Li Xingkong had only meant to rest for a while and restore his mental energy. He hadn't expected that, by the time he closed his eyes and opened them again, it would already be the next day.
Even then, he only woke from his deep sleep after the system called him several times.
Although studying in his dreams was possible, the learning still consumed stamina and affected his rest. When he hadn't expended much energy during the day, studying in his dreams was no problem, but when his stamina or mental energy was severely depleted, a sound sleep was the better choice.
Li Xingkong was still a little groggy when he woke from his dream. System, I'll have dinner in a bit and start again tomorrow...
As far as he remembered, it was still yesterday afternoon.
Only when he saw the sun in the sky did he realize something was wrong. When he had fallen asleep, the sun had clearly begun to descend, and its light had grown considerably weaker, but the sun was much brighter now.
"You're awake? You're a girl now!"
The system's words brought Li Xingkong fully awake, and he began to realize he might have slept too long.
"How long did I sleep? A day?" Li Xingkong asked the system to confirm his guess. The system answered in the affirmative.
"No wonder I feel so much more refreshed." Li Xingkong held his head and sat up.
He instinctively reached out to sense the spiritual energy, which was resting quietly in the meridians he had only half constructed.
He was about to continue constructing his meridians when a rumble from his stomach stopped him. He couldn't help it. He hadn't eaten for a day, and it was hard not to be hungry.
Li Xingkong hurried to his feet, hastily ate a meal, and rushed back. His mind was entirely on Qi Refining now; even if a great beauty asked him out to have fun, he would ignore her.
Picking up where he had left off yesterday, Li Xingkong soon entered a state of intense concentration again and began directing the spiritual energy to open his meridians.
As he opened them, he felt only a slight itch, and only where the spiritual energy was working. The opened meridians seemed not to exist as far as he was concerned; they had no effect on his body, and his own awareness could detect no difference.
After almost another half day, Li Xingkong finally completed the meridian-opening stage.
Completing it was like connecting a wire to a battery. Now there was only one final step left in the Initial Stage of Qi Refining: constructing a structure on the surface of his body to attract the radiance of the sun and moon.
In modern society, our use of solar energy was limited to absorbing the light that struck a surface; there was no way to make use of light that didn't fall on a solar panel.
Li Xingkong's modification was different. He would attract the light around his body and draw on some of its energy. Thus, he didn't need to spread something like solar panels over a large area to make use of light energy; he only needed to modify a small patch of skin.
Li Xingkong chose to construct the light-attracting structure on the skin at the back of his neck. He guided the spiritual energy to the corresponding spot and began inscribing it.
Modifying the skin was somewhat like inscribing an array. Multiple structures with different functions were combined, ultimately forming a structure that could attract light and absorb its energy.
This step also placed high demands on his mental energy. The array was as intricate as a circuit diagram on a chip, and one careless mistake meant starting over.
Fortunately, there were no requirements for materials or anything of the sort. He was already altering structures at an extremely microscopic level, so the materials wouldn't suffer any damage regardless. As for the process of inscription, Li Xingkong felt it was more like building a house with bricks.
As he inscribed without letting his mind wander, the prototype of a strange pattern soon appeared on the back of Li Xingkong's neck. As the pattern gradually neared completion, it began to emit a faint glow.
Finally, once the pattern was complete, it lit up with a very noticeable glow. Then the light flashed, and the pattern fused with his skin and vanished.
The pattern had flashed because Li Xingkong tested each module after inscribing it. Inscribing an array was a rigorous process; few people could draw one perfectly in a single attempt, and completing an array often involved tens of thousands of tests.
It was precisely because of this testing that arrays didn't develop strange bugs. Of course, testing an engineering project was the sort of thinking common to someone in science or engineering. Before Li Xingkong began cultivating, he hadn't thought science had anything to do with cultivating immortality, but in fact, many disciplines shared common ways of thinking in their development.
Once the array was complete, Li Xingkong could begin cultivating. As long as he concentrated and activated it, the array would draw in the light energy around him on its own and send it through the meridians he had constructed into his dantian.
There was no time to lose. Now that Li Xingkong understood enough of the theory, he naturally wanted to try it and see what it felt like to begin cultivating.
Li Xingkong chose a spot in the full sunlight and sat down cross-legged. He closed his eyes and focused his mind on sensing the array at the back of his neck.
In his awareness, something like a switch appeared at the back of his neck. Li Xingkong merely thought, Activate, and the array immediately emitted a faint golden glow. Then, like an exquisite pocket watch, the countless intricate patterns within the array began to turn.
Li Xingkong instantly felt as though something had enveloped him, as countless invisible tentacles reached toward the back of his neck.
The array on his neck seemed to have become the entrance to a treasure trove, and these threadlike, invisible, tentacle-like things began pouring in through it.
As though a faucet had been turned on, Li Xingkong felt countless streams of energy surge into his meridians from the array like a tide, then flow along them toward his dantian.
Li Xingkong linked his thoughts to the spiritual energy and guided it into his dantian, observing the valve where the meridian led into it.
From the spiritual energy's perspective, a not particularly intense light suddenly appeared in what had been boundless darkness, illuminating the entire interior of the dantian. He could sense everything within it.
Then he seemed to hear the sound of surging waves. Looking toward the valve, he saw that where there had only been light shining in before, a waterfall made of light now cascaded from the valve into the dantian, like something out of a dream.
The waterfall was so radiant, so sacred. When it struck the bottom of the dantian, countless tiny specks of light splashed up, flickered a few times in the darkness, and vanished.
Li Xingkong had only seen such a scene in movies. When had he ever seen such a magical sight in real life? He couldn't help staring in a daze.
After he came to his senses and watched for a long while, he grew much more accustomed to the beautiful sight. Only then did he begin examining the interior of his dantian.
At his current cultivation speed, he estimated it would take about a month of cultivation to fill his dantian with energy.
Thus, the next step in his cultivation was to open more meridians and increase the efficiency of his energy absorption. This was also the main course of cultivation in the Qi Refining stage.
Besides collecting energy, he also had to use the energy he already had.
He also needed to begin cultivating the various parts of his body, ultimately cleansing his meridians and washing his marrow throughout his entire body and mind.
According to the system, whichever organ his cleansing of the meridians and washing of the marrow reached would develop a corresponding ability during the process. These abilities were varied and as numerous as the hairs on an ox; which ones he developed would depend entirely on Li Xingkong's choices.