Chapter 23 – The Heavenly Dao Qi Refining Path

At the edge of the crowd, an unremarkable figure quietly retreated.

Lu Ya lowered his head, concealing the greed and fervor he could barely suppress in his eyes.

The Heavenly Dao Divine Physique… unseen for eons… it truly lives up to its legend!

Qi Refining defeating Golden Core, crossing two entire major realms, one against five!

If he could seize this body, even just a single drop of essence blood…

The Blood Fiend Demonic Seal on his chest pulsed faintly with heat, as if urging him on.

Lu Ya drew a deep breath and forcibly suppressed his agitation.

Not yet.

Chen Ping was away from the sect right now. This was the perfect time to act.

He needed a more meticulous plan, and more importantly, he needed to use someone else’s blade.

Lu Ya raised his eyes to the projection, gazing at the girl who still gripped her sword even as she fell unconscious, the corner of his mouth curling into a cold smirk.

“Lin Xiaoyu…”

“You will be mine.”

*

Cultivation Tower, Seventh Floor.

Lin Xiaoyu collapsed into the yellow sand. As her consciousness sank into darkness, she faintly heard something.

It seemed to be… her master’s voice.

Far away, yet close.

The corner of her lips lifted slightly.

Master said she could do it.

She did not let Master down.

Then, the world fell silent.

No, not silence.

Something vaster, something deeper was awakening.

The remnants of Lin Xiaoyu’s divine sense perceived a surge of boundless power.

The power poured down from the Cultivation Tower like an overturned river of stars, like the oceans flooding backward, rushing into her body in a mighty torrent.

Heaven and earth spiritual energy essence.

Not a strand, not a wisp, but an entire sheet of it!

Outside the Cultivation Tower, before the projection screen.

Everyone witnessed that astonishing sight.

Above the desert of the seventh floor, a rift suddenly tore open in the void.

Milky-white spiritual energy essence cascaded down like a waterfall, engulfing Lin Xiaoyu entirely!

“W-what is that?!”

“Heaven and earth spiritual energy essence! It’s heaven and earth spiritual energy essence!”

“How is this possible?! How could the Cultivation Tower produce so much, such vast heaven and earth spiritual energy essence at once?!”

“Look at the record she just shattered!” someone said, voice trembling. “A victory spanning two major realms triggered this massive reward from the Cultivation Tower!”

The entire crowd erupted.

Countless gazes locked onto the slender figure shrouded in the spiritual energy waterfall in the projection. Shock, awe, disbelief.

“Such an enormous amount of spiritual energy essence… can her body even withstand it?”

“What’s there to not withstand? She just crossed two major realms to fight five Golden Core cultivators. You think she’s like you?”

“With this much spiritual power, she should be able to reach Foundation Establishment, right?”

“Obviously! If she can’t reach Foundation Establishment with this, I’ll eat the Cultivation Tower!”

“Then doesn’t that mean she’ll reach Foundation Establishment in just ten days of cultivation? That’s just too…”

The speaker trailed off mid-sentence and fell silent.

Foundation Establishment in ten days.

Even across the entire Southern Region, such a genius would be as rare as phoenix feathers or qilin horns^[1].

And Lin Xiaoyu, just ten days ago, was the Heaven-Detested Physique everyone avoided like the plague.

*

However, Lin Xiaoyu did not reach Foundation Establishment.

The vast heaven and earth spiritual energy essence surged into her body like countless rivers returning to the sea, roaring and churning through her meridians.

The Heavenly Dao Divine Art circulated on its own, refining, compressing, and condensing this power bit by bit.

First layer.

Second layer.

Third layer.

…

She clearly sensed her cultivation advancing at astonishing speed.

From Qi Refining ninth-layer full mastery, to Qi Refining ninth-layer full mastery again, still Qi Refining ninth-layer full mastery…

Buzz-

A certain intangible shackle was gently touched, and then… bypassed.

Lin Xiaoyu froze.

She had clearly reached the very limit of the ninth layer of Qi Refining. She had clearly touched the threshold of Foundation Establishment.

That door was right before her, needing only a gentle push to step through.

Yet she subconsciously… bypassed it?

No, not bypassed.

The Heavenly Dao Divine Art was guiding her toward another path.

A path not above the ninth layer of Qi Refining, but within it.

Deeper. Thicker. Further.

A flash of insight struck Lin Xiaoyu, and she no longer tried to break through to Foundation Establishment.

Instead, she sank her entire mind and spirit inward, following the circulation of the Heavenly Dao Divine Art, steadily strengthening her foundation, layer by layer.

With each cycle of spiritual power, it grew a degree purer.

With each surge through her meridians, they grew a degree more resilient.

She refined all that surging heaven and earth spiritual energy essence, not to raise her cultivation, but to forge her foundation.

Not Foundation Establishment.

It was forging the foundation for the thirty-six layers of Qi Refining.

*

She did not know how much time had passed.

When the last trace of spiritual energy essence was refined, Lin Xiaoyu slowly opened her eyes.

Her cultivation was still at the ninth layer of Qi Refining.

Yet those outside the tower watching could not help but feel… she seemed somehow different.

Not a change in cultivation.

It was her bearing.

That faint, elusive, yet impossible-to-ignore aura of Dao.

“She… didn’t reach Foundation Establishment?” someone said incredulously.

“How is that possible? With that much spiritual energy essence, even a cripple would have been pushed to Foundation Establishment or even Golden Core!”

“But she’s definitely still at the ninth layer of Qi Refining…”

“This doesn’t make sense!”

The Guardian Elder of the Cultivation Tower stared at the projection. After a long moment, he slowly let out a turbid breath.

“It is not that she could not reach Foundation Establishment.” His voice was deep. “It is that she would not.”

The crowd was stunned.

“She is suppressing her cultivation, consolidating her foundation. This girl… has great ambition.”

At those words, the entire assembly was shaken.

Suppressing her cultivation?

How many people dream bitterly of breaking through their realm, yet she actively suppresses it?

What kind of resolve was this? What kind of ambition?

*

Lin Xiaoyu had no idea what the people outside the tower were discussing.

Quietly, she sensed the unprecedented fullness and stability within her body.

The ninth layer of Qi Refining.

Still the ninth layer.

But she knew clearly: this ninth layer was no longer that ninth layer.

The Heavenly Dao Divine Art circulated on its own within her. With each cycle, her spiritual power became a fraction purer.

The power that had surged into her from heaven and earth had not vanished. She had refined it all, and it settled deep within her dantian.

There, something was quietly gestating.

Not a Golden Core.

It was something earlier than a Golden Core, something more fundamental.

She had a faint sense that beyond the ninth layer of Qi Refining, there was indeed another path.

Master was right after all!

Thirty-six layers…

*

A thousand miles away.

A streak of pale gold light tore through the clouds at high speed.

The system’s voice suddenly sounded in Chen Ping’s ear:

【Ding! Disciple Lin Xiaoyu has cleared the seventh floor of the Cultivation Tower, the Extreme Life-and-Death Floor, setting a new record! She receives massive heaven and earth spiritual energy essence infusion!】

【Detected: Disciple’s first victory against Golden Core-level opponents while at Qi Refining cultivation! Triggering cross-two-major-realm combat achievement!】

【Detected: Disciple Lin Xiaoyu has gained initial perception of the Heavenly Dao Qi Refining path! Heavenly Dao Divine Art cultivation speed increased by 20%!】

Then Chen Ping’s entire body went rigid.

Not because of the system notification.

But because the Grand Dao Source Power within him was surging madly!

This was not just the increase of breaking through a minor realm. This was a qualitative transformation.

《Grand Dao Divine Scripture》 eighth layer of Qi Refining, middle stage.

Eighth layer of Qi Refining, late stage.

Eighth layer of Qi Refining, full mastery.

Ninth layer of Qi Refining!

Boom-

Chen Ping felt as though something in his sea of consciousness had been blasted open.

The Grand Dao Divine Eyes activated automatically, and the world in his vision shifted once more.

Those threads of law that had only been faintly visible before were now crystal clear.

He could even see the Dao rhythm patterns flowing along every single thread of law.

Thunder Law, Flame Law, Water Law, Earth Law…

Countless laws interwove before his eyes into a boundless celestial web, and he could finally, truly see this web.

【Ding! Host’s cultivation has broken through the ninth layer of the 《Grand Dao Divine Scripture》!】

【Grand Dao Divine Eyes upgraded: Initial Glimpse → Minor Achievement!】

【New ability acquired: Law Perception: Can actively sense any law fluctuations within thirty meters in all directions and trace them back to their source!】