Yang Qing had been one of those who had chosen the mortal's path to transcendence. His reason for the choice was more out of affinity than anything else. Like most who chose the art, he did have a secret ambition of maybe grasping its mysteries and jumping to the soul formation realm in a single bound.
As someone who had grown up with his fair share of fears and paranoia, especially towards dangerous things with cultivators being at the top of that list, jumping straight to the soul formation realm from the qi refinement realm would solve a bulk of those problems.
Who in their right mind would try to attack a soul formation expert?