The Qi Refining Incantation was the most basic spiritual incantation.
Juniors from the Nie clan weren’t the only one to practice cultivation with it; almost every child in the Qi Refining stage started out using it.
It was simple, easy to understand, and most commonly used to help children build a solid foundation.
The young cultivators from the Spiritual Treasure sect, the Cloudsoaring sect, the Grayvale sect, and the Mystic Mist sect all cultivated the Qi Refining Incantation before they entered the Lesser Heaven stage.
Normally speaking, such a simple and common incantation wasn’t anything very miraculous.
However, when Nie Tian used it this time, he felt strands of warmth converging into the spiritual sea in his dantian.
After a sound sleep, he had already fully recovered his energy and power. When he examined himself with his psychic awareness, he could clearly feel that his spiritual sea… was expanding, slowly but surely!
When examining the spiritual sea with his psychic awareness, it seemed like a muddled cloud.
Inside the cloud, he could see pure spiritual power swirling about. Whenever he needed it, he could channel it out of the spiritual sea, through his meridians, to any part of his body. Thus, he could cast all kinds of spiritual techniques.
The spiritual sea was a fuel source for a Qi warrior. It was the fundamental reason why Qi warriors were powerful, and also the biggest difference them and regular mortal beings.
At the Qi Refining stage, a Qi warriors’ cultivation routine would be to continuously channel the spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth into his spiritual sea, enabling the muddled, cloud-like spiritual sea to gradually expand.
The spiritual sea could be viewed as a vessel that stored spiritual power.
Naturally, the larger the spiritual sea, the more spiritual power it would be able to contain, and in turn, the more power a Qi warrior would be able to channel.
In general, the only way a Qi warrior would be able to upgrade that vessel would be to completely fill it up to capacity, and then force more spiritual power into it. Only then could it come to contain a greater amount than before.
Normally, when a Qi warrior absorbed the spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth to expand and upgrade their spiritual sea, they wouldn’t feel the actual change, not even in the slightest.
The amount of spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth that could be refined in one single session was extremely limited, and therefore, so was the expansion of the spiritual sea.
Under normal circumstances, one would be able to feel a slight increase in the capacity of his spiritual sea only after a month of exhausting practice.
The primary unit usually used to measure time in terms of cultivation practice was a year. For a Qi Refining cultivator, it would usually take at least one year to make a small breakthrough.
As for those who didn’t work very hard, or had a poor talent, it would usually take them years to achieve such small breakthroughs.
Originally, Nie Tian would only be able to see the changes in his spiritual sea after a month of practice.
But now, just by channeling that surge of warmth into his spiritual sea, all of a sudden, he could sense that his cloud-shaped spiritual sea was extending outwards bit by bit.
His spiritual sea was obviously in the process of upgrade and expansion!
Moreover, to his surprise, he was able to clearly perceive the process.
That was something he had never experienced in his whole life.
“The spirit beast meat contained spiritual power! The spirit beasts must have absorbed the spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth, refined it into pure spiritual energy, and dispersed it into their blood and muscles.”
“The power it contains is after refinement, therefore much purer and richer than the spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth here!”
“The spirit beast meat is practically a godsend! Not only can it help me strength my physique, but it can also help me upgrade and expand my spiritual sea, boosting my cultivation to a great extent!”
After gaining a clear understanding of the process, he immediately started to channel the power he had absorbed from the spirit beasts’ meat from his abdomen into his spiritual sea.
After an unknown period of time, when he could no longer feel new power being generated in his abdomen, he stopped his cultivation.
To his surprise, with that single session, he actually managed to expand his spiritual sea by ten percent!
He was currently in the sixth level of Qi Refining. Based on his normal cultivating speed in the Nie clan, he probably would’ve needed one and a half months to get such a result.
To break through into the seventh level of Qi Refining, he would need to expand his current spiritual sea to twice its original size, which would enable it to contain twice as much spiritual power as it could now.
If he had stayed in the Nie clan, even if he practiced cultivation day and night, he would still need a year and a half to enter the seventh level.
However, after doing nothing more than having a feast of spirit beast meat today, and then practicing cultivation for a single session, he managed to expand his spiritual sea by ten percent.
“Green Illusion dimension. I made the right decision by coming here!”
Before coming to the Green Illusion dimension, he didn’t have a clear purpose, and merely considered this journey as another experience.
At first, he thought the spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth in the Green Illusion dimension was faint, and he would have to fight different spirit beasts on a regular bases. Hence, the amount of spiritual power in his spiritual sea would be constantly at a low level.
Never would he have imagined that he could possibly improve his cultivation base in the Green Illusion dimension.
It wasn’t until this moment, when he discovered that he could utilize the spirit beast meat to greatly improve his cultivation base, did he finally acquire a direction, and realize what a great boon the Green Illusion dimension’s trial was to him.
**
After recuperating and reorganizing, An Ying and her team set off to the depths of the glacier area, hoping to find and kill the Frost Python.
Unfortunately, it seemed that the Frost Python had hidden itself. After ten days of arduous searching, they still failed to track it down.
During that period of time, all they had come across were a few scattered first grade spirit beasts, each and every one of which they besieged and slaughtered.
Their fresh, tender, and delicious meat became food for the trial takers, shared by everyone.
Usually, a Frost Armor Rhino could weigh several hundred kilograms. However, after losing Qin Shun and Zu Fang, they only had thirteen people left.
The thirteen of them could consume about fifty kilograms worth of beast meat at the utmost.
They couldn’t possibly carry fifty kilograms worth of meat while searching for the Frost Python.
Plus, every once in a while, they would run into new spirit beasts.
Because of all that, Nie Tian devoured more than enough beast meat every day with his frightening appetite.
Having realized the spirit beast meat could help him improve his cultivation, Nie Tian’s already frightening appetite completely erupted.
Each day, he would eat spirit beast meat equivalent to the amount eaten by the other twelve put together!
What he had been doing in the recent days was to finish off the spirit beast meat that the others couldn’t.
As for the meat he couldn’t finish, he carried as much as he could, so that he would be able to come back to it when they couldn’t find new spirit beasts to kill.
However, An Ying and the others showed no interest in carrying a large amount of spirit beast meat with them, because they probably could harvest more in the next battle.
Without a doubt, if they were to experience bad luck and couldn’t find more spirit beasts in a day or two, they would still need food.
As a result, Nie Tian naturally became the one who carried the spirit beast meat for everyone.
It was also at this time that Nie Tian’s shocking strength and ability to carry the heavy load became gradually known to everyone.
With several hundred kilograms of spirit beast meat on his back, Nie Tian didn’t even break a sweat following the team, and more surprisingly, he could still run like a hare.
Without knowing the reason behind Nie Tian’s behavior, everyone was quite content with his hardworking attitude, feeling that having someone like him to handle their supplies and carry several days worth of food for everyone… was actually not a bad thing.
When they felt hungry after failing to find a spirit beasts after a few days, even Tong Hao and the others, who had previously harbored resentment towards Nie Tian, changed their attitude towards him.
Every day, immersed in unprecedented joy, Nie Tian said to himself, “This is awesome!
“This journey to the Green Illusion dimension is probably the best experience of my entire life!”
“Today, my spiritual sea has expanded by ten percent again, and that adds up to a ninety percent expansion since I first entered the Green Illusion dimension!
“Two more days! I just need two more days to break through into the seventh level of Qi Refining!”
He could feel himself improving on almost a daily basis!
Furthermore, carrying several hundreds kilograms of spirit beast meat itself was valuable training for his physical body.
He understood that it happened to be the best way to improve his physical strength to bear such a heavy load.
On one hand, he had been building up his physical strength by carrying a huge load. On the other, he had been upgrading his spiritual sea by eating the spirit beast meat. Over these days, he had truly been happy and satisfied.
He even wished to live like this forever.
The Frost Python, the Lurker Lizard, the Green Illusion dimension’ trial, the rewards, none of these mattered to him any more.
Because he had been able to see himself getting stronger by the second!
One day, An Ying and the others were resting around the bonfire, talking with eloquence, while Nie Tian was sitting ten meters away from them, operating the Qi Refining Incantation. All of a sudden, Nie Tian’s body shuddered, and he violently opened his eyes that were filled with ecstasy.
“The seventh level of Qi Refining!”