Chapter 16: Third Level of Qi Refinement

After Mo Hua entered the Tongxian Sect, his new year of sect life began.

The Tongxian Sect was a first-grade sect, which was the lowest tier of sects in the cultivation world.

The hierarchy of sects in the cultivation world was strictly enforced.

At the inception of a sect, its grade must first be determined and audited by the Dao Court.

The requirements for grading were extremely stringent, involving rigorous assessments of the sect's assets, the mountain ranges it occupied, the depth of its heritage and foundation, whether the Sect Leader possessed any moral flaws, the cultivation levels and number of elders and instructors within the sect, and the number of disciples it could accommodate.

The process for a sect to upgrade its grade was even more arduous. A sect required several high-level cultivators to preside over its teachings for a certain number of years before it could apply for an upgrade at the Dao Court's Tianquan Pavilion.

Upgrading was a paramount matter for any sect, requiring years of preparation and the expenditure of vast amounts of manpower and wealth to cultivate connections with the Dao Court.

Within the Tongxian Sect, only the old Sect Leader was a Foundation Establishment cultivator, which was far from meeting the requirements for a second-grade sect. It was estimated that they would not be eligible for an upgrade for at least a hundred years.

Furthermore, the Tongxian Sect's estate consisted of only three mountain peaks: Tongling Peak, Tongxuan Peak, and Tongming Peak.

Among the outer disciples of the Tongxian Sect, those in the early stages of Qi Refinement—levels 1 to 3—cultivated and studied on Tongling Peak. Those in the middle stages, levels 4 to 6, were on Tongxuan Peak. A very small number of late-stage Qi Refinement disciples, levels 7 to 9, were also placed on Tongxuan Peak; because their numbers were so small, they were simply accommodated there.

The inner disciples and personal disciples, including the Sect Leader, elders, and instructors, were all located on Tongming Peak.

It was said that there used to be a Tongxian Peak, reserved exclusively for the residence and cultivation of the Sect Leader and elders, but it had been sold in tears later due to poor management and the sect's inability to cover its debts.

Without Tongxian Peak, how could the Tongxian Sect even be called the Tongxian Sect?

Successive generations of Tongxian Sect leaders had vowed to redeem Tongxian Peak, but unfortunately, this grand ambition had yet to be realized.

The disciples of each peak in the Tongxian Sect were further divided into four classes: Jia, Yi, Bing, and Ding. The quality of the disciples decreased from the Jia class downwards, as did the sect's level of attention and investment in their cultivation.

The Jia class generally only recruited so-called "favored children of heaven," those with excellent spiritual roots, high natural talent and comprehension, and rapid cultivation progress.

Of course, if you had connections with the Sect Leader or elders, or were willing to donate a substantial amount of spirit stones to the sect, you could also enter the Jia class.

In short: you either had talent, connections, or spirit stones.

The Yi class consisted of disciples with average spiritual roots but good natural talent and comprehension, who were hardworking and performed well in various assessments.

The Bing class disciples had average spiritual roots, comprehension, and grades, while the Ding class disciples had even worse spiritual roots and performance, essentially just idling through their days.

Mo Hua was assigned to the Yi class, making him the type of disciple with average spiritual roots but who was quite hardworking and performed well in his studies.

Since Mo Hua was only at the second level of Qi Refinement, his living, eating, and cultivation all took place on Tongling Peak, which was also the peak with the most disciples in the Tongxian Sect.

After entering the sect and greeting his familiar fellow disciples, Mo Hua began his year of study and cultivation.

Even the poorest low-level cultivators would scrape together enough spirit stones to allow their children to enter a sect for cultivation, at least to lay a foundation and avoid being completely ignorant of the various knowledge of the cultivation world. Thus, the Tongxian Sect had the most disciples in the early stages of Qi Refinement.

As for whether one could continue cultivating into the middle stages of Qi Refinement, it depended first on the cultivator's own talent and second on their family's wealth.

Some rogue cultivator families truly could not afford the spirit stones and could only have their children drop out to work as laborers for weapon refiners or learn to hunt demons on the mountains just to scrape by. The annual tuition of one hundred spirit stones was not a small sum; otherwise, the family would starve to death before the child could become a successful cultivator.

Those who could reach the late stages of Qi Refinement and continue cultivating within a sect were even fewer.

Several fellow disciples Mo Hua was familiar with had disappeared; upon inquiring, he learned they had all dropped out because their families were impoverished and had encountered difficulties, making them unable to pay the tuition.

The path of cultivation is vast and profound; without guidance, one would wander down countless wrong paths. Dropping out during the early stages of Qi Refinement meant that, unless one encountered a monumental stroke of luck, it would be very difficult to make any further progress in cultivation.

Mo Hua sighed slightly, feeling a sense of regret, but since his own situation was not particularly good either, he did not have much time to dwell on it.

Mo Hua studied and cultivated simultaneously, spending his free time drawing formations, living a busy and fulfilling life.

A few months later, without realizing it, Mo Hua broke through to the third level of Qi Refinement.

Cultivation during the Qi Refinement stage relied more on persistence and accumulation. By persisting in daily cultivation, accumulating progress over time, and ensuring enough spirit stones were spent, a breakthrough would naturally follow.

However, what rogue cultivators lacked most was always spirit stones.

While breakthroughs between minor realms relied on accumulation, breakthroughs between major stages would encounter bottlenecks. These bottlenecks required corresponding heavenly treasures or medicinal pills to assist in the breakthrough.

As for breakthroughs between major realms, such as from Qi Refinement to Foundation Establishment, it depended more on fate; for most low-level rogue cultivators, it was a chasm that could not be crossed in a lifetime.

Every time a realm increased, it brought immense benefits to a cultivator.

At the third level of Qi Refinement, Mo Hua felt his spiritual power was more abundant, and his divine sense naturally became stronger.

The Bright Fire Formation, which had previously been difficult for him to draw, could now be done with ease; he didn't even need much rest after finishing it.

Despite it being within his expectations, Mo Hua was still pleasantly surprised.

No wonder so many cultivators endured the boredom of cultivation, focused solely on raising their realms; this simple, unadorned joy obtained after such boredom was true happiness.

At ten years old and at the third level of Qi Refinement, Mo Hua's cultivation was considered upper-middle within the Yi class.

And upon reaching the third level of Qi Refinement, Mo Hua had to choose a cultivation technique.

One day after class, Instructor Yan asked several third-level Qi Refinement disciples to stay behind, including Mo Hua.

After asking them to stay, Instructor Yan got straight to the point

"This was originally Instructor Zhou's responsibility, but as he is feeling slightly unwell, I will step in temporarily to speak to you about cultivation techniques."

"The most important thing for a cultivator is spiritual power. Whether you are a body cultivator or a spiritual cultivator, whether you draw formations, refine pills, forge weapons, or craft talismans, you must use spiritual power. If your spiritual power is strong, you are superior; if it is weak, you are inferior. The most fundamental difference between cultivators is the difference in their spiritual power."

"A cultivator's spiritual power is determined by their cultivation technique, and the technique is determined by their spiritual roots. What kind of spiritual root you have determines what kind of technique you can practice, and the technique you practice determines the amount of spiritual power you possess."

"Spiritual roots are innate, predestined at birth, and cannot be changed later. You cannot choose your spiritual roots, but you can choose what kind of cultivation technique to practice."

"Choosing an appropriate technique will greatly benefit your future cultivation. If your spiritual roots are mediocre but you practice the right technique, you can still have a relatively long path of cultivation. However, if you have superior spiritual roots but practice the wrong technique, it is essentially equivalent to severing your own path to immortality."

"Therefore, regardless of the quality of your spiritual roots, you must be extremely cautious regarding your choice of technique..."

"A cultivation technique, huh..." Mo Hua murmured to himself.

Mo Hua possessed a low-grade Minor Five-Element attribute spiritual root, which was considered mediocre to below-average among his peers in Tongxian City.

He wondered what kind of cultivation technique he would be able to learn with his spiritual roots.