Ch9 1st Level Qi Refiner

Chopping wood today is easier than it’s ever been before.

The air is fresher, my body moves with less resistance, and the axe cutting through trees feels sharper.

I fill up my metal bin halfway through the day, when I would normally go to the stream for a break.

So, when I come back, I walk inside my hut and sit down while the sun is still high in the sky.

There is no point in overworking; the best thing to do is focus on my cultivation with the time I have.

With a swift movement, I pull out a small spirit fragment and the last remaining upgrade card in my storage space. A flash of white light appears in the hut, and a heavy spirit stone drops into my open hands.

Now, with cleansed meridians and the knowledge and experience of cultivating ambient qi last night, the stone in my grasp is yearning to be absorbed. I instantly close my eyes and begin my breathing techniques to start circulating the energy in this stone.

A rush of white-hot qi flows through my hands, down my wrists, and into my chest to eventually circulate around my body with ease. Large amounts of the energy stay and consolidate in my chest, as it feels like invisible flowing fields of energy are refining it and holding it in place.

The energy flows are innate, like second nature, but I’m certain this is my soul containing large amounts of qi that would normally leave my body after one circulation.

I mentally think back to the basic qi cultivation booklet and its details of energy flows. It stated: After a single cycle, all of the qi that could not be siphoned through my spirit roots and captured in the dantian has to be let go back into the atmosphere.

Yet, this technique gained from the system is very different.

I zone out and only focus on cultivation, allowing my instincts to take over before I become too distracted.

–

About 30 to 40 minutes at a time is my limit.

While holding a spirit stone, I’m able to absorb over 10 times more qi in a single session than I would without.

Over the next few days, I manage to cultivate in the morning, midday, evening, and sometimes when I wake up in the middle of the night. Four times per day is about my limit.

With every passing day, the hot sensation in my chest grows. It makes every movement, action, and detail of my life more vibrant and easy to complete.

There are days where I fill up my metal bin with chopped wood within 3 hours. Many days, I finish before even hearing my neighbor start chopping wood.

The large spirit stone I’ve been cultivating with shrinks and becomes slightly duller every day that I drain its energy. By the 7th day, it completely goes dark and crumbles through my fingers like grey dust.

During my next session, I try to use one of the spirit fragments I’ve been paid with to cultivate, but within about 20 minutes, half a session, the tiny warm gem disintegrates into unusable dust.

Instead of wasting the fragments I’ve saved up, I decide to cultivate with only the ambient qi in the air for the next 3 days.

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It is painfully slow compared to the hot streams of pure qi I’ve grown used to pulling out of a spirit stone. I feel completely unsatisfied at the end of every cultivation session, but still hold a routine.

The familiar ringing sound echoes in my inner ear when I wake up in the morning.

[Ding!]
[Pre-Qi Refiner Check-In Time threshold met.]
[Would you like to Check-In?]
[YES] [NO]

I choose yes with eager anticipation.

[Ding!]
[Rewards have been deposited into your storage!]
[x1 Perfect 1st Tier Upgrade Card]
[Please wait 10 days to Check-In again.]

A bronze card materializes in my storage space.

Without waiting even a full second, I select a spirit fragment and upgrade it to a heavy white spirit stone.

The first morning cultivation session back is a refreshing return. Moving forward, instead of 4 sessions per day, I limit myself to 3. This is to make sure the stone can last me a full 10 days until I know I can upgrade another one.