Mortal: Starting with the Golden Jade Book

Shaking his head, Lin Zui stopped thinking about it and focused his mind, preparing to continue cultivating. Suddenly, as if sensing something, he frowned, somewhat displeased.

At this moment, an arrogant young man stood outside the door, looking at the newly activated restriction with some surprise.

Although the stone houses in the low-ranking deacon disciple area all have their own soundproofing and protective barriers, they are basically just for show and don't really serve much purpose.

However, the restrictions on this lucky disciple who had just entered the sect were clearly different from those in the stone house.

He had just secretly tested it, and with his Qi Refining Level 8 skills, his attack only made the protective barrier sway slightly. To break it by force, it would probably require several Qi Refining Level 10 or higher cultivators to attack continuously, or even a Foundation Establishment senior to intervene.

Is this something a low-level cultivator at the fourth level of Qi Refining should possess?

Even as the person in charge of this area, he had no such protective measures at all.

He had also heard that Lin Zui had used the Foundation Establishment Pill bestowed by the sect leader to exchange for a formation manual with the formation genius, Uncle Yu. Now, the changes in the formation were undoubtedly due to that formation manual. Thinking of this, Senior Brother Wang couldn't help but feel jealous and envious.

Just then, the restriction was removed, and Lin Zui pushed open the door and walked out, looking at him coldly with an unfriendly tone.

"Senior Brother Wang, what is it?"

"Ahem, it's nothing, just a reminder to my junior brother that your month is almost up. You'd better hurry up with the talisman-making task you received. If you fail to complete it by then and delay the important matters of the sect, you will be punished."

Senior Brother Wang seemed to be offering a well-intentioned reminder, but Lin Zui only scoffed inwardly.

He was only given the task of refining some basic, low-grade talismans. How could that possibly delay any important matters within the sect?

This person is clearly flaunting his power and trying to intimidate him.

"Thank you for the reminder, Senior Brother. I will not delay the sect's affairs. If you have no further guidance, Senior Brother, I will return to continue my cultivation."

After Lin Zui finished speaking, he didn't wait for Senior Brother Wang to say anything more. He turned around and went back into the house, waving his hand to activate the restriction again.

Senior Brother Wang stood there, feeling somewhat embarrassed. But looking at the hazy, illusory image of the restriction, he ultimately didn't dare to do anything out of line and could only curse inwardly.

We'll see.

Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, half a year has passed since Lin Zui entered Huangfeng Valley.

For the past six months, he has spent most of his time in his stone house cultivating peacefully, occasionally studying the book "Yu Feng's Array Explanation".

It must be said that this Uncle Yu is indeed a genius.

His unique array runes circumvent the problem that normal arrays must rely on physical objects to manifest their power, transforming the array from physical to virtual, thus realizing the possibility of constructing an internal array system.

In his vision, if countless miniature array runes could be stably integrated into the body, the array could be activated to strengthen or even replace certain functions of the body, forming a unique array cycle.

For example, a miniature rejuvenating array can be used to strengthen the dantian and promote the recovery of magical power; a miniature defensive array can be used to strengthen the internal organs, muscles and bones, and enhance the physical body; during combat, a miniature amplification array can also be used to increase the power of spells...

The various wildly imaginative ideas truly broadened Lin Zui's horizons.

However, as Lin Zui watched, he had a feeling that this Uncle Lin seemed to have... become somewhat possessed by demons.

To be honest, in the mortal world, there is no such thing as achieving enlightenment overnight and becoming an immortal. No matter how much everyone cultivates, what they seek is continuous advancement and longevity.

However, this Uncle-Master Yu had become somewhat pathologically obsessive, actually wanting to construct a complete array cycle within his body. To this end, he even spared no effort to consume a lot of energy to balance various arrays and eliminate the mutual repulsion between them.

In Lin Zui's view, this was putting the cart before the horse. Even if he could eventually build it, if he couldn't break through, wouldn't he just end up as a pile of yellow earth?

Lin Zui wouldn't go to such extremes, but the idea of ​​constructing an array within the body is quite valuable.

Putting everything else aside, he would definitely try anything that could slightly increase his speed of absorbing spiritual energy from heaven and earth.

As for the cultivation of magical power, things were not going as well as expected. With the spiritual veins of Huangfeng Valley and the remaining pills, he had only managed to cultivate all five types of magical power to the peak of the fourth level in half a year. It would probably take at least another month or two to break through to the fifth level.

There's nothing we can do. Although it's Yellow Maple Valley, it's still just an area where the lowest-ranking disciples reside, so the spiritual veins aren't exactly top-notch.

At this rate, it will probably take one or two years to break through to the sixth level, and as for the seventh level, that's even more of a distant prospect.

"No, that's too slow!"

There are still about ten years until the Battle of Yan Family Fortress, which sounds like a long time, but what he needs to do is definitely not just cultivate his magical power. He also needs to learn various secret techniques, make high-level talismans, and research various formations for escape...

There are too many things to do, and I don't have time.

Lin Zui had a headache. He had originally planned to keep a low profile in Huangfeng Valley, but now it seemed he still needed to go to the market to buy some pills to help him.

Just then, a transmission talisman flew in. Lin Zui caught it, sensed it briefly, and immediately frowned.

"This guy surnamed Wang has really got his eye on me."

For the past six months, he has kept a low profile and hasn't had any conflicts with anyone. However, this senior brother Wang, who is in charge, has been causing him trouble time and time again for some reason. This time, he asked him to purchase materials, which probably means he has ulterior motives.

However, he was planning to go to the market anyway, firstly to buy some pills to aid his cultivation, and secondly to study the application of runes in "Yu Feng's Array Explanation," for which he would need some materials to conduct experiments, so he might as well buy them all at once.

However, we still need to deal with Senior Brother Wang as soon as possible. Besides, I've been in seclusion for so long that I can't do everything myself. It seems I should start building up my own power base.

"Forget it, let's deal with it all at once after I break through to the fifth level of Qi Refining."

Qingfengfang.

It is a market town on the outskirts of the Taiyue Mountains. It is nominally under the jurisdiction of Huangfeng Valley, but each of the seven factions has its own forces stationed here, and some larger families also open shops here to buy and sell goods. It is one of the largest markets in the vicinity.

Lin Zui used the standard flying artifact issued by the sect to fly at a snail's pace for most of the day before finally arriving at the entrance of this market.

He certainly had other flying artifacts, such as the flying boat he obtained from the Ghost Spirit Gate messenger, but since that thing was of dubious origin, he was cautious and didn't dare to take it out.

However, this time he didn't use talismans to conceal his presence as before. After all, this was already within the territory of Huangfeng Valley, where even Core Formation cultivators could appear, let alone Foundation Establishment cultivators. Hiding himself would only attract more attention.

He walked into the market and found the shop where his senior brother Wang had asked him to purchase materials. He handed the materials list to the shop owner.

The shop owner glanced at it and nodded.

"We have all these items in the store. However, due to a shortage of supply, the prices of Red Cloud Stone and Black Jade have increased. If you have no objections, I will go and fetch them for you now."

"Up? By how much?"

Lin Zui frowned, probably realizing why Senior Brother Wang insisted that he come to make the purchase.

"Oh, fellow Daoist, you haven't heard of it?"

"I'm sorry, other senior brothers handled these matters before, so I'm not really familiar with it."

"Oh, I see. Prices started to rise two months ago, but the increase wasn't too significant. Today, they're about 20% higher than normal."

Lin Zui silently calculated in his mind that the price had increased by 20%, which meant that he would have to spend about 20 more spirit stones depending on the purchase volume.

Senior Brother Wang provided him with purchasing funds based on normal market prices. Now that prices have changed, if he wants to buy all the materials, he will have to pay out of his own pocket to make up for the twenty-odd spirit stones.

So that's where they plotted against him.

Lin Zui smiled dismissively. Twenty spirit stones might not be a small amount for an ordinary Qi Refining stage cultivator, but for him, it was nothing more than a drop in the ocean.

He was too lazy to haggle with the shop owner over such a small amount of money, so he readily agreed.

"No problem, let's pick up the goods."