Chapter 721 - 287: Tempering

He didn’t rush. Instead, he took another deep breath, calming his slightly turbulent emotions and adjusting his condition to its absolute peak.

Only then did he close his eyes again. The Spell for the *Primordial Five Elements True Astral* roared to life, operating with unprecedented speed and precision!

One Circulation, two Circulations... The True Astral surged and roared through his meridians, like a flood held back by a dam, accumulating world-destroying power.

Within his Dantian Sea of Qi, the red, yellow, cyan, white, and black lights of the Five-Colored True Astral blazed to their absolute limit. They intertwined, collided, and compressed against each other. At the very center, a miniature vortex seemed to form, emitting a terrifying suction force that frantically devoured all the surrounding Primordial Qi.

The very instant a critical point was reached—

HUMMM!

Chen Qing felt a BOOM in his mind, as if something had been completely shattered. He instantly entered an unprecedented state of clarity and emptiness.

All perception of the outside world vanished. Even his own internal vision grew blurry. Only the drastic transformation in his Dantian was clearly reflected in his mind.

The True Astral, which had been ceaselessly surging like a five-colored river—vast but ultimately gaseous—finally underwent a qualitative transformation after reaching a state of extreme saturation and compression!

The tiny vortex at the center of his Dantian suddenly expanded, turning into a black hole that devoured everything!

All the surging Five-Colored True Astral, like countless rivers flowing to the sea, was uncontrollably sucked into the vortex.

Excruciating pain shot out from his Dantian, as if his entire Sea of Qi was about to be torn apart by the violent power. But Chen Qing, relying on his incredibly tenacious will, desperately clung to a sliver of clarity, guiding the rebirth that was emerging from destruction.

At the center of the vortex, a tiny speck of light, exquisitely condensed and emitting a faint, chaotic hue, quietly appeared.

Immediately after, the first drop of liquid energy—heavy as mercury and shimmering with a five-colored glow—fell!

This was True Essence!

The birth of this single drop of True Essence was like a spark that starts a wildfire.

Then came the second drop, the third... The speed of the True Astral’s transformation suddenly accelerated, like rivers reversing course and waterfalls crashing down!

Inside his Dantian, the once-abundant True Astral vanished at a rate visible to the naked eye. In its place, droplets of True Essence gathered, rippling with waves of immense power!

Each of these droplets contained a terrifying aura far surpassing all the previous True Astral combined. They circulated on their own, attracted one another, and gradually converged into a small but incredibly heavy Lake of True Essence.

This was the Sea of Qi!

A sensation far purer and more powerful than True Astral instantly flooded Chen Qing’s entire body, giving him the illusion that he could command the wind and clouds with a wave of his hand!

At the same time, under the impact of the immense aura from the birth of his True Essence, his Sea of Will located between his brows—a space between the real and the illusory—also underwent a world-shaking transformation!

Chen Qing focused his Heart and Spirit, carefully experiencing the cataclysmic changes within his body.

As the first wisp of True Essence was born and swiftly coalesced into a lake, his Perception Power took a qualitative leap.

The surrounding auras, which he previously needed to deliberately circulate his energy to vaguely sense, were now incomparably clear.

The motes of dust floating in the corner of the Quiet Chamber, Qing Dai’s deliberately slowed breathing and heartbeat far outside the door, and even the faint whisper of the mountain wind sweeping past withered branches beyond the courtyard—all of it was as if right beside his ear, rendered in minute detail.

This wasn’t just an enhancement of his hearing, but a form of all-encompassing Spiritual Perception.

Without needing to open his eyes, with just a slight stir of his Heart and Spirit, he could "see" the vast, surging vista of the Sea of Qi inside him.

He took a deep breath, his chest swelling slightly. The newborn Sea of True Essence within him rippled in response, emitting a feeling of boundless, majestic power.

If a True Essence Realm master could internally inspect his Sea of Qi at this moment, they would surely be aghast.

When ordinary people first entered the True Essence Realm, their Sea of Qi was merely like a pond or a stream; to form even a small pool was considered a sign of a deep foundation. Yet Chen Qing’s Sea of Qi, thanks to the immense accumulation from the *Primordial Five Elements True Astral* that far surpassed his peers, was as boundless as a lake the moment it opened up. Vast and majestic, its reserves were several times greater than others at the same level.

’So this is the power of the True Essence Realm...’

Chen Qing suppressed this surge of emotion, knowing full well that it was far from time to relax.

The True Essence had just formed and still needed to be stabilized. But more importantly—it needed to be refined!

With a thought, the golden characters of the *Taixu Scripture*, which he had obtained from the Grotto Heaven, reappeared in his mind, shining brilliantly.

Following the scripture’s guidance, he slowly guided the True Essence in his Sea of Qi and began his first True Essence Refining.

This refining was not a blind assault, but a methodical tempering.

The *Taixu Scripture* was profound and abstruse. The very first refining required him to circulate his True Essence to simultaneously cleanse his Flesh Body’s organs and his Sea of Will, laying down a supreme Dao foundation.

First came the internal organs.

HUMMM—

The pure and dense True Essence surged from his Sea of Qi like a gentle yet tenacious tide. It followed a profound meridian route, slowly flowing toward his internal organs.

Heart, liver, spleen, lungs, kidneys... Wherever the True Essence passed, his organs were like a parched land receiving welcome rain, greedily absorbing the fluid that contained immense life force and energy.

However, the refining process was not entirely pleasant.

As the True Essence penetrated deeper, beginning to expel the impurities accumulated in his organs over the years and temper their very essence, waves of dull pain and a sore, swelling sensation washed over him.

Chen Qing’s brow furrowed slightly, and fine beads of sweat broke out on his temples, but his Heart and Spirit remained stable, and he did not relax in the slightest.

He ’saw’ that under the cleansing of the True Essence, his heart beat more forcefully. Each contraction and expansion was like the beating of a celestial drum, and the blood it pumped carried a faint golden luster.