Xu Chunniang felt so heartbroken she could barely breathe. If all that spiritual dew had not been poured away, but absorbed in full, she might already have broken through to the second level of Qi Refining!
Xu Chunniang took a deep breath. Forget it—who told her not to think of it from the start? The spiritual dew was produced through the Spiritual Rain Technique anyway; she could simply make more.
Two days later, Xu Chunniang gazed at the full bottle of spiritual dew before her, faint excitement rising within her.
She could already feel her cultivation loosening. With this spiritual dew, she would definitely be able to break through to the second level of Qi Refining!
Xu Chunniang suppressed her surging emotions and calmed herself before taking a light sip of spiritual dew. At once, a great amount of spiritual energy filled her body. She hesitated no longer and directly circulated the Carefree Art.
As more spiritual energy was absorbed, she vaguely felt her dantian nearing fullness.
Not enough!
Xu Chunniang frowned and took another small sip of spiritual dew. More spiritual energy flooded into her body, most of it guided by her cultivation method into her dantian.
Xu Chunniang drank the spiritual dew sip by sip. At last, on the fifth sip, the spiritual energy in her dantian seemed to break through some critical threshold and suddenly erupted!
At that moment, the circulation speed of the Carefree Art within her body also reached its limit...
Two hours later, Xu Chunniang opened her eyes with a faint smile. She had broken through to the second level of Qi Refining!
After the breakthrough, the spiritual power in her body was roughly three times what it had been at the first level of Qi Refining. Xu Chunniang felt that her physique had strengthened somewhat, and her five senses had become sharper as well.
This spiritual dew truly was useful. If she had cultivated as usual, it would have taken at least half a month to break through.
Half a bottle of spiritual dew remained. It could not go to waste. Xu Chunniang continued drinking it and began consolidating her cultivation.
Three days later, the bottle of spiritual dew was nearly empty. Feeling that her cultivation had gradually stabilized, Xu Chunniang stopped circulating her cultivation method and opened her eyes.
Counting the days, she had already been in the Carefree Sect for half a year. In a few more days, it would be her ninth birthday.
Half a year ago, Xu Chunniang had been a village girl who could not read a single word. Now, she had already reached the second level of Qi Refining. It was truly hard to imagine.
"The Grain Abstinence Pills are gone again. They really do not last."
Xu Chunniang shook her head helplessly. Come to think of it, every time she ran out of Grain Abstinence Pills was the day she went out for some fresh air.
After breaking through, a journey that normally took two hours took her only an hour and a half.
Seeing the Dining Hall before her, Xu Chunniang smiled faintly and stepped inside.
When Steward Zhao saw Xu Chunniang, obvious surprise appeared in his eyes.
He remembered that the last time he had seen this girl, she had only been at the first level of Qi Refining. How long had it been? She had already broken through to the second level so quickly?
Moreover, her aura was exceptionally steady. She did not look like someone who had rushed a breakthrough and left her cultivation unsteady.
"Only a little over a month has passed, and you have broken through again! Cultivation speed like this is rare among Outer Sect Disciples."
The speaker had no such intention, but the listener took it to heart.
From Steward Zhao's words, Xu Chunniang understood one thing: at a normal pace, she should not have broken through this quickly.
Xu Chunniang instinctively felt that she could not tell anyone about her method of cultivating with spiritual dew.
Her eyes darted about, and she showed a trace of puzzlement.
"Is my cultivation speed really that fast? Unfortunately, I have already used up more than half the spirit stones the sect gave me. It will be difficult to maintain this speed afterward."
Hearing this, Steward Zhao went blank for a moment. "You have always cultivated with spirit stones?"
Xu Chunniang nodded, looking as though it were only natural. "Didn't the sect give us spirit stones for us to use in cultivation?"
The corner of Steward Zhao's mouth twitched slightly. So this girl had been extravagantly cultivating directly with spirit stones all along. No wonder her cultivation speed was so fast!
"Cultivating with spirit stones may be faster, but spirit stones are useful for far more than cultivation." Steward Zhao spoke earnestly. "You have only entered the sect for half a year, so you still enjoy a great many benefits for new disciples. But once the three-year benefit period for new disciples ends, spirit stones will be needed everywhere! Especially the annual sect contribution, together with the Grain Abstinence Pills you consume—it takes eighteen spirit stones. That is no small sum!"
Xu Chunniang blinked and put on the air of someone listening attentively.
Seeing that Girl Xu had taken his words to heart, Steward Zhao nodded in satisfaction. "Besides that, whether you go to the Merit Pavilion to select sorcery, attend lessons at the Lecture Hall, or buy spiritual energy pills and the like at the Treasure Pavilion, spirit stones are indispensable everywhere."
"If I run out of spirit stones, can't I just earn more?"
Xu Chunniang asked in confusion, "I heard that the Commission Hall has many posted tasks where one can earn spirit stones."
Steward Zhao shook his head heavily. "You girl, do you think spirit stones are rocks by the roadside? Spirit stones are not so easy to earn.
"Though the Commission Hall has many tasks, those tasks are not easy to complete. In fact, cultivators below the fourth level of Qi Refining often cannot accept any tasks even if they enter the Commission Hall."
Xu Chunniang rubbed her nose awkwardly. She had not meant to deceive Senior Brother Zhao.
It was simply that the spiritual dew concerned her cultivation, so she could only pretend that she had always cultivated using spirit stones.
"All right, what is used is used. It is only your first year, after all. Raising your cultivation more quickly is not a bad thing."
As Steward Zhao spoke, he placed her token and two new bottles of Grain Abstinence Pills on the table. "Just do not be so lavish in the future."
Xu Chunniang nodded vigorously. She had always been very frugal.
After leaving the Dining Hall, Xu Chunniang started walking back, but her mind remained occupied with her thoughts.
It had been one thing when she did not know before, but now that she knew cultivating with spiritual dew was so fast, she was unwilling to return to cultivating at such a snail's pace.
But if she did that, her cultivation would advance too quickly and would inevitably draw the attention of others.
Xu Chunniang did not want attention. She only wanted to cultivate quietly.
If only there were some way to make her cultivation appear lower...
When she had gone to the Merit Pavilion to select sorcery last time, she seemed to have seen concealment-type sorcery. She wondered whether those concealment techniques could hide one's cultivation.
With no other options at present, Xu Chunniang could only try her luck at the Merit Pavilion.
After achieving Qi Introduction, new disciples had one free opportunity to enter the Merit Pavilion, where they could learn two sorcery techniques for free.
If they wished to enter the Merit Pavilion to learn more sorcery afterward, they would need to spend spirit stones to purchase them.
Many sorcery techniques usable during the Qi Refining stage could be copied for just five spirit stones. This was one of the benefits afforded to Outer Sect Disciples.
Of the twelve spirit stones Xu Chunniang had received, she had spent two when she was trapped in the mountain cave at the beginning, but had not used any more afterward. She now had ten spirit stones left, enough to choose two sorcery techniques.
"It would be good to take a look around the Merit Pavilion. Even if I cannot buy the sorcery I want, I can buy an Earth element sorcery technique."
Xu Chunniang calculated inwardly. She had already mastered the water-element Spiritual Rain Technique, while she was still learning the wood-element Spring Growth Technique. For now, water- and wood-element sorcery was enough for her.
After showing her identity token to the disciple guarding the Merit Pavilion, Xu Chunniang decided to first look through the concealment-type sorcery and see whether she could find a technique that could hide her cultivation.
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