Chương 25: Simplicity in Complexity

The next stage would be Minor Completion. To reach this stage, one needed to sense, gather, and move one's primordial yang and yang qi into the Primordial Yang Elixir. For the primordial yang, this was only done once, but the body continuously produced and leaked yang qi. A cycle needed to be created to avoid wasting the extra yang qi. For this, two meridians were responsible, the Kidney Meridian and the Governing Vessel. The Kidney Meridian stored Essence, which was deeply connected with one's primordial yang.

It also had associations with Innate Qi, which derived the primordial yang. Thus, the Kidney Meridian was one of the most important tools for this task. The Governing Vessel governed the yang channels and coordinated yang qi. That alone was an important factor for Minor Completion of the Locking Yang Nourishing Art. The Kidney Meridian and the Governing Vessel were also directly connected; thus, forming special Qi circulation pathways combined of both their characteristics was naturally easier.

Lin Yi would need to combine the two meridians' affinity with yang qi into a network of Qi circulations through his whole body, with the ability to sense, gather, and transport them to the Primordial Yang Elixir. Through this network, one would be able to sense one's primordial yang much more easily. Not everyone could just find the primordial yang. It was derived from a cultivator's Innate Qi and deeply hidden in the body. Without a divine soul and divine sense, many would find it impossible.

Additionally, one had to create a transport pathway from the Kidney Meridian to the Primordial Yang Elixir for Essence, and from the Golden Cauldron to the Primordial Yang Elixir for Qi, to nourish and strengthen the primordial yang and yang qi. After all this was completed and the primordial yang locked into the Primordial Yang Elixir, it would act as a core and center. The primordial yang will be cultivated by Essence, Qi, and yang qi into a higher state.

In return, the primordial yang would nourish the sea of yang that will be created around it by the gathered yang qi, all of it still in the Primordial Yang Elixir. That was the meaning of Minor Completion. Locking the primordial yang and gathering the yang qi into a sea. Both will be supported and strengthened by each other and outside forces. At this point, the locking part of the Locking Yang Nourishing Art would be completed.

With the anchoring of the primordial yang, it would at the same time stabilize the Innate Qi, so when a cultivator entered their years of decline, the Innate Qi would be less affected. The stage of Grand Completion handled the nourishing part of the extraordinary immortal art. For this part, one had to create another pathway. However, this time, it won't transport something into the Primordial Yang Elixir, but outside.

To be precise, only the yang qi in the sea of yang will be transported back to the Kidney Meridian. The primordial yang itself, however, will never be touched; even losing a sliver of it would not be worth the cost. In the Kidney Meridian itself, another Qi construct similar to the Primordial Yang Elixir was to be created. The Qi construct needed to have the characteristics that influenced longevity. The Kidney Meridian governed birth, growth, development, reproduction, and aging.

Qi patterns of these characteristics were used to create the Longevity Yang Cauldron, another spiritual organ. The yang qi from the Primordial Yang Elixir was transported to the Longevity Yang Cauldron, where the qi was transformed and imbued with longevity-benefiting characteristics by it. The yang qi was transformed into longevity yang qi. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

From the Longevity Yang Cauldron, it was transported through new Qi circulation towards the Governing Vessel. The Governing Vessel runs up the entire back high to the head. Once the longevity yang qi arrived there, it would naturally be distributed throughout the entire body. The longevity yang qi, with its special properties, then nourished the body and Essence, allowing greater longevity for the user. Grand Completion was thus achieved. This was the entire Locking Yang Nourishing Art.

The production and nourishment of the longevity yang qi allowed the Essence to stay stronger longer. It won't directly decline around the sixtieth birthday, and depending on the degree to which one cultivated the art, one's body would stay in peak condition longer. The peak state of the Essence then allowed for a longer window till the dispersing of the Innate Qi, which was further stabilized by the locking of the primordial yang.

The stabilized Essence and Qi then supported the Spirit and prevented it from slowly growing weaker over time. In this way, greater longevity was achieved, and the cultivator had more years to reach the Foundation Establishment Realm without a reduced possibility of breaking through. Lin Yi looked over the jade stone containing the Locking Yang Nourishing Art after he had finished understanding it.

Hmm, the most difficult part of it was not the creation of the Qi constructs or even the pattern recognition, but the sensing of one's primordial yang. The extraordinary immortal art in itself was not that difficult to cultivate. With enough patience, one could understand which Qi pattern template described in the art was equivalent to one's own Qi pattern. The creation of the Qi constructs and pathways also needed only enough time. The most common bottleneck should be the perception of the primordial yang.

But the chance of that would increase once one reached Minor Completion or received help from external resources. For example, an alchemy pill that temporarily enhanced one's perception to the yang attribute, or cultivating in a yang-heavy environment. Lin Yi nodded, satisfied. His Innate Spirituality would also be of no small help in sensing and moving his primordial yang into its new prison.

I have to cultivate the Golden Cauldron Stage to a perfect foundation and the Locking Yang Nourishing Art at the same time. I am still young; the later immortal art is not yet as important. I should focus on cultivating the Classic of Qi Refinement while also taking some time every day to cultivate the longevity art. He finally decided on his future path for the next few years. Besides his sect duties, he would divide his free time into two parts. One, and the most important part, would be his cultivation.

The foremost focus was on cultivating the Qi Refinement Realm. After that came the practice of Wu Wei and the cultivation of the Locking Yang Nourishing Art. This will consume the majority of my time. The other part of things was his future extracurriculars. They were the future study of immortal texts, and the raising of spirit bees and spiritual tea. Once he finished cultivating his chosen longevity art to Grand Completion, he may extend it to raising other animals.

If he was fortunate enough, he should be able to reach this stage in a year or two. Reaching Grand Completion of the Golden Cauldron Stage would take longer. Theoretically, as long as one cultivated a few hours daily, even someone with a Mortal Spirit Root could reach the third level of Qi Condensation in two or three years. That was, with a low-to-average stable foundation. But Lin Yi wanted a perfect foundation.

Instead of forming several Qi circulation pathways after another that connected and overlapped to bind all 12 Standard Meridians and the 8 Extraordinary Meridians together, he would have to form one single Qi circulation. This single Qi circulation pathway would need to flow not just from any meridian to all others, but also in all directions. He literally had to create branches from one meridian to all the others, and these branches need the ability to flow Qi in both directions simultaneously.

To do this, he would have to have two times 361 Qi flows at the same time. Normally, without a divine soul, this would be impossible. Fortunately, there exist Qi patterns. The Classic of Qi Refinement described this technique shortcut. For the shorter Qi circulations of lower foundations, the expenditure wouldn't be cost-effective, but for a perfect foundation, it was. Lin Yi would create tube-like Qi constructs with Qi patterns and characteristics capable of holding Qi.

These tubes would be made on the same pathway as the future Qi circulation pathway. And then, through these tubes, he could let his Qi circulate until it formed the foundation for true Qi circulation pathways. After that, he could disperse the tubes back into the foundation to fuel it. However, this would take much longer. He had no real estimation of how long. Lin Yi sighed again, but there was also excitement in his eyes. The future may be long and the Dao yet out of reach, but one day I will have it in my grasp.

He smiled brightly as he sank into deep meditation and started building his foundation. Tomorrow would be the day when he had to take up sect assignments again.