Destiny is ashes

Chapter 99: Gathering Qi
"I never thought it would be so extravagant."

Even the sword spirit felt excited: "Even if it is a true disciple of a large sect, no one would use Jieyu Steel to lay the foundation for Taibai Haoling Divine Prohibition. The cost performance is too low, and the material is too good, which can easily hurt the disciples, which is not good."

"But you are destined to be one of the Seven Evils. Jade steel is so cheap in this world. It would be a shame if you don't try it."

At this point, the sword spirit said solemnly: "Close your eyes, I will teach you the method of gathering energy."

"The way to refine Qi is to refine one's own body first, then refine the heaven and earth."

After An Jing closed his eyes, the sword spirit came straight to the point and stated the fundamental principle of Qi Refining: "Essence and Qi are things. When they gather to the extreme, they will disperse. Gathering is life, and dispersing is death."

“The life of a person is the gathering of essence and energy.”

“So, to refine Qi you must first refine yourself, and to refine yourself you must first refine your essence.”

After a cultivator has [awakened his spirit] and nurtured a trace of innate fetal breath essence, he needs to find a method of cultivation to strengthen his body internally, allowing the innate essence to continue to grow until it fills his limbs and bones. This is considered the completion of the entry-level practice.

At this time, the essence and energy are full and harmonious, and the body produces various magical properties. For example, after "being immune to cold and heat", "pulling five bulls backwards", "fasting from food", and "blood and energy like smoke", you can absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and start the next stage of "Qi Refining".

The reason why we have to wait until the essence and energy in the body are like a tide, overflowing perfectly and giving rise to supernatural powers before we start to refine Qi is because the human body is fragile and cannot contain the spiritual energy of heaven and earth from the very beginning, so we need to use essence and energy to strengthen our physical fitness.

If the internal energy is not sufficient to protect the body, then rashly introducing spiritual energy into the body is like drinking boiling water. The evil energy is like drinking aqua regia, which is a way to seek death.

Only when the essence and energy permeate every detail of the physical body until it is perfected and gives rise to supernatural powers, can spiritual energy be drawn into the body.

Otherwise, if there is even a small piece of flesh that has not been strengthened by the essence, the spiritual energy that enters the body will burn and damage the human body like kerosene burning a balloon.

Cultivation is so dangerous, so opening the spirit and refining qi, which in martial arts are the acquired and innate, internal breath and internal strength.

At the beginning, [Qi Refining] is to use one's own essence to melt the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, and transform it into a "spiritual power" that can be freely controlled.

This power is extremely magical. Depending on different methods, it can be used in various clever ways. It can perform thousands of methods and control tens of thousands of skills. At this point, it is no longer ordinary.

At the end of Qi refining, one uses a unique spiritual power that has been refined to the extreme to integrate one's own perfect and flawless innate essence, and according to the wonderful method, condenses it into various mysterious and true spirits, thereby building the [Tao Foundation], completely transforming one's foundation, and achieving an immortal spiritual body, so it is also called the [Immortal Foundation].

The vast majority of Qi-refining practices follow this order.

However, the body training method of "Taibai Haoling Divine Forbidden" is different.

It takes a unique approach, matching the acupoints in the human body with Taoist prohibitions, and treating the physical body as a spiritual object of heaven and earth that is tempered and polished, and then sealed into prohibitions. Therefore, there is no need for the harmony of essence and energy, and one can directly absorb the energy of the five metals.

As long as you make up for the cultivation of essence and energy in the future, you can become a true Qi-refining cultivator at any time.

But this is only possible in theory and is impossible in reality.

Because the cultivators who have not yet perfected their essence and energy and changed their physique, once they come into contact with evil energy, their life will be cut off in an instant, and their flesh and bones will dissolve and they will die.

Unless one has a teacher to cast a spell to protect the body or takes elixirs such as Rongsha Dan, there will be no exceptions.

But with so many resources available, why not practice traditional Qi training?

The reason why Taibai Haoling Divine Prohibition has a lofty purpose and great magical effect, but is so cruel, is because it is used to make up for the physical defects of accomplished sword immortals - most of them are great cultivators who have already passed the Dao Foundation Purple Mansion, Golden Core or even above. Of course, they don't care about the evil spirit erosion. Ordinary disciples, in theory, should practice the entry-level cultivation method that is more stable and safe, consumes less energy, but progresses more slowly.

But An Jing is different.

When An Jing was sitting cross-legged on the glazed platform, he held the Jade Steel in his hand. The sharp golden evil spirit, which was sharp enough to cut through the flesh and blood of ordinary people, could not hurt him at all.

"You are perfect for this practice."

With a happy sigh, Fu Xie guided An Jing to hold the seal with both hands, and placed it horizontally in front of Dantian Qihai, holding a piece of jade steel, and breathing with a special rhythm: "Taibai Haoling Divine Prohibition has a lofty intention, and there are a total of 108 Tiangang Disha prohibitions."

"Among them, there are eighteen prohibitions for opening the spirit and refining qi, eighteen prohibitions for building the purple palace, and thirty-six prohibitions for immortal gold nature, which correspond to the number of earthly evil spirits."

"The subsequent thirty-six heavenly forbidden methods are even more difficult and obscure, but after perfecting them, the one hundred and eight heavenly forbidden methods and earthly forbidden methods will be combined into one, and can become the great supernatural power 'Taibai Immortality'."

"You now have six taels of jade steel, which is more than enough to complete the Nine Spiritual Prohibitions. You can also have some extra to exchange for other materials."

"But your absorption speed cannot be that fast. You just need to complete the first forbidden practice before returning to Huaixu Realm."

"It's a bit hot..."

Contemplating the Qingming Sword Contemplation, An Jing adjusted his mind to the best state, and soon sensed the spiritual energy gushing out from the 'glazed platform' beneath him.

This was the spiritual energy brought by the black market spiritual spring veins. It passed through his legs and torso, all the way along his spine to the Baihui acupoint, then formed a loop and began to flow into his body.

As spiritual energy poured into his body, the jade steel in An Jing's hand began to vibrate slightly and become hot - this was also the source of the burning sensation in his mouth.

The extremely pure metal evil energy in the jade steel began to enter An Jing's body along with the spiritual veins and spiritual energy.

Very smooth.

The sword spirit watched this scene and nodded slightly. For ordinary people, the metal evil spirit of the jade-cutting steel is enough to easily cut the palm of a Qi-refining cultivator. Just apply a layer of it on the blade to create a sword that can split gold and jade.

But when An Jing took it into his body, he only felt a little burning, which was enough to prove that his name of Seven Evils was worthy of its name.

Tiny strands of air seeped into the body through the palms of both hands, very slowly, just like the slow dripping of water from an old and dilapidated faucet.

But after An Jing practiced the 'Taibai Haoling Divine Forbidden' method, the forbidden seed in his dantian gave off a suction force, which immediately increased the speed of absorbing evil spirits and spiritual energy by dozens of times.

It was like a faucet was turned on, and water flowed into An Jing's body.

A burning sensation as if he had a high fever, with his blood burning but he couldn't sweat, came over An Jing. His body trembled slightly. Even with his physique, it was a bit too much for him to suddenly inhale such a high concentration of spiritual energy.

Where a large amount of spiritual energy passed, the flesh, internal organs and bones suffered some damage, but they soon regenerated, absorbed some of the evil energy from the five metals to regenerate, and began to devour more evil energy.

An Jing's body, like a field that had been dry for too long, thirstily absorbed water, continuously absorbed these high concentrations of evil spirits, and began to grow and become stronger at an extremely fast speed.

(End of this chapter)