The Peak of Qi Refining
Maybe I’m actually strong? For the past few days, every time I practiced the Five Elements Cycle technique, I felt a ticklish sensation deep in my chest. After pushing my training to the limit while focusing on that feeling, I finally managed to reach Great Success in the Five Elements Cycle.
Before, the black of the water attribute, the red of fire, the blue of wood, the white of metal, and the gold of earth would all swirl together in a patchy mess, making it obvious to anyone that I was channeling a technique. I couldn't help but feel embarrassed; the sight of myself wrapped in a multicolored barrier was, frankly, ridiculous. But the Five Elements Cycle now was different. The five-colored energy melted into one, flowing naturally along my skin. It rested thinly over my body like a layer of transparent clothing, making it difficult for the naked eye to tell whether I was channeling a technique or not. A cultivator with sharp spiritual sense would have to focus intently just to notice it.
'This might actually be useful?'
Baek Cheong moved her body left and right while maintaining the Five Elements Cycle. The energy rearranged itself like flowing water in response to her movements, leaving no gaps anywhere. In the beginning, I could only maintain the Five Elements Shroud at the Minor Success stage for a dozen breaths, but now, I could keep it up for as long as my spiritual energy allowed. When I channeled techniques through the White Pearl Artifact, I could output double the power with the same amount of spiritual energy, which gave me the leeway to pour that much more effort into increasing the precision of the techniques.
'I must be the only cultivator who can build proficiency this way.'
The training didn't end with just the Five Elements Cycle. There were over two hundred basic techniques I had started learning from the library on the first floor of the Baekgyeonggak. I used the White Pearl Artifact as a medium to repeatedly practice every single one—Flame Bullet, Waterflow Art, Earth Wall Art, Wind Blade, Wind Movement Art, Illumination Art, Purification Art, and more—to boost my proficiency. Normally, it would take months just to bring a single basic technique to Minor Success, but thanks to the White Pearl Artifact, the speed was extraordinary. Because of that, I succeeded in bringing all two hundred basic techniques to Minor Success.
'Even if they are just basic techniques, reaching Minor Success in over two hundred of them... honestly, that's pretty impressive.'
According to the common wisdom of the cultivation world, learning too many miscellaneous techniques would cause one's training to become scattered, making them useless in actual combat. The standard doctrine was that the right path was to dig into one thing to the extreme and reach Great Success. But that didn't apply to me. Because I could handle the five elements, I could use a variety of techniques; because of the White Pearl Artifact, I could double my proficiency in an instant; and because I was skilled at splitting my Divine Sense, I could deploy multiple techniques at once. To others, it was a distraction, but to me, it was just the secret method of Divided Focus.
'The one that's actually useful is the Ice Dragon Bind.'
Baek Cheong withdrew the Five Elements Cycle and moved on to the next technique. She drew the water-attribute energy from her Dantian and injected it into the White Pearl Artifact. The water energy expanded as it passed through the pearl and stretched out into the void.
Crackle.
The moisture in the air froze, molding into the shape of ice. The Ice Dragon Bind revealed itself in the air, but it was distinctly different from the ice earthworm of the past. It had grown to the thickness of a forearm, scales had sprouted along its body, and the shape of horns had faintly formed on its head. It was still far from being called a dragon, but it had clearly shed the form of an earthworm.
'It became a snake, not an earthworm, once it hit Minor Success.'
The true essence of the Ice Dragon Bind lay in control rather than form, but as it reached Minor Success, the form changed along with it. The ice snake coiled in the air and hovered around Baek Cheong; she could feel that the sensation of controlling it with her Divine Sense had become much smoother. Its reactions were faster, its direction changes were fluid, and above all, the consumption of spiritual energy required to maintain the shape had decreased.
'Still doesn't reach the level of a flood dragon.'
Baek Cheong rolled the Ice Dragon Bind around for a bit before a thought suddenly occurred to her.
'If I do this right, couldn't I ride it?'
If it was as thick as a thigh and three or four jang long, it didn't seem impossible to ride. For a Qi Refining stage cultivator without any means of flight, flying was like a dream. Of course, I could ask my father for one, but the fact that I could roam the sky on my own without a flying vessel or a flight artifact was what mattered.
"Let's do it right now."
The ice snake floated half a jang off the ground, maintaining a level position. 'Carefully, carefully.' Baek Cheong cautiously climbed onto the Ice Dragon Bind. The moment she placed her left foot on it and lifted her right foot—before both feet were even on the ice snake—her balance collapsed. Riding a technique while casting it required simultaneous control of energy and physical balance. Controlling the energy wasn't a problem. I could control the Ice Dragon Bind with my Divine Sense while adjusting the output to account for the rider's weight. The problem, as always, was my body. Balancing one's body was purely in the realm of the physical, something that couldn't be assisted by Divine Sense or energy. The problem I had felt so painfully when learning Hand-Held Sword from the Pacheon Sword Sovereign applied here perfectly.
Flop.
"Ouch!"
Baek Cheong couldn't hold on and fell backward, landing hard on her butt. Her rear end ached from the impact. The Ice Dragon Bind floated leisurely as if nothing had happened. The technique was floating just fine; it was the caster who couldn't get on.
"One more time."
I dusted myself off, stood up, and tried again. This time, I tried to put both feet on at once, but my feet slipped. Flop. I sat down in the same spot, in the same posture. On the third attempt, I grabbed the body with both hands and climbed on as if crawling. I finally succeeded in getting on, but the moment I tried to stand up, my body tilted to the left and I rolled off to the side.
'My body really is the problem here.'
The more I tried, the only thing that changed was the direction I fell; the result was always the same. My butt, knees, and elbows were covered in dust, and naturally, my training clothes were filthy.
'I can fly a flying sword just fine, so why can't I ride this?'
I had been praised for being better than the rising talents of the Heavenly Sword Sect when it came to flying swords, yet I couldn't even stand on one ice snake. Casting a technique and standing on top of one were completely different realms of problems. The former was about Divine Sense and energy control, while the latter was about physical balance. And my physical balance existed at the very bottom of the world.
'Giving up.'
Baek Cheong gave up on Ice Dragon Bind flight without any regrets. It was a clean surrender after six attempts. I could just fly later when I reached Core Formation and got a flying artifact. If I sat on an artifact, I wouldn't need any sense of balance.
'Forget it.'
I brushed the dust off my training clothes, straightened my posture, and changed my mindset. Since I couldn't ride it, I had to go with shooting it. I gripped the White Pearl Artifact with both hands and drew out my water-attribute energy with all my might. I poured out the water-attribute spiritual energy I had stored deep in my Dantian without reservation and injected it into the pearl. As the White Pearl Artifact received the water energy and multiplied it, I split my Divine Sense into twenty strands.
Crackle, crackle, crackle.
The air grew rapidly cold, and ice snakes began to reveal their forms in the sky above the training ground one by one. One, two, three. Ten, eleven, twelve. Fifteen, sixteen. In the end, twenty Ice Dragon Binds filled the sky over the training ground. The sight of the ice snakes coiling in the air in unison was quite a spectacle. The cold water energy enveloped the entire training ground, lowering the temperature of the air, and every time I breathed, white mist rose from my mouth.
"This is a breeze."
Baek Cheong controlled all twenty at once with her Divine Sense. Then, the ice dragons began to move simultaneously. Ten of them drew circles in a clockwise direction, while the other ten crossed them in a counter-clockwise direction, dodging each other. There were no collisions even at the moment of crossing. This was because twenty strands of Divine Sense were connected to each ice dragon, precisely controlling their paths.
'It feels like just yesterday I was only handling ten.'
When I first discovered the true value of the White Pearl Artifact, ten Ice Dragon Binds had been my limit. After breaking through the 7th star, my Dantian had doubled in size, my energy channels had become more solid, and thanks to becoming adept at handling Divine Sense, the number had increased to twenty. Of course, if I maintained them all at once, my spiritual energy would be consumed rapidly, so I couldn't keep them deployed for long. But even a momentary deployment would be enough to exert considerable power.
'With twenty of them, I wouldn't even flinch if twenty Qi Refining cultivators jumped me.'
I had never used them in actual combat, so that was just a calculation. I looked up at the sight of the ice snakes embroidering the sky above the training ground, satisfied, and nodded. There was no way a cultivator who could pull off this level of technique manipulation at the Qi Refining stage existed anywhere in the lower realm.
'Maybe I can even take on a Core Formation cultivator if I do well?'
Baek Cheong withdrew the Ice Dragon Bind with a satisfied heart. The sight of the ice dragons rushing in unison was quite worth seeing, but after withdrawing them all, only cold water energy lingered white on the training ground.
'Can I call myself the strongest in Qi Refining now?'
After nodding satisfactorily to herself, she left the training ground. She had to change her dust-covered training clothes. However, she decided to completely forget about the fact that she couldn't ride the Ice Dragon Bind and had fallen over six times.