Chapter 11: Qi Refining Stage

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Footsteps resounded in the dark, hollow hallway as an old man with white hair and a luscious beard lightly stepped through the halls, his brisk steps quickly taking him to his destination. The torches lined on the castle walls shed light on a double-door at the very end. This double-door was grand in scale and had gold linings on the edges to indicate its importance.

Behind this door was the room of his master, a very fearsome man. The old man wiped his sweat with his long robe, his apparent new information was bound to anger his master. Alas, he was the most senior of the servants and was tasked to bring the news.

'Those fools! They have no idea what the master is like!' He cursed those fools before knocking on the door.

"Come in." A lax voice invited him in.

He steeled his heart with solid determination before pushing open the grand door with his two hands. 'I should just get it over with.'

What greeted him was a hazy room filled with a dark mist, which made it too hard to see anything. The only place he could see something was in the very center, where his master's cauldron lay. The cauldron emitted fumes of toxicity that melted away your very skin. The old man hurriedly channeled his spiritual energy throughout his body, forming a layer of protective energy. He closed the doors behind him to prevent the spread, all too used to such a sight.

"So it's just you, Uncle He. No wonder you could easily neutralize my 'Poisonous Spirit Mist'. Tch. It only works against those below the Core Formation stage. Those fools have such weak defenses." Sitting on a chair, the master put down a thick book he was closely studying and turned his focus on the old man, Uncle He, his eyes glinting.

"Tell me, what brings you here?"

Uncle He cupped his hands together and bowed towards the master. "Sir, it's about the girl with the Glacial Physique that you wanted. Apparently, Wolf's Bane couldn't capture the girl and she escaped. Her location is currently unknown."

"Hmm? So those fools failed." The master materialized a cup of tea from thin air and took a sip. "No worries, she probably had some protective items to help her. She does have a father at the Prime-Originator stage, after all."

"Uncle He, contact Wolf's Bane and tell them to lay low, if not they're probably gonna be wiped out by that senior. I still need them so I can't have them dying on me. As for the girl, leave her be for now. She's just a cripple, she can't run far."

"Yes sir! I'll get it done!" Uncle He nodded at his orders. He didn't immediately move to follow the orders though.

Seeing as Uncle He was still here, the master smiled in amusement. "Uncle He, it seems you understand me well."

'Here it is!' The thing Uncle He dreaded the most upping delivering the news!

The master stopped smiling, and glanced at the wall where a certain silhouette of a large picture frame hung.

"The ones who shirked their responsibilities. Have them be on feeding duty for 'Cerberus' tonight."

Uncle He's heart rapidly beat upon the mention of 'Cerberus'. Such a monstrosity...he feared that his juniors wouldn't be feeding 'Cerberus', instead it will feed on them. However, they dug their own grave for being cowards in this castle.

"Yes, sir."

~+++~

Lin Shen sat in the open space of his room, quietly reading the cultivation manual he was given. Jie Xiulan sat on the bed and observed him, her eyes curious.

After a few minutes, Lin Shen put the manual down. "This 'Immortal's Benevolent Qi Cultivation' manual seems to be quite good."

"Well duh. The 'Immortal's Benevolent Qi Cultivation' is my father's personal cultivation manual. He compiled it from scratch from when he was just at the Qi Refining Stage, and slowly made changes to it as he progressed through the stages." Jie Xiulan smiled as she felt proud to have such a hard working father.

"Such a precious manual, if I could cultivate then it would've gone to me. Alas, the world is a cruel place, not even sparing a newborn baby. My meridians were frozen before I was even able to utter 'waaa'." Jie Xiulan playfully pouted, her expression not the slightest sad.

Jie Xiulan was decked in new clothes that she borrowed from Lin Shen's closet. She wore a white t-shirt and a plain black jogger. Lin Shen usually wore clothes that were one size larger than his body, so the clothes on Jie Xiulan made her look baggy. The wounds on her face had already healed upon taking some Yin-Yang pills, so she was sporting a very tomboy-ish look. All she was missing was a backwards cap.

"Xiulan, do you think you can teach me about cultivation?" Lin Shen decided to inquire about this matter.

"Brother Lin, my knowledge of cultivation is limited. I can only teach you up to the Foundation Establishment realm."

"No worries, that will do for now." Lin Shen was content with knowledge up to the Foundation Establishment stage. Who knew how long it took to cultivate? That knowledge would last him a while, so he couldn't complain.

"Alright then, let's start with the Qi Refining stage." Jie Xiulan checked to confirm Lin Shen was ready. "The Qi Refining stage is split into three minor realms, Qi Sensing, Qi Forming, and the Qi Condensing stage."

"In the Qi Sensing stage, a practitioner senses their elemental Qi, which can be influenced by the environment. My father chose the water element by cultivating near the sea. After sensing your Qi, you have to first feel your mind space, then form the Qi inside it."

"Only after accomplishing all these will you be able to move onto Qi Condensing. In Qi Condensing, you transfer the elemental Qi from your mind space to your dantian until it gets used to the element, and repeat the cycle starting from Qi Sensing."

"Foundation Establishment is much easier. A practitioner of the Foundation Establishment stage uses the Qi from their dantian to nourish their whole body, which also feeds the body with that specific Qi element."

Jie Xiulan stopped there. "That's all I know, Brother Lin. I can't guide you since I've never cultivated before, but that's how you theoretically cultivate."

Lin Shen smiled. "That was enough. Thank you, Xiulan."

Lin Shen and Jie Xiulan chatted a bit more about cultivation. She warned him that every cultivator could choose their element before they began cultivation, that one had to be very careful in the process of choosing their element. One's very element determined their future path, after all.

He kept that in mind and decided to try cultivation.

'How does one do it?'

Lin Shen tried closing and searching his mind. Jie Xiulan cutely watched as Lin Shen's brows scrunched together sometimes, other times making weird faces. This was a very weird experience, funny even. Her father never made faces like that when cultivating.

After a while, Lin Shen stopped making weird faces and opened his eyes, dejected. 'No good, I'm just imagining things at this point. Maybe I should try the manual?'

He gave it a try. This time, he sat in a lotus position and followed the instructions of the manual, trying to maintain an even breathing rhythm.

As he breathed, he tried to guide his breathing, from inhaling the air, to moving it down to his core instead. After getting the hang of it for a while, he tried the next step. He split his focus and tried to sense what elements were in the air.

'I know there should be the lightning element since this room is filled with electricity, I have a good chance with that. There should also be wind, but it shouldn't be very abundant, so my luck with that one will be very low.' Lin Shen contemplated on the type of elements in this room. Unfortunately, his thinking was limited to the basics. He couldn't accurately imagine wind or lightning.

'Hmm, that's right. Don't humans normally have heat in their bodies? Maybe I can try sensing that heat.'

Still in the lotus position, he brought his hands together, perhaps to better feel the heat. Lin Shen concentrated on the heat in his body through the feeling from his hands touching.

Using the 'Immortal's Benevolent Qi Cultivation' manual, Lin Shen kept sensing for the heat. All this while, Jie Xiulan kept her curiosity to herself and stayed quiet. She knew the importance of silence when it came to cultivating. Interrupting a cultivation session was the biggest taboo in the Immortal World.

Seconds turned into minutes as Lin Shen kept sensing, his concentration at maximum. After 10 minutes passed, he finally felt it.

'It's...warm?'

He could see an imaginary greenish-blue flame starting to take form, becoming a droplet of flame, very similar to the ones in the app.

'I have to ask the system later on.'

Lin Shen remembered the next step to cultivating. He used the method described in the manual to sense his mind space, which took up another 10 minutes.

As soon as he sensed it, he suddenly felt as though his mind had been unleashed, so much clearer than before, even more than the app's upgrades.

Inside the mind space, he could see that it was blank, besides there being a study room filled with bookshelves. There was an occasional wave-like rippling on the ground, like that of a droplet of water into the ocean. It brought about a tranquil feeling, a perfect study room that Lin Shen preferred.

His enjoyment was brief as he started to concentrate. Lin Shen tried to materialize the element inside his mind space accordingly, following every step of the manual. As he kept trying, he made his own insights and refined some steps.

Finally, after a while, the greenish-blue flame droplet started materializing in Lin Shen's mind space. It materialized on a stone pedestal containing a stone bowl, with the stone pedestal having formed as soon as the flame droplet was formed. The flame droplet landed on the bowl like liquid water and stayed there, untouched.

The final step was to transfer the flame droplet to his dantian, and then repeat the first step all over again until the dantian was full and could start forming its own Qi.

Since he had already sensed his mind space, such a difficult task, added together with sensing the heat from his body, Lin Shen was already proficient enough. He only took around 5 minutes to sense his dantian.

He proceeded to transfer the first flame droplet he made into his dantian, just dropping it off there. Seeing as it was done just like that, he proceeded to once again materialize his Qi element and repeated the steps.

The night passed just like that.