Chapter 2: Mingqi Art at Completion Stage
Fang Yuan held his breath and pressed the orb of light against his forehead.
It melted into his mind in an instant.
The next moment, a flood of profound insights into the Mingqi Art came surging forth, one after another.
Fang Yuan immediately focused his mind and absorbed every precious bit of that experience and understanding.
Half an hour later.
Fang Yuan finally came back to himself.
By now, the contents of the Mingqi Art lay before him as clearly as the lines on his own palm — nothing was hidden from him.
Looking back at his previous understanding of the Mingqi Art, it seemed crude beyond measure, riddled with errors and gaps.
His comprehension of the technique had now reached a state of consummate mastery.
Techniques and arts alike had levels of proficiency, broadly divided into: Novice, Proficient, Minor Mastery, Major Mastery, and Completion Stage.
The previous owner had cultivated bitterly for five years, yet the Mingqi Art had only reached the Proficient level.
It was estimated that another three or four years would be needed before Minor Mastery could be hoped for.
Now, he had leapt past Minor Mastery and Major Mastery entirely, arriving straight at the Completion Stage — on par with the very creator of the technique.
This level of mastery was a state of transcendent perfection; an ordinary Cultivator could never reach it in an entire lifetime.
But now!
At this very moment!
Through the special ability of his golden finger —
He had done it!
What fortune!
What incredible fortune!
He had even obtained the complete, unabridged contents of the Mingqi Art all the way through to the Qi Refining Completion Stage!
"This… what luck…"
Fang Yuan realized he had stumbled upon a hidden gem.
The Mingqi Art was of a very low grade, and most copies were transcribed by ordinary disciples. However, higher-realm disciples could sometimes be punished by being made to copy technique manuals as well.
This particular copy had likely come about in exactly that way.
What extraordinary luck!
Whoosh.
At this point, Fang Yuan had not the slightest doubt about breaking through to the Fourth Layer of Qi Refining.
The entire breakthrough process was laid out with perfect clarity in his mind.
His Spiritual Sense stirred, and a stream of Spiritual Power from within his Dantian surged into his Meridians, beginning to circulate through the Heavenly Cycle.
This Heavenly Cycle Circulation was several times easier than before.
His control over Spiritual Power had improved, and as a result, the consumption of his Spiritual Sense had also dropped by a considerable margin.
His Spiritual Sense moved the Spiritual Power through the Meridians with ease.
The Spiritual Power seemed to flow by instinct, following the most optimal path.
As it circulated, many previous errors and oversights were corrected, and the speed of the Heavenly Cycle Circulation rose once again.
During the Heavenly Cycle Circulation, not only did the damage to the Meridians decrease dramatically, but the Spiritual Power was also continuously nourishing and expanding them.
When one full Heavenly Cycle Circulation was complete, the amount of Spiritual Power that returned to the Dantian had not increased — it had decreased.
This was not a problem with his cultivation. Rather, the Spiritual Power had been refined and purified.
Its quality had risen by a great margin.
The quantity of Spiritual Power was only about sixty percent of what it had been before, but combined with the amount added by the technique's own circulation, this meant his Spiritual Power's purity was now roughly double what it had been.
This was a qualitative leap.
"With Spiritual Power purity doubled, not only will Techniques be more powerful, but more importantly, the success rate for breaking through bottlenecks will also increase!"
Fang Yuan was overjoyed.
"And the amount of Spiritual Power gained with each cultivation session will also be far greater than before!"
"So this is the Mingqi Art at Completion Stage? It's absolutely heaven-defying!"
He glanced at the time — only ten minutes had passed.
The speed of the Heavenly Cycle Circulation was three times what it had been before.
Previously, he could complete at most six Heavenly Cycles per day, each taking half an hour.
But now, with reduced Spiritual Sense consumption, reduced Meridian damage, and increased circulation speed, the number of Heavenly Cycle Circulations he could perform had increased fivefold — to over thirty per day.
"My cultivation efficiency now is equivalent to ten days of my previous pace — in a single day!"
The improvement was staggering.
Fang Yuan thought it over.
In truth, this was essentially equivalent to a cultivator at the Qi Refining Completion Stage abandoning their technique and starting over — having this kind of cultivation speed was perfectly natural.
Fang Yuan was tremendously excited. Although the original Spiritual Power would need to be refined, his realm remained intact. Given some time, he could replenish the Spiritual Power fully.
After that, breaking through the bottleneck to reach the Fourth Layer of Qi Refining would be effortless.
This was the confidence that the Completion Stage Mingqi Art had given him.
Not to mention, he still had his decomposition golden finger to assist him.
"No rush, no rush. Calm the mind!"
Fang Yuan closed his eyes and continued cultivating.
Two hours later.
Fang Yuan stopped cultivating. His Spiritual Power had been fully refined once through, and the reserves within his Dantian had dropped to only sixty percent of their original level.
Fang Yuan pondered for a moment and decided he could accelerate the recovery of his Spiritual Power.
He took out the remaining Qi-Nurturing Pills and subjected them to decomposition.
Shortly after, six Supreme Qi-Nurturing Pills, each only one-tenth the size of a complete pill, appeared before him.
"Each one has only ten percent of the medicinal potency — better than nothing."
From his inherited memories, he knew that a single Supreme Qi-Nurturing Pill could save a cultivator ten days of bitter cultivation, with an effect more than three times that of a Lower-Grade Qi-Nurturing Pill, yet priced at a hundred times more.
This was because Supreme Qi-Nurturing Pills contained no Pill Toxin, the interval between doses was negligible, drug tolerance built up minimally, and they were extremely difficult to refine — rare and sought-after on the market.
"I can't sell these, so I might as well take them directly and see the effect."
He swallowed one of the tiny Supreme Qi-Nurturing Pills and began circulating his technique.
Even at only one-tenth the potency of a complete pill, the Supreme Qi-Nurturing Pill still released a tremendous surge of medicinal energy.
Fang Yuan circulated the Mingqi Art and furiously refined and absorbed the pure medicinal energy.
The Completion Stage Mingqi Art was simply too powerful — it absorbed and refined a full ninety-nine percent of all the medicinal energy.
The Spiritual Power within his Dantian recovered rapidly.
The medicinal effect was equivalent to a full two days of bitter cultivation.
"Does that mean a complete Supreme Qi-Nurturing Pill would be worth twenty days of my cultivation?"
"Something doesn't add up."
Fang Yuan thought it through and understood. When a Pill is consumed, it cannot possibly be fully absorbed.
On the contrary, the absorption efficiency of a Pill might only be twenty or thirty percent, at most fifty or sixty percent — most of the medicinal energy would dissipate into the flesh and the air before it could be refined.
The stated efficacy of the Qi-Nurturing Pill had clearly been written with a cultivator's absorption efficiency already taken into account.
But Fang Yuan was cultivating with the Completion Stage Mingqi Art, which refined medicinal energy at an extraordinary speed.
Furthermore, the Pill he had swallowed was only one-tenth the size of a complete one, making it far easier to digest — which was why his refinement efficiency had risen to over ninety percent, yielding the equivalent of two days of bitter cultivation.
Fang Yuan pressed on in one breath and continued taking the Pills.
Half an hour later, the fourth small-portion Supreme Qi-Nurturing Pill was swallowed.
The Spiritual Power within his Dantian was fully restored to a brimming state.
"My Spiritual Sense is nearly depleted — it's time to stop cultivating."
Fang Yuan ceased his cultivation and felt a pang of hunger in his stomach, so he rose and headed to the dining hall.
He had gone two days without eating. At the Qi Refining Realm, one still could not escape the need for food — he had to eat.
He left his room and made his way to the dining hall.
Quite a few people were there, resting and chatting.
His arrival drew a few glances, which quickly looked away again.
The previous owner had few friends — that was good news.
He went to the service counter and ordered a meal.
Then he found a corner to sit down and eat.
He quietly observed the cultivators around him.
From their attire, he could tell that about half were disciples of the Luoyun Sect dispatched on external assignments.
His Spiritual Sense could vaguely perceive their relative strengths.
The weakest among these fellow disciples were at the mid-stage of the Third Layer of Qi Refining, while the strongest had reached the late stage or even the peak of the Third Layer of Qi Refining.
The Luoyun Sect headquarters required at least a Mid-Grade Spiritual Root for admission — this level of cultivation was perfectly normal.