Immortality begins with upgrading buildings

Chapter 71 Qiu Qianhai's Breakthrough Has Problems [Seeking First Subscription]

"call--"

Ji Yuan looked inward at his dantian and saw the spiritual energy cloud that had condensed there, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

The sign of breaking through to the late stage of Qi Refining is that the spiritual energy in the dantian must form a spiritual energy cloud. In other words, to break through to the late stage, one needs a large amount of spirit stones as reserves.

Otherwise, if the spirit stones used for a breakthrough don't keep up, then forget about breaking through.

Ji Yuan had prepared four mid-grade spirit stones, but even after absorbing the first two, they were not enough to support his breakthrough... The remaining two mid-grade spirit stones in his hand only contained one-third of their spiritual energy.

To break through to the late stage of Qi Refining, one needs at least three hundred spirit stones.

No wonder there are so few Qi Refining Stage 1 cultivators in Yun Yuze.

Condensing Dan Yun is a sign of the late stage of Qi Refining. To continue improving one's cultivation, one must condense more Dan Yun until it fills the dantian, which means that one's cultivation has reached the peak of Qi Refining.

To establish a foundation, one must continuously compress the spiritual energy within the dantian, liquefying it into elixir.

Once the elixir fills the dantian, it means that one's cultivation has reached the peak of the Foundation Establishment stage.

Finally, compressing the elixir into a solid form signifies that one's cultivation has reached... the Golden Core stage!

With this thought in mind, Ji Yuan continued to absorb spiritual energy to stabilize his cultivation.

Four more days passed in the blink of an eye, until the two remaining mid-grade spirit stones in his hand turned into stone dust and scattered, and his cultivation level finally became completely stable.

Actually, it had stabilized two days ago, but the remaining spiritual energy within this mid-grade spirit stone was not suitable for any other purpose.

Ji Yuan simply went for it and sucked it all up in one go.

Four days later.

Ji Yuan shook off the spirit lime from his body and walked out of the house feeling refreshed. Qiu Qianhai, who had been waiting inside for a long time, immediately stood up, his eyes full of joy.

"Great! Now I, Qiu Qianhai, have a friend who's at the late stage of Qi Refining!"

Ji Yuan glanced at him indifferently, then shook his sleeves, put his hands behind his back, and leaned back slightly.

"What...did you call me?"

Upon hearing this, Qiu Qianhai quickly dusted off non-existent dust from his body, then bowed respectfully and said solemnly, "Junior Qiu Qianhai greets Senior Ji."

"Not bad, you have good judgment."

"Get lost."

Qiu Qianhai stood up and laughed loudly.

After the initial excitement subsided, he suddenly remembered something and quickly said, "A few days ago, after you broke through to the late stage of Qi Refining, some of the neighbors around you seemed to sense your presence and all sent congratulatory gifts."

"Oh? You didn't take it, did you?"

"No, I dismissed them all." Qiu Qianhai said, hands on his hips, laughing. "Back then, I looked like a wicked servant of a wealthy family."

"That's fine then."

Ji Yuan stretched and casually slapped a calming talisman on Qiu Qianhai.

"Alright, you should hurry up and break through too. We'll talk about it again once your cultivation level is higher."

"Okay."

Qiu Qianhai had been waiting for so long, he was naturally very impatient.

Seeing him excitedly enter the house, Ji Yuan went to the front yard and summoned his many magical artifacts.

Having broken through to the late stage of Qi Refining, his strength has greatly increased, so he naturally needs to familiarize himself with this magic weapon again.

After all, what might have required five parts of effort to achieve before, can now be accomplished with only two parts of effort.

With this thought in mind, Ji Yuan first channeled his spiritual energy into the magical boots beneath his feet. Instantly, he felt his whole body become light, and with a casual step, he crossed the entire courtyard and arrived at the gate.

And this seems to be the limit of these boots.

Ji Yuan looked back and saw that each step was three zhang... that was the limit for these low-grade boots.

It might not be very convenient for escaping, but it's suitable for close combat, especially when paired with its own Water Spear.

As soon as Ji Yuan had this thought, he grasped the light blue spear with sharp blades at both ends in his right hand.

With a casual wave of his hand, two streams of spiritual energy surged around him.

A high-grade magic weapon is basically the limit that a Qi Refining stage cultivator can activate.

The highest-level magical artifacts can only be activated by those at the Foundation Establishment stage.

However, while the Water Spear is indeed powerful, it also consumes a lot of energy, so Ji Yuan couldn't try it out in this courtyard.

A moment later, he summoned the White Water Flying Sword again.

Compared to Ji Yuan, who was at the late stage of Qi Refining, this mid-grade flying sword was somewhat inadequate.

Although it still works, it feels almost weightless when you try to operate it.

Moreover, their future opponents are likely to be in the late stage of Qi Refining, so their protective magic weapons will be at least mid-grade, or even high-grade.

In this way, the White Water Flying Sword will not be very effective.

We need to replace it with a high-grade flying sword.

The same applies to protective magical artifacts. Although there are many protective magical artifacts now, they are all of medium quality. At worst, you can sell them all and exchange them for a high-quality one.

The French ships also need to be upgraded to flying boats.

The same goes for the talisman brush. This one is better; the current low-grade talisman brush can be replaced with a mid-grade one.

Replacing this entire set would cost an unknown amount of spirit stones...

Fortunately, the cold iron sand hasn't been sold yet. If we can sell those 41-pound cold iron sand, we'll have enough for everything.

As Ji Yuan was thinking, he suddenly sensed something and turned around to look.

The room was quiet.

But just a moment ago, he felt as if a...bloody aura flashed through the room?

He quickly summoned the vine shield to protect himself, and then activated the mystic light shield in his hand to cover his body.

Finally, he even took out the Water-Dividing Dragon Spear.

Once inside, they still didn't notice anything amiss.

Could it be that my perception is wrong?

Just as he was wondering, he discovered that the blood energy came from... Qiu Qianhai?!

It was coming from the room where he was in seclusion.

Ji Yuan could faintly hear a rapid heartbeat.

Like beating a drum.

Why did this guy have to make such a big commotion if he was supposed to be in seclusion?

Ji Yuan waited at the door for a while, but didn't hear any other unusual noises, so he had no choice but to give up.

I reckon it's Qiu Qianhai's secret, just like the finger bone he obtained... In that case, he probably hesitated beforehand about whether to break through in front of me.

Are you afraid I'll find out his secret?

Ji Yuan pondered for a moment and decided not to leave. Instead, he began to cultivate in the hall.

He first spent three days drawing talismans, turning all the remaining mid-grade cloud-patterned talisman paper into mid-grade talismans.

When the fight comes, throwing out a bunch of talismans will at least have some effect.

He then changed the [Talisman Room] to the [Enlightenment Room] and began to comprehend the third level of the "Water Drop Finger" technique, "Accumulated Explosion," and the second level of the "Canglang Sword Technique," "Layered Mirror."

The "Accumulated Explosion" technique is extremely difficult to cultivate. Ji Yuan tried compressing the spiritual energy around his body hundreds of times, but still couldn't find the trick.

"Double Mirror" involves using a flying sword to shatter water droplets, transforming them into mirrors all around the body.

It is used to confuse the opponent's vision, and if the spell hits a mirror, it can also cause it to deviate from its original trajectory.

This mirror can also be detonated by Ji Yuan, turning it into a water arrow to retaliate.

Ji Yuan practiced for several days, but got stuck on the step of turning water droplets into a clear mirror.

On that day, Ji Yuan was comprehending the "Layered Mirror" when he suddenly sensed a distinct change in aura coming from the inner room.

Just as he was overjoyed, he heard Qiu Qianhai seem to spit out a mouthful of blood.

"puff--"

"Qiu Qianhai?!"

Ji Yuan quickly called out.

"No, it's okay, don't come in, it'll be fine in a bit."

A weak voice came from inside the room.

Ji Yuan also stopped walking.

After waiting for a full day, Qiu Qianhai finally came out of the house. His face was still a little pale, but his aura had indeed firmly established him at the sixth level of Qi Refining.

Are you really alright?

Ji Yuan looked at him like this and asked very seriously.

Qiu Qianhai seemed to know he couldn't hide it, or perhaps he didn't want to, so he said softly, "I practice a different cultivation method that can burn lifespan to increase cultivation speed."

"Isn't this some kind of demonic power?!"

Ji Yuan asked in surprise.

"The cultivation methods are not divided into righteous and demonic; only people are divided into righteous and demonic."

Qiu Qianhai smiled and said, "You don't need to persuade me. After I break through to the late stage of Qi Refining, I will stop cultivating this demonic art. I estimate that it will only reduce my lifespan by twenty years. Once I break through to the late stage, my lifespan will be over a hundred years, so it won't matter."

"This... will do."

Spiritual practice is a private matter for others, so Ji Yuan shouldn't say too much. "If there's anything I can help with, just let me know."

"Okay, I will."

As the two were talking, a knock came at the door outside the courtyard.

"Thump—"

"Knock knock—"

-

(Don't worry, there won't be any cliché plot points about dying or dying young while practicing demonic arts.)

(End of this chapter)