One hour later!
Boom...
With a dull sound from within He Pingsheng's body, he finally Breakthrough to Qi Refining Stage First Level.
This...
He Pingsheng, covered in sweat, was astonished and delighted at this moment: This is too Heaven-Defying, right?
Before, he had cultivated for a month without any progress, but now, after only one hour of cultivation, he directly Breakthrough?
The Cultivation Technique condensed by the gathering treasure basin was naturally extremely Heaven-Defying, but it was far from as Heaven-Defying as He Pingsheng imagined; the reason for his rapid Breakthrough was his continuous efforts to guide Qi into his body over the past month.
If not for this, even with the Li Fire True Method, it would take a full day to guide Qi into the body.
One hour would be utterly impossible.
This is...
He Pingsheng suddenly became shocked.
Because he had Breakthrough to the Qi Refining Stage First Level, He Pingsheng suddenly felt as if he could "see" the situation inside his body.
He saw his flesh and blood, his Meridians, and his Dantian.
And within the Dantian, a small, finger-thick, fiery-red Qi vortex of fire attribute was slowly rotating.
"Is this what Inner Vision is?" He Pingsheng was utterly astonished.
Legend has it that Cultivators would develop Divine Thought after reaching the Qi Refinement Stage.
This Divine Thought was extremely weak, but it was enough to perform Inner Vision and see the internal condition of one's body.
This is great.
Previously, guiding Qi into the body relied entirely on feeling, but now he could observe his own cultivation.
Wouldn't that be even faster?
Amidst his joy, He Pingsheng did not forget the arduous path ahead.
The Dao of cultivation is long and arduous; where is this even close to the end?
Therefore... he still needed to continue cultivating.
He opened the second volume of the Li Fire True Method and meticulously studied it.
This second volume described the method for cultivating from Qi Refining Stage First Level to Qi Refining Stage Second Level.
By evening, He Pingsheng had finally completely mastered the methods in the second volume.
After dinner, he sat cross-legged and began practicing the second volume.
Cultivation at the Qi Refining Stage Second Level is different from the first level.
At the first level, you just need to guide Qi into your body and gather it in your Dantian, and that's it.
However, to cultivate towards the second level, it's a matter of accumulating quantity; one must continuously absorb Spiritual Qi from Heaven And Earth and then fill one's body.
As soon as he began cultivating at the second level, He Pingsheng's face contorted in distress.
His Spiritual Root was too poor.
The problem now was that his speed of absorbing external Spiritual Qi was not slow.
A large amount of fire attribute Spiritual Qi entered his flesh and blood through his skin!
Then, it passed through the flesh and blood into the Meridians and Spiritual Root.
But when it reached the Spiritual Root, the problem arose.
Because the fire attribute Spiritual Root was too thin, it simply couldn't accommodate too much Spiritual Qi passing through at once.
So, no matter how fast he absorbed Spiritual Qi, it was useless.
It simply couldn't pass through!
And then there are the Meridians!
Spiritual Qi begins to circulate and refine when it enters the Meridians from the Spiritual Root.
But the problem is, his Meridians are circulating, but the Spiritual Qi within the Meridians is always at a depleted level.
It's still the same problem: the Spiritual Root is too thin.
This is like drawing water from a large pool into a small pool.
The Spiritual Qi between Heaven And Earth is like a large pool, and the Meridians are like a small pool.
But now, there's no shortage of water in the large pool outside, yet the water in the small pool is insufficient.
The root cause is still that the pipe connecting the two pools is too thin, and the flow rate is too slow.
He Pingsheng's cultivation is like this now.
No wonder a single Spiritual Root is fast; now, through Inner Vision, he finally had a more intuitive understanding.
Is a powerful Cultivation Technique enough?
No!
No matter how powerful the Cultivation Technique, it only refines Spiritual Qi quickly!
But if the Spiritual Qi enters too slowly, or even if no Spiritual Qi enters at all, what good is a powerful Cultivation Technique?
That being said, is it truly impossible for a Five Elements Spiritual Root to cultivate?
Not entirely!
If there was a type of Spiritual Qi that entered the Meridians without passing through the Spiritual Root, then the refining speed would still be very fast.
What kind of Spiritual Qi can enter the Meridians without passing through the Spiritual Root?
Medicinal Pill!
Various external Heaven And Earth Treasure.
When these things are consumed by Cultivators, unlike the Spiritual Qi between Heaven And Earth that passes through the body's pores, flesh, and Spiritual Root before entering the Meridians, they directly enter the Meridians after digestion.
This way, it can bypass the disadvantage of a poor Spiritual Root.
That being said, in this manner, couldn't Cultivators without a Spiritual Root also cultivate by relying on Medicinal Pill?
The answer is: no!
Because the Meridians and Dantian, as referred to in cultivation, are not the same as the blood vessels in the human body; they are derivatives of the Spiritual Root.
Without a Spiritual Root, there are no Meridians.
Therefore, Cultivators who are born without any Spiritual Root cannot cultivate, even if they have Medicinal Pill.
He Pingsheng understood these basic cultivation common sense.
So, what to do next?
He Pingsheng walked out of the courtyard and looked around.
Under the cover of night, he thoroughly sealed all the cracks in his door and windows, then smashed a bottle of lamp oil, before digging out the two jade bottles from under his bed and taking out a supreme grade Qi Gathering Pill!
A rich medicinal fragrance instantly filled the small room.
He Pingsheng quickly crushed the Medicinal Pill, taking only one-tenth of it, and repacked the remaining nine-tenths into the porcelain bottle.
He Pingsheng then placed this one-tenth of the Medicinal Pill into a large porcelain bowl and filled it with water.
In an instant, the Medicinal Pill powder dissolved into the water.
The surrounding medicinal fragrance also ceased abruptly.
He Pingsheng reburied the jade bottle, then took a sip of water and began cultivating.
Boom...
The water, filled with pure energy, entered his abdomen, and the vast, majestic energy surged into his Meridians from all directions.
At this moment, He Pingsheng felt as if his Meridians were about to explode.
Actually, they wouldn't.
Because relatively speaking, the Spiritual Qi within the Qi Gathering Pill is the purest and most gentle.
Even if one were to swallow an entire pill at once, it would not cause an explosion.
It's just that any Medicinal Pill that cannot be refined in time would dissipate into the Void Realm, wasting valuable resources.
He Pingsheng quickly circulated the fire attribute Li Fire True Method and began refining frantically.
The Spiritual Qi circulated once within the Meridians, was refined, and then gathered into the Qi vortex in the Dantian.
Afterward, the excess energy would fill the Meridians again, and then it would be refined again and gathered into the Dantian.
This cycle repeated, over and over again.
This bowl of water sustained He Pingsheng's cultivation for three full days.
During these three days of cultivation, although he did not Breakthrough to Qi Refining Stage Second Level, when he performed Inner Vision on his Dantian, the wisp of fire attribute red Qi vortex within it had more than doubled in size.
Two months later!
After He Pingsheng had consumed approximately two supreme grade Qi Gathering Pill, his cultivation finally Breakthrough.
From Qi Refining Stage First Level, he reached Qi Refining Stage Second Level.
After about another half a year, He Pingsheng consumed seven more supreme grade Qi Gathering Pill.
His cultivation finally Breakthrough to Qi Refining Stage Third Level.
It took eight months to go from Qi Refining Stage First Level to Qi Refining Stage Third Level.
A total of nine supreme grade Qi Gathering Pill were consumed!
"Finally, I've reached Qi Refining Stage Third Level!" He Pingsheng took a deep breath: "My current cultivation has already surpassed that of Senior Brother Hao Yun!"
He pushed open the door to his room!
The world outside had turned a silvery white.
"It's snowing... and Chinese New Year is almost here!"
"It's time to go offer incense to my parents and Senior Brother Hao!"