Step three is, while performing the Great Circulation, to guide the true qi that overflows into the dantian, expanding the dantian’s capacity and opening up and connecting the Ren and Du meridians. You must understand that true qi is the foundation of all immortal arts, but when casting spells, the true qi in the twelve main meridians must be used to maintain the body’s needs and cannot be easily drawn upon. Therefore, only the true qi in the eight extraordinary meridians can truly be utilized. However, a person’s eight extraordinary meridians are naturally blocked and inaccessible, and the amount of true qi they can hold is extremely limited. At this point, it is necessary to open and connect them to increase capacity, starting with the Ren and Du meridians. Only after these two meridians are fully connected can one proceed to the next stage of cultivation.

Fortunately, nothing miraculous happened at this step, allowing everyone to breathe a sigh of relief. However, the speed at which true qi increased in Yvonne Foster’s dantian still made everyone extremely jealous—it was about the same amount as an average adult. In the future, once his meridians are fully matured, his true qi output will likely be several times that of others. After teaching the formula for this step, today’s ceremony was considered complete. As for the subsequent formulas for qi refining, as well as other spells and physical techniques, they would be taught by William Foster.

After returning home, William Foster again advised Yvonne that there was no need to overexert himself in qi refining; it was enough to cultivate during the two hours of zi and wu, when spiritual energy is at its peak. Although cultivation at other times would also yield some progress, it would be very limited. Moreover, cultivation is not just about refining qi—although true qi is the source of all arts and extremely important, spells and physical techniques also require time and practice.

But Yvonne Foster didn’t take these words to heart. As soon as he got home, he shut himself in his room and practiced diligently. Seeing this, William Foster just smiled and didn’t try to persuade him further. He had experienced the same thing before—when first starting cultivation, one’s enthusiasm is at its highest, wishing to spend all twelve hours of the day practicing. But once you realize that no matter how hard you try, it doesn’t make much difference, you naturally give up.

Chapter Three: Bitter Cultivation

Yvonne Foster soon discovered that his father was indeed right. Even if he added up all the results from the other ten hours of cultivation, it still wouldn’t amount to one-fifth of what he gained during the two hours of zi and wu—the efficiency was just too low. But even though he understood this, Yvonne Foster was unwilling to give up. His goal was to surpass his father as quickly as possible, but true qi is not something that can be rushed unless aided by miraculous pills. In great sects like Tianque Sect, there are indeed many spiritual pills produced each year to aid cultivation, but given the The Foster Family’s current status in the sect, it’s not even worth thinking about. The only way is through years of hard work. If Yvonne Foster wanted to catch up to his father quickly, he had to start from scratch, bit by bit.

As the saying goes, “Even a mosquito is still meat.” One-fifth may be little, but accumulated over the years, the amount would be considerable. However, sitting around all day just to increase a little true qi capacity, unable to do anything else, was indeed not worthwhile. So Yvonne Foster came up with an idea: he used the hypnosis techniques he had learned in his previous life to hypnotize himself, making his subconscious remember the pathways of true qi flow during cultivation, and then gradually relied on his subconscious to guide the true qi through the Great Circulation.

But while this sounded simple, it was actually very difficult to do. The pathways for true qi flow were extremely complex, and it took Yvonne Foster a full three months to memorize them completely, but he was still not proficient. It was fine while sitting, but as soon as he stood up or walked, the true qi would go astray, and several times he nearly suffered from qi deviation. In short, by the time he could smoothly perform the Great Circulation whether walking, sleeping, or running, a whole year had passed. Only then did Yvonne Foster have time to learn various Daoist arts and physical techniques from his parents.

The Daoist arts of the cultivation world have developed over tens of thousands of years and now have a very rigorous system. According to their attributes, Daoist arts are divided into sixteen major categories: metal, wood, water, fire, earth, light, darkness, necromancy, prophecy, lightning, wind, illusion, rejuvenation, defense, summoning, and miscellaneous arts. Of these, the last seven can be learned by anyone, while the first nine depend on one’s physical attributes.

Each category of Daoist art is further divided by power and true qi consumption into five levels: S, A, B, C, and D. This method was introduced from the Western continent tens of thousands of miles away, and became popular because it was so practical.

In addition, Daoist arts have two different methods of casting—talismans and incantations. Incantations use spells, gestures, and hand seals to activate the arts, and are the most commonly used in the cultivation world, though they can be cumbersome in battle. Talisman arts, on the other hand, store prepared spells in talismans in advance, and during battle, only a short incantation is needed to activate them, making them very fast and saving true qi. Furthermore, some auxiliary enhancement arts must rely on talismans to maintain their effect. However, the materials for making talismans are extremely expensive and unaffordable for ordinary low-level cultivators. Although the The Foster Family is fairly well-off, they still can’t afford to use talismans for regular practice.