The Path of Cultivation

By the time Yang Wenqing and Li Ming returned to District 3, the colleagues relieving the Fifth Patrol Squad had already arrived. The four exchanged a few casual words before parting ways.

When they returned to the security station's office area, Captain Xiao Liang was already back, writing something at his desk. Seeing Yang Wenqing and Li Ming return, he looked up at them and said, "The conflict in District 2 counts as a merit for each of you."

"Thank you, Captain!"

The two thanked him in unison, then headed toward the changing room.

The police station had a very strict merit system, tied to seniority within the force. Accumulating ten days of patrol duty earned one merit. For a regular guard to advance to senior guard through seniority alone, they needed a total of three hundred merits.

Of course, reaching the Qi Refining Stage would allow one to directly obtain the rank of senior guard. After mastering all the basic spells, one could qualify to take the examination for police commissioner. In the entire security station, only Director Wang Ren held the rank of police commissioner.

Police commissioner was an officer-level rank, qualifying one to serve as director of a security station, department head at a branch bureau, or commander of frontline units.

The final use of merits was to exchange them for spirit herbs and medicinal pills. The recorded total of merits would not decrease after an exchange, so it did not affect a guard's accumulated seniority. The White Dragon Ginseng in Yang Wenqing's possession had been exchanged with the merits he earned from following the captain on patrol for half a year.

Ye Yong had already removed his equipment in the changing room and was chatting with Zhou Kun, who was in the same group as him. When he saw Yang Wenqing and Li Ming enter, he immediately said, "Zhao Qin from Squad One wants to invite us to Prosperity Restaurant. Are you going?"

"You looking for a beating, kid?"

Zhou Kun slapped Ye Yong on the back of the head.

Yang Wenqing glanced at Ye Yong and said with a smile, "Go if you want. I'll pass."

Li Ming also shook his head. "My wife's heavily pregnant. I need to get home early."

At that, Ye Yong immediately stood and walked over to Yang Wenqing. Smiling, he said, "That Zhao Qin has loved showing off since we were kids. I'll go see what stunt he's pulling tonight."

He was clearly the sort of person who could not sit still, and he apparently had known Zhao Qin for a long time.

Yang Wenqing kept smiling as he quickly removed his equipment and locked his locker.

Throughout the process, Ye Yong stood beside him, recounting Zhao Qin's past misdeeds from school, mostly insulting Zhao Qin. Clearly, he did not want this matter to create a rift between Yang Wenqing and the members of the Second Squad. After all, when they encountered evil cultivators or sudden spiritual energy surges during missions, they were comrades who had to entrust their backs to one another.

Yang Wenqing chatted with him casually for a few moments, then bade his teammates farewell and left. He had no entertainment plans for the afternoon, so after leaving the security station, he headed straight back to the dormitory building.

As soon as he entered the small courtyard, he saw a middle-aged man in a police vest practicing boxing beneath a banyan tree. Yang Wenqing recognized him. He was practicing the basic boxing form of the Qi-Drawing Art. This boxing form could help spiritual energy circulate through the spiritual veins and was the best qi cultivation method available without medicine or a spirit-gathering formation.

With the concentration of spiritual energy in this world, even ordinary people had a chance of reaching the Qi Refining Stage if they practiced this technique scientifically. It would likely take more than twenty years, though, and ordinary people did not have those twenty years to spare, because most of their lives were spent supporting their families.

Take Yang Wenqing himself, for example. Most of his day was spent working at the police station. He only had time to cultivate after returning home from work and in the mornings. Sometimes, when he had to work overtime, he would not return until the middle of the night, leaving him without even the time to cultivate in the morning or evening.

After returning to his dormitory, Yang Wenqing first took off his city defense uniform and checked the collar. Confirming that he could wear it for another day, he could not be bothered to take it off and wash it. Then he walked to a wooden barrel in the corner and lifted the lid, revealing the coarse rice inside. It was rations his parents had sent through someone.

Yang Wenqing needed to make some rice cakes for later. By the time more than ten rice cakes came out of the steamer, an hour had passed. He wolfed down three rice cakes with pickled vegetables before finally easing the hunger in his stomach.

After tidying up the messy corner, Yang Wenqing stood by the windowsill and inscribed another talisman paper with the Immobilization Spell before putting it away.

"Now that I'm a regular guard, I can go to the county branch bureau and collect the pattern for a second spell, then try drawing it with spiritual energy. The day after tomorrow is Saturday, so I can rest for a day."

Before reaching the Qi Refining Stage, one could only learn basic spells. These spells were fixed rune formulas that required one to trace specific rune pathways with the spiritual veins inside the body. If they could be completed within a certain time and condensed without dispersing, they could produce the corresponding effect.

For his second spell, Yang Wenqing intended to learn the Golden Light Bodyguard Spell. It could construct a protective golden light around a cultivator and was considered one of the best early-stage methods of defense and survival.

After making his decision, Yang Wenqing took his keys and police badge and left. For the next few hours until bedtime, he would practice boxing in the courtyard below, guiding the spiritual energy through the spiritual veins in his sea of qi to absorb and circulate the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.

The colleague who had been practicing boxing earlier was still there, but he was now sitting cross-legged beneath the banyan tree in meditation. He was clearly digesting the spiritual energy gathered in his sea of qi while using it to repair damaged spiritual veins. Without the aid of the Golden Core World, this step consumed more than half his time, making his daily cultivation progress as slow as a turtle's crawl.

Yang Wenqing paid him no attention. He walked to an unoccupied corner, assumed the opening stance of the Qi-Drawing Art, calmed his mind, and guided the faint spiritual energy in the sea of qi beneath his lower dantian to flow slowly through his spiritual veins.

When he felt a faint sense of qi, his boxing form gradually unfolded, his movements smooth and rhythmic.

The boxing form of the Qi-Drawing Art possessed no power to defeat enemies. Its essence lay in the word "draw." Through specific movements, breathing rhythms, and mental focus, it drew in and absorbed as much of the surrounding spiritual energy of heaven and earth as possible, then guided it through fixed pathways in the spiritual veins.

For cultivators who had not formed a complete circulation through their spiritual veins, this was painstaking work. They often had to repeat the entire boxing form more than ten times just to barely gather enough spiritual energy for one full circulation through the main spiritual veins.

Of course, those with good aptitude could accomplish this step quickly.

Yang Wenqing's aptitude was not good, but he had the Golden Core World.

Once he began practicing, a strand of his consciousness naturally gathered a golden core within his spiritual platform. Inside the Golden Core World, his clear illusory projection appeared once more.

The projection clearly showed the state of spiritual energy flowing through his body as his boxing form unfolded. By manipulating that flow with his thoughts, he could avoid most wasted effort.

After three sets of boxing forms, the spiritual energy had already completed one circuit through his main spiritual veins.

But Yang Wenqing did not stop. Before the spiritual energy in his body had completely settled, he assumed the opening stance once again.

With the Golden Core World's assistance, he could clearly see every minute expansion and strengthening of his spiritual veins as spiritual energy circulated through them. He could also keenly detect the tiny injuries that might arise at certain nodes from the repeated scouring of spiritual energy.

As he circulated his spiritual energy, he directed part of the refined energy to nourish and repair damaged spiritual veins first, ensuring that there were almost no hidden dangers in his cultivation process.

The second major circulation...

The third major circulation...

With no distractions in his mind, he became completely immersed in the slow yet tangible process of growing stronger. The sense of qi in his body became increasingly distinct with each circulation, while the sea of qi in his lower dantian spun with greater stability and force.

When the fifth major circulation was complete, Yang Wenqing slowly withdrew his stance. After exhaling a long breath tinged with faint impurities, he looked up at the sky. Night had fully fallen, and bright lights shone from many windows in the dormitory building.

The courtyard was already empty. Only the rustling of banyan leaves in the evening breeze remained.

"Huh?"

Yang Wenqing lowered his head. He had already stopped circulating his cultivation method, yet a faint stream of spiritual energy was still moving through his spiritual veins. According to the records of the Qi-Drawing Art, this was the state before breaking through to the Qi Refining Stage.

Suppressing the joy in his heart, Yang Wenqing used the boxing form to guide the spiritual energy in his body through another major circulation, but nothing changed.

He tried again, but it was still the same.

Slap!

As he instinctively began circulating the spiritual energy in his sea of qi for a third time, Yang Wenqing fiercely slapped himself. The burning pain in his cheek snapped him awake. He stood there blankly for more than ten seconds, then exhaled and looked at the waning moon in the sky, shaking his head.

"You have a broader road ahead of you. There's no need to rush now. If you cause permanent damage to your spiritual veins, it won't be worth it."

Yang Wenqing seemed to be persuading himself. After lingering there for a little longer, he headed toward the dormitory building. By then, only a few windows in the building still glowed with light.