Chapter 4: The Fourth Level of Qi Refining

After getting the Qi Gathering Pill, Song Qingming returned to his cave without stopping and began to prepare for a breakthrough to the middle stage of Qi training.

After preparing everything, Song Qingming also arranged a low-level formation at the entrance of the cave to avoid being disturbed by others.

After feeling that everything was safe, Song Qingming walked to the middle of his cave, sat cross-legged on a cushion, and used his hands to circulate the Jingxin Heart Technique to calm his nervous breath.

After taking out a "Qingxin Talisman" and sticking it in his hand, after adjusting to his best state, Song Qingming opened his eyes and looked at the Qi Gathering Pill that he had spent nearly three years of savings to exchange for.

He silently said in his heart that he must succeed in breaking through this time, otherwise he would not know when he would break through again.

Although he had failed once, Song Qingming was still full of confidence in his breakthrough this time. The experience of a failed breakthrough would also increase his success rate of this breakthrough. With the Qi Gathering Pill this time, there should be no big problem in breaking through.

Song Qingming touched the Qi Gathering Pill in his hand, put it into his mouth without hesitation and swallowed it in one gulp.

Slowly, a strong spiritual energy came from the body, impacting the meridians and spiritual points in the body.

The Qi Gathering Pill is a first-grade spiritual pill. For Song Qingming, a beginner, the spiritual energy it contains is very huge.

Such a strong spiritual energy burst out from the Dantian and ran around along the three meridians that had been opened in front. This is also a big test for Song Qingming.

During the Qi Refining Period, each spiritual point opened can open a meridian for absorbing spiritual energy, increase the speed of the body absorbing spiritual energy, and also increase the capacity of the Dantian. The number of spiritual points and meridians opened by the cultivator determines the level of cultivation. When all nine spiritual points and meridians in the body are opened, the peak of Qi Refining can be reached-the ninth level of Qi Refining.

There are three levels of cultivators in the Qi Refining Stage. The first to third levels are the early stage of Qi Refining, the fourth to sixth levels are the middle stage of Qi Refining, and the seventh to ninth levels are the late stage of Qi Refining. After reaching the ninth level of Qi Refining, one can break through to the next realm and become a rare foundation-building cultivator.

However, most cultivators in the world of immortal cultivation can only linger in the Qi Refining Stage. Less than one in a hundred can break through the foundation-building stage. There are nearly a thousand cultivators in the entire Qinghe County, but only six are foundation-building cultivators.

The first three spirit caves of cultivators in the Qi Refining Stage are the easiest to open, and the capacity of the Dantian will not be increased too much. From the fourth spirit cave, the difficulty increases exponentially. This is also a common place in cultivation. The higher the difficulty, the more naturally you will gain. Breaking through the bottleneck of the middle stage of Qi Refining will double the capacity of the Dantian. The same is true for the bottleneck of the seventh spirit cave in the late stage of Qi Refining.

Song Qingming knew very well that the reason why he failed to break through last time was because he could not gather enough spiritual energy in the Dantian, which led to a failure in the final breakthrough of the spirit cave barrier.

With the experience from the last time, he carefully used the "Kun Yuan Jue" that he had practiced for many years to guide the circulation of spiritual energy, and then gradually led this huge spiritual energy from Dantian to the meridians of the fourth spiritual point in the body.

This "Kun Yuan Jue" is just an ordinary earth-attributed technique commonly seen in the Qi Refining Period, which can only be practiced to the peak of Qi Refining. The clan has all the five-element techniques for the Qi Refining Period, but the only technique that can be practiced to the Foundation Establishment Period is the "Chi Yan Jue" of the fire attribute practiced by the clan leader and several people.

Song Qingming has four-attribute spiritual roots, and because the earth-attribute spiritual roots are better, he chose to practice this technique that is more suitable for him.

A few days later, the spiritual energy in Song Qingming's Dantian accumulated more and more, and finally formed a powerful torrent, rushing towards the barrier at the meridian.

There seemed to be a rumble in his head.

Song Qingming felt a rumble in his body, and after a sound in the meridians, he suddenly felt a very comfortable feeling all over his body, and the spiritual energy in his Dantian doubled.

Slowly running the technique again, the spiritual energy circulated in the body for a week before slowly calming down. This time, taking the pill, he finally broke through the middle stage of Qi Refining and reached the fourth level of Qi Refining.

After spending half a day to stabilize his cultivation, Song Qingming opened the stone door and walked out of the cave. From today on, Song Qingming has officially become a cultivator of the middle stage of Qi Refining.

After cooking two bowls of spiritual rice in the cave, Song Qingming relieved the hunger brought by the days of seclusion and felt that the speed of his spiritual energy absorption had indeed increased by several percent.

After refining the full spiritual energy in the spiritual rice he had just eaten, Song Qingming began to study various spells that he had longed for in the cave.

The cultivators in the early stage of Qi Refining were not good enough to gather enough spiritual energy outside the body, so they could only cast some low-level spells. If they wanted to cast higher-level spells, they could only use the props of spiritual talismans. This was still very different from the spells that were naturally cast by relying on their own spiritual energy after their cultivation was improved.

When a cultivator reaches the middle stage of Qi Refining, he will have enough spiritual energy to release from his body, and he can cast various spells easily. His combat ability will also increase a lot. Under normal circumstances, the combat ability of a cultivator at the fourth level of Qi Refining is definitely stronger than that of two cultivators at the third level of Qi Refining.

"Entanglement", "Sound Transmission", "Breath Containment", "Earth Spike", "Fire Bomb", "Concentration", "Wind Control", "Object Control".

The power of these low-level spells depends entirely on the depth of the caster's mana.

If a person with great magical powers were to perform this, it would be possible to turn thousands of miles of fertile fields into deserts and condense the Yangtze River into glaciers. Of course, this was still a fantasy for Song Qingming, who had just entered the middle stage of Qi Refining. Even if he had reached the middle stage of Qi Refining, the spiritual energy in his body was very limited. He could only barely perform these low-level spells. If he wanted to practice more powerful high-level spells, he had to wait until his cultivation level was higher and the spiritual energy in his body was sufficient. Song Qingming, who was obsessed with all kinds of new spells, did not leave the cave until half a month later. A beam of green light flew out from Song Qingming's hand and instantly shot onto a boulder more than ten feet away from the cave. After a "bang", a cloud of dust and gravel was raised. After a moment, the dust dissipated and a corner of the boulder had been cut off by the green light. Song Qingming changed the spell in his hand, and the green light quickly returned to his front and turned into a green-black iron sword. "I can almost use this sword-controlling technique at will."

In half a month, Song Qingming not only successfully cultivated the "Kun Yuan Jue" to the fourth level, but also learned seven or eight low-level spells. Now he can be regarded as a genuine mid-level Qi Refining cultivator.

After Song Qingming put away the flying sword in front of him, he went to the family's gold storage pavilion to update his cultivation level and received a storage bag that he had long dreamed of.

Storage bags are a must-have for cultivators in the world of immortal cultivation, but they can only be used after at least learning to release spiritual power in the middle stage of Qi Refining. After the cultivators have finished their sacrifices, they only need to inject some spiritual power into the storage bag to lock the items, and then they can automatically put them in and take them out.

Song Qingming received only a three-foot-long primary storage bag. Even the lowest-level storage bag was not cheap in the market. One bag cost at least ten spirit stones. However, in order to encourage the younger generations in the clan to practice hard, the Song family would give each member of the clan a primary storage bag for free after breaking through the middle stage of Qi Refining, which was also a reward for them.

After releasing a drop of his own blood into the storage bag, Song Qingming successfully completed the ritual after casting a few spells. Then he counted all his belongings and put them all into the storage bag.

A low-level black iron sword, a set of low-level five-element formation flags, a few low-level talismans, thirty kilograms of spirit rice, and a dozen spirit stones. This is all Song Qingming has now.

Compared with other mid-stage Qi Refining cultivators, he doesn't even have a mid-grade magic weapon on him now. He is really poor. Once he encounters a cultivator of the same level fighting, he will definitely suffer a great loss.

A mid-grade flying sword in the market costs about thirty spirit stones. I want to exchange for one, but I don’t have enough spirit stones on me.

Now that I have successfully broken through the middle stage of Qi Refining, the next step is to find a way to earn spirit stones, pay back the spirit stones borrowed by Uncle Thirteen and others, and then slowly equip myself.