The Embryonic Breathing and Qi Absorption Method can be practiced all the way to the Great Vehicle realm, but this isn't a Shushan Sect technique - Li Hanfeng got it from his golden finger.
Joining the Shushan Sect was the only karma he'd taken on so far - a Small Karma called "Joining an Immortal Sect."
After all, he was gonna join an immortal sect no matter what, so naturally he'd be bound by this karma.
If he could get rewards from it, why not?
This technique was pretty mysterious.
Embryonic breathing - that's the innate state!
The Embryonic Breathing and Qi Absorption Method lets cultivators refine spiritual qi in an innate state, making the refined spiritual qi much purer.
The purer the spiritual qi, the deeper your foundation becomes, which increases your chances of breaking through to higher realms later on. Most importantly, practicing it for a long time can slowly improve your spiritual roots.
At first, he didn't dare practice the technique after getting it, but after three days of basic learning, he realized the Shushan Sect didn't care about this stuff at all - as long as the technique wasn't an evil cultivation method, it was fine.
You didn't even need to report it, because if anyone practiced evil techniques within the Shushan Sect, the array formation covering the entire sect would detect it immediately.
So he could practice without worry.
As the breathing method operated, the Qi Refining Pill he'd just swallowed was quickly refined, turning into pure spiritual qi that merged into his dantian.
A ball of pure spiritual qi had gathered in his dantian - this was his "cultivation." It seemed solid but was actually formless, only visible to the cultivator himself when looking inward.
The pure spiritual qi refined through the technique naturally merged into the qi ball as the method operated, representing his cultivation growth.
After about an hour, one Qi Refining Pill was completely refined.
"Not enough!"
Sensing his cultivation level, Li Hanfeng took another pill.
It wasn't until the second day, after completely refining the fifth Qi Refining Pill, that he felt like he'd broken through some kind of barrier. The spiritual qi ball in his dantian suddenly grew more than twice its size.
Fourth layer of Qi Refining - achieved!
The spiritual qi storage in his body increased dramatically, and his physique was further tempered.
They say the old cultivation methods didn't have the ability to temper the body during Qi Refining, and cultivators could even be defeated by martial artists from the mortal world if they got the chance. The new methods fixed this flaw.
"Perfect timing - after tomorrow's lecture, I'll be able to enter the Technique Pavilion and choose techniques."
A cultivator with cultivation but no techniques is like a castle in the air - all that spiritual qi with nowhere to use it.
But in the Shushan Sect, probationary disciples needed to spend their first month building foundations. The sect didn't teach techniques and didn't open the Technique Pavilion to probationary disciples.
According to what the teaching elders said, there was once a disciple with decent aptitude who tried to practice techniques before building a proper foundation, and ended up suffering backlash.
If the sect elders hadn't noticed in time, he would've died. Even so, his cultivation path was ruined.
After that incident, the Shushan Sect changed the rules.
Probationary disciples could only study techniques starting in their second month, and they had to pass a test before choosing techniques.
If you failed the test, sorry - back to building your foundation. You still couldn't study techniques.
"The test is the day after tomorrow. Better keep practicing!"
...
Time quickly passed to two days later.
As dawn broke, Li Hanfeng opened his door, planning to head to the testing location.
With over three thousand probationary disciples, if he went late, who knows how long he'd have to wait.
But as soon as he stepped out, he saw another probationary disciple from his courtyard.
Fang Yu - same as him, Upper Grade aptitude, from a medium-sized cultivation family.
They weren't close friends, but living in the same courtyard, they were at least familiar with each other.
"Li Hanfeng, you're going for testing too, right? Want to go together?"
"Sure." Li Hanfeng naturally wouldn't refuse.
Before long, they arrived at the testing grounds.
Maybe because they came early, they only had to wait in line for about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea before it was their turn.
The testers were teaching elders from the sect - thirty total, forming thirty lines. It was quite lively.
The teaching elder for Li Hanfeng and Fang Yu's line happened to be the one who usually taught them - Jiang Tongheng.
Jiang Tongheng sat in a chair with a crystal ball on the table in front of him. When someone approached, he said in an extremely formulaic way: "Take out your identity token, then put your hand on this crystal ball."
They called it testing foundations, but it was really just testing cultivation level.
Fang Yu was ahead of Li Hanfeng. He didn't dare hesitate and put his identity token and hand on the ball.
Soon, the crystal ball lit up briefly.
Jiang Tongheng continued expressionlessly: "Fang Yu, Upper Grade spiritual roots, second layer of Qi Refining, foundation adequate, may study techniques."
After saying this, he touched Fang Yu's identity token to the crystal ball once, then tossed it back to Fang Yu: "Take your token to the Technique Pavilion. You can choose three techniques. Alright, next!"
Next was Li Hanfeng, same process as Fang Yu.
"Li Hanfeng, Upper Grade spiritual roots, cultivation... hmm, fourth layer of Qi Refining?" Jiang Tongheng, whose expression had remained unchanged, finally showed a hint of surprise.
Going from the third to fourth layer of Qi Refining was a qualitative change with a certain threshold - it wasn't easy to break through.
Now here was someone with Upper Grade spiritual roots who'd reached the fourth layer of Qi Refining. How could he not be surprised?
"Elder, is there a problem?" Li Hanfeng also knew his cultivation speed was a bit fast.
Seeing this, Jiang Tongheng shook his head and said kindly: "No problems at all. You're doing very well. Foundation adequate, you can choose three techniques. Also, your spiritual qi is very pure. I recommend you choose a technique called Spirit Severing Blade."
Hearing this, Li Hanfeng was pleasantly surprised and immediately thanked him: "Thank you for the guidance, Elder."
"It's nothing. Go on!"
Li Hanfeng knew there were many people waiting behind him, so he didn't dare linger and left the line.
Jiang Tongheng then took out his elder token and input a message:
[Probationary Courtyard 22, Li Hanfeng, deep fortune, suitable for in-depth evaluation, can inherit our sect's great way.]
As a teaching elder, how could he not see certain things? He just didn't need to spell it out.
The Shushan Sect inherited the righteous path. Even if a junior obtained a True Immortal's opportunity, they wouldn't stoop to stealing it.
But promising talent needed different cultivation than ordinary disciples - they'd pay more attention. As a teaching elder, one of his duties was finding disciples like this.
His luck was pretty good this time - he'd discovered a decent talent.
After doing this, he began testing the next person.
Meanwhile, Li Hanfeng continued with Fang Yu toward the Technique Pavilion.
But Fang Yu looked at Li Hanfeng with amazement: "You're really at the fourth layer of Qi Refining?"
"You were right there and didn't leave. You should've heard what the elder said!" Li Hanfeng said somewhat helplessly.
"But that's the fourth layer of Qi Refining! How did you cultivate so fast?!" Fang Yu seemed to have trouble accepting it.
Li Hanfeng didn't know other people's cultivation progress, but from the elder's and Fang Yu's attitudes, he could sense something unusual, so he said: "Maybe I have high compatibility with the technique? Besides, those with Extreme Grade and Heavenly Grade spiritual roots should have reached it already, right?"
Hearing this, Fang Yu looked even more helpless than Li Hanfeng: "I can see you don't understand anything. Heavenly Grade spiritual roots are mysterious so I don't know much about them, but there's plenty of news about Extreme Grade spiritual roots."
"From what I know, many with Extreme Grade spiritual roots are temporarily stuck at the third layer of Qi Refining and haven't reached the fourth layer!"