Seeing a Ghost in Broad Daylight

"What happened to my porridge?"

Lin Chen nearly threw the bowl of pickled vegetables.

The whole trip had taken only a few minutes. Forget the porridge—even the basin was gone.

He searched all around but found nothing.

Lin Chen went to put down the bowl of pickled vegetables, but when he looked at his hand—

It was empty.

The bowl was gone, too.

Lin Chen dropped onto the floor.

"It's broad daylight, and I'm seeing a ghost!"

It wasn't that he was a coward. In a world where people could cultivate immortality, ghosts were perfectly plausible, weren't they?

He scrambled under the table, trembling.

Maybe it was because he'd crossed over, but he'd always been instinctively terrified of ghosts.

At that moment, sweat beaded on his forehead, his teeth chattered, and he clasped his hands together, eyes shut as he chanted an incantation.

"Spirits of heaven, spirits of earth, please don't come after me..."

After chanting for a long while without hearing another sound, Lin Chen slowly opened his eyes.

The moment he cracked them open, he vaguely saw a pair of shoes in front of the table.

He immediately squeezed his eyes shut again, drenched in cold sweat.

He slowly turned to face the other direction.

He waited for a while longer, but nothing happened.

Lin Chen began reassuring himself. "It's broad daylight. There's no such thing as ghosts. I'm just scaring myself."

He worked up his courage, then suddenly opened his eyes.

A head hung upside down beneath the table, its long hair dangling toward the ground, a pair of eyes staring fixedly at him.

Lin Chen screamed and fainted.

At that very moment, a sword-carrying girl was sprawled on top of the table, with her head sticking out one side and her feet the other. She watched Lin Chen with great interest.

When she saw him faint, she flipped over and landed in a crouch.

She grabbed Lin Chen by the foot and dragged him out.

Then she lightly patted his cheek. "Hey, don't fall asleep. Your porridge was delicious. Do you have any more?"

She called to him for ages, but Lin Chen didn't wake up. At last, she sighed and drifted away.

No one knew how much time passed before Lin Chen slowly came to. He found himself lying in bed.

His Eldest Senior Brother, Ming Bufan, was reading at a table not far away.

Hearing him stir, Ming Bufan put down his book and came to the bedside. "You're awake?"

"Eldest Senior Brother, I..."

Remembering what he'd seen before fainting, Lin Chen's eyes filled with terror again.

"Eldest Senior Brother, I saw a ghost!"

"Hahaha..."

Ming Bufan laughed at his expression and helped him sit up.

A stream of pure spiritual power flowed into him.

Lin Chen's mind instantly settled, and the fear gradually faded from his face.

"Thank you, Eldest Senior Brother."

Lin Chen quickly got out of bed.

The two of them went out into the courtyard. When Lin Chen saw the stone table, he stopped in his tracks.

Ming Bufan took him by the arm and led him over to the table, pointing at the empty basin.

"Your Second Senior Sister ate the porridge. She was also the one lying on the table to scare you."

Lin Chen hadn't gotten a close look at Jian Rushuang.

So he hadn't recognized her face.

"Don't take it to heart. She's a sword fanatic by nature. Other than practicing swordplay, all she does is fight.

"She doesn't know how to get along with people, and she never eats anyone else's food—not even anything the Sect Master gives her."

As he said this, a rare look of delight appeared on Ming Bufan's face.

"She ate your porridge. That means she approves of you."

Ming Bufan patted Lin Chen on the shoulder. "You're pretty good.

"Oh, I just had someone buy ingredients. They're all in the Kitchen. Since you can cook, make a bit more so everyone can come eat and get to know one another."

Lin Chen took a deep breath, putting the matter behind him. "Eldest Senior Brother, I'll cook at noon, then. You can all come. I guarantee it'll be so delicious you'll be in a daze."

He wasn't bragging. Lin Chen had loved good food in his previous life and was skilled at every kind of cooking, from frying and stir-frying to braising and deep-frying.

He'd even combined Chinese and Western cooking to invent original dishes.

That skill alone had earned him a fortune.

What a pity... Still, this place wasn't bad either.

Thinking of this, Lin Chen hurriedly asked, "Eldest Senior Brother, I'd like some seeds to plant in that patch of land outside. It'd be a shame to leave it abandoned."

"No problem. Give me a list and I'll have someone buy everything." Ming Bufan handed him a Jade Slip.

Lin Chen accepted it and smiled awkwardly. "Eldest Senior Brother, how... how do I use this?"

"Look at me, forgetting something so simple." Ming Bufan slapped his forehead, then gathered a ball of light at his fingertip. "Don't resist!"

Lin Chen nodded.

Ming Bufan flicked his finger, and the ball of light shot straight into Lin Chen's brow.

Immediately, a rush of memories flooded his mind.

[Clang! The Yellow Grade Elementary Technique Divine Seal Art has been detected. One gold coin can be exchanged for a year of cultivation, enough to train it to the entry level. Would the host like to cultivate it?]

"Cultivate!"

It cost so little. What was there to think about?

After the exchange, Lin Chen understood that this was a small technique for wielding spiritual power and mental energy.

He could use his mental energy and spiritual power to trace out a seal in a Jade Slip, preserving whatever information he wanted.

Those who mastered it and possessed great cultivation could even leave images inside.

The person who obtained the Jade Slip could view them just like watching a recording.

At a higher level, one could inscribe an entire legacy into it, passing it down through the ages.

[Clang! Entry level achieved. You may consume 10 Spirit Stones to exchange for ten years of cultivation and train Divine Seal Art to the Proficient Level. Would the host like to cultivate it?]

"Cultivate!"

Lin Chen had 900 Spirit Stones now. Ten of them were a drop in the bucket.

[Spirit Stones deducted. Cultivation successfully exchanged.]

Memories flowed through his mind as Lin Chen closed his eyes and absorbed them.

In just a few breaths, he had mastered the Divine Seal Art!

He opened his eyes, picked up the Jade Slip, and pressed it to his forehead.

He imprinted all the supplies he needed into it.

These included all kinds of vegetable seeds, small fish and shrimp, chickens, ducks, geese, and so on.

It took only a moment to finish engraving the list. He handed the Jade Slip to his Eldest Senior Brother.

Ming Bufan looked surprised. "You learned it?"

"Mm!" Lin Chen nodded. "If they don't have something on the list, just find something similar to replace it."

Ming Bufan eagerly took the Jade Slip. After looking it over, the shock on his face deepened.

"You mastered the Divine Seal Art in just a dozen breaths?"

Lin Chen nodded again. "I'm quick to learn. I pick things up fast."

Ming Bufan's expression turned strange.

"Looks like another little monster has come to our Sect Leader Peak."

"Hahaha!"

He laughed. Clouds rose beneath his feet, and he turned and soared away.

His voice echoed in Lin Chen's ears. "I'll have everything ready before noon. I'll be waiting for your delicious food."

Lin Chen nodded with a smile.

Talk about perfect timing—he'd just been wondering how to write his storybooks.

Then Eldest Senior Brother had brought him the Divine Seal Art.

It was practically tailor-made for him.

But just engraving that little bit of information had consumed a great deal of spiritual power and mental energy.

With his current cultivation and soul strength, he'd be utterly drained after three uses.

If he used this method to engrave storybooks, he'd work himself to death.

That wasn't all. He'd also used the Crimson Flame from Flame Primer to light the stove while cooking, and that had consumed a great deal of his spiritual power too.

In short, his foundation was too weak.

His cultivation was too low.

"System, how many Spirit Stones do I need to advance to Qi Condensation Layer 3?"

[Clang! According to the current data standards, the host needs... needs 90 Spirit Stones to advance to Qi Condensation Layer 3, increasing cultivation by 90 years.]

"System, are you trying to rip me off? Even with my useless Five Elements Root, it shouldn't take that long, should it?"

Lin Chen clearly remembered that the first layer of Qi Condensation had cost 10 Spirit Stones, and the second had cost 62.

He'd let those two go without comment, but where was he now?

He was at Sect Leader Peak, the place with the richest spiritual energy in Green Mountain Sect, and it still took 90 years?

[Host, the system's evaluation standards are extremely strict. There will never be any errors.

Each additional Qi Meridian condensed in the Qi Condensation Realm doubles the difficulty. It is only because the spiritual energy here is so rich that the time required has not doubled.]

Lin Chen was momentarily at a loss for words. What the system said did seem reasonable.

"Exchange it!"

He quickly accepted reality.

His third Qi Meridian instantly condensed into shape.

The aura of Qi Condensation Layer 3 stirred a breeze that swept outward in all directions.

At the same time, Ming Bufan suddenly turned around and looked toward the mountaintop.

"Qi Condensation Layer 3? With a Five Elements Root?" Ming Bufan began to question his entire life. "What the hell, is this guy a monster?"