a journey into immortal cultivation

Chapter 25 — Qi Condensation

Chapter 25 — Qi Condensation

Days in the mountains slipped by; in the blink of an eye two months had passed. Within the dream-realm, Wang Lin sat with eyes closed, breathing in rhythm. Over these two months he had studied the mysterious bead inside and out.

The bead could be entered three times a day, each stay lasting more than twenty shichen; taken together, that was nearly six days. Two months in the real world meant he had actually cultivated for a full year.

Cultivation was mind-numbingly dull. Wang Lin hadn’t truly felt that before, but in these weeks he learned it to the bone. With the help of the springwater he barely needed food—day after day he simply sat and breathed, drawing and releasing. He repeated the pattern of one long breath, three short, endlessly, to absorb the spiritual energy borne by the water within him. If not for his iron will—and the way his parents’ expectant eyes kept returning to his heart—he would never have endured such tedium. And every time he thought of Wang Zhuo reaching the first layer in three months, a fierce unwillingness surged up; he practically never set foot outside, throwing himself wholly into cultivation.

In Hengu Sect, Wang Lin was a punchline, a nameless figure for idle talk. Envy abounded, but few truly paid him mind. Sun Dazhu had all but forgotten his disciple. Even when the memory surfaced, it only stoked his anger, and he forced himself to blot Wang Lin from his thoughts.

Because of that—together with Wang Lin’s precautions, like pocketing the bead the instant he felt sleep taking him—the last two months passed without a ripple. No one discovered the mysterious bead.

By now he’d drunk an uncountable amount of springwater. Whenever he felt the energy in his body flag, he took several swallows. If Sun Dazhu had known, he would have clawed his chest in agony and slain this disciple on the spot. Throughout the Zhao Kingdom’s cultivation world, almost no one cultivated as prodigally as Wang Lin—living on a steady stream of Qi-rich springwater. Only a few ancient monsters of great sects enjoyed something similar, occupying the densest spiritual caves of entire peaks to mimic springwater’s effect.

Qi was paramount. Zhao was no land of overflowing spirit veins; while it could nourish several sects, anyone who learned how Wang Lin cultivated would ache as Sun Dazhu did. Used for alchemy, this water would dramatically raise success rates: ingredients mattered, but Qi-laden auxiliaries wrought wonders.

With nearly inexhaustible Qi at his disposal, the spiritual energy within Wang Lin grew ever denser.

One day in the dream-realm, his breathing smooth and deep, he clearly sensed threads of Qi coursing through his body. With each breath, two white dragons of vapor streamed from nose and mouth. A feeling like ants crawling rose—weak at first, then surging—until it flooded every inch of him. Beads of black filth seeped from his pores, reeking as they soaked his clothes.

Wang Lin noticed none of it. He was immersed in a marvelous state, seeing with vivid clarity the springwater within him breaking apart, its Qi slowly reshaping his body.

He didn’t know how long it took before he opened his eyes. A brightness he’d never shown before flashed in them. His mind was crystalline; his heart as still as a lake. Scenes from his youth rose and faded—his father’s loving gaze when he babbled as a toddler; his mother’s gentle words on nights he studied late; his parents’ hopeful faces before he entered Hengu; the sneers of kin; the villagers’ admiration. He watched them all with the calm of a stranger.

At length he exhaled, a faint bitterness touching his heart. At the instant he stepped into the first layer of Qi Condensation, he gained a sliver of insight.

As the Three Chapters of Condensation described, the first layer is a threshold. Push the door open and you enter the path of cultivation, from then on severing the weight of the mundane and dissolving attachments. Everyone who reaches the first layer experiences this. Wang Lin didn’t know how others fared; he only knew that though he could cut away all worldly trifles, he could not sever the bond with his parents.

Sighing softly, he patted the grime from his clothes and stood.

His gaze clear, he looked around. Now he could perceive differences within the dream-realm: the countless light-bodies he once found featureless now showed faint currents of Qi within. Though he still couldn’t make out their true nature, it was like a blind man recovering sight.

While he watched, the tearing sensation came again—far gentler now; painful, but no longer sweat-wringing—and he woke to the real world.

Sitting on his bed, he thought a moment, then uncorked a gourd. Within the water he now distinctly saw wisps of airy light rising—the Qi in it was abundant. He smiled. At the first layer, he could finally feel the world’s spiritual energy. Drawing a long breath, he suddenly noticed his whole body was tacky. Looking down, he chuckled. The Three Chapters recorded it well: upon breaking through, the body expels great amounts of impurity—an essential step in the remolding of flesh.

He pushed the door open; afternoon light lay outside. Steps light, he left by the east gate and went to the mountain spring. Choosing a spot downstream, he stripped and washed. The black filth was oily; it took a long scrub to clear it all away.

Afterward he lay upon a boulder, eyes on the sky, and recalled a spell described in the Three Chapters.

It detailed a technique called Attraction—the most basic of spells. So long as one reached the first layer, one could use it. Hengu, once the unifier of Zhao five centuries ago, had fallen on leaner days, yet still housed a wealth of arts. Any inner disciple could browse the Sutra Pavilion at will, though elders mostly urged the sword path.

Sword cultivators pour their strength into a single flying sword—arduous later, but formidable early and easy to grasp. Attraction is the foundational art that precedes driving a sword.

Besides Attraction, the Three Chapters also recorded two other spells: Fireball and Earth Fissure.