Opening the Qi Sea

With this talisman in hand, Chen Zhuo suddenly felt full of confidence. After all, in the ignorant, backward environment of the ancient cultivation world, caught off guard, even a cultivator in the late stage of Qi Refining would suffer a heavy blow! Could they ever imagine a talisman moving at will according to thought? They wouldn't guess it even if their heads burst! We're all Qi Refining cultivators; I didn't want to launch a dimensional-strike beatdown! Except... "Selling all the pills at once last time drew too much attention. If I have time this round, I can sell them in batches to different workshops in the market town, or even to individual cultivators..." Thinking this over, Chen Zhuo returned to Cave Dwelling No. 73 of C-Ward in the ancient cultivation world. The moment he got back, Chen Zhuo wasted no time, sitting cross-legged on the cold stone bed, forming hand seals, and beginning his cultivation. The stone bed seemed to be made of some special material; cultivating atop it brought inner peace and cleared stray thoughts. Cultivating in such an environment, with every breath he could feel spirit qi surging into his body like a tide. Those ten spirit stones were indeed well spent. The ancient cultivation world was truly rich in resources; even a backwater like this had such treasures. In the Immortal Mansion, wouldn't they charge you thousands, even tens of thousands of spirit coins for this? Still, for Chen Zhuo, all this was not enough! There was no helping it; his spiritual root aptitude was just too poor. Therefore, without the slightest hesitation, Chen Zhuo picked up the aerosol device and began calculating. Not hesitating over whether to inhale, but rather... "One puff or two?" Chen Zhuo calculated silently. This tube of synapse-type spirit-guiding aerosol had only two puffs left. Over the past half month of cultivation, Chen Zhuo had already refined and absorbed most of its medicinal efficacy. Now his fleshly body had been tempered to the limit of the third layer of Qi Refining, needing only that final push. Now was the moment for the final sprint! "Time to go all out!" Taking a deep breath, Chen Zhuo aimed the nozzle at his nose and mouth, then pressed the button without hesitation. Pale blue medicinal mist burst from the device, carrying a cool minty aroma, and was instantly inhaled into Chen Zhuo's lungs. A tingling, exhilarating sensation washed through his entire body once again, invigorating his spirits! Yet this time, Chen Zhuo did not stop. He pressed the button once more, breathing in the very last puff of mist! "Cough, cough..." Chen Zhuo choked a little and couldn't help coughing twice, but immediately afterward, his spirits soared. "Now this is the real deal! What a rush!" Chen Zhuo could clearly feel the spirit qi inside him being activated at an insane rate! Vapes are awesome. Chen Zhuo formally declared his allegiance to the Modernizer faction! If the spirit qi during his earlier cultivation was a rushing river, then now it was... well, an even faster rushing river! At any rate, it hadn't reached the scale of an ocean yet. Chen Zhuo dared not slack off. Banishing stray thoughts, he focused his mind and began running his cultivation technique with complete concentration, guiding this accelerated, surging torrent of spirit qi as it circulated through his body. Spirit qi coursed through his meridians, and Chen Zhuo could sense that his physical body was undergoing some kind of qualitative transformation. The first three layers of Qi Refining mainly tempered the fleshly body, allowing it to adapt to and accommodate spirit qi. This process was like laying foundations: the firmer the foundation, the higher the building could rise in the future. Now the foundation was laid, and it was time to start "building"! Chen Zhuo sank his consciousness into his dantian. There, spirit qi gathered together, condensing into a constantly spinning vortex that drew in the spirit qi flowing from his meridians, as if to integrate all the spirit qi throughout his entire body. The vortex spun faster and faster, growing increasingly solid. This was the precursor to opening the dantian qi sea! "Hoo! Hah!" Between each breath, Chen Zhuo's breathing rhythm steadily smoothed out. At this moment, he seemed to merge into one with the world's spirit qi. The spirit qi in the cave dwelling was voraciously drawn in by Chen Zhuo. In this way, time ticked by. No one knew how much time had passed when the vortex at Chen Zhuo's dantian suddenly halted, then abruptly contracted inward! Boom! A muffled rumble resonated from within Chen Zhuo; inside him, it was as if heaven and earth were being cleaved apart anew! The vortex suddenly shattered outward, opening up a realm within his dantian. Had pill toxins lingered in Chen Zhuo's body, his meridians would be wracked with excruciating pain right now, like brutal torture. Yet because he had virtually no pill toxins, Chen Zhuo felt no pain whatsoever; instead, an unprecedented sense of comfort washed through his entire body! In the next second, Chen Zhuo snapped his eyes open, a brilliant gleam flashing from them like blazing fire! Chen Zhuo looked inward at his dantian to find the vortex gone, replaced by an abundant space brimming with spirit qi. The qi sea was formed! "The fourth layer of Qi Refining!" An indescribable joy surged in Chen Zhuo's heart. Sensing his current body, he felt as if a tender shoot had struggled up through the soil, renewed and reborn. "A dharma body, a dharma body! So this is what it means!" Touched by the moment, Chen Zhuo felt an urge to affect cultured elegance and recite poetry: "In youth, I already knew..." Forget it. Reciting poetry at merely the middle stage of Qi Refining was a bit embarrassing. Better wait until breaking through a major boundary before reciting poetry. Chen Zhuo reined in his excitement, feeling utterly comfortable. The fourth layer of Qi Refining was a watershed. The first three layers were only body refinement, where spirit qi could only circulate through the meridians to nourish the fleshly body. Upon reaching the fourth layer, one formally opened the dantian qi sea. From then on, spirit qi had a "home" where it could be stored and mobilized at any time. This meant Chen Zhuo could finally cultivate real spells! The spells he had learned before, such as Soft Water Shield and Water Silk Binding, could technically be cast, but because his dantian hadn't been opened, he had to rely on drawing spirit qi on the spot, resulting in limited power and heavy consumption. Now, things were different. With the dantian qi sea, he could store spirit qi inside it and draw directly from the sea when casting spells, yielding greater power, lower cost, and longer stamina. "Sweet!" Chen Zhuo couldn't help letting out a low cheer and stood up from the stone bed. He moved his limbs, feeling full of strength all over, as if completely reborn. What the fourth layer of Qi Refining brought was not just the opening of the dantian qi sea; his physical body's strength had also climbed another tier. Chen Zhuo clenched his fists, sensing the surging power within him, his heart swelling with boundless ambition. "At this pace, combined with the abundant spirit qi of the ancient cultivation world... Foundation Establishment shouldn't be a problem. Perhaps one day, I too will be addressed as 'True Person'!" Chen Zhuo calculated silently. After witnessing True Person Luo's demeanor, he naturally felt yearning and aspiration! With his current cultivation speed plus the resource backing from his scalping business, breaking through to the late stage of Qi Refining within three years was by no means impossible. Once he broke through to the late stage of Qi Refining, his strength would undergo a qualitative leap. Cultivators in the late stage of Qi Refining could already fly on artifacts and cast even more powerful spells, making them figures of standing in this market town. "Still, now isn't the time to celebrate." Chen Zhuo reined in his thoughts and cast his gaze outside the cave dwelling. "There are still robber cultivators lurking outside waiting for me. Even though I have this high-grade Sword Qi Talisman, I can't let my guard down. I need to find a way to improve my practical combat ability..." Chen Zhuo took the high-grade Sword Qi Talisman traded from Yu Xia out of his storage bag and examined it closely. "Twenty seconds of top-grade magic tool power is enough to handle most dangers. Still, it would be best to master some practical combat spells. I can't rely on talismans every single time..." Talismans were great, but they were consumables after all, and expensive ones at that. Chen Zhuo didn't want to burn through money every time he ran into trouble. "Looks like I should visit the technique archive at the Immortal Mansion and pick up one or two practical combat techniques." Chen Zhuo formed a plan in mind. He glanced at the stone door of the cave dwelling, then down at the aerosol device in his hand. The liquid inside the device was virtually depleted, leaving only a stray drop or two. Chen Zhuo didn't let it go to waste either; he dismantled the device and licked those last two drops clean. Waste not, want not! Having done all this, Chen Zhuo sat down cross-legged and began stabilizing the realm he had just broken into. Though he had reached the fourth layer of Qi Refining, his dantian qi sea had just been opened and still required time to consolidate.