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To use a very simple analogy, during Qi Refining, if he wanted to circulate his spiritual energy through a complete cycle, he had to devote his whole mind to driving the spiritual energy within his body forward. Throughout the process, he also had to continuously inhale and exhale, drawing in the free spiritual energy from the air while expelling the waste air his body could not use. This process took roughly several breaths.

Setting aside its inefficiency, it was also exceedingly cumbersome. A cultivator had to focus with all their heart and soul; the slightest distraction would cause the circulation cycle to fail completely, forcing them to start all over again.

Human energy was limited. Even if cultivators possessed far more vigor than ordinary people, they could not maintain such a vigorous mental state for an entire day. Thus, during the Qi Refining stage, even if Wen Xu wished to cultivate for all twelve double-hours of the day, the objective conditions did not permit it.

But after Foundation Establishment, this problem was solved as easily as splitting bamboo.

If he wished, let alone one day—even for a month or a year, he could maintain the inhalation and exhalation of spiritual energy. Yet though this ascetic monk-like cultivation was effective, it was not as effective as Wen Xu had imagined.

He had once tested it through his own cultivation. Cultivating all day, versus cultivating only three double-hours a day and spending the rest of the time practicing swordsmanship, resting, comprehending the Dao, and studying formations—after persisting for several days, he discovered that the difference between the two was actually not great.

In other words, after cultivation entered the Foundation Establishment Realm, the ways to increase one's cultivation were no longer limited to seated meditation. In the past, he had only heard