TL Note: For some reason my MTL made a serious mistranslation earlier. Xiao Heng is in Qi Condensation, and not Foundation Establishment. The previous chapter has been edited to correct this.
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The description of the Dao of immortality in Five Spirit Qi Sensing made Li Fan increasingly horrified as he read on.
Before the Golden Core stage, it was relatively normal: absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, consuming a natural Heavenly Treasure, and capturing a law of heaven and earth.
However, after reaching the Nascent Soul stage, the style gradually became more insane.
Seizing a subworld of heaven and earth, extracting the marrow of heaven and earth, slaughtering the soul of heaven and earth...
And even, ultimately, sacrificing the heavens and earth.
Just reading these words would make one's heart pound with fear.
The heavens gave birth to all living beings.
Practitioners cultivating in this way are essentially opposing and rebelling against the heavens, defying the natural order.
What does this represent? Don't these practitioners know?
However, this method of cultivation advances too quickly.
The book records that since the Immortal Ancestor taught the new Dao, a large number of ordinary people who were originally unable to cultivate became formidable in just a few decades.
Cultivators at various stages, such as the Golden Core, Nascent Soul, and Soul Transformation, emerged one after another like bamboo shoots after a spring rain.
During that time, the cultivation world was truly flourishing, with Golden Cores everywhere and Nascent Souls as common as dogs.
And those who originally adhered to the ancient methods of cultivation, watching their own cultivation being easily surpassed by ordinary people, how many could remain true to themselves and not attempt the Immortal Ancestor's method?
As a result, the traditional way of cultivation gradually declined, and the new method gradually replaced it.
After the popularization of the new method, the prosperity of the cultivation world reached its peak.
Unfortunately, heaven's principles are clear, and prosperity will eventually decline.
Countless cultivators, like wolves and tigers, greedily plundered the resources of heaven and earth without restraint.
Even the increasingly frequent Heavenly Tribulations could not suppress the ever-growing number of cultivators.
So, one day, the counterattack of the heavens arrived.
The heavens and the earth underwent tremendous changes, and a great calamity descended.
Since then, different methods of cultivation cannot be practiced together! The flourishing and developing cultivation world seemed to have suffered a heavy blow.
In order to have a chance of survival, cultivators plunged into endless mutual slaughter.
For a long time, the cultivation world seemed to be declining and decaying.
It took thousands of years for things to gradually stabilize.
Nowadays, cultivators have become accustomed to the malice of the heavens and the earth.
They have summarized their experiences and lessons. After the great calamity, on the barren wasteland of the cultivation realm, they established a new order of cultivation.
...
With the introduction of the current origins of the cultivation world completed, the content in the book now is about the Five Spirit Qi Sensing method.
If an ordinary person, after dispelling the miasma, cannot easily guide the Qi into their body, they can nurture their own "Five Spirits," forcefully absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, and then refine it, breaking through to the Qi Condensation stage.
The so-called "Five Spirits" refers to the five innate emotions inherent to every person.
Greed, fear, rage, hatred, and ego.
These five emotions are hidden within the human heart and are inexhaustible, and ever-present.
The Five Spirit Qi Sensing method utilizes these five emotions as fuel, cultivating the Roots of Heaven and Earth in the dantian.
The Roots of Heaven and Earth connect a cultivator's dantian to heaven and earth. Once formed, cultivators can forcefully absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth through it, converting it for their own use.
Compared to the ancient method of cultivating based on aptitude, the "Five Spirit Qi Sensing" method emphasizes stability.
For those with excellent aptitude, they can cultivate the Roots of Heaven and Earth in just one day and night, stepping onto the path of cultivation.
Even those with no aptitude for cultivation can, through daily perseverance and hard work, form their own Roots of Heaven and Earth within a maximum of ten years.
Having mastered the method of guiding Qi into his body, Li Fan secluded himself in his home and practiced the Five Spirit Qi Sensing method.
Despite mentally preparing himself, Li Fan knew that his path of cultivation might not be as smooth as he hoped.
Yet, day after day went by, and three years had passed, but Li Fan still hadn't successfully refined Qi.
Li Fan was well aware of his innate talent for cultivation. He wasn't a genius, but he certainly wasn't lacking either.
The current situation clearly had another reason behind it.
"The Venerable Heart Refinement Mantra... truly unpredictable," Li Fan couldn't help but feel a sense of helplessness.
The Five Spirit Qi Sensing method required five emotions as fuel to drive the formation of the Roots of Heaven and Earth.
However, Li Fan, while practicing the Venerable Heart Refinement Mantra, had very little accumulation of these five emotions.
Even if he didn't consciously activate the refinement mantra, it instinctively dissipated the negative emotions in his mind.
It was akin to walking with a heavy burden, which led to Li Fan's slow progress.