Cultivation!

Zhou Qing no longer hesitated. He sat cross-legged on the couch and used the invisible power of his magnetic field to compress the surrounding spiritual energy toward himself.

The spiritual energy grew active and violent. Finding no escape in any other direction, it began burrowing into Zhou Qing's body.

Hiss!

Pain!

Zhou Qing's body suddenly went rigid. Beads of sweat the size of soybeans seeped from his forehead, and the muscles in his face trembled uncontrollably.

The instant the spiritual energy entered his body, he felt searing pain across his skin. At times, it was like flames scorching his flesh; at times, like sharp blades slicing through it; at times, it became the numbness brought by extreme cold. Sometimes, though, he felt a warm sensation, as though some force were healing the injuries in his body...

Such intense changes made Zhou Qing want to immediately end this experiment, but he soon discovered that his body had not truly been injured. On the contrary, it was visibly growing stronger.

He quickly understood what was happening.

The spiritual energy he had drawn into his body was merging with his skin, gradually strengthening his physique.

However, a portion of the spiritual energy was still being drawn by the magnetic field toward his meridians.

In the end, only one-fifth of all the spiritual energy that entered his body reached his meridians.

The remaining four-fifths strengthened his body along the way.

What did this count as?

Body cultivation?

The unexpected change left Zhou Qing somewhat at a loss.

Still, these all appeared to be beneficial changes. The proper thing was to first refine the spiritual energy in his meridians.

According to Chen Qingxuan's teachings, circulating qi required using one's mind to guide the qi through twelve internal vital points, also known as the Twelvefold Gates.

The Twelvefold Gates began with the Jade Steps.

Zhou Qing gathered all the spiritual energy within his body at the Jade Steps, then tried to guide it through his meridians.

His heart rose into his throat as he watched the spiritual energy with rapt attention, terrified that it might suddenly run wild and crash into the vital points within his body.

But he soon discovered that he had worried too much.

His magnetic field ability could restrain the spiritual energy's movements extremely well, preventing the danger of it striking the vital points. What had originally required the utmost caution, he carried out with surprising ease and smoothness.

Zhou Qing constantly monitored the changes in the spiritual energy within his body.

According to Chen Qingxuan, the process of spiritual energy circulating through the body was also the process of taming it. Zhou Qing wanted to see what changes tamed qi would undergo.

Using the sensing ability of his magnetic field, he followed the spiritual energy closely. As it passed through the Twelvefold Gates one by one, Zhou Qing finally detected the change.

Its oscillation frequency seemed to have changed.

Zhou Qing had long discovered that Five Elements Spiritual Energy consisted of five types of energy with different oscillation frequencies.

But as the spiritual energy circulated within his body, he found that its oscillation frequency was changing. It was gradually drawing closer to the stable state of the electromagnetic signals inherent to the human body.

Worried that his observations might be mistaken, he continued following the spiritual energy through two more Heavenly Cycles. At last, he confirmed that circulating qi was the process of bringing spiritual energy's oscillation frequency closer to the frequency inherent to the cultivator's own electromagnetic signals.

In that instant, he seemed to understand many principles of qi refinement.

For example, why did cultivators need to temper their Dao hearts?

Because a stable Dao heart meant that a cultivator could keep their electromagnetic signals in a balanced state. Only then could they assimilate the frequency of spiritual energy and draw it closer to their own frequency.

If a cultivator's Dao heart was unstable and their mind unsettled, their own electromagnetic signals would be chaotic beyond measure. They would have no ability whatsoever to assimilate the frequency of spiritual energy.

Having understood the essence of qi refinement, Zhou Qing immediately knew what he needed to do.

His magnetic field no longer merely restrained the spiritual energy. He made it vibrate at the same frequency as his own electromagnetic signals.

Then, he used the vibrating magnetic field to resonate with the spiritual energy.

After only three Heavenly Cycles, the spiritual energy began circulating through his meridians of its own accord with extreme docility. There was no longer any sign of conflict between the spiritual energy and his body.

That was because the spiritual energy's frequency had completely aligned with the frequency of his own electromagnetic signals.

In other words, the spiritual energy had already transformed into his Inner Qi. With a mere stir of his mind, he could wield his Inner Qi as naturally as one of his own arms.

Zhou Qing was so excited that he wanted to dance with joy.

He had actually found the cultivation method he had dreamed of, and its results were unexpectedly excellent.

The Azure Cloud Sect's Floating Cloud Sun-Obscuring Art was considered a superior technique even among the Golden Core Sects of the entire Qionghua Continent. Yet refining spiritual energy with it still required fifty-four Heavenly Cycles. Even legendary god-tier techniques required nine Heavenly Cycles.

Yet he needed only three Heavenly Cycles to refine spiritual energy—one-third the time of a god-tier technique, and one-eighteenth the time of the Azure Cloud Sect's foundational art.

This was only his initial grasp of it, while he was still far from proficient. Once he grew skilled in the future, perhaps he could push the speed to a single Heavenly Cycle!

That meant circulating qi would hardly take up any of his time at all.

Zhou Qing began calculating in his mind.

Based on the ratio of one part gathering qi to three parts circulating it, the time spent circulating qi was roughly three times that spent gathering it.

At his current speed of circulating qi, compared to Azure Cloud Sect disciples with the same spiritual roots, his cultivation speed should be about four times theirs.

The speed at which his magnetic field captured spiritual energy, if he were capturing spiritual energy of a single attribute, was roughly comparable to that of someone with one spiritual root.

But he could capture spiritual energy of every attribute, making his true speed comparable to someone with five spiritual roots.

Then there was the fact that only one-fifth of the spiritual energy he captured entered his meridians...

After calculating everything together, Zhou Qing reached a conclusion: his cultivation speed should be roughly comparable to that of a cultivator with four spiritual roots.

This speed still ranked near the bottom, but Zhou Qing was already very satisfied.

He had originally thought he would need five years, ten years, or even an entire lifetime to find such a cultivation method. He had even prepared himself for the possibility that he might never find one in his life.

He had never expected results to come so quickly.

Moreover, he believed that his cultivation speed would never stop at four spiritual roots.

Over the past three years, he had already proven that his magnetic field ability grew stronger as his body grew stronger.

Now that he could cultivate, his magnetic field ability would most likely grow stronger along with him. When that time came, the speed at which he captured spiritual energy would naturally increase as well.

There was another point he cared about greatly. Although only one-fifth of the spiritual energy captured by his magnetic field ultimately entered his meridians, the other four-fifths had not gone to waste. Instead, they merged with his body and became nourishment that strengthened it.

Over time, it was impossible to predict just how powerful his body would become.

All of these were part of his overall strength.

Having already mastered a cultivation method, Zhou Qing did not want to waste even a second. Once again, he used his magnetic field to compress spiritual energy into his body.

The agonizing pain of spiritual energy tearing through his flesh made him grit his teeth and bear it, but the sensation of the spiritual energy merging with his flesh and strengthening it also made him cry out in exhilaration.

By the time he felt that his spirit and energy had been completely exhausted, leaving him unable to expand his magnetic field and cultivate any longer, two hours had already passed.

Zhou Qing sat on the couch, sensing the changes in his body.

Though he was already utterly exhausted, he could feel that his strength, explosive power, and more had all improved greatly.

Unfortunately, he was far too sleepy to muster the energy for any tests. So he toppled onto the couch and fell asleep the moment he closed his eyes.