When Lin Mu woke up, it was already the afternoon. He felt much better as this was the first time he had slept normally in a long time. He stretched to relieve the stiffness and walked out of the hunting shack.
The bright sunlight blinded him for a moment, making him cover his eyes. A moment later, when his eyes got used to the brightness, he was able to see the difference in his vision. Everything he looked at, whether it be trees, clouds, flowers, or the grass, looked vivid to him. Lin Mu also found out that he could look at faraway objects much more clearly now.
"Is this the effect of spirit qi? It enhanced my vision too. Wait, that's not it. My sense of smell is enhanced as well." Lin Mu spoke out loud.
Lin Mu was able to smell the fragrance of flowers that were far away in the forest. He could even smell the very faint smell of the grass beneath his feet. It was a completely surreal experience for him.
Lin Mu then started his morning routine, but instead of training, he sat down to sense his dantian. He saw that nearly half of his spirit qi has been restored.
'A part of my spirit qi is restored every time I sleep, it seems.' Lin Mu thought.
Lin Mu wanted to restore as much spirit qi as he could before he tested out the second skill he got from the ring. Thus he sat down and chanted the severing heart sutra. The loss of all emotions made Lin Mu feel empty, but it also made his perception sharper.
His consciousness entered his dantian and took control of a wisp of spirit qi. Lin Mu guided it into the meridians and circulated it according to the path he had discovered. The first cycle was completed in two minutes. The single wisp that he had circulated had become more refined, and another wisp of spirit qi had been absorbed from the air and condensed into his dantian.
'So not only does circulating the spirit qi condense more wisps, but it also refines the previously existing spirit qi.' Understood Lin Mu.
In the qi refining realm, a cultivator primarily increases the amount of spirit qi they have and then refine it to make it more pure and condensed. The qi refining realm is divided into four stages- early-stage, mid-stage, late-stage, and peak-stage.
In the early stage of the qi refining realm, a cultivator condenses spirit qi and fills up half of their dantian. In the mid-stage, their entire dantian is filled with wisps of spirit qi. In the late stage, a cultivator starts to refine the spirit qi wisps into liquid form, while in the peak stage they would completely fill their dantian with liquid spirit qi.
Lin Mu completed multiple circulation cycles and found out that the more he circulated, the faster he got. An hour after he started, his efficiency had nearly doubled. He continued cultivating for another hour, after which he had completely recovered his spirit qi and had actually exceeded it by a small amount.
Lin Mu stopped at this point and let out a breath of foul qi, ending his first proper cultivation session. He could feel his improvement and understood that this was the path he had to follow.
Lin Mu heard his stomach rumble and went to eat his breakfast. After eating breakfast, he chanted the calming heart sutra and assimilated the vital energy from the meat he had eaten. Another thing he noticed was that in addition to vital energy, a minuscule amount of qi was also being absorbed into his body.
'Does beast meat have spirit qi in it too? Or is it because I'm eating the meat of a 9th stage body tempering beast?' Lin Mu pondered.
Now that he had eaten his breakfast and his qi was replenished, Lin Mu was ready to test out the second skill he had obtained from the ring.
The second skill was called 'Blink'. Lin Mu triggered the skill and in an instant, ten percent of his entire qi reserve was consumed, but nothing happened. He looked at his body to see if there was a change or not, but could not deduce anything.
Lin Mu used the skill again, consuming another ten percent of his qi. This time he focused on his body to see if there was anything different. He could not sense anything different from his body again.
He used the skill for the third time but focused on the environment. In this attempt, he was successful and found out that his vision turned hazy for a moment when the skill was triggered.
'Why did my vision turn hazy? But it did not do that when I looked at my body, though.' Lin Mu questioned himself.
In the quest to find out the function of the skill, Lin Mu used it multiple times until his entire dantian was empty and exhaustion filled his body. He stopped as he was out of qi and rested for an hour. Lin Mu chanted the severing heart sutra once again to cultivate more qi, but discovered that the vital energy in his body was being converted to spirit qi.
He focused deeper and sensed that the ratio of conversion between vital energy and spirit qi was highly unequal. It took a large amount of vital energy to produce a single wisp of spirit qi. Around half of Lin Mu's vital energy was depleted before it stopped being consumed.
'This means that once I deplete my spirit qi, my vital energy will be consumed to produce it.' Lin Mu learned.
For Cultivators who were in the qi refining realm, it was difficult to recover spirit qi once it was entirely depleted. They needed at least a single wisp to be able to produce more spirit qi. Thus in order to recover spirit qi, a cultivator's body would consume its own vital energy to replenish it. Only when a cultivator entered the core condensation realm, could he freely absorb spirit qi from the air.