Every minute part of a true exquisite heart was a complex, comprehensive chain structure.
Tong Mingshan had never trained in this kind of chain-structure refining, but he was not entirely unfamiliar with it. Back at the Hundred Refinements Sect, he had once asked his elders about it out of curiosity, only to be scolded for wanting to run before he could walk.
In private, however, he had tried to puzzle it out. The difficulty had driven him back, his strength proving insufficient, and he had confirmed that it lay beyond his current capabilities.
Luo Shengsheng of the Great Inscription Pavilion and Li Hongjiu of the Treasure-Evolving Sect were different. Their sects, like those of Gu Liani and the other disciples from major sects, had encouraged them to stay interested in this difficult undertaking, to challenge it, and to discover where their own strengths lay. Relatively speaking, the major sects had the resources for these disciples to expend on experimentation, and anyone willing to learn would be taught the relevant refining methods.
But something with such a high threshold was no ordinary undertaking. Lower-ranking disciples truly struggled to cross it.
Of all the contestants present, only one had genuinely crossed that threshold: Li Hongjiu.
He, too, had attempted it out of curiosity, and only after spending a tremendous amount of effort and time had he managed to refine a single orifice.
Being able to refine the True One Orifice meant being able to refine the True Nine Orifices. The difference was simply that it would take longer.
Once he had succeeded and discovered how it worked, he lost interest.
He preferred pursuing his own cultivation and had little interest in refining in the first place. A passing curiosity had prompted him to try, but once his questions were answered, he decided