Late at night.
The neighbor's dog barked a few times.
After Mother wiped down Father, who was drunk, finished some chores, and coaxed Little Sister to sleep, Qin Chuan was in his small room, quietly staring at the black incense burner mark that had surfaced in his palm from constantly touching the three 'immortal items.'
"Law Essence... extract / reforge?"
He muttered inwardly, his gaze lingering on the three items before him for a long while.
"The admission notice and the Daoist talisman document are both proof of identity. I still don't know what this black furnace is capable of. If I'm not careful and damage these two items, causing the Daoist identity I worked so hard to earn to become invalid—that would truly be more loss than gain. So... should I first try out this set of flying needles Third Uncle gave me?"
With his mind made up, he stretched out his right hand and grasped the set of flying needles.
【Mother-Child Secret Silver Needles, containing Law Essence... can be extracted / reforged】
【Please choose 'Extract' or 'Reforge'】
Qin Chuan pondered for a moment.
Judging by the literal meaning, 'reforge' should mean returning to the furnace to be re-smelted, returning to the origin, while 'extract' should mean drawing out something I can use from within?
After comparing the two.
He silently spoke in his heart:
"What do extract and reforge mean?"
Qin Chuan suddenly felt his palm grow slightly hot. That black incense burner mark actually glowed with red light.
Immediately after, an image surfaced in his mind.
It was actually a black cauldron furnace, extremely tall, akin to a house. Looking closely, its patterns and form were exactly like the incense burner in his palm, enlarged a hundredfold.
【Heavenly Essence Furnace】
The moment Qin Chuan saw the furnace body, an intuitive understanding came to him, and he understood this black cauldron furnace's name.
Looking again.
The inside of the furnace body seemed transparent. The box of silver flying needles in his palm actually appeared within it. Above the furnace body, lines of text actually formed.
【Item: Mother-Child Secret Silver Needles】
【This is a set of flying needle magical tools, made of spirit silver, forged through forty-nine days of fierce fire. Passed through one person's hands, used to execute 'Silver Light White Hair Needle' for over ten years. Contains the Law Essence of 'Silver Light White Hair Needle.' Can extract one portion of this spell's cultivation, or can be reforged into 1 point of pure Law Essence.】
【Pure Law Essence can be used to raise any spell cultivation】
With this explanation, how could Qin Chuan not understand the crucial point?
Wasn't this just adding points?
His mind turned.
He was currently a complete blank slate in cultivation, without any spells. Blank attribute points were useless. It was most cost-effective to first obtain the spell Silver Light White Hair Needle.
"Extract!"
【Furnace Master chooses extraction. Estimated extraction time: three hours】
Qin Chuan made his choice.
Whoosh~~
The furnace fire in his mind suddenly burned scarlet red.
Staring at it the whole time, Qin Chuan almost grew so drowsy he fell asleep.
Three hours later.
Suddenly, with a spluttering sound, that box of flying needles abruptly exploded, scattering like iron fireworks, transforming into a rain of light.
These droplets of light flew out from the furnace mouth and merged into Qin Chuan's mind.
At the same time, his own spirit suddenly grew exhausted.
【Law Essence extracted】
【Furnace Master obtains one portion of Silver Light White Hair Needle, Layer Two cultivation】
Suddenly, Qin Chuan felt that quite a bit of flying needle spell experience had appeared in his mind.
Silver Light White Hair Needle!
A flying needle technique, five layers in total. After the fifth layer reached perfection, wherever the flying needles passed, there would only be indistinct silver light flashing, fast to the extreme, while simultaneously thin as fine hair, prying into every opening.
Hah!
Qin Chuan opened his eyes, utterly exhausted, like a furnace that had been burning all day—spent.
"Does this extraction consume my physical strength? Three hours..."
Subconsciously looking toward his palm, he found the flying needles in the needle box were still there, yet he vaguely felt they were somewhat different from before, as if they had lost a bit of their brilliance and dharma nature.
After resting for a good half-hour, he felt his spirit and physical strength had recovered considerably.
He said to himself, "Does one need sufficient spiritual and physical constitution to complete this extraction step? Then doesn't that mean, if I encounter too powerful a Law Essence, I won't be able to extract it?"
He temporarily set aside this thought and turned to observing the flying needles in his hand.
"After the Law Essence was extracted, the item's quality seems to have dropped considerably."
Qin Chuan guessed it was like a treasure nurtured for decades in a cultivation novel being washed clean and turned back into a blank slate.
His thoughts wandered:
"Could it be that my furnace can easily erase the personal imprint and aura from other people's treasures?"
He had been an astute person in his previous life. At this moment, from these flying needles that seemed to have lost a bit of their luster after extraction, he associated it with an even more incredible marvel of the Heavenly Essence Furnace.
Truly the perfect choice for home and travel, killing people and looting treasures.
Then another thought occurred to him.
"I've already entered the system now. If I use this method, definitely no second person can know, otherwise wouldn't I become someone hunted and beaten by all? After all, I'm not a bloodthirsty person either."
Thinking about possibly being wanted by the Heavenly Court and becoming a generation of demonic evildoers, he couldn't help but shake his head.
Hoo~
Exhaling a breath, he reined in his stray thoughts.
Qin Chuan carefully digested the spell experience of 'Silver Light White Hair Needle' extracted from this set of flying needle magical tools, lowered his head, looked at the flying needle box, and picked up one silver needle.
Immediately, a wondrous sense of familiarity caused muscle memory to surface throughout his body.
With a flick of his hand.
Whoosh!
It had actually pierced straight through the bamboo-tube pillow on his bed, sinking three inches into the wood beneath.
"Tsk, and this is still executed without true qi. It already lets me pierce through a half-inch thick bamboo board with a silver needle like a legendary martial arts expert. This method—an old Chinese doctor who practiced his whole life in my previous life probably couldn't do it either, yet I've inexplicably stepped into the second layer realm."
"Later, when I truly step into the Qi Refinement stage and have spiritual energy in my body, executing it with spiritual energy will be even more terrifying."
Qin Chuan had completely absorbed the spell experience of 'Silver Light White Hair Needle' in his mind..
The previous owner of this flying needle magical tool had cultivated painstakingly for ten years. In the needle technique experience, this previous owner had only cultivated Silver Light White Hair Needle to the second layer, yet could already control eighteen flying needles, instantly assassinating eighteen flies in midair, and could pierce a human head harder than iron with the flying needles, achieving flying needle murder in a single thought.
It was a pity that he currently had no spiritual energy in his body. He had the spell technique in vain, but lacked spiritual power to control it.
Thinking of this point.
Gazing at the Daoist talisman document that 'permits Qi refinement,' Qin Chuan absolutely could not sleep tonight no matter what.
Thus, with slightly trembling hands, he opened this precious 'Daoist Talisman Document.'
Following Qin Chuan's opening.
This fold-like talisman document emitted a faint light from within that fell into Qin Chuan's eyes, seemingly inspecting something.
Three breaths later.
As if identity verification had passed.
A delicate white rune flew out from this Daoist talisman document and fell into Qin Chuan's mind.
In an instant.
Qin Chuan felt he had entered a wondrous world. Like a photographic negative, the originally colorful surroundings now only retained black and white.
Immediately after, he saw another thing beyond this black and white.
It was a sort of seemingly transparent speck of light, hovering upon his skin.
A tiny speck of light.
It actually gave Qin Chuan an illusion of being filled with incomparably powerful strength, causing him to instantly generate a desire both psychologically and physiologically, and that was...
To eat this speck of light.
Body following thought.
Qin Chuan felt his body was like a living creature, opening its mouth and 'swallowing' this tiny speck of light.
The instant the speck of light entered his body.
Utter bliss~
Like parched land finally receiving sweet rain.
As if his body had been craving this substance all along and had finally received replenishment.
Subsequently, Qin Chuan felt that white rune expelled by the talisman document was consciously guiding that speck of light to swim along his meridians.
He understood what this speck of light was.
Opening his eyes:
"This is the most basic form of spiritual energy—'spirit particle.'"
At this moment, he understood the reason behind "Without a talisman document, one cannot refine Qi; without a heavenly tally, one cannot cultivate the Dao."
In this world, talisman documents and heavenly tallies were not merely rules restricting immortal cultivation; they were even more a 'pass qualification.' Only by obtaining this pass could one 'see' the truth of heaven and earth, find those specks of light, and 'consume Qi.'
After realizing this truth.
Looking again at the identification document in his hand, he also let out a breath like one experiencing lingering fear.
Fortunately, he had used the flying needles as an experiment first. Otherwise, if he had reforged that rune inside the Daoist talisman document, he truly wouldn't have been able to cry even if he wanted to.
At the same time, during his first guiding of Qi into his body, he not only felt the Fire Worker Daoist talisman document guiding the circulation of that one particle of spiritual energy, but it also revealed quite a bit of information regarding the Qi Refinement stage.
Qi Refinement Layer One, 'Spirit Particles into Spirit Wave'
Qi Refinement Layer Two, 'Spirit Wave into Spirit Light'
Qi Refinement Layer Three, 'Spirit Light into Spirit Qi'
Qi Refinement Layer Four, 'Spirit Qi into Spirit Force'
That is to say, he had just obtained his first 'Heaven-and-Earth Spirit Particle.' He needed to absorb more Heaven-and-Earth Spirit Particles, causing them to gather and form a 'Spirit Wave,' before he could control flying needle magical tools and ride needles through the air.
"So this is cultivation."
Qin Chuan savored the beauty of cultivation, and like one who knows the taste of marrow, he spent the entire night absorbing Heaven-and-Earth spiritual energy.
A night passed.
He had already accumulated sixty-four Heaven-and-Earth Spirit Particles in his body.
He didn't know if these spirit particles in his body had begun nourishing his physique, or if it was Qin Chuan's psychological illusion, but he felt that not sleeping for a night had actually left him more spirited than usual.
And when he washed his face, got up, and went to the courtyard, he discovered quite a few people had come to his home.
"Mother, the people outside are..." Qin Chuan asked his mother.
"They've all come to give gifts. Your father didn't want to accept them at first, but after your Third Uncle came, he told us to accept them, saying that in a couple of days you have to report to Nongling Temple, and then you'll be living in the county town. You'll need to buy many things. That's a huge expense, so..." His mother lowered her head, wiping the cabinet.
Qin Chuan didn't say much upon hearing this, only asking with interest, "Third Uncle came?"
"Yes, talking with your father in the front room."
Qin Chuan came to the front room.
Qin Li sat on a small stool. Seeing Qin Chuan enter, his eyes changed slightly, detecting Qin Chuan's transformation. He said, "You guided Qi into your body last night?"
Qin Chuan didn't deny it and nodded.
"Let me see. How many particles did you refine this night?" Qin Li stood up and directly came over to place his hand on Qin Chuan's wrist.
Qin Chuan's heart stirred slightly. He intuitively felt the Heavenly Essence Furnace shouldn't be discovered so easily by others, so he didn't resist. He was only curious how his results this night compared to others'.
"Sixty-four particles. Hmm... in our countryside where spiritual energy is thin, that's considered not bad."
Qin Li withdrew his palm, looking at Qin Chuan, and said:
"To truly enter Qi Refinement Layer One, you need to accumulate at least a hundred thousand Heaven-and-Earth Spirit Particles before you can condense a single Spirit Wave."
"A hundred thousand spirit particles? That many?"
Qin Chuan was dumbstruck.
With a result of only sixty-four particles a night compared to the target of a hundred thousand particles, he grew anxious at this moment.
Didn't that mean even if he cultivated Qi diligently every night, it would still take five or six years to step into Qi Refinement Layer One?
It was only the entry-level Qi Refinement Layer One—was it really this difficult?