Chapter 134: Second Level Of Qi Refining

The book “Jin Gang Classic” was thrown to the floor. Little An then jumped up on Li Qing Shan’s back and pointed his finger at the back of Qing Shan’s head at the Wind Pool Acupoint.

Instantly, he heard a bell-like noise at his ears.

True Qi rushed towards his final goal, past the insurmountable obstacle, and finally slipped in easily, as if that wasn’t an indestructible wall but a soft sponge.

The last spiritual light lit up and spread to its surroundings. It was like a Jiang River that returned to the great seas, where the True Qi endlessly flowed in the Yang Heel Vessel, without any more obstructions.

Li Qing Shan finally opened up his first meridian and trained until he reached the 2^nd Level of Qi Refining.

The Yang Heel Vessel was like a great street, from his head to his feet, born within his body and connecting his entire entity. These acupoints would never close again and each and every lit acupoint represented the birth of a difference within his body.

Li Qing Shan opened both his eyes and discovered how the scenery in his room became ever more clearer, as if everything had a layer of dust wiped off of it. The songs and sounds of the crickets and birds outside became ever more resonant and he even felt that he himself could count how many creatures were making noises. The occasional leaf that fell from a gust of wind could even create a tremor-like noise in his ears when it landed on the roof tiles.

His sense of smell was in fact the one that improved the least. He could smell the blossoming of a wild flower outside as well as the dew that was emitted by grass that evaporated due to the night heat. Even his sense of taste improved without a need for testing.

Original Translation @ https://ohdamndone.blogspot.sg/

This was due to the opening of the Earth Cang, Ju Liao, Cheng Qi and Qing Ming acupoints (all of which are on the face) which led to the strengthening of his 5 senses.

When he got up and off the bed and stepped on the floor, it was as if there was an extra air cushion under his feet that enabled his whole body to feel lighter. He felt like if he used even the slightest bit of strength, then he would be able to fly. This was the change that was brought about by the opening of the 3 acupoints on his leg, which were the Shen Mai, Pu Can and Fu Yang acupoints respectively.

He then casually lifted his hand and lighted up the Nao Yu, Jian Yu and Ju Gu acupoints, causing True Qi to naturally flow to his palm, breaking out of the palm and hitting the wall, leaving a palm imprint in the meantime.

All his moves seemed ever so natural and fluid. He felt as If his whole body was linked as a single entity and his manipulation of True Qi was quicker by multiple times.

It was like the *Emperor Yang’s opening of the Beijing – Hangzhou Grand Canal which linked the North to the South, allowing the movement of goods to be more fluid and improving the entire country’s economic movement. These acupoints were comparatively speaking, the traffic control points in his body.

However, all these points were insignificant compared to the Wind Pool Acupoint because what it controlled was not just the body’s Qi flow.

The Wind Pool Acupoint is where the Negative Wind in the body ends up accumulating in. According to the “Bone Gap Theory” (actually exists!) where there are clouds, wind will gather and will be the source and origin of diseases. When negative wind enters the brain, a hundred diseases can be borne from it and as such it is an essential acupoint on the body.

At the moment he opened up the Wind Pool Acupoint, there was a strand of Qi that rushed through, as if there was a new facial organ that appeared just outside the mouth and nose that could breathe, however, it did not breathe in air but rather the Qi of Heaven and Earth.

Of course, this could not be considered as communicating and linking with the Qi of Heaven and Earth but this would be the first time that one could feel the existence of Spiritual Qi naturally. It was like the wind, flowing endlessly in the surroundings.

When he recited the 4^th level sutras of the “Xian Tian Qi Refining Scripture”, there would be an occasional “wind” that would enter the body from the back of his brain which would flow to the bottom of the feet. This would cause him to tremble uncontrollably and feel nothing but comfort throughout his whole body.

The back of the brains of vicious beasts had Transverse bones which would grant them sentience when refined. The back of the brains of humans had the Wind Pool acupoint instead, which would allow them to communicate with the natural world once it had been opened up.

Li Qing Shan let out a breath softly. This method of Qi Refining techniques by the humans was simply impressive. Also, he felt that Qi refining was beneficial to demon cultivators as well. It was like how his body grew stronger when his demonic form grew bigger.

The two were complimentary and were beneficial to the other.

“Could it be that the things left to me within the jade ring by Brother Ox was to motivate me to continue Qi Refining, so that I can continue on to merge these two different styles of cultivation so as to search for my own path?” Li Qing Shan guessed as such, but with his small accomplishments in both cultivations so far, he was far from achieving such feats.

Original Translation @ https://ohdamndone.blogspot.sg/

There was a saying “The stones on other hills can be used to refine my jades” Now that he had two jade hills, with the collisions between the two, what kind of achievements could he attain? (The saying is basically going on about how borrowing other styles/people/things to basically perfect/refine one’s own things.)

Li Qing Shan had to supress the anticipation and joy in his heart before he asked Little An: “Just now it was you who helped me out?” For him to so easily open up the Wind Pool Acupoint was definitely not a coincidence.

Little An;s blood flames in his eye sockets were dimming. It seemed that that one point had wasted quite a fair bit of his mental effort.

During Li Qing Shan’s cultivation, he was staring closely at him until his sights could see through Li Qing Shan’s skin and muscles just like the X-rays of modern medicinal equipment. However, his stare was able to obtain clearer images of Qing Shan’s body than any of such equipment.

He saw the existence of a meridian as well as the rising of Li Qing Shan’s True Qi rising till the very top yet not having enough energy to open up the acupoint at the very peak behind his brain.

Thus, at this critical juncture, he pointed towards the Wind Pool Acupoint.

The so-called human body was merely the fusion of skeleton and meat. Even the most miraculous meridians and the most mysterious of acupoints still had to have blood and flesh as its foundation. And clearly the “Face of the Undead” scripture was the best at manipulating both.

Little An still had a very weak cultivation, and had not even finished working up to the first level of the “Face of the Undead”, if not with only a finger, he would be able to crush bones and strip meat from bone. Although he did not have such strength currently, but he was still able to help Li Qing Shan out in his crucial moment.

The finger of his required extreme diligence and care because the back of the brain was originally a weak point of humans. If he messed up, it could possibly end up with Qing Shan dying. If not for the strength of Qing Shan’s body, Little An would not dare to try to assist him. The amount of mental effort that he put in was more so than that he usually used when fighting horrifying demons and creatures in battle.

Little An grabbed a pen and wrote his last word before Li Qing Shan understood the reason behind Little An being able to help him. He couldn’t help but gasp: “ This “Face of the Undead” is simply too strong. If I had your help, then wouldn’t my Qi Refining be much easier?”

Little An shook his head and wrote down 5 words with the leftover ink from before “More haste is still insufficient”

Li Qing Shan replied: “Is that so? I just want to quickly finish cultivating the “Xian Tian Qi Refining Scripture” and then switch cultivation techniques.”

Little An then wrote on paper and asked Li Qing Shan some questions on the “Xian Tian Qi Refining Scripture”

Li Qing Shan was surprisingly unable to answer them and realised that he had clearly not finished understanding the scripture. He asked in shock: “Did you cultivate in this scripture before?”

Little An shook his head and then nodded his head before going back to writing.

Original Translation @ https://ohdamndone.blogspot.sg/

Turns out that when Yan Song taught Qing Shan, Little An was quietly listening and he felt that there were some points of familiarity. When he witnessed Li Qing Shan breaking through to the second level of Qi Refining, this sense of familiarity grew stronger and he naturally understood many key points of the scripture and felt that Qing Shan’s method of cultivation was somewhat different. Hence, he could not hold back his urge to ask these questions.

Originally, Qing Shan did not think the scripture to be that complicated, but after listening to the perspective of Little An, he felt enlightened. In the path of Qi Refining, he was like an elementary school student that was diligently calculating the multiplication table when the 9x9 multiplication list fell from the sky.

He touched Little An’s head and laughed bitterly: “Turns out that my comprehension is so bad!”

Actually, it wasn’t that Qing Shan was not comprehensive enough, but rather that he lacked guidance from anyone else during his path on Qi Refining.

Cultivation focussed on 4 key factors “Resources, Comprehension, Skills and Land”. Comprehension was second in place and referred to mostly things like master-disciple relations. Any person required a senior to guide them. Only by standing on the shoulder of giants could one save effort in seeking further knowledge.

Little An relied not really on his comprehension but rather the memories he had deep down inside.

Little An did not know how to comfort him in this point of time and Li Qing Shan merely laughed: “Then in the future, I am going to have to rely on your guidance! However, you not being able to speak is quite inconvenient. Once you condense a body of flesh then it will be easier. Don’t worry, that won’t take too long.”

Qing Shan then continued meditating and followed Little An’s guidance as he restarted his cultivation from the first level to the 4^th level to slowly stabilise his cultivation.

After eating so many Qi Condensation Pills, he realised that the number of Qi Condensation Pills he had left were not more than 30. Instantly, from a rich man he fell back to being a poor one. This was the price of walking both paths. For the following period of time, he would likely not have any more “earnings” and the rest of his pills would require detailed rationing.

When dawn broke out, his door was knocked upon. Li Qing Shan went downstairs to open the door and only saw Diao Fei and Qian Rong Zheng at the door before he asked: “What’s up?”

Original Translation @ https://ohdamndone.blogspot.sg/

Diao Fei and Rong Zheng were about to open their mouths before they forgot what they wanted to say as they stared at Qing Shan in shock. “You broke through to the second level already?” Last night, they were still in awe over Qing Shan’s cultivation speed and yet today it was like they were hit in the head with a large club. Just as Qing Shan felt bad about his comprehension in the face of Little An, Diao Fei and Rong Zheng could only be jealous of his genius.

Qing Shan slowly nodded: “Yep, just needed to put in a little effort. If there’s nothing, I am going back to train.” As he said so, he was about to close the door.

“Wait, didn’t we say it already last night? The trial!”

“Oh, I forgot.” Qing Shan said in realisation.

The two congratulated him half-heartedly for his breakthrough before Qing Shan kept his stuff and brought Little An to go collect his task with the other two.

On the way when he met the Wolf Guard members, they were all shocked and congratulated Qing Shan with a weird face on. After all, for cultivators, there was nothing better than breaking through to the next level. No matter how one thought, they would not lack the basic courtesy.

Original Translation @ https://ohdamndone.blogspot.sg/

This was also a respect towards one’s strength. The second level of Qi Refining was a base in the Eagle Wolf Guard. However, when Li Qing Shan was merely the first level he could easily defeat one from the second level, even sparring evenly against those of the third level. With today’s breakthrough, his strength in Jia Ping’s Wolf Guard could be considered to be in the upper tier.

Coming to the main building of the Wolf Guard, Zhuo Zhi Bo personally waited there. For the newbies to receive their first trial, it would usually be the leader personally tasking them with it. When he saw Qing Shan, he was shocked, and then he smiled: “Another breakthrough? It seems that the youths with potential have an unlimited future.”

Qing Shan replied him casually: “It was but my luck leader Zhuo, may we know our task this time?”

Zhuo Zhi Bo waved his hand and a green shirted servant brought up a document for them to see. Qing Shan opened it up and even with his usual composure, he couldn’t help but be shocked.

Done Done note: Yo guys! Apologies for the delay, had some work to do in China and all. Will post some pics from my journey there that you guys might be able to link to the wuxia that you all have read! Look forward to it!

Now time to delve into the Wind Pool Acupoint:

Wind: Refers to the natural flow of air in the environment

Pool: Refers to a storage of water as well as the water content in humans

The naming of Wind Pool refers to how the Blood Qi in our body can be converted to Yang Wind Qi. Other acupoints can transmit Moist Qi in our bodies and when they enter this acupoint, because it receives heating from the outside, the humid Qi will disperse and spread to all over the head as Yang Wing Qi, hence the name, Wind Pool Acupoint.

Imbalance of heat in this acupoint tends to lead to headaches, insomnia and eye fatigue so do take care of the back of your neck! Attached below is a diagram of it!