Song Family Celebration Banquet

"Senior Brother Xiao, I'll be going first."

As usual, Liu Benxin finished tending the spirit field early, greeted Xiao Chen, who was meditating by the field, then headed for the sect's Cultivation Room.

He did not lack the fees for using the Cultivation Room, so he often cultivated there, where it had been built atop a Spiritual Vein.

The Spiritual Qi Concentration there was higher, making Qi Induction into the Body more convenient.

Whether influenced—or rather, spurred on—by Xiao Chen, Liu Benxin had also increased his daily cultivation time, hoping to reach the 6th level of Qi Refining as soon as possible.

From the bottom of his heart, he admired this neighbor.

After returning from the Flying Rainbow Mountain Range, Xiao Chen had merely spent several days reading, seemingly filling in some knowledge about Spirit Beasts.

Then he had returned to his former life of bitter cultivation. Every day, apart from tending his spirit field, he spent all his remaining time meditating.

At first, Liu Benxin had wanted to imitate Xiao Chen and see what was so special about cultivating this way.

But he could not stand it for long. Refining Spiritual Qi was simply an exceedingly dull affair.

Draw the Qi into the body, refine it into mana according to a fixed method, circulate it through a Great Heavenly Cycle or Small Heavenly Cycle along a fixed cultivation art route, then repeat the process without end.

Repeating something with every step fixed ten times was not difficult. Repeating it a hundred times became irritating. Repeating it a thousand times, or even ten thousand times, was practically torture.

Liu Benxin could not understand at all why Xiao Chen possessed such formidable self-discipline.

Of course, Xiao Chen was not as impressive as Liu Benxin imagined. The reason he could remain so disciplined was that every day he cultivated, he could clearly feel himself advancing another step.

Especially after taking the Purple Peach Blossom and Qi Gathering Pill, his cultivation speed had reached fifteen times that of an ordinary cultivator.

His actual gains had reached nearly thirty times as much!

One day of cultivation for him was roughly equivalent to a month of cultivation for other Outer Sect Disciples, so naturally, the progress he felt was obvious.

With such immediate and unceasing positive feedback, he naturally had more than enough motivation to cultivate.

Amid such fulfilling days, more than half a month slipped quietly by.

Then one day, Manager Chen came over. "Xiao Chen, there's a Celebration Banquet today. Are you going?"

Xiao Chen emerged from the spirit rice that stood as tall as a person, looking somewhat bewildered. "Whose Celebration Banquet?"

"You actually don't know?" Manager Chen was quite surprised. "The Three Sects Joint Tournament was held a few days ago. Haven't you heard even a whisper about something this important?"

"So that's why I didn't see you in Black Stone County."

"Huh?" Xiao Chen blinked. "No one told me."

Manager Chen reassured him, "It's fine. This time was the Beast Taming Competition. As far as I remember, you don't have a Spirit Beast, so it doesn't matter that you missed it."

"Speaking of which, you're a little too withdrawn. You should get out and interact with your fellow disciples more often. Otherwise, you wouldn't be completely ignorant of such major events."

Xiao Chen nodded. "This disciple understands. I'll be more active in the future."

Manager Chen explained, "The Three Sects Joint Tournament is held once every three years. This time, Song Zhongwen of our Li Fire Sect took first place, while Song Zhongming also claimed tenth."

"The sect is holding a Celebration Banquet for the brothers. Song Zhongming is a disciple of our Branch 2, so I plan to go congratulate him. Are you free now? Come along later?"

Xiao Chen had just finished tending his spirit field for the day. "Reporting to Manager Chen, this disciple is free."

Manager Chen said, "Good. We'll gather at the Branch Academy entrance at the third quarter of the Hour of the Rooster this afternoon."

"I'll go notify Ye Fei first. If you happen to see Liu Benxin later, remember to tell him too. Who knows where that kid has run off to."

Xiao Chen said, "Understood. This disciple will remember."

Over this period, Xiao Chen and Liu Benxin had spoken from time to time, and he knew Liu Benxin liked cultivating in the Cultivation Room.

Sure enough, he found him there and told him about the Celebration Banquet.

Upon hearing it, Liu Benxin immediately sighed. "As expected of the Song Family. They truly stand alone in beast taming. It seems the foremost beast tamer of the next generation will still be a Song Family member."

"The Song Family is actually a beast-taming family?" Xiao Chen took the chance to ask. "I heard the Song Family ran caravan trade, didn't they?"

Liu Benxin was surprised. "You didn't know? The Song Family Old Ancestor built his fortune through beast taming."

Seeing that Xiao Chen truly did not understand, he promptly explained, "The Song Family Old Ancestor has an especially formidable Foundation Establishment Spirit Beast and specifically cultivated a Combined Attack Secret Method with it."

"That was precisely how his family successfully joined the caravan trade. Since then, they have raised Spirit Beasts while conducting trade, earning a vast quantity of Spirit Stones."

"On our Li Fire Sect's side, the wealthiest family now should be the Song Family."

Xiao Chen came to a realization. "So that was it. Thank you, Junior Brother Liu, for clearing up my confusion."

The two traveled together, chatting further along the way about Cultivation Families.

Liu Benxin was mainly the one enthusiastically explaining. Through this opportunity, Xiao Chen gained a deeper understanding of the Li Fire Sect's Five Great Families.

The Newly Rising Jiang Family excelled at alchemy; the Plains Liu Family specialized in spirit fields; the Established Chen Family possessed Dual Excellence in Pills and Weapons; the South Lake Su Family had Carp Leaps Lotus; the Beast Taming Song Family was richer than words could describe.

Those were merely their main strengths. Great Families had hundreds or thousands of members, each pursuing different paths, so naturally, they also possessed talents proficient in all manner of arts.

Some disciples of Branch Lineages even deliberately cultivated obscure arts, hoping to Win By Surprise or carve out a path of their own.

Though most failed, if they were fortunate enough to achieve some results, they often received additional support from their family. Their future accomplishments would then be no worse than those of main lineage disciples.

Such competition also accumulated a broad range of experience in another way, deepening the families' foundations.

"Senior Brother Xiao actually came too. I thought Senior Brother Xiao was busy cultivating and had no time for such trivial matters."

The speaker was Junior Brother Li, full name Li Sibao. At that moment, he deliberately radiated the aura of the 6th level of Qi Refining, his eyes brimming with pride.

Xiao Chen had some impression of him. At the northern valley exit of the Flying Rainbow Mountain Range, Li Sibao had been the one responsible for blocking the road.

Unexpectedly, after only half a month apart, he had already broken through to the 6th level of Qi Refining. It was indeed somewhat surprising.

What Xiao Chen found even stranger was that Li Sibao seemed to harbor a faint hostility toward him.

Have I offended him before? Probably not, right?

"Junior Brother Li, it's you. Congratulations on your Cultivation Breakthrough and on taking another step forward."

Seeing Xiao Chen greet him with a smile, Li Sibao could not very well Act Up. He curled his lip and replied perfunctorily, "Thank you for the praise, Senior Brother."

The moment he displayed that attitude, even the surrounding disciples could tell that he had an issue with Xiao Chen.

Li Sibao had not intended to hide it in the first place. He had deliberately acted this way because he had come to stir up trouble with a mission.

Half a month ago, on the second day after returning to Branch 2, a mysterious contact had sought him out.

The person had produced a bottle of special spirit pills and said he wanted to make a deal with Li Sibao.

The other party claimed that the pills could help him quickly reach Late-Stage Qi Refining. Moreover, as a deposit, they could first give him one pill to help him directly break through to the 6th level of Qi Refining.

Li Sibao had been unable to resist the temptation. He tried taking the pill and, sure enough, reached the 6th level of Qi Refining in only ten days.

To obtain the remaining spirit pills, he used the contact method the other party had left behind and took the initiative to find that mysterious person in the market.

Then, he received a task that sounded both simple and strange.

In a reasonable and justified manner, teach Xiao Chen a lesson.

Li Sibao was not stupid. He immediately sensed that there was definitely something wrong with the task.

But on second thought, the one who would suffer was Xiao Chen—perhaps others too—but in any case, it would not be him.

So he readily accepted the task.

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