Chapter 4: Fourth Level of Qi Refining

After obtaining the Qi Gathering Pill, Song Qingming returned to his cave dwelling without a moment's delay and began preparing for his seclusion to break through to the middle stage of Qi Refining.

After preparing everything, to avoid being disturbed by others, Song Qingming set up a low-grade formation at the entrance of his cave.

Feeling that everything was secure, Song Qingming walked to the center of his cave, sat cross-legged on a meditation cushion, and formed hand seals to circulate his Mind-Calming Technique, steadying his somewhat nervous breathing.

He took out a "Clear Heart Talisman" and stuck it to his hand. After adjusting himself to his optimal state, Song Qingming opened his eyes and gazed at the Qi Gathering Pill he had obtained only after saving for nearly three years.

He silently vowed to himself that he must succeed this time; otherwise, who knew how long it would take before he could attempt another breakthrough.

Although he had failed once before, Song Qingming was still full of confidence. Having the experience of a failed breakthrough would increase his success rate this time, and with the Qi Gathering Pill, there shouldn't be any major issues.

Song Qingming touched the pill in his hand and, without hesitation, placed it in his mouth and swallowed it.

Slowly, a powerful surge of spiritual energy emanated from within his body, rushing toward the meridians and spiritual acupoints.

The Qi Gathering Pill was a first-grade high-tier elixir. For a low-stage cultivator like Song Qingming, the spiritual energy it contained was immense.

Such a powerful surge of energy erupted from his dantian, rampaging through the three meridians he had already opened. This was a significant test for Song Qingming.

In the Qi Refining stage, opening each spiritual acupoint allows a cultivator to unlock a meridian for absorbing spiritual energy, increasing the body's absorption speed and expanding the capacity of the dantian. The number of spiritual acupoints and meridians a cultivator opens determines their cultivation level. Once all nine major spiritual acupoints and meridians are opened, one reaches the peak of the Qi Refining stage—the ninth layer.

The Qi Refining stage is divided into three levels: the first to third layers are the early stage, the fourth to sixth are the middle stage, and the seventh to ninth are the late stage. After reaching the ninth layer, breaking through further allows one to enter the next major realm and become a Foundation Establishment cultivator, a rarity in these parts.

However, the vast majority of cultivators in the world of immortality linger within the Qi Refining stage; fewer than one in a hundred can reach Foundation Establishment. The entire Qinghe County has nearly a thousand cultivators, yet there are only six Foundation Establishment cultivators.

The first three spiritual acupoints of the Qi Refining stage are the easiest to open, and they do not increase the dantian's capacity by much. From the fourth acupoint onward, the difficulty increases exponentially. This is common in cultivation; the higher the difficulty, the greater the reward. Breaking through this bottleneck to the middle stage of Qi Refining would double his dantian's capacity, and the same applies to the bottleneck of the seventh acupoint in the late stage.

Song Qingming understood clearly that his previous failure was due to not gathering enough spiritual energy in his dantian, causing him to fall short when trying to break through the barrier of the spiritual acupoint.

With the experience from last time, he carefully circulated his "Kunyuan Technique," a cultivation method he had practiced for years, guiding the spiritual energy bit by bit from his dantian into the meridian of the fourth spiritual acupoint.

The "Kunyuan Technique" was merely a common earth-attribute cultivation method for the Qi Refining stage, capable of reaching only the peak of Qi Refining. While the clan possessed five-element cultivation methods for the Qi Refining stage, the only method capable of reaching the Foundation Establishment stage was the fire-attribute "Red Flame Technique," practiced only by the clan leader and a few others.

Song Qingming possessed a four-attribute spiritual root. Because his earth-attribute root was the best, he chose to practice this method, which was more suitable for him.

A few days later, the spiritual energy in Song Qingming's dantian accumulated more and more, eventually forming a powerful torrent that rushed toward the barrier in his meridians.

He seemed to hear a boom in his mind.

Song Qingming felt a roar within his body. After a series of vibrations in his meridians, a feeling of immense comfort washed over his entire body, and the spiritual energy in his dantian more than doubled.

Slowly circulating his technique again to let the spiritual energy run through his body for one cycle, he finally calmed down. This time, taking the pill had allowed him to break through to the middle stage of Qi Refining, reaching the fourth layer, without any mishaps.

After spending half a day stabilizing his cultivation, Song Qingming opened the stone door and stepped out of his cave. From this day on, Song Qingming could officially be considered a middle-stage Qi Refining cultivator.

He cooked two bowls of spiritual rice in his cave to alleviate the hunger brought on by his days of seclusion, and he felt that his speed of absorbing spiritual energy had indeed increased by several percent.

After refining the rich spiritual energy from the rice he had just eaten, Song Qingming began to study the various spells he had long dreamed of.

Early-stage Qi Refining cultivators lack sufficient cultivation to gather enough spiritual energy outside their bodies, so they can only cast a few low-grade spells. To cast higher-level spells, they must rely on spiritual talismans, which are far less powerful than spells cast naturally using one's own spiritual energy after a cultivation increase.

Once a cultivator reaches the middle stage of Qi Refining, they have enough spiritual energy to project it outside their body and easily cast various spells, significantly increasing their combat capability. Under normal circumstances, a fourth-layer Qi Refining cultivator is definitely stronger than two third-layer cultivators working together.

"Binding Spell," "Sound Transmission Spell," "Breath Concealment Spell," "Earth Spike Spell," "Fireball Spell," "Mind-Steadying Spell," "Wind-Riding Technique," and "Object Manipulation Technique."

The power of these low-grade spells depends entirely on the depth of the caster's mana.

If a person with great supernatural powers were to cast them, they could turn a thousand miles of fertile land into a desert or freeze a great river into a glacier at will.

Of course, this was still a fantasy for Song Qingming, who had just entered the middle stage of Qi Refining. Even at the middle stage, the spiritual energy in his body was very limited; he could barely cast these low-grade spells. To practice more powerful, high-level spells, he would have to wait until his cultivation was higher and his spiritual energy was sufficient.

Immersed in various new spells, Song Qingming did not step out of his cave again until half a month later.

A streak of green light flew from Song Qingming's hand, instantly striking a giant rock over ten zhang away. With a "bang," dust and debris flew into the air. A moment later, as the dust settled, a corner of the giant rock had been sliced off by the green light.

Song Qingming changed the hand seal, and the green light flew back to him at high speed, transforming into a dark green iron sword.

"This sword-controlling technique... I can finally use it with some proficiency."

In half a month, Song Qingming had not only successfully cultivated the "Kunyuan Technique" to the fourth layer but also learned seven or eight low-grade spells. He could now be considered a genuine middle-stage Qi Refining cultivator.

After putting away his flying sword, Song Qingming went to the family's Treasury Pavilion to update his cultivation level and received a storage bag he had long dreamed of.

In the world of immortality, a storage bag is an essential item for cultivators, but one must at least be in the middle stage of Qi Refining and have learned to project spiritual energy to use it. After a cultivator refines it, they only need to inject some spiritual energy into the bag and lock onto an item to automatically store or retrieve it.

The storage bag Song Qingming received was only a low-grade one with a space of three feet. Even the lowest-grade storage bag is not cheap on the market, costing at least ten spirit stones. However, to encourage the younger generation of the clan to cultivate diligently, the Song family gives a free low-grade storage bag to everyone who breaks through to the middle stage of Qi Refining as a reward.

He released a drop of his essence blood into the storage bag, performed a few hand seals to complete the refinement, and then took stock of all his belongings before placing them inside.

A low-grade black iron sword, a set of low-grade five-element formation flags, a few low-grade talismans, thirty catties of spiritual rice, and a dozen spirit stones. These were all of Song Qingming's current possessions.

Compared to other middle-stage Qi Refining cultivators, he didn't even have a single mid-grade magical tool. He was truly destitute. If he were to encounter a cultivator of the same level in a fight, he would definitely be at a great disadvantage.

A mid-grade flying sword in the marketplace costs nearly thirty spirit stones, and he didn't have enough spirit stones to exchange for one.

Now that he had successfully broken through to the middle stage of Qi Refining, his next step was to find a way to earn spirit stones, pay back the ones he had borrowed from Uncle Thirteen and the others, and slowly arm himself.