Delaying, delaying, delaying, and finally… Bubai was still not ready to delve into his Foundation Establishment method yet.

If his life was a story, the readers would probably go wild, cursing the author for so much info dumping.

And the author would drop the excuse of world building.

Alas, this was reality for Bubai. He wasn’t suffering from world-building disease. He just had to approach things step-by-step.

He now possessed a Foundation Establishment method, but how can he skip to foundation building when he still hasn’t completed the late stage of Qi refinement!

He shouldn’t put the cart before the horse.

Not only that, after a cursory glance at the Foundation Establishment method ingrained in his memory, Bubai had already discerned more in-depth insights into the late stage of Qi-refinement, knowledge that held paramount importance for the subsequent foundation establishment phase.

These were details absent in both his basic Qi-refinement method from the Cloud Sword Sect and even in the Woodland Spirit Method acquired from Manager Qin's relics.

Now, Bubai found himself in the process of organizing the fragments he had gleaned so far, attempting to consolidate his half-baked comprehension into a coherent mental framework.

So, how does the later stages of Qi-refinement actually work?

In the mid-stage, the breakthrough to the fifth level occurred when half of the dantian had been transformed from wisps into strands. Advancing to level six entailed completely filling the dantian with strands of Qi.

While this might sound easy, the process is usually a very time-consuming grind for ordinary cultivators, who had to manually condense wisps of Qi into strands.

Bubai only managed to speed through these stages due to two factors.

First, the dual cultivation sessions dramatically hastened the Qi gathering process.

Second, the seed in his mysterious space automatically condensed Qi wisps into strands, providing him with a notable edge compared to other cultivators.

Relying on these two factors, his cultivation seemed to be as easy as cream pie...

Yet, the transition from level six to level seven marked a shift in complexity. The focus was no longer solely on the accumulation or condensation of Qi.

Instead, it entailed the practical utilization of this foundation of Qi, introducing a new step to the growth process.

As per the basic Qi refinement method, achieving level seven and formally advancing to the late stage of Qi-refinement necessitated the complete saturation of three out of the nine major meridians using the cultivator's Qi.

Every breakthrough in level corresponded to nurturing three meridians - three for level seven, six for level eight, and all nine for level nine.

The method facilitated this process by providing nine circulation diagrams, each tailored for nurturing a specific meridian.

While this approach might seem straightforward in theory, the practical execution will naturally be... rather challenging.

The meridian network was an inherent part of a human’s body, serving as a conduit for circulating Qi released from their dantian. However, this network wasn't watertight.

As a strand of Qi traversed through the network, natural dissipation occurred, leading to a loss of energy. Eventually, the Qi is either consumed after performing a technique or naturally seeped out from the network, returning to the world.

The late stage of Qi-refinement aimed to fix this inherent issue.

The idea was to infuse the meridian network with Qi to a point where it couldn't absorb any more. This way, when more Qi coursed through the network, it would no longer leak out due to the saturated pathways.

For low-level cultivators, the most time-consuming yet fundamental method to achieve this involved circulating their Qi through the network repeatedly, leaving behind residue energy with each passage of Qi.

The goal was to repeat this process over and over until the network pathways became saturated, allowing Qi to circulate through with minimal to no loss. It was only then that Qi could achieve a complete circulation within the body and back into the dantian!

In fact, this process had already commenced during the mid-stage of Qi-refinement, occurring whenever a cultivator used their strands of Qi. However, the effects were not as prominent during this stage.

It wasn't until a cultivator’s dantian was brimming with Qi, with nowhere else to expend them, that they were deemed ready to concentrate on this saturation process.

During this stage, they will focus on nurturing their meridians with Qi, a process that often also nourished the different parts of the body, benefiting the overall physique of the cultivator.

Hence, this stage was appropriately labeled the Body Nourishment Stage.

And this process was far from simple.

Allocating available Qi to a specific meridian in a targeted manner and leaving the strand sitting there to nourish a specific meridian was just not possible. This was not how Qi flow worked.

Qi is always flowing, never ceasing.

Low-level cultivators, like Qi-refiners, lacked complete control over their Qi flow.

For them, Qi flow operated as a natural process, guided by their breathing method to achieve circulation in the meridian network.

While low-level cultivators could regulate their breathing to redirect the flow within the network, drastically altering the Qi flow's direction or controlling their Qi to stay in place was impossible.

This is why the circulation of Qi thus far had been a one-way process.

Either a Qi-refiner ran the breathing method to gather Qi into their dantian, where they roamed around, waiting to be used.

Or, they used another breathing technique to release a strand of Qi from their dantian, regulating their breathing to channel the Qi to its corresponding location where it needs to be used.

This one-way nature of Qi circulation meant that cultivators couldn't channel all their Qi into a single meridian for exclusive nourishment. Instead, they had to allow the Qi to flow through the entire circuit connected to that meridian repeatedly until saturation was achieved.

Unsurprisingly, this process resulted in substantial losses along the way and consumed a significant amount of time.

Of course, this process can be expedited by consuming treasures and pills.

Some cultivators, born with a golden spoon, may even have their body nourishment completed through krypton gold before even gathering their first wisp of Qi.

However, these cases were exceptionally rare, considering the staggering cost. Even for extraordinary cultivation clans, the investment wasn’t worth it unless the target was a heaven-defying genius.

As a result, most cultivators normally initiated this stage after filling their dantian with strands of Qi. Here, their dantian and Qi reserves would finally be stable enough to progress further.

To optimize their benefits, cultivators typically concentrated on one meridian network at a time because nourishing a specific meridian network often brought about enhancements in that corresponding part of the body, which in turn augmented combat prowess, such as speed, toughness, strength, etc.

An example was Manager Qin, who seemed to have saturated meridians related to his lower body, achieving heightened movement speeds.

Of course, in the end, the entire network had to be saturated to establish a complete circulation system with minimal and preferably no leakage.

Only then would cultivators be truly prepared to embark on the next phase - preparing to build a foundation!

Now, it was an opportune moment to delve into the nuts and bolts of the Body Nourishment stage detailed in the Foundation Establishment method but conspicuously absent from the basic Qi-refinement version.

The basic Qi-refinement method concluded at level nine, ceasing to expound further important information, and it only offered a single circulation route for nourishing each meridian.

However, how can it be possible for the complex human body to restrict itself to a solitary route?

Naturally, there were way more. That was where the Foundation Establishment method comes into play.

Unlike the basic technique, the Foundation Establishment method included not only new meridian network diagrams but also details about acupoints. These acupoints multiplied the available routes interconnected to each meridian, a fact omitted from the basic method.

Bubai wasn’t sure about the mysteries of these acupoints and their aforementioned routes. Honestly, they just make him dizzy.

But he at least understood that every Foundation Establishment method typically demanded the nourishment of meridians through these previously unspecified routes. Only by nourishing certain acupoints and establishing certain circulation routes can the Foundation Establishment method play an effect!

Failure to nourish the correct circulation routes could result in the failure of Foundation Establishment or, worse, there might not even be an opportunity for a breakthrough altogether!

The omission of this crucial information in the basic Qi-refinement method could be attributed to the Cloud Sword Sect's method of controlling disciples.

Bubai couldn’t blame them. It was just how the world works.

This is why knowledge supplementation is so important. Bubai felt fortunate for decisively acquiring the Foundation Establishment information in time.

Of course, if the incorrect routes were nourished, it wasn't a dead end.

All roads will lead to Rome. Shallow knowledge won’t ruin a cultivator’s future, it will only result in unnecessary detours.

If he did it wrong, he just needed to expend extra resources and time to nurture the correct meridians.

To play it safe, a cultivator could even take it to the extreme...

It was theoretically possible to nourish the entire network in the body!

Needless to say, this is a very expensive endeavor. Additionally, many routes remained unclear until one acquired the corresponding circulation diagrams.

So, achieving this comprehensive saturation was considered impractical, unless someone possessed a special physique such as the Innate Impervious Body, ate a heaven-defying treasure, fortuitously inherited a complete meridian network circulation diagram along with sufficient resources, had a powerful backer, or perhaps... possessed a cheat.

Thanks to the lazy author, Bubai's golden finger proved to be a game-changer once again...

The mysterious green Qi he possessed exhibited effects beyond those of regular Qi, particularly in nourishing his body!

This effect was specially noted when the Golden Core old geezer had mistakenly identified him as a mortal with the acquired physique of Unsullied body.

From Xiao Lan, Bubai learned it was a natural-born robust physique known for its natural strength and the benefits it exhibits when cultivating during the Body Nourishment stage.

But Bubai was aware the true reason behind his current physique was his golden finger!

His mysterious green Qi was the main contributor to his body’s overall strengthening, leading Bubai to even entertain the notion that he might have completed the Body Nourishment stage!

Nevertheless, a careful assessment revealed that this wasn't entirely true. Even at this point, his green Qi still continued to seep out, greedily absorbed by his body. This indicated that the upper limit of his saturation hadn't been reached.

Clearly, he still had long ways to go.

But this wasn’t a bad thing. This extended duration of body nourishment would result in a higher upper limit, allowing him to fortify his foundation further.

This was a good thing because a fortified body will naturally increase the likelihood of a successful breakthrough to the next realm.

And the benefits derived from his mysterious green Qi didn't end there.

Interestingly, each time he utilized a strand of green Qi, Bubai strangely sensed its nourishment permeating a broader area beyond the network he circulated the green Qi in.

He even suspected it might extend throughout his entire body since he was able to dissolve a wisp of Qi within his dantian to clear his mind.

So, Bubai had reasons to doubt that his golden finger will grant him a nourishment more comprehensive than others, perhaps even having the miraculous effect of upgrading his spiritual roots, an abnormal occurrence Bubai had never heard about thus far!

Alas, there was no way for him to verify this evolutionary power at the moment. Insufficient data and sample size.

But at least, his route forward was verified because he was now armed with the knowledge of his Foundation Establishment method, which was...