Perfected Early Qi Refining

Not long after Dong Lin returned to his cultivation room, his identity jade token received an urgent notice of the sect's highest priority.

From this day forth, our sect would seal the mountain for five years. All disciples outside the sect who received this message were to return immediately!

For the next five years, disciples were strictly forbidden from leaving the sect's mountain range. Violators would be dealt with according to sect law.

"The sect is sealing the mountain? Because of those two people who came from the Empire just now?"

Dong Lin glanced at the notice, then sat down in meditation once more and began another round of cultivation.

The cultivation world was fraught with danger, and Dong Lin had no plans to leave the sect anytime soon.

Five years of sealing the mountain was just right for Dong Lin to cultivate bitterly.

Better still, once the mountain was sealed, there would surely be no assignments sending disciples outside the sect, saving him quite a bit of trouble.

Dong Lin still could not make sense of those profound immortal arts in his mind.

Left with no choice, he could only continue raising his cultivation realm.

The time required to complete each Greater Celestial Circuit had basically stabilized at around seven shichen.

Dong Lin was not in a hurry to seek quick success. Sometimes, raising one's cultivation too quickly was not necessarily a good thing.

Completing one Greater Celestial Circuit each day counted as accomplishing his goal.

And so, a month passed.

"Other than attending classes, I've spent practically all my time cultivating."

"Finally, Perfected Early Qi Refining."

Without encountering the slightest obstruction, Dong Lin simply circulated his cultivation method and absorbed spiritual qi.

His dantian naturally filled to the brim, allowing him to reach the realm of Perfected Early Qi Refining.

In just over three months, he had transformed from a mortal into a cultivator at Perfected Early Qi Refining.

If news of such speed spread, anyone who heard it would be thunderstruck.

Once the dantian was filled, it had to be tempered and consolidated in preparation for expanding its capacity and breaking through to the Middle Qi Refining Stage.

"One hundred and four units... Looks like my aptitude isn't too bad."

Dong Lin sensed the capacity of his dantian and nodded.

The standard capacity for Perfected Early Qi Refining was one hundred units, but that was merely a reference. When each cultivator reached perfection, their capacity would not necessarily land exactly at one hundred units.

Some had a little more, while others had a little less.

Those with less could prepare for the next level more quickly and with greater ease, while those with more would strengthen their own foundation and have a greater chance of condensing a Dao Foundation in the future.

For ordinary cultivators with mediocre aptitude, even spending an entire lifetime to cultivate to the Qi Refining Peak was an exceedingly difficult matter.

Thus, the smaller the initial capacity of one's dantian, the faster one could reach each minor stage, and the lower the chance of encountering bottlenecks. It was a good thing.

But for genius disciples of great sects, the larger the dantian capacity, the better.

Because no matter what, they could cultivate to perfection.

It might originally take one or two years, but after expanding the dantian, it might require an additional year of cultivation.

That year could not be considered wasted. It would pave the road for Foundation Establishment, greatly increasing the chances of success and perhaps even allowing one to condense a higher-grade Dao Foundation.

For the time being, Dong Lin did not need to consider the matter of additionally expanding his dantian.

Without heavenly treasures to aid the expansion, cultivators generally only began considering secret arts for supplementary dantian expansion at the Late Qi Refining Stage.

This was because breaking through each minor realm required expanding the dantian once. Expanding it excessively too early would disrupt the pace of realm breakthroughs.

Since entering the Qi Refining Stage, the dantian had undergone three changes.

The first came after one developed a sense of qi and opened the dantian. At that time, its capacity was around one hundred units.

The second came when breaking through from the Early Qi Refining Stage to the Middle Qi Refining Stage.

By circulating one's cultivation method and borrowing the power of the meridians, one expanded the dantian's capacity once.

Aside from certain cultivation methods that specifically and drastically affected the dantian, most methods would expand the dantian upon breaking through to the Middle Qi Refining Stage, creating enough space to hold another hundred units.

The third came when breaking through from the Middle Qi Refining Stage to the Late Qi Refining Stage. The process was basically the same as the middle stage, only somewhat more difficult.

The methods used by various cultivation arts to open the dantian were largely identical. This was a mature result painstakingly developed over tens of thousands of years in the cultivation world.

One used spiritual qi to nourish and envelop the entire dantian, while simultaneously circulating the cultivation method through every meridian and filling all the meridians.

Through continuous filling, the meridians were stimulated and pressurized, thereby expanding the dantian's capacity.

This process was full of danger and demanded an exceptionally high level of control over spiritual qi.

Thus, a large number of cultivators became stuck at Perfected Early Qi Refining, unable to advance another inch for the rest of their lives.

"So breaking through is this troublesome?"

In order to break through smoothly, Dong Lin began visiting the Immortal Arts Hall every day after reaching perfection.

He repeatedly refined every detail concerning breakthroughs.

After spending more than two months, he completed the introductory task of finishing the Immortal Arts Hall's first stage of study within five years.

He then began nourishing his dantian.

The time needed to nourish the dantian varied from person to person. Some needed only a few weeks, while others required several years.

The proper degree of nourishment depended entirely on personal control. Ordinary cultivators would generally wait until they had absolute confidence before attempting a breakthrough.

After all, if the dantian was not sufficiently nourished, it could very easily tear during the breakthrough and suffer damage.

If the damage was minor, it would still take years, or even more than a decade, of continued nourishment before spiritual qi could slowly repair it.

If the dantian suffered severe damage, then without heavenly treasures to mend it, one would be forever cut off from the path of cultivation.

The first stage of study mainly taught disciples the foundational knowledge of cultivation and guided them into the Qi Refining Stage.

Five years was the standard set by the sect. Any disciple who could not enter the Early Qi Refining Stage within five years—

Would either have to pack up and leave, or be demoted to a menial disciple.

After developing a sense of qi, whether one could successfully circulate a cultivation method and open the dantian was also an extremely important step.

This step stumped many cultivators whose Innate Realm physical aptitude was decent, but whose minds were not nimble enough.

After all, guiding spiritual qi through the meridians was also an immensely complicated and precise task.

If one mishandled it, the meridians would be damaged.

After the first stage of study ended, the Immortal Arts Hall would assess disciples to inspect their cultivation progress.

After completing his studies, Dong Lin came to the Immortal Arts Hall located within the Soaring Cloud Heavenly Palace of the inner sect.

Since the first stage of study was mainly for outer sect disciples in the Qi Refining Stage,

The location for first-stage instruction had been set within the outer sect.

This grand hall within the Soaring Cloud Heavenly Palace was the true headquarters of the Immortal Arts Hall.

Unlike the exhausting journey when he had first arrived,

Now, with yuan energy flowing through him, Dong Lin reached the gates of the Immortal Arts Hall with almost no effort.

There was no shortage of cultivators flying through the air on swords, and a few traveled atop flying artifacts.

Those who flew through the sky unaided were rarely seen.

Of course, the greatest number were still those like Dong Lin, trudging along miserably on foot.

The vast majority of inner sect disciples did not yet possess the ability to fly, so they could only obediently travel across the ground.

Beyond the gates lay an incomparably vast courtyard.

Just as expected, the world outside the gates and the world within were utterly different.

The sect's mastery of spatial applications had clearly reached the point where fire and steel were forged into one.