Chapter 17 - Closed Door Cultivation
Time flew by quickly. The hot summer months came and went, autumn rolled past unknowingly and it was now winter once more.
The beast tide rapidly escalated in terms of danger during these past months, so much so that most of the lower strength groups were forced to pull back from the front lines. Those who still wanted to fight for glory and merit points were now settled into the station posts, each of which was overseen by a Qi Temple or Spirit Core realm Elder.
Yaan himself decided to stay in the core sect to cultivate.
He left it to the Elders to handle all of the chaotic ongoings, since it was now completely beyond his abilities to deal with this beast tide. Rank 2 and Rank 3 beasts were now common appearances, even within the sect’s territory to the North of the mountain. If Yaan were to venture out into the Northern wilderness in the current climate, he would almost certainly lose his life unless he was protected by a powerful Elder.
Every group to explore the area was now led by a Qi Temple realm Elder as a bare minimum requirement. Any group below this level would simply be sent to their deaths, and the demise of their sect members was not what the Heavenly Path Sect wanted to see.
For Yaan to hide away from this sort of danger was completely natural. Nobody expected a child to risk himself like this anyway, especially not a recognised talent of the core sect with a bright future ahead of him.
After learning of Boln’s death, Yaan informed his teacher that he would be entering closed door cultivation until he reached the True Yuan Qi realm. Following his recent life and death experience, combined with Boln’s death once again strengthening his resolve to become stronger, Yaan felt closer to the breakthrough than ever before. He knew that it was only a matter of time and hard work before he reached the next stage, so he shut himself off from the world and fully focussed on his cultivation. Nobody disturbed him in this time, not even Rui.
This type of cultivation consisted of him sitting silently on his bed in the lotus position whilst sinking his consciousness into his dantian.Yaan would sit like this for hours at a time, simply observing his dantian and feeling the flow of Yuan Qi through his body. He only stopped to eat, drink and so on.
Yaan didn’t actively try to pursue anything in particular, simply acting like an observer to the state of his own body.
This could actually be considered the most orthodox type of cultivation he had experienced so far. Most ordinary Qi masters would spend the vast majority of their time shut off from the world, refining Yuan Qi until they reached a boundary, then searching for enlightenment when upon attempting to ascend to the next realm.
Yaan’s heart and mind became peaceful in this time. He stopped thinking about the pressing beast tide, stopped caring about his worries and desires, he even forgot his goal of seeking revenge for a while. Yaan had never felt such peace and serenity in his life, he found himself totally lost and engrossed in this feeling.
Gradually, he forgot about his surroundings.
The one and only thought on his mind was the mental image of his dantian. Yuan Qi flowed in and out in the form of a light grey gas, as if this was the most natural process in the world. He immersed his mind into the gas, watching as it swirled about his dantian calmly.
After an extended period of time in this state, all of a sudden, Yaan felt that he could perhaps condense this gas further, forcing it to become a liquid and hence making room for more Yuan Qi to fill the dantian!
This feeling came to him naturally and he instinctively began urging his Yuan Qi to move accordingly. Seeing the Yuan Qi easily following his commands, he remembered something and his eyes quickly shot open. Yaan pulled out a glowing green pill, the Rank 2 boundary ascension pill. He immediately swallowed the valuable pill, then closed his eyes and returned his attention to his dantian.
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Under Yaan’s control, the gaseous and free flowing Qi began to spiral downwards at a continually accelerating rate, compressing over and over as the natural gaseous currents wound around one another and formed much thinner and smaller streams.
These streams were a hundredth as wide as a water drop. Despite their minuscule size, when one hundred of these streams converged together, they slammed into one another at the bottom of the dantian and rapidly compressed into a single drop of liquid.
Whilst all of this was happening, Yaan’s body was also slowly changing. His muscles and bones grew denser and became more powerful, inconsistencies unwinding and the muscle tissue becoming more optimally designed. His organs shifted minutely time and time again, readjusting into more effective positions, resulting in his organs accelerating their processing speed. His blood was gradually refined, the impurities burned up and squeezed out through the pores in his skin.
The impurities from his gaseous Yuan Qi were also pushed out, causing a great deal of pain to spread all over his skin. The feeling of black sludge forcing its way out from his body burned greatly, driving Yaan to grit his teeth in order to endure the pain.
Finally, after a few minutes, all of the impurities within both his physical body and his Yuan Qi had been expelled from his body! Yaan opened his eyes joyfully, but then scrunched up his nose at the repulsive smell. He immediately stood up and left his home, then cupped his hands by the flowing stream nearby and washed himself off.
After cleaning away all of the putrid impurities, he returned inside and dressed himself in a clean robe.
“Congratulations, you increased the realm of both your Yuan Qi and your physical body.”
“Oh, you’re actually praising me? I think that this is the first time.” Yaan laughed as Rui complimented him for once. She clicked her tongue, but this only made him chuckle some more.
It was as she said though, he had successfully ascended, completing his breakthrough into the True Yuan Qi realm and 2-Star demonic body realm in a single step!
This meant that Yaan possessed the liquid Yuan Qi of a True Yuan Qi realm Qi master, and a body filled with vital energy, providing him with physical strength similar to a Rank 2 beast. He was only at the initial stage in both regards, but this was still an excellent achievement.
“But Yaan, you know, your lifespan has increased to almost 150 years now.” Rui remarked with a rare slight smile on her face unseen to Yaan.
“Hmm? Yeah, I guess that should be right, since I reached this level at a young age.” He nodded, remembering that Rui had mentioned before that one would live for longer if they attained their realm at a young age.
“Well remember when I told you that the additional lifespan gained from a breakthrough will be added to you current vital state? Meaning that the additional years will be spent in your current age’s appearance.”
“What do you mean? Wait…ah! So I’m going to look like a child for the next 30 years?!” He couldn’t help but yell out loud as he finally understood the point Rui was making. Yaan felt stupid that he actually hadn’t even considered this point until just now!
Reaching the True Yuan Qi realm meant adding 30 years to his life span, all of which would be added to his current ‘vital state’, meaning his present physical age! He was currently 10 years old, but ever so slightly taller and more mature looking than a normal ten year old. Still, he did possess a childish stature and physical appearance, at most that of an 11 or 12 year old. Whilst his toned body would basically never be found on a 10 year old in the mortal world, it remained that he had the face of a growing child just before entering their teens.
And now, he would retain this appearance for 30 more years!
“Don’t feel bad about it, in fact, most cultivators would be jealous of this. You don’t understand this matter well because your experiences are too limited, but having their youth retained for longer is something that every aged cultivator wishes for. With youth, your lifespan and therefore potential are improved. You won’t be looked down upon for this. A youthful appearance maintained by a powerful cultivator shows their outstanding talent, hard work and future prospects. Anyway, physical appearance is only something superficial, extraordinary cultivators don’t care about this sort of thing.”
Yaan listened to her words of comfort, but still wasn’t so sure. Did he really want to look like a child for the following 30 years? No, thinking about it, if he continued with his current cultivation speed, then wouldn’t he retain this appearance for even longer?!
No longer wishing to dwell on this dubious future of his for too long, Yaan decided to point out a mistake in Rui’s comments.
“My talent isn’t all that impressive, it’s only moderate. I’ve only progressed so fast because of this crazy Fiend Transformation technique, it has nothing to do with talent.”
“Your diligence and ability to overcome your mental boundaries is an ability in itself, as is your keen perception. Perception is even more important than the so called ‘talent’, so don’t look down on yourself so much. Those talented individuals have a big advantage at the lower cultivation levels, but after reaching the higher levels, this advantage rapidly becomes less and less useful. Whilst their cultivation speed might still benefit from a slight boost, in the end it is perception, heart and survival ability that are more important by far.”
Yaan had never heard this from anyone else, but he didn’t doubt anything Rui said. It was extremely rare for her to provide him with compliments merely to boost his self confidence. If she was saying this, it was merely a fact that she was stating.
Rui came across as an extremely harsh teacher, but really she just said things the way she saw it, basing her assessments on her wide world view and vast experience. She saw no use in sugar coating Yaan’s shortcomings, instead providing him with straight forward advice on how he could improve. When she did compliment him, it was simply to help him better grasp his own abilities.