Staring at the massive wall of text that just exploded in his mind, Li Hanfeng was completely speechless.
Great Karma—the absolute top tier of karmic entanglement.
And this Great Karma was breeding like rabbits!
In just a few seconds, it had spawned over a hundred different karma threads, everything from Great Karma all the way down to Weak Karma.
This was the first time he'd witnessed such a crazy chain reaction.
Looking at what these karma names actually meant:
Overpowered offspring, being hunted down, sect getting obliterated...
'So this is what's waiting for me if I go down this rabbit hole!'
He could already picture the whole protagonist journey playing out!
This Great Karma was the classic chosen one route—what people usually called the "main character" path.
Whether to accept the karma or not, Li Hanfeng only needed a split second to decide.
If it were anything else, he might've actually thought about it, but for this? No way in hell.
He was secretly pumped about his cautious approach—every day he'd save one karma-severing chance, specifically for situations exactly like this.
"Sorry, Mingyue. I'm super close to a breakthrough and need to go into hardcore closed-door cultivation for a few days. I'm afraid I won't have time to tag along down the mountain."
Hearing this, disappointment washed over Wang Mingyue's face, her voice getting all dejected: "Oh... okay, breakthrough stuff is important..."
The mysterious text popped up again.
[Refuse invitation, no karmic entanglement, obtain one Qi Refining Pill]
The protagonist route was definitely tempting—that path represented absolutely insane opportunities.
But it also represented absolutely insane trouble.
If he really had main character luck, running into trouble would naturally turn into plot armor, and even the so-called "dangers" would just be elaborate ways of delivering more power-ups.
However, Li Hanfeng didn't dare bet on being the protagonist.
After all, in this world, his family situation was way too normal—his parents were still alive and kicking.
Of course, the real reason was that after figuring out his system's deal, he'd decided to milk his karma-detection ability for all it was worth and play things smart. He had this massive advantage, and as long as he triggered karmic entanglement, he could see exactly how dangerous events were going to be based on the karma they were about to generate.
Without a doubt, the danger level of Great Karma [Path of Destiny] was off the freaking charts.
Bet everything on his own plot armor to weather all the risks and grab all the opportunities?
Sure, but totally unnecessary.
"I'm gonna head out first, Mingyue. Also, that mountain mission sounds pretty sketchy—think it over real carefully."
His severing of karmic entanglement didn't mean the event would just vanish, but that it would play out in some other way.
Wang Mingyue's ability to trigger karma meant she was probably a key player, possibly the so-called "female lead," and might end up in some serious hot water.
They were from the same village and had always been close, so his gut reaction was to give her a heads up.
Hearing this, Wang Mingyue immediately shook her head and said sweetly, "If you don't have time, Hanfeng, then I won't go either!"
Her wanting to go down the mountain for a mission wasn't really about the mission itself anyway.
Since she got shot down, naturally there was no point in heading down the mountain anymore.
Li Hanfeng was stunned again—both the "male lead" and "female lead" were bailing out!
After saying goodbye to Wang Mingyue, he headed back to the probationary disciples' housing area.
The Celestial Dipper Sect was loaded with cash. Even with nearly three thousand probationary disciples in his batch, they could still hook everyone up with their own private room, then group every four people into shared courtyards. Each courtyard had a mini spirit-gathering formation, providing absolutely killer cultivation conditions.
Word was that some smaller sects couldn't provide this kind of treatment even for their official disciples, let alone probationary disciples who didn't even know if they'd make the final cut.
Walking into the courtyard, he could feel the abundant spiritual energy washing over him, making his whole body feel like it was getting a spa treatment.
Right now, all the doors in the courtyard were locked tight, which was totally normal. With only two months left until the assessment, except for a few slackers, most people were grinding hard—either in closed-door cultivation or out hustling missions to earn resources.
In the month since arriving, Li Hanfeng had barely laid eyes on his three neighbors, only knowing their names in passing and nothing else about them.
But he didn't sweat it. He pulled out his probationary disciple ID token and slipped into his room.
While everyone else was cultivating their butts off, he naturally couldn't afford to waste time either.
Especially after triggering Great Karma today.
"I severed the karma and seemingly dodged a bullet on a lot of stuff, but actually some things are just unavoidable. After all, those events are still going to happen. For example, that Minor Karma [Sect Crisis]—is the Celestial Dipper Sect going to get hit with some kind of disaster down the road?"
Even though he'd only been part of the Celestial Dipper Sect for just over a month, Li Hanfeng had developed some serious respect for the place.
As a righteous sect, it genuinely protected regular people within its territory. Back when he was still hitting the books in the village, he'd constantly see Celestial Dipper Sect disciples coming down the mountain to hunt demons and take out evil cultivators.
After joining the sect, even though he hadn't met tons of official disciples, every single one he'd encountered was chill and super willing to help probationary disciples like him—they really earned that "Senior Brother" title.
Take Senior Brother Zhou Xuan from the Mission Hall, for example—even though he knew his own behavior was totally outrageous, Zhou Xuan stayed patient as a saint.
And Zhou Xuan wasn't some rare exception in the Celestial Dipper Sect.
Yet it seemed like this kind of sect was facing the threat of getting wiped out?
If the Celestial Dipper Sect got hit with disaster, it wouldn't just affect the sect alone.
So he definitely didn't want anything bad to happen to the Celestial Dipper Sect.
After sitting in silence for a while, he shook his head and laughed at himself. "I've barely started cultivating—what right do I have to worry about this kind of stuff? Instead of stressing myself out, I should focus on cultivating and breaking through to the middle stage of Qi Refining."
The cultivation path, before achieving immortality, could be summed up in one passage:
[Qi Refining is the starting line, then build your immortal foundation, form the Golden Core, achieve the Nascent Soul embryo, transform the primordial spirit, then return to the Void realm, seek the spiritual nature, unite spirit and flesh, and reach the Great Vehicle path.]
He was currently at square one of cultivation—the Qi Refining realm.
The Qi Refining realm was split into nine layers: the first three layers were early stage, the middle three were middle stage, and the last three were late stage.
Once you hit the ninth layer of Qi Refining, you could take a shot at building your immortal foundation.
According to what the teaching elders had explained, back in ancient times, the Qi Refining realm didn't have these detailed nine layers—just three stages: early, middle, and late. It was because cultivation masters wanted to make the process more user-friendly, and after getting input from countless experts, they finally switched to the nine-layer Qi Refining method.
The current early, middle, and late stages of the Qi Refining realm kept the old names but were already totally different from the ancient method.
This method had been continuously fine-tuned as the cultivation world evolved.
The current nine-layer Qi Refining method had completely blown the old method out of the water. Not only was it way more convenient and stable to cultivate, but the foundation you built after breakthrough would also be much deeper, making foundation building way less of a nightmare.
According to some estimates, the foundation you got from completing the current Qi Refining method was at least twice as solid as the old method's Qi Refining completion, with the specific amount varying by person—twice was just the baseline.
This difference built up layer by layer through the nine-layer Qi Refining method.
Among them, the breakthrough from third to fourth layer of Qi Refining, and from sixth to seventh layer, were both major game-changers that would add serious foundation—this was similar to the ancient method.
Right now, Li Hanfeng was about to break through from the third to fourth layer of Qi Refining.
Before making the breakthrough, he first took inventory of his resources.
"Including today's karma-severing Qi Refining Pills and what I've been hoarding, that's five total. Plus the three I've gotten from the sect, that makes eight pills—more than enough for the breakthrough."
The Qi Refining Pills he got from severing karma were way higher quality than the sect's standard issue, so Li Hanfeng hadn't touched the sect pills, stashing away a whole month's worth.
He laid out all the Qi Refining Pills in front of him for easy access, then popped one fragrant Qi Refining Pill and started cultivating using his technique.
The moment he activated the technique, with each breath, he felt like he was turning back into a baby in the cosmic womb, each inhale and exhale of spiritual energy like refining pure life force.
This mystical state came from the technique he practiced:
The Embryonic Breathing and Qi Absorption Method!