Aperture Opening: 83!

After receiving Xia He's advice and thanking her, Jiang Xuan hurried toward the training grounds.

But this time, his fighting spirit burned even fiercer, and he was even more cautious:

"Although I haven't lacked resources lately and have improved greatly, I can't let my guard down... Xie Hanshuang and Qin Feng were Supreme Earth-Grade Spirit Roots to begin with. They lack neither resources nor guidance from elders. Even people like Zeng Jun, Dong Hao, and Su Linyin certainly won't progress slowly in their cultivation."

"The share of resources I receive now has only barely allowed me to catch up with them... I still can't be careless."

While traveling, Jiang Xuan stirred his thoughts and summoned his attribute panel.

[Player: Jiang Xuan]

[Age: Fourteen]

[Cultivation: Early Spirit Pivot]

[Main Combat Class: Clear-Heart Sword Disciple (4/5), Beginner Qi Refiner (3/4)]

[Support Classes: Daoist Acolyte (3/3), Gourmet (2/7)]

[Talent: Spirit Root (Profound · Mid)]

[Techniques: Nine-Breath Qi-Absorption Method (Third Realm · Proficient), One Qi Sword Art (Third Realm · Proficient)]

[Spell: "Returning to Stillness Annihilation Sword" (Incomplete Volume)]

These were Jiang Xuan's current general attributes. Opening each entry revealed more detailed specifications.

For instance, when he opened the Returning to Stillness Annihilation Sword, it showed that it was labeled an incomplete volume because Jiang Xuan had learned only Winter Solstice and the first three sword forms. There were still further sword arts and sword moves that he had yet to cultivate.

However, Jiang Xuan soon set that matter aside and turned his attention to his cultivation.

Early Spirit Pivot did not mean that Jiang Xuan had failed to activate even thirty-six apertures over the past half month.

After entering Four Seasons Valley and gaining Granny Blue as his teacher, Jiang Xuan had also learned some secrets regarding Spirit Pivot Aperture Opening.

According to Granny Blue, thirty-six apertures were merely the minimum threshold for condensing a Spirit Pivot.

The human body possessed three dantian Spirit Pivots: Primordial Essence in the Lower Dantian, the Qi Sea in the Middle Dantian, and the Purple Palace in the Upper Dantian. The three dantians respectively represented a cultivator's essence, qi, and spirit, and each dantian was connected to one hundred and eight apertures.

Thinking of this, the image of Granny Blue teaching him became clearer in Jiang Xuan's mind:

"Although condensing a Spirit Pivot will not affect your later activation of apertures, I still hope that you activate as many apertures associated with the Lower Dantian as possible before opening the Middle Dantian."

He also recalled the confusion that had appeared on his face after hearing those words. "Why is that?"

"Because it won't become a mess." Granny Blue had looked exceptionally solemn at the time. "The early apertures are easy to find to begin with. The first thirty-six apertures of any dantian have no threshold at all. Even someone with the worst Yellow-Grade Spirit Root can locate all of the first thirty-six apertures in all three dantians, provided they are willing to spend the time."

"But from thirty-six to seventy-two, the difficulty begins to climb. At that stage, those with outstanding Spirit Root talent can still easily find them all—Heaven-Grade and Earth-Grade."

"Yet the final thirty-six apertures associated with each respective dantian are entirely different in terms of how difficult they are to locate."

Originally, Jiang Xuan had not cared much about this. He believed that with the Clearheart Mirror (Self-Observation), he could easily locate the apertures within his body.

But when Granny Blue explained the mysteries of the apertures, Jiang Xuan immediately fell silent.

"Don't take it lightly." Granny Blue tapped Jiang Xuan on the head, her expression grave. "Do you know? Some great cultivators believe that these final thirty-six apertures are deliberately obscured by the laws of heaven and earth—Heaven's Dao hides their forms, conceals their traces, and severs their sensation. Only cultivators whose temperament and comprehension have both reached perfection, who can still resonate with heaven and earth, can find those final thirty-six apertures."

"Other great powers believe that these final thirty-six apertures are tied to a person's fate. Only those blessed with great fortune can find them..."

Although Granny Blue's theories had yet to be confirmed, the four words "obscured by heaven and earth" were enough to make Jiang Xuan understand the difficulty of finding the final thirty-six apertures.

And from her, Jiang Xuan had also learned that Inner Disciples of the lower-ranked lineages within the Divine Firmament Sect were required to open the first seventy-two apertures of all three great dantians.

Competition existed everywhere within the Divine Firmament Sect, and Inner Disciples were no exception.

After academy students like Jiang Xuan entered the various peaks and lineages, it did not mean they could sit back and rest easy once they had taken that position—those lineages all had their own assessment methods. If they failed to meet them, even their Inner Disciple status could be stripped away.

Among these, one of the basic requirements for Inner Disciples of the lower peaks was to locate all of the first seventy-two apertures in the three dantians.

For middle-ranked lineages, it was eighty-one.

"Only nine more than the lower peaks?" When Jiang Xuan had first heard this, he had not felt relieved. Instead, he had truly sensed the difficulty of locating the final thirty-six apertures.

Granny Blue's following words confirmed it for him. "Although each dantian only requires nine more apertures, finding those nine is harder than finding the previous seventy-two combined."

"..."

Beyond that, Jiang Xuan had also learned that the upper peaks demanded even more. Their assessment benchmark was ninety-nine.

"Every Heaven-Grade disciple in the sect enters an upper-ranked lineage. With so many exceptionally gifted people, their assessment benchmark is still only ninety-nine?"

At this point, a genuine trace of worry arose in Jiang Xuan's heart.

"I thought the later apertures were merely hidden deeply. I never expected this to involve heaven and earth's concealment—if that is the case, even with the Clearheart Mirror, I might not be able to find them all."

After informing Jiang Xuan of the difficulty of opening apertures, Granny Blue also explained why she had told him to seek only apertures associated with Primordial Essence in the early stages.

"Whatever the reason, apertures ultimately exist within the human body and can be observed by a cultivator's mind and soul. Mental observation emphasizes purity. The purer your mind and body, the lower the difficulty of finding the final thirty-six apertures."

"If the apertures in your body are associated only with Primordial Essence, then your body will be pure, and the difficulty of locating apertures will drop countless times over."

"Conversely, if both your Primordial Essence apertures and Qi Sea apertures are open, essence, qi, and spiritual power will intermingle. The aura within your body will become muddled, and that chaos will multiply the difficulty of finding apertures severalfold."

"For this reason, the sect's prodigies all search one Spirit Pivot at a time. They locate as many apertures as possible in their current Spirit Pivot before searching for the next."

After recalling this, Jiang Xuan closed his eyes and sensed the number of apertures in his body. The number displayed was—83!

"I have to find a solution. Otherwise, the speed at which I refine spiritual qi will surpass the speed at which I search for apertures. That would be far too wasteful."

Yes, for the moment, the spiritual qi Jiang Xuan refined had yet to catch up with the many apertures he had discovered.

At this moment, six glowing white, illusory points flickered in and out of sight within his body. They were apertures he had found but that had not yet been activated by spiritual power.

This was partly due to the cold qi's erosion, which limited the amount of spiritual power he could refine each day.

But the greater reason was that the Three Purification Incantations and the Clearheart Mirror (Self-Observation) were proving effective—they had merely become less efficient, not completely useless.

Among them, the passive skill Qi Perception that Jiang Xuan had gained upon becoming a Qi Refiner gave him an enormous surprise.

Originally, Jiang Xuan had thought this ability merely allowed him to sense the spiritual qi outside or enhanced his control over the spiritual power within his body.

But now, he discovered that he had still underestimated Qi Perception.

This vague yet profound perception of "qi" could actually affect unopened apertures as well. After all, apertures were nodes where spiritual qi and spiritual power gathered and condensed; they were a match made in heaven with Qi Perception.

Bolstered by Three Purifications Spell: Truth Communion, Jiang Xuan could faintly sense the approximate locations of apertures when his Qi Perception was fully activated.

Although that perception was exceedingly vague, having a direction was countless times better than searching through utter nothingness.

"Still, this method of searching is a little too slow. In at most two or three days, the speed at which I find apertures will fail to keep up with the speed at which I refine qi."

At that thought, Jiang Xuan's gaze abruptly fell upon [Beginner Qi Refiner] in his attribute panel.

[Beginner Qi Refiner]

[Rating: Blue Rare]

[Level: 3/4 (672/3300)]

[Class Passives: Refining Essence into Qi, Qi Perception]

[Exclusive Ability: Dao Foundation Contract (1/1)]

The displayed level made Jiang Xuan immediately clench his fist.

"Already level three. Sure enough, I made the right choice binding the Nine-Breath Qi-Absorption Method with the Dao Foundation Contract. As long as I circulate the technique once, the Qi Refiner class gains +1 experience."

"And the Nine-Breath Qi-Absorption Method, with its Cosmic Cycle Circulation trait, means I do not need to worry much at all. Whether sitting, lying down, or walking, my class experience will increase. It's like being idle while the gains roll in."

For Jiang Xuan's class system, levels were still quite useful.

No matter the class, the foremost requirement for advancement was raising the current class level to its maximum.

Seeing that Beginner Qi Refiner had reached 3/4, Jiang Xuan immediately knew that this class's advanced promotion was not far away.

Considering the compatibility between Qi Perception and apertures, Jiang Xuan placed his hopes of finding every aperture in his body upon the advanced promotion of [Qi Refiner].

"Ah, I hope this class advancement will be simpler... I still haven't fulfilled the advancement requirements for Profound Scripture Daoist."