Early the next morning, Li Xingkong got up bright and early. After washing up, he started cleaning the house as fast as he could.
There was no helping it. The system might be awesome, but his mom really was his mom. All things considered, he was more afraid of getting dealt with by her for not doing his chores.
"Hurry, hurry, hurry, system grandpa, I want to start class!" As soon as he finished the chores his mom had assigned him, Li Xingkong threw himself onto his bed and called for the system.
"Very well. Based on the host's strong request, some elementary school courses on immortal cultivation will now be made available." The system's response came from his mind, and Li Xingkong immediately focused and listened closely.
"The elementary school courses are primarily intended to help the host cultivate from Qi Refining through Foundation Establishment. Once the host has successfully completed Foundation Establishment, he may graduate from elementary school."
The system's explanation was fairly clear. This stage was mainly about going from an ordinary person to Qi Refining, then completing Qi Refining and undergoing Foundation Establishment.
"This isn't theoretical knowledge again, is it? What level can I reach after completing Qi Refining?" Li Xingkong asked instinctively. Those dozen-odd years of studying theory had really given him a headache.
Although the previous stage of study had equipped him to gain a firm foothold in any industry and even become a benchmark in that field within a few years, every other industry had become unimportant in the face of the naked temptation of immortal cultivation.
Was he supposed to waste precious study time making money and picking up girls, showing off before others, acting all high and mighty and slapping faces?
How much free time would he have to have for that? In any case, he wasn't in the mood for it now. According to the system's estimated timeline, he wouldn't reach Foundation Establishment until he was sixty, and that was completely unacceptable to him. He would work even harder and strive to reach Foundation Establishment sooner.
"During the Qi Refining stage, the host can attain the following: abstain from grains and go without food, command thunder and lightning, ride the wind through the air, become as light as a swallow, and be unmatched in close combat. The host may also learn some spells as appropriate, such as the Fireball Spell, the Explosion Spell, and so on."
The system had painted a tempting pie in the sky, and Li Xingkong lapped it right up. After all, every pie the system had painted before had come true.
"Did you say I'd be unmatched in close combat?" Li Xingkong had noticed one point the system had made. Leaving everything else aside, that one seemed a little too exaggerated.
"Yes. I scanned your planet, and there isn't a second immortal cultivator on it. Could an adult possibly lose a fight against a child?"
The system's words were crude, but its reasoning wasn't.
"Then where do we start?" He was already rubbing his fists and feet, eager to try.
"First, you choose a major." The system's tone hadn't changed, but Li Xingkong couldn't help shuddering several times when he heard it. Choosing a major starting in elementary school?
"Can't you make it sound a little more sophisticated...?" Li Xingkong was somewhat speechless. Choosing a major? Where was the atmosphere of immortal cultivation in that? Ever since the system had arrived, nothing it said had sounded remotely like immortal cultivation. It was far too down-to-earth.
"When Sun Wukong chose a major, it was presented as, 'Within the gate of the Dao lie three hundred and sixty side paths, and all side paths yield true fruit. Which one would you study?'"
Hearing Li Xingkong's complaint, the system was uncharacteristically at a loss for words.
"When I came to this world, I already scanned your history. It was precisely because I read through it that I chose to speak to you in plain language. If you want something high-class, then I'll have to speak dinosaur."
"Dinosaurs could talk?" Li Xingkong found it hard to hold it in.
"Then forget it. Whatever you say, whatever you say." He was afraid that after being provoked like this, the system would dig up some language from Earth Star to speak to him in.
"Listen well. The path of immortal cultivation has endured through the ages and weathered countless setbacks. Innumerable civilizations have had their halberds shattered along the way." The system suddenly grew serious.
"Two or three in ten relied on spiritual energy and made no effort to advance. When spiritual energy ran out, their civilizations declined. Another two or three saw powerhouses rise to prominence and monopolize every path of the Dao, withholding them from others and sparking great wars that overturned heaven and earth. As for the rest, they passed down methods but not the Dao. When the Dao perished, the methods could not endure."
As Li Xingkong listened to the system's explanation, he roughly understood that it was telling him about earlier immortal cultivation civilizations. They broadly fell into several categories.
One relied on spiritual energy to cultivate. When spiritual energy ran out, it brought about the end of the cultivation era.
In the second, once cultivation reached a certain level, powerhouses emerged in great numbers. They monopolized the paths of the Dao and refused to allow anyone else to set foot on their own paths. The powerhouses fought great wars, planets were destroyed, mortals were powerless, and civilizations were wiped out.
In the third, they passed down methods but not the Dao, teaching people only how to use them and not the principles behind them. Such immortal cultivation depended on the few who understood those principles, and when those people met with accidents, civilizations directly collapsed. Immortal cultivation depended on archaeology, and becoming an immortal depended on luck.
"Of course, these matters are too complicated for you to worry about for now. I only wanted to say that no matter which path you take, the choice is yours." After giving Li Xingkong some time to think, the system spoke.
The system's words pulled Li Xingkong out of his deep thoughts. "True, I haven't even started Qi Refining yet. What am I thinking about all this for?" The system's words had also been far too pessimistic. Of all the reasons it had given, not a single path was easy to walk; they all sounded like tragedies.
"The path of Qi Refining has continued to develop from the time the first person set foot on the path of immortal cultivation until the present. Countless civilizations have created many very interesting methods of Qi Refining."
"The first is a relatively traditional method: gathering the essence of the sun and moon and taking it in to refine qi."
The system began giving a detailed introduction to the different types of Qi Refining. "Simply put, it uses spiritual energy to adjust the body, giving a person the ability to absorb light energy directly. Rather than relying on chemical energy produced from food, they use light energy directly as their energy source."
"According to biological theory, the larger an organism is, the closer it is to the beginning of the consumer energy levels. The blue whale, currently the largest creature on Earth Star, lives on plankton. If it relied on eating meat, it would take a vast expanse of ocean to sustain one blue whale."
"So the core essence of Qi Refining is raising your own energy intake level?" Having heard the theory, Li Xingkong understood a little.
"Right. The central goal of the entire Qi Refining stage is to improve the efficiency of energy acquisition." The system agreed with Li Xingkong. "If you still relied on food for energy after starting Qi Refining, you could eat compressed biscuits nonstop all day and still not keep up with your body's rate of consumption."
"All right, then what about the other Qi Refining methods?" Now that he understood the focus of the Qi Refining stage, Li Xingkong at least knew which direction to apply his efforts during it.
"After the traditional qi refiners stepped off their planet, they saw the true face of heaven and earth for the first time. They discovered a problem: the original Qi Refining method was heavily dependent on the sun. In other words, although they could roam the northern sea at dawn and reach Cangwu by dusk, they could not go too far from the sun. Without sunlight, their lives would fade away as well."
"So they proposed a second Qi Refining method: gathering moonlight to refine qi."
"Isn't that going backward? Just now they were gathering the sun and moon, so why did they go back to gathering moonlight?" Li Xingkong didn't quite understand.
"Let me ask you: what's the difference between the moon and the sun?" the system asked.
"Uh, the sun shines, and the moon doesn't?" Li Xingkong said. "The sun is a star?"
"Wrong. The most immediately apparent difference is that the sun's gravitational pull on Earth is more stable than the moon's." The system drove a needle straight to the point. "The immortals of that era perceived the existence of gravity through the moon. Based on the gravitational influence of the moon on their home planet, they devised a second Qi Refining method. Starting with tidal energy as its model, this method uses gravity as a foundation within the body to absorb energy."
"Huh?!" Li Xingkong was a little dumbfounded. What happened to immortal cultivation? They were already talking about gravity?
But on second thought, it was true that gravity was far less restricted than light energy. As things stood, the entire universe was filled with gravity, so there was no chance of running out of energy.
"The third Qi Refining method: drawing the qi of the mortal world and supporting a dragon court to refine qi." Ignoring Li Xingkong's dumbfounded expression, the system continued its introduction.
"Do people really have the power of faith?" Before he had recovered from his earlier bewilderment, Li Xingkong heard about an even more outrageous Qi Refining method.