Book 3, Chapter 245: Refinement

“But before you refine your mind, you need to nourish it first. Now, I’ll give you the details on how to properly nourish your mind,” Xue Shou said.

Chen Chuan listened attentively again. Then, he noticed something: After Xue Shou drew him into that void-like state, he could focus more easily.

“Your mind is born from and bound to your body. That is why before training your mind, you need a belief you’ll stick to, no matter what, and a strong body.

“So, you can’t just nourish your mental foundation, but also your blood essence. You can’t have one without the other. Now, I’ll teach you how to gather your blood essence and properly neutralize the medicine.”

Since most of this was about the use of breathing techniques and refined forces, Xue Shou used his biofield to teach.

Chen Chuan had learned how to nourish and gather his blood essence from the university, and it was connected to what he was being taught at this very moment. It was as if this was just a variation of the basics he had learned, just a bit more complicated and in-depth.

Since Chen Chuan only needed his body to use this technique and it was taught through Xue Shou’s biofield, he soon picked it up.

Even now, he felt as if Xue Shou’s biofield was a shell and had nothing inside. He couldn’t sense anything from it. It was empty and provided no clues about him.

Chen Chuan believed that this was because Xue Shou’s mastery over his biofield technique was so great that Chen Chuan couldn’t even come close.

Once Chen Chuan learned the technique, Xue Shou continued the lesson. “Next, I’m going to teach you the meditation method to nourish your mind. I’ll give you the details first and then certain authorization on the platform. You can log into it for more information.

“It contains an appendix of all the questions and answers from the past regarding mental training. If you have any questions, read through what’s there, but if you still don’t understand something, come to me.”

Just like before, he taught Chen Chuan the meditation method through his biofield before saying, “There are two crucial aspects when it comes to nourishing your mind. Aside from meditation, you need proper medicine.”

He took out a box from his pocket, slid the cover away, and revealed three incense sticks about the width of three thumbs and two inches in length. Then, he pushed the box to Chen Chuan.

“At the Settling Thoughts stage, use these while you meditate. You can buy incense sticks from the university. They aren’t expensive and really effective when used along with the meditation I taught you. Your mental foundation is strong, so you must have learned a pretty advanced meditation method before, right?”

Chen Chuan nodded. Cao Guiqi had taught him how to build his mental foundation.

Xue Shou continued, “You need to pay attention to a lot of details when it comes to meditation. At different stages, you need to use different medicines. It’s the same principle as using different medicines at different stages of your martial arts journey. Some people can’t properly train their minds not because they lack a meditation method, but because they don’t have the medicine to go with it.

“Advanced meditation methods also require special medicinal fragrances. It’s only if you have them that you’ll be able to get more done with less effort. The more advanced a meditation method, the harder it is to get the medicines for it.

“The former national religion had the Observance of the Gold Planet, while the royal family had Dragon Ride. They’re both considered to be one of the most advanced meditation methods out there. I heard that some people are still using them, but they can no longer find the medicinal fragrances that go with them.

“So, while the different meditation methods are cool and all, training with the methods alone will only produce 10% to 20% of what you could achieve with the medicinal fragrance. You might not even get any effects—Ah, I went off topic again. Anyway, the medicinal fragrances’ effects won’t last long, so it’s best if you use them within the next few days.”

“I understand,” Chen Chuan said.

Xue Shou stood up. “Anyway, it’s late now. Let’s end our lesson here for the day. I’ll be here for the rest of the semester and will teach you all that you should know, but how much you’ll be able to learn ultimately rests on you.”

Chen Chuan stood up as well. When he checked his Realm Pass, he found that more than three hours had passed without his notice. It felt like only half an hour had gone by.

“Thank you for your guidance, Mr. Xue. I’ll still need you to continue teaching me,” Chen Chuan said with a bow.

“The university board sent me here, so you don’t have to thank me. I don’t need to spend a lot of energy on you, so I’m basically getting my salary for free. Anyway, I should go now. Before I leave, though, I have a question for you,” Xue Shou said with a smile.

“What is it?” Chen Chuan asked.

“Do you think that the mind can break free of the body?” Xue Shou asked while stroking his chin.

Chen Chuan considered it before saying, “Based on what I know, I believe that the body and mind are one and neither can exist without the other. They can’t break free from each other, but the world is changing rapidly, so this is my answer based on what I’ve observed of the current situation. It might not be true.”

Xue Shou smiled and didn’t say anything about whether Chen Chuan was right or wrong. “Once you master Settling Thoughts, set up an appointment with me again. I’ll wait for you in this room.”

I think I’ll be the one waiting for you, though,

Chen Chuan thought.

𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

“Goodbye, Mr. Xue,” he said.

Xue Shou hummed before waving Chen Chuan goodbye and heading outside. Soon, he left the training room.

Chen Chuan cast a glance at the sunlight shining through the window. The things he learned today had undoubtedly opened a brand new door for him. After mastering what he learned today, he would become far stronger. That thought filled his heart with eagerness.

Chen Chuan stood up and basked in the warm, dazzling sunlight for a while before leaving.

When he returned to his room, he received a notification on his Realm Pass. It was a message containing the link to the internal platform Xue Shou had mentioned.

He tapped on it, and his screen shifted to the platform. It had questions and explanations about various meditation methods. The one he learned was among them, but had no details.

As he read through everything, Chen Chuan found some questions answered, but only a few.

When he tried reading about the other meditation methods, the platform told him that his current level of authorization only allowed him to read about the meditation method he learned and could only ask one question per month.

He could increase his level of authorization by answering other people’s questions without showing his real identity. All he needed to do was set up an ID or an alias.

After some thinking, Chen Chuan decided to combine a word from his nickname and the Frost King Saber to form King Chan.

At this point, he already realized just how valuable this platform was, even if he didn’t have any questions that urgently needed answers. He would have to start practicing it first. Once he ran into any questions, he could come here to find answers.

After reading for a bit longer, he left the platform.

Xue Shou was only going to be around for one semester, and he said that he was going to teach Chen Chuan as much as he could learn, so Chen Chuan couldn’t afford to be slow. He had to make sure that he improved at a steady pace, though. If his foundation wasn’t solid enough, he wouldn’t be able to learn a lot of things.

He took out some medicine and decided to try out the meditation method to gather and refine his blood essence since this was the most basic of basics. If he couldn’t master even this, he could forget about learning anything else.

Once Chen Chuan settled down, he took the medicine and began regulating his breathing so that his mutated tissue could absorb the medicine’s effects.

Usually, blood essence was produced by mutated tissue and eventually gathered in the heart. This required medicine to stimulate and merge with his blood to transform into blood essence. During the process, the more medicine he absorbed and converted into blood essence, the more blood essence he would get, and his breathing technique would also become more effective.

Chen Chuan spent about an hour guiding the production of blood essence, and this time, he produced a lot more blood essence than before. This was just his first try. Once he got more familiar with this method, he would end up with a substantial amount.

When Xue Shou taught him how to gather blood essence, he also taught him a way to neutralize the medicine’s effects. It was part of the breathing technique.

Usually, martial artists needed to neutralize the effects of the medicine they took after they finished training. If they didn’t do it, as time passed, the accumulated toxins would hurt them.

Something worth mentioning was that the method Chen Chuan previously learned to gather and nourish his blood essence didn’t have a step to neutralize the medicine, which meant that he had toxins in him.

Chen Chuan used his second self to absorb them, so he didn’t worry much about it and saved the time others used to purge the toxins.

The average martial artist, though, couldn’t afford to skip this step, or they would end up with toxins accumulating in their bodies. Even if they did use a lot of time to purge the toxins, their efforts would allow them to get more blood essence than if they didn’t.

After gathering blood essence, the next step was refining it.

Xue Shou had mentioned that the medicinal fragrances had an expiry date, so Chen Chuan was to use them as soon as possible. He grabbed one of the incense sticks and lit it.

Soon, smoke resembling thin clouds rose and encircled him. A faint aroma wafted into his nose, and his mind immediately calmed down. Chen Chuan quickly began nourishing and focusing his mental foundation through the meditation method he learned.

When the first stick was almost burned down, he lit up the second one, and in less than two hours, he finished all three sticks. Chen Chuan got out of that meditative state and felt as if his mind had been refined. His thoughts were incredibly clear.

Just then, he saw two voice messages he hadn’t seen before entering that meditative state. He played them.

One of them was from Wu Han. He had completed a mission with Qi Gao over the past two days, and it went smoothly. He got his money quickly, so he thanked Chen Chuan for introducing a reliable agent to work with him.

He also mentioned that no one had been keeping an eye on Qi Gao recently, but he was going to be on guard and tell Chen Chuan if he noticed anything amiss.

The other voice message was from Lu Fang, who told him that he had come back from Yangzhi City and returned to the martial arts school.

After replying to Wu Han and Lu Fang, Chen Chuan got up to practice Principle Sanshou to exercise his limbs. Then, he took a few tubes of nutritional paste before officially beginning his training to nourish the mind.

This was pure mental training, so his second self couldn’t do anything to help him, but he could use other things to aid in his training, such as the Skyhigh Jade’s jade cores.

Even if he didn’t turn them into medicine, they could refresh his mind and give him a boost during his training. After some thinking, though, he decided to use them in the future. For his first training, it would be best for him to rely solely on himself to restrain and focus his mind.