The Qi Refining stage is divided into three phases and nine levels. The initial phase consists of levels one through three; anything above the third level is considered the middle stage of Qi Refining.
Mo Hua already possessed a cultivation base at the peak of the third level of Qi Refining, being just a hair's breadth away from breaking through to the middle stage.
After practicing the "Heavenly Derivation Formula" for only half a month, Mo Hua felt his sea of qi swell to capacity, unable to refine any more spiritual power.
This meant that Mo Hua was about to break through.
Generally, breaking through a cultivation technique requires preparing special worldly spiritual items to stimulate the meridians and the sea of qi during the breakthrough, in hopes of shattering the bottleneck and ascending to the next realm.
The "Heavenly Derivation Formula" did not require special spiritual items to assist in cultivation, so he assumed he simply needed to continue practicing.
Mo Hua spent most of his time drawing formations, setting aside one hour each day for meditation and cultivation.
One evening a few days later, while Mo Hua was carving formations onto the Dao Monument in his sea of consciousness as usual, a sudden flash of inspiration struck him, and his sea of qi began to churn violently.
Mo Hua hurriedly exited his sea of consciousness and sat cross-legged on his bed. He then took out two spirit stones and quietly began to absorb their spiritual power.
In just a short moment, Mo Hua felt all the vital points of his body open up. His absorption of spiritual power was several times faster than usual, and before long, the spiritual power from the two spirit stones was completely exhausted.
Mo Hua felt a pang of heartache, but also a sense of joy.
He felt the sting of the wasted spirit stones, yet he was delighted that he was about to break through his realm and become a middle-stage Qi Refining cultivator.
Mo Hua took out several more spirit stones to continue absorbing their energy.
In his storage bag, Mo Hua had dozens of spirit stones he had saved himself, in addition to nearly a hundred given to him by his parents. Knowing he was close to a breakthrough but not knowing exactly when it would happen, they had told him to keep them on hand for emergencies.
These hundred spirit stones likely represented more than half a month's worth of earnings from the eatery.
Mo Hua calmed his mind, maintaining a composed and steady state as he practiced slow breathing.
The spirit stones in his hands flickered with a translucent blue light, then gradually dimmed, until finally, the spiritual power was completely depleted, leaving them a dull grayish-white.
One after another, after consuming nearly fifty spirit stones, Mo Hua's sea of qi finally stopped churning. The spiritual power flowed from the sea of qi back into his meridians, and the spiritual power throughout his body gradually became thicker and more stable.
Just as Mo Hua thought he was about to succeed in his breakthrough, tiny threads of spiritual power leaked out from his meridians. They traveled through minute capillaries, gradually converging toward the Baihui acupoint at the crown of his head.
Mo Hua's heart tightened.
What was happening?
He had never heard of refined spiritual power leaking uncontrollably, let alone converging toward the Baihui acupoint!
The spiritual power did not actually gather in the Baihui acupoint; instead, upon reaching the Tianmen acupoint, it began to weave itself together like silk threads, gradually stabilizing before slowly seeping inward. The place it seeped into was none other than Mo Hua's sea of consciousness!
Suppressing the palpitations in his heart, Mo Hua sank his divine sense into his sea of consciousness, only to find that the sea was now filled with fine, pale blue threads of spiritual power.
These threads were intermittent and chaotic, resembling continuous spring rain or tangled strands of hair, weaving together into a complex, pale blue curtain of spiritual power.
Mo Hua was completely stunned.
With his brief experience in cultivation, he had no idea what was happening.
Mo Hua tried to manipulate his spiritual power and found that it could still circulate normally.
He gripped a spirit stone, attempting to absorb spiritual energy to cultivate, but the energy he absorbed was automatically intercepted at the Tianmen acupoint by the sea of consciousness. This prevented the formation of a complete cycle, making it impossible to refine the energy into spiritual power or accumulate it in the sea of qi. Consequently, he could not increase his cultivation.
This meant that from now on, Mo Hua would be unable to cultivate or advance his realm.
Mo Hua gasped, murmuring, "What am I to do..."
He collapsed onto his bed, his mind in a state of turmoil. After a moment, he sat up, forcing himself to calm down.
"There is a Dao Monument in my sea of consciousness, but I didn't enter the sea of consciousness to touch it while cultivating, so it shouldn't be a problem with the monument."
"If it's not the monument, then it must be the cultivation technique."
"There were no issues during regular cultivation, so the problem occurs during the breakthrough."
"During the breakthrough, the spiritual power leaked into the meridians and eventually connected to the sea of consciousness, forming this curtain of spiritual power."
"The curtain obstructs the circulation of spiritual power, preventing further cultivation. Therefore, as long as I solve the problem of the curtain and stop it from forming an obstacle, the spiritual power can flow again, and my cultivation won't be hindered."
"So, the fundamental problem is solving the curtain in my sea of consciousness..."
Mo Hua grasped the key point and discarded all other factors, focusing solely on the curtain within his sea of consciousness. He sank his divine sense into the sea and carefully examined the tangled curtain.
The curtain was composed of pale blue threads of spiritual power. These threads seemed to possess a life of their own, drifting freely and chaotically, sometimes crossing and sometimes separating, looking both disordered and obscure.
After staring at it for the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, Mo Hua slumped back onto his bed.
He complained inwardly, "What kind of thing is this curtain? I can't understand it at all..."
Once again, Mo Hua felt a profound sense of his own lack of cultivation knowledge.
There is a saying that knowledge is the ladder to a cultivator's progress. Mo Hua didn't know where he had heard it, but at this moment, it felt incredibly true.
Mo Hua began to recall every piece of cultivation-related knowledge he had ever encountered, searching for anything similar. But as various thoughts swirled in his mind, his head grew more cluttered and painful the more he thought, leaving him with no clues.
In a sudden flash of inspiration, he remembered a sentence from the "Heavenly Derivation Formula"
"Unsuitable for cultivation by those who are not formation masters."
Mo Hua bolted upright.
If it was unsuitable for those who were not formation masters, then this technique must be related to formations. If it was related to formations, could this curtain be... a formation?
He then remembered the previous line: "The bottleneck lies in the divine sense."
"The bottleneck is in the divine sense, and it is unsuitable for those who are not formation masters."
The bottleneck was in the divine sense because the curtain *was* the bottleneck, and the curtain existed within the sea of consciousness. It was unsuitable for non-formation masters because the curtain itself was a formation—and if you weren't a formation master, you simply couldn't understand it!
Mo Hua sank his divine sense into his sea of consciousness again and carefully observed the curtain. He discovered that although the spiritual power appeared disordered, the threads were interconnected and interlaced, faintly forming rows of formation patterns.
However, because the spiritual power threads were constantly flowing, the patterns were also constantly changing, ultimately condensing into a formation that was in a state of perpetual, living flux.
Mo Hua had an epiphany.
Then, he began to scratch his head.
This formation... he had never seen anything like it!
The formations he had learned contained, at most, six patterns, but the patterns in this curtain likely numbered in the dozens or even hundreds.
Even more terrifying was that these patterns were constantly shifting and changing, forming formations that Mo Hua couldn't understand, which then continuously transformed into even more incomprehensible formations...
Just looking at it made Mo Hua's scalp tingle.
"Is this the ancient formation used by ancient cultivators?"
"Is this what they mean by 'strange and obscure' ancient techniques?"
A sense of awe rose in Mo Hua's heart. The wisdom of ancient cultivators was indeed extraordinary; even a mere Qi Refining stage technique could be this intimidating.
At the same time, he silently mourned for himself. He knew the technique was "strange and obscure," but he hadn't expected it to be *this* level of strange and obscure.
Mo Hua spent another long time staring at the curtain, but his head grew dizzy and he still had no clue. Finally, he reached one clear realization
On his own, there was no way he could do anything about this formation curtain.
Recognizing his own helplessness was, in a way, a form of self-awareness.
Mo Hua sighed. "I'll go ask Mr. Zhuang tomorrow."
Feeling a sense of relief, Mo Hua pulled the covers over his head and fell into a deep sleep.
(End of Chapter)