Within An Jing's body, the activated Spirit Root resonated faintly with the spirit-laden Sword Baleful Aura, devouring in great mouthfuls those purified Five Metals Killing Aura and making it his own.
Thanks to the strengthening from the Mysterious Prime Qi within that Residual Echo, and after a single grand cycle of circulation through his Spirit Root, An Jing's control over the sword and metal killing auras had grown firmer, and more nimble.
The moment the silver-gray killing aura flowed into his dantian, under Fuxie's prompting he began manipulating the killing aura in his body together with the spirit qi of the Spirit Jade, condensing and weaving them into a 'restriction seed.'
The most minute threads of spirit qi and killing aura were drawn out, intertwining within his dantian into an exceedingly complex and delicate structure. Within that structure lay the foundational form of every restriction of the Grand White Divine Restriction to come.
It was not a complete system in itself, but something like a toolbox: whenever he needed one, An Jing could draw out the corresponding structure from it to compose a restriction, forming rune-array-like constructs within his body.
The restriction seed.
This was the Grand White Restriction Seed.
An intricate silver-gray restriction seed in the form of an octahedron sat at the center of An Jing's dantian, and threads of power began to spread from it, following the flow of his blood, the rhythm of his breathing, and the reach of his thoughts, working back upon his whole body.
"So it really works this well!"
An Jing marveled. He could feel that all the meridians in his body had been strengthened somewhat from the inside out; channeling his Inner Breath was smoother, and his endurance greater.
And this was only the restriction seed. If he ever truly completed the cultivation, he could hardly imagine to what degree his body would be strengthened!
"This is the beginning of the Spirit Root lineage—Spirit Awakening, also called 'Entering the Dao' or 'Nourishing the Meridians,' though they all speak of the same thing."
The Sword Spirit spoke softly. "With a fitting method, posture, and state of mind, aided by high-purity spirit qi to stimulate the Innate Primordial Qi within, the power that lay dormant is gradually converted into essence-qi."
"In the Martial Path, this is called 'Inner Breath.' The first step on the road of cultivation."
"You are already an Inner-Breath Martial Artist, An Jing, so undergoing Spirit Awakening should give you a different sense of it."
"Indeed."
An Jing slowly opened his eyes and looked at his own hands, feeling that his control over his 'Inner Breath' had grown finer.
Not only that. His brows lifted slightly, and he said with some surprise, "My Inner Breath has grown stronger too—another portion of the Innate Primordial Qi in my body... has been dug out?"
At Suspended Fate Manor, An Jing's treatment was unquestionably first-rate, not far off from the core disciples of the great martial halls and even the Great Chen Martial Academy, and he often had demon beast meat and extra portions to eat, so the Innate Primordial Qi within him was plentiful.
When he broke through to Inner Breath, he had reached Inner Breath Like River at once—enough to show how deep his foundation was.
And even Inner Breath Like River had not drawn out the whole of An Jing's accumulated reserves; the rest still waited for him to slowly cultivate and open up.
But this Spirit Awakening had converted still more of the Innate Primordial Qi in his body, digging out An Jing's potential at a faster pace, carrying his Inner Breath a step from a small river toward the realm of a great river.
What was more, his soul had grown steadier—the space of his Divine Sea had become somewhat larger, and within it crystalline points of light glimmered, spinning around the broken sword!
This was not only thanks to the Residual Echo, but because after his breakthrough to Inner Breath he had been granted a second chance to grow!
In the way of Qi Refining, the nurturing of the soul surpasses that of the Martial Path.
"As expected."
The Fuxie Sword Spirit seemed to have foreseen this all along. "The Martial Path was originally a branch of Qi Refining. Even if it later stood apart and grew mighty, its source is one and the same."
"Essence-qi and Inner Breath are of one body, and the methods of each complement the other; each can make up for what the other lacks."
"With a Martial Path Destiny Pattern, and a Spirit Root to assist it, the speed at which you digest all kinds of heavenly materials and treasures and turn your potential into reality, An Jing, is twice that of an ordinary cultivator. In the old days of the Qi Refining way, there were occasionally cultivators who awakened a Destiny Pattern; most of them advanced at astonishing speed, and it seems this was the reason."
Having said this much, the Sword Spirit spoke frankly. "Yet if that is so, why does Huaixu not cultivate both the Martial Path and Qi Refining? It was precisely because I suspected there might be some hidden circumstance behind this that I taught you only the Grand White Radiant Spirit Divine Restriction—a method that seeks nothing external and requires no true 'Qi Refining' at all. If there really is some hidden peril, the worst case is that we simply stop practicing it."
"For me, someone who urgently needs to raise his strength right now, it suits very well."
An Jing nodded slightly. He sensed inwardly and found that the essence-qi converted by his Spirit Root was exactly the same as the Inner Breath he had produced with the 'Yin-Yang Movement-Stillness Method.' "This essence-qi and Inner Breath..."
"To you, they are the same thing," Fuxie said. "The first step of cultivation is the same either way. Whether essence-qi or Inner Breath, both must pass through three stages."
"Like silk, like river, like tide."
"The Innate Primordial Qi is the seed of cultivation. Only once the Innate Primordial Qi has been strengthened can one convert out essence-qi and Inner Breath and begin the cultivation that follows—that is, Essence-Qi Like Silk. That stage is hard to use in combat; it can only strengthen the body."
"Only after reaching Essence-Qi Like River does the essence-qi feed back, and mighty strength burst forth—just as with you now, able to freely unleash several hundred, even a thousand jin of force, and even release your Inner Breath outward to form sword qi that cleaves the empty air."
"And only after reaching Essence-Qi Like Tide, filling the body, can one refine essence into qi. Taking the essence-qi within as the source, one refines the many wondrous and baleful qi of heaven and earth, and only then does true 'Qi Refining' begin."
Hearing this, An Jing could not help asking in puzzlement, "True Qi Refining only after Essence-Qi Like Tide? But didn't I just refine your Sword Baleful Aura, Fuxie?"
But he quickly caught on, and understanding dawned. "The Grand White Radiant Spirit Divine Restriction needs refined iron, and the gathered Five Metals Killing Aura... this skips the strengthening of essence-qi and begins Qi Refining straight away?"
"Yes." The Fuxie Sword Spirit spoke with a smile. "This method can use external things to fuse essence-qi directly with the 'qi of heaven and earth,' letting you step over stages like Essence-Qi Like River and Essence-Qi Like Tide and begin 'Qi Refining' at once."
"Because this method was one that an ancient Sword Immortal used, after he had already achieved much, to rapidly make up for the strength of his physical body, its practice is complex and hard to enter. But it does not much care for the cultivator's original foundation. On someone like you, with your Innate Wisdom, it fits just right, and can produce fighting power at once."
"When you cultivate your first thread of 'Grand White Killing Aura,' you will have strength comparable to those Inner-Strengthening martial masters."
"Even so, the cultivation of essence-qi remains very important. It is the foundation of every method. Even the Grand White Radiant Spirit Divine Restriction should only begin Qi Refining after Essence-Qi Like Tide. It's merely that you and I urgently need fighting power now and cannot spare the time for much else, so we can only force things a little by pulling up the seedlings to help them grow."
"I understand." An Jing closed his eyes and sensed his Grand White Restriction Seed once more.
As the foundation of An Jing's cultivation, it was entwined with his Spirit Root, slowly releasing thread upon thread of essence-qi, weaving a grid-like structure through his body.
But the pace was slow. After all, gathering essence-qi thread by thread, even laying out a single section of that grid took ten days or half a month.
To condense a single thread of Grand White Killing Aura would take at least several months of hard cultivation.
But if there were foreign Five Metals qi to assist... it could be catalyzed and hastened!
"So this is the 'Grand White Gold-Devouring Divine Restriction'... truly a gold-devouring beast!"
Feeling the might of the Grand White Radiant Spirit Divine Restriction, An Jing could not help smiling. The cultivation of essence-qi was slow grinding work; even with his talent, he had to slowly polish his foundation, raise his Innate Primordial Qi, and then gradually convert it into essence-qi and Inner Breath.
To advance perfectly to Essence-Qi Like Tide, he would need at least a year or so of polishing and accumulation.
But cultivating Qi Refining and the Martial Path together could double the speed at which he converted his foundation, so that half a year would be enough to reach Inner Breath Like Tide—and the Grand White Divine Restriction could even grant him part of the combat power of the 'Inner-Strengthening' realm ahead of time!
The only price was that he would have to hunt down more Five Metals.
"This is what a high-tier cultivation method is."
An Jing could not help thinking again of his own Martial Path's 'Imperial Heaven Art,' and of the 'Sovereign Earth Art' he had not yet gotten his hands on. "Set beside them, the cultivation methods of Suspended Fate Manor truly fall short by more than a step, and my family's inherited martial scripture is even more ordinary."
"They may serve for now, but in the future they probably won't be able to keep pace with the Grand White Radiant Spirit Divine Restriction."
"Feels like I still need to go find some high-tier Martial Path methods..."
—It's just that I don't know what level the Tianyi Sect's 'Son of Heaven Art' actually stands at... This line of Martial Path methods does go smoothly when I practice it. I won't ask it to compare with the Grand White Radiant Spirit Divine Restriction; I just hope it's at least fairly high-tier.
Lost in his imaginings, An Jing set aside his worries about the future for the time being.
But for now, no matter how happy he felt, he could not keep cultivating.
Because he was hungry.
Chapter 57