The Embryonic Breathing and Qi Absorption Method was solid gold—you could ride it all the way to the Great Vehicle realm. But here's the kicker: this wasn't some Celestial Dipper Sect technique. Li Hanfeng had scored it from his system.
Joining the Celestial Dipper Sect was the only karma he'd picked up so far—just minor karma, really. [Join an Immortal Sect].
Look, no matter how you slice it, he had to join an immortal sect anyway, so naturally he'd be stuck with this karma.
Since he could cash in on rewards for it, why the hell not?
This method was pretty wild stuff.
Embryonic breathing was your natural state—no bells and whistles!
The Embryonic Breathing and Qi Absorption Method let you refine spiritual energy while chilling in your natural state, making that refined spiritual energy way purer than the usual garbage.
The purer your spiritual energy, the rock-solid your foundation would be, boosting your odds of breaking through to higher realms down the road. But here's the real money shot: long-term practice could slowly juice up your spiritual roots.
At first, he didn't have the guts to mess with the technique after getting it. But after three days of basic training, he figured out the Celestial Dipper Sect was pretty chill about this stuff—as long as your technique wasn't some evil path nonsense, you were golden.
He didn't even need to file a report, because if anyone practiced evil path techniques inside the Celestial Dipper Sect, the formation blanketing the entire sect would sniff them out faster than a bloodhound.
So he could practice without losing sleep over it.
As the breathing method kicked into gear, the Qi Refining Pill he'd just popped got processed lightning-fast, transforming into pure spiritual energy that flowed straight into his dantian.
A ball of pure spiritual energy formed in his dantian—this was his "cultivation." It looked solid as a rock but was actually more like a ghost, only visible when he looked inward.
The refined pure spiritual energy naturally melted into the energy ball as the technique did its thing, showing his cultivation was climbing.
About an hour later, he'd completely burned through one Qi Refining Pill.
"Not even close!"
Checking his cultivation level, Li Hanfeng popped another pill.
It wasn't until the next day, after completely processing his fifth Qi Refining Pill, that he felt like he'd smashed through some kind of wall. The spiritual energy ball in his dantian suddenly ballooned to more than twice its size.
Fourth layer of Qi Refining—nailed it!
The spiritual energy storage in his body shot through the roof, and his body got another serious upgrade.
Word on the street was that the old-school Qi Refining methods were trash for body conditioning—practitioners could actually get their butts kicked by regular martial artists if they caught them off guard. The new method fixed that glaring weakness.
"Perfect—after tomorrow's lecture, I'll finally get into the Technique Pavilion and pick some techniques."
A cultivator with the Way but no techniques was like having a Ferrari with no gas—all that spiritual energy just sitting there collecting dust.
But in the Celestial Dipper Sect, probationary disciples had to spend their first month building foundations. The sect didn't teach techniques and kept the Technique Pavilion locked down tighter than Fort Knox for newbies.
According to the teaching elders, there was once this kid with decent talent who tried to practice techniques before getting his foundation straight, and it backfired spectacularly.
If the sect elders hadn't caught it in time, the guy would've been toast. Even with their help, his cultivation path was completely shot.
After that disaster, the Celestial Dipper Sect rewrote the playbook.
Probationary disciples could only start studying techniques in their second month, and they had to pass a test before picking any techniques.
Bomb the test? Sorry, pal—back to foundation building. Still no techniques for you.
"Test is the day after tomorrow. Time to keep grinding!"
...
Time flew by, and two days later rolled around.
As dawn broke, Li Hanfeng cracked open his door, ready to head to the testing spot.
With over three thousand probationary disciples, if he showed up fashionably late, God knows how long he'd be cooling his heels.
But the second he stepped outside, he spotted another probationary disciple from the same courtyard.
Fang Yu—just like him, blessed with high-grade talent and from a decent-sized cultivation family.
The two weren't exactly BFFs, but living in the same courtyard, they'd shot the breeze plenty of times.
"Li Hanfeng, heading to the test too? Want to team up?"
"Sure thing." Li Hanfeng wasn't about to turn down company.
Before long, they'd made it to the testing grounds.
Maybe because they'd beaten the rush, they only had to wait about as long as it takes to grab a coffee before their number came up.
The testers were sect teaching elders—thirty of them total, running thirty different lines. The place was buzzing.
The teaching elder handling Li Hanfeng and Fang Yu's line happened to be their usual instructor, a guy named Jiang Tongheng.
Jiang Tongheng sat in his chair with a crystal ball on the table in front of him. When someone stepped up, he'd rattle off the same script: "Pull out your identity token, then slap your hand on this crystal ball."
They called it "testing foundations," but really they were just checking your cultivation level.
Fang Yu was up first. He didn't mess around—just placed his identity token and hand on the ball.
Soon enough, the crystal ball lit up like a Christmas tree.
Jiang Tongheng kept his poker face: "Fang Yu, high-grade spiritual roots, second layer of Qi Refining, foundation depth passes muster, cleared to study techniques."
After rattling that off, he tapped Fang Yu's identity token against the crystal ball once, then tossed it back: "Take your token to the Technique Pavilion. You can grab three techniques. Alright, next!"
Li Hanfeng was up, same drill as Fang Yu.
"Li Hanfeng, high-grade spiritual roots, cultivation... wait, fourth layer of Qi Refining?" For the first time, Jiang Tongheng's stone-cold expression cracked with surprise.
Jumping from the third to fourth layer of Qi Refining was no joke—there was a real barrier there that wasn't easy to bust through.
And here was some kid with high-grade spiritual roots who'd already hit the fourth layer. How could he not be blown away?
"Elder, something wrong?" Li Hanfeng knew his cultivation speed was a bit off the charts.
Seeing his concern, Jiang Tongheng shook his head and spoke way more warmly: "Nothing wrong at all. You're crushing it. Foundation depth passes with flying colors, you can pick three techniques. Also, your spiritual energy is crazy pure. I'd recommend checking out a technique called [Spirit Severing Blade]."
Hearing this, Li Hanfeng was stoked and immediately showed his appreciation: "Thanks for the tip, Elder."
"Don't mention it. Now get going!"
Li Hanfeng knew there was a mob of people waiting behind him, so he didn't stick around. He spun around and bailed from the line.
Meanwhile, Jiang Tongheng whipped out his elder token and fired off a message.
[Probationary Courtyard 22, Li Hanfeng, serious talent, worth a closer look, could carry our sect's legacy forward.]
As a teaching elder, how could he miss the signs? He just didn't need to spell it out.
The Celestial Dipper Sect walked the righteous path. Even if some junior lucked into a True Immortal's treasure, they wouldn't stoop to jacking it.
But promising material got the VIP treatment—they'd keep a closer eye on them. Spotting these disciples was part of his job description.
His luck was pretty sweet this time—he'd struck gold with a real talent.
After handling that business, he moved on to the next person in line.
Meanwhile, Li Hanfeng kept walking toward the Technique Pavilion with Fang Yu.
But Fang Yu was staring at Li Hanfeng like he'd grown a second head: "You're seriously at the fourth layer of Qi Refining?"
"Dude, you were standing right there the whole time. You heard what the elder said!" Li Hanfeng said, exasperated.
"But that's the fourth layer of Qi Refining! How the hell did you cultivate that fast!" Fang Yu seemed to be having trouble wrapping his head around it.
Li Hanfeng had no clue about other people's progress, but judging by the elder's reaction and Fang Yu's shock, he could tell something was up. So he said: "Maybe the technique just clicks with me. Besides, the kids with supreme-grade and heaven-grade spiritual roots probably hit it already, right?"
Hearing this, Fang Yu looked even more exasperated than Li Hanfeng: "I can tell you don't know jack about this stuff. Heaven-grade spiritual roots are like unicorns, so I don't know much about them, but there's plenty of buzz about supreme-grade spiritual roots."
"From what I've heard, tons of supreme-grade spiritual root kids are stuck spinning their wheels at the third layer of Qi Refining and haven't cracked the fourth layer!"