Chapter 408: Derived Qi

The moment Elder Hong Lie mentioned Contribution Points, everyone’s attention was instantly pulled by his words.

Especially the ones sitting in the front rows, who leaned a little forward to be able to hear Elder Hong Lie’s question a little more clearly than others.

"Now, if the Qi Absorption Arts created by the Core Building Stage and Heaven Ascension Stage cultivators are more powerful and better than the ones created by the Qi Absorption Stage cultivators, why are they comparably low in number?"

Yi Chen immediately thought of his reasoning and raised his hand much quicker than everyone in the entire class.

However, Elder Hong Lie just glanced in his direction for a moment before choosing a female disciple who was desperately stretching her hand up in the middle rows.

"You. What’s the answer?" Elder Hong Lie asked while looking at her.

The woman’s face flushed with excitement the moment she realised that she was the one who was chosen. Standing up the next moment, she hurriedly answered, afraid that she’d lose the opportunity if she was even a second slower.

"I-It’s because we have a greater number of Qi Absorption Stage cultivators when compared to the Core Building Stage and Heaven Ascension Stage cultivators. T-That’s why"

’Ah... she said what I wanted to say,’ Yi Chen thought with a bitter smile and pulled down his hand.

Previously, when his gaze had met with Elder Hong Lie’s gaze, he was able to infer that he wasn’t going to be chosen so easily this time, as Elder Hong clearly wanted to give other disciples a chance to receive the Contribution Points.

’Well... I’ll just listen then.’

With that thought, he looked at Elder Hong Lie with a curious expression, waiting for his response to the woman’s answer.

"That’s only half correct." Elder Hong Lie smiled at the female disciple and said, while gesturing for her to take her seat, "Still, since you’ve answered the first part correctly, you’ll be getting 25 Contribution Points. Approach me after the class, and I’ll personally transfer it to your Identification Bead."

The woman’s face, which had turned disappointed upon hearing that she wasn’t completely correct, instantly brightened the moment she heard that she would be getting 25 Contribution Points as she exclaimed cheerily while bowing, "Yes, Elder Hong Lie!"

Elder Hong Lie nodded, seeing her response, before looking at the other disciples who had all pulled their hands down by now.

"What’s the matter? The other half of the contribution points are still left, so raise your hands if you still think that you know the answer."

Reigniting the hope in everyone’s heart, Elder Hong Lie started picking one disciple after another to give it a try.

"Elder Hong, it’s because..."

"It’s because it’s difficult..."

"Time-consuming..."

.

.

.

With each answer, five to ten other hands also went down, for they too had the same answers in their minds. This chain continued till the point where no hands were raised in the entire classroom.

’Now that everyone’s hands are down, he’ll definitely choose me if I were to raise it... However, even I’m out of answers now. Everything that I could think of had already been said and rejected...’

Yi Chen thought with a regretful sigh.

"Looks like these 25 Contribution points managed to stay with me today." Elder Hong Lie lightly chuckled the next moment and said, "The answer is just one word, i.e. desperation."

"...Desperation?"

"This..."

"What..."

Murmurs filled with confusion rang out and echoed in the classroom the moment Elder Hong Lie said those words.

Clearly hearing this, Elder Hong Lie didn’t let their mind wander in confusion for long. "To explain it simply, I’ll link it back to what I had taught in the previous class.

If you all can recall, then I had mentioned that spiritual Qi is made up of two types of Qi, the natural Qi and the derived Qi, right?"

Hearing those words, everyone nodded their heads, as this was a concept that had clearly been embedded in their minds by now.

Elder Hong Lie nodded, seeing the response, and continued, "By now, many of you must have noticed that not one of you in the entire class possesses an innate Qi which doesn’t fall in the category of Natural Qi. Why is that? Does that mean that one cannot have a derived Qi as their innate Qi?"

The moment Elder Hong Lie asked that question, an intense frown appeared on several disciples’ faces as they listened even more closely to Elder Hong Lie’s words.

"But that won’t make sense to many of you here who have already witnessed a few Qi Absorption Stage cultivators using techniques that relate more closely to the derived Qi rather than the natural Qi like Ice or Lightning, right?"

Yi Chen’s eyes immediately brightened when he heard this and instantly nodded at those words. So did the disciples who had been carrying a frown on their faces all this while.

Seeing the few glistening and several confused gazes in the class, Elder Hong Lie nodded to himself and said, "So that naturally directs us to the conclusion that cultivators can possess derived Qi as their innate Qi as well. However, these cultivators aren’t born with a derived Qi, but instead they follow a method which changes the nature of their spirit root to a derived one."

"A method?"

"What’s the method, Elder Hong Lie?"

"I always wanted to try the Lightning Qi..."

Curiosity became evident on everyone’s faces the moment they heard those words. Naturally, it was the same with Yi Chen.

"There’s only one method." Elder Hong Lie paused briefly before continuing, "It’s to shatter one’s spirit root to powder and use the remnants to create a new spirit root inside your Qi pool."

Elder Hong Lie’s gaze intensified as he said those words.

"S-Shatter one’s spirit roots?"

"This..."

"Why would anyone in their right mind do that..."

"I just can’t imagine how painful that would be..."

"While I would love to use lightning qi, this is too much..."

Hearing the discussion among the disciples, Elder Hong Lie raised his finger to attract all their attention. "What is the reason we study a Qi Absorption Art in the first place?

If I ask this question to everyone present in the room, then the most likely answer would be because it allows us to refine our meridians and also absorb external Qi to fill our Qi pool.

However, that’s not the only reason. If you think about it, there weren’t any Qi Absorption arts for our ancestors in the first place, but they still managed to cultivate and reach great heights.

Qi Absorption Arts are basically a crutch that was created to aid the new-age cultivators’ progress faster in their cultivation journey by raising their understanding of their innate Qi as fast as possible.

It is only when one enters the later layers of the Qi Absorption Stage that they attempt to let go of this crutch and raise their comprehension to the point it’s sufficient for their breakthrough to the Core Building Stage."

Elder Hong Lie’s tone lowered the next moment as he added.

"However, as with everything in life, despite their best efforts, many fail in this process and are never able to leave the aid of these crutches.

The very thing that was supposed to help them walk by themselves ends up becoming the curse they could never set themselves free from.

At that moment, they are forced to make a decision. Whether to accept the fact that they had met with an impenetrable wall and give up, or to destroy a part of themselves and forge it into the very hope they need to pass through that wall."

A mixed smile formed on Elder Hong Lie’s face when he reached this point as he paused for a moment before continuing.

"As is the nature of us cultivators, we’d rather die paving our way through than accept our limits, so the majority of cultivators who are forced to face this crossroads naturally tend to choose to reforge their spirit root.

Using their Spiritual energy, they shatter their existing spirit root and combine the remnant pieces into a completely new spirit root we call the derived spirit root, for it’s a remnant of its former self.

As you all must have guessed, this derived spirit root becomes the very source of derived Qi, and that’s how a cultivator’s Qi nature changes. However, since the shattering process is not controllable, the derived Qi can be of any derived nature with respect to the original spirit root’s nature.

For fire, it could be Ash, Lightning, Lava, etc. For water, it could be Ice, steam, frost and the same with other natures."

Elder Hong Lie paused a little to allow everyone to take in his words, knowing that the subject was a little dense, and continued a few moments later.

"Once their innate Qi becomes a derived one, to understand it better, they create their own Qi Absorption Arts and once familiar with it, they finally attempt to push through the giant door called the Core Building Stage."

Elder Hong Lie looked at all the students, knowing that this was a fate quite a few of them in the hall would face in the future, and decided not to mention the success rate.

"Because the total number of derived Qi is yet to be known, every day we see the creation of a completely new Qi Absorption Art by the hundreds of thousands of Qi Absorption Stage cultivators present in the entire continent, while the old ones keep changing hands.

That’s the complete reasoning as to why the number of Qi Absorption Arts created by the Qi Absorption Stage cultivators is considerably greater in number."

Elder Hong Lie finished with a smile while noticing that some people were almost on the verge of losing their attention.

With a smirk on his face, he finally introduced the next part of the session, which they had been waiting for.

"Now that we are done with this part, let’s talk about the various Cultivation Occupations that spread across our Light Continent now, shall we?"