Chapter 142: The Foundation Of A Qi Refiner (1)
After meeting with The Rain Hierarch and reading almost all sixteen Grandmaster’s Insights of the sect, Wu Yuan's understanding of spiritual qi had greatly expanded.
He now knew that spiritual qi was present in practically all matter, but it was not an ordinary substance like air or water. It could only be detected by the soul and harnessed through the body. When the soul and body worked in tandem, spiritual qi could be absorbed.
The 'Majestic Earth and Oceans' method is truly worthy of being an heirloom of the Cloudstride Sect. Consuming qi through this method is much more efficient than forcibly absorbing qi.
At this moment, countless minuscule pores in Wu Yuan’s body were wide open, welcoming a massive influx of spiritual qi into his body through precisely 108 channels, flowing through the main meridians into the minor meridians, gradually permeating every part of his body.
His muscles, tendons, flesh, and internal organs greedily consumed it like a parched riverbed, evolving, upgrading, and transforming.
Apart from upgrading his physical constitution, the spiritual qi seemed to subtly enhance his genome, though only slightly. More importantly, it eliminated the scarce remaining impurities in his body.
The lower dantian lobe is where the essence resides. Its function is to strengthen the physique. The middle dantian lobe is where the qi sea is located. Its function is to enhance the body's limit.
The Grandmasters of the Middle Land all possessed incredible physical constitutions. This was mainly due to them honing their martial skills to exceptional levels and unlocking their middle dantian lobes.
Once the middle dantian lobe was unlocked, the body would unconsciously absorb spiritual qi, leading to monumental strides in strength.
Many elderly martial artists were able to restore their youthful vitality by consuming qi, transforming their life essence, and stepping into the level of Grandmaster.
For over half a year, Wu Yuan absorbed the spiritual qi. However, even after completely mastering 'Majestic Earth and Oceans', he couldn't shake off the feeling that the impact of spiritual qi on his genes and life essence remained minimal.
That’s right. An epiphany dawned on Wu Yuan. Compared to the genuine spiritual qi, the Ancient Immortal Dew contains far more energy. Though slightly inferior in terms of spirituality, it can still enhance the genome of many martial artists who consume it for the first time. But even before I started consuming qi, the Ancient Immortal Dew could only strengthen my physique.
Long-term qi consumption can purify and even transform the bodies of ordinary martial artists and even Savant experts. That's because they have never experienced a genetic evolution.
But I have the blood-red mist, which has almost miraculous effects on genetic evolution compared to the spiritual qi. My genome has already evolved to perfection.
As far as Wu Yuan was concerned, consuming qi could not fundamentally evolve his DNA.
It’s more like an upgraded version of the Ancient Immortal Dew. Yet, even though I've mastered the 'Majestic Earth and Oceans', greatly increasing my speed of qi consumption, directly consuming the Ancient Immortal Dew is still quicker.
Wu Yuan estimated that if he didn't stop to rest and kept consuming qi all night, the amount of energy absorbed would roughly equate to two or three drops of Ancient Immortal Dew, a paltry sum. After all, whenever Wu Yuan tempered his body, he could easily consume dozens of drops of Ancient Immortal Dew in a day or two.
However, Ancient Immortal Dew is expensive and is limited in quantity. Meanwhile, spiritual qi originates from the world itself, boundless and inexhaustible.
Furthermore, this is just the beginning. The main reason why my current consumption rate is slow is that my meridian circulation system is not yet fully connected, and the acupoints have not been fully awakened.
Wu Yuan felt the spiritual qi pass through the 108 channels. Why were there 108 channels? This was because the human body's meridian system contained 108 primary acupoints.
Each primary acupoint served as a gateway for the entry of spiritual qi into the body. These acupoints were mysteriously connected in a complete meridian system, ultimately converging in the middle dantian lobe.
No wonder The Rain Hierarch mentioned that many Savant experts spend one to two decades struggling to refine qi. Wu Yuan sighed inwardly.
It was indeed a daunting task. To refine qi, one’s soul had to be strong enough to sense all 108 acupoints throughout the body.
Only by sensing the complete meridian system could one guide the spiritual qi through each meridian, while preventing it from running amok and damaging the body.
With Wu Yuan's powerful soul, he could clearly sense his middle dantian lobe, yet it took a long time for him to sense all 108 acupoints in his body.
From his estimates, any other Savant expert would take at least ten to twenty years of hard work. And the prerequisite was that their soul was powerful enough to begin with. Otherwise, even if they practiced the ‘Majestic Earth and Oceans’ for a hundred years, they might still not succeed.
As Wu Yuan focused carefully, he realized that there were many other benefits of consuming qi.
Once qi flows through the meridians, the spiritual energy nourishes the middle dantian lobe and acupoints, and continuously widens the meridians.
It was similar to how martial artists tempered their musculoskeletal system. Muscles and bones determined the strength of a martial artist.
The 'Majestic Earth and Oceans' states that the middle dantian lobe, 108 acupoints, and the meridian system form the foundation of a qi refiner, just like a martial artist's musculoskeletal system. The stronger the qi sea, acupoints, and meridians, the more qi can be stored, and the faster the spiritual energy can be absorbed, ultimately increasing one’s strength.
Nourishing the body via the consumption of qi was the goal of martial artists. Qi refiners were those who could utilize qi as an energy source.
The blood-red mist can evolve my genome, but it can only influence the body, unable to directly strengthen the middle dantian lobe, acupoints, and meridians.
As for Ancient Immortal Dew? It contains immense quantities of energy, but I can only ingest it into my stomach, unable to directly deliver the energy to the qi sea in my dantian. It can only be used to strengthen the body. In the end, I must still rely on qi consumption.
During the consumption of qi, spiritual qi entered the meridians via the mysterious acupoint passages.
Consume qi to nurture the qi sea, nourish the acupoints, and expand the meridians. Wu Yuan fully comprehended the purpose of qi consumption.
In doing so, he was laying the groundwork to become a qi refiner in the future.
According to 'Majestic Earth and Oceans', Grandmasters who enter the Heavenly Rankings typically first open their middle dantian lobes, then progressively expand their meridians and open their acupoints.
I haven't reached the human body limit, hence although I can perceive the middle dantian lobe, I can't unlock it.
A person’s essence resided in the lower dantian lobe. The lower dantian lobe had to be nurtured to its limit in order to open the middle dantian lobe. And the so-called limit was the limit of the human body.
The principles are interconnected. Now through consuming qi, my middle dantian lobe, acupoints, and meridians are continuously strengthened.
When I truly open my middle dantian lobe in the future and become a qi refiner, my strength will be unimaginable.
Wu Yuan’s eyes shone with ambition.
Most Grandmasters possessed physical strength around 200,000 catties, yet an elite few could surpass 250,000 catties. The gap in strength was massive.
Similarly, for the experts who just stepped into the Heavenly Rankings, how could those with strong foundations and weak foundations have the same strength?
But theoretically, only Heavenly Rankers should be able to refine qi. How long has it been since the Human Federation revived the martial arts? How did they deduce the Hundred Acupoints Divine Technique?
Wu Yuan suddenly remembered the three ultimate cultivation methods of the Human Federation.
There wasn’t much left to say about the Tiger Leopard Bone Training Technique and the Dragon Marrow Cleansing Technique. Wu Yuan had personally experienced their effects, and they were indeed extraordinary. It was only the Hundred Acupoints Divine Technique that he had yet to cultivate.
After all, in his previous life, he was only able to perceive his middle dantian lobe. As for the acupoints? He couldn’t even sense a single one back then, how could he possibly cultivate the technique?
Yet, the moment Wu Yuan grasped the ‘Majestic Earth and Oceans’ and sensed his meridian system, he was stunned to find that it perfectly aligned with the Hundred Acupoints Divine Technique.
This meant that the Hundred Acupoints Divine Technique was not merely a rough speculation, but a summary based on vast amounts of data.
Moreover, it implied that if Wu Yuan entered Heavenly Rankings in the future, he could attempt to cultivate the Hundred Acupoints Divine Technique.
Were there also Heavenly Rankers in the Human Federation? Or is the technique related to the ancient relics where the black pagoda was located? Could there be resources on qi absorption and refining there?
The more he thought, the more Wu Yuan felt there were great secrets behind the Blue Planet and black pagoda.
The ancient civilization relics where the black pagoda was located depicted a group of powerful beings that roamed the skies and the land. Could they have been qi refiners? Was there a flourishing cultivation civilization during the ancient era of the Blue Planet?
Naturally, these were just Wu Yuan’s random guesses. He had no way to confirm them, and he didn't wish to delve too deeply into them either.
Two hours later, Wu Yuan concluded his cultivation session.
No more spiritual qi is entering my body.
Just as one had a limit to how much food they could eat, the same went for qi absorption.
On one hand, I need to continue tempering my body and keep driving my body’s genetic evolution with the blood-red mist.
On the other hand, I must continue consuming qi, pushing my meridians and acupoints to the limit every day to build the strongest foundation for qi refining.
Then, there is the matter of honing my skills. The thought caused Wu Yuan's brow to furrow.
He had traversed numerous rivers and mountains, achieving the pinnacle of the second level of Environmental Mastery. He sought a breakthrough to the next level but to no avail.
According to the insights of Grandmasters Fang Xia, Yun Shan, and Hong He, Integration is to fully merge one’s body with the world, while Unity is to merge one’s soul with the world, sensing its power and harnessing it for one’s own use.
Man's existence is finite, but the world is boundless.
Yet, achieving it was easier said than done. Not one of the Grandmaster’s Insights was able to fully expound the concept of Harmony of Man and Nature.
Why? Because even when Grandmaster Fang Xia wrote his insights, he had not reached the Unity level! The only relevant information on the topic was either their own conjectures, advice sought from Heavenly Rankers, or snippets of information gleaned from immortal relics.
Want to reach the Unity level? Even some Heavenly Rankers had yet to accomplish it.
It's more practical to focus on strengthening the soul. Wu Yuan shook his head.
Out of nowhere, an apple flew into his hand. He controlled the object with Soul Force, manipulating it to fly towards him.
In the past six months, my soul has grown significantly stronger, and my proficiency in telekinesis has also improved. A glint of anticipation shone in Wu Yuan's eyes.
With continued Visualization and greater strength, my stealth weapon, the throwing knife, will truly undergo a transformation.
The prospect of a throwing knife that could change direction, even within small margins, was incredibly frightening!
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