12: Chapter 12 Three Months

The qi gathering pill was gentler than the blood essence pill.

When Lu Chen took the first qi gathering pill, he did not feel like his Dantian was about to explode; instead, a warm stream rose from his stomach and slowly seeped into his Meridians, like spring snowmelt—unhurried, yet lasting for a long time.

He closed his eyes and guided that warmth through his Meridians.

One cycle.

Two cycles.

Three cycles.

With every cycle, his Dantian grew a fraction larger.

It wasn't the "stretching" sensation from before; it was "growth."

It was as if someone had planted a tree in his Dantian; the tree was growing, its roots digging downward, its branches reaching upward.

The warmth lasted for about two hours.

When he stopped, his Dantian was half a percent larger than before.

"Half a percent."

Lu Chen opened his eyes and looked at the porcelain bottle in his hand.

Three qi gathering pills, half a percent each, totaling one and a half percent.

Adding the two percent from the previous blood essence pill and the one percent from his own Cultivate—his Dantian was already four and a half percent larger than when it first opened.

He was still five and a half percent away from Qi Refining Stage 2.

"Almost halfway there."

He capped the porcelain bottle and tucked it into his robe.

Then he picked up the bamboo slip and turned to the section Wang Qishan had written about Qi Refining Stage 2.

"Qi Refining Stage 2: Dantian capacity reaches double that of when it first opened.

Spiritual Qi can circulate endlessly within the body.

Lifespan increases to one hundred eighty to two hundred years.

Can initially use spiritual power—attaching a layer of spiritual power to fists, soles of feet, or weapons to enhance their might."

"Breakthrough method: Continuously inject Spiritual Qi into the Dantian until the Dantian is filled.

After it is filled, the Spiritual Qi will naturally compress, and the Dantian will naturally expand.

No need to deliberately force a Breakthrough; one only needs to—wait."

Wait.

Lu Chen put down the bamboo slip.

Patience was the one thing he did not lack.

The winter of the seventeenth year of Taiping was nearing its end.

There was less and less snow, and more and more sunlight.

Most of the snow on Qingniu Ridge had melted, revealing the rocks and withered grass underneath.

The creek began to flow, tinkling as it trickled down from the mountain.

Lu Chen's daily life remained unchanged.

Wake up at dawn, head up the mountain to dig for medicinal herbs.

If the herbs he dug up were old enough, he would absorb them; if they weren't, he would keep them to boil into medicinal soup.

After absorbing the herbs, he would sit cross-legged and perform Guiding Qi into the Body.

When he was tired from Qi Channeling, he would stop, drink some water, eat some dry rations, and continue channeling.

When darkness fell, he would light a fire, lean against the wall, place his Spirit Stone by his pillow, and close his eyes to sleep.

The next day, he would repeat it all.

The days passed as if he were living the same day over and over again.

But his Dantian was growing.

Growing a little bit every day.

Not much, invisible to the naked eye, but his body knew.

Every time he performed Guiding Qi into the Body, the sensation of Spiritual Qi flowing through his Meridians was different—smoother, faster, as if the riverbed had been widened by the water.

The bone fragment was changing, too.

Every few days, it would absorb a memory.

Each time it finished, a few more lines of text on the bone fragment became legible.

Lu Chen copied the legible characters onto the bamboo slip.

"Use blood as a guide, use life as a bridge."

"Use the body as a furnace, use the soul as firewood."

"Refine."

"Refine what?"

"Refine the self."

"Refine into what?"

"Refine into..."

It ended there.

He still couldn't understand what followed.

Lu Chen stared at these lines of text for a long time.

"Refine the self."

What did it mean?

To refine himself as if he were a Medicinal Pill?

He didn't know.

But he firmly memorized these lines—using that part of his memory that hadn't been absorbed yet.

The tenth qi gathering pill.

No, that wasn't right; Su Qing had only given him three.

Lu Chen had already used them all up.

The three qi gathering pills had made his Dantian about one and a half percent larger.

Adding the previous four and a half percent, that made a total of six percent.

He was still four percent away from Qi Refining Stage 2.

"There are no more Medicinal Pills."

The blood essence pill Qin Wu gave was gone, and the qi gathering pills Su Qing gave were also gone.

The Spirit Stone was also gone—the second Spirit Stone, which Qin Wu had sent later through some method, had shattered after only one night of use.

Lu Chen felt inside his robe; only the grayish-white jade and a scroll of bamboo slips remained.

And the bone fragment.

The bone fragment could not be used as a resource.

"I need a Spirit Stone."

But how to get one?

He didn't know.

Mo Wen was dead.

Qin Wu didn't know where he had gone.

Su Qing wouldn't come until three months later.

Lu Chen sat in the Ruined Temple, looking at the sky outside.

The sky was very blue, and the sunlight was very nice.

The snow was melting, and water droplets dripped from the eaves, hitting the ground and creating little pits.

He suddenly remembered something.

The Gray-robed Man.

That Gray-robed Man who had flown through the sky in the town the first time.

That Gray-robed Man who had brought over twenty people up the mountain the second time and taken something from the cave.

"Which faction does he belong to?"

He didn't know.

But Lu Chen knew one thing—the Gray-robed Man definitely had Spirit Stones.

All Cultivator had Spirit Stones.

The problem was—how to get a Spirit Stone from a Cultivator?

Rob?

He couldn't beat him.

Deceive?

He didn't know how.

Trade?

What did he have to trade?

The bone fragment? No.

The secret on the bone fragment was the foundation of his Cultivate.

The bamboo slips? Wang Qishan's cultivation insights were worthless to Cultivator above Foundation Establishment.

Lu Chen looked down at his hands.

His palms were still red.

But now the red was deeper, as if someone had painted a layer of cinnabar under his skin.

"What do I have?"

He thought about it.

Nothing.

He had nothing.

Lu Chen leaned against the wall and closed his eyes.

Many thoughts spun in his mind, but none of them led anywhere.

Finally, he opened his eyes and said four words.

"Then I will wait."

Qin Wu said three months.

Su Qing said three months.

Then he would wait for three months.

When they arrived, there would naturally be a way.

The last day of the seventeenth year of Taiping.

The people in Qingniu Town were setting off firecrackers.

Lu Chen stood at the entrance of the Ruined Temple and could hear the sounds from down the mountain.

Crackling and popping, in waves, ringing from the east end of the town to the west.

He was pondering a question—where was he on this day last year?

He couldn't remember.

It wasn't because the bone fragment had absorbed it, but because that day wasn't important.

The brain would automatically discard unimportant things.

But there was one thing he remembered.

On this day last year, he was selling firewood in town.

He sold it for five wen, bought a bowl of noodles, and added an egg.

That was the best meal he had eaten all year.

On this day this year, he was in the Ruined Temple, clutching a bone fragment in his robe, with six percent Spiritual Qi stored in his Dantian, and he was still four percent away from Qi Refining Stage 2.

What about next year?

Where would he be at this time next year?

He didn't know.

But he knew one thing—he didn't want to live in the Ruined Temple anymore.

It wasn't because he minded the hardship; it was because this place wasn't safe.

The Gray-robed Man had been here, the Person in Black had been here, and Su Qing had been here.

This mountain was no longer a secret, and sooner or later someone would find this place.

"I need to move to a new place."

But move where?

He didn't know.

Lu Chen turned back into the temple, sat down, closed his eyes, and performed Qi Channeling.

No matter where he would go tomorrow, he would finish walking today's path first.

Spring of the eighteenth year of Taiping

One month passed.

Lu Chen's Dantian was eighty percent full.

He was getting closer and closer to Qi Refining Stage 2.

He could feel his Dantian "stretching"—like a bag that was holding too much, the walls of the bag stretched so thin that he could see the things moving inside.

Wang Qishan had written about this sensation in the bamboo slips.

"After the Dantian is eighty percent full, there will be a feeling of 'about to explode.'

It won't actually explode; it's just that there is too much Spiritual Qi, and the Dantian cannot hold it.

Do not stop at this time; continue to fill it.

When you fill it until the Dantian itself 'cracks,' that is Qi Refining Stage 2."

"The feeling of cracking is not pain; it is release.

Like a rope that has been taut for a long time suddenly snapping.

After the rope snaps, the Dantian will grow a size larger, Spiritual Qi will surge into the new space, and then you continue filling it.

Fill it until full, then crack; crack, then grow.

Every time it cracks, it is a Breakthrough of one level."

"From Level 1 Qi Refining to Stage 2, it cracks once.

From Stage 2 to Stage 3, it cracks once.

From Stage 3 to Stage 4, it cracks twice.

From Stage 4 to Stage 5, it cracks three times.

The higher you go, the more times it cracks."

Lu Chen touched his stomach.

"It's about to crack."

The bone fragment absorbed again.

This was the fourth time this month.

Lu Chen was already used to it.

Every time the bone fragment absorbed memories, he would feel something being pulled out of his mind.

He didn't try to grasp it or keep it; he just watched those images fade and vanish.

Like watching a painting soaking in water, the colors dissolving little by little until nothing was left.

He didn't know what he was losing.

But he knew that the things he lost were all things he should not have kept.

A new line of text appeared on the bone fragment.

"Refine the self as one refines an artifact.

Remove Impurities, keep the essence.

Impurities are emotion, essence is the Dao."

Lu Chen stared at this line of text for a long time.

"Impurities are emotion.

Essence is the Dao."

Emotion is an Impurity.

The Dao is the essence.

So the process of Cultivate is to refine "emotion" out of the body?

What Wang Qishan lost was memory.

What Mo Wen lost was his cultivation.

What that unknown person lost... he didn't know.

But Lu Chen knew now—what he was losing was also emotion.

It wasn't romantic love—he didn't have that kind of thing.

It was familial affection.

He found that he could no longer remember the expression on the village chief's face when he said, "Land, sink down."

He couldn't remember what the old man who named him looked like.

He couldn't remember what the dilapidated house he lived in as a child looked like.

He had forgotten them all.

They had been absorbed by the bone fragment.

"That is fine."

Lu Chen tucked the bone fragment back into his clothes.

Keeping those things was useless anyway.

The village chief was gone, the dilapidated house had long since collapsed, and those memories were of no use other than to make him feel uncomfortable.

It was better to trade them for eternal life.

Spring's end of the eighteenth year of Taiping

Two months passed.

The Dantian was ninety-five percent full.

He was still half a percent away.

Lu Chen could feel that the walls of his Dantian had stretched to their limit.

Every time he performed Guiding Qi into the Body and Spiritual Qi surged in, his Dantian would emit a subtle vibration, as if saying—enough, it cannot hold any more.

But he did not stop.

He continued to fill it.

Because Wang Qishan had said—fill it until it cracks.

The bone fragment absorbed again.

This time it absorbed violently, lasting for about an hour.

Lu Chen sat there, motionless, feeling something in his mind being ripped out by the roots.

It wasn't disappearing piece by piece; it was being dug out in whole chunks.

After it was dug out, it left a hole.

Around the hole, the struggling memory fragments wobbled on the edge, then fell in, too.

When the bone fragment stopped, Lu Chen opened his eyes.

He tried to remember his mother.

He couldn't remember anything at all.

It wasn't that he had forgotten her face; it was that he had forgotten that this person had ever existed.

He knew he should have a mother.

Everyone has a mother.

But in his mind, there was no concrete content regarding the concept of "mother"—no face, no voice, no warmth.

Only a blank void.

Lu Chen looked down at the bone fragment.

There was more text on it.

"Refine emotion as one refines iron.

Heat until red, hammer, quench in water.

Repeat nine times, and the Impurities are removed."

"First time, remove familial affection."

"Second time, remove friendship."

"Third time, remove..."

What the third time was had not yet appeared.

But Lu Chen already knew.

Familial affection was gone.

The next step was friendship.

Friendship.

Did he have friends?

No.

Mo Wen didn't count as a friend; he was a trading partner.

Qin Wu didn't count as a friend either; he was a collaborator.

Su Qing counted even less; she was a business partner.

He had no friends.

So there was nothing to lose regarding friendship.

"Then continue."

Lu Chen closed his eyes and continued Guiding Qi.

The Dantian was vibrating.

The walls were thinning.

It was about to crack.

The last day of the spring's end of the eighteenth year of Taiping.

At night.

Lu Chen sat cross-legged as usual, performing Guiding Qi into the Body.

Spiritual Qi surged into his Dantian.

The Dantian vibrated.

Just like before.

But this time, the frequency of the vibration was different—it wasn't a slight tremor, but a violent shaking, as if something was struggling inside, wanting to burst out.

Lu Chen gritted his teeth and continued Guiding Qi.

Another batch of Spiritual Qi surged in.

The walls of his Dantian finally couldn't hold on anymore.

It cracked.

It wasn't pain; it was release.

Like a rope that had been taut for a long time suddenly snapping.

After the rope snapped, the Spiritual Qi in the Dantian surged into a new space—a space one circle larger than before.

The Spiritual Qi swirled inside, as if getting familiar with its new home.

Lu Chen opened his eyes.

The capacity of his Dantian had doubled.

Qi Refining Stage 2.

He looked down at his hands.

His palms were no longer red.

They had turned pale gold.

As if a thin layer of gold powder had been painted under his skin.

"This is Qi Refining Stage 2."

Lu Chen clenched his fist.

His strength was double what it had been before.

He stood up, walked to the temple entrance, and threw a punch at the air outside.

His fist sliced through the air, making a "whoosh" sound.

It wasn't the sound of wind; it was the wind of the punch.

Something he didn't have before.

"I can initially use spiritual power."

Lu Chen concentrated his spiritual power on his fist.

His fist grew slightly warm, and a pale golden light shone through from under his skin—it was faint, but visible.

He punched a tree.

"Snap."

The tree broke.

It wasn't a tree as thick as a bowl, but as thick as an arm.

But he couldn't do that before.

Lu Chen looked at his fist.

"One punch to kill a cow."

Mo Wen hadn't lied to him.

He turned back into the temple and sat down.

Then he took out the bone fragment from his robe.

The text on the bone fragment had changed again.

"First time, remove familial affection. Completed."

"Second time, remove friendship. Pending completion."

"Third time, remove emotion..."

The third line hadn't fully appeared yet.

But Lu Chen no longer cared.

He closed his eyes and continued Guiding Qi.

Qi Refining Stage 2 was just the beginning.

The path he had to walk was still very long.