《The Tower of Immortality》


 Chapter 1: Robbing a Cultivator

    The sky was as clear as crystal, without a single cloud in sight.


    In the State of Zhao, on a desolate stretch at the edge of the Eastern Region, there was a commercial road.


    ...


    "This mountain is opened by me, and this tree is planted by me... Miss, hand over your valuables."


    A fifteen or sixteen-year-old boy, wearing a coarse cloth garment and carrying a dilapidated knife, tried to look fierce on his youthful face as he spoke.


    Behind him stood over a dozen men.


    The clothes on these men were tattered and torn, making them look like beggars.


    Except for a few who were armed with iron weapons, most of them held wooden sticks, looking rather destitute. However, their menacing appearance was quite intimidating to ordinary people.


    They were bandits in this area, making a living by robbing passers-by on the commercial road.


    The young man standing in the front was named Lin Hao.


    He was the only one among these bandits who could read. He had only become the leader of this group of bandits a few months ago.


    The woman blocked in front was about twenty-something years old and extremely beautiful.


    She was dressed in expensive clothes, forming a sharp contrast with these down-and-out bandits.


    Blocked by so many people, she didn''t seem afraid at all. Her eyes fell on Lin Hao, the leader, and she said, "I didn''t expect to encounter someone with cultivation aptitude in this remote place. Since it''s a chance encounter, come with me."


    Her voice was like the cold wind in the twelfth lunar month, carrying a mysterious power within it.


    When it reached the ears of the bandits, it made them inexplicably nervous.


    As soon as she finished speaking, she made a grasping motion in the air towards Lin Hao.


    Suddenly, a force wrapped around him, and despite his horrified expression, his body was uncontrollably pulled forward.


    With another wave of her fair hand, a cyan light enveloped Lin Hao, rendering him unable to move.


    "Boss!"


    The group of bandits were horrified, their hands gripping their weapons were sweaty, but they didn''t dare to rush forward.


    Obviously, this woman''s abilities were beyond their comprehension.


    "Help me..."


    Lin Hao looked terrified, his face distorted with fear as he pleaded, "Miss, please spare my life. I... I only rob for money and have never taken anyone''s life. Let me go!"


    He had originally been an ordinary young man on Earth. While traveling to a famous mountain, he accidentally fell off a cliff and somehow ended up in this world, becoming one of the rare transmigrators.


    It wasn''t a soul transmigration but a physical transmigration.


    When he woke up, he found himself in a bandit den. Relying on his modern knowledge, he managed to trick these bandits and became their leader with great difficulty.


    He hadn''t expected that shortly after starting his bandit career, he would run into such a tough opponent while robbing.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    "Shut up."


    The woman gave him a cold look, her eyes as terrifying as the King of Hell who came to claim lives.


    Lin Hao was so frightened that he didn''t dare to make a sound, trembling all over, nervously standing within the cyan light emitted by the woman.


    Then, the extremely beautiful woman ignored the other bandits.


    She quickly waved her fair hand, forming a seal that Lin Hao couldn''t understand.


    A cyan wind appeared, swirling around Lin Hao and the woman, and they rose into the air.


    They flew over one mountain after another, and the scenery on the ground was rapidly receding.


    "People can actually fly! Could it be that one can cultivate immortality in this world!"


    Lin Hao was greatly shocked in his heart.


    The howling wind blew on him, making his face pale. His thin coarse cloth clothes couldn''t withstand the cold at all, and he shivered from the chill.


    Lin Hao endured great physical discomfort during the flight. He didn''t know how long the woman had been carrying him in the air.


    Just when he was about to be unable to bear the high-altitude flight and was on the verge of fainting.


    The woman finally landed on the ground with him, appearing on a mountain surrounded by clouds.


    There were magnificent and exquisitely built structures all around, quite imposing, as if crafted by the gods.


    At a glance, it was clear that this was no ordinary place.


    After being carried in the air for a flight, Lin Hao was in a very sorry state. When he landed on the ground, he couldn''t even stand steadily.


    "Senior Sister Liu, you''ve come here. Do you have any instructions for us?"


    Two men came forward. They were dressed in blue robes and respectfully bowed.


    "I happened to come across this person while I was out on business. He has cultivation aptitude. Arrange for him. There''s no need to give him special treatment."


    Senior Sister Liu had a cold expression and spoke in an icy tone.


    After saying that, she didn''t wait for the two men to respond. She quickly made a series of hand gestures, and the cyan wind appeared again, carrying her into the air, and she disappeared in an instant.


    "I don''t know when I''ll be able to fly freely between heaven and earth like Senior Sister Liu, a true disciple."


    One of the young men in the blue robe withdrew his gaze from the direction where Senior Sister Liu had disappeared and said.


    "Alas, flying is no easy feat. Besides becoming a true disciple like Senior Sister Liu, reaching the ninth level of the Qi Refining Stage before the age of thirty and being bestowed a flying spiritual weapon by the sect elders. Only when one''s cultivation reaches the Foundation Establishment Stage can one fly. With my cultivation talent, I can only be an inner disciple. I''m afraid I''ll never have a chance to become a true disciple in this lifetime."


    The other young man in the blue robe sighed.


    After chatting for a few words, they both turned their eyes to Lin Hao, who was sitting on the ground, not yet recovered from the aftereffects of the high-altitude flight.


    "Get up and follow me."


    One of the young men in the blue robe said in a cold tone, looking aloof.


    It seemed that he didn''t think highly of Lin Hao just because he had cultivation aptitude.


    "Okay."


    These cultivators had an inexplicable aura. Lin Hao felt that when they fixed their eyes on him, it was as if he was facing a towering mountain, and he was just an ant at the foot of the mountain.


    Even a small stone rolling down the mountain could crush him to death.


    Lin Hao didn''t dare to disobey the young man in the blue robe. He struggled to get up from the ground.


    Staggering, he followed the man and walked for a long time in the unfamiliar environment.


    "You''ll live here from now on."


    The young man in the blue robe pointed to a wooden house.


    "Yes."


    Lin Hao nodded.


    "From now on, you are a handyman disciple in the ore area of the Xuanyue Sect. You are not allowed to leave the ore area without permission, or you''ll be killed according to the sect''s rules. Every day, the handyman disciples of the Xuanyue Sect have to complete the tasks assigned to them before they can have a meal."


    The young man in the blue robe said indifferently, "Take this Qi Refining Manual and the clothes for handyman disciples. If you can draw Qi into your body according to the methods in the Qi Refining Manual and reach the third level of the Qi Refining Stage, you can get rid of your status as a handyman disciple and become an outer disciple."


    After saying that, a jade slip and a gray coarse cloth garment suddenly appeared in the hand of the young man in the blue robe, and he handed them to Lin Hao beside him.


    Lin Hao quickly stretched out his hand to take the jade slip and the gray coarse cloth clothes.


    "As long as you concentrate on this jade slip, you can see the Qi Refining methods recorded inside."


    The young man in the blue robe said, "Alright, that''s all I''ll tell you. Tomorrow, you''ll follow the other handyman disciples in the ore area to learn how to work."


    After simply instructing Lin Hao, the young man in the blue robe turned around and left.


    "Alas, I finally became the leader of the bandits and could just have enough to eat. But then I had the bad luck to rob a cultivator and got caught and brought here. I don''t know if it''s easy to be a handyman disciple in the Xuanyue Sect."


    Lin Hao was nervous in his heart, but when he saw the Qi Refining Manual jade slip in his hand, he also had some expectations: "Cultivating immortality should be more promising than being the leader of bandits. Since I''m here, I might as well make the best of it!"

 Chapter 2, Senior Sister Liu

    Chapter 2, Senior Sister Liu


    Holding the jade slip of the Qi Refining Formula and the clothes for a handyman disciple, Lin Hao walked into the wooden house in front of him.


    The wooden house was a double room, with two simple wooden beds in it, looking rather shabby.


    "After all, this is a cultivation sect. The treatment for handyman disciples is really poor!"


    Lin Hao frowned. This place was not even as good as the house where he lived when he was the leader of the mountain bandits.


    "Are you the new handyman disciple?"


    Inside the room, a chubby young man''s eyes lit up when he saw someone coming in and asked.


    "Yeah, I am."


    Lin Hao nodded. Seeing the words "handyman disciple" on the chubby young man''s clothes, he knew that the young man had the same identity as him. So he asked very politely, "My name is Lin Hao. May I ask how to address you, senior brother?"


    "Lin Hao, I don''t dare to be called senior brother. I''ve only been here for half a month longer than you."


    The chubby young man quickly waved his hand and said, "Just call me Wang Fu."


    "Okay."


    Lin Hao continued, "Brother Wang Fu, I''ve just become a handyman disciple. Could you tell me what our handyman disciples mainly do?"


    "We are handyman disciples in the ore area. The main thing we have to do every day is to mine ores."


    Wang Fu looked worried and said, "According to the regulations in the ore area, if you dig out five catties of spirit iron, you can exchange it for a meal. Since I came here, I''ve been starving every day... My family has been doing business for generations in the State of Zhao. We are considered a wealthy family throughout the whole State of Zhao... Alas, I really miss the days when I was the young master of the family. There were big fish and meat for every meal, endless money, and beautiful maids serving me. But then I was found to have the aptitude for cultivation and became the hope of the whole family. My father insisted on spending five thousand taels of silver to send me to Xuanyue Sect to cultivate immortality... As a result, I''m just mining ores here. I can''t even have enough to eat, and sometimes I even get beaten."


    "Five thousand taels of silver...?"


    Lin Hao was stunned for a moment, extremely surprised in his heart.


    He had worked hard as a mountain bandit, robbing passing merchants, and it would be good if he could get a few taels of silver in a month.


    Five thousand taels, such a large amount of silver, how long would he have to work as a mountain bandit to earn that much!


    "Yeah! Xuanyue Sect is one of the four major cultivation sects in the State of Zhao. Although it ranks last, it''s not a place that ordinary people can enter."


    Wang Fu continued, "I spent five thousand taels of silver because I have quite good cultivation aptitude. For those whose cultivation aptitude is worse than mine, they have to spend even more silver. For example, Han Dali, the eldest young master of the Han family, has such poor aptitude that it''s said he spent ten thousand taels of silver to barely enter Xuanyue Sect."


    "It takes... so much money to enter a sect!"


    Lin Hao was shocked in his heart.


    He originally thought that it was his bad luck to be captured by that woman and brought to Xuanyue Sect as a handyman.


    But after hearing what Wang Fu said, it turned out that he had actually earned thousands or even tens of thousands of taels of silver for nothing.


    Thinking of this, Lin Hao''s mood suddenly became much better.


    "Lin Hao, how much silver did you spend to enter Xuanyue Sect?"


    Seeing his strange expression, Wang Fu couldn''t help asking.


    "I didn''t spend any money. A woman surnamed Liu, who can fly, brought me here."


    Lin Hao hesitated for a moment and told the truth.


    "Someone who can fly is either a Foundation Establishment expert or an amazingly talented direct disciple!"


    Wang Fu suddenly looked astonished and said, "Among the people in the sect who meet this condition, there''s only one. Could it be that you were brought back to the sect by Senior Sister Liu Qinghan, the only closed-door disciple of the sect leader! What''s your relationship with her?"


    "I don''t know Senior Sister Liu. Is she that important?"


    Lin Hao was a bit surprised.


    "You don''t know Senior Sister Liu but were brought back by her without having to pay any silver. You must have excellent cultivation talent."


    While envying Lin Hao in his heart, Wang Fu couldn''t help but think more highly of him.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    "Could you tell me something about Senior Sister Liu?"


    Lin Hao couldn''t help asking.


    "Senior Sister Liu is really amazing. In our Xuanyue Sect, she''s one of the most outstanding talents."


    Respect showed on Wang Fu''s face as he said, "She''s just in her early twenties, but her realm has already reached the ninth level of Qi Refining. All the cultivators in the cultivation world of the State of Zhao know her name. It''s said that she has a great chance to cultivate to the Golden Core realm in the future. She''s the hope of our Xuanyue Sect..."


    The chubby young man Wang Fu was very enthusiastic towards Lin Hao, who was about the same age as him. Besides telling Lin Hao a lot of things about Senior Sister Liu, he also talked about many other things about Xuanyue Sect.


    After chatting for a while, Lin Hao got to know a little about the unfamiliar Xuanyue Sect.


    "Lin Hao, among the new handyman disciples in Area D of the ore area, there''s a person named Yan Heng that you must not provoke."


    Wang Fu paused for a moment and kindly said, "Tomorrow, after you finish your mining task and get the spirit porridge, don''t eat it right away. You have to give half of the spirit porridge to Yan Heng first, or he''ll beat you up."


    When mentioning Yan Heng, Lin Hao clearly noticed that there was a look of fear on Wang Fu''s chubby face.


    "What''s the origin of Yan Heng?"


    Lin Hao frowned and asked.


    "Yan Heng is the son of General Yan of the State of Zhao. He came to Xuanyue Sect three months earlier than me, and his cultivation level has already reached the first level of Qi Refining."


    Wang Fu said, "Because he practiced martial arts since childhood, he''s really good at fighting among us new handyman disciples. No one dares to provoke him."


    "He robs others of their spirit porridge. Doesn''t the sect care about him?"


    Lin Hao asked.


    "Our Xuanyue Sect, in order to encourage disciples to work hard in cultivation and to encourage competition among disciples, handyman disciples don''t have much status in the sect and are just doing hard labor. For some minor conflicts among them, the deacons won''t care."


    Wang Fu whispered, "As long as no one is seriously injured, the deacons will turn a blind eye. So we new handyman disciples have to be careful and not cause trouble in the sect. Only when we become outer disciples and our status improves and we are protected by the sect rules will this bad situation be improved."


    "Thank you, Brother Wang Fu, for telling me these things."


    Lin Hao''s heart sank.


    He understood that Xuanyue Sect, this cultivation sect, was not a good place and it wouldn''t be easy to get along well here.


    "Alas, this handyman area is not a place for people to stay. We can''t even have enough to eat every day."


    Wang Fu said, "I won''t say much more. I have to hurry up and cultivate, and strive to reach the third level of Qi Refining as soon as possible and become an outer disciple and leave this lousy place."


    Then, he sat on the wooden bed, crossed his legs, closed his eyes and started cultivating.


    Lin Hao still wanted to ask some questions, but seeing that the chubby young man had already started cultivating, he didn''t want to disturb him. So he put on the clothes for the handyman disciple of Xuanyue Sect that he had just got.


    Then he picked up the jade slip that recorded the Qi Refining Formula and prepared to try cultivating. Lin Hao followed the method told by the young man in the blue robe, concentrated his attention and stared at the jade slip.


    Just in a moment, the content in the jade slip appeared in his mind.


    The Upper Part of Xuanyue Qi Refining Formula!


    This jade slip recorded the cultivation methods from the first level to the third level of Qi Refining in great detail, and there was also a diagram of the human meridians.


    After transmigrating, Lin Hao''s mind was extremely sharp. Whatever it was, he could remember it after reading it a few times.


    Before long, he had memorized the Upper Part of Xuanyue Qi Refining Formula in his mind and knew how to cultivate.


    "Let''s try cultivating."


    Lin Hao sat on the wooden bed, crossed his legs, closed his eyes and sat in meditation.


    Following the method of the Xuanyue Qi Refining Formula, he concentrated his spirit to sense the spiritual energy around him.


    He didn''t know how long it had passed before Lin Hao entered the mysterious meditative state mentioned in the Xuanyue Qi Refining Formula.


    He found that some light spots suddenly appeared in the originally dark surroundings with his eyes closed.


    Lin Hao was overjoyed in his heart, knowing that these were the spiritual energy in the world.


    He had to draw the spiritual energy that looked like light spots into his body and reach a certain amount, and successfully circulate it through the meridians for a full cycle to enter the first level of Qi Refining.


    Lin Hao calmed down and began to absorb the light spots of spiritual energy around him according to the method of the Xuanyue Qi Refining Formula. With some efforts, several light spots of spiritual energy near him moved closer to him and entered his body.


    "How comfortable!"


    With the spiritual energy entering his body, he felt a warm and cozy feeling.


    Lin Hao kept operating the Xuanyue Qi Refining Formula, absorbing the spiritual energy between heaven and earth and guiding the spiritual energy into specific meridians.


    He still had too little spiritual energy at present and couldn''t make the spiritual energy circulate through the meridians for a full cycle at all.


    In this way, the whole night passed unconsciously.


    Early in the morning.


    Lin Hao opened his eyes and felt refreshed.


    At present, the amount of spiritual energy in his body was not much, and there was still some distance from successfully guiding the spiritual energy to circulate through the meridians and entering the first level of Qi Refining.


    However, Lin Hao keenly felt that after cultivating for a whole night, after the spiritual energy entered his body, his strength had obviously increased a lot.

 Chapter 3, Snatching the Spirit Porridge

    "Let''s go and get to work. If we''re late, we''ll be punished by the steward."


    Not long after Lin Hao finished cultivating, the voice of the chubby young man rang in his ears.


    "Okay."


    Lin Hao nodded and went out of the house with the chubby young man.


    Together with a large number of people also wearing the clothes of handyman disciples, they rushed towards the Spirit Ore Mountain.


    About half a cup of tea''s time later, they arrived at their destination.


    After receiving the mining tools, Lin Hao and the others entered the mine cave under the supervision of an inner disciple who was the steward of the ore area.


    The mine cave was not dim. There were special lighting lamps at regular intervals along the way.


    Lin Hao walked in the mine cave, looking around.


    He found that the walls of the cave were all reddish-brown stones.


    There was no need to worry about cave-ins or other accidents happening in the mine cave.


    Because, as Lin Hao heard from the chubby young man Wang Fu last night, formations had been set up in the mine cave to ensure the safety of the handyman disciples who entered it.


    And from time to time, experts from the sect would enter the mine cave to maintain these formations.


    Holding the pickaxe for mining, Lin Hao and the chubby young man came to a huge underground cavity.


    There were a large number of broken stones on the ground and pits dug out by the handyman disciples.


    "Bang! Bang! Clang! Clang!"


    A group of handyman disciples who had come to the mine cave started working.


    Although Lin Hao hadn''t transmigrated into this world for long, he had also done farm work when he was a child.


    He wasn''t afraid of hardship. He picked up the pickaxe and started digging in a decent manner.


    The stones in this spirit ore mine were much harder than ordinary stones. It was too difficult to dig them, and he had to use all his strength!


    After less than half an hour of digging, Lin Hao already felt his hands aching.


    And at present, he had only dug out less than half a catty of spirit iron, which was still far from the goal of digging out five catties of spirit iron to exchange for a meal.


    While enduring exhaustion and digging hard, time passed bit by bit.


    Almost when the sun had set for a while and it was almost getting dark.


    Lin Hao was exhausted from working hard and had just dug out four catties of spirit iron. He still needed one more catty of spirit iron to exchange for a bowl of spirit porridge. If it hadn''t been for the chubby young man Wang Fu helping him dig some, he estimated that he wouldn''t be able to have a meal today.


    "Let''s go and have dinner."


    Wang Fu and Lin Hao took the ores they had dug out today and went to the inner disciple who managed the ore area to each get a meal voucher.


    They came to the dining hall, got bowls, and Lin Hao used the meal voucher to fill a bowl full of porridge from the handyman disciple in the dining hall.


    Hungry as they were, he and the chubby young man found a place to sit down in the dining hall with the porridge in their hands.


    "Give me half of this porridge."


    As soon as Lin Hao put the bowl full of spirit porridge on the table, a rather sturdy young man came over with an empty bowl in his hand and a fierce look on his face.


    Before Lin Hao could agree, the sturdy young man stretched out his hand, grabbed the bowl full of porridge, and was about to pour it into his own empty bowl.


    Lin Hao knew who this person was. He should be Yan Heng, the son of General Yan of the State of Zhao, who had entered the sect three months earlier than him and whose cultivation level had already reached the first level of Qi Refining. He was someone they couldn''t afford to offend at present.


    Lin Hao, whose legs were weak from hunger, looked at the porridge that he had finally exchanged for after a hard day''s mining.


    Seeing that it was about to be poured into Yan Heng''s bowl, although he had been warned by the chubby young man Wang Fu, he was still unwilling to give it up.


    "Wait!"


    Lin Hao suddenly shouted loudly.


    Yan Heng, who was pouring the porridge into his own empty bowl, was startled.


    "Do you want to get beaten up?"


    Yan Heng was like a little tyrant among the new handyman disciples in the tenth team of Area D of the ore area.


    He bullied the new handyman disciples, and no one dared to resist.


    Being shouted at by Lin Hao, he showed an angry and ashamed look on his face.


    "Brother Yan, Lin Hao is new here and doesn''t know the rules here. Please don''t take it to heart."


    Although the chubby young man Wang Fu was afraid of Yan Heng in his heart, he still stood up bravely and begged humbly.


    "Humph, doesn''t know the rules? Then I''ll let him know what the rules are."


    Yan Heng glared, put the spirit porridge on the table, and clenched his fists.


    With a sneer on his face, he was ready to beat up Lin Hao, the new guy, to establish his authority.


    Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!"Do you know who recruited me into the sect? If you dare to hit me, you''re doomed."


    Seeing that Yan Heng raised his fist, Lin Hao forced himself to stay calm and said calmly.


    "Hehe, don''t try to scare your Grandpa Yan. Since you''re in the handyman ore area, could your background be bigger than mine?"


    Yan Heng sneered, "Besides, in Xuanyue Sect, the strong are respected. The descendants of princes, marquises, generals, and ministers in the mortal world are no different from ordinary handyman disciples when they come here. If your cultivation level is not as good as mine, you have to obediently endure my beating."


    He was very arrogant and still raised his fist, intending to beat Lin Hao.


    "I was recruited into the sect by Senior Sister Liu herself. I became a disciple of Xuanyue Sect without spending a single tael of silver. If you dare to hit me, you''re being disrespectful to Senior Sister Liu."


    Lin Hao stared at Yan Heng. Although he was a bit panicked in his heart, he showed no fear on his face.


    He planned to use the prestige of Senior Sister Liu, to bluff and scare Yan Heng away.


    In this way, he could avoid getting beaten up and keep his own spirit porridge.


    "You joined Xuanyue Sect without spending a single tael of silver!"


    Yan Heng was shocked. He had been tested to have a fourth-grade dual spiritual root of water and wood, with above-average aptitude, and he still had to spend eight hundred taels of silver to enter Xuanyue Sect.


    And this new handyman disciple in front of him claimed that he didn''t spend a penny.


    This indicated that this person''s cultivation talent was extremely high, far above his.


    He hid the fierce look on his face and asked with some fear in his heart, "Who is the Senior Sister Liu you mentioned?"


    "The Senior Sister Liu who recruited Lin Hao into the sect is Senior Sister Liu Qinghan, the only closed-door direct disciple of the sect leader and at the ninth level of Qi Refining."


    Wang Fu, who was standing beside them, understood that Lin Hao wanted to use Senior Sister Liu to suppress Yan Heng, so he summoned up his courage and said, "I can testify."


    "Senior Sister Liu? How could someone recruited by such an important person be sent to the handyman area?"


    Yan Heng frowned, somewhat doubting the truthfulness of the chubby young man''s words.


    After all, Senior Sister Liu was the direct disciple of the sect leader and the most dazzling figure in the sect. He had never heard of her personally helping the sect recruit disciples before.


    "Don''t you believe me?"


    Lin Hao looked very confident and said coldly, "Senior Sister Liu is the sect leader''s closed-door direct disciple. If I wasn''t recruited into the sect by her personally, would I dare to use Senior Sister Liu''s name to tell a lie? If it got out, wouldn''t I be courting death?"


    Hearing this, Yan Heng frowned slightly. Indeed, no one would dare to use Senior Sister Liu''s name to deceive others. Seeing that what Lin Hao said made some sense, he couldn''t help but believe it.


    Although he was reluctant, with the name of Senior Sister Liu here, he didn''t dare to act rashly. He changed his expression and said with a smile, "Brother Lin Hao, since you were recruited into the sect by Senior Sister Liu herself, I won''t take your spirit porridge."


    He returned Lin Hao''s spirit porridge, then picked up the chubby young man Wang Fu''s spirit porridge and was about to pour it into his own empty bowl.


    "Wait!"


    Lin Hao''s voice rang out again.


    "What? Brother Lin Hao, do you have something else to say?"


    Yan Heng felt angry in his heart but held back his temper and said.


    "Wang Fu is my brother. From now on, you''re not allowed to snatch his spirit porridge either."


    Lin Hao said expressionlessly.


    "You..."


    Yan Heng couldn''t help clenching his fist that he had just loosened.


    In the new handyman area of the tenth team in Area D of the ore area, including himself, there were currently a total of eight new handyman disciples.


    According to the rules of Xuanyue Sect, all new handyman disciples could stay in the new handyman area for half a year.


    The work done by the new disciples was much less than that of the handyman disciples who had been in the sect for more than half a year, so that the new handyman disciples could adapt to the sect environment.


    When the new handyman disciples had been in the sect for more than half a year, they would be considered old-timers and would be sent to the area for the old handyman disciples.


    Originally, with Yan Heng''s martial arts skills since childhood and his strength of being the first to reach the first level of Qi Refining, he could fight against seven people and snatch the spirit porridge of the other seven new handyman disciples.


    With the spiritual energy in a large amount of spirit porridge, he hoped to reach the second level of Qi Refining before leaving the new handyman area. By then, when he went to the area for the old handyman disciples in the ore hall, he could also be considered a little expert and wouldn''t be bullied.


    So Yan Heng cared a lot about every bowl of spirit porridge he snatched.

 Chapter 4: The First Level of Qi Refining

    "Not convinced? How dare you look down on Senior Sister Liu?"


    Lin Hao sprang to his feet, glaring at Yan Heng fiercely and speaking loudly.


    This immediately attracted the attention of several other new handymen around, and they all looked over.


    Even several outer disciples in the dining hall were startled and cast their gazes in this direction as well.


    "How could I£¿¡°


    Being stared at by so many people, cold sweat broke out on Yan Heng''s forehead.


    If word got out that he had been disrespectful to Liu Qinghan, the headmaster''s final disciple, he couldn''t bear the consequences.


    Although Yan Heng was reluctant to part with the spiritual porridge in the bowl of the chubby Wang Fu in his heart, he had no choice but to admit defeat and say, "Since Brother Lin Hao has spoken, I naturally have to show some respect. From now on, I won''t interfere with Wang Fu''s spiritual porridge."


    After saying that, suppressing his anger, Yan Heng took his empty bowl and left in disgrace.


    "Let''s eat!"


    Seeing that Yan Heng had been scared away by the prestige of Senior Sister Liu, Lin Hao breathed a sigh of relief.


    Hungry as he was, he and the chubby Wang Fu wolfed down the spiritual porridge.


    Lin Hao wasn''t afraid at all in his heart. He wasn''t lying about being recruited into the sect personally by Senior Sister Liu, the headmaster''s final disciple, so he wasn''t worried that what he said today would spread.


    "This porridge is really delicious!"


    The spiritual porridge was made from spiritual rice and was no ordinary thing. It tasted wonderful.


    After swallowing it, a lot of spiritual energy appeared in Lin Hao''s body.


    It was roughly equivalent to one-fifth of the total spiritual energy Lin Hao could obtain from a whole night of cultivation.


    Before long, Lin Hao finished his bowl of porridge.


    Feeling still hungry, Lin Hao looked longingly at the porridge bowl beside the chubby Wang Fu.


    He found that the chubby guy''s porridge bowl was even cleaner than his face, and this fellow was still vigorously licking the bottom of the bowl with his tongue.


    It seemed that if he licked it a few more times, spiritual porridge would grow out of the bottom of the bowl.


    Lin Hao looked at his own bowl, which still had a little bit of the porridge liquid left in it. Not minding it at all, he started licking it just like the chubby guy.


    After quite a while.


    He and the chubby guy left the dining hall leisurely and returned to their small wooden house.


    "Since I came to the sect, I''ve always been bullied and never had a full bowl of spiritual porridge before," Wang Fu said with a grateful look on his face. "Lin Hao, thanks to you today, Yan Heng didn''t snatch my porridge. I, Wang Fu, am willing to recognize you as my boss and follow your lead."


    "Oh! You''re welcome. If it weren''t for your help today, I''m afraid I wouldn''t have dug up five catties of spiritual iron and wouldn''t even have been able to have a meal," Lin Hao waved his hand and said, "Forget about being your boss."


    "Helping Boss Lin Hao dig mines is what I should do."


    Wang Fu, who was born into a merchant family and had a thick skin, pretended not to hear Lin Hao''s refusal.


    Seeing that the chubby guy insisted on calling him boss, Lin Hao had no choice but to accept this title.


    It didn''t matter if he was called boss. Anyway, he wouldn''t lose anything.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    Well, that was charisma. Wherever he went, there would always be followers willing to submit to him.


    ...


    Since Lin Hao had brought up Senior Sister Liu as his backer in front of everyone in the dining hall in the ore area of the Xuanyue Sect.


    No one came to trouble him and the chubby Wang Fu anymore.


    Apart from mining, the two of them just focused on cultivation.


    Soon, half a month passed.


    Lin Hao had been in the Xuanyue Sect for over ten days and had a general understanding of immortal cultivation.


    To cultivate immortality, one needed to have spiritual roots.


    Spiritual roots were divided into grades one to nine.


    The higher the grade, the stronger the cultivation talent.


    Moreover, spiritual roots also had differences in the quality of their attributes. Single-attribute spiritual roots allowed for much faster cultivation than multi-attribute spiritual roots.


    The chubby guy who had become Lin Hao''s follower was a second-grade metal single-attribute spiritual root.


    Although the grade wasn''t high, it was still a single-attribute spiritual root, so his aptitude could be considered medium.


    In the future, he had a bit of a chance to achieve the Foundation Establishment stage.


    And he could live up to two hundred years.


    The path of immortality was as difficult as climbing to the sky.


    Among the thousands of Qi Refining disciples in the Xuanyue Sect, basically only a few disciples could reach the Foundation Establishment stage.


    Once one succeeded in Foundation Establishment, they could be considered top experts throughout the State of Zhao.


    Above the Foundation Establishment stage was the Golden Core stage. Such powerful cultivators could be called sect-protecting level experts.


    Among the four immortal cultivation sects in the State of Zhao, it was rumored that only a few Supreme Elders possessed such strength.


    "I wonder what kind of spiritual root I have," Lin Hao thought to himself, feeling a bit curious.


    He had been recruited by Liu Qinghan but hadn''t had his spiritual roots tested yet.


    However, his cultivation speed was quite fast.


    "Tonight, I should be able to break through to the first level of Qi Refining mentioned in the Xuanyue Qi Refining Manual," Lin Hao murmured.


    The chubby Wang Fu next door had arrived half a month earlier than him but still showed no sign of reaching the first level of Qi Refining.


    This showed just how extraordinary Lin Hao''s cultivation aptitude was.


    On the small wooden bed, Lin Hao sat cross-legged with his eyes closed and entered into cultivation.


    The spiritual energy light dots in the world were absorbed into his body by him.


    ...


    On the other side, in the inner sect area of the Xuanyue Sect...


    Liu Qinghan finished her cultivation and was about to go out for a stroll. Not long after she left her cave abode, she saw an elderly man with an otherworldly air flying towards her.


    "Qinghan, I''ve heard that in the handyman disciple area, it''s being rumored that you personally recruited a disciple named Lin Hao with astonishing talent?" the old man asked.


    This old man was none other than Liu Qinghan''s master, Chi Yunzi, the current headmaster of the Xuanyue Sect and a ninth-level Foundation Establishment expert.


    "Yes, Master. There is such a thing," Liu Qinghan pondered for a moment and said in a clear and cold voice, "Half a month ago, when I went out to handle some affairs, I happened to run into him. Seeing that he had a sixth-grade single-attribute fire spiritual root, I brought him back."


    "A sixth-grade single-attribute fire spiritual root? With such good cultivation talent, why didn''t you bring him directly into the inner sect but placed him among the handyman disciples instead?" Chi Yunzi''s usually calm face showed a hint of surprise as he asked in confusion.


    "Lin Hao''s secular identity was that of a mountain bandit. When he saw me back then, he even tried to rob me," Liu Qinghan said.


    "So you put him in the handyman disciple area to temper his temperament first," Chi Yunzi said.


    "A sixth-grade single-attribute fire spiritual root like this is a rare immortal seedling. It''s better to keep him by your side and teach him personally. When day breaks tomorrow, I''ll go find him and take him as my disciple."


    ...


    The night sky was clear and everything was quiet.


    Inside the small wooden house, Lin Hao greedily absorbed the spiritual energy between heaven and earth.


    During this half month, apart from mining, he had been working hard on his cultivation.


    "The spiritual energy is enough. I can try to guide the spiritual energy to circulate through the meridians for a full cycle and break through to the first level of Qi Refining," Lin Hao thought to himself.


    With a thought, he followed the method in the Xuanyue Qi Refining Manual.


    He guided the spiritual energy and carefully circulated it through the main meridians of his whole body.


    After about half an hour, Lin Hao suddenly felt a rumbling inside his body, and then he felt extremely comfortable all over.


    "Finally reached the first level of Qi Refining!" Lin Hao was overjoyed in his heart.


    Reaching the first level of Qi Refining made him a master among the new handyman disciples.


    Even if he faced a villain like Yan Heng again, even without using Senior Sister Liu''s name, he would have some ability to fight back.


    "Boom!"


    Just as Lin Hao''s cultivation reached the first level of Qi Refining and he was about to continue operating the Xuanyue Qi Refining Manual to consolidate his cultivation, his mind suddenly roared like thunder.


    In great pain, Lin Hao passed out.


    When he regained consciousness, he found himself in a mysterious space.


    In front of him, there was a small tower about three feet high, floating in the air.


    "It''s it!" Lin Hao had some impression of this tower in his memory. Months ago, when he fell off a cliff, he had vaguely seen a phantom of a small tower appear in the sky above that cliff and rush towards him. Originally, he thought this tower was just an illusion he saw when facing death.


    Unexpectedly, this tower had followed him to this world and appeared at this moment.

 Chapter 5: Am I a Five-Element Spiritual Root?

    "Where is this place?"


    Lin Hao looked around uneasily.


    "Little one, we can finally meet."


    Suddenly, an old and hoarse voice came from the small pagoda.


    "Who are you? Why am I here?"


    Lin Hao asked timidly.


    After all, as an Earthling, he had read many novels about old monsters seizing bodies. He had been cultivating just fine, but now he was inexplicably in this special space, which made him a bit panicked.


    "Little one, don''t be alarmed. I won''t harm you. This is your sea of consciousness space."


    The old and hoarse voice said slowly, "I am the remnant soul of the Immortal Venerable of Eternal Life. The small pagoda in front of you is called the Eternal Life Pagoda, which is my spiritual treasure. Would you like to take me as your master?"


    "Why do you want to take me as your disciple?"


    Lin Hao asked warily.


    There''s no such thing as a free lunch. Just hearing the name of the Immortal Venerable of Eternal Life, one could tell that he had a great origin. For him to come and take a nobody like Lin Hao as a disciple, he must have some ulterior motives.


    "Because you are the person with the Five-Element Spiritual Root that I have been searching for for many years with great difficulty."


    The remnant soul of the Immortal Venerable of Eternal Life said with a smile.


    "I''m a Five-Element Spiritual Root? How is that possible! The Five-Element Spiritual Root is a famous useless spiritual root in the cultivation world and can''t be cultivated at all."


    In the past half month, Lin Hao had learned some basic knowledge about cultivation. He frowned and said, "And I''ve only been in the Xuanyue Sect for half a month, yet I''ve already reached the first level of Qi Refining. My cultivation speed is comparable to that of a genius with a sixth-grade single-attribute spiritual root... How could I be a Five-Element Spiritual Root?"


    "What''s impossible?"


    The remnant soul of the Immortal Venerable of Eternal Life pondered for a moment and said, "You are indeed a Five-Element Spiritual Root. The reason why you''ve cultivated so quickly is that I used my spiritual treasure, the Eternal Life Pagoda, to send spiritual energy to you."


    "Without my Eternal Life Pagoda sending spiritual energy to you, with your Five-Element Spiritual Root, it would take at least a few years for you to reach the first level of Qi Refining." The remnant soul of the Immortal Venerable of Eternal Life continued.


    "If I''m really the so-called useless Five-Element Spiritual Root, then why did Senior Sister Liu, the closed-door disciple of the sect leader, personally recruit me into the sect?"


    Lin Hao said stubbornly.


    "Hehe, naturally, I used a little trick to forge a sixth-grade fire-attribute single spiritual root, which caught that little girl''s attention, and then she brought you here."


    The remnant soul of the Immortal Venerable of Eternal Life explained, "The bandit den where you were before had too thin spiritual energy. Only in a cultivation sect with rich spiritual energy like this can my magic weapon, the Eternal Life Pagoda, play its role."


    "If you still don''t believe it, find a stone for testing spiritual roots and test your spiritual roots yourself, and then you''ll know that I''m not lying."


    He continued.


    Seeing that the Immortal Venerable of Eternal Life spoke with such certainty, Lin Hao believed it a little.


    "Since I''m a useless Five-Element Spiritual Root, why do you want to take me as your disciple?"


    Lin Hao asked after a moment of silence.


    "Who said that the Five-Element Spiritual Root is a useless spiritual root? In fact, in the ancient cultivation world, the Five-Element Spiritual Root was the top spiritual root in the world, and its combat power could crush those of the same realm, and it was known as invincible in the same realm."This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    The old and hoarse voice of the remnant soul of the Immortal Venerable of Eternal Life rang out, and he said, "Back then, when I was only tested to have an unranked Five-Element Spiritual Root, it caused a sensation in the entire ancient cultivation world, and all the top cultivation holy lands fought over me..."


    "What you said about the Five-Element Spiritual Root is so powerful, but why is the Five-Element Spiritual Root now a useless spiritual root that everyone in the cultivation world dislikes?"


    A puzzled look appeared on Lin Hao''s face.


    "Because there was a great catastrophe in the world once, which caused the spiritual energy in the world to be much less than that in ancient times."


    "As a result, multi-attribute spiritual roots that require more spiritual energy to cultivate are no longer at an advantage."


    The remnant soul of the Immortal Venerable of Eternal Life continued, "On the contrary, single spiritual roots, which were like trash in ancient times, have become the darlings of the current cultivation world because of their advantages of requiring less spiritual energy and having a faster cultivation speed."


    "So that''s how it is!"


    Lin Hao understood and couldn''t help but worry, "Even if my Five-Element Spiritual Root was the best spiritual root in ancient times, but now that the spiritual energy in the world has decreased so much, can I cultivate to the Foundation Establishment stage in the future?"


    "Others with the Five-Element Spiritual Root may not be able to, but with me and the Eternal Life Pagoda here, as long as you take me as your master, let alone Foundation Establishment, there''s hope for you to cultivate and become an immortal in the future."


    "I specifically created a cultivation method for the Five-Element Spiritual Root back then."


    The remnant soul of the Immortal Venerable of Eternal Life said rather proudly, "With this method, even without me sending you spiritual energy, your cultivation speed with the Five-Element Spiritual Root can be comparable to that of a first-grade single spiritual root."


    "Only the cultivation speed of a first-grade single spiritual root."


    Lin Hao was a bit disappointed.


    The quality of spiritual roots is divided into grades one to nine, with grade one being the lowest and grade nine being the highest. Even if he cultivated the special method of the Immortal Venerable of Eternal Life and his first-grade Five-Element Spiritual Root could reach the speed of a first-grade single spiritual root, in the cultivation world, he would still only be considered to have inferior cultivation aptitude.


    He couldn''t even compare to Fatty Wang Fu''s second-grade metal-attribute single spiritual root.


    "Why aren''t you satisfied yet? Without the unique method I created, with the current spiritual energy in the world, if you cultivate with the Five-Element Spiritual Root, it would be good if the cultivation speed could be one-tenth of that of a first-grade single spiritual root."


    The remnant soul of the Immortal Venerable of Eternal Life smiled and said, "Little one, do you want to learn this unique method of mine?"


    "Yes... Of course I want to learn."


    Lin Hao no longer hesitated.


    If he was really a Five-Element Spiritual Root, without special opportunities, he would probably have nothing to do with cultivation.


    So, Lin Hao decided to try the unique Five-Element method mentioned by the Immortal Venerable of Eternal Life first.


    "If you want to learn, then take me as your master. Kneel down in front of my life-bound magic weapon, the Eternal Life Pagoda, and you''ll be my disciple."


    The remnant soul of the Immortal Venerable of Eternal Life said.


    "Master, please accept your disciple''s bow."


    Lin Hao respectfully performed a bowing ceremony towards the small pagoda floating in front.


    "Hehe, my good disciple, quickly get up."


    From the small pagoda over three feet high came the rather smug laughter of the old man. He sighed in his heart, "The Five-Element Spiritual Root has been an extremely rare spiritual root since ancient times. Even when some people with the Five-Element Spiritual Root were found, they were all unranked, not even reaching grade one. I didn''t expect that even in my current state, I could still find a disciple with a Five-Element Spiritual Root that has reached grade one."


    "Since I''ve already taken you as my master, can you pass on the Five-Element method to me now?"


    Lin Hao got up after performing the bowing ceremony and shamelessly stretched out his hand to ask for it.


    "My good disciple, don''t be impatient."


    The Immortal Venerable of Eternal Life said with a smile, "Let me introduce this method to you first."


    "Please, Master."


    A hopeful look appeared on Lin Hao''s small face.


    "The method I created is called the Five-Element Eternal Life Method. As the name implies, if you cultivate this method, you will have a longer lifespan than those of the same realm and live longer."


    The Immortal Venerable of Eternal Life didn''t beat around the bush and introduced it.


    "A longer lifespan!"


    Lin Hao''s eyes lit up.


    He was most afraid of death, and this cultivation method that could make one live longer had a great attraction for him.


    Seeing that his disciple was interested, the Immortal Venerable of Eternal Life continued with a smile, "When you cultivate the Five-Element Eternal Life Method, the lifespan you have at each realm will be half more than that of other cultivators of the same realm."


    "For example, a cultivator at the ninth level of Qi Refining can live to be 120 years old, while if you cultivate the Five-Element Eternal Life Method and reach this realm, you can live to be 180 years old, and your lifespan is only a little short of that of a Foundation Establishment cultivator."


    "A Foundation Establishment cultivator can live to be 200 years old, while if you cultivate the Five-Element Eternal Life Method and reach this realm, you can live to be 300 years old..."


    "A Golden Core cultivator can live to be 500 years old, and when you reach this realm, you can live to be 750 years old."


    ...


    "Cultivation, cultivation is all about who can live longer. Besides giving you a long life, the Five-Element Eternal Life Method also enables you to have much more spiritual energy than others of the same realm, making you invincible in the same realm."


    The old voice of the Immortal Venerable of Eternal Life echoed in the special space.


    Hearing that one could live to be 180 years old when reaching the ninth level of Qi Refining, Lin Hao, who was rather afraid of death, was extremely excited and his blood boiled.


    He was determined to learn this Five-Element Eternal Life Method no matter what.

 Chapter 6: The Spiritual Treasure

    "Master, have you finished introducing the Five Elements Longevity Art? Can you pass it on to me now?" Lin Hao asked expectantly.


    The remnant soul of the Immortal Venerable of Longevity controlled the floating small tower over three feet tall and gave it a gentle shake upon seeing his disciple''s eagerness.


    Immediately, a scroll made of animal skin flew out of the small tower and landed in front of Lin Hao.


    "Disciple, this is the Five Elements Longevity Art," the remnant soul of the Immortal Venerable of Longevity continued, "First, memorize it."


    "Alright," Lin Hao replied.


    Inside the mysterious space, Lin Hao opened the animal skin scroll.


    One by one, vigorous characters appeared before his eyes.


    "Spiritual energy enters the body, travels through the Conception Vessel... and then passes through the Governor Vessel..." The scroll recorded the meridian routes through which spiritual energy circulated when cultivating the Five Elements Longevity Art.


    "It''s so complicated! Compared to the Xuanyue Qi Refining Art of the Xuanyue Sect, the number of human meridians used in cultivation is several times more!"


    Lin Hao had a strong memory, but it still took him some time to remember these meridians.


    About a quarter of an hour later, he withdrew his gaze from the animal skin scroll and said, "Master, I''ve memorized all the content inside."


    "Well, your memory is not bad," the remnant soul of the Immortal Venerable of Longevity said, "Since I''ve already passed on the cultivation art to you, I''m just a remnant soul now and have nothing valuable left. I''ll pass on this Eternal Longevity Tower to you as a gift for you to acknowledge me as your master."


    This Eternal Longevity Tower was clearly an extraordinary treasure. Lin Hao''s face lit up with joy upon hearing this, and he quickly expressed his gratitude, "Thank you, Master."


    "Disciple, I need to take a drop of your life essence blood so that the Eternal Longevity Tower can recognize you as its master," the remnant soul of the Immortal Venerable of Longevity said, "This process will be a bit painful. Bear with it."


    "Whoosh!"


    Before Lin Hao could respond, the small tower over three feet tall in front of him gave a gentle shake, and a ray of light shot towards him and disappeared into his chest.


    "Puff!"


    Lin Hao felt as if his heart had been pierced through, and the pain was excruciating.


    Fortunately, the pain disappeared after just a moment.


    The ray of light that had shot out from the small tower left Lin Hao''s chest, carrying a drop of bright red blood, and returned to the tower.


    Immediately after that, he felt a mysterious connection with the Eternal Longevity Tower.


    "This is the recognition of the spiritual treasure''s master! How miraculous!" Lin Hao could sense the friendly intention coming from the small tower.


    "The Eternal Longevity Tower was originally a celestial artifact, but it was severely damaged in that great battle and degenerated into a top-grade spiritual treasure," the old voice of the Immortal Venerable of Longevity rang out again, "Although the attack methods of this top-grade spiritual treasure have been destroyed, it can assist you in your cultivation."


    "Please, Master, explain in detail how to use this spiritual treasure," Lin Hao said respectfully.


    "Using this spiritual treasure is quite simple. It has two functions. One function is to accelerate your cultivation speed. For example, when others absorb a spirit stone, they can probably only absorb about half of the spiritual energy in the spirit stone, and the other half will be wasted. However, with the Eternal Longevity Tower, you can absorb the spiritual energy in the spirit stone perfectly without wasting a single bit," the remnant soul of the Immortal Venerable of Longevity continued.


    Lin Hao''s eyes lit up. With this treasure, one spirit stone could be equivalent to two spirit stones.


    "Master, what''s the second function of the Eternal Longevity Tower?" he asked.


    "The second function...," the remnant soul of the Immortal Venerable of Longevity paused for a moment and said, "is to turn waste into treasure. For example, if you have a first-order Qi-tonifying pill that has become a waste pill, put it into the Eternal Longevity Tower and provide the tower with some spirit stones, and you can turn the Qi-tonifying pill from a waste pill into a top-quality pill."Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.


    "This Eternal Longevity Tower can not only improve the quality of pills but also enhance the quality of spirit herbs and magic weapons."


    "For example, for a first-order low-grade spirit herb, if you give the Eternal Longevity Tower several low-grade spirit stones, you can turn this first-order low-grade spirit herb into a middle-grade spirit herb."


    "Even for an ordinary sword, as long as you provide spirit stones, the Eternal Longevity Tower can also improve its quality and turn it into a magic weapon..."


    After the remnant soul of the Immortal Venerable of Longevity''s introduction, Lin Hao already knew all the current functions of the Eternal Longevity Tower.


    This treasure was simply incredible!


    Just the function of the Eternal Longevity Tower to improve the efficiency of absorbing spirit stones alone, if known by people outside, could cause a bloodbath.


    Coupled with its terrifying ability to turn waste into treasure, perhaps all the old monsters in the cultivation world would be unable to resist coming out to snatch it.


    This tower was worthy of being a celestial artifact before. Even though it had degenerated into a spiritual treasure, it was still so powerful. Lin Hao couldn''t help but feel his heart pounding with excitement.


    "Alright, I''ve already passed on the Five Elements Longevity Art and the Eternal Longevity Tower to you. My remnant soul can''t stay awake all the time and needs to go into slumber to recuperate," the remnant soul of the Immortal Venerable of Longevity said, "Before falling asleep, I have one thing to remind you of."


    "What is it?" Lin Hao asked.


    "I originally used a secret method that could affect one''s mind to make that little girl arrange for you to be in the area for the miscellaneous disciples of the Xuanyue Sect."


    "Who would have thought that you, in order to avoid being bullied by others, would use that little girl as your backer and spread the news that you''re a genius everywhere."


    "I''m afraid that the sixth-grade fire-attribute single spiritual root that you faked to deceive that little girl won''t be able to be concealed in the Xuanyue Sect for long. It probably won''t be long before the fact that you''re a first-grade five-element spiritual root is exposed. You should be mentally prepared."


    The Immortal Venerable of Longevity continued, "At that time, they will surely be curious about why your first-grade five-element spiritual root can cultivate so quickly and reach the first level of Qi Refining in just half a month. At that time, just say that you ate a fiery red fruit two years ago. Presumably, they won''t drive you out of the sect."


    Then, his voice disappeared.


    "Master, Master!"


    Lin Hao called out several times but received no response, so he had to give up.


    Then, still in the mysterious space, his gaze fell on the small tower over three feet tall in front of him. After looking at it for a while, since he had already become the master of the small tower, with just a thought, his consciousness withdrew from the mysterious space.


    On the wooden bed, Lin Hao, who was sitting cross-legged, opened his eyes, with a shocked expression on his face.


    The events that had just happened were too strange.


    "Was it a dream?"


    Lin Hao tried to communicate with the small tower again with his mind. Fortunately, his consciousness smoothly entered the mysterious space of the small tower again.


    After trying several times repeatedly, he finally confirmed that what had just happened was real.


    Lin Hao glanced at the bed next to him. The chubby Wang Fu was still sitting cross-legged with his eyes closed, cultivating.


    He quietly picked up a water cup not far from the bed and, with a slight movement of his mind, the water cup disappeared from his hand and appeared inside the Eternal Longevity Tower.


    Besides being able to improve the efficiency of people''s absorption of spirit stones and pills and having the function of turning waste into treasure, the small tower had a third function, which was to be used as a storage space.


    "I can put important things into the small tower in the future," Lin Hao thought.


    After a while, he communicated with the Eternal Longevity Tower again and took out the cup that he had put inside and put it back in its original place.


    "Am I really a first-grade five-element spiritual root?"


    Withdrawing his thoughts from the small tower, Lin Hao murmured to himself.


    He couldn''t help but sit cross-legged with his eyes closed and started to cultivate by operating the Xuanyue Qi Refining Art as usual.


    Sure enough, without the Immortal Venerable of Longevity, his master, sending spiritual energy to him, Lin Hao felt that his current cultivation speed was at least thirty times slower than before, as slow as a turtle''s pace.


    At this speed of cultivation, he estimated that even when he got old, he would have no hope of forming the foundation, and it would even be difficult for him to reach the second level of Qi Refining.


    "Let''s try the Five Elements Longevity Art specifically for cultivating the five-element spiritual root," Lin Hao stopped operating the Xuanyue Qi Refining Art.


    He took a deep breath and cleared his mind.


    He began to guide the spiritual energy to circulate through the specific meridians in his body according to the method of the Five Elements Longevity Art.


    The meridians involved in cultivating the Five Elements Longevity Art were too complicated.


    Some meridians were too tiny. When Lin Hao cultivated for the first time, the spiritual energy flowed extremely slowly.


    Moreover, when the spiritual energy flowed into certain meridians, a tearing pain came, like being pricked by needles.


    He trembled slightly all over, gritted his teeth, and persisted in cultivating the Five Elements Longevity Art.


    When several hours had passed and it was slightly dawn outside, Lin Hao finally managed to guide the spiritual energy to complete a cycle in his body according to the cultivation method of the Five Elements Longevity Art.


    "Not bad!"


    A look of surprise appeared on his face.


    Originally, his cultivation speed was almost thirty times slower. Under the cultivation art of the Five Elements Longevity Art, with his first-grade five-element spiritual root, his cultivation speed was only about six or seven times slower than when his master, the Immortal Venerable of Longevity, sent spiritual energy to him, which was almost equivalent to the cultivation speed of a first-grade single spiritual root.

 Chapter 7: Chi Yunzis Unstable Dao Heart

    It was almost time to start working. Lin Hao, who had been sitting cross-legged in meditation, stopped cultivating and got up from the small wooden bed.


    "Set a small goal first, to cultivate to the ninth level of Qi Refining," he said, full of fighting spirit.


    As long as he cultivated to the ninth level of Qi Refining using the Five Elements Longevity Art, he would have a lifespan that was one and a half times longer than that of cultivators of the same realm, which meant he could live up to 180 years.


    "Boss, have you broken through to the first level of Qi Refining?"


    The chubby Wang Fu chatted with Lin Hao. He had heard Lin Hao mention that he might be able to break through in the next few days. So early in the morning, he asked with concern.


    "Yeah, I''ve already broken through," Lin Hao replied with a smile.


    "Boss, as expected of a genius disciple recruited by Senior Sister Liu. You''re really amazing," Wang Fu said, envy showing on his chubby face.


    "Don''t mention that I''m a genius disciple anymore. We should keep a low profile," Lin Hao''s expression became unnatural when he heard the chubby guy mention "Senior Sister Liu."


    His real spiritual root was just a first-grade five-element spiritual root. He wondered what kind of expression Wang Fu would have if he knew the truth. Would he still be willing to call him boss?


    While chatting, the two walked out of the room side by side and headed for the spirit iron mine.


    After receiving the mining tools, Lin Hao and the chubby guy entered the mine cave.


    "Clang! Clang! Ding! Ding!"


    A large number of miscellaneous disciples were mining, and the sounds of chiseling and knocking on stones kept ringing out.


    "My strength has increased!"


    Lin Hao swung the pickaxe in his hand and found that after breaking through to the first level of Qi Refining, his strength was at least three times greater than before.


    Before the breakthrough, after eating spirit porridge for half a month, he only had a strength of nearly two hundred catties, but now it was at least six hundred catties.


    With his greatly increased strength, Lin Hao''s mining speed soared.


    In just two hours, he had dug out enough spirit iron to exchange for a meal.


    This was still under the situation where he deliberately held back. If he used the spiritual power in his body to mine with all his strength, it was estimated that he could dig out enough spirit iron to exchange for a meal in just over an hour.


    "Boss, you''re too awesome!"


    The chubby Wang Fu, who was not far away, looked at Lin Hao with admiration and said, "Even Yan Heng, whose cultivation level is almost at the second level of Qi Refining, can''t match your mining speed!"


    "Hehe, it''s just so-so," Lin Hao replied with a modest smile. In his heart, however, he was very excited. The remnant soul of the Immortal Venerable of Longevity had said that the five-element spiritual root was invincible in the same realm, and it turned out that he hadn''t lied.


    Just from the strength, one could tell.


    Lin Hao was delighted in his heart, but on his face, he still smiled at the chubby guy calmly and said, "Let''s work hard at mining. Let''s try to get more spirit porridge today."


    In the first few days after arriving at the Xuanyue Sect, he couldn''t dig enough spirit iron to exchange for five catties every day. Thanks to the chubby guy''s help, he was able to eat spirit porridge.


    Now that he had broken through to the first level of Qi Refining and his mining speed had become faster, he could exchange for more spirit porridge. He didn''t mind sharing some with the chubby guy to repay his kindness before.


    "As expected of the genius favored by Senior Sister Liu. Lin Hao has broken through in just half a month," the outer sect disciples supervising in the mine cave were attracted by Lin Hao, who was mining quickly.


    "Lin Hao was able to enter the first level of Qi Refining in half a month. His aptitude must be at least a sixth-grade single spiritual root," another outer sect disciple said with an admiring tone, "His future achievements will be limitless. We can''t compare with him."


    "It''s a good thing we didn''t provoke him," Yan Heng, whose cultivation level in the mine cave was about to break through to the second level of Qi Refining, couldn''t help but feel a bit lucky when he heard the conversation of several outer sect disciples. That day, because he was afraid of Senior Sister Liu, he didn''t beat Lin Hao up.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    If he had offended such a genius, his days in the sect would be difficult.


    "Pay respects to the sect leader, pay respects to Senior Sister Liu."


    Just when the other miscellaneous disciples were all amazed at Lin Hao''s extraordinary talent.


    Suddenly, all the outer sect disciples in the mine cave knelt down to pay their respects.


    A smiling old man, accompanied by Liu Qinghan, who was wearing a long purple dress and was extremely beautiful, walked in with several inner sect disciples of the Xuanyue Sect.


    "All of you, get up. There''s no need to pay respects," Chi Yunzi, the sect leader of the Xuanyue Sect, was in a good mood when he learned that his disciple Liu Qinghan had recruited a disciple with a sixth-grade fire-attribute single spiritual root, and he seemed very approachable.


    "Thank you, sect leader," the outer sect disciples of the Xuanyue Sect in the mine cave thanked him, feeling flattered, and then got up from the ground.


    "Qinghan, who is Lin Hao, the one with the sixth-grade fire-attribute single spiritual root?" Chi Yunzi asked.


    The outer sect disciples and miscellaneous disciples present knew that the sect leader had been attracted by Lin Hao, and they couldn''t help but envy him extremely.


    They wished they could take Lin Hao''s place.


    They all sighed in their hearts that Lin Hao was about to rise to prominence.


    "That''s him," Liu Qinghan stretched out her fair and jade-like hand and pointed at the young man holding the mining tools.


    Immediately, Chi Yunzi, the sect leader of the Xuanyue Sect, and the several inner sect disciples who had come with him all turned their eyes to Lin Hao.


    "They''ve come so soon!"


    Being the focus of everyone''s attention, Lin Hao didn''t feel happy at all. Instead, he felt as if needles were pricking his back.


    He was just a first-grade five-element spiritual root. Although his master, the remnant soul of the Immortal Venerable of Longevity, had manipulated things and faked him as a sixth-grade single fire-attribute spiritual root, as long as the spirit root testing stone was used, he would be exposed.


    "He has such a thick aura of fire spiritual energy. Eh! His cultivation level has already reached the first level of Qi Refining so quickly. This kid is good!"


    As soon as Chi Yunzi, the sect leader of the Xuanyue Sect, set his eyes on Lin Hao, he couldn''t hide his joy on his face and said, "Getting such a genius is a sign that heaven wants our Xuanyue Sect to thrive!"


    His face was flushed with excitement. He hadn''t been this happy even when he broke through to the Foundation Establishment stage back then.


    If a disciple with a sixth-grade fire-attribute single spiritual root grew up, and combined with his own closed-door disciple with a fifth-grade wood-attribute single spiritual root, they would surely be able to change the situation of the Xuanyue Sect being at the bottom among the four major immortal sects in the State of Zhao, and might even rise to become the strongest immortal sect in the State of Zhao.


    Suddenly, Chi Yunzi, the sect leader of the Xuanyue Sect, flashed. No one present could clearly see his moving figure.


    In an instant, he appeared in front of Lin Hao.


    "Good boy, come on. Quickly put your hand on this spirit root testing stone," Chi Yunzi took out a transparent stone from his storage bag, with a kind smile on his face and said in a gentle tone.


    Looking at the old man in front of him with an expectant look, Lin Hao felt his scalp tingle and his back was covered in cold sweat. He knew his own situation. He was not a sixth-grade single fire-attribute spiritual root at all.


    Under the gaze of so many people, he couldn''t avoid it.


    He had no choice but to bite the bullet and stretch out his hand to put it on the spirit root testing stone.


    After a while, the transparent stone lit up with the light representing the five-element spiritual root.


    "Eh...! This...!"


    Chi Yunzi, who had been smiling all over his face just now, froze when he looked at the spirit root testing stone, and he felt his Dao heart becoming unstable.


    "Impossible! Judging from the aura he emits, he should be a sixth-grade single fire-attribute spiritual root."


    Liu Qinghan''s fair face showed disbelief, and her delicate body trembled slightly as she said, "How could he be just a first-grade five-element spiritual root?"


    "Could it be that the testing stone is malfunctioning?"


    Chi Yunzi was unwilling to accept it. Judging from the pure fire-attribute aura of the young man in front of him and the fact that he had cultivated to the first level of Qi Refining so quickly, he couldn''t possibly be just a first-grade five-element spiritual root.


    He took out another new spirit root testing stone and asked Lin Hao to put his hand on it.


    As a result, it was still the five-colored light.


    "The testing stone is fine. Did I and Qinghan misjudge?"


    Chi Yunzi''s face looked extremely ugly, and he could hardly accept the fact.


    "He''s really just a first-grade five-element spiritual root."


    He tested it several more times, but the result was still the same.


    Chi Yunzi tried hard to calm down his state of mind. He had a certain guess in his mind. He stretched out his old hand, grasped Lin Hao''s wrist, and sent a wisp of spiritual power into Lin Hao''s meridians to check.


    After about a quarter of an hour, he stared at Lin Hao with sharp eyes and asked, "Did you eat some strange spirit medicine or spirit fruit before?"


    "Reply... Sect leader," Lin Hao felt as if a huge mountain was pressing down on him under the old man''s sharp gaze, making it hard for him to breathe. He said nervously, "I... I once... encountered a... very fragrant fiery red fruit on a mountain... I was thirsty and hungry at that time, so I couldn''t help but pick it and eat it..."


    "What a waste! What a terrible waste!"


    Before Lin Hao could finish speaking, Chi Yunzi shouted repeatedly, so angry that he clenched his fists, "This spirit fruit must be a supreme treasure of the fire attribute. It was actually eaten by someone with only a five-element spiritual root. Alas... What a waste..."


    "The five-element spiritual root is a useless spiritual root that is rarely seen in a thousand years and doesn''t even rank in grades."


    "This young man''s five-element spiritual root can reach the first grade. It''s very likely that the supreme treasure spirit fruit he ate has the effect of improving the grade of the spiritual root. If a genius with a fire-attribute single spiritual root had eaten this spirit fruit, how much better it would be... I''m so angry!"


    The more Chi Yunzi, the sect leader of the Xuanyue Sect, thought about it, the angrier he became, and he was almost on the verge of developing inner demons.


    Looking at Chi Yunzi, who had become a bit crazy, Lin Hao was suffering greatly in his heart.


    He was extremely worried, afraid that the old man would be unable to think straight and, in a fit of extreme anger, slap him to death with one blow.

 Chapter 8: Revenge

    "Master, please calm down. It''s all my fault for misjudging his spiritual root. I beg you to punish me," Liu Qinghan said. She had never seen Chi Yunzi lose his composure like this before. She stepped forward and bowed to plead guilty.


    "Alas, Qinghan, it''s not your fault. Even I mistook this young man for a sixth-grade single fire-attribute spiritual root at first glance," Chi Yunzi, who had practiced Taoism for many years, finally managed to calm down his state of mind.


    He accepted the fact that the rumored sixth-grade fire-attribute spiritual root was actually just a first-grade five-element spiritual root.


    He pondered for a moment, then looked straight at Lin Hao and said in a tone full of authority, "Tell this sect leader where you found that fiery red fruit that you ate."


    "Reply to the sect leader. Three years ago, my hometown was hit by a disaster. To survive, I was forced to flee my hometown. I picked that fruit from a small tree on an unnamed mountain while I was wandering on the road," Lin Hao said carefully, following the way the Immortal Venerable of Longevity had told him to respond, "I don''t remember which mountain it was exactly. I only know that the mountain was within the territory of Xuantian City."


    "Xuantian City?"


    Chi Yunzi frowned tightly.


    There were countless mountains within the territory of Xuantian City. Trying to find an unnamed mountain was almost like looking for a needle in a haystack.


    Moreover, three years had passed, and he didn''t know whether the small tree that bore the strange fruit was still there or not.


    Thinking of this, he couldn''t help but sigh in his heart and had to give up the idea of looking for the treasure of the fire-attribute strange fruit.


    "Let''s go. Let''s head back," Chi Yunzi was extremely depressed after this embarrassing incident. He didn''t want to stay here for another moment and said to the disciples beside him.


    "Sect leader, based on his aptitude, even if he paid ten thousand taels of silver, he wouldn''t be qualified to join our Xuanyue Sect," an inner sect disciple who held the position of a deacon and was one of Chi Yunzi''s confidants asked carefully, "How should we deal with him?"


    "Although this kid''s aptitude is poor, the spirit fruit he ate is quite extraordinary. It should be no problem for him to cultivate to the third to fifth level of Qi Refining," Chi Yunzi pondered for a moment and said, "Since we''ve already accepted him into the sect, it''s also his fate. Let''s just keep him in the Xuanyue Sect as a miscellaneous disciple. There''s no need to treat him differently."


    After announcing the decision on how to deal with Lin Hao, Chi Yunzi didn''t look at him again. In a bad mood, he quickly left with a group of disciples.


    "So he''s just a first-grade five-element useless spiritual root. I thought he was some kind of genius!"


    In the mine cave, as the group of high-ranking members of the Xuanyue Sect left, the envious expressions on the faces of the miscellaneous disciples in the mine cave disappeared and were replaced by mocking sneers.


    "Such a waste. If it weren''t for eating that strange fruit and looking like a sixth-grade single spiritual root, he wouldn''t be qualified to join our Xuanyue Sect even if he paid more silver."


    The scornful taunts reached Lin Hao''s ears one after another.


    Even though he had been mentally prepared for this, it still made him feel bad.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.


    "If people in the world deceive me, slander me, insult me, laugh at me, look down on me, and despise me, what should I do?"


    "Just endure him, let him be, leave him alone, avoid him, be patient with him, respect him, and ignore him. In a few years, just wait and see what happens to him."


    Lin Hao remembered the famous saying he had read when he was on Earth, and his depressed and uncomfortable mood eased a bit.


    "As long as I''m not driven out of the Xuanyue Sect and become a rogue cultivator, it''s already the best result," Lin Hao couldn''t help clenching his fist and thought to himself, "The sleeping master, the Immortal Venerable of Longevity, said that the first-grade five-element spiritual root was a top-notch spiritual root in ancient times. It''s just that it requires a huge amount of spiritual energy for cultivation. With the Eternal Longevity Tower and the Five Elements Longevity Art, I believe it won''t be long before I can shut these guys up."


    In the half month since he came to the Xuanyue Sect, he had witnessed many conflicts among the miscellaneous disciples.


    Cultivating immortals requires resources, so the struggles in immortal cultivation sects are even more terrifying than those among mortals.


    To get along well, besides being able to get along with everyone, one also needs to be strong enough.


    "Boss, are you okay?"


    The chubby Wang Fu beside him hesitated for a moment and then stepped forward to ask with concern.


    Lin Hao was slightly surprised. This chubby guy made him look at him in a new light.


    After knowing that he was just a first-grade five-element spiritual root, he didn''t sneer at him like the other miscellaneous disciples. Instead, he was still willing to call him boss.


    "I''m fine," Lin Hao shook his head and said.


    "Boss, now that Yan Heng knows you''re not a genius, I''m afraid he''ll come to trouble us today. Maybe we can avoid getting beaten up if we publicly give in to him," Wang Fu said, with a worried look on his chubby face.


    After losing the backing of Senior Sister Liu and being unable to use her as a shield, their days might be difficult.


    Lin Hao couldn''t help but feel a headache when he heard the chubby guy mention Yan Heng.


    He raised his head and involuntarily looked in the direction of Yan Heng, who was mining in another part of the mine cave.


    He found that Yan Heng was looking at him with a sinister smile, as if to say, "Just you wait, kid."


    Obviously, this guy had held a grudge because he hadn''t been able to snatch the spirit porridge from Lin Hao and the chubby guy for half a month.


    "Even if we give in to him, I''m afraid he won''t let us off," Lin Hao saw Yan Heng''s expression and knew that this matter couldn''t be solved by giving in.


    Some people will push their luck once you back down.


    "Boss, then what should we do?"


    Wang Fu was a bit panicked.


    Since joining the Xuanyue Sect, he had seen Yan Heng beat people up, and he was extremely ruthless.


    Before, a new and rebellious miscellaneous disciple resisted, and Yan Heng beat him until his head was bleeding.


    Thinking of this, the chubby Wang Fu''s calves trembled involuntarily.


    "Let''s take it one step at a time. If there''s no other way, we''ll fight him," Lin Hao clenched his fist and a fierce look appeared on his face.


    After transmigrating to this world and being the leader of mountain bandits for a few months, he had also acquired a bit of a bandit''s nature.


    "Alas... Boss... Yan Heng reached the first level of Qi Refining two months ago. We can''t beat him even if we fight with all our might..." Wang Fu sighed.


    "Let''s mine first. It''s useless to think too much now," Lin Hao swung the mining tool in his hand. After reaching the first level of Qi Refining and with his greatly increased strength, by noon, he had dug out ten catties of spirit iron, which could be exchanged for two bowls of spirit porridge.


    "Wang Fu, let''s go and have lunch," he put away the mining tool and said to the chubby guy beside him.


    "Boss, I''ve only dug out two catties of spirit iron. It''s not enough for me to have lunch," Wang Fu said.


    "It doesn''t matter. I''ve dug out ten catties of spirit iron and can exchange it for two bowls of spirit porridge. I''ll share one bowl with you," Lin Hao said with a smile.


    A hesitant look appeared on Wang Fu''s chubby face. If he went to the cafeteria with Lin Hao now, he was afraid that Yan Heng would immediately take revenge on them.


    But he thought that even if they didn''t go to the cafeteria at noon, they couldn''t avoid it at night.


    It was just a matter of getting beaten up earlier or later.


    "Well... okay, Boss. I''ll go with you," Wang Fu gritted his teeth and decided to be a loyal friend.


    The two put away their mining tools, exchanged the spirit iron they had dug out in the morning for two meal vouchers (meal tickets), and walked out of the mine cave.


    The vengeful Yan Heng couldn''t wait any longer. When he saw them going out, a sinister smile appeared on his face. Immediately, he swaggered arrogantly and followed closely behind Lin Hao and Wang Fu.


    This made the chubby Wang Fu tremble even when he walked.


    Lin Hao''s expression also became solemn as he was thinking about how to deal with Yan Heng''s revenge.

 Chapter 9: Going Too Far!

    After walking out of the mine cave, Lin Hao and Wang Fu deliberately made their way towards the crowded areas, hoping that Yan Heng would be a bit wary and not dare to act too hastily.


    However, their actions actually played right into Yan Heng''s hands. The more people watching, the better it was for him to establish his might.


    He even stopped other new miscellaneous disciples when he encountered them and asked them to follow along, so that they could watch him beat up Lin Hao and Wang Fu and witness his display of power.


    Forced by Yan Heng''s fierce intimidation, those new miscellaneous disciples had no choice but to follow along reluctantly.


    "Lin Hao, Wang Fu, stop right there!"


    Seeing that there were already quite a number of people around, Yan Heng said in a calm yet unyielding tone.


    "Is it starting? Lin Hao is in for a bad time this time," some of the other miscellaneous disciples were gloating, watching the fun with a schadenfreude mindset, while others empathized and looked at them with sympathetic eyes.


    "What do you want?"


    Lin Hao knew that he couldn''t avoid this. He took a deep breath, forced himself to stay calm, stopped in his tracks, and turned around to ask.


    At present, he had only cultivated to the first level of Qi Refining, while Yan Heng had already entered the first level of Qi Refining and was not far from the second level.


    Although his master, the Immortal Venerable of Longevity, had said that the five-element spiritual root was stronger than those in the same realm, he still wasn''t entirely confident.


    "What do I want? Lin Hao, you useless five-element spiritual root, are you asking the obvious? Hehe, you two have been living quite comfortably these days. Do you know how much less spirit porridge your Grandpa Yan has had?" Yan Heng snorted coldly, a fierce look on his face, and a cold glint flashed in his eyes as he said, "Both of you, kneel down, call me Grandpa Yan and say ''I''m wrong'', and then obediently take my punches. Only then can I calm down my anger."


    "We''re all fellow disciples. There''s no need to be so extreme, right?"


    Lin Hao''s expression changed slightly. He would never agree to such a humiliating thing as kneeling down, getting beaten up, and calling him grandpa.


    "Yan Heng... Yan, Boss, please be magnanimous and let us go!"


    Wang Fu was so frightened by Yan Heng''s fierce aura that he trembled and couldn''t help begging for mercy.


    "Kneel or not?"


    Yan Heng suddenly shouted loudly at Lin Hao and Wang Fu in front of the other miscellaneous disciples who were watching, "Otherwise, your Grandpa Yan will beat you two to death today."


    "Plop! I... I''m wrong."


    Wang Fu thought of the miserable fates of the miscellaneous disciples who had opposed Yan Heng before. Unable to withstand Yan Heng''s fierce intimidation, he finally gave in.


    With the thought that a real man should know when to yield and when to persevere, he knelt down on the ground.


    "Lin Hao, it''s your turn," Yan Heng saw that the chubby guy had been forced to kneel down. He narrowed his eyes slightly, a dangerous glint in them, and sneered.


    A large number of miscellaneous disciples were watching around, but no one dared to speak up or interfere as they watched Yan Heng teach the two a lesson.


    "Want me to kneel down? No way!"


    Lin Hao clenched his fists tightly.


    At this moment, the law of the jungle in the cultivation world was strongly felt in his heart.


    He wanted to give in, but he knew that he would still get beaten even if he knelt down. Yan Heng''s cultivation level was also at the first level of Qi Refining, the same as his. He wasn''t so powerful that it was hopeless, so he might as well fight.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    "I''ll beat you until you can''t find your teeth!"


    Seeing that Lin Hao still dared to be stubborn, Yan Heng roared. As soon as the words fell, his body suddenly rushed towards Lin Hao. He clenched his right fist and swung it hard. Under the powerful force of his fist, continuous sonic booms sounded in the air.


    His great speed and terrifying aura made the other miscellaneous disciples watching around couldn''t help but change their expressions. If this punch hit them, it would probably make them roll on the ground in pain.


    "I''ll never provoke Yan Heng again in the future," many miscellaneous disciples had a look of fear on their faces and thought to themselves.


    "Yan Heng, you''ve gone too far!"


    Lin Hao watched Yan Heng charging towards him with murderous intent, ready to strike hard. His eyes turned red, looking as if he had been pushed to the limit.


    He had fought with many ordinary people before, but this was his first time fighting with cultivators. He clenched his fists, mobilized the spiritual energy in his body, and roared, "I''ll fight you!"


    Lin Hao''s face was distorted with a fierce look. Afraid that he wasn''t a match for Yan Heng, the spiritual energy in his body, which was far richer than that of spiritual roots in the same realm due to his five-element spiritual root, flowed crazily and burst out with all his strength.


    "Bang!"


    Desperately fighting, the terrifying speed and momentum of Lin Hao''s fist were even much faster than Yan Heng''s. The two fists collided together.


    Yan Heng only felt a sharp pain in his fist. His expression changed drastically. He hadn''t expected that Lin Hao, who had just cultivated to the first level of Qi Refining, could throw such a terrifying punch.


    "You forced me to do this!"


    Lin Hao knew that when fighting and the strength was about the same, it depended on who was fiercer.


    The bold are afraid of the reckless, and the reckless are afraid of the desperate!


    After throwing one punch, ignoring the pain in his hand, he immediately threw another punch.


    Yan Heng had practiced martial arts since childhood and knew many moves. However, the two were too close to each other. Moreover, Lin Hao''s five-element spiritual root had abundant spiritual energy, and his speed burst out, and was even slightly faster than his.


    Facing another fierce punch coming at him, it was too late for him to withdraw and use his moves to deal with it. He had no choice but to clench his fist and meet it head-on.


    "Bang! Bang! Bang!"


    Lin Hao also knew that Yan Heng practiced martial arts. To avoid being pulled apart and falling into a disadvantageous position, he punched furiously, and one after another fist shadows smashed down continuously.


    The fists of the two were forced to keep colliding.


    "Damn it! Isn''t he afraid of pain?"


    Yan Heng was shocked by Lin Hao''s crazy punching like a mad dog.


    Looking at his fists that had already been wounded due to the continuous collisions and blood dripping down, he was stunned.


    Twenty breaths later...


    Lin Hao still didn''t let up. Relying on the abundant spiritual energy of his five-element spiritual root, his combat effectiveness didn''t decrease much during the collision.


    However, Yan Heng was panting heavily and had consumed a lot of energy. His fists were numb and bloody. A look of fear appeared on his face, "Is this what it''s like to have just entered the first level of Qi Refining? This is impossible! It''s absolutely impossible!"


    "Yan Heng, so you''re not that great after all."


    Lin Hao saw that the other side seemed to be running out of strength. As it was his first time fighting with a cultivator, seeing the hope of victory, he frantically mobilized the spiritual energy in his body and smashed it at the other side with all his strength.


    With the speed of his fists, it was too late for Yan Heng to dodge. He could only be forced to either resist with his body or punch back at him.


    When novice cultivators at the first level of Qi Refining fought, it was just so simple and straightforward.


    It wasn''t like the battles of those big shots above the Foundation Establishment stage, with all kinds of flashy magic weapons flying all over the sky.


    "Bang!"


    The scale of spiritual energy of Yan Heng''s water-wood dual spiritual roots was much less than that of the five-element spiritual roots. His spiritual energy was consumed first.


    In the shocked expressions of all the miscellaneous disciples watching, Yan Heng couldn''t hold on and was punched and flew out, falling heavily to the ground.


    "Wow!"


    A mouthful of blood spurted out from his mouth.


    "How is this possible! It''s Yan Heng who lost!"


    Everyone present couldn''t believe it.


    "Boss... You''re so fierce!"


    Wang Fu, who was kneeling on the ground, was dumbfounded. He rubbed his eyes hard, thinking that he was hallucinating.


    "Let you want to bully me."


    Lin Hao was fighting with a cultivator for the first time. Afraid that he wasn''t fierce enough and would be turned around by Yan Heng, his blood rushed to his head and he was a bit carried away. Even though he had beaten Yan Heng to the ground and made him spit blood, he still wouldn''t let him go.


    He rushed forward and started punching and kicking Yan Heng who was lying on the ground.


    "Ah! Ah! Ah..."


    Pig-like screams kept coming out of Yan Heng''s mouth, making the miscellaneous disciples around feel their scalps tingle and cold sweat break out on their backs.


    It turned out that the fiercest person in the new disciples'' area was Lin Hao!


    Even many miscellaneous disciples in the old disciples'' area heard the commotion and couldn''t help but turn their eyes over, shocked by Lin Hao''s fierce appearance.


    "Stop it!"


    If the outer sect disciples guarding the mining area hadn''t noticed that something was wrong and were afraid that lives would be lost and stopped it in time, I''m afraid Lin Hao could have beaten Yan Heng to death alive.

 Chapter 10: Dominating the Newcomer Area of Miscellaneous Disciples

    The person who came to stop the fight seemed to be at the third level of Qi Refining. He was a newly promoted outer sect disciple. The aura he revealed and the unique clothing on his body immediately startled Lin Hao, who then stopped beating Yan Heng violently.


    "Although the sect encourages competition among disciples," the outer sect disciple said coldly, "it doesn''t want to see that one is beaten so badly that he can''t work. With his injuries like this, he probably won''t be able to mine for quite some time. You''ll have to make up for the missing spirit iron."


    "Yes, senior brother," Lin Hao didn''t dare to refuse. He clasped his hands in salute and nodded respectfully towards the outer sect disciple.


    "Humph, all of you, disperse! Hurry up and go have lunch. It won''t be good if you delay work in the afternoon," the outer sect disciple snorted and quickly left with the blood-covered Yan Heng.


    "Boss, you''re really amazing! You could actually defeat Yan Heng," Wang Fu, who had been forced to kneel by Yan Heng, got up from the ground and asked with concern, "Boss, you weren''t injured just now, were you?"


    "Just some minor injuries. Let''s go and have lunch," Lin Hao was covered in blood all over, looking rather terrifying. However, his injuries weren''t serious. Only the hand he used to punch had some scratches during the fight, and most of the blood on him was Yan Heng''s.


    He took a step forward and walked towards the cafeteria under the awed expressions of the other miscellaneous disciples around.


    "Yes, boss," Wang Fu nodded respectfully and excitedly followed behind Lin Hao, straightening his back a bit. The chubby guy thought that since he had recognized such a powerful person as his boss, he wouldn''t be bullied at least in the first half of the year in the newcomer area.


    "Excuse me, senior brother. I''d like two bowls of spirit porridge," Lin Hao exchanged two meal vouchers for two big steaming bowls of porridge and, to Wang Fu''s great gratitude, gave him one bowl.


    "Thank you, boss," Wang Fu took the spirit porridge excitedly.


    "You''ve helped me a lot in the past half month. You deserve this porridge," Lin Hao always believed in repaying kindness and avenging grudges. He smiled and said.


    "Actually, I... didn''t help that much," Wang Fu felt a bit embarrassed.


    The two found an empty seat and started gobbling up the porridge.


    Before long, Lin Hao had finished the whole bowl of spirit porridge. He habitually licked the bottom of the bowl for a while before reluctantly putting it down, still feeling like he hadn''t had enough.


    In today''s cafeteria, since Yan Heng, who usually snatched spirit porridge, was injured and didn''t show up, several miscellaneous disciples in the newcomer area got their spirit porridge but didn''t dare to start eating right away.


    These new miscellaneous disciples in the mining area had their spirit porridge snatched away every day before. Today, suddenly no one was snatching their porridge, which made them feel a bit uncomfortable and restless.


    "Senior Brother Lin, I... I''d like to give you half of my spirit porridge," a tall new miscellaneous disciple thought of Lin Hao''s fierce appearance when he beat up Yan Heng not long ago. He suddenly gritted his teeth, stood up, carried his spirit porridge, and walked over, saying respectfully.


    Lin Hao''s eyes fell on this person, and he hesitated. Taking others'' spirit porridge seemed immoral.


    However, in the area of miscellaneous disciples in the Xuanyue Sect, the most important resource was the spirit porridge containing spiritual energy. The more spirit porridge one ate, the faster their cultivation speed would be.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    Cultivating immortals was about fighting against fate, and it was all about techniques, wealth, companions, and cultivation places. Spirit porridge was also a kind of wealth!


    "With my five-element spiritual root for cultivation, I need a large amount of spiritual energy to break through. Now that I''ve already offended Yan Heng, he will surely find another chance to take revenge on me later," Lin Hao thought to himself. "In the Xuanyue Sect, or even in the entire cultivation world, if I don''t want to be bullied, I have to be strong enough."


    "He offered to give me the spirit porridge himself. It''s not considered snatching," Lin Hao thought for a moment and then decided to follow the previous rules in the new miscellaneous disciple area and accept the spirit porridge from this miscellaneous disciple.


    However, he didn''t act as extreme as Yan Heng did. He smiled and said, "Junior brother, you just need to give me thirty percent of your spirit porridge."


    "Thank you, Senior Brother Lin," the tall new miscellaneous disciple was overjoyed when he heard this and quickly said.


    Compared to Yan Heng, who used to dominate the new mining area and took fifty percent of the spirit porridge ruthlessly, Lin Hao only asking for thirty percent was already quite reasonable.


    Soon, the tall new miscellaneous disciple gratefully poured the agreed amount of spirit porridge into Lin Hao''s bowl.


    "Gulp! Gulp!"


    Lin Hao didn''t stand on ceremony either. He directly drank it up in big gulps and finished it in no time, with a look of longing still on his face.


    He did the heavy work of mining every day. He could easily drink not just one bowl of spirit porridge but even seven or eight bowls for each meal.


    The other several miscellaneous disciples in the newcomer area saw that the tall one gave thirty percent of his spirit porridge to Lin Hao. They hesitated a bit, afraid that if they didn''t give their porridge, Lin Hao would beat them up later. So they also stood up and said, "Senior Brother Lin, we''d like to give you some of our spirit porridge too."


    "Just give thirty percent of one bowl," Lin Hao said indifferently.


    All six miscellaneous disciples in the newcomer area took the initiative to share their porridge with him. Each giving thirty percent added up to nearly two bowls of porridge.


    Lin Hao ate almost three bowls of spirit porridge in this meal and immediately felt spiritual energy constantly emerging in his stomach and flowing into his meridians.


    He took some time at noon to go back to the small wooden house, sat cross-legged, and started operating the Five Elements Longevity Art.


    Soon, a look of joy appeared on Lin Hao''s face. With the spirit porridge given by others and the spirit porridge he earned from mining, plus the assistance of the Eternal Longevity Tower, which enabled him to absorb the spiritual energy of the spirit porridge without any loss, his cultivation speed had increased significantly.


    He estimated that with his current cultivation speed, although it couldn''t compare to Liu Qinghan, the closed-door disciple of the Xuanyue Sect''s sect leader, who had a fifth-grade single-attribute wood spiritual root and was extremely talented, it was at least faster than Wang Fu''s second-grade single-attribute metal spiritual root.


    "Earn more spirit porridge and strive to break through to the third level of Qi Refining as soon as possible and become an outer sect disciple of the Xuanyue Sect," Lin Hao thought. Once he became an outer sect disciple of the Xuanyue Sect, he could receive two low-grade spirit stones every month. Just thinking about it filled him with fighting spirit.


    With low-grade spirit stones, he could use the function of the Eternal Longevity Tower to turn waste into treasure and improve the quality of weapons, pills, and so on.


    He tried the current cultivation speed on the bed in the small wooden house for a while and then went out in a good mood and entered the mine cave to start working.


    In the following few days, Yan Heng, who had wanted to bully Lin Hao but was instead beaten up by him, didn''t show up in the mining area.


    Lin Hao, who was afraid of Yan Heng''s revenge, had been keeping an eye on Yan Heng''s situation. It wasn''t until more than ten days later that he learned that Yan Heng had been so frightened by almost being beaten to death by him that day that he was scared out of his wits.


    So he didn''t dare to stay in the new disciple mining area anymore and took the initiative to apply for an early transfer to the old miscellaneous disciple mining area.


    In this way, Lin Hao firmly established himself as the boss among the miscellaneous disciples in Team Ten of the Ding area in the mining area. No one dared to challenge his position, and he was really on a roll.


    Every day, he had a large amount of spirit porridge to drink, and his originally somewhat thin body started to gain weight visibly.


    His physique was not much different from that of the chubby Wang Fu.


    However, during this period, there were also a lot of rumors spreading among the miscellaneous disciples.


    Some said that Lin Hao, with his useless five-element spiritual root, was wasting the sect''s cultivation resources by eating so much spirit porridge every day.

 Chapter 11: People from Immortal Cultivation Families and Spirit Stones

    Time passed quickly and unconsciously. The mountains where the Xuanyue Sect was located were filled with lush trees, and the weather became hot. After finishing today''s work in the mine cave, Lin Hao wiped the sweat from his forehead.


    Walking out of the mine cave with the chubby Wang Fu, who he had a good relationship with, he looked at the setting sun and couldn''t help murmuring, "Unconsciously, it''s been almost five months since I came to the Xuanyue Sect."


    "Eh! Oh no! Boss, I''ll no longer be a new miscellaneous disciple in a few days."


    Hearing the words "five months", Wang Fu''s face suddenly changed. According to the sect''s regulations, newly recruited miscellaneous disciples could only stay in the newcomer area for half a year.


    He had come to the sect many days earlier than Lin Hao. Calculating the time, he would be forced to leave here in three days and go to the unfamiliar old miscellaneous disciple area to do more work.


    During these five months, with Lin Hao, his boss, taking care of him, Wang Fu had lived a very comfortable life. For him, leaving the newcomer area was even more unbearable than being killed.


    "Wang Fu, in these few months, your cultivation has reached the late stage of the first level of Qi Refining. You should be okay when you go to the old miscellaneous disciple area, right?" Lin Hao patted him on the shoulder and said.


    "Boss, in the old miscellaneous disciple area, the cultivation level of the late stage of the first level of Qi Refining is nothing at all. Only by cultivating to the second level of Qi Refining can I avoid being bullied by others," Wang Fu said with a sad face. Thinking of those tough guys rumored to be in the old area, he felt his scalp tingle. He had just lived a good life for five months, and now he was about to live a tough life again.


    "Come on, Wang Fu. Give your boss a smile. Don''t be afraid. Since you can''t avoid it, just face it bravely," Lin Hao played the role of a motivational speaker and said, "Just endure it for some time. When your cultivation reaches the second level of Qi Refining and you become an expert in the old area, you can live a good life again. Life! We should always look forward..."


    A few more days passed.


    The chubby Wang Fu left, extremely reluctantly going to the old miscellaneous disciple area. When he left, he cried his heart out.


    Lin Hao watched his back and felt a bit sad. In the Xuanyue Sect, only the chubby guy was his friend. Now that his friend had left, there would be no one to chat and brag with him.


    The next day, after Wang Fu moved out, an empty bed was left. A newly recruited miscellaneous disciple was arranged to stay here.


    "Senior Brother Lin Hao, I''m Li Feilong. I''m twelve years old this year and have a third-grade fire-wood dual-attribute spiritual root. I just joined the Xuanyue Sect today. I''ve heard of your great name for a long time. Please take good care of me, Senior Brother Lin Hao," the new miscellaneous disciple said respectfully as soon as he moved in.


    Lin Hao was slightly surprised. The other person looked almost as tall as an adult, except for his rather childish face. He didn''t expect that he was actually so young.


    "How did you know my name when you just got here?" Lin Hao looked at the new miscellaneous disciple for a while and couldn''t help asking.


    "Senior Brother Lin Hao, I''m from a small immortal cultivation family in the State of Zhao and have some acquaintances in the Xuanyue Sect," Li Feilong clasped his hands and explained, "The reason why I know your name is that I asked Senior Brother Zuo from the outer sect. That Senior Brother Zuo told me some situations here."


    "So that''s how it is," Lin Hao was slightly startled in his heart.


    The other person was actually from an immortal cultivation family and had acquaintances in the Xuanyue Sect. He was much better off than someone like Lin Hao who had no background at all.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    "Senior Brother Lin Hao, I have a favor to ask you," Li Feilong said after thinking for a moment.


    "What is it?" Lin Hao thought for a while and said.


    "I heard that you are the strongest person in the tenth team of the newcomer area, that not only are the other miscellaneous disciples obedient to you, but you also mine very fast," Li Feilong continued, "I would like to ask you to help me mine every day."


    "Ask me to help you mine?" Lin Hao immediately frowned. Did the other person want to bully him by relying on his background from an immortal cultivation family?


    "It''s not that I want you to help me work for nothing," Li Feilong saw that his face darkened and knew that he had misunderstood. He quickly smiled and said, "Senior Brother Lin Hao, you only have a little over half a month left before you have to go to the old miscellaneous disciple area, right? As long as you help me mine during the remaining days in the newcomer area, I''m willing to pay you a low-grade spirit stone as a reward."


    Hearing the word "spirit stone", Lin Hao couldn''t help but feel a shock in his heart. In the past few months since he came to the Xuanyue Sect, an immortal cultivation sect, he hadn''t seen what a real spirit stone looked like. However, he was quite familiar with the functions of spirit stones.


    Spirit stones were used in various aspects such as setting up formations, refining weapons, and cultivation. They were extremely important common currency in the immortal cultivation world.


    He was currently at the peak of the first level of Qi Refining and was not far from the second level of Qi Refining. If he had a low-grade spirit stone, he would have a chance to break through before leaving the newcomer area.


    "Deal. I can help you mine during the remaining days in the newcomer area," Lin Hao thought for a moment, his expression softened, and he smiled and said.


    "Senior Brother Lin Hao, here is the low-grade spirit stone," Li Feilong made a crystal stone that glowed slightly appear out of thin air in his hand and handed it over.


    "This is the spirit stone!" Lin Hao reached out to take the spirit stone, and a pure spiritual energy fluctuation came from it. He couldn''t help but feel happy in his heart. He felt that with this spirit stone, his cultivation speed would increase significantly, and he would surely be able to break through in about twenty days.


    "Junior Brother Li, why are you willing to pay such a precious spirit stone instead of mining by yourself?" Lin Hao carefully put the spirit stone away and looked at Li Feilong, asking curiously.


    "Because I''m not the only one from our Li family who joined the Xuanyue Sect," Li Feilong said, "Our Li family has a rule that whoever has the fastest cultivation speed and can become an outer sect disciple of the Xuanyue Sect first will be able to obtain more family cultivation resources for help."


    "So, I need to focus wholeheartedly on cultivation and don''t want to be delayed by the work of miscellaneous disciples," he continued.


    Lin Hao looked at Li Feilong and couldn''t help but feel a bit envious. People with family backgrounds were much better off when it came to cultivating immortals than those like them who were like duckweeds floating around.


    "Junior Brother Li, since I''ve accepted your spirit stone, I''ll take care of your work," Lin Hao didn''t want to offend someone with a background like Li Feilong. He patted his chest and promised.


    "Yeah, thank you, Senior Brother Lin Hao," Li Feilong smiled. His family was his confidence, and he wasn''t afraid that Lin Hao would take the spirit stone and not do the work.


    The two chatted amicably for a while before ending the conversation and starting to cultivate on their own.


    In the following days.


    During the day, Lin Hao mined with all his strength. With his current strength, it wasn''t difficult for him to dig out the amount of spirit iron for two people in the mine cave.


    At night, he held that low-grade spirit stone in his hand and absorbed the spiritual energy in it.


    With the help of the Eternal Longevity Tower, Lin Hao absorbed the spiritual energy without any loss. The spiritual energy he absorbed from one spirit stone was equivalent to the spiritual energy that others obtained from absorbing two low-grade spirit stones.


    In the blink of an eye, there were only a few days left before he had to leave the new miscellaneous disciple area.


    In summer, the night was already dark, and the sounds of various insects chirping came one after another.


    In the small wooden house, Lin Hao sat cross-legged with his eyes closed, using the Five Elements Longevity Art to guide the spiritual energy to circulate through his meridians for a cycle.


    After absorbing the low-grade spirit stone he earned from Li Feilong, the total spiritual energy in his body was at least 20% richer than that more than ten days ago.


    Unconsciously, Lin Hao successfully completed another cycle. Subconsciously, he wanted to use the Five Elements Longevity Art to guide the spiritual energy for the next cycle.


    Suddenly, a feeling of enlightenment came to him. There was a "boom" in his body, as if some kind of shackle had been broken, and he felt extremely comfortable all over.


    After nearly twenty days of hard cultivation, Lin Hao finally broke through from the peak of the first level of Qi Refining to the second level of Qi Refining.

 Chapter 12: The Struggle for the Mining Areas Territory

    "Senior Brother Lin Hao has broken through!"


    Inside the wooden house, Li Feilong sensed the aura of the breakthrough. He temporarily ended his cultivation and opened his eyes, with a look of surprise on his face.


    After all, Lin Hao had the five-element spiritual root, which was known for its extremely slow cultivation speed and was even called a useless spiritual root. To be able to cultivate to the second level of Qi Refining within half a year after joining the sect, this speed was comparable to that of a fourth-grade dual-attribute spiritual root.


    It was simply against common sense!


    However, when Li Feilong thought of the rumor that Lin Hao had eaten a supreme spirit fruit that even startled the sect leader, he understood it and couldn''t help showing an envious look on his face.


    That supreme spirit fruit could enable a useless spiritual root to cultivate to the second level of Qi Refining in half a year. If he could eat such a fruit, how fast his cultivation speed would be!


    "It''s also thanks to Junior Brother Li''s low-grade spirit stone," Lin Hao, who was sitting cross-legged in meditation, exhaled a mouthful of turbid air, with an excited look on his face. Reaching the second level of Qi Refining meant that he was one step closer to meeting the requirement of becoming an outer sect disciple at the third level of Qi Refining.


    ...


    On a clear morning a few days later.


    In the tenth team''s new miscellaneous disciple area, a long-faced young man wearing the clothing of an outer sect disciple walked towards Lin Hao with a cold expression and said, "Lin Hao, it''s been half a year, and you''re no longer a new disciple. Follow me to the old miscellaneous disciple area."


    "Yes, senior brother," Lin Hao nodded and replied calmly.


    The long-faced young man couldn''t help but feel a bit puzzled in his heart. Usually, when new miscellaneous disciples were transferred to the old miscellaneous disciple area, they would look as sad as if they had lost their parents. But Lin Hao was so calm and relaxed.


    "Eh, no wonder you''re so calm. You''ve already broken through to the second level of Qi Refining. Among miscellaneous disciples, your cultivation speed is quite fast," the long-faced young man looked at Lin Hao. A look of surprise suddenly appeared on his cold face. For someone with a five-element spiritual root to be able to cultivate to the second level of Qi Refining in such a short time was simply a miracle. Lin Hao had just broken through to the second level of Qi Refining and hadn''t fully mastered the skill of concealing his aura, so it was easy for others to see his current cultivation level.


    "Senior brother, I was just lucky to break through a few days ago," Lin Hao said with a humble smile on his face.


    "Junior Brother Lin is really a person with great opportunities. If I could get a spirit fruit like the one Junior Brother Lin ate, I''m afraid I would have hope of cultivating to the sixth level of Qi Refining and becoming an inner sect disciple," the long-faced young man looked at Lin Hao, and his expression wasn''t as cold as before. Instead, his tone was full of envy.


    In cultivating immortals, although spiritual roots were important, opportunities sometimes mattered more than spiritual roots and could even change one''s fate against the heavens.


    Lin Hao, with his five-element spiritual root, under normal circumstances, would be lucky to reach the second level of Qi Refining after cultivating for twenty or thirty years. But now, he had achieved it in just half a year.


    The long-faced young man could already imagine how heaven-defying the effect of that "spirit fruit" was.


    If it weren''t for the sect leader saying that the spirit fruit had been absorbed by Lin Hao''s body and become his potential, and also because the Xuanyue Sect was a decent sect and its sect rules encouraged competition but prohibited disciples from killing each other or harming lives, perhaps someone wouldn''t be able to resist the temptation and would kill Lin Hao and even eat his flesh to see if they could obtain some of the remaining medicinal power of the spirit fruit.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.


    "Senior brother is joking. Although I ate the spirit fruit, I still have a useless five-element spiritual root. The slower my cultivation will be as I progress further. It would be good enough if I could become an outer sect disciple in the future," Lin Hao knew that he should keep a low profile and said.


    The long-faced young man, who was now interested, put aside his aloofness as an outer sect disciple and started chatting with Lin Hao, opening up the conversation.


    "After leaving the new miscellaneous disciple area, you need to dig ten catties of spirit iron to get a meal," the long-faced young man introduced, "Although there''s twice as much work, there''s also an advantage. You can receive two low-grade spirit stones every year."


    "Thank you, senior brother, for clearing up my doubts and telling me these things," Lin Hao clasped his hands and said.


    The two walked together, and before long, they arrived at the place where the miscellaneous disciples who had joined the sect for more than half a year lived. There were wooden houses built one after another here. Looking around, it was like a small town.


    The Xuanyue Sect truly deserved to be one of the four major immortal cultivation sects in the State of Zhao. Just the miscellaneous disciples in the mining area alone were so numerous, numbering in the thousands.


    Adding in the miscellaneous disciples in the alchemy area, the spirit medicine area, and the weapon refining area, there were probably tens of thousands of miscellaneous disciples in total.


    "The miscellaneous disciples in the old area are divided into thirty-six teams, with about a hundred people in each team," the long-faced young man walked with Lin Hao for a while longer, then pointed at a wooden house and continued, "You''ll be a miscellaneous disciple in the thirty-second team from now on. You''ll live in that house."


    "Yes, senior brother," Lin Hao nodded.


    After arranging things for him, the long-faced young man quickly left.


    Lin Hao walked towards the wooden house. When he opened the door, he saw ten small wooden beds inside.


    In the new disciple area, miscellaneous disciples lived in double rooms, but in the old miscellaneous disciple area, ten people lived in one room, and the conditions were much worse.


    Since all the miscellaneous disciples had gone to work in the mine cave, there was no one in the house.


    Lin Hao scanned the room with his eyes, found an empty bed, and temporarily put his few belongings on it.


    He still had two meal vouchers for the mining area, which could be exchanged for two bowls of spirit porridge, so he wasn''t in a hurry to work and instead began to familiarize himself with the environment.


    The old miscellaneous disciple area spanned several large mountains, with lush forests and quite a nice scenery.


    Lin Hao walked around his new residence for a while and then went back to the wooden house to meditate and cultivate.


    In the afternoon, as the sun set and it was getting dark.


    The door of the wooden house opened, and several miscellaneous disciples walked in.


    "Fellow senior brothers, I''m Lin Hao, a newly transferred miscellaneous disciple here," Lin Hao saw that someone had come back and ended his cultivation to take the initiative to greet them.


    "Newcomer? Tell us about your cultivation level," one of the rather muscular young men looked at Lin Hao and asked with a frown.


    "Reply to this senior brother, my current level is at the second level of Qi Refining," Lin Hao thought for a moment and replied.


    "Unexpectedly, the strength of the newcomer this time is quite good!"


    Hearing that he had a cultivation level at the second level of Qi Refining, all the miscellaneous disciples who came into the wooden house couldn''t help but breathe a sigh of relief. The rather muscular young man even showed a smile on his face and said, "Junior Brother Lin, I''m Jiang Sheng, the strongest person in this room at present. If we want to live well in the old miscellaneous disciple area, the people in our room must unite. Let me tell you about the rules here."


    "Senior Brother Jiang, please go ahead," Lin Hao nodded and said.


    "I''m sure you already know that after coming here, the amount of spirit iron you need to dig is twice as much as what you dug in the new disciple area," Jiang Sheng said, "We must occupy areas in the mining area with more spirit iron so that we can dig out more spirit iron."


    "There are a total of four people in our room, including you, at the second level of Qi Refining, and the other six are at the first level of Qi Refining," he continued.


    "Currently, the amount of spirit iron produced daily in the mining area we occupy is above average. There are quite a few people from other houses in the ore area who are eyeing this territory," he went on, "If someone comes to snatch the territory we occupy in the future, the people in our room at the second level of Qi Refining must come out to fight and drive those who want to snatch the territory away."


    "Alright, Senior Brother Jiang, I understand," Lin Hao was relieved to see that Jiang Sheng was quite polite.


    "Also, the other six people in our room at the first level of Qi Refining will share some of the spirit porridge they exchange with the spirit iron they dig as a reward for us protecting the mining area territory," Jiang Sheng continued.


    Under his patient explanation, Lin Hao became more familiar with the situation in the ore area.


    According to the regulations of the Xuanyue Sect, in the old miscellaneous disciple area, the people in each room were equivalent to a small group. To obtain good spirit ore mining resources, they had to rely on the strength of the group.

 Chapter 13: Conflict of Interests

    After arriving at the new place and having a chat with the people in the same room, Lin Hao got to know them all by sight more or less.


    After that, the wooden house fell silent as all ten miscellaneous disciples began their cultivation.


    As miscellaneous disciples, if they couldn''t become outer sect disciples within three years, they would have to leave the mountain gate and go to work in the secular cities under the control of the Xuanyue Sect.


    The spiritual energy there was extremely thin, far inferior to that in the mountains where the Xuanyue Sect was located.


    If they couldn''t be promoted to outer sect disciples and leave the Xuanyue Sect, it would mean the end of their path to immortality.


    Therefore, every moment in these three years was of great importance to the miscellaneous disciples, and they dared not slack off in their cultivation.


    The next day, as the sun rose in the east, Lin Hao finished his cultivation, left the wooden house, and followed Jiang Sheng and the others to the mining site. The underground space of the mine cave in the old miscellaneous disciple area was much larger than the place where he had stayed before.


    Half a quarter of an hour later...


    The ten people from the wooden house arrived at their destination.


    "Clang! Clang! Ding! Ding!"


    There were already quite a few miscellaneous disciples around, swinging their pickaxes to start mining.


    "Junior Brother Lin, this is our territory," Jiang Sheng introduced to him.


    "Alright, Senior Brother Jiang, I understand," Lin Hao quickly glanced around and found that the area belonging to the ten of them was quite large. He estimated that it was about a region of over a hundred meters.


    "Let''s start working!"


    They scattered and took their pickaxes to dig at the hard ground.


    As time passed, an hour went by in a blink of an eye.


    Lin Hao noticed that the soil and rocks in this mine cave were even harder, but the amount of spirit iron was obviously much more than that in the mine cave in the new disciple area where he had been before.


    He mobilized the spiritual energy of the second level of Qi Refining and applied it to his hands, working hard to mine. In just one hour, he had dug out nine catties of spirit iron.


    "Junior Brother Lin, you''re so amazing! You mine so fast," Jiang Sheng was a bit surprised to see that he kept swinging the mining tools and that the amount of spirit iron he had dug out in such a short time was almost catching up with those of them who were old-timers in the mining area at the second level of Qi Refining.


    "I''m a newcomer. I''m afraid of holding everyone back, so I have to go all out to dig out so much ore," Lin Hao smiled in an honest and simple way.


    With his five-element spiritual root, his spiritual energy was far richer than that of people in the same realm. Digging out nine catties of spirit ore in an hour was already holding back his strength. If he really went all out, it would be no problem for him to dig out more than ten catties of spirit ore in an hour.


    "I see. Junior Brother Lin, don''t be in such a hurry. Don''t tire yourself out. Work should be done step by step," Jiang Sheng kindly advised.


    "Alright, Senior Brother Jiang, I got it," Lin Hao nodded. After initially getting in touch with Jiang Sheng, he felt that Jiang Sheng was amiable and seemed to have a good character.


    Unlike Yan Heng, whom he had met in the new disciple area before, who had an unpleasant appearance and was harsh and cruel to others.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.


    Time passed slowly until noon.


    After working hard all morning, the ten of them had dug out a total of more than 170 catties of spirit iron.


    The four of them whose cultivation levels had reached the second level of Qi Refining each dug out about twenty-odd catties, adding up to more than 90 catties in total.


    And the other six people whose cultivation levels were still at the first level of Qi Refining, since they had been cultivating for about a year, had much stronger spiritual energy than those in the new disciple area. Although their mining speed was not as fast as that of those at the second level of Qi Refining, it wasn''t too slow either.


    Each person could dig out about 13 catties of spirit iron in the morning, and adding them up was about 80 catties.


    "Junior Brother Lin Hao, after finishing the work in the morning, those of us in the room at the second level of Qi Refining don''t need to come to the mine cave to mine in the afternoon and can arrange our time freely," Jiang Sheng put away his mining tools and looked at him and said, "Every day, as long as the spirit iron we dig out at the second level of Qi Refining can be exchanged for three meals of spirit porridge, don''t waste too much time on mining. We should focus more on cultivation."


    "But, Senior Brother Jiang, here it takes ten catties of spirit iron to exchange for a bowl of spirit porridge. I only dug out 22 catties of spirit iron in the morning, which isn''t enough to exchange for three meals of spirit porridge," Lin Hao wiped the sweat from his forehead and couldn''t help saying.


    "Don''t worry about this. The other six people in our room at the first level of Qi Refining will continue to work in the mine cave in the afternoon. They will make up for the shortage of spirit iron for us," Jiang Sheng said as a matter of course, without any sense of guilt for squeezing his fellow disciples. He smiled and said, "Those of us in the room at the second level of Qi Refining should focus on cultivation. The stronger our strength is, the better places we can occupy in the mine cave."


    "Alright, I understand," Lin Hao decided to abide by the rules since he came here. He nodded in response and then prepared to go to the cafeteria for lunch with the other miscellaneous disciples living in the same room.


    "Jiang Sheng, Xu Zhikai, the strongest person in your room, has left. Now that a newcomer has come, I''m afraid you''re no longer qualified to mine in this area. It''s time to give up this place," suddenly, a group of people blocked their way. The leader, a young man with a hooked nose, said with an unfriendly expression.


    "Zou Shanhu, do you want to snatch our territory? Haven''t you been beaten enough by us before?" Jiang Sheng frowned and said coldly.


    "Without Xu Zhikai, you can''t hold on to this place. If you''re sensible, just get out of here," Zou Shanhu had been coveting this area with a large amount of spirit iron for a long time, and finally, he got the chance. He thought that the other side currently only had three old-timers at the second level of Qi Refining, while his side had four, so he could take this place by taking advantage of this opportunity.


    "Then there''s no choice but to have a fight," Jiang Sheng''s face looked ugly. He knew that currently, his room had lost a master, and a newcomer had just arrived, so their overall strength had decreased a lot, and they didn''t have an advantage in a fight.


    But he was reluctant to give up this good place in the mining area just like that.


    If they left here, it wouldn''t be so easy to dig out so much ore every day. They would definitely have to spend a lot of energy in the mine cave and delay their cultivation because of it.


    The atmosphere at the scene was filled with invisible smoke of conflict.


    Lin Hao didn''t expect that on his first day here, he would encounter the matter of fighting for territory. His expression couldn''t help but become solemn.


    Since it was related to the collective interests and as a member of the people living in the same room, he couldn''t stay out of it.


    "Tsk-tsk, there''s a good show to watch," the other miscellaneous disciples, seeing the people from the two rooms confronting each other, couldn''t help but gather around.


    "Humph, you don''t want a toast but prefer a forfeit. Let''s go," Zou Shanhu showed a fierce look, called the people behind him, and shouted as he started to fight, "Teach them a good lesson!"


    "Damn it! Let''s fight them together," Jiang Sheng was furious, his blood surging, his face red and his neck thick as he clenched his fist and took the lead.


    Seeing that the strongest person in the room was so brave, the other miscellaneous disciples immediately followed.


    These people had lived in the old miscellaneous disciple area for quite some time and knew that if they were weak and not united at this time, they would be bullied by the miscellaneous disciples from other rooms later.


    "Bang! Bang!"


    The sounds of fists hitting flesh kept ringing out.


    As one of them, Lin Hao had no choice. Soon, a miscellaneous disciple at the second level of Qi Refining came to him, with a fierce look on his face, clenching his fist and smashing it towards him.


    He wanted to take down Lin Hao, who seemed to be the "weakest" newcomer at the second level of Qi Refining first.


    "Can''t we value peace in cultivating immortals? Do you think I''m easy to bully?" Lin Hao was furious in his heart, his eyes turning red. He quickly mobilized the spiritual energy in his body, clenched his fist, and was ready to fight with the other side.


    Thus, his second fight in the immortal cultivation world broke out.

 Chapter 14: Flexible Combat

    Only when one reaches the third level of Qi Refining and becomes an outer sect disciple in the Xuanyue Sect can one learn spells.


    The highest cultivation level of miscellaneous disciples is only the second level of Qi Refining. When they fight, they mostly use spiritual energy to enhance their physical bodies and engage in close combat. However, if one has practiced martial arts before, one can gain a significant advantage in a fight.


    In the chaotic battle, soon the square-faced young man at the second level of Qi Refining, who rushed straight towards Lin Hao, approached within ten feet.


    Several months had passed. Since Master Eternal Life Immortal Venerable passed the Eternal Life Tower and the Eternal Life Art to Lin Hao and then fell into a deep sleep, he had not appeared again.


    This caused Lin Hao''s plan to learn some combat spells or martial skills from Eternal Life Immortal Venerable to come to nothing.


    However, when he was in the new disciple area, fearing being bullied later, he had practiced fighting with the chubby Wang Fu many times to improve his combat ability.


    Seeing that the square-faced young man was within his attack range, he used the Five Elements Longevity Art to circulate spiritual energy to his fists and smashed forward with great momentum.


    "Bang!"


    Although Lin Hao''s cultivation with the five-element spiritual root was slow, its advantage was that the amount of spiritual energy in his body was far greater than that of cultivators in the same realm. His fierce punch enhanced by spiritual energy produced a sonic boom.


    "Eh, what a fast punch!"


    The square-faced young man''s expression changed. He was a bit incredulous. The person in front of him had just come from the new disciple area to the old one, yet the power and speed of his punch were almost on a par with, or even stronger than, his own. He had been in the old miscellaneous disciple area for a year and had reached the late stage of the second level of Qi Refining.


    However, the square-faced young man quickly calmed down. He had rich combat experience and could tell at a glance from Lin Hao''s punch that Lin Hao had not practiced martial arts and fought without any rules.


    A sinister look flashed across his face. He used a kind of footwork and dodged nimbly and quickly.


    Lin Hao''s punch full of powerful spiritual energy missed.


    "Swish!"


    After dodging the blow, the square-faced young man punched at Lin Hao''s stomach in a very tricky way.


    Lin Hao was shocked. This square-faced young man had such rich combat experience, much stronger than Yan Heng, whom he had defeated in the new disciple area before. Feeling the terrifying fist wind getting closer and closer to his stomach, he realized that it was too late to dodge and had to hurriedly circulate spiritual energy and gather it on his stomach to resist.


    "Bang!"


    A dull sound like forging iron rang out.


    "Hiss!"


    Two painful sounds rang out simultaneously.


    Lin Hao was forced back five or six steps by the square-faced young man''s tricky punch before he managed to stabilize his body.


    The square-faced young man, on the other hand, looked as if he had seen a ghost. When his fist hit Lin Hao''s stomach, there was clearly a terrifying counter-shock force hitting back, making his fist ache.


    He immediately understood that the spiritual energy of this young man who had just come out of the new disciple area was probably far stronger than his own.


    "Junior Brother Mo, quickly take down that newcomer and then come with me to besiege Jiang Sheng, that bastard," on the other side, Zou Shanhu was in a fierce fight with Jiang Sheng. Being slightly weaker, he was at a disadvantage and couldn''t help urging the square-faced young man to defeat Lin Hao quickly.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.


    "Alright, Senior Brother Zou," the square-faced young man replied. Gritting his teeth, he rushed towards Lin Hao again. Knowing that Lin Hao had abundant spiritual energy but the disadvantage of not having practiced martial arts and being less experienced in combat moves, he thought for a while and quickly decided to attack the parts of the human body where spiritual energy was not easy to gather and was relatively weak, such as the chest and the face...


    "Junior Brother Lin, just hold this person back. I''ll defeat Zou Shanhu soon," Jiang Sheng shouted at Lin Hao. He was a bit worried that Lin Hao couldn''t hold back the opponent who was a master at the second level of Qi Refining and that he would be surrounded. He was eager to win quickly and used a set of fierce boxing techniques. He was like a tiger breaking out of its cage.


    "Collapsing Mountain Fist!"


    He shouted softly. Spiritual energy rushed madly into his clenched fist, making the fist swell a circle.


    "Bang!"


    Zou Shanhu, the strongest among those who wanted to snatch the mining area''s territory, was beaten back continuously by Jiang Sheng.


    "I won''t be defeated so easily," seeing that Jiang Sheng on his side was so brave, Lin Hao couldn''t help but feel excited. Seeing the square-faced young man coming at him again, he summoned all his energy and carefully dealt with it. As long as he could hold this person back, they could win this fight.


    "Boom! Bang! Bang..."


    The square-faced young man quickly swung his fists like a rain of blows. Each attack angle was very tricky, aiming at the places on Lin Hao''s body where spiritual energy was weak.


    Lin Hao wasn''t stupid either. After being hit by a few punches, he understood the other party''s intention. When he saw the other party attacking, he simply retreated quickly. His spiritual energy was stronger than the other party''s. With spiritual energy enhancing his legs, his running and moving speed was faster than the other party''s.


    Even though the square-faced young man had practiced footwork, with Lin Hao determined to dodge, he couldn''t catch up and his attacks all missed.


    "Junior Brother Mo, what are you doing? Why haven''t you taken down this newcomer yet?" Zou Shanhu was under great pressure under Jiang Sheng''s crazy attacks. Without help, he was no match for Jiang Sheng and wouldn''t be able to hold on for long and would be defeated.


    "Senior Brother Zou, this newcomer is hard to deal with," the square-faced young man''s expression was extremely ugly. This guy who had just come out of the new miscellaneous disciple area was not good at fighting moves but was extremely cunning. He gathered his abundant spiritual energy on his legs and focused all his energy on running away, making all his planned attacks miss.


    In the end, there was a rather absurd scene where the square-faced young man chased after Lin Hao, running in circles in the mine cave.


    "You little bastard, don''t run if you dare!" The square-faced young man cursed furiously.


    "Humph, I''m not stupid," with his legs enhanced by spiritual energy, Lin Hao ran as if he was stepping on wind and fire wheels. A smug look appeared on his face. He also used psychological tactics to attack the other party and said, "Look at your Senior Brother Zou. He''s almost done for. You''re bound to lose this battle. If I were you, I''d just admit defeat."


    "Mo Santeng, never mind that newcomer. Come and help me," seeing that the square-faced young man couldn''t take down Lin Hao for a long time and was at a disadvantage, Zou Shanhu quickly shouted.


    "Yes, Senior Brother Zou," the square-faced young man gave Lin Hao, who was running away in front, a fierce look and stopped chasing him. He turned around and rushed towards Jiang Sheng, wanting to join Zou Shanhu to besiege Jiang Sheng, the strongest on Lin Hao''s side, and win the victory.


    "Your opponent is me," seeing that the other party suddenly ignored him, Lin Hao used the tactic of advancing when the enemy retreated and retreating when the enemy advanced. He quickly chased after the square-faced young man, not allowing him to break free.


    With the spiritual energy of his five-element spiritual root, which was far stronger than that of people in the same realm, enhancing his legs, he caught up with the square-faced young man in a moment and punched at him.


    "You little beast!" The square-faced young man shouted angrily. He knew how terrifying Lin Hao''s punch full of spiritual energy was and had to dodge. The square-faced young man, who wanted to join Zou Shanhu to besiege Jiang Sheng, was tightly entangled by Lin Hao and couldn''t break free at all.


    "Bang!"


    At the same time, good news came from Jiang Sheng''s side. Seizing the opportunity, he finally landed a solid punch on Zou Shanhu''s face.


    "Ah!"


    A painful scream came from Zou Shanhu''s mouth. He flew backward and fell heavily to the ground, sending a large amount of dust into the air.


    "Wow!"


    A mouthful of blood spat out from Zou Shanhu''s mouth.


    "We admit defeat..."


    The moment Zou Shanhu was defeated, the other three miscellaneous disciples at the second level of Qi Refining who wanted to snatch the mining area''s territory quickly shouted.


    "Stop fighting!"


    At the same time, a faint voice of an outer sect disciple monitoring the situation in the mine cave rang out.


    In order to prevent disciples from being too seriously injured and affecting the mining of spirit iron, according to the rules of the Xuanyue Sect, in the mine cave, if one side admitted defeat or lost their combat ability during a territorial fight, the fight had to stop.


    "Yes, senior brother!"


    Jiang Sheng respectfully saluted the outer sect disciple and didn''t attack Zou Shanhu again.


    Seeing this, the other miscellaneous disciples also stopped fighting. Lin Hao and the others successfully defended the territory of the mine cave area with a high content of spirit iron that belonged to the ten of them.


    "Jiang Sheng, you... you wait for me," Zou Shanhu, who had lost the fight for the territory, was supported by his companions and left in a sorry state. Before leaving, he didn''t forget to utter harsh words.

 Chapter 15: The Abandoned Cave Heaven and Earthly Paradise

    Lin Hao and the others watched these losers leave like stray dogs, and couldn''t help showing happy smiles on their faces.


    According to the rules in the mine cave, the territory occupied by the miscellaneous disciples in one room only needed to accept challenges from those in other rooms once a month.


    After driving Zou Shanhu and the others away, they didn''t have to worry about anyone coming to snatch their mining area territory for at least a month.


    "Junior Brother Lin, you''re really strong! That Mo Santeng has been in the Xuanyue Sect for two years and can be regarded as a little master among miscellaneous disciples, yet he couldn''t do anything to you," Jiang Sheng''s eyes fell on Lin Hao. Feeling that his performance was a bit unexpected, he praised.


    "Junior Brother Lin, fortunately you were here in this battle. Otherwise, we probably couldn''t have held this place," the other two miscellaneous disciples at the second level of Qi Refining also looked at Lin Hao with new eyes and friendly smiles appeared on their faces.


    "Senior Brother Lin is so powerful! With Senior Brother Lin in the mining area, we''ll have a good life," the six miscellaneous disciples at the first level of Qi Refining showed even more admiration on their faces and kept flattering him.


    They had been in the Xuanyue Sect longer than Lin Hao, but their strength was lower than Lin Hao''s, so they directly called Lin Hao senior brother.


    "Fellow senior brothers and junior brothers are joking. I was just beaten by that Mo Santeng and could only run away," Lin Hao was a bit elated by the praise around him, but he said very humbly on his face, "It''s also thanks to Senior Brother Jiang''s great strength that he defeated Zou Shanhu in time. Otherwise, I couldn''t have held on for long."


    Seeing that he was humble and didn''t take credit, Jiang Sheng couldn''t help but think more highly of Lin Hao and smiled and said, "We''re all brothers in the same room. We should support each other and strive to get rid of the identity of miscellaneous disciples and become outer sect disciples as soon as possible."


    "Yes! What Senior Brother Jiang said is right," the others echoed one after another.


    "Let''s go and have a meal," Jiang Sheng, who had great prestige, said.


    Everyone was already hungry and nodded repeatedly.


    When they came to the cafeteria, they exchanged meal vouchers for spirit porridge. Lin Hao started eating it with big mouthfuls.


    After this battle, Lin Hao had completely integrated into these people and had a rather high status among them.


    After having a meal, they didn''t need to work in the afternoon. Lin Hao was about to go back to the wooden house to cultivate when Jiang Sheng stopped him and said, "Junior Brother Lin, are you going back to cultivate?"


    "Well, aren''t you guys going back, Senior Brother Jiang?" Lin Hao''s eyes fell on the other three miscellaneous disciples at the second level of Qi Refining who lived in the same room and asked.


    "We have a place with rich spiritual energy, which is more suitable for cultivation than in the wooden house," Jiang Sheng took a step forward, looked around, and seeing that there was no one around, he whispered, "Junior Brother Lin, come with us."


    "Thank you, Senior Brother Jiang!" Lin Hao''s eyes lit up when he heard this. He quickly clasped his hands in salute to express his gratitude.


    "Let''s go!"


    The four of them walked along a small path down the mountain, left the current mine mountain, and walked about five miles to a steep mountain.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    "Junior Brother Lin, the place suitable for cultivation is on this mountain," Jiang Sheng continued, "There are many wild beasts on this mountain. Among them, the ones that pose the greatest threat to us are several wolf demons."


    "Actually there are demon beasts! Senior Brother Jiang, what are the cultivation levels of those wolf demons?" Lin Hao was shocked. Since he had been in the Xuanyue Sect for half a year, he knew that demon beasts were full of treasures. Demon beasts at the Qi Refining level had demon pills, and their flesh and blood contained a lot of spiritual energy.


    If one could kill them and eat the flesh of demon beasts, one could not only improve the strength of the physical body but also increase the cultivation speed. And the demon pill was even more precious and could be directly taken to increase one''s cultivation level.


    However, the physical bodies of demon beasts were stronger than those of humans. In the early stage, when fighting against human cultivators in the same level, they had a great advantage. They were not so easy to hunt, and on the contrary, they were very dangerous to human cultivators.


    With the strength of the four of them at the second level of Qi Refining, they could still fight if they encountered a demon beast at the second level of Qi Refining. But if they encountered a demon beast at the third level of Qi Refining, they could only run for their lives or even be killed.


    "Junior Brother Lin, among those wolf demons, one is at the second level of Qi Refining, which poses the greatest threat to us. The other five wolves are demon beasts that have just entered the first level of Qi Refining not long ago and are not much of a threat," Jiang Sheng thought for a moment and said, "Originally, after Senior Brother Xu Zhikai left the miscellaneous disciple area, only the three of us were left at the second level of Qi Refining. Facing these wolf demons was still a bit dangerous, and we were thinking of reluctantly giving up this extremely suitable place for cultivation on the mountain.


    "Fortunately, Junior Brother Lin has come and is at the second level of Qi Refining. So we can continue to cultivate on this mountain. After going up the mountain, the four of us can take care of each other, and that beast won''t dare to attack us," Jiang Sheng thought for a while and continued, "If Junior Brother Lin is afraid of demon beasts, we don''t have to go to this mountain today."


    Lin Hao was a bit hesitant in his heart. But thinking that he had come here with them, if he left now, he would surely make these three people unhappy and even hold grudges against him. Besides, he also wanted to see this extremely suitable place for cultivation mentioned by Jiang Sheng. So he summoned his courage and said, "Senior Brother Jiang, since we''re already here, let''s go up the mountain and have a look."


    "Let''s go up the mountain," hearing this, Jiang Sheng and the other two showed smiles on their faces.


    The four of them climbed up the mountain full of trees.


    About two cups of tea time later, they were panting as they reached the mountainside. A cave appeared in front of them.


    "Here we are," Jiang Sheng said.


    "Senior Brother Jiang, what is this place?" Lin Hao looked at the cave and asked doubtfully.


    "This is an abandoned blessed land. Once, an elite inner sect disciple of the Xuanyue Sect cultivated here. Later, because the spiritual energy in this cave decreased, that inner sect elite disciple left," Jiang Sheng smiled and said, "This place was told to me by my grandfather when I joined the Xuanyue Sect. Although the spiritual energy here is not as rich as that in the place where the outer sect disciples of the Xuanyue Sect live, it is much richer than that in all the areas where our miscellaneous disciples live."


    He continued, "Only the four of us know about this place. Junior Brother Lin, you must keep it a secret."


    His grandfather was an outer sect disciple of the Xuanyue Sect and had once been fortunate enough to follow that Xuanyue Sect inner sect elite disciple who had cultivated here, so he knew this place.


    "Don''t worry, Senior Brother Jiang. I''ll never leak it out," Lin Hao patted his chest to guarantee.


    He followed Jiang Sheng into the cave. There were some abandoned furniture, a stone bed, and a pile of firewood that Jiang Sheng and the others hadn''t used up before.


    The cave was a bit dim. One of them lit the firewood to light up the cave.


    Then, the four of them found an empty space, sat cross-legged, and began to operate their cultivation techniques to cultivate.


    "Eh!"


    When Lin Hao used the Five Elements Longevity Art to absorb the spiritual energy around him, he immediately felt happy.


    Cultivating here was about 20% faster than in the area of the miscellaneous disciples'' wooden houses.


    This cultivation bonus didn''t seem like much, but over time, with the accumulation day by day, it would be quite significant.


    Lin Hao had been a miscellaneous disciple in the Xuanyue Sect for half a year. According to the rule that miscellaneous disciples had to leave the Xuanyue Sect if they couldn''t become outer sect disciples within three years, he only had two and a half years left.


    "With this cave full of rich spiritual energy, I have a greater chance of becoming an outer sect disciple of the Xuanyue Sect!"


    He excitedly operated the Five Elements Longevity Art and greedily absorbed the surrounding spiritual energy.


    As time passed, the sun in the sky was already in the

 Chapter 16: Collapsing Mountain Fist!

    It wasn''t completely dark yet at this time.


    Lin Hao and the others returned to the cave with rich spiritual energy. On their way back, they didn''t encounter the several dangerous wolf demons that Jiang Sheng had mentioned before.


    Inside the cave, each of them found a position, sat cross-legged, and began to cultivate.


    As time passed, it gradually grew dark, and a bright moon quietly climbed up to the top of the mountain.


    The four of them had been meditating in the cave for several hours.


    "Ow! Ow!"


    Suddenly, loud wolf howls came from outside the cave. Judging from the imposing manner, it was clear that they were no ordinary wild beasts.


    The four people who were meditating and cultivating were startled and all opened their eyes.


    "The wolf demons are here," Jiang Sheng said as he looked outside the cave, a hint of solemnity appearing on his face. "Let''s get closer to each other so that we can take care of one another. Since those wolf demons see that all four of us are at the second level of Qi Refining, they will presumably retreat when they realize it''s too difficult for them."


    "Yes, Senior Brother Jiang," Lin Hao and the other two nodded hurriedly.


    The space in the cave wasn''t very large. Just as the four of them took up favorable defensive positions inside the cave, they saw a giant wolf with cyan fur all over its body, about ten feet long and six feet high, leading five much smaller wolf demons. With fierce glints in their eyes, they slowly walked into the cave.


    "Junior Brother Lin, circulate your spiritual energy and release the aura of the second level of Qi Refining," Jiang Sheng, who was clearly no stranger to confronting these wolf demons, reminded them in an experienced manner.


    "Alright, okay!"


    Lin Hao circulated the Five Elements Longevity Art, summoned the spiritual energy in his body, and gathered it on his clenched fists, entering a combat-ready state.


    "Ow..."


    The five wolf demons at the first level of Qi Refining, led by the wolf king at the second level of Qi Refining, let out low growls and slowly approached the four people in the cave.


    They stopped when they were two or three zhang away from them.


    Demon beasts already had some intelligence. The wolf king at the second level of Qi Refining swept his eyes over the four people in the cave. When he saw Lin Hao, his eyes clearly paused for a moment, recognizing that Lin Hao was a new face.


    When it sensed that Lin Hao''s spiritual energy fluctuation was not weaker than that of the other three people, and was even stronger, a hint of human-like hesitation clearly appeared in the wolf king''s eyes.


    The two sides confronted each other for less than half a cup of tea time.


    "Ow!"


    The wolf king let out a low growl. In the end, it didn''t choose to launch an attack. With a rather reluctant look in its eyes, it led the five wolf demons at the first level of Qi Refining and backed away, leaving the cave.


    "These wolves have always wanted to seize this cave with rich spiritual energy. Fortunately, we scared them away," Jiang Sheng breathed a sigh of relief, and a smile appeared on his face.


    "Senior Brother Jiang, among that group of wolf demons, only the wolf king is at the second level of Qi Refining," Lin Hao couldn''t help asking. "Why don''t we join hands and kill these demon wolves? Then there would be no danger when we cultivate in the cave."


    "We didn''t lack attempts to set up schemes to kill the wolf king before, but that wolf king is very cunning. When it senses something is wrong, it will lead the wolf pack and run away," one of the miscellaneous disciples at the second level of Qi Refining said. "Besides, demon beasts in the same realm are stronger than us humans. The four of us can indeed kill the wolf king and its subordinates when we join hands, but if the wolf king is forced into a desperate situation and goes crazy, someone will surely get hurt, and accidentally, someone might even die."If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    "So, it''s the best result that we can keep this cave with rich spiritual energy and cultivate inside it," he continued.


    "Senior Brother Wu, I understand," Lin Hao nodded.


    "By the way, Junior Brother Lin, I noticed that when you fought with Mo Santeng during the day, you fought without any rules or skills. Had you never practiced martial arts before?" Jiang Sheng thought for a moment and suddenly asked.


    "Senior Brother Jiang, I came from a farming family and was born into a poor family. Besides reading some books and being able to read, I didn''t have spare money to practice martial arts," Lin Hao showed an embarrassed smile on his face.


    As a transmigrator, he had already fabricated his own life story and memorized it thoroughly, leaving no flaws for others to find.


    "I see," Jiang Sheng hesitated for a moment as if he had made a difficult decision and said, "For the sake of the safety of our cultivation here, Junior Brother Lin, I plan to teach you a set of boxing techniques. I wonder if you''re willing to learn."


    "Senior Brother Jiang, I''m willing!"


    Lin Hao had always been troubled by the fact that he didn''t have any decent combat moves. Since joining the Xuanyue Sect, when he fought, he could only rely on his spiritual energy, which was richer than that of people in the same realm, to throw random punches.


    Hearing that Jiang Sheng was going to teach him a set of boxing techniques, he couldn''t help but feel extremely excited.


    "This boxing technique is called the Collapsing Mountain Fist. It''s a body cultivation boxing technique, famous for its fierceness. When it''s performed, the strength of the whole body gathers on the fists, and the power is concentrated on the fist surface. It''s both fast and fierce."


    "Today, when Zou Shanhu wanted to snatch our mine cave territory, I used this set of boxing techniques when fighting with him," Jiang Sheng continued. "The Collapsing Mountain Fist has thirty-six forms, divided into three parts: upper, middle, and lower. According to the rules set by my grandfather, I can only teach you the first twelve forms, that is, the upper part of the boxing technique. I hope Junior Brother Lin won''t mind."


    The Collapsing Mountain Fist was his trump card and the reliance for him to thrive among the miscellaneous disciples. Jiang Sheng had only known Lin Hao for a little more than a day. If it weren''t for the sake of improving the overall strength of the four people to better protect this cave with rich spiritual energy, he probably wouldn''t be willing to teach even one move.


    "Senior Brother Jiang, you''re willing to teach me the twelve moves of the Collapsing Mountain Fist, which is already a great kindness to me. How could I mind?" Lin Hao had a sincere expression on his face and said gratefully.


    After transmigrating to this world for over a year, he knew that the customs in this world were similar to those in the ancient times of the Great Hua Kingdom on Blue Star. People attached great importance to inheritance. Some would even rather take their skills to the grave than teach them to others easily.


    Jiang Sheng was willing to teach him twelve moves of the body cultivation boxing technique, which was already quite good.


    "Junior Brother Lin, I''ll demonstrate the moves of the Collapsing Mountain Fist for you. Watch carefully," seeing his sincere attitude, Jiang Sheng smiled and directly started practicing the boxing in the cave.


    The other two people in the cave still sat cross-legged with their eyes closed and continued to cultivate. It wasn''t that they weren''t interested in Jiang Sheng''s Collapsing Mountain Fist. The thing was that even if they watched the moves of the punches, without the corresponding spiritual energy circulation meridian diagrams, it would be useless to learn the moves.


    Besides, before joining the Xuanyue Sect, they had also learned martial arts from famous masters. What they had was already enough for them in the miscellaneous disciple area, and they didn''t want to waste time and energy on cultivating other martial skills.


    After becoming outer sect disciples, they could learn spells, which were much more powerful than the incomplete Collapsing Mountain Fist that Jiang Sheng taught.


    "If I learn Senior Brother Jiang''s boxing technique, my strength should be improved a lot," Lin Hao watched Jiang Sheng demonstrate the boxing moves for him and immediately excitedly concentrated his spirit and tried hard to remember them.


    Since coming to this world, his memory had somehow become much better.


    After Jiang Sheng demonstrated the Collapsing Mountain Fist for him several times, Lin Hao had already remembered the first twelve forms of the Collapsing Mountain Fist.


    The Collapsing Mountain Fist was actually divided into three parts: upper, middle, and lower. Although he had only learned the upper part for now, if he learned to perform it, it would form a self-contained system. Except that its power wasn''t as strong as the complete Collapsing Mountain Fist, using the upper part of the boxing technique wouldn''t be affected by not having mastered the middle and lower parts.


    "Senior Brother Jiang, I''ve already remembered the movements of the first twelve forms of the Collapsing Mountain Fist that you taught," Lin Hao said.


    "Eh, so fast? Junior Brother Lin, your memory is really amazing," Jiang Sheng was a bit surprised in his heart. When his grandfather taught him this set of boxing techniques, he had spent quite a lot of time to remember them. Unlike Lin Hao, who could remember them so easily in just a little over a quarter of an hour.

 Chapter 17: Body Cultivation, Receiving Spirit Stones at the End of the Year

    "Senior Brother Jiang, I just memorized them by rote. If I want to actually use these moves, I''m afraid I still need to practice hard," Lin Hao said with a smile. Remembering the movements was one thing, but being able to perform them with his body was quite another and rather difficult.


    "That''s already very good," Jiang Sheng suppressed his surprise in his heart. Seeing that Lin Hao had a good memory, he was actually quite happy instead.


    Because in this way, it would be much easier for him to teach, and he wouldn''t have to waste too much of his own cultivation time.


    After hesitating for a moment, he took out a sheepskin scroll with a human body pattern drawn on it from his body and said, "This is the spiritual energy circulation meridian diagram corresponding to the moves of the Collapsing Mountain Fist, as well as the key points for using the boxing technique. Junior Brother Lin, after you memorize it, return this meridian diagram to me."


    "Alright, thank you, Senior Brother Jiang," Lin Hao nodded to express his gratitude and excitedly took the sheepskin scroll handed to him.


    "Junior Brother Lin, I''ll start cultivating first," Jiang Sheng said in a warm-hearted manner. "If you have anything you don''t understand, you can ask me after I finish cultivating."


    After saying that, he sat cross-legged and circulated the Xuanyue Qi Refining Art to seize the time and start cultivating.


    Jiang Sheng had been in the Xuanyue Sect for two years already, and only one year was left for him to become an outer sect disciple. He had to make every minute and second count.


    Seeing that the three of them had entered the cultivation state, Lin Hao sat down in a corner of the cave, opened the sheepskin scroll, and began to read it carefully.


    After unfolding the sheepskin scroll, it was about two feet long. There were twelve meridian diagrams on it, corresponding to the twelve moves, along with detailed textual explanations.


    After spending some time memorizing all the content on the sheepskin scroll, a look of surprise and joy appeared on Lin Hao''s face.


    The Collapsing Mountain Fist was a body cultivation boxing technique. Not only could it be used in combat, but practicing it usually could also temper the muscles on the body and strengthen the physical body.


    However, there was a striking line of red characters on the sheepskin scroll warning cultivators that if they practiced this boxing technique too many times a day, their appetites would become extremely large. They would have to eat a lot of meat or take blood-nourishing medicinal diets and pills to replenish the potential of the physical body. Otherwise, the physical body simply couldn''t bear it.


    Moreover, when practiced to a certain extent, ordinary meat wouldn''t work, and precious demon beast meat would be needed.


    Body cultivation was indeed famous for being costly. Cultivation required the cooperation of medicinal diets, pills, and demon beast meat. Those without a thick family fortune couldn''t afford to choose the path of body cultivation at all.


    If one only practiced hard without replenishing, their body would be ruined sooner or later.


    Lin Hao stared blankly at the introduction to body cultivation on the sheepskin scroll and couldn''t help clicking his tongue.


    He had heard that body cultivators had extremely strong combat capabilities and had always yearned for it in his heart. But when he saw the resources required for body cultivation, he felt an invisible pressure.


    "For now, I''ll first learn the Collapsing Mountain Fist to improve my strength. As for whether to take the path of body cultivation later, it''s not impossible. I have the Eternal Life Tower that can improve the quality of spirit herbs, pills, and magic weapons," Lin Hao thought to himself. "When the time comes, I''ll sell the pills and magic weapons with improved quality, earn the price difference, and use the earned spirit stones to buy the materials needed for body cultivation."


    Thinking of this, he felt that it was quite feasible and couldn''t help getting excited.


    The combat ability of body cultivators was extremely strong among those in the same realm. The chance of surviving in the face of danger was much higher than that of cultivators who didn''t practice body cultivation. Lin Hao, who was rather afraid of death, planned to practice both the law and body cultivation in the future.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    After imagining the future in his mind for a while, he put the sheepskin scroll away.


    Lin Hao stood up. Worried that the noise from practicing boxing would be too loud and affect the cultivation of the other three people in the cave, he hesitated for a moment and walked a certain distance towards the entrance of the cave before assuming a stance to practice the boxing technique.


    Lin Hao circulated the spiritual energy in his body and, according to the method recorded on the sheepskin scroll, let it flow into specific meridians, constantly using the moves of the Collapsing Mountain Fist.


    Thanks to his good memory, after practicing for about half an hour, he had barely mastered the Collapsing Mountain Fist and reached the beginner level.


    Lin Hao was covered in sweat. He felt that the muscles on his body were hot and even trembled slightly. This was a manifestation of the physical body being tempered.


    After a while, he stopped punching, stood still, and slowly exhaled a turbid breath.


    Today, the time Lin Hao spent on practicing the Collapsing Mountain Fist was almost enough. Since he didn''t have demon beast meat, medicinal diets, pills, or other things to replenish his body at present, if he practiced any more, it would harm his body.


    He understood that body cultivation had to be done step by step. Otherwise, just like when he was on Earth before transmigrating, if he didn''t exercise usually and suddenly exercised vigorously one day, his muscles would be sore and uncomfortable for the next week.


    After finishing practicing boxing, Lin Hao walked back from the position near the entrance of the cave to the inside of the cave, sat cross-legged not far from the other three people, and entered the cultivation state.


    Nothing happened throughout the night.


    In the early morning, as the sun just rose, the first ray of sunlight with a purple hue sprinkled on the continuous mountains.


    Lin Hao and the others, who had cultivated all night, went down the mountain in high spirits and rushed towards the mine. After drinking a big bowl of spirit porridge in the cafeteria, they entered the mine cave and started working.


    In the following days, there weren''t many significant changes.


    The life of miscellaneous disciples was rather plain. Lin Hao spent his days either cultivating or working in the mine cave.


    In the blink of an eye, several months had passed.


    During this period, there were several times when miscellaneous disciples from other rooms came to snatch the mining area territory occupied by them, but they were all driven back.


    Lin Hao had already practiced the upper part of the Collapsing Mountain Fist to a proficient level, while his progress in the Qi Refining realm was a bit slow.


    After reaching the second level of Qi Refining, the amount of spiritual energy required was several times more than that at the first level of Qi Refining.


    Even though he practiced hard every day in the cave with rich spiritual energy, he was still far from reaching the middle stage of the second level of Qi Refining.


    "With the five-element spiritual root, cultivation is really difficult! Alas! Since Master Eternal Life Immortal Venerable fell into a deep sleep, it''s as if he disappeared. I can''t even ask for cultivation experience," Lin Hao showed a bitter smile on his face. According to this progress, he was afraid that he would have to wait for another half a year before he had a chance to enter the middle stage of the second level of Qi Refining.


    Cultivating the Tao was really difficult! Every step was going against the heavens.


    "I''ve been in the Xuanyue Sect for a year before I knew it. Alas! I''m a year older," Lin Hao felt that time passed too quickly. It seemed that apart from cultivating to the second level of Qi Refining in a year, he hadn''t achieved anything else. Feeling a bit depressed, he opened the window of the small wooden house and looked at the goose-feather-like snowflakes floating outside.


    The heavy snow had blocked the mountain. The snow was so thick that it was very difficult to move around in the steep mountains. With their not-so-high cultivation levels, Lin Hao and the other three were blocked by the snow and couldn''t enter that cave with rich spiritual energy to cultivate for a long time. Their cultivation speed became much slower again.


    The snow all over the sky was beautiful, but the miscellaneous disciples didn''t have much leisure and elegance to appreciate it. They were the bottom of the immortal cultivation world, like wage slaves, and still had to work every day.


    "Let''s go, Junior Brother Lin. Let''s go to the mine cave," Jiang Sheng picked up the mining tools and called out to Lin Hao.


    "Alright, okay, Senior Brother Jiang," Lin Hao replied.


    The ten miscellaneous disciples living in one room walked forward against the wind and snow along a cleared path.


    The coldness of the air, accompanied by the strong wind, made them shiver involuntarily even though they were all cultivators and were wearing cotton-padded clothes.


    It wasn''t until they entered the mine cave that the biting cold subsided a lot.


    "Everyone, don''t start working yet. Come and receive your spirit stones," suddenly, an outer sect disciple in the mine cave shouted loudly.


    "Wow! Finally, it''s the day to distribute spirit stones!"


    Hearing this, a large number of miscellaneous disciples in the mine cave became excited.


    After all, people like Li Feilong, whom Lin Hao had met in the new miscellaneous disciple area and who came from an immortal cultivation family and had quite a number of spirit stones, were in the minority.


    Most of the miscellaneous disciples in the ore area of the Xuanyue Sect were poor fellows without any background. They were all looking forward to the two low-grade spirit stones at the end of the year to speed up their cultivation and improve their cultivation levels.

 Chapter 18: Cruelty and Tenderness

    In the mine cave, the miscellaneous disciples put down their mining tools one by one and gathered together.


    Under the arrangement of the outer sect disciples, the miscellaneous disciples lined up in a long queue.


    After not waiting for long, they saw a young man in a blue robe, which represented inner sect disciples in the Xuanyue Sect, walking over unhurriedly.


    "Each person can receive two low-grade spirit stones," the young man in the blue robe said with an indifferent expression.


    Then he asked the outer sect disciples to bring over a table. With a wave of his hand, a large number of alluring crystals with a faint glow fell onto the table, piling up as high as a small hill.


    Seeing that the young man in the blue robe took out so many spirit stones, the miscellaneous disciples couldn''t help but feel a bit excited in their hearts. However, none of them dared to have any covetous thoughts. They obediently lined up and stepped forward to receive their own share.


    Each miscellaneous disciple took two low-grade spirit stones and then left, so the speed of distributing the spirit stones was quite fast.


    Lin Hao lined up expectantly. After waiting for about half a quarter of an hour or so, it was finally his turn.


    Under the indifferent gaze of the young man in the blue robe, he honestly took two low-grade spirit stones from the table. Then, after signing his name on a piece of paper representing the list of those who had already received the stones, he excitedly left, holding the spirit stones in his hand.


    Generally, when cultivators absorb the spiritual energy in low-grade spirit stones, half of it will be lost, wasting a lot of spiritual energy.


    However, with the help of the Eternal Life Tower, Lin Hao could absorb 100% of the spiritual energy in the spirit stones without any loss.


    The spiritual energy he obtained by absorbing the two low-grade spirit stones he received was equivalent to that which other miscellaneous disciples would have to absorb four low-grade spirit stones to match.


    This was Lin Hao''s unique advantage.


    After receiving the spirit stones, when a group of miscellaneous disciples thought that with the help of the spirit stones during cultivation, their cultivation speed would increase significantly, they couldn''t help but show happy smiles on their faces, and they worked much harder.


    "Clang! Clang! Ding! Ding!"


    In the mine cave, the sound of knocking kept ringing out.


    Time passed quickly, and soon the whole morning had gone by.


    Lin Hao and the others put away their mining tools, took the mined spirit iron to the outer sect disciples, exchanged it for meal vouchers, and then walked out of the mine cave.


    At noon, the wind and snow didn''t weaken but instead increased.


    Lin Hao and Jiang Sheng, who lived in the same room, came to the door of the cafeteria. They straightened their clothes, shook their bodies vigorously to shake off the snowflakes on them, and then entered the cafeteria to receive a bowl of steaming hot spirit porridge.


    A group of miscellaneous disciples gulped down the spirit porridge. They felt warm all over, as if the severe cold of the world had been driven away.


    Lin Hao put the porridge bowl, which he had licked clean, back in the cafeteria and then returned to the small wooden house.


    "Fellow junior brothers, I only have two months left before my three years as a miscellaneous disciple in the Xuanyue Sect are up. If I can''t break through to the third level of Qi Refining and become an outer sect disciple, I''ll have to leave the Xuanyue Sect," suddenly, Yuan Chang, a miscellaneous disciple who had been in the Xuanyue Sect for the longest time and whose cultivation level had reached the late stage of the second level of Qi Refining, looked at the other several miscellaneous disciples whose cultivation levels were at the first level of Qi Refining and said in a pleading tone, "Could you lend me some of your spirit stones so that I can try to break through to the third level of Qi Refining? When I become an outer sect disciple, I''ll return the spirit stones to you doubled."


    As Yuan Chang, who only had two months left before the three-year period was up, asked to borrow spirit stones, Lin Hao clearly felt that the atmosphere in the wooden house became cold.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.


    The several miscellaneous disciples at the first level of Qi Refining all showed embarrassed expressions on their faces. After all, they had worked hard for a whole year and had just received two low-grade spirit stones with great difficulty.


    With these two spirit stones, they could try to break through to the second level of Qi Refining.


    After all, everyone could only stay in the Xuanyue Sect for three years. If they couldn''t become outer sect disciples, they would have to go to the ordinary cities with thin spiritual energy to help the Xuanyue Sect handle secular affairs. It would be difficult to cultivate in the secular world, and time was tight for everyone.


    Seeing that everyone in the wooden house was silent and unwilling to lend him spirit stones, Yuan Chang couldn''t help getting anxious and said, "Junior Brother Yu, Junior Brother Hong... You two have been miscellaneous disciples in the Xuanyue Sect for two years already, but your cultivation levels haven''t broken through to the second level of Qi Refining. You don''t have much chance to become outer sect disciples. Why don''t you... lend me the spirit stones... Consider it that I owe you a favor, and I''ll surely repay you generously in the future."


    "Senior Brother Yuan... If we absorb these two low-grade spirit stones, our cultivation levels can break through to the second level of Qi Refining. Even if we don''t break through to the third level of Qi Refining within three years, we can still participate in the outer sect disciple promotion assessment once and have a slim chance of becoming outer sect disciples," the two people called Junior Brother Yu and Junior Brother Hong said bravely.


    Among the miscellaneous disciples in the Xuanyue Sect, there were three ways to become outer sect disciples.


    The first was that when one''s cultivation level reached the third level of Qi Refining, one could be promoted unconditionally.


    The second was to make contributions to the sect. For example, once there was a lucky miscellaneous disciple in the mining area who dug up precious treasures in the mine cave and handed them over to the sect, and he directly got rid of the identity of a miscellaneous disciple.


    However, in this kind of low-level spirit mine, it was extremely difficult for miscellaneous disciples to make contributions by digging up treasures.


    The third was to participate in the outer sect disciple promotion assessment, which was also the last chance given by the Xuanyue Sect to miscellaneous disciples. As long as the miscellaneous disciples'' cultivation levels were at the second level of Qi Refining, they had the qualification to participate once.


    However, the competition was too fierce. Every year, tens of thousands of miscellaneous disciples who couldn''t cultivate to the third level of Qi Refining signed up to participate, trying to seize the last chance to become outer sect disciples, but very few succeeded.


    Each time the Xuanyue Sect only gave out a pitiful fifty places in the outer sect disciple promotion assessment. Tens of thousands of people competed for these fifty places, and the success rate was terribly low.


    "Junior Brother Yu, Junior Brother Hong, only one person can pass among hundreds of people in the outer sect disciple promotion assessment," Yuan Chang pleaded, "And as long as you give me the spirit stones in your hands, relying on these spirit stones, I''m sure I can be promoted to the third level of Qi Refining. When I become an outer sect disciple two months later, I can receive spirit stones every month. I''ll return the spirit stones you lent me doubled. In this way, it won''t affect your cultivation. On the contrary, you''ll be able to cultivate faster because of the doubled spirit stones I return to you."


    "Senior Brother Yuan, you... why are you making it difficult for us," the two people whose spirit stones were being borrowed, Junior Brother Yu and Junior Brother Hong, still refused.


    "Two junior brothers, please, I''m begging you," Yuan Chang actually knelt down on the ground in front of everyone in the small wooden house and said, "As long as you lend me the spirit stones, you two will be like my parents who gave me a second life. I swear that I''ll definitely repay you well."


    In the Xuanyue Sect, if one snatched spirit porridge as long as it wasn''t too excessive, there would be no consequences. But if one dared to snatch spirit stones, that would be a violation of the sect''s rules, and the punishment would be extremely severe.


    So even though Junior Brother Yu and Junior Brother Hong refused to lend the spirit stones, Yuan Chang didn''t dare to snatch them by force.


    Lin Hao looked at Yuan Chang, who was kneeling on the ground and begging bitterly, and showed a sympathetic expression on his face. He just felt the cruelty of the immortal cultivation path.


    This person''s cultivation level had already reached the late stage of the second level of Qi Refining. As long as he had five or six low-grade spirit stones, he would definitely be able to break through.


    But just because of the lack of these few spirit stones, he couldn''t become an outer sect disciple, and his immortal cultivation path would be cut off.


    The average proportion of miscellaneous disciples in the Xuanyue Sect who could become outer sect disciples wasn''t high. Calculated, among every ten miscellaneous disciples, only about two could luckily become outer sect disciples within three years.


    "Junior Brother Yuan, why are you doing this to yourself?" Jiang Sheng showed a look of unbearable on his face. He was kind-hearted and rather chivalrous. Having lived with Yuan Chang for more than a year, he still had quite a bit of friendship with him. He said, "I''ll lend you one of my spirit stones."


    His current cultivation level was at the peak of the second level of Qi Refining, and he was just a little short of breaking through.


    Jiang Sheng had been in the Xuanyue Sect for as long as two and a half years, and only six months were left. But compared to Yuan Chang, who only had two months left, he still had much more time.


    Even if he only had one spirit stone, he still had a good chance to break through to the third level of Qi Refining.


    "Thank you, Senior Brother Jiang, for lending me the spirit stone. I''ll remember this great kindness and virtue for a lifetime," Yuan Chang, who was kneeling on the ground, was overjoyed in his heart. He kowtowed to Jiang Sheng continuously with a "Bang! Bang!" sound.