C14 Level-1 Qi Refiner!

Inside the cave:

Chu Zhongtian could be seen sitting cross-legged on the ground; his breathing was steady and had a certain rhythm. Even his heartbeat quietly beat in perfect harmony with his breathing. The entire cave was so quiet that even the draft seemed a bit too loud.

After so long, Chu Zhongtian finally understood something: sensing Qi was actually much easier than guiding it into one's body.

Chu Zhongtian sensed the Qi in a mere hour, but it took him nearly an entire day to control the Qi, barely. And that was just controlling it outside of his body. He feared that guiding the Qi inside his body would take weeks.

However, the joy of being able to cultivate again suppressed all his grievances. So, instead of growing impatient, he spent a few more days breaking through to the Qi Refining realm.

Chu Zhongtian stopped cultivating after another day passed. Guiding the Qi into his body—unexpectedly—tired him both mentally and physically. So, right now, he was as fatigued as hell.

If he forced himself to cultivate, not only would there be no progress, he might even hurt himself. Furthermore, he had already eaten all the fruits he had stored, so he had to replenish his food source as soon as possible.

Chu Zhongtian carefully left the cave. Using his memory, he found a fruit tree not far away from the cave. After picking up a dozen or so fruits, he returned to the cave.

Then, he ate more than ten fruits in a single sitting; only then did he feel his hunger dying down. For his mental fatigue, Chu Zhongtian laid on the ground and fell asleep.

After replenishing both his mind and body, he spent the next few days trying to guide the Qi into his body. If he got hungry, he would sate it with fruits; if he got tired, he would sate it with sleep. Cultivate, eat, sleep, repeat.

After four days of laborious cultivation, he could feel the Qi floating and gently nudging his skin.

On the morning of the fifth day, he could finally make the Qi merge into his body. He used his mind to guide it into his meridians.

As soon as this fresh Qi entered his meridians, a wave of pain sprang in his entire body. This pain numbed his entire body for a while. At the same time, a powerful force came from his meridian, completely refreshing his exhausted mind.

"Level-1 Qi Refining realm, finally!" Chu Zhongtian could not help but shed tears of joy when he felt the force coming from his meridians.

It wasn't easy for him to become a Level-1 Qi Refiner—he had to face seemingly infinite trials and tribulations.

He was so excited that he wanted to face up and howl like a rabid dog, but he knew better. He forced his mind to calm down and began guiding more Qi into his body.

Right now, he couldn't simultaneously draw Qi from the air and the inferior stones he had. One had to have a certain degree of familiarity with the Qi Refining realm before they could attract Qi from other sources. Thankfully, Chu Zhongtian was just a bit away from that level.

After the first batch of Qi entered his body, drawing in successive batches became much easier. That day, he didn't take a single break to eat or rest till noon. He focused all of his attention on cultivation.

Like this, a day passed. He had accumulated roughly 20 or so strands\batches of Qi into his body. And this was enough to start cultivating with spirit stones.

However, he did not continue cultivating. Instead, he ate a dozen or so fruits in one go then just fell asleep on the ground.

The next morning, Chu Zhongtian woke up on time. Unlike his usual routine, he didn't start cultivating immediately. Instead, he began walking around the cave.

While walking around, he adjusted his breathing and tried to achieve the best mental state he could.

After getting into the right mindset, he immediately sat cross-legged on the ground. He then took out an inferior stone with slightly higher Qi density and held it in his hands. Next, he used the Taixuan Heart Sutra to absorb all the Qi within those stones.

Compared with the Qi scattered in the air, the Qi within these stones was simply too abundant. If the scattered Qi was like a drop of water, then the inferior stone Qi was like a big glass of water.

The effect of absorbing the Qi was quite apparent.

The Qi he extracted from the stones quickly entered his body and began merging with his meridians. Within seconds, 1% of his entire meridian network was filled with Qi.

On Level-1 of the Qi Refining realm, cultivators had to wholly fill their meridians with Qi. Once all the meridians were filled with spiritual Qi, the meridians would transform this spiritual Qi into spiritual power under the effect of a cultivator's cultivation technique. Once their Qi had transformed into spiritual power, a cultivator would step into Level-2 of the Qi Refining realm.

Once spiritual Qi was transformed into spiritual power, one could expect a massive boost in strength. Also, with spiritual power, cultivators could now learn and execute low-level martial arts.

One could use martial skills without power, but only by blending spiritual power with their martial arts skill could one bring out its true might.

After just half a day, he had reduced his inferior stone to a pile of dust. Who was to blame? His outstanding peak Level-8 talent? Or the mighty Taixuan Heart Sutra? Or was it his shocking potential?

However, thanks to those stones, one-third of one meridian was now saturated with Qi.

Chu Zhontian was surprised to find that he needed three to five times the Qi ordinary cultivators used while cultivating.

An ordinary cultivator could fill an entire meridian with a single inferior stone. However, he needed three inferior stones for the same task. In other words, his meridians were three times as thick as ordinary cultivators'; consequently, his meridians could thrice as much Qi.

Actually, since he had used an inferior stone with denser Qi than most, his meridians might have been four times as thick as others.

Although he had absorbed a lot of Qi, his cultivation speed did not slow down. This was because an ordinary cultivator would need at least three days to absorb a single inferior stone—he only needed one day. This was the benefit of the cultivation methods and talent.

Thinking of this, Chu Zhongtian couldn't help but wonder about those cultivators with even better talent. Wouldn't someone with a Level-1 talent be able to absorb an inferior stone within minutes?

Also, someone with Level-1 talent would definitely use a good Heaven Grade cultivation method. With that, they could absorb an inferior stone in seconds, right?

'Too terrifying!'

Chu Zhongtian felt a chill all over his body. He quickly shook his head and threw the idea out of his mind, afraid it would affect his mood.

Then he made a few calculations based on the stock he had.

There were 12 meridians in the human body. If one meridian required three stones, 12 would need 36 inferior spirit stones.

Right now, he had 17 inferior tones and one low Level-10 spirit stone. These stones were enough for him to break through to Level-2 of the Qi Refining realm. Then, the spiritual Qi in his body would transform into spiritual power. With the help of power, he would learn a set of martial skills and find a way to leave the Endless Forest.

After all, he had been relying on fruits for the past half month. His body was not used to it, so he had to replenish it with other nutrients soon. Furthermore, after becoming a Level-2 Qi Refiner, he would need more and more spirit stones. There were no spirit stones in the Endless Forest, so he had to go out and find them.

After temporarily putting aside his worries, Chu Zhongtian did not sleep as he did in the past. Instead, he took out an inferior stone and continued cultivating.

One stone...

Two stones...

Five stones...

Ten stones...

As his cultivation increased, the speed at which he absorbed Qi also increased. Initially, he could only consume one inferior stone per day, but now he could absorb two or even three stones per day.