Chapter 107 – The Sumeru Ring (1/2)

Liu Hong said, “Qingshan is cultivating. Don’t disturb him!”

Yan Song said, “Little Long, you have to work hard on martial arts as well. Although you don’t have the talent to directly become a Qi Practitioner, you just need to break through to the innate realm, and your inner force can be converted into true qi. You’ll break through to the second layer with great ease. You won’t be worse than anyone else.”

Li Qingshan had finished hall chief Wu, so Liu Hong asked Yan Song to take Li Long to Clear River city. He would head to the main branch of the Iron Fist school to learn martial arts. If it were not for that, Liu Hong would never have gone to such great lengths to suck up to Yan Song.

Li Long said with respect and caution, “Yes, protector!”

The three of them gazed at the door of the quiet room. They were all thinking different things.

With the crow of a rooster, the day lit up again. Only after an entire night did Li Qingshan open his eyes. He silently sensed the true qi flowing through his body as he felt relief. He had finally achieved the first layer of the Innate Method of Practising Qi.

This did not mean he could complete the cultivation method with great ease. Any cultivation method would grow in difficulty as one progressed. The amount of time and energy it would take would increase exponentially.

It was a pity that he had consumed all the unknown spiritual pills Xuanyue gave him back then. Otherwise, he was confident that even a single pill would have been enough for him to complete the first three layers of the Innate Method of Practising Qi. It might even be enough to open the Yang Heel meridian, allowing him to break through to the second layer.

The path of cultivation remained closely attached to the four words of wealth, companionship, method, and environment. Wealth ranked first, but the wealth here was not referring to gold and silver, but spiritual medicines and herbs. Regardless of the ability or cultivation method, they were all basically a process of gathering spiritual qi. If he wanted to practise martial arts, then he needed to be well-fed. If he wanted to cultivate, then he needed to ingest qi. The products of external alchemy would provide essential assistance.

Although a person’s talent and comprehension were very important, it was impossible for one to achieve instantaneous enlightenment and immediately make drastic progress unless they had spent a lot of time building up their foundations beforehand.

However, even the puny true qi was of great importance to him. He took out the Cursive Sword Calligraphy and channeled true qi into it. As expected, the spiritual artifact accepted the true qi. Although it failed to even launch a stroke in the end, it was still great motivation for him.

This was the formidable aspect of humans. Li Qingshan had to take advantage of this as much as possible. And, if he wanted to open the Soaring Dragon Elder’s sumeru ring, he needed this power as well. He meditated again and recovered his depleted true qi.

He fished out the ring and wore it on his finger, channeling true qi into it. Although he knew it was basically impossible for him to open it, it was still worth a try.

True qi flowed into the ring like water, circling through it before flowing back into Li Qingshan’s body. Obviously, the ring showed no signs of opening. However, to his astonishment, most of the true qi he had produced after so much difficulty vanished in the blink of an eye. It had not been depleted like when he channelled it into the Cursive Sword Calligraphy, which he could still recover. Instead, it had cost him progress.

He had been forced out of the first layer of the Innate Method of Practising Qi again. However, the remaining true qi became extremely pure and clear; it was like a great, muddy river turning into a clear stream. Although the quantity had decreased, the quality had increased significantly. It circulated at a much swifter rate as well.

The more impure one’s true qi was, the more difficult it was to break through. True qi of greater impurity made it very easy to get caught on bottlenecks. Many Qi Practitioners would have to be patient with bottle necks, gradually refining their true qi like they were hammering metal. However, the sumeru ring directly helped him change his crude iron into fine steel, saving some time and effort. This was a treasure that countless Qi Practitioners or even cultivators of higher realms could only dream of.

Li Qingshan had never thought the sumeru ring would have such a use aside from storing items.

But was this good news? Li Qingshan instead smiled bitterly. Had it been easy for him to refine that little bit of true qi? His daemon core would swallow most of the true qi, which the ring would subsequently refine. It was an utter nuisance. He felt like he had laboured for several decades, only to return to the times before the War of Liberation.1

Li Qingshan sighed heavily. He knew that this was the correct choice. If he spent a little more time now, he would be able to save a lot of time later. Most people did not spend most of their time on cultivation; rather, they became stuck at bottlenecks, unable to advance any further.

For example, protector Yan had reached the second layer a long, long time ago, but he could not break through to the third layer no matter what he tried. He was stuck there. Over all these years, he naturally wanted to refine his true qi, but he was helpless. His true qi that had been converted from inner force was just too impure.

Li Qingshan closed his eyes and began cultivating once again. However, he did not remove the ring this time.

Yan Song had already picked the disciples and was ready to leave, but even after waiting till the dead of the night, he did not see Li Qingshan emerge. Even when they knocked a few times, no one answered.

Liu Hong said, “Perhaps something has happened?” However, he was wondering inside whether protector Yan had purposefully given Li Qingshan a method of practising qi with issues that would make him suffer from qi deviation.

Yan Song frowned. He did not know what was happening either. If it were not for Li Qingshan’s extremely long and steady breathing within the room, he basically would have suspected that Li Qingshan had died from qi deviation.

Practising qi was similar to doing anything else. It was about a combination of work and rest, knowing when to cultivate and when to rest. It was not about just wasting away time, or there would be no benefits at all, only detriments.

He did not warn Li Qingshan about this, as he should have been able to understand such a matter as he cultivated. As time went on, the effects of practising qi would grow weaker and weaker, while his mind should have become more and more exhausted. Moreover, true qi was extracted from the vitality of the human body, which needed replenishing through food and drink. Otherwise, he would be creating something from nothing.

Li Qingshan encountered a similar issue, but he just switched to the Spirit Turtle’s Method of Sea Suppression. Spirit turtles could sink into the depths of the seas and sleep for millennia while absorbing and releasing spiritual qi of the world. To Li Qingshan, meditation was not something that exhausted him. Instead, it was more like sleeping and resting.