Yugong sat down once more, calming his mind and spirit.
He took a few seconds to clear away the distracting thoughts before he pulled the jade sword badge.
Looking at it, he smiled "A true sword sect" he commented, before pressed the handle of the sword on his forehead.
Suddenly, a stream of knowledge flowed into his sea of consciousness.
Closing his eyes, Yugong inspected the technique contained therein.
'Qi gathering technique' – these techniques only have the purpose of introducing qi into the body and opening up the dantian.
There are more such techniques for higher stages that help with breakthroughs and such.
Yugong read the technique fully before opening his eyes.
"The technique is very easy… probably because it's an enlightenment technique meant for children."
There were three steps one had to fulfil before starting the technique:
- Have a clear mind
- Be in an environment of spiritual power
- Know your spiritual roots
As long as one had all three things, one could start cultivating.
Every sect would be able to fulfil the latter two, the first point is easy for some and difficult for others, except one has a treasure like the pillow Yugong is sitting on.
Then came the practical part of the technique.
One had faced upwards, one hand faced downwards.
Sit in a lotus position to stabilise the body and put focus on the lower dantian.
Breath in and out, first three slow breaths, then two fast and one long breath.
Repeat again and again, while imagining particles in the air.
The particles should have the affinity of the spiritual root – one only affinity per particle.
They should also behave the way one would think that element would behave.
'This step is visualising the element to make it easier to gather them…'
Yugong thought that based on his understanding, most enlightenment techniques wouldn't focus on elements, but one could see that this technique is better than randomly inhaling and exhaling until one felt the spiritual power in the surroundings.
As Yugong thought of this, he also asked himself what the wind element would look like.
'It might be because of my past life… but I can only think of air scientifically.
Air is made out of oxygen, nitrogen, a bit of argon, and a few other gases…' as Yugong thought of this, many small kinds of particles formed in his vision.
He was mildly shocked and asked himself 'is my comprehension so good that I can see them the moment I give them form in my mind?'
Then he shook his head, now wasn't the time for this.
He thought once more – remembering how much each element accounted for air, he took a lot of nitrogen, a two tenths of oxygen, and a few particles of other elements.
As the elements gathered, they formed a larger particle in front of him.
Yugong felt that this was a bit inaccurate, as air was more than just one, it was many.
As he said this, a second particle of air and a third particle of air formed.
Then, these particles seemed to form the foundation – they positioned themselves into a triangular position.
Yugong used his knowledge of Taoism to make his scientific approach more immortal-esque.
"The dao creates one, the dao creates two, the dao creates three, and three create all."
As he said this, the air particles suddenly formed a certain rhythm.
They moved in the air and with each little movement, more particles were formed.
At first it was a few, but a wave seemed to have been created.
The more particles there were, the faster they would produce.
Ten, hundred, thousand, the particles continued to become many, making it impossible for Yugong to count them.
He suddenly had a bad thought 'Am I supposed to absorb so many particles in just the first stage?'
Just as he thought of the word 'absorb', the particles seemed to have gotten a command.
The tree main particles positioned themselves in front of Yugong's head.
They seemed to propel the other particles and in just a moment, many particles gathered and entered the breathing sequence of Yugong.
Yugong felt a warm yet fast current enter his body – it was like a spring breeze that carried the warmth of the sun yet also the coolness of wind.
The current moved around Yugong's body for a long time.
With each circle, black substance would form on Yugong's skin, this was the impurity accumulated over time.
Especially at the old wound near his ribs, a lot of impurity was excreted.
At one point, the wind seemed to have calmed down, becoming a calm wind.
Yugong knew this would happen when the spiritual energy of the particle was exhausted.
He exhaled the wind and allowed new particles to enter his body.
Time passed unknowingly, but Yugong didn't feel hungry.
Although qi refining cultivators still had to eat, their appetite wouldn't grow when they were cultivating.
Yugong was in a special state currently – no matter how much he cultivated, he wouldn't strain his meridians, because he was cleaning them with all his effort.
This is why the first cultivation lasts a long time, even though cultivators of different stages have a certain limit for how long they can cultivate.
In the other rooms, all cultivators spend a long time cultivating, but no one had such a big reaction as Yugong.
Slowly, others would find out that the particles they absorbed couldn't clean their body anymore – this didn't mean it was fully clear, but that the particles were too weak to do the job.
For Yugong, this issue didn't come up.
When he reached a certain point, he had to wait for more particles to join in to clear his body, so he didn't have to wait.
Wind isn't known as the purest element, but something a little wind couldn't accomplish wasn't impossible for a lot wind.
Yugong's instinctive method allowed him to absorb a lot more spiritual power in the form of elements than others.
He also knew this was because he had great affinity with the wind, deep comprehension and most importantly, the background of a reincarnator.
His body became a small battlefield between the impurities and armies of wind particles.
They would rage all across his body, but no damage was left.
Surprisingly, his body became more and more suitable for wind as time passed.
Unknowingly, while others had fully completed the three steps of infusing qi into their body, Yugong was still stuck on the first stage, absorbing elemental power and clearing his body.