible crimson sword; the next, a little red knife.

After manipulating his Magic Power for a long while,

Cheng Buzheng, still seated cross-legged on the bed, opened his bright, jet-black eyes, stood up, and stretched his limbs, growing accustomed to his body after breaking free of mortality.

He gently clenched both fists and applied a little force. His bones crackled together, and his whole body popped like a string of firecrackers.

At once.

Cheng Buzheng felt that he could punch straight through Tieniu with a light blow. It was no illusion: the strength his body now possessed filled him with unparalleled confidence.

After getting used to his new strength, he walked over to the wooden tub. A tubful of clean water had already been prepared inside.

He washed up.

Cheng Buzheng's formerly sallow skin had become exceptionally fair, as smooth and delicate as mutton-fat jade. A faint milky fragrance clung to him, like that of a newborn baby.

Now he looked like a handsome young gentleman, with not a trace of his former country boy appearance.

Cheng Buzheng looked at his reflection in the water, feeling the transformation of his body, as if he had been reborn. His mind drifted into contemplation.

"So this is what it means to be a cultivator? I must walk this Immortal Path with unwavering resolve. Even if the road ahead leads to the eighteenth level of hell, nothing will stop me—not until my body dies and my Dao vanishes!"

He clenched his fist tightly, gazed at his reflection in the water, and murmured the words to himself.

The determination on his face, however, only grew stronger.