Cultivation begins with forming a bond with a spirit bee.

Three months passed quickly.

As autumn deepens, the green leaves covering the mountains gradually fall, and new spiritual rice has been planted in the spiritual fields, sprouting tiny green shoots.

The wild animals in the mountains have stored up enough fat to survive the winter and have gone to sleep.

The Yumen market remained bustling with activity, showing no particular changes.

In a courtyard in the eastern part of the market, Qu Ye opened his eyes and slowly exhaled.

Thanks to his talent for gathering spiritual energy, he reached the peak of the third level of Qi Refining faster than expected.

He had just tried to use his magic to break through that invisible bottleneck, but to no avail; the bottleneck remained unmoved.

"At this rate, it will take at least two more years to wear down the bottleneck to the point where it can be broken through."

Although the Spirit Gathering talent can accelerate the speed at which he accumulates mana, it does not help him overcome bottlenecks at all.

After ending his seclusion, he got up and went to the guest room to brew himself a pot of spiritual flower tea.

Taking a small sip, Qu Ye lowered his eyes and mentally calculated the costs.

Over the course of three months, he condensed a total of eighteen spirit essences, which translates to eighteen spirit stones.

He kept all these spiritual essences in his storage bag, intending to accumulate a certain amount before trading them.

Aside from these, some other minor and major events also occurred during these three months.

First, the Hou family sealed off the spirit beast field and searched for the two thieves for a month without success, concluding that the two had escaped from the Yumenfang area, and that further searching would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Although Hou Fangping still insisted on the search, the intensity of the search inevitably decreased significantly. At least the spirit beast arena was no longer blocked, and Hou family disciples could no longer be seen patrolling around the market.

Qu Ye breathed a sigh of relief, no longer worried about being caught training the spirit bees.

Another thing is that through a lot of practice, Qu Ye can now skillfully control the spirit bee swarm.

Wherever the swarm of bees goes, it may not block out the sky, but it is enough to make one's scalp tingle.

Aside from the significant drain on his spiritual energy, Qu Ye finally had his trump card up his sleeve.

At the same time, he also connected with and calmed the bees, integrating the new queen bee into the colony, which is now able to produce a stable supply of spirit essence.

Yeah, I feel like I've really made myself proud.

As for the fact that the power of the Gengjin Sword Technique increases exponentially when it is mastered, I will not go into details here.

Pulling himself back to his senses, Qu Ye downed the spirit flower tea in one gulp.

I had five spirit stones left after buying the storage bag, and I got eight more after paying the spirit tax.

Including the spirit stones he can exchange for spirit essence, he now has a total of thirty-one.

With these savings, the key is to quickly convert them into resources, rather than leaving them idle.

Since I've just reached the bottleneck of the early stage of Qi Refining, I might as well buy a breakthrough pill and purchase one or two protective treasures.

With that thought in mind, Qu Ye put away the tea set and stepped out of the courtyard.

As soon as I stepped out of the hospital gate, I saw Old Liu carrying a hoe on his right shoulder and a pipe in his left hand, slowly walking from the other end of the street.

Old Liu greeted Qu Ye with a smile, "Young Master Qu, are you off to get busy?"

Qu Ye nodded: "Let's go check out the bee farm."

"Alright then." Old Liu took a puff of his pipe. "See you next time."

"See you later."

After saying goodbye to Old Liu, Qu Ye calmly walked out of the market as usual and hurried along the road to Lingfengchang.

After walking a distance, Qu Ye came to a fork in the road. He used his divine sense to search the area and found no one around.

He then turned onto the left path and came to a dense thicket of bushes. He took something out of his storage bag and applied it to his face.

A moment later, a middle-aged man emerged from the bushes—it was Qu Ye in disguise.

An old fur coat replaced his black clothes, he wore a straw hat, and his boots were covered in mud.

He then used special herbal juice to alter his skin tone, making it slightly sallow, to match his deliberately ruthless demeanor.

He looked like a weary, wandering cultivator.

Qu Ye looked at the effect of his disguise in a pool of water and nodded in satisfaction.

This method of disguise was taught to him by an elderly hermit when he was buying medicinal powder.

It can be easily made by grinding some common herbs into a paste.

Although the disguise is not very sophisticated and cannot escape the detection of a Foundation Establishment cultivator's divine sense, it is sufficient for now.

Then he deliberately changed the frequency of his steps and headed towards the east gate of the market.

A moment later, Qu Ye arrived at the entrance of the market.

A blue barrier covered the entrance; it was the second-tier array that covered Yumen Market.

Two Yang family disciples were on duty, and there were four or five others in line. He followed behind them, waiting quietly.

The Yang family is also one of the three major families, and now it's their turn to guard the market for the next ten years.

Soon, it was Qu Ye's turn.

One of the disciples stopped Qu Ye, while the other asked sternly, "Who are you?"

Qu Ye did not take out the Hou family token as usual, but instead cupped his hands in a salute and replied in a slightly hoarse voice:

"Han Li, a rogue cultivator from the Yun Kingdom."

The two disciples seemed to be merely going through the motions, completely disregarding the names Qu Ye announced, and coldly repeated:

Do you have an identity token?

"No, I'm new to this place and just wanted to go into the market to buy some things."

The disciple on the left nodded, took out a booklet to record the information, while the disciple on the right spoke up:

"If you don't have a token, you'll need to pay a deposit of one spirit stone in exchange for a temporary certificate. After you leave the shop and return the certificate, the spirit stone will be returned to you."

"You must not cause trouble while you are in the ward, otherwise the law enforcement team will come to arrest you. Do you understand?"

Qu Ye was naturally very familiar with this process, so he nodded in agreement and paid a spirit stone before receiving a square temporary certificate.

He then held up the certificate, and the blue barrier rippled, forming a gap the size of a person. Qu Ye quickly went inside.

Upon arriving at the familiar place, he first pretended to look around curiously. Seeing that no one was paying attention to him, he then joined the crowd and headed towards his destination.

His destination was not Tianxiang Pavilion, but another, slightly smaller shop: Ziyunfang.

Since the decision has been made to sell the Spirit Essence and then purchase the Breakthrough Pill, it's best to do the two things separately in different shops.

Otherwise, imagine if a rogue cultivator took out spiritual essence and bought a breakthrough pill. By the time Qu Ye reappeared at Tianxiang Pavilion, he would already be at the mid-stage of Qi Refining.

Isn't that a bit too much of a coincidence?

Although it's highly likely that Qu Ye is just worrying unnecessarily and the risk of exposure is very low, it's always better to be cautious than not.

It won't take much effort anyway.

As for why one must buy pills from Tianxiang Pavilion, it's because Tianxiang Pavilion's pills are of the best quality.

This matter concerns a bottleneck in cultivation; there is no room for error.

After recalling the location of Ziyunfang, Qu Ye walked south along the street.

Ziyunfang is located at the junction of the South District and the East District. Its storefront is not as grand as Tianxiangge, but it is still a well-established brand.

Fifteen minutes later, Qu Ye turned a street corner, and the black signboard with gold lettering of Ziyunfang came into view.

A cloud pattern is carved on the lintel of Ziyunfang, and the paint is somewhat mottled, indicating that it is quite old.

He adjusted his straw hat and stepped inside.

The shop was quieter than Tianxiang Pavilion. Two rogue cultivators were standing in front of the shelves against the wall, picking out talismans, while a shop assistant was busy serving them.

An old shopkeeper sat behind the counter, fiddling with an abacus in his hand, but his eyes were fixed on the shop.

Qu Ye walked to the counter. The old shopkeeper glanced at him, put down his abacus, and asked, "What would you like, fellow Daoist?"

"Selling some things." Qu Ye took out the eighteen spirit essences from his storage bag and arranged them on the counter. "Jade Spirit Bee spirit essences, are you buying them?"

The old shopkeeper nodded, picked up a piece of spirit essence, examined it against the light, and then smelled it: "The quality is very good, without a trace of pollen impurity, top grade."

"Eighteen pieces, a total of eighteen spirit stones. What do you think, fellow Daoist?"

Qu Ye remained expressionless: "Okay."

The old shopkeeper took out eighteen spirit stones and placed them on the counter. Qu Ye checked them one by one and then put them into his storage bag.

"Does fellow Daoist need anything else?" the old shopkeeper asked.

Qu Ye shook his head, turned around and walked out of Ziyunfang.