Autumn goes and winter comes, winter goes and spring arrives, and all things go through one Samsara after another.
Yet the arrival of winter did not affect Huaguo Mountain at all.
Even in the depth of winter, Huaguo Mountain remained a place of blooming flowers and chirping birds—a green, vibrant world full of vitality.
To Li Qi, the entire Huaguo Mountain was no different from a tropical rainforest in his past life.
Life here was vigorous and competition was fierce, but food and resources were also immensely abundant.
After nearly ten years of secluded cultivation, Li Qi finally elevated his realm to the Peak Refining Essence, Qi, and Spirit level!
His accumulated magic power had now reached a hundred and twenty years!
Ten years of cultivation had brought Li Qi's Pure Essence Secret Technique to the fifth stage.
His magic power had also undergone five rounds of purification.
In fact, if his one hundred and twenty years of magic power were converted to that of a normal cultivator, it would be comparable to a level of six hundred to a thousand years of cultivation.
Having undergone five rounds of purification, Li Qi's magic power was already the highest among all cultivators at the same realm in the current Journey to the West world.
After ten years of practice, the greatest improvement was not in his magic power, but in his mind power.
Now, his mind power could cover a massive area of nearly one hundred kilometers!
This was a remarkably vast range of observation.
Yet even with such a gigantic field of spiritual mind power, he could only cover a single tiny peak of Huaguo Mountain.
Because Huaguo Mountain was simply too huge.
As the Ancestral Vein of the Ten Continents, its narrowest point was at least tens of thousands of li across!
He had gathered this information by intercepting a conversation between the Earth Deity of this mountain peak and a mortal.
Every single patch of land across the entire Huaguo Mountain was inhabited by minor Earth Deities. Their strength might only be at the Refining Essence to Transform Qi level, but they possessed an innate earth-escaping ability.
Hiding deep beneath the earth, ordinary people found it very difficult to harm them.
These Earth Deities were foundational members of the Heavenly Court system. Although their strength was humble, they spread across the entire Primordial World.
They were the invisible tentacles through which the Heavenly Court wielded supreme power.
By occasionally eavesdropping on the Earth Deities, Li Qi learned many secrets concerning the cultivation world.
Aside from the expansion of his mind power's detection range, the effective range of his mind-controlled telekinesis had also increased to 2 kilometers, and the heaviest weight he could effectively manipulate had risen to 50 kilograms.
He was aware of these exact figures thanks to the notifications from the mysterious prompt.
In terms of spiritual mind power, Li Qi's strength was already comparable to a powerhouse at the Late Stage of Refining Qi to Transform Spirit.
Because his entire body was snow-white, an eagle demon at the Refining Essence to Transform Qi level had once attempted to prey on him.
As a result, that eagle demon lost its head to the three-meter-long Cold Silkworm silk he had newly spat out.
An eagle demon of this caliber could not normally be harmed by human iron sabers and swords, yet it died under the combined strangulation of Li Qi's mind power and the Cold Silkworm silk.
Ten years of cultivation had brought a slight improvement to Li Qi's Cold Silkworm bloodline, but without a major breakthrough.
Consequently, the number of his strange abilities had not increased.
After ten years of practice, Li Qi, having reached the Peak of Refining Essence to Transform Qi, decided to break through to the Refining Qi to Transform Spirit Realm tonight.
Refining Qi to Transform Spirit meant reaching a realm where one could use magic power to nourish the spirit and soul.
In fact, his special technique, the Transcendent Cold Moon Meditation Method, already possessed the effect of nourishing the soul with moonlight.
Li Qi's previous cultivation should actually have been called refining the spirit to transform Qi.
His magic power formation model worked by strengthening the spirit through meditation, having the spirit in turn nourish the soul, and then having the soul nourish the body as the origin of life.
After the body evolved, its bloodline spontaneously derived magic power, which in turn strengthened the bloodline.
However, his magic power—that is, Qi—remained severed and unconnected from his Spirit, which served as his soul.
This breakthrough was meant to forge a direct connection between his Spirit and Qi, namely his soul and magic power, allowing them to nurture and promote each other.
Furthermore, the combination of magic power and soul would elevate the level of his magic power to a higher plane, granting it effects that pure magic power alone lacked.
For instance, the art of transformation was a power that only manifested after soul-type power and magic power linked together in the Refining Qi to Transform Spirit Realm.
Cultivators at the Refining Qi to Transform Spirit level could already execute basic illusion-weaving arts.
This type of sorcery did not alter the essence of things, but it could use magic power to simulate a certain state.
The reason wild demons could transform into human shapes was because their magic power naturally possessed the ability of illusionary transformation.
And this transformation was merely one of the benefits gained after magic power and spirit linked together.
When night fell, Li Qi climbed onto an inconspicuous tree and began continuously meditating to absorb the moonlight, controlling its energy to gradually transform it into magic power.
Finally, he completed his metamorphosis and reached the Refining Qi to Transform Spirit Realm.
At this moment, Li Qi once again entered a state of enlightenment.
"Blessed by supreme fortune, you have broken through to the Refining Qi to Transform Spirit Realm!"
"You have comprehended the soul, as well as the connection between magic power and the soul."
"Your Transcendent Cold Moon Meditation Method has upgraded into the Transcendent Cold Moon Technique; you refine both Qi and Spirit, dual-refining Spirit and Qi, opening up the grand path of the Dao!"
"At the same time, your Cold Silkworm bloodline has begun to ascend, evolving in the direction of the Dark Moon Cold Silkworm."
"The Dark Moon Cold Silkworm is a celestial insect of the moon, containing celestial lunar cold force!"
"Its body bears moon seals; one seal is one eye, and each seal births a moon, communicating with the cold moon of the nine heavens!"
"You have now transformed into a single-seal Dark Moon Cold Silkworm, and awakened a new innate strange ability: Cold Ice Snow Wings!"
"The Cold Ice Snow Wings are formed from ice and snow cold Qi, allowing you to fly and soar between heaven and earth."
"Your speed is now comparable to an ordinary soaring swallow!"
Having completed this metamorphosis, Li Qi, who had previously grown to three feet in length with the body of a silvery-white cold silkworm, not only failed to grow larger, but actually shrank.
His body gradually transformed to a size of an inch and a half.
He now strongly resembled a moon-white snow silkworm. Atop his insect head grew an organ resembling a crescent moon seal, and this seal itself functioned as a special spiritual eye—a moon eye connected to the cold moon!
Simultaneously, a pair of snow-white icy insect wings spontaneously evolved on the back of Li Qi's silkworm body, nearly two inches long, thin yet resilient.
After completing this epiphany, Li Qi checked the information in the prompts and sensed his current state, realizing immediately that he had achieved a massive improvement.
The cold ice power he now possessed was far more formidable than before.
At the same time, Li Qi sensed that a very faint connection had been established between himself and the bright moon in the sky.
This wispy connection allowed him to borrow a sliver of the bright moon's power every ten days, transforming it into the cold yin origin of his own bloodline.
This origin resided within his bloodline, becoming the key to the existence and enhancement of his various strange abilities.
This power could also be used to elevate his various ice-type strange abilities, pushing their levels to even greater heights.
Li Qi carefully sensed his current state and harmonized with his newfound power.
Yet just as he was meditating in seclusion, a wisp of cold moon Qi leaked out during his breakthrough.
This Qi held an immense attraction for demons who cultivated moonlight power. Although not many demons in this mountain range could sense this cold moon Qi, some certainly could.
In a valley more than a hundred kilometers away from where Li Qi was, a powerful dark rat demon used its acute perception to detect this wisp of cold Qi.
The powerful instinctive attraction caused it to fly swiftly in the direction of Li Qi.
This was a formidable rat demon capable of riding a black demonic gale. Rolling demonic gales shrouded its flight, and an invisible, immense crisis once again closed in on Li Qi.
Meanwhile, in a deep pool not far from Li Qi, a red carp also looked toward Li Qi's location.
Its eyes were filled with the light of wisdom. It looked toward Li Qi's position thoughtfully before diving back into the deep water.
This red carp had discovered Li Qi's existence long ago.
However, both parties were cultivators wholeheartedly devoted to secluded practice, devoid of any combative or aggressive nature, and they peacefully coexisted in the same region.
Yet Li Qi remained extremely cautious, and there had been no communication between the two sides.