More than a month had passed during the monotonous journey.
On the back of the Flying Magical Beast high in the sky was a place for people to rest.
It was divided into small rooms. Though cramped, each person at least had a place of their own to rest.
Lin Ze sat cross-legged on the bed in his small room. As the Flying Magical Beast flew, wind-attributed energy gathered and filled the room.
This made cultivation feel effortless for Lin Ze.
A place brimming with energy like this could double the results for cultivators with the corresponding attribute.
After cultivating for a while, Lin Ze quickly stabilized his Three Star Dou Practitioner realm and slowly advanced toward Four Star Dou Practitioner.
As time passed, the pale green Dou Qi swirling around Lin Ze gradually faded.
He slowly opened his eyes and looked toward the door.
As if they were of one mind, someone gently knocked on the door.
To reduce the risk of accidents and mishaps, Instructor Ruo Lin had advised all the students:
Unless necessary, they should stay in their own rooms as much as possible.
So it was rather unusual for people to visit one another like this.
"Come in."
The door opened, and Xiao Yi Xian peeked her little head in furtively.
Meeting Lin Ze's gaze, Xiao Yi Xian gave a sheepish grin.
"Lin Ze, I'm back again."
"You've been coming over a bit often lately."
"I can't help it~"
Xiao Yi Xian said sweetly, her voice carrying a hint of pleading.
Seeing her like this, Lin Ze sighed softly and beckoned her over.
Only then did Xiao Yi Xian come in at ease. She closed the door firmly and walked over to him.
Lin Ze took a Storage Ring from his robe and retrieved a small Jade Bottle and a sheet of paper.
He poured a fingernail-sized amount of powder from the bottle onto the paper, then handed it to Xiao Yi Xian.
Seeing the powder, Xiao Yi Xian swallowed. She looked at it as though it were not poison, but some peerless delicacy.
This was because of Xiao Yi Xian's original request.
She had asked Lin Ze to keep an eye on her and make sure she didn't take too much poison.
She had even entrusted him with her Storage Ring.
Inside were the Medicinal Materials she had collected and her tools for making medicine.
Without them, Xiao Yi Xian couldn't conjure poison out of thin air.
Lin Ze had agreed, and he firmly adhered to the Dosage plan they had worked out together.
Xiao Yi Xian swallowed again, her moist pink lips pressing together as she gazed at Lin Ze with longing.
"Lin Ze, I feel like I'm about to break through to Dou Zhe. Could you add a little more?"
Lin Ze furrowed his brow as he looked at Xiao Yi Xian, then rubbed his chin.
"Cultivation has to proceed step by step. Forcing a breakthrough might make you stronger for a while, but it could damage your foundation."
Xiao Yi Xian's eyes dimmed slightly, but she didn't press him further. She simply nodded in silence.
"Still, since you're close to a breakthrough, you can increase the amount of poison you take a little for now."
"But don't think about taking too much at once to force a breakthrough!"
Lin Ze's expression grew extremely serious as he said the last part.
Xiao Yi Xian nodded. She wouldn't gamble with her future, either.
On the Dou Qi Continent, many people had sacrificed their futures for a brief surge in strength.
She still wanted to go further on the path to becoming a strong cultivator.
The stronger she became, the more likely she would be to find or devise a way to perfectly control the Woeful Poison Body.
Seeing that Xiao Yi Xian had taken his words to heart, Lin Ze took back the paper and poured another fingernail-sized amount of powder onto it.
Xiao Yi Xian took the paper and tipped the powder straight into her pink mouth.
Before she finished, she even used Dou Qi to shake the paper, clearing away all the powder stuck to it.
At last, Xiao Yi Xian stretched out her soft little tongue and licked her lips, reluctant to miss even the tiniest bit of poison.
After taking the poison, Xiao Yi Xian nodded to Lin Ze, then climbed to the other side of the bed, sat down cross-legged, and began to cultivate.
Lin Ze watched Xiao Yi Xian's expression. She looked normal, and hadn't taken so much poison that she turned a bizarre Seven-Colored hue like in the Original Work.
Clearly, that small amount of poison was still within Xiao Yi Xian's tolerance.
Since Xiao Yi Xian had entered a state of cultivation, Lin Ze didn't cultivate himself. He simply watched from the side.
At the same time, he controlled the Death Soldiers and checked on the situation in Wutan City.
More than a month had passed, and Lin Ze now had over three hundred Death Soldiers.
He had as many as thirty Blue Rare Death Soldiers. The Rare Death Soldiers alone could grant Lin Ze a 3% Cultivation Speed Bonus through the Resonance Function.
With the other Death Soldiers included, Lin Ze now had a 6% Cultivation Speed Bonus.
The newly manifested Blue Rare Death Soldiers also had a wide variety of skills.
Beast Taming, leatherworking, archery, spear techniques, farming, brewing...
With enough samples, Lin Ze had also made the surprising discovery that the Death Soldiers' skills weren't all related to business; some were meant for combat.
Until now, their skills had all been things like commerce and hunting, which were more geared toward earning a living.
Now at last, there were combat skills like archery and spear techniques.
Because of this, Lin Ze sometimes took full control of Death Soldiers with combat skills.
Once their skills reached Proficient Grade, they had generally developed an instinctive grasp of their techniques.
When he took full control of them, Lin Ze could also feel the power of those techniques.
Lin Ze had no intention of specializing in bows or spears, but he could still use the opportunity to familiarize himself with both weapons.
When facing the corresponding enemies in the future, he would be better prepared.
Know yourself and your enemy, and you will never be defeated.
Combat experience was accumulated little by little, not conjured up from thin air.
Of his more than three hundred Death Soldiers, ten remained in Qingshan Town to gather information, while all the rest had been deployed to Wutan City.
With that many Death Soldiers, he could infiltrate every kind of business in Wutan City.
However, the Death Soldiers were weak. Apart from those running their own shops, most of the ones who had infiltrated other industries were stuck at the bottom.
Lin Ze couldn't help feeling helpless about it. After all, the Dou Qi Continent was a world where the strong were respected. Only strength could lift someone out of the lower ranks.
One thing worth noting was that Lin Ze's daily net income of Flesh Essence had now stabilized at 150 units.
After accounting for the shops' expenses and the Death Soldiers' own consumption, Lin Ze was quite satisfied that he could maintain this amount.
With a First Order Magical Beast yielding an average of five units of Flesh Essence, that was equivalent to hunting thirty First Order Magical Beasts a day.
Even if Lin Ze sent all his Death Soldiers to hunt Magical Beasts, their net yield for a day might not be this high.
After all, injured Death Soldiers also needed Flesh Essence to recover.
And that was without even considering the uncertainty of hunting Magical Beasts.
All things considered, the net income from Flesh Essence might actually be lower than what he earned from running shops.
His daily income of 150 units of Flesh Essence had essentially stabilized.
After all, although Wutan City had plenty of mercenaries who hunted Magical Beasts, Lin Ze wasn't the only one who needed Magical Beast meat.
Other factions needed it too, and Lin Ze's Death Soldiers were still too weak to snatch food from their mouths.
As for going to other cities or Magical Beast towns, neither was a particularly good option.
Other cities weren't near the treasure trove that was the Magical Beast Mountain Range.
Magical Beast towns, on the other hand, were rife with chaos. Running a business there could easily cost him all his Death Soldiers.
His current stock of Flesh Essence had reached more than seven thousand. In a little over twenty days, he would be able to unlock another function.
Lin Ze was quite satisfied with this pace.
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