Advancing to Dou Zhe, Xiao Yuan's Dou Qi Attribute Is

Advancing to Dou Zhe, Xiao Yuan's Dou Qi attribute was—after resolving the market's problems, Xiao Yuan's Intermediate Market passed the evaluation as expected and became an Advanced Market.

This brought Xiao Yuan, the market master, a reward of five thousand Gold Coins.

However, he kept only one thousand for himself and had Xiao Tong and Peien split the remaining four thousand.

His assets were quite substantial now. Four thousand Gold Coins was no small sum, but if such simple money could win the loyalty of his subordinates, then four thousand Gold Coins was truly not much.

The Gale Family showed no reaction whatsoever to Huang Jing's death.

Gale Bi had obtained the Wind Scroll Skill and was naturally still working hard to cultivate it. He did not take such a trivial matter to heart; they had far grander plans.

The Oba Family likewise made no response to the matter.

A mere foolish medicinal herb merchant had brought about his own death. Did he expect someone to stand up for him?

Jax, on the other hand, spent a week forging an exquisitely designed Mystic Iron Spear according to Xiao Yuan's requirements.

Of course, since Jax himself was only at the Dou Shi level, the weapon he forged had a limited ceiling. At most, it could be used until the Dou Ling level, by which point the spear would likely no longer be of much use.

Still, it would suffice for the time being.

Xiao Yuan had wanted to pay Jax for the materials.

But Jax refused to accept it no matter what, so Xiao Yuan could only freeload this once.

After that, there were no other major matters in Wutan City that required Xiao Yuan's attention. Thus, over the next half year, he virtually never left home. Other than eating, drinking, and answering nature's call, he spent every day absorbing the medicinal power from Medicinal Herbs to speed up his cultivation, all so he could fill his Five Elements Qi Palace as quickly as possible.

To that end, he even used the Qi Gathering Powder early after advancing to the eighth stage.

Thus, over half a year, Xiao Yuan cultivated from the fifth stage all the way to the peak of the ninth stage through an almost extravagantly wasteful, money-burning method.

And today was the day he would advance to Dou Zhe.

After adjusting himself to peak condition, Xiao Yuan flipped his palm and took two First Order Wood Attribute Magic Cores and a five-hundred-year Azure Wood Vine from his Storage Ring.

To advance to Dou Zhe, he only needed to strengthen the Liver Azure Wood Qi Palace, allowing it to break through its capacity limit while bringing the other four organs along to break through their limits as well.

Fortunately, with Ya Fei's help, he no longer had to painstakingly save money and gather the materials needed for this breakthrough himself.

Skillfully holding the medicinal herb and Magic Cores in his palms, Xiao Yuan formed a strange hand seal and began his breakthrough.

Guided by the hand seal and the special circulation route, vast amounts of wood-attribute energy entered Xiao Yuan's body through his breathing. With the Azure Wood Qi Palace as the primary focus and the other four Qi Palaces as support, they began to strengthen him.

The azure wood energy was gentle and pure. Dense, flourishing vitality surged through Xiao Yuan's body, bringing him an unprecedented sense of comfort.

Xiao Yuan could even clearly feel that his internal organs, and indeed every cell in his body, were filled with energy, while the space within the Five Elements Qi Palace gradually expanded.

More importantly, it did not hurt at all.

When Xiao Yuan finally came back to his senses from that refreshing, blissful sensation, he discovered that he had already broken through! I wonder which senior came up with such a miraculous method. Though advancing consumes quite a lot of resources, the cultivation speed is truly fast enough!

Feeling the Dou Qi within his Five Elements Qi Palace, whose quality and quantity had both surpassed what they had been before, Xiao Yuan could not help muttering to himself.

In a full eight months, he had gone from someone with no Dou Qi to a Dou Zhe. Such terrifying cultivation speed would probably be unbelievable even if he told others about it.

Still, there was a very troublesome problem now.

What was he supposed to do about his cultivation technique? Although the five Qi Palaces within his body allowed him to cultivate techniques of five different attributes, the best technique in the Xiao Clan at present was only Xiao Zhan's Furious Lion Rampage, a mid-level Xuan-rank technique.

Moreover, that was something only the clan chief could cultivate, and it seemed to be a wind-attribute technique.

There were still three months until the Coming-of-Age Ceremony. Before then, there would be a preliminary assessment, naturally meant to eliminate those whose Dou Qi was inadequate. Clan members whose Dou Qi had reached above the seventh stage would gain the qualification to enter the Douqi Pavilion and seek cultivation techniques after the Coming-of-Age Ceremony.

But in Xiao Yuan's view, if he had a cultivation technique suited to his Dou Qi attribute, two months might be enough for him to raise his strength by two or three stars! In that case, there was only one option... the Mittel Auction House, Ya Fei's office.

Seeing that Xiao Yuan had truly broken through to Dou Zhe before the end of the year, Ya Fei's beautiful eyes widened and her small mouth fell slightly open, her face full of surprise.

Eight months, Dou Zhe.

Ya Fei's feelings were complicated.

Logically speaking, she was quite happy that Xiao Yuan had broken through.

Yet alongside that happiness, she could not help feeling a little sour.

Her own talent was not particularly good. Although she had begun cultivating from a young age, she was nearly twenty and still only a Dou Zhe.

She also had many affairs to handle every day and rarely practiced Dou Skills, so her combat strength was far inferior to Xiao Yuan's.

However, that feeling did not last long before it dissipated.

After all, the Mite'er Family was a merchant family. As long as her business methods were good enough, she could still become someone who held power over the family.

Besides, thanks to the ideas Xiao Yuan had provided her, her reputation within the Mite'er Family was now quite good. When she returned to the Imperial Capital this time, she would likely be able to enter the family's management ranks.

The future was bright!

"Big Sister Ya Fei?"

Seeing Ya Fei standing there in a daze, Xiao Yuan smiled, then reached out and waved his hand in front of her.

Coming back to her senses, Ya Fei shook her head with a laugh and could not help saying, "Although I always believed you could do it, seeing it happen with my own eyes is still a little unbelievable."

"Since Big Sister Ya Fei trusts me so much, I definitely couldn't let you down!"

Xiao Yuan said with a cheerful smile.

"You came to see me this time for Dou Skills, right?"

Ya Fei gave a soft snort through her nose at his words before asking.

"That's right. But it would be even better if there are Dou Skills with matching cultivation techniques. The clan's techniques are all too low-grade. After thinking it over, I can only rely on Big Sister Ya Fei's help."

Xiao Yuan nodded honestly and looked at Ya Fei expectantly.

Ya Fei nodded slightly and asked seriously, "Then what is your Dou Qi attribute?"

Xiao Yuan was just about to answer when the scroll in his soul sea sent out a ripple, drawing his attention.

The scroll had opened a little further, recording the materials needed to advance to Dou Shi, as well as information that overturned Xiao Yuan's understanding.

After seeing the information on it, Xiao Yuan's lips curled upward as he said meaningfully, "Ice attribute."

It took just a tiny bit of time to look up the information. Orz