The Taoist ancestor is Cthulhu

Fuling was shown up and totally thrown off balance, scrambling along in a huff.

Li Fan just shrugged his shoulders, sighing, "Well, can't help it. I don't want to be so outstanding either, but as a transmigrator, I'm doomed not to be an ordinary man. I can only get used to being remarkable as soon as possible."

'Li Fan's mood improved by 1 point.'

Wow, not only does playing hard to get get the girl, but bragging to yourself also boosts your mental health? What's the point of this system then? Can't I, Li Fan, just be myself...

'Xuantian Sword Intent advises the host to stop whining. What's the big deal about the charms of a woman? Cultivating immortality and pursuing the Tao is the real happiness. Hurry up and start cultivating.'

Tsk, that Xuantian Sword Intent must have been with some cultivation fanatic in its past life, a thousand-year-old hermit who knows nothing about living life with zest, that work and play should go hand in hand, that it's time for tea in the afternoon...

However, despite grumbling, Li Fan still sat cross-legged on the cushion, took out "Basic Sword Energy Introduction" and laid it carefully on his knee to read.

After all, he found it quite novel; this was cultivation!

Even though he had been through the wringer all night, and had seen all sorts of bizarre sights, how could he possibly sleep? Start tomorrow? What if he woke up from this dream and was back in his old world? That would be too much of a loss!

Besides, he was officially recognized as a genius, so while this weird dream hadn't ended yet, he might as well get a taste of refining Qi for fun. Meanwhile, his system, ever impatient, kept buzzing annoyingly in Li Fan's ear.

Li Fan decided to bear with it since he had to get at least some basic understanding of the settings—wasn't system-assisted cheating meant for this?

So, he multi-tasked, self-studying while listening to side comments and reading strategies, similar to when he researched and wrote papers back in the day...

With Xuantian Sword Intent offering advice on the side, and the system providing simultaneous interpretation, Li Fan, as a college-educated individual brought up on compulsory education and used to intellectual work, quickly gained an idea, at least about the setting of the ancient world of Immortal Taoism.

The core concept of the Immortal Taoism of acquired knowledge was Qi.

That's the energy of heaven and earth according to Taoist tenets. There's no need to quibble over exactly what it is, be it microorganisms or atoms. Li Fan couldn't be bothered to fuss over such a concept.

In the acquired world created by Taiji, Qi is foundational to all immortal spells, Taoist techniques, divine powers, transformations, magic treasures, and medicines. Without Qi, there is no Tao, nothing at all. The ability to control Qi is what fundamentally distinguishes a Qi Refiner from an ordinary person.

The Qi that fills heaven and earth is referred to as Spiritual Qi, or Acquired Spiritual Qi. The Qi that cultivators breathe in and absorb into the inner landscape of Qi Sea below the navel is called True Qi, and those cultivators who reach the Nascent Soul Realm and attain the Tao are also called True Ones.

Most of the time, True Qi is also referred to as 'Taoist Breath' because 'a breath of Tao' is considered a unit of measurement, equivalent to one breathing cycle, or the total amount of True Qi required for a single use of a spell, varying from person to person.

Refining Qi, or Qi cultivation, just as Fuling pointed out earlier, is about purifying and processing the True Qi breathed into the body, eventually transforming it into the True Qi of the Five Elements for use.

Of course, it's not necessary to refine Qi. For example, the Mo Zhu Mountain cave where Li Fan stays, does not have the common muddled and unusable Spiritual Qi of the human world. Where he lives in the Wangshu Residence, situated directly above a pool filled with Xuanming True Qi, the surrounding Spiritual Qi of Xuanming is so abundant and pure, it's many times better than what one could refine using evasion techniques.

Thus, outer sect disciples would do anything to come to the inner mountain to cultivate, as they can safely and quickly refine their Qi and build their foundation, saving them years of laborious polishing.

In the ancient times when people practiced the Immortal Tao of acquired knowledge, such privileges of cultivating Qi and building foundations in a blessed cave like this were only enjoyed by inner sect disciples, or personal followers of elders like Fuling. Outer sect disciples who presumably bought their status with money wouldn't even dream of it.

It's only because the present world of cultivation is focused on the Innate Great Tao that a surplus of Spiritual Qi, like an oversupply, has occurred. Ahem, I digress.

However, this doesn't mean that low-level cultivation methods like refining Qi are now useless. Qi cultivation methods like the Five Elements Evasion are principally intended to convert Acquired Spiritual Qi into different types of True Qi for use.

And the purification efficiency, transformation rate, and the quality of True Qi produced differ between various Qi cultivation methods. Indeed, during the era of the Taoist cultivation, there was a general distinction between the cultivation methods of different sects in terms of superiority and inferiority.

Like how Xuantian Sword Intent dismissed a bunch of Five Elements Evasion techniques in the scripture library as rubbish, but pointed out that the "Basic Sword Energy Introduction" in Li Fan's hands was good—there was a reason for this.

The "Basic Sword Energy Introduction" from Bamboo Mountain's sword techniques had a uniqueness that even a layman could see: it could refine all Spiritual Qi into Sword Qi.

Sword Qi is a form of Qi's transformation, considered a special kind of physical change—more refined, more concentrated, faster, and sharper. In a literal sense, spewing out True Qi of the Five Elements is, at best, 'Qi' with some elemental effects. But when Sword Qi shoots out from the meridians and acupoints, that is a 'Sword'!

Essentially, however, it doesn't change the elemental nature of the Spiritual Qi. Thus, the "Basic Sword Energy Introduction" doesn't transform the properties of the Spiritual Qi; it merely filters the excess and stores streaks of Sword Qi in the Qi Sea.