Coming out from the Books Pavilion, Ling Xu had already chosen the cultivation technique he would use once he entered the Qi Refining Realm.
He had already saved a copy of the manual into his spatial ring, this was given to him by the old man in the entrance since the original manuals couldn't be taken out from the library.
After passing through the Affairs Hall to get the uniform that the outer disciples wore and a book introducing the basic information from the outer sect, he was searching for his new room between the thousands that were available on the sect.
"This is the one!" he said with relief after having searched for it for two whole hours, since the size of the outer sect was way bigger than he expected.
"How should I open it?" something came Ling Xu's mind since he took out from the spatial ring his identity token.
After feeling it slightly resonate when it got closer to the room, he put it close enough to the door and he heard a sound as he could now open it.
"It's a little bigger than the one I had as a menial worker." Ling Xu observed as he saw that not only was it bigger in size but it also had a bed of higher quality and even a desk which could be used to read books and put a few things above.
"It's time to advance once again and breakthrough the Qi Refining Realm." he thought as the first thing he did was to sit on the floor and take in the lotus position.
He didn't care about anything else as he was extremely eager to increase his strength and feel what it would be like the next realm.
…
After having read the method to advance to the Qi Refining Realm in the cultivation technique he had chosen, Ling Xu was ready to start the breakthrough.
[Name]: Ling Xu
[Realm]: 9th stage of Blood Qi (peak)
[Cultivation]: Basic Blood Circulation (perfection), Existence Shadow Will (31%)
[Techniques]: Three Purities Sword (perfection), Blood Thread Transformation (completed)
He looked one last time at his status panel before his realm changed, saying goodbye to the words "Blood Qi" that had been with him since he had first awakened it.
"Now what I need to do is to find the dantian which is the organ that is in charge of storing the qi in the body." he said as he closed his eyes, closing his status panel once again.
His blood qi flowed naturally through his body, concentrating in his abdomen since he had already gotten a sense of where it was, thanks to his strong connection with his blood qi that had reached a terrifying level.
It took him less than a minute to find his dantian, which was located in the center of the abdomen.
"The next step is to refine the dantian with the blood qi through my veins and once it has been stimulated it will open on its own." he described the process like it was something simple but the truth was that his reserves of blood qi would be spent frantically, making it extremely difficult to open his dantian without any external help.
In this way, preparing a set of high grade blood replenishing pills was a must for any normal person that was about to breakthrough to the Qi Refining Realm.
But Ling Xu was different, not only did he go through three blood exchanges reaching the peak of the ninth stage of Blood Qi but he had also transformed his blood qi.
Thanks to this, he had the confidence that he would be able to breakthrough safely without the need to use any external object.
Still, he decided to use something that had been gathering dust in his spatial ring since he defeated the mutant whirlin ape back in the second mission when he was on Earth.
Taking out the pair of white blooming fruits that were more than a hundred years old, Ling Xu grabbed one right away and swallowed it whole.
Once it was fully refined, he could feel an extremely soft and pure energy move from his belly all the way to his dantian, surrounding it completely as he sensed that it had already started to loosen up.
"Now is the time!" striking while the iron is hot, he started the refinement and opening of his dantian.
His silent blood qi moved madly, surrounding his dantian that was protected by the soft energy from the white blooming fruit.
This energy allowed him to produce a violent current of energy that looked like a typhoon without harming his dantian at all.
Strongly stimulating it, the speed of opening the dantian increased exponentially since Ling Xu was using a different method from the slow steady pace that was recommended in the manual.
Although it was also mentioned that it could be opened this way, it wasn't recommended because it could do great damage to the dantian and it would also need an incredible amount of blood qi that only those who had undergone at least two blood exchanges had.
Fortunately, he had the soft energy from the spiritual fruit that would avoid his dantian being damaged and a vast reserve of blood qi that wouldn't be used for a while.
…
After a few minutes had passed, Ling Xu's reserves of blood qi had fallen to half its full capacity since the typhoon that surrounded the dantian was still refining it.
But the soft energy contained in the white blooming fruit was about to be completely used since he had used it to help the dantian withstand the violent currents from his blood qi.
Just when it was about to disappear, he felt something.
"It has been refined!" he took the second white blooming fruit and swallowed it extremely fast as he felt his dantian starting to open.
Then he let the enlightenment energy enter his body through the path between his eyes and he felt how his reserves of blood qi were recovering to their full capacity very fast.
All of this was happening in a very short time as Ling Xu then felt his blood qi being madly absorbed by his dantian which seemed to expand in size every breath that passed.
Right in time, the pure energy from the second fruit was completely refined as it moved to the dantian and entered right away, accompanied by the remaining golden energy that helped him recover his blood qi.
All this process could seem very exaggerated but what Ling Xu was trying to do was to increase the amount of qi that would be born from the dantian once its growth had ended and he had officially entered the Qi Refining Realm.
Ling Xu then sensed the expansion from his dantian come to a halt and instead he felt another kind of energy being born from the condensation of his blood qi.
"This is the qi that only those who have entered the Qi Refining Realm have." he thought excitedly as he felt it increase rapidly, traveling through his body while strengthening every place it passed through.
…
After a few minutes passed, the breakthrough ended since he felt that his qi wouldn't increase anymore.
Feeling like he was reborn, Ling Xu was surprised by the dramatic increase in strength he had in his body and his newly condensed form of energy called qi.
"I wonder how many acupoints I managed to open after entering the first stage of Qi Refining."
Moving his qi through the meridians, he counted how many acupoints had been opened while entering the first stage since this would determine how strong he could be considered compared to other people in the same realm.
Apart from the dantian, the body is also able to store qi through the acupoints that one has opened. There are 360 acupoints and they each are distributed along the meridians, which allow the circulation of qi through the whole body.
Once one has reached the full capacity of the acupoints they have opened, they will be able to advance to the next stage and open more of them, increasing the capacity of qi in the body.
"I have opened 13 acupoints!" Ling Xu felt great shock after knowing the amount of acupoints that he could use to store his qi.
This was because, he had already learned that normally the amount of acupoints that one could open would be between one and three, being one the most mediocre.
Those who managed to open two were pretty normal and those who opened three were those who had undergone one blood exchange.
Even those who had managed to go through two or even three blood exchanges could only increase the acupoints they opened by another one or two more.
But this was already the limit since there were very few cases of someone undergoing the third blood exchange in the sect, happening only once every few years.
"With this many acupoints I have six times the amount an average disciple has, and even twice as many as the most talented disciples that are sure to enter the inner sect once they enter the Foundation Building Realm."
Having broken through successfully, it was now the time for Ling Xu to learn the cultivation technique he had chosen.
"Formless Qi Breathing…" he read the title of the fifth cultivation technique he found in the Books Pavilion.
This breathing method is different from the first three manuals just like the Sword Energy Breathing that doesn't refine the energy from an element but instead uses a different type of qi.
This fifth manual transforms the qi into one without form in every sense of the word, making it possible to follow a certain direction and suddenly changing to the opposite one without receiving any backlash.
This way, those who practice this breathing method will have an incredible control over their qi, surpassing the precision from those who practice the Light Water Breathing and the Sword Energy Breathing.
Although it may seem like this doesn't have any effect on combat, it is because this characteristic shines when one practices another technique since those who have learned this breathing method will be able to learn them much faster.
But this is only theory since it is said in the introduction of the manual that its learning difficulty is several times harder than any of the other cultivation techniques.
This is because to be able to transform the qi in the body into one without form it's as hard as reaching into the sky. And only a few manage to do so, making those who failed to have lost their time in vain.
Even those who completed the entry level and have entered small success, aren't guaranteed to reach the proficient level since the difficulty only increases the higher you go.
But Ling Xu didn't care since he had decided to learn this cultivation technique, having something that no one who previously tried learning it had, the ability to enter enlightenment.
…
"I feel like I haven't understood anything from it." after he read through the whole book, Ling Xu finally understood why it was so hard to get started, realizing that he had a hard time understanding several parts of it.
He didn't even try to practice it once since he would make several mistakes which would result in his meridians being damaged by the backlash.
"I can't get discouraged just because I didn't understand it after one read, there is still a lot of time before the day ends." he thought, refusing to stop putting effort after entering the outer sect and let the golden energy between his eyes do all the work.