**Chapter 23: Purple Qi and Concepts**

Jie Ming’s gaze pierced through the window, fixed on the distant sky.

At that moment, an indescribably strange sensation surged within him.

To mortal eyes, it was just ordinary dawn sunlight.

To wizards, it might reveal dense energy particles and vibrant rays.

But in Jie Ming’s freshly heightened, post-breakthrough perception, at the core of the increasingly radiant sunlight, he saw… a faint trace of purple!

The purple was subtle, like a condensation of some energy deep within the sunlight.

It hovered quietly, carrying an ancient, mystical aura.

Purple Qi from the East!

Jie Ming’s heart jolted!

The Great Dao Book Pavilion did mention “Purple Qi from the East.”

It referred to a rare phenomenon at sunrise under specific celestial conditions, where the sun’s core released a trace of pure primordial qi, immensely beneficial to cultivators.

This qi existed only in the fleeting moment of sunrise, incredibly rare. Capturing even a wisp was a tremendous opportunity.

He’d thought such a deeply “cultivator” concept existed only in the distant cultivation world.

Yet here, in the wizarding world, in Noren Academy’s lab, at the moment of sunrise… he had “seen” this Purple Qi from the East!

With no time to ponder why, his cultivator instincts drove him to act, spurred by an innate craving for this primordial qi.

His newly advanced Layer Two true essence circulated according to a specific technique, drawing the faint, nearly dissipating purple qi.

As if guided by an invisible force, the purple qi passed through the lab’s walls and window, drifting slowly toward Jie Ming.

It was unaffected by the isolation array and didn’t trigger the monitoring array, as if it didn’t exist at all!

But as the purple qi entered his body, Jie Ming instantly felt its effects.

It melted into his true essence, circulating through his body with each cycle.

It refined his true essence, making it denser and purer!

It cleansed his body, leaving the freshly broken-through Jie Ming with an unprecedented sense of clarity and lightness!

Most astonishingly, this purple qi was also purifying his mental energy!

His mental sea grew clearer and brighter under its nourishment, shedding subtle impurities, leaving his mental energy purer and more vibrant.

Purifying mental energy… in the wizarding world, this was practically a divine treasure that could enhance innate talent!

Wizard talent ratings heavily depended on the “purity” of the soul and the “depth” of the mental sea. The Purple Qi from the East could actually improve such fundamental qualities?!

Jie Ming was stunned.

The most terrifying part? Acquiring it was almost effortless!

Just circulate your technique at sunrise to absorb it—a free opportunity.

But why could something thought exclusive to the cultivation world appear in the wizarding world?

His thoughts drifted to the refined gold he’d created.

When refining it with cultivator methods, a large amount of gold’s mass vanished, yet it condensed into a substance imbued with the “concept of eternal constancy.”

This seemed to defy conservation of mass and energy, more like refining something intangible.

With this question in mind, Jie Ming queried the Great Dao Book Pavilion.

The response was swift, three streams of light appearing before him.

“*Chronicles of the Chen Jiezi*, *Explanation of the True Mysteries: Initial Exploration of Concept Harvesting and Formation*, *Return to the Origin of Artifact Crafting: Concept Attachment and Low-Spirit Refining Techniques*… what are these?”

Jie Ming quickly skimmed them. The latter two were straightforward—knowledge on artifact crafting.

The first, however, was a biography—or rather, a memoir—of a Great Ascension Realm cultivator named Chen Jiezi.

“Chen Jiezi seems to have emerged in an era when the cultivation world’s resources were utterly depleted, in the Age of the End of Dharma, with spiritual qi nearly gone and traditional spiritual materials and immortal herbs reduced to legend. Yet, cultivation didn’t die out—it flourished even more?”

After careful study, Jie Ming confirmed the three books resolved his doubts.

“The cultivation system isn’t just about energy refinement,” the Book Pavilion’s knowledge unfolded in his mind. “According to this memoir, in the later stages of the cultivation system, as resources dwindled and understanding of the cosmos deepened, the ‘raw materials’ for cultivation and crafting shifted from tangible ‘spiritual materials’ to more abstract ‘concepts.’”

“Refining gold wasn’t about compressing physical mass but using true essence and divine sense to strip away all ‘mundane’ and ‘changeable’ concepts from gold, condensing the ‘eternal constancy’ concept into a small portion of matter, granting it near-immutable properties. The ‘lost’ mass was the dissipated ‘mundane concepts.’”

“The Purple Qi from the East is similar. It’s not a specific energy or gas. At its core, it’s a grand concept—‘dawn,’ ‘hope,’ ‘rebirth’—manifested at the moment the sun rises, when yin and yang intersect, and the old gives way to the new. When cultivators absorb it, they’re essentially refining themselves with this concept.”

“To make it easier for practitioners to perceive and absorb, cultivation techniques, refined over eons, perfected methods to manifest this ‘concept’ as a perceptible ‘purple qi,’ using true essence to draw it in.”

Closing the three books, Jie Ming’s heart couldn’t calm.

This explanation was like a thunderclap, shattering his understanding of both the cultivation system and the wizarding world!

Cultivation was already dabbling in “concept refinement” at the Qi Refinement stage?

So even in the wizarding world, he could manifest the Purple Qi from the East by harnessing concepts?!

His mind raced, countless new possibilities exploding in his thoughts!

If true, he’d be unbound by material limitations.

By extracting concepts, even the most common air or dirt could be refined into extraordinary materials beyond anyone’s imagination!

His future potential would far exceed what anyone could conceive!

Jie Ming took a deep breath, suppressing his wild joy.

He glanced at the fully risen sun outside, his eyes gleaming with newfound clarity.