Chapter 99 - 99 98 Qi Gathering

99: Chapter 98 Qi Gathering 99: Chapter 98 Qi Gathering “I never thought it could be so luxurious.” Even the Sword Spirit was overwhelmed, “Even in the true transmission of the Great Sect, no one would use jade steel entirely to establish the foundation for the Taibai Luminous Godly Ban. The cost-performance ratio is too low, and the material is too good, which might harm the disciples instead of benefiting them.” “But you are born of the Seven Fiend, and with jade steel being so cheap in this realm, it would be a pity not to try.” With this, the Sword Spirit’s tone turned solemn, “Close your eyes, I will teach you the Method of Qi Gathering.” “The Dao of Qi Refining starts with refining one’s own body, then refining heaven and earth.” After An Jing had closed his eyes, the Sword Spirit got straight to the point, revealing the fundamental program of Qi Refining Skills, “Essence Qi materializes, gathering is dispersing. To gather is to live, to disperse is to die.” “The gathering of Essence Qi is the life of a person.” “Therefore, first refine oneself in Qi Refining, and to refine oneself, one must first train the Essence.” Once cultivators undergo Spirit Awakening and nurture a trace of Innate Prenatal Breath Essence Qi, they then must find a cultivation technique to strengthen their own bodies internally, continually enlarging the Innate Essence Qi until it fills every limb and bone, marking the completion of introductory cultivation. At this stage, when the Essence Qi harmoniously overflows, the body develops various Divine Abnormalities. For example, ‘Impermeable to Cold and Heat,’ ‘Drag Five Oxen Backwards,’ ‘Fasting,’ and ‘Blood Qi like Smoke,’ one can then externally gather nature’s spiritual energy and commence the next stage of Qi Refining. The reason one must wait until the Essence Qi inside the body is full and perfect, manifesting Divine Abnormalities before starting Qi Refining, is that the physical body is fragile and initially incapable of accommodating nature’s spiritual energy, and needs Essence Qi to enhance body constitution. If the Essence Qi inside is not sufficient to protect oneself, rashly drawing spiritual energy into the body is akin to recklessly drinking boiling water, whereas evil qi is like drinking aqua regia—a sure path to self-destruction. Only when the Essence Qi imbues every detail of the flesh until it reaches Perfection and produces Divine Abnormalities, can one lead spiritual energy into the body. Otherwise, even if a small patch of the body is not fortified with Essence Qi, any spiritual energy entering the body can potentially burn and damage it as violently as oil ignites a balloon. Cultivation is just this perilous; hence, in Martial Arts, this division marks the congenital from the acquired, the differentiation of Inner Breath and Inner Strength. In the beginning of Qi Refining, it involves using one’s own Essence Qi to smelt nature’s spiritual energy into a uniquely controllable ‘Spiritual Power.’ This power is immensely marvelous and, through different cultivation techniques, can exhibit various wonderful uses, capable of displaying a thousand methods and commanding ten thousand skills, thus stepping beyond the mundane. Ultimately in Qi Refining, one uses the supremely refined unique Spiritual Power fused with one’s own perfected Innate Essence Qi, according to the exquisite techniques, to meld into the Mysterious True Evil Spirits, thereby laying down the Daoist Foundation, a complete transformation of foundation, achieving an Immortal Path spiritual body, hence also termed the ‘Immortal Foundation.’ The vast majority of Qi Cultivation methods follow this sequence. However, the Body Cultivation technique known as ‘Taibai Luminous Godly Ban’ is different. It takes a unique path, mapping the body’s acupoints to Daoist barriers, regarding the flesh shell as a heaven and earth spiritual object to be tempered and polished, embedded with prohibitions, thus not requiring the harmonization of Essence Qi to directly absorb the Five Metals Qi. As long as one later supplements the cultivation of Essence Qi, they can become a true Qi Cultivist at any time. But this is only theoretically feasible; in reality, it is impossible. Because if a cultivator who has not yet perfected their Essence Qi and altered their constitution, comes into contact with evil qi, they would instantly perish, their bones and flesh dissolving. Unless aided by a master’s protective spells or assisted by pills like the Fusing Sha Elixir, there are no exceptions. But with so many resources available, why not practice the orthodox Qi Refining Skills? The reason Taibai Luminous Godly Ban set such lofty intentions and had extraordinary effects, yet was so intense, was because it was intended to remedy the physical defects of already accomplished Sword Immortals—mostly those who had already stepped beyond the Taoist Foundation Purple Mansion and were around or above the level of the Golden Core. They naturally did not mind the erosion by Evil Qi. Ordinary disciples should theoretically practice more stable, safe, and less consuming methods of cultivation, albeit with slower progress as entry-level techniques. But An Jing was different. When An Jing meditated cross-legged on the glass platform, holding jade cutting steel sharp enough to slice through ordinary flesh and blood, the fierce Gold Fiend could not hurt him in the slightest. “You’re destined by heaven and earth to practice this technique,” Jubilantly exclaimed, Subdue Evil guided An Jing’s hands to hold the seal, placed horizontally above and below in front of the Qi Sea, blocking a piece of jade cutting steel. He breathes in a special rhythm: “The Taibai Luminous Godly Ban is lofty in purpose, consisting of Heavenly Gang and Earth Fiend, a total of one hundred and eight Divine Prohibitions.” “Among them, there are eighteen Spirit Awakening and Qi Refining Prohibitions, eighteen Foundation Establishment Purple Mansion Prohibitions, and thirty-six Immortal metallic nature Prohibitions, corresponding to the number of Earth Fiends.” “The subsequent thirty-six Heavenly Gang Great Prohibitions are even more challenging and abstruse, but once perfected, the one hundred and eight Heavenly Gang and Earth Fiend Divine Prohibitions unite as one, achieving the Great Divine Power ‘Taibai Indestructible.'” “Now, with six and a half taels of jade cutting steel, you have more than enough to complete the nine Spirit Awakening Prohibitions and even have some left over to exchange for other materials.” “However, your absorption speed cannot be that fast, and before you return to Embracing the Void Realm, completing one prohibition’s cultivation would suffice.” “It feels somewhat hot…” Visualizing the clear and bright sword visualization, An Jing adjusted his mind to the best state and quickly sensed the Spiritual Qi surging from the ‘glass platform’ beneath him. This was the Spiritual Qi brought by the Black Market Spirit Spring Earth Vein, strands and threads of it, passing through his legs and body, up along his spine directly to the Baihui acupoint, then forming a cycle and beginning to converge into his body. As the Spiritual Qi surged into his body, the jade cutting steel in An Jing’s hands also started to tremble slightly and heat up—this was also the source of the heat he mentioned. The highly pure Five Metals Qi in the jade cutting steel began entering An Jing’s body along with the Spirit Qi through the Spirit Vein. It was very smooth. seaʀᴄh thё NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The Sword Spirit watched this scene and nodded slightly. For ordinary people, the Qi of the Five Metals in the jade cutting steel could easily cut a Qi Cultivator’s palm with just a smear on the blade, creating a sword capable of cleaving gold and slicing jade. But as An Jing absorbed it into his body, feeling only somewhat hot, it sufficed to prove the truth of his name, Seven Fiend. The tiny streams and threads of Qi slowly seeped into his body through the palms of his hands, moving very slowly, like water dripping slowly from an old, poorly maintained faucet. But as An Jing operated the ‘Taibai Luminous Godly Ban’ cultivation technique, the Forbidden Seed inside his body at the Qi Sea generated a suction force, immediately increasing the absorption speed of the Evil Qi and Spiritual Qi by dozens of times. It was like turning on the faucet, allowing a flowing stream of water to surge into An Jing’s body. A feeling of heat, akin to a high fever where all the blood in the body is boiling yet unable to sweat, swept over him. An Jing’s body trembled slightly; even with his physical constitution, suddenly inhaling such a high concentration of Spiritual Qi was a bit too much. As the massive amount of Spiritual Qi passed through, his flesh, organs, and bones were all slightly damaged, but quickly, they regenerated, absorbed part of the Five Metals Qi, and began devouring more Evil Qi. An Jing’s physical body, like a field too long parched, thirstily absorbed the moisture, continually absorbing these high concentrations of Evil Qi and swiftly began to grow stronger and more robust.