Upon first arriving at the Waste Elixir Chamber, Shen Fan felt uncomfortable all over.
He did not know whether the residual heat of the elixir chamber had yet to dissipate, or whether it was because he had changed to a new environment, but he tossed and turned, unable to sleep.
Though there was an array in the room that kept the temperature steady at around thirty degrees, that stifling heat seemed able to seep through his pores and bore into his bones, leaving him unbearably irritated.
Shen Fan simply turned over and sat up, crossing his legs to cultivate the Qi Guiding Art.
This Qi Guiding Art was taught to Miscellaneous Disciples. It was the most basic of the basic, found everywhere, and could at most allow one to cultivate to the third layer of the Qi Refining Stage.
Yet Shen Fan had already reached the third layer of the Qi Refining Stage.
After circulating it through several cycles, the spiritual energy in his body did not increase in the slightest, like a pool of stagnant water.
"Looks like I must quickly find a more profound cultivation method, or learn some spells and divine abilities. Otherwise, my cultivation will never advance another inch!" Shen Fan thought to himself, his brows tightly furrowed.
After a sleepless night, Shen Fan tossed and turned in bed until the sky began to pale like a fish's belly before he finally drifted off.
"Knock, knock, knock—!"
A burst of urgent knocking suddenly rang out, particularly piercing in the silent Waste Elixir Chamber.
Shen Fan jolted awake and sat up. Looking around at the unfamiliar surroundings, an inexplicable panic rose in his heart.
He got up to open the door, only to find Old Man Duan standing outside.
"Old Man Duan? What are you doing here?"
Shen Fan's eyes widened, his face full of disbelief.
"Shh—!"
Old Man Duan slipped into the room in a flash. Dressed in black robes with his head wrapped up tightly, he looked somewhat eerie.
He then swept his gaze around the Waste Elixir Chamber.
After seeing no one there, he immediately pulled a bundle from his robes. As he peeled away its layers, a dense wave of spiritual energy rushed toward them.
Inside the bundle lay more than a dozen golden Supreme-Grade Spirit Rice grains, gleaming brilliantly beneath the morning light.
"How did you bring these out?"
Shen Fan's eyes widened in shock.
One had to know that Supreme-Grade Spirit Rice contained dense spiritual energy and was extremely difficult to conceal. For Old Man Duan to bring it out, he must have gone to no small amount of trouble.
"I used the Aura Concealment Art. This is the most I could bring out. You brat, with so many good things, how could you bear to leave them all to me?"
As Old Man Duan spoke, he stuffed the bundle into Shen Fan's arms.
"No, I left them for you, so you should use them yourself. What you did is far too dangerous. If Zhao Erhu discovers it, the consequences will be unthinkable!"
Shen Fan was secretly alarmed as well. If Old Man Duan were discovered, the consequences would be unthinkable.
"Don't worry. He won't!"
Old Man Duan smiled confidently, as though everything lay firmly in his grasp.
"Also, I went to the market at dawn and traded several Supreme-Grade Spirit Rice grains for a copy of the Five Elements Heavenly Spirit Art for you!"
As he spoke, Old Man Duan pulled out another cultivation manual and handed it over. "This is cultivated by Outer Sect Disciples, and it has long since spread through the market. Cultivate it without worry. Though it is a mortal-grade art, it is the finest among mortal-grade arts. It is more than enough for the entire Qi Refining Stage!"
Shen Fan accepted the manual and was immediately overjoyed. "Wonderful! The Qi Guiding Art is already useless to me. You brought this at exactly the right time!"
"You brat, you reached the third layer of the Qi Refining Stage?" Old Man Duan immediately noticed Shen Fan's cultivation.
"Uh, I broke through two days ago." Shen Fan did not hide it.
"What a pity. If it had been earlier, you could have entered the outer sect with that girl instead of having your spot snatched away!"
Old Man Duan shook his head and sighed, a trace of regret flashing through his eyes.
"Enough of that!"
After several days of settling himself, Shen Fan seemed to have let it go. He no longer cared so much about Lu Qingzhu.
"Also, I brought you a first-tier mid-grade spell, the Azure Water Fire Ward. You will suffer constant invasion from fire poison here. If you do not take precautions, the fire poison will attack your heart and kill you within a year. This art can effectively resist the invasion of fire poison, and it also has a certain defensive effect!"
Old Man Duan took out another secret manual and handed it to Shen Fan.
At this moment, Old Man Duan was like a nagging grandfather giving instructions to a grandson about to set out on a long journey.
Listening to Old Man Duan's reminders, a warm current surged through Shen Fan's heart, and his eyes grew slightly hot.
"Old Man Duan!"
Shen Fan was an emotional person. Whoever treated him well, he would repay tenfold, a hundredfold.
When he left the Supreme-Grade Spirit Rice for Old Man Duan, Shen Fan had also been gambling to some extent.
Now, it seemed he had made the right bet.
"All right, foolish boy. You really have a big heart. You dared leave so much Supreme-Grade Spirit Rice entirely with me. Weren't you afraid I would report you, or that someone would discover me and I would expose you?"
Old Man Duan criticized him sternly, but his eyes were filled with affection.
"Hehe, if I didn't trust you, I would've reported you, old man!"
Shen Fan chuckled. Naturally, he was referring to Old Man Duan's corpse refining.
"All right, dawn is almost here. I need to hurry back!"
Before leaving, Old Man Duan pondered briefly, then took out another black lacquered book.
"Kid, the reason I refine corpses is not because I belong to the Nether Corpse Sect. I merely happened upon a corpse-refining method. This thing is simply too inconceivable. The boost to cultivation is beyond imagination, but it requires a corpse. Once refined, the corpse puppet absorbs the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and feeds it back to you. It is equivalent to the two of you cultivating together. If you are interested, you may take a look, but remember—do not let anyone discover it!"
After saying that, Old Man Duan vanished into the darkness before dawn beneath his black robes, leaving Shen Fan alone in the Waste Elixir Chamber. Holding the cultivation resources Old Man Duan had given him, his heart was filled with gratitude and anticipation.
After Old Man Duan's figure completely vanished into the morning mist, Shen Fan's fingers unconsciously tightened around the door bolt.
With a click, he locked the door from within. Shen Fan swiftly crawled beneath the bed and took out the Treasure Gathering Universe Bowl.
This earthenware bowl, missing half an inch from its rim, felt as heavy as a thousand jun in his palm at this moment.
Shen Fan held his breath and lifted the rag, yet not the slightest trace of elixir fragrance escaped.
"Could it be... all my efforts have gone down the drain?"
Before his words had even faded, a strand of jade-colored light suddenly lit up.
Shen Fan's pupils constricted. A pill the size of a longan lay quietly within the bowl, its elixir aura winding around it like mist and clouds, reflecting the gentle luster of white jade.
Shen Fan's trembling fingers picked up the pill, only to find that it was warm to the touch.
"Four elixir patterns... It's actually a supreme-grade Qi Induction Pill!"
Shen Fan sucked in a breath of cold air. The dark golden patterns flowing across the pill's surface were clearly the phenomenon recorded in ancient texts for supreme-grade pills.
Pills were divided into nine grades, and each grade was further divided into lower, middle, upper, and supreme grades. Every grade had elixir patterns as a mark, representing its quality.
If it entered the market, it would be worth a hundred ordinary pills!
"But..."
Shen Fan stared at the empty bottom of the bowl and muttered greedily to himself.
"Why is there only one?"
He immediately shook his head with a bitter smile.
This was not coarse rice. How could it sprout overnight?
"Turning incomplete into whole, turning inferior into supreme-grade..."
Shen Fan pondered the effects of the Treasure Gathering Universe Bowl that he had observed over the past few days.
"Quality and quantity cannot both be obtained?"
Cultivation levels: Qi Refining Stage, twelve layers. Layers 1–3 are early stage, 4–6 are middle stage, 7–9 are late stage, and 10–12 are completion. Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, Spirit Transformation, Void Refinement, Body Integration, Mahayana, Tribulation Crossing—nine realms, each with early stage, middle stage, late stage, and great completion. Cultivation method grades: heaven, earth, mystic, yellow, mortal—lower, middle, upper, supreme. Spell grades: tiers 1–9, lower, middle, upper, supreme. Pill grades: grades 1–9, lower, middle, upper, supreme.
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