Qi Induction

Unlike training physical strength, where he could eat spirit beast meat to increase power and soak in medicinal baths to strengthen his physique, training control relied entirely on himself. The process required intense concentration without the slightest carelessness. In Eldest Senior Sister's words, it was about "finding the right sensation, using your body to control your strength rather than your mind." What Lu Yang needed to do was catch the tofu naturally, without forcing it. By the end of the day, Lu Yang reeked of raw soybeans from head to toe, and his eyes had nearly crossed from staring fixedly at tofu for so long. Fortunately, the puppet had plenty of experience; it slapped Lu Yang twice across the face, and his eyes returned to normal. When dinner arrived, Lu Yang stared at the table loaded with tofu and fell silent. Stir-fried tofu, deep-fried tofu, steamed tofu, jellied tofu, tofu boiled in soymilk... The raw ingredients were all the tofu Lu Yang had crushed to pieces during the day. He had even heard that the jellied tofu and soymilk were complimentary gifts from the enthusiastic shopkeeper. Lu Yang thanked the man's ancestors back eight generations. Lu Yang knew that for every day he failed to control his strength, he wouldn't get to eat anything else. In other words, between him and the tofu, one of them was definitely going down. The tofu wasn't ordinary fare either; consuming it long-term could regulate a cultivator's Five Elements balance, make one's breath long and enduring, and enhance stamina in battle, offering countless benefits. Still, no one could stomach eating tofu every single day. With no other choice, Lu Yang buried his head and ate, pondering how to better control his strength tomorrow. ... Fast asleep, Lu Yang felt a blinding white light shining on his face. It pressed his eyelids tightly together, twisting his expression. Only after slowly adjusting to the glare did he attempt to open his eyes. This was a pure white space surrounded entirely by thick fog. Only a small area around Lu Yang remained clearly visible, and he couldn't find the source of the light. "Where is this?" Lu Yang panicked slightly. He was sleeping inside the Dao Seeking Sect, where countless experts resided, with Eldest Senior Sister right next door. Who could possibly pull him into this mysterious space without making a sound? Did this person have good or ill intentions? A magnificent voice drifted from the fog, distant and resonant, as if speaking from antiquity and echoing through the river of time. "Young man, this space was temporarily constructed by this seat. None can detect it." Lu Yang's heart tightened. The other party's methods were beyond comprehension, leaving him to pin his hopes on them bearing no malice. "This seat has witnessed countless eons, seen innumerable mighty figures whose cultivation stood unrivaled beneath the heavens, only to succumb to the erosion of time in the end, their burning blood that battled heaven and earth reduced to a final dying sigh. "No matter how peerlessly magnificent they were, this seat remained carefree and unconstrained, enduring through all eternity." The voice was weathered and hoarse, carrying a faint weariness of endless eons coming to nothing. The existence of such a peerless mighty figure was already beyond Lu Yang's imagination. "Today, on a sudden whim, this seat pinched his fingers in divination and found that you share a fated tie with me. Thus, I have summoned your soul to this temporarily constructed inheritance space. "Within this space lies everything one might need from the Qi Refinement stage to the Tribulation Transcendence stage—cultivation methods, pills, secret manuals, cultivation insights... With each stage you reach, you will unlock a portion of this seat's legacy." Lu Yang breathed a sigh of relief. Seeing that the figure seemed friendly, he cupped his fists politely and asked, "Who might Senior be?" Senior gave three hearty laughs and strode out from the thick fog. Senior had a clean, fair complexion, pale skin, and a square head—it was a block of tofu. Senior Tofu drew closer and spoke faster and faster. "I am Heavenly Venerable Tofu! This is this seat's life's work! The more tofu you eat, the faster your cultivation will rise. Building a solid foundation, fighting above your realm, surrounding yourself with beauties, rising to the peak of the continent will be no trouble at all..." Lu Yang broke out in a cold sweat. Snapping his eyes open, he sat bolt upright from the head of his bed and looked around in a daze. Pitch black, silent as the grave. Only then did he exhale in relief. "It was just a dream. Thank goodness it was a dream." Feeling the chilling cold sweat on his back, Lu Yang still shivered with lingering dread. ... Yun Zhi slowly opened her eyes and drew back a ray of blue light from Lu Yang's room into her fingertips. "This way, he should train even harder," Yun Zhi muttered to herself. When Master taught her, he had once said that an appropriate amount of pressure could turn into motivation, spurring a person to strive with all their might. Yun Zhi herself was a successful example, so she felt Master made a lot of sense. Thus, she had used a dream-entering spell to give Lu Yang a little bit of pressure. "The lines provided by the Eighth Elder were somewhat embarrassing, though. I wonder how he manages to say such things on regular occasions." Yun Zhi was good at consulting others. Every step and line of dialogue in the dream had been written by the Eighth Elder, and the Eighth Elder had even guaranteed it would work. ... Some time later, Yun Zhi saw that Lu Yang could pinch tofu effortlessly, toss it high into the air and catch it steadily, and even use it like a beanbag, tossing it back and forth with the puppet. The soft tofu seemed like an extension of his body, handled with total ease. "Lifting light as if heavy. You've achieved it. This stage is over." Lu Yang smiled. He was no longer who he used to be. Through the continuous practice of pinching tofu, his restless heart had gradually settled. He could do this without any mental mantras or formulas. "What will we practice next?" Lu Yang no longer pursued the same pace as his peers; he believed that Eldest Senior Sister arranging things this way definitely had a purpose. Yun Zhi offered a rare faint smile. "Consolidate your cultivation at the Qi Refinement stage." Lu Yang froze, pointing at himself. "The Qi Refinement stage? Me?" He had no idea when he had reached the Qi Refinement stage. Didn't the books say Qi Induction required guidance from a senior, transmission of a cultivation technique, shutting off the five senses, and clearing the meridians before succeeding? Those with poorer talent even needed the aid of pills. He hadn't met a single one of those conditions! Eldest Senior Sister had never told him how to induce qi into the body, nor had she taught him any astonishing immortal cultivation technique. He hadn't shut off his five senses to use that elusive sixth sense, and as for meridians, he didn't recall clearing them. Disciples of the Dao Seeking Sect didn't need pills for Qi Induction; they were one-in-a-thousand geniuses. If they needed the help of pills just to enter the Qi Refinement stage, they might as well withdraw from the Dao Seeking Sect voluntarily. Lu Yang believed he wouldn't need pills either, but the question was: how on earth had he already reached the Qi Refinement stage? "Three mornings ago," Eldest Senior Sister prompted. Lu Yang suddenly recalled that morning three days ago. He had woken very early that day. Facing the morning light with his eyes closed, he had pondered how he could possibly hold the tofu. As his thoughts deepened, he had slowly lost perception of his surroundings, feeling as if he had transformed into a wisp of ascending clear qi roaming between heaven and earth. Then, his consciousness sank back into his body, bringing a sudden, brilliant clarity, accompanied by a warm flow of qi circulating in his dantian. It was on that very attempt that he had successfully held the tofu. He remembered Eldest Senior Sister hadn't been present while he practiced pinching tofu; so it turned out she had been observing him from somewhere unseen all along. "So that feeling was Qi Induction," Lu Yang murmured to himself, lost in the memory. That sensation was truly wonderful—as if floating among the clouds, enveloped in warmth, so comfortable he didn't want to open his eyes. Without realizing it, he had already fulfilled his modest wish: achieving Qi Induction and becoming a cultivator of the Qi Refinement stage.