Chapter 18: The First Step on the Path of Immortal Cultivation — First Level of Qi Refining!
Chapter 18: The First Step on the Path of Immortal Cultivation — First Level of Qi Refining!
For the past two days, Su Ning had been immersed in cultivation.
Manager Wang, on the other hand, was wearing himself ragged waiting for news.
He had shown an unprecedented level of concern for Su Ning, constantly asking whether he had run into any difficulties.
Are you thirsty?
Are you hungry?
Are you tired?
He had even asked for Su Ning's address and sent over a bunch of things as rewards.
Nothing too expensive — all together it came to less than a thousand yuan.
Still, it was easy enough to sense Manager Wang's anxious mood.
As for Su Ning…
Whenever he had a free moment, he'd fire off a casual reply just to keep the man at bay.
He'd say something about running into some enormous problem, or facing some daunting challenge.
Manager Wang, naturally, believed every word.
He had seen Su Ning work before — the man used to throw himself into his job without a care for his own wellbeing.
He assumed Su Ning was still grinding away just like before, burning the midnight oil.
What Manager Wang could never have imagined was that Su Ning hadn't given the work a second thought.
He ate when he was hungry, drank when he was thirsty, and cultivated when it was time to cultivate.
When he wasn't cultivating, he'd water the vegetable garden. After a few days of sprouting, the seeds he had sown were already pushing up tiny green shoots — little specks of life packed tightly across the entire plot.
They looked tender, yet brimming with vitality.
Su Ning's life was about as leisurely as it could get.
Two days had passed…
The fact that Manager Wang could accept that meant his internal deadline had always been three days. All the fussing and checking in was simply his fear that Su Ning might slip up, waste time, and ruin everything.
But Su Ning had already finished the job.
So naturally, he didn't give it another thought.
It wasn't as if he had been stringing Manager Wang along — the work really was done.
* * *
On the other side of the city.
A woman with long, straight black hair, glasses, and the prim look of a schoolteacher had just seen off a group of men in suits outside a restaurant.
Those men carried themselves with an air of supreme arrogance, as though they were emperors descending to enjoy the finer things in life.
The woman, meanwhile, had kept a smile plastered on her face the entire time.
She personally opened the car doors for them.
"Watch your step, Director Lin…"
"Take care, Director Lin…"
She beamed until their cars finally pulled away and disappeared from sight.
Only then did she drop the fake smile — though the genuine delight on her face was plain to see. "Yes! Another deal closed… This commission alone should come out to around twenty-five hundred. I'm definitely clearing ten thousand this month!"
She pumped her fist, thoroughly satisfied.
"I wonder what Su Ning's up to right now?" For some reason, Su Yi suddenly found herself thinking of him.
Then her expression curdled with disdain. "He's probably out there farming. I have no idea what kind of future he thinks he'll find back in that village… My commission from a single deal is more than he'd earn in three months of growing vegetables!"
"Honestly, there's no helping him… He has absolutely no ambition!"
She felt a quiet surge of relief that she had broken things off with him.
More and more, she was convinced that leaving Su Ning had been the single best decision of her life.
She was certain of it — she and Su Ning were no longer living in the same world.
The next time they met… their positions in life would probably be worlds apart.
Of course, Su Ning knew none of this.
And even if he had, he wouldn't have bothered to comment.
He had come to understand something now.
Life… was your own. How you chose to live it was your own choice.
Everyone had different desires, and different paths they walked.
After staring death in the face, he had decided that happiness, peace of mind, and joy were what mattered most.
Living however you wanted to live — that was what mattered most.
Not living like livestock in society, following some prescribed template.
Someone else has a car and a house, so you need one too? Someone else has a wife, so you need one too? Some people are billionaires, or heads of state…
You might spend your entire life working and never earn much. Or you might not even live long enough to reach the things you spent your whole life striving for.
Su Ning was content with his life as it was.
He felt lighter than he ever had before.
As for Su Yi…
He could only wish her well and hope she got everything she was after.
What Su Yi didn't know was that Su Ning, after returning to his hometown, was far from destitute. He had taken on one casual job and walked away with over two hundred thousand yuan.
But what excited Su Ning most wasn't the money.
It was immortal cultivation.
The feeling of growing stronger was its own kind of joy.
* * *
Without him noticing, two days slipped by.
Each day of Su Ning's life was plain and simple… yet full of meaning.
Every morning, he would first check on the little people — whether anyone was sick, or if anything had gone wrong.
Beyond making sure they were all alive and well, he would also sit down with them to discuss cultivation.
The Nine Great Saints truly had a profound understanding of the path of cultivation.
Su Ning felt he couldn't hold a candle to them — not even a fraction of a fraction.
Their cultivation insights couldn't be applied directly to his own practice, but the Great Dao leads to the same destination by different roads — talking with them still sparked all manner of lateral insights in him.
Once he confirmed the little people were all doing well, Su Ning would share breakfast with them.
Then he'd water the vegetable garden and observe how the young seedlings were coming along.
When everything was in order, he would begin cultivating.
By now, one Circulation Cycle took Su Ning a fixed three hours to complete.
It couldn't be pushed any lower.
Had he reached his limit?
Still, three hours was already quite short.
It meant that with a bit of effort, he could complete around four Circulation Cycles per day.
His strength kept growing.
His physical constitution kept improving.
Boom…
On this particular day, he sat with his eyes closed, running his Cultivation Technique.
Suddenly — boom.
It felt as though his body had exploded.
Or rather… something inside him had detonated.
Like a dam bursting.
Shattering some invisible shackle.
His entire body… his blood and qi flowed freely.
His meridians… it was as if they had all widened in an instant.
And his body… entered a state that was mysterious beyond description.
His whole being felt utterly clear and boundless.
He could feel it — his body had become stronger than ever before!
Boom…
Finally, after roughly thirty minutes, the sensation faded.
Su Ning… had the illusion of stepping into another world entirely.
It felt as though… his whole self was "floating."
Light as a feather.
Boom…
He rose to his feet and threw a punch into the air.
A sonic boom rang out through the empty air.
"Did I… break through?" No one needed to explain it to him. He already knew — he had broken through.
"First level of Qi Refining!"
He felt as though he had boundless strength surging through him.
Punching through a bull with a single fist? No problem. He even felt a surge of emotion welling up inside him — the feeling that he could move mountains and shake the heavens.
Naturally, that feeling was just a feeling.
Su Ning didn't actually believe he had reached such a terrifying level.
That surge of emotion was nothing more than the illusion of confidence that came with growing stronger.
"Immortal Senior? You… you broke through? You broke through to the first level of Qi Refining?" The moment Su Ning achieved his Breakthrough, the little people felt an overwhelming pressure unlike anything they had experienced before.
It was a pressure that came from deep within their bloodlines.
Like a high-ranked beast standing before a low-ranked creature with a weak bloodline.
Su Ning… had officially stepped into the ranks of Cultivators.
He had been growing stronger before, yes — but without entering the Qi Refining Realm, he couldn't truly be called an immortal cultivator.
Starting today, Su Ning was a genuine immortal cultivator.
He had taken his first true step down the path of immortal cultivation!
As for how far he would walk that path in the future?
Su Ning didn't know, and he hadn't thought about it…
"Mm, it does seem like I've broken through to the first level of Qi Refining!" Su Ning nodded.
"What an incredibly powerful first level of Qi Refining…" Li Qingxuan stared, jaw agape.
He wasn't alone — the other ascenders were all equally stunned.
Su Ning's first level of Qi Refining was nothing like what they understood the first level of Qi Refining to be.
"Is this what the first level of Qi Refining looks like in the Immortal Realm?"
"Now I understand why Immortal Senior took so long to break through… It turns out the results of his cultivation are completely different from ours. The effects of his cultivation far exceed anything we could have imagined!" Kunlun Immortal Maiden furrowed her brow.
Su Ning looked puzzled. "It's different from what you understand the first level of Qi Refining to be?"
So what exactly have I cultivated into?
"Unprecedented… never seen anything like it!" Li Qingxuan shook his head.
"So what does that mean for me?" Su Ning immediately asked.
There won't be any problems, will there?
"We honestly don't know what it means!"
"But… it will be beyond imagination in terms of strength…"