Strange Request

Wuxian immediately turned away, gesturing for Big North to do so as well.

Big North wore a confused expression, but did the same anyway. He then leaned down slightly.

"Why? What's wrong?" He whispered.

"I think master might appreciate the privacy… it would be awkward if he knew that we saw him in that state." Wuxian replied in a hushed tone.

Big North's eyebrow raised slightly.

"But he already knows that we saw him. He can read your mind."

"It's about the formality. The formality." Wuxian said, gesturing with his hands. "If everyone pretends that nothing happened, then nothing happened."

Big North scratched his cheek before shrugging.

"If you say so."

The two returned to their cultivation positions.

"Senior North… you're a category three artifact spirit, right?" Wuxian asked gingerly.

Big North nodded.

"I was in the army, like you. Not to brag, but I led a pretty successful military career."

Wuxian shrugged. "One can hardly blame another for bragging if what they speak of is true."

Big North chuckled. "One can only blame oneself for one's inadequacy instead."

The two laughed quietly. Perhaps they did not know it, but their previous shared identities as military men had created a subtle bond between them.

After a moment of quietness, Wuxian shuffled slightly closer.

"Hey, senior North. You must have been a great general, right?"

Big North grinned, patting his chest with bravado.

"Your senior North here was supreme commander of Great Liang's Combined Magic Arms force. Under me, I had a thousand cultivators divided into a cavalry core and an infantry core. My cavalry were known as the Flying Riders and my foot soldiers were called the Formation Breakers."

Wuxian clapped with awe. Amongst the populace of Liang, the professional soldiers were idolised greatly, since they sacrificed their trades and their livelihoods to defend the people.

Amongst the professional soldiers, however, it was duellists and great generals who held their admiration.

One demonstrated indomitable prowess on the battlefield, displaying their top-tier martial skills in front of an audience of two armies.

One orchestrated entire battles and campaigns. It would not be inaccurate to say that aside from the emperor, it was the general at the top who decided their fates- whether they at the bottom lived or died.

Though Wuxian was not a professional soldier, nor had he been a conscript very long, he still held a respect for them. 

Then he noticed something different.

'Did he say cultivators?'

"Senior North, you had immortal soldiers? Cultivators that fought under you?" 

The spirit in question nodded slowly.

"But isn't Liang a mortal state? When I was in service, we did not even know cultivators were real, how could the state employ cultivators- and that many of them in secrecy?"

Big North was thoroughly confused. 

"I thought it was normal for mortal states to employ immortal cultivators to assist them in wars. At least, every war I fought in had immortal cultivators on both sides. There were even times when the mortal and immortal troops fought alongside one another, one in the sky and one on the ground.

I don't think it's possible for the mortals to not know about it. Even a lot of my soldiers were originally commoners and peasants before they began cultivating."

Wuxian held his chin in his right hand, tapping it in contemplation.

'I thought that nothing would be able to shock me anymore… but a mortal state fielding immortal soldiers? There's no way the officials would even consider keeping such news quiet- not with how much of a morale booster it would be.'

He shook his head.

'Perhaps my memory was damaged from the fall from the top of the gorge.' He mused.

In truth, all this thinking and musing was pointless. Regardless of whether there were cultivators in the army or not, it did not change his goal: saving Mian Ji and Xiao Chong.

He then chuckled at his own thoughts mockingly.

'If there really are cultivators in Han or Qin's armies, there's a high probability that I will not be able to defeat them with my Qi Refining rookie level strength and they will no doubt fight in units. I will be outdone in both quality and quantity.'

Big North tapped his shoulder, a chilling feeling replacing that of physical touch.

"Junior, what are you thinking about?" He asked curiously.

Wuxian sighed in response. "I was thinking that I have a long way to go."

Though Big North still wore his unchanging stoic expression, his eyes softened a little.

"Humbleness is good, as is recognising reality, but do not belittle yourself." He encouraged before closing his eyes again.

Wuxian nodded gratefully, also shutting his eyes and focusing on cultivation.

Qi Refining was a rather special stage of cultivation. In truth, a Qi Refiner was not a true immortal, despite practising immortal arts.

Why was this?

Simple. 

The stage was named simply after what it was- the refinement of qi. For a Qi Refiner, casting spells and mystic arts required the expenditure of qi. Coincidentally, the progression from Qi Refining to Foundation Building required the buildup of a certain amount of refined qi as well as tempering the body with said refined qi.

What did this mean?

This meant that in order for a Qi Refiner to practice their mystic arts or fight in battles, they had to expend their meagre cultivation base. Every technique used reverted their progress towards the Foundation Building stage closer towards zero.

Wuxian's current focus was to fill all three dantians with refined qi, and then to circulate the Nine Revolutions Earthfire technique. This would temper his meridians and his flesh and bones with the combined force of three elements.

In truth, while there was a point in time when a cultivator was ready to progress onwards from Qi Refining, it was difficult to gauge. Each individual naturally required a different amount of tempering, so one couldn't merely judge completion based off of time spent cultivating.

Furthermore, it was not like a Qi Refiner received a congratulatory message from the Heavens when they were ready to progress onto Foundation Building. The Heavens certainly couldn't care less about a mere Qi Refiner. 

So in short, it was the Qi Refiner himself who decided when he was ready to move onto Foundation Building. 

What was the consequence of skipping over Qi Refining and going straight to Foundation Building?

Most likely, it was the risk of self-implosion as a result of qi deviation.

Then what was Foundation Building?

Qi Refiners did not need to worry over which techniques they used to circulate qi. The main purpose was merely to temper the meridians equally, thus any generic cultivation technique was suitable.

Similar to the previous stage, the name of the second stage was also self-explanatory.

After the body and the meridians were sufficiently tempered, the next goal was to build the foundation for Qi Condensation and Golden Core formation.

At this point, the selected cultivation technique was important, since if the cultivator wanted to change to a new one, they would have to restart Qi Refining all over again, and at the cost of backlash too.

Different cultivation techniques had different types and intensities of effects when it came to Foundation Building. Yellow and earth grade techniques were weaker overall, and so resulted in weaker backlash when switched out for a new technique.

Heaven grade techniques like the Nine Revolutions Earthfire art had a more drastic effect. It directly moulded many meridians within the cultivator's body, making them more suitable for circulation of wood, fire and earth qi. On top of that, it remoulded the cultivator's body itself, providing minor resistances to the three elements, extending the cultivator's lifespan and providing minor boosts to mystic arts of wood, fire and earth qi also.

They spent the rest of the day like that, cultivating in silence. 

Wuxian made great progress. His dantians were all completely full by the third hour. With a yellow grade technique, he would have only had to refine one dantian's worth of qi and only have to spend around one third of the time, but the foundation created using a yellow grade technique would be relatively weak too.

You get what you pay for, so to speak.

Accordingly, his current heaven grade technique took longer and required more effort to utilise, but would yield proportionally better result.

After he filled his dantians completely, he expended the qi within a few minutes' time. By the end of the circulation, Wuxian felt a feeling of lightness across his entire body. His body felt both empowered and relaxed at the same time.

Big North also opened his eyes at this moment, giving Wuxian a brief scan.

"Junior, you will only require one more round of nourishment before you may begin Foundation Building."

Wuxian looked up in surprise.

"That quickly?"

Big North nodded.

"It is normal. Though a heaven grade technique requires a longer period of time to gather qi compared to a yellow grade one, its effects are significantly stronger. This can be likened to delivering a flurry of weak and unimpactful punches versus throwing only a handful of well-executed, well-placed jabs."

Wuxian hummed in agreement. 

"Don't get complacent though. I've seen many a scenario where a heaven grade cultivator loses to a yellow or earth grade cultivator of the same realm. The grade of your technique primarily influences how much spirit qi you have to work with. It's the application that counts." 

Big North then shrugged slightly.

"But between two geniuses, the one of a higher grade will still probably win."

Wuxian nodded, summoning a fasting pill from his interspatial ring.

Ironically, he looked forward to eating fasting pills more than actual meals. Though the run-of-the-mill fasting pill couldn't hold a candle to a top chef's full course meals, since when had Wuxian ever had the privilege of tasting something like that?

Not only were fasting pills decently tasty, they were also quick to eat. Immortals had truly mastered the art of convenience.

Inside the inheritance chamber, the changing of time and the changing of the weather could not be felt. Only a clock hanging on one of the central pillars helped to indicate the passing of time.

After another round of cultivation, it was the last day of Wuxian's stay and of Black Emperor's life.

Ever since Big North's admonishment, Black Emperor had been reclusive. Or, as reclusive as one could be when stuck in a room with two others.

He was not as cheerful or playful as usual, appearing often as if he was in deep thought.

His current demeanour was similar to Sir Lv's from Wuxian's memory. The only difference was that Sir Lv always appeared to be deep in thought and his countenance was bright and righteous.

Black Emperor, on the other hand, seemed to be dark at one moment and brooding the next.

If he didn't know any better, Wuxian would have thought that his master was plotting an assassination.

Since his master had not called for him and the need to leave did not yet appear to be too urgent, Wuxian went back to cultivating. Big North had said that he only needed one more round of nourishment before he could advance to the Foundation Building stage, so he was eager to do so.

After all, disregarding his two brothers' situations for a moment, merely escaping the inheritance chamber's destruction would be a hefty task.

Not only would there be the gaze of Heaven itself, but the curious gazes of nearby immortals too.

Weaker immortals- those of the same stage as Wuxian and also the few above wouldn't make any major moves. The appearance of heavenly treasures attracted the attention of big shots and power houses, so they couldn't afford to risk their lives just like that.

But according to his master and Big North, big shots had many methods to defend, escape and flee if needs be. They could often give heavenly treasures a shot at no great risk of their own.

And when the moment finally arrived, Black Emperor came over with a strange request.