"Harvesting" and "Refining"

Just as she had seemed when they first met, Chi Jiuyu was the sort who couldn't sit still.

Not long after entering the villa, she had picked out her room and started tidying up. Since her master often tossed her into the Starry Sky Battlefield to gain experience, she kept plenty of daily necessities in her storage ring.

She spread out the bedsheets, took out a quilt and pillow, then flopped onto the bed and rolled over, lying there sprawled out in every direction.

Taking out her phone, she logged on to the Spirit Net and started searching.

"How to recover accidentally deleted chat records"

Before long, a flood of answers popped up. Chi Jiuyu grinned.

Martial Uncle might have a very high cultivation, but he had only just emerged from seclusion. How familiar could he possibly be with the Spirit Net?

Her master had specifically told her to delete those chat records. How could she not be curious!

There was no way she wasn't going to look. Even if she got in trouble after she went back, that would be a problem for her future self. What did it have to do with me right now?

Xu Xing had no idea. His senior sister's disciple was an interesting person, but he couldn't keep an eye on her every second.

At that moment, he was sitting in the study with a laptop in front of him. He inserted the crystal card containing the Basic Refining Method into the slot on its side.

[Reading in progress. Please wait...]

The crystal card emitted an extremely faint ripple of spiritual energy, which quickly spread outward.

"An anti-piracy system?"

Xu Xing raised a hand slightly, suppressing the faint ripple of spiritual energy.

He had expected as much. A method of Harvesting and Refining like this wasn't suitable for widespread distribution.

Most Qi Refining cultivators lacked the foundation to meet the threshold for a Heaven-Forged Dao Foundation. They couldn't even pass the first step. If they forcibly drew the starlight into their bodies, they would suffer injuries at best and have their cultivation crippled at worst. Some with frail physiques would even be tortured to death by the pain.

After he suppressed the ripple of spiritual energy, text began to appear on the computer screen.

Basic Refining Method

Hundreds of words filled the screen. The opening was no different from the Harvesting and Refining Method Xu Xing remembered: one had to sit facing the moon at midnight, then gather a third of one's spiritual power to form the "Star-Fishing" Seal.

The "Star-Fishing" Seal wasn't complicated. Most cultivators could form it after trying two or three times. The only thing to watch out for was keeping the flow of spiritual power steady.

After drawing in the starlight, the key was how to "harvest" it into one's body.

Starlight had neither form nor substance. Only the power of the soul could capture it, but doing so was like a mortal trying to grasp thorns with bare hands.

If a mortal's skin and flesh were torn, they would feel pain. How much worse would it be for the fragile souls of Qi Refining cultivators?

That was why so many people couldn't endure this step.

After "harvesting" the starlight into the body, one still had to "refine" it, incorporating it into one's spiritual power so that the latter took on a trace of true essence. This prepared it to bear the essence of the sun and moon later on.

But starlight was razor-sharp. The agony of its passage through the meridians was like being cut apart by a thousand blades.

And those with insufficient foundations would still end up over-refining it, even if they forced the starlight into their dantians. Their spiritual power was too weak at the root.

When that happened, their spiritual power would take on a trace of starlight's properties, becoming peerlessly sharp. In terms of quality, it would even surpass the true essence produced through Foundation Establishment by external means.

But every time they circulated their spiritual power, they would have to endure the "refining" process all over again. No one could take that kind of agony.

The Basic Refining Method created by Saint Emperor Abyss added one more step during the "refining" process.

Cultivators had to condense a spiritual seal in their dantians beforehand. After drawing the starlight into their dantians, they were not to refine it immediately. Instead, they stored it in the spiritual seal, releasing it a little at a time and slowly wearing it down. It took longer, but the pain was far milder than with other Harvesting and Refining methods.

It was a bit of a shortcut, but could this method really build a Heaven-Forged Dao Foundation?

The odds weren't high.

The essence of the sun and moon couldn't be handled this way.

That was why he had left one final note.

[Though this method reduces the pain during the starlight-refining stage, it must not be used in the stages that follow. If you find the first stage unbearable, you may give up and expel the spiritual seal, along with the starlight it contains, from your body.]

Expelling the spiritual seal would cost one some cultivation, but that was still better than refining too much or being unable to endure the later stages.

A spiritual seal condensed from spiritual power couldn't bear the next two stages. And the intrusion of higher-level power would instead contaminate the cultivator's foundation.

That was why a Heaven-Forged Dao Foundation was so difficult to build. In the end, it still depended on the cultivator themselves.

"At least it gives more people a chance to try."

Xu Xing pulled out the crystal card. A wisp of magical power ground it into ash.

Mystic Sword City Central Hospital.

Xiao Fan had exchanged his reward for second place in today's Dharma Combat Test for Spirit Coins and paid the full cost of the surgery.

As he watched his parents embrace, weeping with joy, and his eldest brother being taken away by a Nascent Soul physician, he felt hollow inside.

In a daze, he got to his feet and headed outside.

His mother saw him and was just about to say something, but his father stopped her with a shake of his head.

Xiao Fan walked out of the hospital just like that.

He reached a flower bed where little bright-yellow flowers were in full bloom. Suddenly, his whole body felt weak, and he slowly sat down beside it.

Looking at the ground, his gaze was lost.

Yes, his eldest brother had an excellent Root Bone and talent. He had joined the Dragon-Elephant Heaven-Supporting Sect before the college entrance exams three years ago.

And he had always treated Xiao Fan well, sometimes sending back precious cultivation resources. It was thanks to him that Xiao Fan had reached the ninth level of Qi Refining in his senior year.

"Xiao Fan, focus on cultivating at school. I've asked around. There's a Dragon-Elephant Pill on the battle merit rankings this time. I'll get one for you when the time comes!"

He really had been so good to him.

Xiao Fan had always admired his eldest brother. He dreamed of joining the Dragon-Elephant Heaven-Supporting Sect someday, just like him.

But the Starry Sky Battlefield wasn't a playground. It was an extremely dangerous battlefield, where anyone could die.

When he saw his eldest brother lying unconscious in a hospital bed, his mind had gone completely blank.

The Dragon-Elephant Heaven-Supporting Sect had offered some help, and his parents had borrowed everything they could, but they were still short.

So Xiao Fan had thought of the Dharma Combat Test coming up soon.

Without telling his parents, he had quietly taken money from home and bought a vial of Barrier-Breaking Spirit Liquid.

The whole thing replayed in his mind. He had chosen to do it all himself, but... why did it still hurt so much?

Tears streamed down his face uncontrollably.

He understood. His life was... over.

"Young man, you look terribly sad."

A pair of gleaming leather shoes appeared in his sight. Xiao Fan wiped away his tears and looked up.

The man before him wore casual clothes that didn't match those shoes at all. He had an ordinary face and a gentle air about him.

There was also something strange about him: at first glance, he gave people the feeling that he was a good-natured pushover they ought to pick on.

"Here, wipe your face." He held out a tissue.

"...Thank you." Xiao Fan took it. "Are you here because of my eldest brother?"

He was already a cripple.

"Your eldest brother?" The man shook his head slightly. "No, I'm not interested in him."

As if by magic, a jade box appeared in the man's hand.

"An ancient treasure. Take it, and it can change your fate and grant you a great blessing. Interested in hearing more?"

"..."

So he was a salesman. I'm already in this bad a state. Can't you tell?

But Xiao Fan didn't even have the strength to chase him away.

"I don't have any money. I can't afford it."

"Free trial during the promotion. This chance won't come again if you miss it."

The man pressed the jade box into his hands, then turned and left without another word.

Huh?

He just left?

Xiao Fan stared blankly at the jade box in his hands for a while. After hesitating for a long time, he ultimately decided not to throw it away.

On the hospital roof, the man watched Xiao Fan put the jade box away and nodded. Then he looked up at a certain spot, as if speaking to someone.

"Daoist brother, I wonder how much progress you've made since emerging from seclusion?"

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