Chapter 107: Making His Own Method

Chapter 107: Chapter 107: Making His Own Method

And so, the refining process began.

The disciples left their seats and found suitable places on the ground, setting their cauldrons in front of themselves before preparing their herbs.

Sui Sui glanced toward his Senior Brother Ji Ling, who had also taken out his own cauldron. As a Golden Core cultivator, Ji Ling naturally had a significant advantage over the Qi Refining and Foundation Building disciples. With his stronger spiritual energy and Soul Force, this exercise should be considerably easier for him.

Sui Sui examined his portion of herbs, wondering how he could refine them as efficiently as possible. He first extended his spiritual sense into the Ironroot Grass and confirmed that, as Elder Shan Li had said, its toxins were unusually high—about one-third more than normal.

Based on the amount of impurity or toxins present, he estimated that it would take four or five rounds of purification to bring them below ten percent. Unfortunately, with his current Soul Force, he could only manage three.

With no better solution, Sui Sui proceeded as usual. He took out the herbs, closed his eyes, and separated the medicinal properties from the non-medicinal parts. After doing this several times before, he completed this step with considerable ease.

The real challenge was purification.

As usual, Sui Sui used the method he was most familiar with. He sent his Soul Force into the herb and carefully combed through the medicinal essence, searching for the toxins hidden within it.

However, as Sui Sui was doing this, he suddenly had an idea.

So far, he had been collectively combing through the entire medicinal essence for toxins, using his Soul Force to cover everything at once. But the more he thought about it, the more he realized that this method was actually wasting a considerable amount of energy.

There were areas that contained no toxins at all, yet his Soul Force was still being used to comb through them. As a result, some of his spiritual energy was being wasted on places that did not need purification, leaving him with less Soul Force to deal with the actual toxins.

If he wanted to complete more rounds of purification, he needed to find a way to conserve his Soul Force. As he thought about it, an idea suddenly occurred to him. What if he divided his Soul Force into thinner strands and used them to target the toxins individually? It would be considerably harder to control, but if he could make it work, the amount of energy he saved might be enough to allow him to complete another round of purification.

After completing the first round, Sui Sui stopped and carefully gathered his Soul Force again. Splitting it was not as simple as he had imagined. Soul Force was naturally meant to be controlled as a single flow, and forcing it apart required him to maintain precise control over every strand while preventing them from merging back together. Even the slightest imbalance could cause the strands to collapse into one another or disperse completely.

Sui Sui started cautiously, separating his Soul Force into two strands. The moment the split became unstable, one strand nearly merged back into the other, forcing him to stop and try again. After several attempts, he finally managed to keep the two strands separate.

He then attempted to divide them further.

Two became four.

Four became eight.

With every additional split, the difficulty increased dramatically. The more strands he created, the thinner and more fragile each one became, and the harder it was to maintain their stability. Sui Sui had to concentrate completely, carefully controlling the movement and strength of each strand while preventing even the smallest fluctuation from disrupting the others.

By the time he reached the number he was satisfied with, his forehead was already covered in a thin layer of sweat.

Controlling so many strands at once was far more difficult than controlling a single concentrated stream of Soul Force.

Sui Sui carefully guided the strands back into the herb. Once they entered the medicinal essence, he controlled them simultaneously, directing each strand toward a specific toxin particle and carefully positioning them around their targets. The larger toxin particles required two or even three strands to fully surround them, while the smaller ones could be handled by a single strand.

After making sure that every toxin particle had been properly surrounded, Sui Sui began the purification process again. This time, the consumption of spiritual energy was significantly lower because his Soul Force was focused only on the areas that actually contained toxins. There was almost no wasted energy, allowing him to purify the medicinal essence with far greater precision.

After successfully completing the four rounds of purification, Sui Sui opened his eyes to inspect the result. However, the moment he looked up, the first thing he saw was a familiar dark-green robe standing directly in front of him.

Sui Sui paused before slowly raising his gaze.

Sure enough, Elder Shan Li was standing there, looking down at him with his usual calm, unreadable expression. His phoenix eyes showed little emotion, making it difficult to tell what he was thinking

"You have a decent technique. It is worthy of praise from me. Tell me, what is your name, and who is the esteemed master who taught you?" The man’s voice was monotone, his expression remained completely indifferent, giving Sui Sui the strange impression that he was being questioned rather than complimented.

"This disciple is called Sui Sui. I am a probationary disciple of the Wenjian Sect. As for a master, I have not taken one yet, as I have not entered the Inner Sect."

Sui Sui introduced himself respectfully. Only then did Elder Shan Li seem to notice the uniform Sui Sui was wearing, his gaze briefly falling over the robes that identified him as a probationary disciple.

"Oh, I see. Well then, continue your work," Elder Shan Li said.

With that, he turned away and returned to his previous task, continuing to walk around the practice area and pointing out mistakes in the disciples’ techniques whenever he noticed them.

However, the brief exchange still attracted some attention toward Sui Sui. Several disciples began whispering among themselves, some curious about what had just happened, while others looked slightly envious that he had received praise from Elder Shan Li.

Sui Sui could only scratch his nose awkwardly. He really had not expected to attract any attention. After all, he had deliberately kept a low profile and had been performing the entire purification process inside his cauldron.

It seemed that he had underestimated Elder Shan Li.

As expected of a high-level cultivator, his perception was sharp enough to see through almost everything happening around him.

"Congratulations, Junior Brother Sui. Do you know that Elder Shan Li rarely praises anyone? You really struck it big this time." Ji Ling, who had been standing nearby, leaned over and jokingly nudged Sui Sui with his elbow.

"No, no, not really. I was just experimenting. I honestly didn’t expect it to work," Sui Sui said, a little embarrassed.

"Don’t be so humble. You managed to come up with that technique yourself. That’s your own ability," Ji Ling said with a smile.

After chatting for a while and giving their depleted spiritual energy some time to recover, the two returned to their respective cauldrons and continued with the exercise. Thanks to his experience with the first batch, Sui Sui found the second herb much easier to handle. His control had become smoother, and the purification process was noticeably faster this time.

Every so often, Elder Shan Li passed by his side. He never said anything, but each time, his gaze would linger on Sui Sui and the cauldron for a few moments before he continued on his way.

For the third attempt, Sui Sui started again after recovering his spiritual energy. However, after completing the fourth round of purification, he suddenly had a gut feeling that he might actually be able to attempt a fifth round.

The thought made him hesitate for a moment. He had already used up a considerable amount of spiritual energy, and attempting another round would likely drain the rest of his reserves. Still, that strange intuition remained, making him feel that he could somehow push himself a little further.

In the end, Sui Sui decided to trust his instincts. He drew out all the remaining spiritual energy from his dantian and poured it into the cauldron, beginning the fifth round of purification.

This time, the process was far more demanding than he had expected. The medicinal essence had become increasingly difficult to control, and every strand of Soul Force required a tremendous amount of spiritual energy to maintain. His reserves rapidly dwindled, but Sui Sui gritted his teeth and persevered, refusing to stop halfway.

The purification continued for much longer than the previous rounds. Sui Sui carefully controlled every strand of Soul Force, using the last of his spiritual energy to remove the remaining impurities. By the end, his dantian was almost completely empty, and he was already struggling to maintain his control. Even so, he continued until the final trace of impurity finally disappeared.

Only then did Sui Sui slowly open his eyes.

His complexion was frighteningly pale, and his lips had become dry and cracked. The color had completely drained from his face, making him look as though he had been deprived of blood. His entire body felt weak from the exhaustion, and even sitting upright required considerable effort.

This was the obvious side effect of completely exhausting his spiritual energy.

Yet despite his miserable condition, Sui Sui could not help feeling a little excited when he sensed the medicinal essence inside the cauldron. He had actually managed to complete five rounds of purification.

Suddenly, Elder Shan Li’s cold, monotone voice came from behind him.

"One should know one’s limits. Although you succeeded this time, you should not attempt this again in the future. If you continue exhausting your spiritual energy like this, you risk damaging your dantian."

Sui Sui turned around and found Elder Shan Li standing several steps behind him. As usual, the elder’s expression was calm and unreadable, his gaze briefly falling on Sui Sui’s pale face before shifting toward the cauldron.

Sui Sui immediately straightened and cupped his hands respectfully. "Yes, this disciple understands. Thank you for your guidance, Elder."

Elder Shan Li gave a faint nod.

"En."

With that, he turned around and continued walking, leaving Sui Sui standing beside the cauldron and watching his figure disappear among the other disciples.

Sui Sui quietly touched his still-empty dantian and sighed.

It seemed that he really had pushed himself a little too far this time, it was really better not to over exhaust himself like Elder Shan Li said.