The Path of Refining the Heart

In the past three years, Lin Xuan had suffered a lot from his damaged meridians, and every time he recuperated, it took a long time, and as an ordinary person with no spiritual roots, it was hard to keep up with his fellow disciples even if he tried his best, so there was no time to delay.

Lin Xuan carefully controlled the speed of the flow of spiritual energy, but after constant attempts, he was already very clear about the tolerance of his meridians.

An hour later, having finished the cycle, the spiritual energy returned from the meridians back to the dantian.

After checking with his internal vision, a haze flashed across Lin Xuan's eyes, he had worked so hard already, but his cultivation level still hadn't changed. According to reason, doing a Great Circulation should increase his spiritual power more or less a little.

It seemed that he had to go to the Heart Refining Path, Lin Xuan gritted his teeth.

The Heart Refining Road, a special location in the Piaoyun Valley, was discovered by chance three thousand years ago by our sect's ancestor, and after examining it, it was determined to be a relic left behind by ancient cultivators.

It was a wonderful location, and as soon as one entered it, one would be wrapped in illusions, one moment in a mountain of swords and fire, the next in the eighteenth level of hell, and although the illusions did not cause any real harm, they made one suffer, although the benefits were obvious.

Although the Heart Refining Path is terrifying, the spiritual energy inside is abundant and cultivation there can be twice as effective with half the effort.

Moreover, for the disciples of this sect, the Heart Refining Road was open for free, but unfortunately, except for the experts above the Foundation Establishment stage, the lower ranked disciples at the Spiritual Movement stage simply did not dare to try it; with their cultivation level and unstable dao hearts, they could not withstand the illusions at all.

But now Lin Xuan had no other way out, he could either get stuck at the bottleneck or go to the Heart Refining Path to seek a breakthrough, and he chose the latter.

Pushing open the heavy stone door, Lin Xuan walked out of his practice room. By now it was already dark and the stars were blinking feebly, but Lin Xuan did not intend to rest and headed for the Heart Refining Road.

At the back of the Piaoyun Valley, a sloping passage in the stone wall was bottomless, this was the Heart Refining Path.

For the first hundred metres, there were no illusions and the concentration of heaven and earth spiritual energy was exactly the same as outside, but Lin Xuan did not dare to be careless in the slightest. Although it was his first time here, he had not heard much about the fearsome nature of the Heart Refining Path in his daily life.

After a few more steps, the situation suddenly changed, and the spiritual energy around him became thicker.

Lin Xuan's expression became grave, and he carefully surveyed the surroundings before carefully sitting down on his knees.

Boom!

The ground suddenly sprang up with flames about ten feet high, and the temperature around him suddenly rose ...

The horrific sight appeared, Lin Xuan raised his eyebrows slightly, did not panic, ignored it, remained single-mindedly absorbing the surrounding spiritual qi, everything that happened on the Heart Refining Road was all an illusion, do not pay attention to it.

The fire soon raised the temperature around him to an unbearable level, and large drops of sweat dripped down Lin Xuan's face.

He had only heard those experts at the Foundation Establishment stage talk about the Heart Refining Path, but he had never imagined that it would be even more terrifying than the legends.

The fire soon reached his body, and with his cultivation level at the first level of the Spiritual Movement stage, he was still unable to put out a shield, so he could only grit his teeth and endure it bitterly.

While enduring the pain of the burning fire, he also had to concentrate on absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, which was an unimaginable ordeal for ordinary people.

The fire licked at his skin, and Lin Xuan's teeth gritted and clacked, the pain had become numb at the back, but the spiritual energy was indeed abundant here, and the speed of absorption was several times faster than outside.

Although it was an illusion, it felt like a real purgatory, honing Lin Xuan's perseverance.

Absorbing the spirit energy into his body was only the first step, and then he had to refine them one by one according to the secret method taught by his master, which would involve a lot of losses, usually absorbing hundreds of millilitres of spirit energy, and in the end, he could only refine a spirit energy the size of a hair.

The resulting spiritual energy is then run through the eight odd meridians and finally stored in the dantian.

Even for someone with a tough mind, it was impossible to complete the whole process in the blazing fire. Lin Xuan persisted for five minutes before his endurance reached its limit, stood up and ran out as fast as he could, and when he left the area with sufficient spiritual energy, the blazing fire illusion disappeared with him.

"Sure enough, it's just like the legend." Lin Xuan checked his whole body, there was not the slightest injury, but the pain of being burnt by the blazing fire just now was still fresh in his mind.

Although it was unbearable, it was worth it, because the spiritual energy here was not only highly concentrated, but also very pure, and cultivating here could have twice the effect with half the effort, and the hope of breaking through the bottleneck was greatly increased.

After resting for a while, Lin Xuan stepped forward again and the fire once again surfaced, enduring the pain of being burnt as he continued to absorb the spiritual energy.

When his endurance reached its limit, he ran out to rest for a while, recovering his strength before stepping back into the fiery illusion realm.

In this way, week after week, Lin Xuan relied on his perseverance as he strove to cultivate in the Heart Refining Path.

...

Several days had passed and his spiritual power had finally grown a little, and although the gains were still small compared to what he had paid for, it was much faster compared to cultivating outside.

At this rate, as long as he persisted, he should be able to enter the second layer of the Spiritual Movement Stage.

After silently calculating the progress of his cultivation, Lin Xuan stood up, he had already spent four days at the Heart Refining Path, he should go out and take a look, for one, his body had reached its limit after cultivating in the blazing fire without rest for the past few days, and for another, today was the time for the teaching chair to pass on his gongfu.

According to the rules of Piaoyun Valley, every four days, an expert at the Foundation Establishment stage would teach a disciple like a disciple at the Spiritual Movement stage, and with the guidance of an expert, cultivation could take a lot less detours.

Following the passage, Lin Xuan arrived outside and, unlike when he came, happened to meet a Foundation Establishment stage cultivator.

"Senior Uncle!"

"You ..." The man took a look at Lin Xuan and was filled with surprise, "You went to the Heart Refining Path?"

"Yes, Senior Uncle."

After the two parted ways, the Foundation Establishment cultivator was still a little dazed, although the illusion would not cause any real harm, the feeling was exactly the same as the real thing, a disciple at the early Spiritual Movement stage actually endured it, this son's perseverance was really amazing.

Apart from spiritual roots, cultivation also requires mental fortitude, this disciple called Lin Xuan really makes people look at him differently!