The First Not-So-Close Encounter

Following the Supreme Elder's directions, Yi Xuan easily found the Spirit Refining Instruction on the first floor of the Scripture Repository. Unlike the other manuals, the Spirit Refining Instruction was not recorded in a Jade Slip but was a book made from the hide of some unknown animal. Despite the passage of so many years, it had not suffered the slightest damage.

Holding the Spirit Refining Instruction, Yi Xuan sat down cross-legged right where he was and began to read.

Though the Spirit Refining Instruction was called a book, it was only a little over ten pages long. With the speed at which Yi Xuan could read using his Divine Sense, he soon finished it.

Unfortunately, after reading it, Yi Xuan found that he had been a little too quick to assume. The Spirit Refining Instruction did indeed allow a Rootless Person to cultivate, but it did not enable a Rootless Person to cultivate immortality. It was used to cultivate a Rootless Person's Divine Sense.

In other words, it was not limited to Rootless People. Any ordinary person in this world who possessed consciousness could cultivate this method.

As it turned out, the sect's senior from a thousand years ago, who had also been a Rootless Person, had refused to accept it after learning what he was and had continued cultivating like mad. At first, his cultivation had indeed risen rapidly, and he had soon reached the Qi Refining Sixteenth Layer.

By then, the amount of True Qi in his body was already comparable to the amount of True Essence an ordinary Foundation Establishment Late Stage Cultivator possessed.

This equality in quantity had led the senior to believe for a time that he could contend with someone in the Foundation Establishment Realm by relying on his comparable quantity of True Qi.

Unfortunately, reality was cruel. A single ordinary sparring match shattered the senior's confidence. A Foundation Establishment Early Stage immortal cultivator casually launched an attack with True Essence, instantly breaking through the defensive shield the senior had constructed using all the True Qi in his body.

The blow was so severe that the senior nearly gave up on improving his strength. He turned instead to studying formations, artifact refining, and alchemy.

But achieving anything in these immortal cultivation arts required the support of a cultivation level, which was precisely what he was least likely to possess.

Then one day, while studying formations, the senior had a sudden idea. He realized that his Divine Sense was an extremely important tool in inscribing formations, refining pills, and refining artifacts.

For immortal cultivators to reach higher levels in these fields, the most crucial thing was to possess a more powerful Divine Sense. Only then could they exercise finer control when setting up formations, refining pills, and refining artifacts.

From ancient times to the present, the immortal cultivation world had developed by cultivating methods to increase strength, and as immortal cultivators grew stronger, their Divine Sense would grow stronger as well.

The senior began to wonder whether it was possible to strengthen Divine Sense on its own. That way, although he could not increase his strength, improving his Divine Sense would give him the possibility of making progress in other areas, and formations, artifact refining, and alchemy could arm him well enough to make him a powerful immortal cultivator.

So he consulted countless records and secret techniques, and in the end, he really did develop the Spirit Refining Instruction.

The principle behind the Spirit Refining Instruction was actually quite simple-even somewhat crude, in Yi Xuan's eyes. To put it plainly, it came down to two things: visualization and tempering!

There were no restrictions on visualization. One could visualize anything, whether weapons, Law Treasures, mountains, rivers, animals, or humans.

By observing the features and appearance of these things, then using Divine Sense to construct the object of one's visualization in the mind, one completed the visualization step.

Tempering was even simpler. One visualized a hammer in the mind and used it to strike the object previously visualized over and over. As the blows continued, both the visualized object and the hammer would slowly become more substantial, and the cultivator's Divine Sense would gradually grow stronger.

Having learned the principle behind the Spirit Refining Instruction, Yi Xuan muttered to himself in disbelief, "After reading so many records and secret techniques, this was what he finally came up with? Why does it feel like some sort of three-noes product?"

It was no wonder Yi Xuan distrusted the method described in the book. It was simply too crude, its inspiration taken straight from a blacksmith. But Divine Sense was not steel. If a piece of steel was ruined, one could replace it and carry on.

Divine Sense was tied to an immortal cultivator's life. If it were damaged, the cultivator might suffer a muddled mind and be unable to concentrate in a mild case, or possibly become a mindless walking corpse in a severe one.

Trembling with apprehension, Yi Xuan carried the book back to the Supreme Elder.

Seeing Yi Xuan come out with the book in his arms, the Supreme Elder smiled. "Well? Did you understand it? Are you a little disappointed?"

"It's all right. I went in expecting to be disappointed anyway."

The Supreme Elder nodded in satisfaction at Yi Xuan's answer. This was also why the Supreme Elder admired Yi Xuan: his mindset was excellent. Mount Tai could collapse before him without changing his expression. Even when he had first been judged a Rootless Person, he had only been dejected for half a month. Such a temperament was very rare.

"Since you know this thing can't increase your strength, why are you still carrying it?"

Yi Xuan looked at the Spirit Refining Instruction in his hands, then at the Supreme Elder. "Supreme Elder, there's just one thing I don't understand! I've finished studying this cultivation method, but there's one point I'm not quite clear on. The cultivation method recorded in this book is far too direct. Divine Sense is the most important thing an immortal cultivator has. What if something goes wrong?"

Hearing Yi Xuan's words, the Supreme Elder nodded as well. "You're right to think that, but there's no need to worry. You're not the first to discover this cultivation method. In fact, you could say that someone in the sect discovers it and cultivates it every year, but not one person has run into trouble while cultivating it."

"Hm?" Yi Xuan was somewhat surprised. "Someone cultivates it every year?"

"That's right!"

"But how come I've never heard of it? After all, this cultivation method is so unusual! If someone cultivated it successfully, they would surely become famous throughout the sect."

The Supreme Elder nodded in agreement. "True. Unfortunately, in all these years, no one has ever succeeded in cultivating it!"

"Why is that?"

The elder did not answer, instead putting on an air of mystery. "Why don't you try it right here? I'll stand guard for you, and then you'll know the reason!"

Hearing the Supreme Elder's words, Yi Xuan did not hesitate. He immediately sat down cross-legged and began cultivating. After all, the Supreme Elder would not harm Yi Xuan.

Since this was his first time cultivating it, Yi Xuan did not intend to visualize anything complicated. He simply visualized a block of iron at random, then visualized a large hammer as well.

Looking at the iron block and hammer formed from Divine Sense in his mind, Yi Xuan gritted his teeth and brought the hammer crashing down on the block.

As the two made contact, Yi Xuan felt a boom explode in his head, and he was forced out of his state of inner vision.

"Hahahaha!" Seeing the dazed look in Yi Xuan's eyes as he opened them, the Supreme Elder beside him burst out laughing. "Now you know why you've never heard of anyone cultivating it, don't you!"