Chapter 23: Qi Refinement Level Six

In the Water Mansion, Chen Mobai sat upright on a meditation mat.

Glimmers representing the Five Elements appeared on his face, flashing by one after another, before finally settling into a deep earthy yellow. This signified that his Five Elements Art had completed one grand cycle. The color then shifted to platinum, followed by metal generating water… and so on, as the Five Elements ceaselessly cycled through their mutual generation. After nine such grand cycles, a bead of sweat appeared on Chen Mobai’s forehead.

After a month of cultivation, nourished by the second-tier spiritual energy within the Water Mansion, his Five Elements Art finally reached the pinnacle of the fifth level. The time was ripe; it was time to make a concerted push to break through.

This was advice from Grandmaster Qingping, and Chen Mobai now held every word from this Nascent Soul cultivator as gospel. Without an ounce of hesitation, feeling he was on the verge of success, he swallowed the Purple Fire Pill he had held in his mouth. Although this barrier-breaking pill had only a 20-30% success rate for breakthroughs to the sixth level of Qi Cultivation, it was the best Chen Mobai could afford.

The Immortal Sect boasted thousands, if not tens of thousands, of elixirs and spiritual waters, but those capable of helping cultivators overcome realm barriers were always the most coveted. Ordinary pharmacies didn't even stock such pills. If by chance they did, they would, at best, only offer a meager 0.5% to 1% increase in success rate. For ordinary cultivators seeking quality items, their only hope was to rely on the high-grade pills released periodically by major pharmaceutical manufacturers or the Immortal Sect's official flagship stores. The Purple Fire Pill was one such example.

As the pill entered his stomach, its outer coating was instantly dissolved by spiritual energy. A gentle surge of Yang energy then spread, quickly suffusing his entire body. Chen Mobai’s Five Elements Art, already operating at its peak, felt as though it had received a sudden push, abruptly advancing to the sixth level.

However, this did not yet signify a successful breakthrough. While breaking through a realm was relatively easy, the crucial part was for the realm to stabilize afterward and not recede.

A faint wisp of purple energy subtly emerged between his eyebrows. The purple energy gently ascended, resembling a faint wisp of smoke, but appeared ready to dissipate at any second. This indicated that the pill's potency was waning, and the Five Elements Art's grand cycle was only partially completed. Failure to finish the full cycle would mean the breakthrough attempt had failed.

But Chen Mobai remained calm. He steadied his mind and placed his hand on a spirit stone beside him. Although this was his first time refining a spirit stone, he had extensively researched the process using his auxiliary cultivation software, and the essential points and taboos were already clear in his mind.

With the spirit stone's aid, Chen Mobai’s slipping cultivation realm restabilized, and he even completed a grand cycle with surprising ease.

Qi Cultivation Level Six – success!

Opening his eyes, Chen Mobai, whose expression was usually serene, couldn't help but laugh heartily. His diligent efforts over the past month had not been in vain.

Of course, while his breakthrough to Qi Cultivation Level Six was thanks to multiple factors, he knew deep down that the biggest contributor to achieving it within a month was Grandmaster Qingping’s lecture videos. As a Nascent Soul realm grandmaster, his lectures on the Qi Cultivation chapter of the Five Elements Art were incredibly thorough, offering profound insights from a high-level perspective. For the past month, Chen Mobai had spent his days watching these videos at school and his evenings practicing in the Water Mansion. With the added benefit of this second-tier treasure land’s spiritual energy, along with the Purple Fire Pill and spirit stones as aids, he felt that if he still couldn't break through, he would truly be foolish.

"Should I consider switching my cultivation method?"

After a brief moment of excitement, Chen Mobai quickly composed himself and returned to reality.

The Immortal Sect had a regulation: all cultivators were required to practice the Five Elements Art when beginning Qi Cultivation. Upon reaching the seventh level of Qi Cultivation, they could then choose to either continue with the Five Elements Art or switch to a different cultivation method. The Five Elements Art had clear strengths and weaknesses. For cultivators with average spiritual root aptitudes, it allowed for decent cultivation speed but only mediocre combat ability. However, the art’s adaptive spiritual energy could be seamlessly converted to suit any other cultivation method.

Chen Mobai's mother, Tang Pancui, also cultivated the Five Elements Art and had been stuck at Qi Cultivation Level Six for many years, though she maintained a very positive outlook. Chen Mobai’s father, Chen Xinglan, however, switched to a "Molten Fire Art," which he had paid to learn at Chixia Academy. He was currently at Qi Cultivation Level Eight and worked in a workshop at an artifact factory. The company provided free dormitories with first-tier high-grade spiritual energy for its employees, so to save money, he mostly lived at the company.

The Immortal Sect’s National Library featured an Artificial Primordial Spirit that, upon receiving a user’s spiritual root attributes, automatically matched them with the most suitable cultivation methods and Taoist scriptures. This feature cost only 1 point to use. Chen Mobai had tried it before out of boredom, and the Artificial Primordial Spirit's recommendation had been the Five Elements Art, which had made his face turn pale on the spot. This implied that despite having true spiritual roots, they were essentially no different from false spiritual roots.

But now things were different.

With this thought, Chen Mobai opened his phone and launched the Immortal Sect’s National Library app. However, he immediately realized his phone had no signal.

"I almost forgot," he murmured. "Here in the Water Mansion, only the 'Auxiliary Cultivation' app, which is proxied by Guibao, gets a signal…"

Chen Mobai checked the time. Though it was still early, he decided to return home sooner. For a period after breaking through with a Purple Fire Pill, one was typically unable to cultivate and could only nourish their meridians with Qi Nurturing Art. However, Chen Mobai had used the pure spiritual energy from the spirit stone for the latter half of his cycle, which seemed to have completely neutralized the pill's Yang fire effects. He didn't feel the same meridian distention he had experienced when breaking through to Qi Cultivation Level Five. It was as if no further nurturing was needed, and his Qi Cultivation Level Six realm was already completely stable.

Nevertheless, to be safe, Chen Mobai decided against continuing his cultivation that day. There was no need to rush; even cultivation required a balance of work and rest.

Just as he put away the drained spirit stone, a sudden pop-up window appeared on his phone screen.

"Enable Proxy?"

After a brief moment of surprise, Chen Mobai, recalling the immense help Grandmaster Qingping's lecture videos had provided, was about to tap "Yes." But just as his finger was about to press down, a sudden flash of insight struck him. He remembered the Tier 5 aura he had gained after being proxied through the "Auxiliary Cultivation" app, and his face instantly paled. His hand trembled, and in fright, he immediately tapped "No." This was the National Library, the very foundation of the Immortal Sect, not some shoddy software from a small workshop. If he were to become a Tier 5 user of the National Library, the Immortal Sect’s Three Great Halls would scour the entirety of Diyuan Star to find him.

Yet, giving up the proxy felt like a significant loss to Chen Mobai. He quickly opened the Guibao app and, seeing that the proxy button was raised and lit, indicating it was usable, he couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief.

"How was this function triggered?" Chen Mobai considered his recent breakthrough to Qi Cultivation Level Six. Could it be that each breakthrough activated it once? But last time, he had waited for several days. Was it because this breakthrough was perfect and his realm was stable?