Trial Plaza

Qin Huaian placed most of the spirit stones, pills, and storage bags he had acquired into the Seed Space, then began refining Qi Recovery Pills. He spent five hours each day refining pills, while using the remaining time to meditate and cultivate.

The next day, the entry-level deduction of the Breakthrough Essence Pill was complete. The success rate for refining entry-level Breakthrough Essence Pills was 50%. He did not know what success rates others had when refining Breakthrough Essence Pills, but the entry-level success rates deduced by the Mirror Body were all 50%.

The Mirror Body poured its insights from the deduction into Qin Huaian's mind, as though he had personally refined them hundreds or thousands of times.

The main ingredient of the Breakthrough Essence Pill was one Essence-Breaking Herb, along with more than fifty auxiliary ingredients. The refining process was extremely complex, far beyond that of the Qi Recovery Pill. Once successfully refined, one batch could yield two pills.

If there were two pills per batch, then selling one Breakthrough Essence Pill at East Dawn Peak's trading hall and buying another Essence-Breaking Herb—even taking the success rate into account—would still earn him some profit.

He stopped thinking about that and decided to deduce the Spirit Tempering Formula first.

"Deduct the Spirit Tempering Formula, consuming 10,000 spirit stones," Qin Huaian silently recited in his heart.

Time slowly passed as Qin Huaian refined pills and cultivated.

On this day, an immense wave of insight flooded into his mind. The entry-level Spirit Tempering Formula had been successfully deduced.

Half an incense stick later, Qin Huaian already understood how to cultivate the Spirit Tempering Formula.

Everyone's divine sense was innate; the only difference was its strength. As cultivators advanced in cultivation realm, the strength of their divine sense would continuously increase.

Qi Refining Stage cultivators could achieve inner vision—that was, observing their dantian, meridians, and the circulation of spiritual power within their bodies. This was the Inner Vision stage. Upon reaching the Foundation Establishment Realm, the strength of divine sense increased greatly. Divine sense could leave the body and perceive the surrounding environment. This was the Perception stage.

Upon reaching the Core Formation Stage, divine sense would grow even stronger and its range of perception would further expand. At the same time, within a certain range, divine sense could control objects and move them. This was the Manipulation stage.

The Spirit Tempering Formula used a specific meditation method to guide divine sense into strengthening itself. If one's divine sense became sufficiently powerful, even a Qi Refining Stage cultivator could send it outside their body and perceive the surrounding environment.

Following the meditation method of the Spirit Tempering Formula, Qin Huaian sat cross-legged and began cultivating.

When he opened his eyes again, more than half a day had passed. Qin Huaian could clearly feel that his mind had become sharper. His spiritual sense had likely become a little more solid and powerful.

However, he was still quite far from being able to send it outside his body to perceive the outside world. Cultivating divine sense was a process of long-term accumulation. He wondered whether the Mirror Body could cultivate divine sense while idle.

Qin Huaian tried having the Mirror Body practice the meditation method of the Spirit Tempering Formula. A moment later, delight appeared on his face. It really could.

But there was only one Mirror Body. It had to deduce cultivation techniques and also cultivate while idle; each time, it could only choose one task. It simply was not enough! Qin Huaian sighed.

A sigh was just a sigh; he was not discouraged in the slightest. At present, the Mirror Body's greatest use was helping him deduce cultivation techniques, pill-refining skills, and the like. Otherwise, even if Qin Huaian obtained the Spirit Tempering Formula, he would probably be just like that Spirit Transformation cultivator—completely unable to comprehend it, much less use it for cultivation.

He did not continue having the Mirror Body cultivate the Spirit Tempering Formula. Now that he had spirit stones, he needed to first deduce the Yi Wood True Formula to mastery. Cultivation was the foundation of everything.

"Deduce the Yi Wood True Formula!"

[Consume 4,000 spirit stones for the Mirror Body to deduce the Yi Wood True Formula to mastery level, requiring 8 days; consume 8,000 spirit stones to halve the time required]

"Consume 4,000 spirit stones for the deduction."

Qin Huaian was about to continue refining pills when he heard someone knocking on the door.

He rose, straightened his clothes, and walked out of his room.

"Senior Brother Qin, are you there?" Lin Qingxuan asked through the door.

"I'm coming."

When he opened the door, Lin Qingxuan stood prettily at the entrance. The moment she saw Qin Huaian, she happily said, "Senior Brother Qin, when did you come back?"

"I returned a few days ago. I've been in seclusion refining pills. Is there something you need, Junior Sister Lin?"

"Come on, let's talk inside." Lin Qingxuan squeezed through the doorway and, without ceremony, walked to the stone table beside the pavilion and sat down.

Qin Huaian closed the courtyard gate and went over to sit in the pavilion as well. This Junior Sister Lin truly did not stand on ceremony.

"Senior Brother Qin, it's already the last two months of the year. You haven't gone to the Trial Tower for a trial yet, have you?" Lin Qingxuan asked, her clear eyes fixed on Qin Huaian.

"No. I was planning to go sometime soon." Qin Huaian had indeed planned to visit the Trial Tower after refining this batch of Qi Recovery Pills. After all, everyone had been talking about the Trial Tower, and he was full of curiosity about it as well.

"Mm, Senior Brother Qin, ever since I came back from New Peace City last time, I've been practicing Basic Swordsmanship. I heard that the better one's swordsmanship, the higher the Trial Tower's evaluation and the greater the rewards."

"How about we go together?" Lin Qingxuan asked.

Qin Huaian's heart stirred. His Basic Swordsmanship had already reached the proficient level. He wondered what evaluation he would receive upon entering the Trial Tower.

"Sounds good. Junior Sister Lin, let's leave now."

"Uh, Senior Brother, I'm not in that much of a hurry. We could have some tea before we go..." Lin Qingxuan said weakly. Before she could finish, she saw Qin Huaian had already stood up and was walking toward the door.

Was Senior Brother Qin always this swift and decisive when doing things? She stood as well and hurriedly followed him.

The Trial Tower was on Pagoda Peak, not far from Heavenly Capital Peak, the main peak of the Yellow Mountain Sword Sect. Heavenly Capital Peak was where the sect master resided and served as the sect's central hub.

Half an hour later, the two arrived at the Trial Plaza on Pagoda Peak. The Trial Plaza was at the summit of Pagoda Peak, whose top looked as though it had been sliced flat, forming a vast platform plaza.

An ancient tower stood in the center of the plaza. It had nine floors and was over a hundred zhang tall.

There were many cultivators in the plaza, most dressed in sect uniforms. Their identities could easily be distinguished by their clothing. Inner sect disciples, ordinary outer sect disciples, and East Dawn Peak outer sect disciples all wore different styles of attire.

"Senior Brother Qin, look at the Qi Refining Stage rankings. One of our East Dawn Peak disciples entered the top fifty a few days ago. I heard a Golden Core elder personally received and encouraged him, then bestowed upon him a high-grade Dharma Artifact flying sword."

Lin Qingxuan pointed at a huge formation display beside the Trial Tower as she spoke.

Qin Huaian had noticed the display as well. A formation display stood on each side of the Trial Tower. The left display showed the rankings of Foundation Establishment Realm disciples, while the right one showed the rankings of Qi Refining Stage disciples.

The displays listed rank, name, and affiliated peak in order. Outer sect disciples were marked as outer sect disciples, while inner sect disciples had no such notation.

The Foundation Establishment Realm display showed the top one hundred, while the Qi Refining Stage display showed the top two hundred.

After years of accumulation, the Yellow Mountain Sword Sect was said to have more than forty thousand Qi Refining Stage disciples. Reaching the top two hundred was already an extremely remarkable feat.

Qin Huaian saw that the cultivator ranked forty-seventh among Qi Refining Stage disciples was named Chen Yuan, an East Dawn Peak outer sect disciple.

"Impressive. He ranked forty-seventh just after entering the sect." Qin Huaian said. The Cultivation World truly had hidden dragons and crouching tigers everywhere.

"Mm, I heard that this Senior Brother Chen had been obsessed with the sword path since childhood, and his swordsmanship had already achieved modest success. But because his spiritual root aptitude did not reach high grade, he could only enter the outer sect first."

"Senior Brother Qin, let's go in too." Lin Qingxuan said, looking somewhat excited.

"Alright!" The two walked together to the entrance of the Trial Tower.