Mortal Cultivation: Starting from Hiding in the Cultivation Techniques Pavilion

He went back inside and picked up the spirit stone on the table. He felt the rich spiritual energy contained within it and wondered which young lady was so generous.

"Yiyi, I feel like I've heard that name somewhere before..." he murmured to himself.

Because he spent all his time in the cultivation pavilion, he knew very little about what was happening outside and had no clue what to do for the time being.

He looked out the window at the already bright sky and recalled everything that had happened last night; it all felt like a dream.

With this system for tracing back to the source, one's path of cultivation is no longer bleak!

"Gurgle..."

My stomach suddenly growled; even someone at the third level of Qi Refining needs to eat.

Su Xiaoyuan tidied up the desk and carefully put away the draft paper filled with annotations on optimizing the Qi Induction Technique.

Although the part about the Qingfeng Technique that Liu Yiyi took away was not much, it could be a hidden danger. Fortunately, Su Xiaoyuan used simplified Chinese characters and wrote in cursive script, so most of it should be incomprehensible to them.

Even if someone did understand it, surely no one would actually take those haphazardly written things seriously, right?

He tidied everything up, locked his room, and headed towards the cafeteria.

The outer canteen of the Nine Mysteries Sect is a spacious brick building that can accommodate hundreds of people to dine at the same time.

He got some food and sat down to eat by himself.

I had only taken two bites when a chubby little boy sat down opposite me.

"Brother Su, where did you go having fun last night? You haven't returned all night?"

The newcomer had a round face and small eyes, and wore the same gray short-sleeved shirt as the outer disciples. He also had a round, bulging belly.

His name is Jiang Yang. He entered the sect a few years later than Su Xiaoyuan. His aptitude is equally terrible, and he has been stuck at the second level of Qi Refining for three years.

His job in the sect was to feed the livestock of the Spirit Beast Valley, which were actually ordinary pigs, sheep, chickens and ducks, but fed with the leftovers of the Spirit Valley so that they could barely absorb some spiritual energy.

"What's there to be happy about? Someone urgently needs the cultivation technique, so I worked overtime."

"Overtime." Jiang Yang was obviously very familiar with this word, and muttered, "It's those weird words of you scholars again. I say, Brother Su, what are you arguing about with those lousy techniques every day? You can't master them anyway. No matter how well you do in school, you're still just an outer disciple."

He glanced around and lowered his voice to Su Xiaoyuan, saying, "Have you heard? Another one was crippled yesterday."

Su Xiaoyuan looked up at him: "What do you mean?"

"He messed up his training." Jiang Yang gulped down a bowl of porridge. "That Qu Laosan, the horse feeder, saved up some spirit stones a while ago and went to the market down the mountain to buy some kind of book called 'Blazing Fire Technique,' which was said to be able to quickly master the skills. As a result, he vomited blood while practicing last night, broke several meridians, and his cultivation was completely ruined."

Su Xiaoyuan fell silent.

This kind of thing is not uncommon in the outer sect. The cultivation methods issued by the sect are moderate and peaceful, but the progress is slow. Some people can't stand the loneliness and go to the market to find some wild cultivation methods of unknown origin. This is often the result.

"Here it is." Jiang Yang said, pulling a thread-bound ancient book from his pocket and throwing it in front of the two of them.

Su Xiaoyuan's eyes widened: "What are you doing here?"

"Don't even mention it." Jiang Yang sighed, "I felt sorry for him, so I gave him the Qi Gathering Pills that my sect gave out last month so he could exchange them for some money to go back to the mortal world and make a living. This kid is so ungrateful; he actually left me with this harmful stuff."

Su Xiaoyuan casually picked it up and opened it, and a line of words appeared before her eyes:

[Optimizable target detected: "Blazing Fire Technique"]

[Current version optimization assessment: -47%]

[WARNING: This technique has a fatal flaw]

Good heavens, the technique is this bad! It even triggered a system warning!

This isn't some amateur technique; it's practically a murder mystery!

"If you ask me, with our aptitude, we should just honestly practice the 'Basic Qi Induction Technique' issued by our sect. Although it's slower, it's better than ruining ourselves. Sigh, I still have one more chance. If I don't make a breakthrough in the next five years, I'm afraid I'll have to pack my bags and go back to my hometown."

Jiang Yang suddenly stopped talking and stared at Su Xiaoyuan for a few moments: "Huh? Brother Su, you seem a little different today."

"What's different?" Su Xiaoyuan's heart tightened.

"I can't quite put my finger on it..." Jiang Yang scratched his head, "I feel much better... Could it be that I really went out for some fun?"

He suddenly grinned mischievously: "Tell me, which senior or junior sister?"

"Just eat your food," Su Xiaoyuan said with a laugh, then lowered her head to continue eating, but felt a sense of relief.

Fortunately, unless one deliberately uses spiritual power to investigate, it is generally impossible to tell that he has already reached the third level of Qi Refining.

He quickly finished his breakfast, picked up the book "The Fiery Manual," and said, "I'll borrow this book for two days."

"Here you go, it's not really any good, but don't end up like Qu Laosan and become a cripple."

Su Xiaoyuan smiled and said, "My professional instincts kicked in, so I'm taking a look at how many mistakes there are here."

"Say those strange things again, go away, go away."

Su Xiaoyuan returned to his residence, sat cross-legged on the hard bed, calmed his mind, and looked inward at himself.

Having reached the third level of Qi Refining, the spiritual Qi within my body has grown considerably stronger, flowing slowly along my meridians. The flow is now smooth and seamless, without the previous feeling of not knowing when it might break.

However, real-world problems still exist.

His damaged spiritual root makes it difficult for him to retain spiritual energy. When circulating his energy through the body, he can clearly feel that less than one-tenth of it remains.

"It seems we still need to find a way to change the root of the problem," Su Xiaoyuan thought to herself.

His immediate priority is to reasonably improve his strength and attract the attention of the higher-ups during next month's sect assessment, so that he will have a chance.

Thinking of this, a wave of drowsiness washed over him, he yawned, and lay down to sleep fully clothed.

------

Meanwhile, in the inner gate area, below Frostmoon Peak.

Liu Yiyi's residence was located in a quiet courtyard at the foot of the mountain. This was the treatment of an inner disciple, far better than the large communal sleeping quarters outside.

After returning from the cultivation technique pavilion, Liu Yiyi couldn't wait to go back to the quiet room and open the book "Qingfeng Jue".

The sect's assessment next month is also very important to her.

Each assessment result directly affects future resource allocation.

She has only been a student for a year and her foundation is still shallow. If she can achieve a good ranking in the assessment, there will be many benefits.

"Qingfeng Jue" is an auxiliary technique that can draw wind spirit energy to circulate around the body, increasing the speed of movement and agility. At the same time, it can be combined with the sect's mental cultivation method to evolve into complex techniques.

She has good aptitude, possessing both water and wood spiritual roots, which is considered above average among the inner disciples.

He mastered the basics in the time it takes to drink half a cup of tea.

"Using spiritual energy as a guide, transforming wind and qi into a vortex, enveloping the whole body..." Liu Yiyi continued to circulate the technique.

Suddenly she stopped; the step of drawing the wind spirit energy into her body seemed to be going a little wrong.

She frowned as she looked at the description of the technique: "Following the Du meridian down, passing the Mingmen point, it splits into two branches..."

The literal meaning is clear, but in actual operation, there's just something a little off.

She tried three times, and each time she encountered a slight delay at the critical point. Although it did not affect the final completion, it greatly reduced her efficiency.

It is important to know that even a moment of hesitation during a fight can affect the outcome.

"Could it be that it wasn't proofread completely?" Liu Yiyi looked at the scrap paper that Su Xiaoyuan had scribbled on.

The part in red was not proofread.

But next to it were a few messy words that she seemed to be struggling to write.

She examined it carefully and it seemed to be the Du Meridian, the Sea of ​​Qi, and the Qi of the Du Meridian. When passing the Mingmen point, it should circle around slightly in advance to combine with the fire of the Du Meridian, and it should not rush straight down.

"What fire?" Liu Yiyi frowned. This person was truly arrogant, daring to question even the most advanced techniques.

She never expected that a mere proofreader could offer any constructive suggestions; if he were truly so capable, he shouldn't be sitting in the proofreading room.

She continued to relentlessly pursue this point.

However, whenever the wind spirit energy arrived here, the stagnation remained, making her somewhat uneasy.

Suddenly, the scribbled words flashed through her mind: "Circle around a little beforehand..."

She did it instinctively, and something strange happened!

The wind spirit energy swirled here for a moment, and the originally sluggish wind spirit energy suddenly became as easy as an arm and fingers, forming the fire of the life gate, and then smoothly entered the left and right meridians!

The whole process doesn't require deliberate control; it happens naturally!

Not only that! After this swirling process, the wind spirit energy coalesced into the Life Gate Fire, greatly increasing its power!

"How is that possible?!"

Liu Yiyi suddenly opened her eyes, her face filled with disbelief!