Hunyuan Immortal Sect

Chapter 104 The fourth level of Qi refining
Anyway, it was the first time to refine it, so no matter what, he had to try his best to complete all the steps. With the attitude of trying everything, Song Xian asked Shen Fan to condense his consciousness into qi on the puppet.

The so-called condensing consciousness into qi means to let one's split spiritual consciousness be poured into the puppet's body, day after day, until the entire puppet has a certain special connection with oneself. This process can only be done by a cultivator who has practiced the art of splitting the soul.

After completing this step, most of the puppet's processes have been completed, with only the last step remaining, which is to control the temperature.

That is, using the Soul Fusion Formation, he used his own essence and blood to fuse a little bit of the puppet's body, creating a closer connection between it and himself, until his spiritual consciousness could control its actions.

Shen Fan had been practicing the Shenxuan Baozhuan technique for the past few months, and had also mastered some of the soul-splitting technique. So he followed Song Xian's instructions and let his split consciousness enter the puppet body.

He placed his hands flat on the puppet's body, took a deep breath, and closed his eyes. As the split spiritual consciousness was poured in, the puppet's body changed visibly, and it continued to expand. The cracks on the broken parts of the body became bigger and bigger.

After a while, there was a loud cracking sound, and the head and torso were first broken into two pieces. Although the other cracks were not broken, huge gaps were torn in them.

Shen Fan opened his eyes and exhaled slowly. Once the spiritual consciousness split by the Soul-Splitting Technique leaves the body and enters the puppet's body, it will completely disappear, which is equivalent to losing a part of the spiritual consciousness.

Fortunately, the spiritual consciousness can be restored by practicing the Shenxuan Baozhuan.

"Master, I'm sorry, I didn't do it well." Shen Fan lowered his head, his expression unable to hide his disappointment. It took a lot of materials to refine this puppet, but the result was like this, which made him feel a little guilty.

"What's the big deal?" Song Xian knew that Shen Fan always worked hard, was a taciturn, gentle and honest person, so he patted his shoulder to comfort him.

"The art of puppetry is inherently complex, and we don't have a master to teach us, so we're all just trying by trial and error. If you can succeed on your first try, wouldn't you be a rare puppetry genius?"

"Think about it, this puppet is no ordinary thing. The combat power of this lowest-level snake-shaped puppet we refined is comparable to that of a cultivator in the early stages of Qi Refining. If you could create it in just two or three months, that would be disastrous."

"Everything has a gradual process. If it doesn't work once, try ten times. If it doesn't work ten times, try a hundred times."

"Let me tell you the truth. No matter how many materials are needed or how many spirit stones are spent, we must master this puppet refining technique."

"The sect is still well-off right now, so feel free to give it a try and don't worry about anything else. If you need anything, just tell me directly."

"Alright, that's all for today. You've been busy enough lately, so don't rush into the next attempt. Rest for a while before refining the next batch."

Listening to Song Xian's gentle words of comfort, Shen Fan felt somewhat moved. Now, in the entire sect, apart from Jiang Zichen, he had the best impression of this fair-minded master who was of similar age. As if he had made up his mind, he raised his head with a firm look and said, "Master, rest assured. I will study hard and will definitely master this skill thoroughly."

"I believe you can do it. By the way, we brought back some puppet remains from our last trip to the desert palace. They should all be stored in the palace vault. When you have time, go find Senior Brother Lu Yuan and bring those remains over. During this time, disassemble and study them carefully. Perhaps they will be helpful for future refinements."

After the two finished their conversation, Song Xian returned to his room to rest.

Shen Fan looked at the broken puppet, then walked to the storage room next to him, took out various materials, and began to pile up crystal columns bit by bit.

.........

Time flies, and more than half a year has passed in the blink of an eye. The days in the Hunyuan Sect's mountain gate are calm and peaceful.

In the training room, Song Xian closed his eyes and practiced Qigong as usual. The spiritual energy of heaven and earth was absorbed into his body through breathing, circulated around his body, removing impurities, and refined into a purer gas, which merged with his own Linghai acupoint.

I don't know how long it took, but he suddenly opened his eyes, and the spiritual energy around him rose. In an instant, he broke through to the fourth level of Qi Refining.

Finally breaking through this realm, a hint of joy flashed across Song Xian's face. His spiritual root aptitude was very high. If he had not spent most of the last year dealing with sect affairs, he should have broken through to the fourth level of Qi Refining long ago.

Last year, when he left Qingyun Mountain, his spiritual power had reached 21 points. After more than half a year of practice, he finally broke through 25 points.

After reaching the fourth level of Qi Refining, which is the middle stage of Qi Refining in the cultivation world, the biggest difference compared to the initial stage of Qi Refining is that after entering this realm, improving the level of cultivation is much more difficult than the initial stage of Qi Refining.

With the data provided by his true eye, one can clearly see the difference between the early and middle stages of Qi Refining.

The spiritual power of a cultivator at the first level of Qi Refining is between 10 and 15 points.

The spiritual power of a cultivator at the second level of Qi Refining is between 15 and 20 points.

The spiritual power of a cultivator at the third level of Qi Refining is between 20 and 25 points.

When a cultivator's spiritual power reaches 25 points, he reaches the fourth level of Qi Refining. From this level onwards, every level up will increase his spiritual power by ten points.

For example, the spiritual power of a cultivator at the fourth level of Qi Refining is 25 to 35 points.

The spiritual power of a cultivator at the fifth level of Qi Refining is 35 to 45 points. The spiritual power of a cultivator at the sixth level of Qi Refining is 45 to 55 points.

These data are clear at a glance. In the initial stage of Qi Refining, only 5 points of spiritual power are needed to advance to each level of cultivation.

At the middle stage of Qi Refining, 10 points of strength are required for each level of cultivation.

In the later stages of Qi Refining, 15 points of spiritual power are required for each level of cultivation.

In each stage, in addition to the most intuitive spiritual power data, there are also some internal changes that cannot be reflected by the eyes of true observation.

For example, the purity of spiritual energy. When one reaches the middle stage of Qi Refining, the requirement for the purity of spiritual energy is much higher than that in the early stage of Qi Refining.

Cultivation is actually the process of removing impurities from the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and absorbing the essence into the body.

The spiritual power required for the middle stage of Qi Refining must be more refined before it can be integrated into the body. This will unexpectedly take longer to remove more impurities and make it more refined.

For example, in the early stages of Qi Refining, with Song Xian's dual-attribute spiritual roots, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth only needs to circulate around the body for 18 cycles before the purity of the spiritual energy reaches the requirement for integration into the body.

By the middle stage of Qi Refining, spiritual energy of the same purity may need to circulate 36 times before it can be integrated into the body.

This increases the time cost of cultivation. The reason for such changes is that the cultivator is also gradually changing his physical condition during the practice process.

Changes in one's physical constitution manifest themselves in many aspects, and the need for more refined spiritual power to become one with the body is only one of them.

The most common one is that when a cultivator reaches the foundation-building stage, he can release spiritual energy and fly in the air.

There are also some more subtle influences. As the monk's cultivation level increases, it becomes more difficult for him to have children. This is also the result of changes in his physical constitution.

Therefore, cultivators at different stages of cultivation need to practice in training rooms of corresponding levels to compensate for the impact of changes in their physical condition on their cultivation.

After so many years of development, the cultivation world has already developed a relatively complete system to deal with this situation, and has therefore divided the practice rooms into different grades.

The initial stage of Qi Refining corresponds to a first-grade low-grade training room, the middle stage of Qi Refining corresponds to a first-grade medium-grade training room, and the late stage of Qi Refining corresponds to a first-grade high-grade training room.

Different training rooms have different levels of spiritual energy purity and concentration, which can make up for the body's requirements for the purity of spiritual energy.

In the early stage of Qi Refining, it takes 18 cycles in a first-grade low-quality training room to integrate the absorbed spiritual power into the body. If it reaches the middle stage of Qi Refining, using a low-quality training room, it will take thirty-six cycles to integrate.

In the middle stage of Qi Refining, using a first-grade medium-quality training room, it still only takes 18 cycles.

On the contrary, when low-level cultivators use high-level training rooms, the purity of the spiritual energy cannot increase their cultivation speed.

For example, a cultivator in the early stage of Qi Refining who uses a first-grade superior training room will not be able to remove impurities faster because the spiritual power in the training room is more pure and rich. It will still take 18 cycles.

Song Xian had personally verified this. He had previously used a first-grade superior training room in Qingyun Sect, and the training speed was no different from that of this first-grade inferior training room.

There is no consensus in the cultivation community as to the specific cause of this situation.

.........

After his cultivation level broke through the fourth level of Qi Refining, Song Xian was very happy. However, due to his emotional fluctuations, he was unable to concentrate on his cultivation, so he simply left the training room and came to the puppet refining room. This was a hall built specifically for Shen Fan to study puppets. He had been developing puppets here for the past six months.

Inside the spacious and bright hall, many materials and discarded puppet limbs were scattered in a mess.

After half a year of exploration, Shen Fan's skills have become much more sophisticated than before, but he is still far from being able to successfully refine a puppet.

Song Xian was also very interested in the method of refining puppets. What's more, the Xuanyuan Sutra he practiced was a method to improve spiritual power, which was of higher grade than the Shenxuan Baozhuan.

The art of puppetry requires extremely high spiritual power. Controlling puppets relies on spiritual power, and he has a natural advantage in this regard.

If you can control one or two puppets, it will greatly enhance your own strength.

Therefore, after practicing every day, you should spend some time studying this Tao.

(End of this chapter)