Testing Ceremony

Before long, more than a month passed in the blink of an eye.

After breaking through to the Dou Zhe realm, Xiao Yang's cultivation speed was actually many times faster than it had been during the Dou Qi stage!

After all, the Dou Qi stage was primarily meant for laying foundations, and part of one's Dou Qi would also be used to nourish the body and meridians.

Furthermore, during the Dou Qi stage, one could only honestly absorb the world's primordial energy and refine it into Dou Qi. There was no cultivation method to accelerate the process.

Not only that, but it was also almost impossible to use medicinal pills to assist cultivation during the Dou Qi stage.

However, after reaching the Dou Zhe realm, one not only possessed a Fighting Qi Vortex that could increase the speed of absorbing and refining worldly energy, but also cultivation methods that could hasten the conversion process.

This made Xiao Yang's cultivation speed much faster after breaking through to the Dou Zhe realm.

In the original story, Xiao Yan took two months to advance from a One-Star Dou Zhe to a Four-Star Dou Zhe.

Yet in just over a month, while dividing his attention to pill refinement, Xiao Yang had actually reached the Five-Star Dou Zhe realm!

Even Yao Lao was shocked when he saw Xiao Yang's monstrous cultivation speed.

However, after checking several times and finding that Xiao Yang's foundation remained as steady as a rock, he said nothing more.

In fact, if Xiao Yang had not spent most of his daytime hours refining pills, he might already have reached the Seven-Star or Eight-Star Dou Zhe realm!

Although the Foundation Building Divine Liquid was not as helpful after reaching the Dou Zhe realm as it had been during the Dou Qi stage, its effects were still far from insignificant.

Thus, if Xiao Yang had also used the daytime for cultivation, his speed would have been even more terrifying.

It would not even have been impossible for him to reach the peak of the Dou Zhe realm.

However, Xiao Yang did not feel it was a pity.

Over the past month or so, he had been able to refine several first-grade medicinal pills every day!

Once he became more familiar with the process, he could even refine more!

Even a normal first-grade alchemist, no matter how high his success rate, could only refine three to five batches of first-grade pills a day.

That was already considered quite a lot.

But Xiao Yang could now possibly refine ten batches of first-grade pills every day!

The main reason ordinary first-grade alchemists could only refine a limited number of pills each day was the restriction of their soul strength.

Their soul strength was insufficient to support repeated pill refinement.

As for Dou Qi, it was instead not a weakness.

After all, once Dou Qi was exhausted, it could simply be restored through cultivation.

Even with the poorest Huang Tier cultivation method, it would not take too long to recover one's Dou Qi.

But if normal alchemists wanted to restore their soul strength, they could only do so through sleep.

Yet Xiao Yang possessed the Soul Nourishing Technique!

He could restore his soul strength just as he restored his Dou Qi.

He could even recover his Dou Qi and soul strength at the same time.

After all, once he became proficient, he could operate both the Burning Mantra and the Soul Nourishing Technique simultaneously.

This allowed Xiao Yang to refine even more first-grade pills each day.

If his success rate improved further, he could refine even more!

Over the past month or so, he had refined more than a hundred batches of first-grade pills!

Leaving aside the economic value brought by those pills, he had gained more than fifteen hundred Origin Points from them alone!

Moreover, Yao Lao had also examined Xiao Yang's soul realm.

The constant rapid expenditure and recovery of soul strength had also allowed Xiao Yang's soul realm to improve at a respectable pace.

Yao Lao estimated that Xiao Yang might reach the Spirit Realm within a few years!

At that moment, Xiao Yang was refining a first-grade Qi Recovery Pill.

This was a medicinal pill capable of restoring part of a Dou Zhe's Dou Qi.

A first-grade Qi Recovery Pill was not some nearly insignificant pill like Blood Coagulation Powder.

The Qi Recovery Pill required the pill-condensing step, making it considerably more difficult than Blood Coagulation Powder.

Moreover, it required the fusion of two more kinds of medicinal essence than Blood Coagulation Powder.

Although the most common Qi Recovery Pills were third-grade medicinal pills, there were also first-grade Dou Qi-restoring pills called Qi Recovery Pills.

After all, there were many medicinal pills that restored Dou Qi, and many of them bore the name Qi Recovery Pill.

Inside Xiao Yang's medicine cauldron, a mass of red liquid was slowly merging with a mass of green liquid.

The moment the two masses of liquid came into contact, they began to boil and churn, releasing violent energy fluctuations.

Xiao Yang used his soul strength to suppress them firmly.

He also raised the temperature of the flame slightly, speeding up the fusion of the two masses of liquid.

After an unknown amount of time, the two masses of liquid gradually merged into one.

Under the pale yellow flames, the dark green liquid formed after their fusion turned into a clump of powder.

Using his soul strength, Xiao Yang condensed the powder into a rough, irregular sphere.

Under the burning of the flames and the suppression of his soul strength, the sphere began to grow smooth and round.

Soon, the flames inside the medicine cauldron gradually died out, leaving only a dark green medicinal pill floating within it.

With a somewhat pale face, Xiao Yang slowly opened the medicine cauldron.

The dark green medicinal pill flew before him.

Yao Lao also leaned closer to inspect it.

"Not bad. It barely qualifies as mid-grade. You've improved."

A medicinal pill's quality was divided into upper, middle, and lower grades. Beyond those were supreme-grade pills bearing pill patterns.

The classification was mainly based on a pill's purity. The less pill toxin it contained, the better its quality.

The Qi Recovery Pills Xiao Yang had refined before could only reach lower grade, and his success rate had not even reached fifty percent.

Being able to reach middle grade now was already quite good.

Xiao Yang casually put away the pill and looked toward Xiao Yan, whose face was full of envy.

"Let's go. We have something to do tomorrow, so hurry back and get yourselves into good condition."

At his words, a trace of excitement flashed across Xiao Yan's face.

At the thought of what they would be doing tomorrow, he felt that he would probably be unable to sleep that night.

"Let's go, let's go! Time to head back and rest!"

Xiao Yang casually put away the medicine cauldron, while Yao Lao returned to Xiao Yan's ring.

After the two descended the mountain together, they went their separate ways.

Xiao Yang returned to his own courtyard, took out the wooden barrel containing Foundation Building Divine Liquid, stepped inside, and began operating the Burning Mantra and Soul Nourishing Technique simultaneously.

Early the next morning, Xiao Yang slowly opened his eyes.

For once, he did not head to the back mountain today.

After breakfast, he headed straight for the Training Ground near the Dou Technique Hall.

Along the way, Xiao Yang encountered quite a few boys and girls heading in the same direction.

Whenever they saw Xiao Yang, they respectfully came forward to greet him.

Even those older than Xiao Yang did the same.

After all, everyone in the Xiao Clan knew that Xiao Yang had played an enormous role in increasing their allowances, resources, and wages, allowing them to live better lives than they had in previous years.

Soon, as he neared the Training Ground, Xiao Yang saw Xiao Yan and Xun'er approaching from the distance.

"Hehe, Brother Yang."

"Cousin Xiao Yang."

The two greeted Xiao Yang.

"Come on, let's go in together. The Testing Ceremony is about to begin."

Xiao Yang said with a smile.

Today was the Xiao Clan's annual Testing Ceremony.

All underage juniors of the Xiao Clan would come to test their cultivation and see how much progress they had made over the year.

At the same time, it gave those juniors about to undergo their coming-of-age ceremony some mental preparation.

"Let's go, let's go! Today, I'm definitely going to let everyone see the progress I've made these past few months!"

Xiao Yan strode excitedly toward the Training Ground.