Qi Refining

Biodata

Overview

Qi Refining is the initial documented cultivation realm, in which cultivators absorb and refine spiritual qi into spiritual power within their dantian. Progress is measured by numbered layers, with the middle stage beginning at the fourth layer; Zhao Hao reaches this stage after a month of seclusion. 10

Entering Qi Refining normally requires first understanding a cultivation method and sensing spiritual qi. Zhao Hao's unaided, one-night entry into the first layer is considered unprecedented in the history of the Extreme Yin Sect; even the prodigies recorded by the sect generally require several days to understand their method and begin cultivation. 5

A cultivator's strength at this realm depends chiefly on cultivation level and magical-combat methods. Cultivators entering the middle stage are generally expected to master five basic spell types: an attack spell, defense spell, movement spell, breath-concealment art, and Qi Gazing Art. 6

Qi Refining terminology is also used to describe body-cultivation strength. In a multidimensional spacetime world, Zhao Hao uses demon beast essence blood and the Heavenly Demon Sacred Art to strengthen an alternate body to the level of a late-stage Qi Refining Body Cultivator. 234

Known Layers

Power Progression

Cultivation

Qi Refining cultivation relies on absorbing ambient spiritual qi and refining it through a cultivation art. Spiritual-root quality directly affects absorption speed: Zhao Hao's low-grade fire root initially absorbs qi extremely slowly, while his later high-grade fire root creates a visible vortex of fire spiritual qi during cultivation. 4 10

At the first layer, progress corresponds to accumulating strands of spiritual power. Zhao Hao's cultivation art describes another ninety-eight strands as necessary when his progress stands at 2/100. 7

The amount of spiritual qi required to condense a strand of spiritual power increases with cultivation level. At the second layer, Zhao Hao condenses two strands in the time an incense stick burns after improving his fire root to high grade; he estimates that the same absorption would have produced three strands at the first layer. 10

Spiritual power also nourishes the cultivator's flesh. Over his first few months of cultivation, Zhao Hao grows from a scrawny child of about ten into someone who appears fifteen or sixteen. 29

Spiritual Roots

A spiritual root determines a cultivator's affinity for corresponding spiritual qi and strongly influences cultivation speed.

• Zhao Hao originally possesses all five elemental spiritual roots. He sacrifices his metal, wood, water, and earth roots as enhancement materials for his fire root, destroying the four other roots. 1 286
• A Heavenly Spiritual Root is described as absorbing qi “like a great whale drinking water,” though Zhao Hao initially fails to match this standard because his foundation remains that of five spiritual roots. 4
• Raising Zhao Hao's Fire Spiritual Root to high grade allows his cultivation efficiency to become comparable to that of a Heavenly Spiritual Root when paired with the Minor Achievement Mysterious Yin Qi Absorption Art. 10
• Zhao Hao later strengthens his high-grade fire root to supreme grade with Qi Refining cultivator corpses, supporting his rapid rise to the sixth layer. 13
• Higher root quality also increases the quantity or quality of materials needed for further enhancement. 10
• Zhao Hao later advances his fire spiritual root from supreme grade to Immortal Grade. The advancement produces a Fire Spirit Body, grants the innate Divine Ability Fire Spirit Affinity, and enables him to automatically sense and absorb surrounding spiritual qi. 69
• An Immortal Grade Fire Spiritual Root can absorb all five elemental forms of spiritual qi, forcibly assimilating non-fire qi into pure fire-attribute spiritual power; fire qi is absorbed at more than ten times the rate of the other elements. 69
• When Fire Spirit Affinity reaches the ninth grade, Zhao Hao can draw fire-attribute spiritual qi from a vast area and condense it into supreme-grade spirit stones. 124
• Much later, Zhao Hao recognizes that his fire-only foundation has left his essence and magical power imbalanced despite his advancement through higher realms. The Five-Element Spirit Root Nurturing Method cannot restore his missing roots because it requires dormant roots to remain within the cultivator. 284 286
• The nurturing method's pill-planting, artifact-planting, and transplantation approaches all require a surviving spiritual-root seed of the corresponding attribute. Jin Ling later explains that cultivators outside the Spirit Race generally possess all five elements in differing strengths, distinguishing ordinary incomplete development from Zhao Hao's destruction of his roots. 286 288
• Using the Spirit Race's Five-Element Heaven-Replenishing Art and attribute-bearing crystals, Zhao Hao forges new metal, wood, water, and earth roots. He strengthens all four from supreme to Immortal Grade, then unifies their power with his original fire attribute to complete his five-element foundation. 289 292

Cultivation Arts

Cultivation arts govern the circulation, absorption, and refinement of spiritual qi.

• The Mysterious Yin Qi Absorption Art is Zhao Hao's primary Qi Refining cultivation method during his time in the Extreme Yin Sect. 4 10
• The art is the Extreme Yin Sect's basic cultivation method and serves as the foundational volume for its higher-level arts. 3
• Its publicly taught form includes several cultivation passes introduced for universal applicability at the expense of efficiency. The system-provided insights follow an orthodox route suited to Zhao Hao's circumstances. 5
• Advancing the art from Proficient to Minor Achievement more than doubles its circulation speed. 7
• At Perfect level, the art and an adequate pill supply allow Zhao Hao to advance rapidly to the fourth layer. 10
• Sacrificing cultivation arts as enhancement materials erases the user's memories and insights of those arts, requiring them to be relearned before reuse. 10
• Extreme Yin Sect inner disciples can read Qi Refining-stage texts on the Scripture Repository's first floor for free, though copying a jade slip requires spirit stones or contribution points. 6
• Zhao Hao records seventeen Qi Refining cultivation arts and thirty-two Qi Refining spells from the repository as potential enhancement materials. 6

Pills and Pill Toxins

Cultivation pills can greatly increase Qi Refining progress, but repeated use produces pill toxins.

• A Qi Gathering Pill provides substantially more progress than ordinary qi absorption during early Qi Refining cultivation. 7
• Zhao Hao develops extremely mild Qi Gathering Pill toxin after consuming several Qi Gathering Pills to advance to the second layer. 7 8
• After entering the middle stage, Qi Gathering Pills become less effective, while their toxins begin reducing absorption efficiency. 10
• Zhao Hao's deeper pill toxins threaten his foundation until he uses his system to remove them before breaking through to the seventh layer. 14
• At the seventh layer, Essence Condensing Pills still provide spiritual power, but their effect becomes small relative to the layer's greater cultivation requirements. Zhao Hao later uses Meridian-Impacting Pills to advance through late-stage Qi Refining to the ninth layer. 14 19
• Pill toxins can also be deliberately retained to make a cultivator's aura appear weak, unstable, and poorly founded. 20
• Highly pure spiritual liquid can be converted into a Qi Refining cultivator's spiritual power with almost no refinement. Jia Ren accepts Zhao Hao's fabricated claim of receiving such liquid as a plausible explanation for reaching the ninth layer in three months, but believes that forcing advancement in this way would damage his foundation. 26
• Pill toxins may be treated as system enhancement materials. Zhao Hao later consumes severe Golden Core Consolidation Pill and Pure Origin Pill toxins while enhancing a pill, removing the toxins in the process. 103

Spiritual Sense

Basic spiritual sense emerges upon entering Qi Refining, allowing Zhao Hao to perceive his surroundings and inspect his own body. 4

Spiritual sense becomes capable of object control upon reaching the seventh level of Qi Refining. Zhao Hao's sense expands to a radius of ten zhang at this breakthrough, more than tripling in range. 14

This capability allows a cultivator to manipulate objects at range, including swords; Zhao Hao later uses divine sense to control a sword in combat. A specialized sword-controlling method provides techniques beyond direct manipulation by spiritual sense alone. 14 75

At his seventh-layer breakthrough, Zhao Hao first levitates a teacup, then practices controlling the Ghost Bone flying sword after infusing it with spiritual power. His initial sword manipulation is confined to the space within three chi in front of him. 14

Combat and Practical Capabilities

Entering Qi Refining enables the use of a Storage Bag. Lu Gui therefore initially places Zhao Hao's belongings in an ordinary cloth bag, explaining that he can use the Storage Bag once he begins cultivation. 3

Cultivation level alone does not determine the outcome of combat within the realm.

• At the late stage of the seventh layer, Zhao Hao believes that his supreme-grade spiritual root, perfected cultivation art and spells, and supreme-grade flying sword would let him fight an ordinary cultivator at Qi Refining perfection head-on, setting aside combat experience. 14
• Three seventh-layer Heavenly Sword Sect cultivators use a coordinated sword formation to destroy an eighth-layer Extreme Yin Sect disciple's protective artifact, dismember him, and scatter his soul. 22
• At the ninth layer, Zhao Hao kills a same-layer Heavenly Sword Sect cultivator with Evil Light Art, but is wounded by her senior sister at Qi Refining perfection and uses Blood Escape Art to escape. 23

Control of a flying sword is distinct from riding one. Zhao Hao can manipulate a sword during late-stage Qi Refining, but still lacks the knowledge needed for sword flight after reaching Foundation Establishment; he subsequently learns a specialized method. 14 29 33

Concealment and Detection

The Mysterious Yin Breath Concealment Art can disguise a Qi Refining cultivator's apparent realm.

• At Perfect level, it can conceal Zhao Hao's true cultivation from cultivators up to two major realms above him, provided he does not enter intense magical combat. 10
• Zhao Hao conceals his fourth-layer cultivation as early third layer after leaving seclusion. 10
• He later disguises himself as an ordinary fifth-layer Qi Refining rogue cultivator while visiting a market town. 11
• When his seventh-layer breakthrough nearly exposes him, Zhao Hao redirects the leaking aura into the appearance of an unstable early fourth-layer breakthrough. 15
• At the ninth layer, he suppresses his aura to appear only at the middle fourth layer and adds pill-toxin fluctuations to reinforce the deception. 20
• He later disguises himself as a seventh-layer Qi Refining cultivator while entering a market town. 29
• After reaching Foundation Establishment, Zhao Hao also presents himself as a cultivator at Qi Refining perfection while selling pills in Ten Thousand Immortal City. 43

Concealing cultivation can itself be dangerous within the Extreme Yin Sect. Lu Gui recounts that a ninth-layer disciple concealed himself as an early-stage cultivator so successfully that a Foundation Establishment elder mistook him for a disciple without prospects and refined him into a living corpse. Zhao Hao consequently resolves to display progress appropriate to a Heavenly Spiritual Root while concealing only the strength that exceeds those expectations. 6

Relation to Higher Realms

The documented cultivation hierarchy progresses from Qi Refining to Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, and Spirit Transformation. 3

Foundation Establishment follows Qi Refining. A Foundation Establishment cultivation method, the Mysterious Yin Essence Condensation Art, is found among Jia Ren's possessions. 29

The Mysterious Yin Essence Condensation Art requires the condensation of corrosive Yin Baleful Qi from yin energy, corpse qi, and Killing Intent. Its cultivation marks a practitioner as demonic and restricts access to righteous-path resources, leading Zhao Hao to decline the method. 30

Zhao Hao instead purchases the fire-attribute Li Fire Imperial Spirit Canon, a Foundation Establishment cultivation method whose offensive power is considered top-tier among methods of its level. 31

Foundation Establishment Pills substantially improve the chance of crossing from Qi Refining into Foundation Establishment, making them intensely sought after by late-stage Qi Refining cultivators. Qi Refining cultivators are said to outnumber Foundation Establishment cultivators by more than a hundred to one. 48 55

The gap between the realms includes a major increase in both the quality and quantity of spiritual power. While at Qi Refining, Zhao Hao can travel only ten li with Earth Escape Art before underground pressure becomes unbearable; after reaching Foundation Establishment, he travels more than a thousand li underground over four hours. 29

Foundation Establishment pressure can also physically overwhelm Qi Refining cultivators. When a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator releases his aura in the Sun and Moon Pill Pavilion, the Qi Refining cultivators' blood and qi churn, while weaker individuals turn pale and nearly collapse to their knees. 77

Heavenly Spiritual Root disciples are said to normally reach Foundation Establishment within three years, giving Zhao Hao a limited period to exploit his apparent aptitude. 10

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