Gao Wu: Oh no! Young Master Zhen is a cultivator!

"Oh dear, why are we bringing this up again?" Song Yishu quickly smoothed things over. "Let's tidy up, it's time for dinner."

"I'll put my things back in my room first." With that, Lin Ran went upstairs.

He stuffed the backpack into the closet and covered it with clothes.

The two backpacks full of crystal cores, plus the few third-tier ones left over from yesterday and the fifth-tier one, should be enough to last for a while.

When I went downstairs, the food was already laid out on the dining table.

Lin Ran had just sat down and picked up his chopsticks when Lin Zhixia across from him spoke.

"Where did you go after you left the orphanage today?"

Lin Ran raised an eyebrow: "So, the person who was with me today was you?"

"I'm just a little curious." Lin Zhixia's tone was calm, as if she didn't think there was anything wrong with following Lin Ran.

Lin Ran and she looked at each other for two seconds, then Lin Ran shrugged: "I went to school."

"Oh." Lin Zhixia nodded, but it was unclear whether she believed him or not.

After a moment, Lin Ran spoke again: "Don't follow me next time, it's easy to cause misunderstandings."

Lin Zhixia disagreed: "If you don't do anything strange, I naturally won't follow you."

Upon hearing this, Lin Ran frowned slightly: "What strange thing have I done?"

You know what you're doing.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Lin Zhiyao glanced back and forth between the two of them several times before finally unable to resist interjecting, "Second sister, what exactly did he do?"

"This is none of your business, don't ask any more questions."

"What do you mean?" Lin Zhiyao slammed her chopsticks on the table. "So you two are the real siblings, and I'm the outsider?"

Lin Haozhe, who was standing nearby, quickly spoke up: "Third Sister, don't misunderstand. Second Sister probably didn't mean that."

"You found out again?" Lin Zhiyao looked at Lin Haozhe.

"This..." Lin Haozhe guessed, "It must be that Brother Ran has some secret, and Second Sister is just keeping it a secret for him."

"You're so mysterious every day." Lin Zhiyao picked up her chopsticks again and poked at the rice in her bowl.

Seeing this, Song Yishu spoke up to stop them: "Eat your food properly."

"Okay," Lin Zhiyao replied reluctantly.

Ever since Lin Ran pointed out Lin Zhiwan's thoughts in the living room last time, the eldest daughter of the Lin family has remained silent.

During the meal, she simply picked at the food in front of her silently and did not communicate with anyone.

After the meal, she looked at Lin Ran and took the initiative to say, "Lin Ran, let's talk."

Lin Ran was slightly taken aback: "What do we have to talk about?"

"I admit I was prejudiced against you before. Perhaps we need to have an honest talk."

Lin Zhiwan's tone was much gentler than when they first met, but it still carried a hint of the reserve typical of a group president.

"It's alright, I don't mind." Lin Ran waved his hand. "Besides, I really don't intend to compete with you for the inheritance of the Lin Group, so you can rest assured."

"Can't you speak properly?" Lin Zhiwan frowned slightly.

"Isn't this what you wanted to talk about?"

"I..." Lin Zhiwan took a deep breath and reorganized the words that were about to come out.

"What I mean is, you can get shares in the group in the future, but I should still be in charge of the group's operation and management. After all, I'm the professional."

Lin Ran pursed his lips: "I reiterate, I have absolutely no interest in this. There's really no need to tell me this."

Lin Zhiwan stared at him for a moment, as if trying to confirm the truth of his words.

Ultimately, she couldn't draw a conclusion from Lin Ran's expression, and her tone became somewhat helpless: "Alright, we can talk about it when you want to later."

After saying that, he turned and went upstairs.

The siblings left one after another.

Song Yishu looked at Lin Hongbo, a rare smile appearing on her face: "The relationship between the children seems to have improved somewhat."

"I've said it before, it'll get better with time."

"Alright, alright, you're the smartest, always anticipating things."

Lin Hongbo's lips curled up slightly: "That's because Madam has good taste, which is why she was able to choose me as her eligible bachelor."

"You get all excited when you're given a little sunshine." Song Yishu couldn't help but pat him on the shoulder.

Lin Ran returned to her room, locked the door from the inside, and drew the curtains.

Then, he took two backpacks from the wardrobe and poured all the crystal cores inside onto the bed.

There are 430 first-order crystal cores, 3 second-order crystal cores, and 2 third-order crystal cores. Including the 4 remaining ones, there are a total of 6 third-order crystal cores.

With the addition of that fifth-tier crystal core that still has most of its spiritual power remaining, breaking through to the fifth level of Qi Refining should not be a problem.

He picked up a first-order crystal core and activated the "Myriad Treasures Spirit Forging Technique".

A moment later, the crystal nucleus turned into a grayish-white powder.

"It's too slow." Lin Ran shook his head.

Absorbing the spiritual power provided by a first-order crystal core is negligible, and compared to a third-order crystal core, it is more than ten times slower.

He tried a second-order one, which was better than the first-order one, but still significantly inferior to the third-order one.

Therefore, a third-order crystal core is currently the most suitable for him.

The spiritual energy is abundant and the conversion speed is fast, which is just right to match the endurance of the meridians during the Qi Refining stage.

As for the fourth and fifth-order crystal cores, their spiritual power is more abundant, but they will not be released all at once after entering the Xuanhuang Cauldron.

Instead, it will release energy slowly at twice the speed of a third-tier crystal core to ensure that his meridians are not damaged by spiritual energy overload.

Lin Ran sorted and put away the crystal cores, sat cross-legged, took out the fifth-order crystal core, and held it in his palm.

In any case, let's try to reach the fourth level of Qi Refining tonight.

The next morning, Lin Ran opened his eyes and found that the fifth-order crystal core in his palm had dimmed a bit more.

The vortex of energy within my dantian was more solid than last night, and the flow of spiritual energy was also faster.

He reached the fourth level of Qi Refining, and even advanced further, reaching the middle stage of the fourth level of Qi Refining.

He moved his wrists, feeling the spiritual energy surging through his meridians.

According to the realm classification, the fourth level of Qi Refining is already the middle stage of Qi Refining, and the strength is significantly improved compared to the early stage of Qi Refining.

The biggest difference is that his body is full of spiritual energy. If he has a flying sword, he can even try to fly on the sword.

Unfortunately, the "Ten Thousand Treasures Forging Spirit Technique" only has methods for refining treasures, not methods for forging flying swords.

Moreover, after reaching the fourth level of Qi Refining, the spiritual energy required to advance the realm is double that of the third level of Qi Refining.

It is estimated that by the time he absorbs all the spiritual power in this fifth-order crystal core, he will only be able to barely advance to the fifth level of Qi Refining.

The remaining crystal cores, totaling roughly the equivalent of ten third-tier crystal cores, are still not enough to reach the mid-stage of the fifth level of Qi Refining.

As for the sixth level of Qi Refining, we'll have to find another way.

Lin Ran pulled himself out of his jumbled thoughts and got up to go to school.

As a student, one must not forget one's roots.

The morning's theory class was about the ecological distribution of mutant beasts. The teacher was lecturing while Lin Ran was dozing off.

Although Qi Refining cultivators don't need much sleep, the teacher's voice seemed to have some kind of magic, actually able to hypnotize him, a Qi Refining cultivator.

Chu Xining, who was standing next to her, would glance at her from time to time, her face full of sweetness.

This scene made Sun Jinghuan on the other side grit his teeth in anger.

In the afternoon practical training session, Qin Hanzhong issued new training tasks.

"Today's practical training is team combat. All thirty-seven students in the class will be placed in the same virtual scenario to work together to fight against the constantly appearing mutated beasts."

He held up three fingers: "Still three rules."

"First, the more survivors, the higher the overall score."

"Second, the number of kills is used as bonus points; if all members are killed, the kill points will be zero."

"Third, supply points will randomly spawn within the scene. Acquiring resources and allocating them reasonably will also earn you bonus points."

After saying that, he pressed the start button, and the doors of the holographic capsule opened one by one.

"Enter the cabin!"

Lin Ran stepped into cabin number eleven. The cabin door closed, and white light engulfed his vision.