Chapter 7: The Three Great Realms of Cultivation

  "When the Qi Mo period is cultivated to perfection, thoroughly clearing the body's Eight Extraordinary Meridians and the Middle and Lower Two Passages, there will be an opportunity to further cultivate and become a Shen You period practitioner."

  "When reaching the realm of spiritual wandering, one can already not eat human food and smoke, relying on the inhalation and exhalation of the heaven and earth's original energy to survive, reaching the level of avoiding grains. In addition, the most prominent feature of the spiritual wandering period is that one can make their divine thoughts wander outside the body, control objects from a distance, and fly with swords!"

  "The Golden Elixir stage is not the end of cultivation, there are still the Dharmakaya stage and the True Body stage. Those senior cultivators can condense their own Dharma power to form a Dharmakaya, with great spiritual powers that are beyond imagination. As for the True Body stage, it is dominated by one's own essence, spirit, and energy, on the basis of the Dharmakaya, to cultivate out a true body, which can be called 'True Man'!"

  Qingfengzi's words left all the disciples enchanted, and the mystery and power of "Dharma form" and "True body" were indeed tempting.

  "Is it true that once one reaches the True Body Realm, they become an immortal?" A young man spoke up and asked.

  Qingfengzi shook his head: "No! Kai Guang, Qi Mai, Shen You, Fa Xiang, Zhen Shen, these are just the first layer of the three major levels of cultivating immortality!"

  "The first of the three realms of cultivation, also known as cultivating truth, means to eliminate the false and retain the true, and cultivate the true body. Remove worldly impurities, condense the essence, energy, and spirit into a true body, this is just laying the foundation for future cultivation."

  "Is it just the first realm?" The disciples heard this and couldn't help but take a deep breath, their master was only a Nascent Soul cultivator, even if he advanced two more major realms, he would have merely completed the first stage of cultivation. The path to immortality is long and endless, it seems that this saying is not an exaggeration.

  "What are the second and third realms of the three major realms of cultivation?" Li Muran was very interested in this.

  Qingfengzi let out a bitter laugh and said, "I don't know either. The higher-level content of cultivating immortality is something that we juniors can't come into contact with. As for the sayings about these three realms, I've only seen them in some classics in the library."

  "But one thing is certain," said Qingfengzi, raising his voice: "The higher the realm of cultivation, not only will the divine powers be stronger, but also the lifespan will become longer and longer. It's said that the founder of our sect, Xuanzhen True Man, lived for a thousand years as a true body cultivator!"

  "Besides these major boundaries, each boundary can be further divided into three smaller boundaries: initial, middle and late stages. For example, the Poor Dao is a cultivator in the later stage of Qi Mo, while you are just starting to cultivate and are in the initial stage of Qi Mo."

  "Master Qingfeng, quickly teach us your cultivation method!" Some of the young men were growing impatient.

  Qingfengzi nodded and smiled: "Alright, alright! I'll teach you the basic breathing exercises and methods. However, I must say that although we're all pursuing the path to immortality, each person is different, and the techniques should be tailored to the individual; everyone has their own most suitable technique. What I'm teaching is just the basic universal technique of the Taoist school, whether or not you can find your own most suitable technique in the future depends on your own destiny and opportunities!"

  Before introducing the oral formula, Qingfengzi briefly summarized the various ways of cultivation. He said: "Cultivation can be broadly divided into three methods: static work, dynamic work, and external work. Static work includes methods such as meditation, listening to breathing, observing light, and contemplation; Dynamic work includes methods such as exhalation, routine exercises, divine galloping, and combat techniques; External work includes methods such as diet, alchemy, baptism, and yuan collection. These poor ways will be explained in detail later. Of course, the best method is to combine static and dynamic work, make good use of external work, and only then can the speed of cultivation be improved..."

  As Qingfengzi began to explain the specific steps and methods of cultivation, all the disciples listened carefully and no longer spoke much, only occasionally asking questions when they encountered obscure and difficult-to-understand places.

  ……

  After returning from Kaiyuan Peak, Li Muran had been staying in his house and refused to come out.

  He closed his eyes slightly, sitting on a thick cushion about an inch thick, with his legs crossed, his waist straight, his chest contained and his back sunk, his shoulders relaxed, his head in the middle, his lower jaw slightly retracted, his palms facing upwards stacked under his navel, his body relaxed yet exceptionally stable.

  This is the sitting posture, one of the basic qigong exercises and also the most commonly used meditation posture. At the same time, he inhales through his nose and exhales slowly through his mouth, with slow and long breathing, which is the tu-na method, one of the dynamic qigong exercises.

  This dynamic and static combination is the most basic cultivation method of Taoism. As Li Muran exhaled each time, a wisp of breath entered his five organs and six viscera through his nose, slowly circulated, turned into turbid air, and was expelled from his mouth.

  Every time he inhaled and exhaled ninety-nine times, the breath flowed throughout his body, and the turbid air inside was completely expelled once. This is a small cycle of heaven. After each small cycle of heaven, there will be a thread of cool air left in Li Mochen's meridian, which is the heavenly yuanqi he refined.

  After spitting out nine small weeks, Li Muran finally gathered a strand of fine yuanqi in his meridians, which penetrated both arms. This thin strand of yuanqi was the magical power that Li Muran had cultivated.

  "My qualifications are indeed so poor!" Li Muran put away his skills, somewhat disappointed.

  According to Qingfeng Shixiong, after nine small cycles of the heavenly orbit, disciples with slightly better aptitude can gather a fine stream-like yuanqi in their body; those with even better aptitude can even circulate this yuanqi through both arms and between the chest and abdomen. Li Muran only had a weak thread of yuanqi that could only penetrate his arms, which means he has poor aptitude. When Moyunzi said he was too untalented, it wasn't entirely unfounded.

  But Li Muran did not lose heart, he muttered to himself: "If the talent is not good, then I can only make up for it with diligence! If others practice for three hours a day, I will practice for six hours, nine hours, and spend two or three times the effort to catch up!"

  Li Muran continued to meditate and practice breathing exercises, but after two hours, his whole body ached with fatigue and his spirit was extremely weary. At this point, continuing to practice would be harmful and useless, so he had to rest and adjust.

  Li Muran fell into a deep sleep, and he didn't know how long he had slept until the knocking on the door woke him up.

  "Zhao Shixiong, you've missed dinner time again!" — It turned out that Mu Li had come to deliver his meal once more.

  It was already nighttime, and after Li Muran finished dinner, he chatted with Mu Li for a while, exchanging their experiences in cultivation. Both of them had poor aptitude and very poor results in their cultivation, so they commiserated with each other.

  After seeing Mu Li off, Li Muren calmed his mind and sat down again to meditate.

  Closing his eyes, he felt the radiant light of the stars and moon in his ancestral aperture, and Li Muran's spirit was greatly lifted.

  Still relying on the law of gradual inhalation and exhalation, still refining the heaven and earth's primordial energy bit by bit, but this time, the situation has changed dramatically!

  A small week later, Li Muran opened his eyes and looked at his arm with great joy, almost unbelievable.

  His arms contained a rich and intense aura, like a mighty river flowing rapidly through his limbs, compared to the way he practiced during the day, it was truly majestic!

  And as he thought, this vital energy immediately rushed into his chest and abdomen, nourishing the five organs and six viscera. In an instant, the entire upper body had a flow of vital energy.

  The yuanqi can pass through half of the body, which is a sign that one has entered the door of cultivation. Generally speaking, ordinary disciples need three to five days of cultivation to achieve this point; as for Li Muran's situation, it's not unheard of, but at least his talent is exceptionally good!

  If it were another disciple who encountered this situation, they would definitely be overjoyed and eager to spread the news throughout the sect; but Li Muran was able to calm down after his initial excitement and continue with his cultivation.

  Li Muran cultivated for another hour, and the effect was much better than cultivating for several hours in the daytime! However, he had just started cultivating, and the Eight Extraordinary Meridians were not yet unblocked. The amount of heavenly and earthly primordial energy that his body could hold was limited. Today's cultivation had already reached saturation point, making it difficult to continue.

  The first day of cultivation can make the yuanqi in the body reach a saturated state. If this matter is said to go out, I'm afraid no one will dare to believe it!

  Li Muran let out a long sigh. With this talent, staying in the sect would definitely not be a problem; as long as he slightly showed it off, those Dao masters would rush to take him on as a disciple!

  "I had expected as much. The talisman drawn with the mirror characters is absolutely not some useless symbol!" Li Muran took out the copper mirror, and couldn't bear to put it down.

  His ancestral aperture shone with divine light, dull and colorless in the daytime, but shining brightly like stars and moons at night; his cultivation speed was slow during the day, but made rapid progress at night; all of this must be related to the mysterious mirror characters.

  Li Muran studied the copper mirror for a while longer, still without getting to the bottom of it. Gradually, he closed his eyes and fell asleep holding the copper mirror, sleeping soundly.

  On the second day, Li Muran woke up early and stretched his waist. He started to practice his skills and felt the results of last night's cultivation - immediately, his face changed greatly!

  "What's going on?" Li Muran's face turned pale, and in his body, only a weak thread of heavenly energy was wandering around, which should be the spiritual power cultivated during the day. However, the thick and rich spiritual energy he had cultivated last night had almost disappeared!

  "What exactly happened? Where did all that spiritual energy go?" Li Muran was extremely anxious, carefully sensing the spiritual energy within his body.

  Logically speaking, once the yuanqi is cultivated into the body, it won't easily disperse on its own. Even if one doesn't cultivate for a long time, only a small portion will disperse. So how can a large amount of yuanqi suddenly cease to exist overnight?

  He originally thought he was cultivating without worry, but unexpectedly, as soon as daytime arrived, everything turned to nothing. Everything at night seemed like a dream, the mysterious and infinitely brilliant ancestral aperture divine light, super strong cultivation talent; but as soon as daytime came, everything returned to its original form!

  So delighted and yet so sorrowful, even Li Muran's strong mind couldn't help but feel somewhat disheartened at this moment.

  "No matter what, even if I have to stay up all night, I must investigate clearly why those painstakingly refined primordial energies would disappear without cause!"

  Li Muran muttered to himself, he decided to try again tonight.