You Call This a Beginner Tutorial?

In the early morning, the light of the rising sun streamed through the window and into the cultivation room.

Shen Yuan's eyes were half-closed as the Violet Cloud Qi Refining Method slowly circulated within him, drawing in and refining the final thread of purple qi from the dawn.

As the sun gradually climbed into the sky, that final strand of fully formed Dawn-Glow Purple Qi transformed into a swimming dragon and flew into Shen Yuan's mouth, merging with his vast essence.

Having finished his daily morning practice, Shen Yuan slowly opened his eyes, a flicker of delight appearing on his face.

Ever since returning from the Fu family a week ago, Shen Yuan had remained within his small courtyard and hadn't gone out.

Over the past few days, Shen Yuan first finished refining the essence he had previously accumulated. Then, aided by the cultivation acceleration of the Seed of Pot-Heaven Divine Ability, he successfully advanced from the Essence-Refining Middle Stage to the Essence-Refining Late Stage.

Even though Shen Yuan had been prepared for it, such cultivation speed still left him slightly stunned.

This was, after all, the early stage of the Spirit Tide's return, when spiritual qi was exceedingly scarce. Furthermore, the Refining Essence Realm was itself a stage that emphasized accumulation. In an environment lacking spiritual qi, the time required naturally multiplied.

During the flourishing age of cultivation ten thousand years ago, there were indeed legends of heaven-favored geniuses consuming heavenly treasures and completing Essence Refinement into Qi in a single day.

But times were different now. Shen Yuan also had no chance to consume heavenly treasures; all he had done was cultivate normally. Crossing from the middle stage to the late stage in seven days was still far too exaggerated.

Yet if those demons and monsters he had slain knew what Shen Yuan was thinking, they might very well burst into tears on the spot.

With the Seed of Pot-Heaven Divine Ability, Shen Yuan could absorb the spiritual qi of more than half the old city in a single cultivation session. Its might was comparable to that of a great cultivator in the Qi Refinement into Spirit Realm.

If his cultivation progress were still slow at such an absorption rate, then no other cultivator would have any reason to keep living.

"Since my cultivation is progressing so quickly, it's time to prepare in advance for Essence Refinement into Qi."

Shen Yuan quietly calculated to himself.

Among the Four Steps to Ascension, the Refining Essence Realm was essentially a foundational stage. So long as one accumulated enough, one could reach the Essence-Refining Late Stage even by grinding away with time.

But refining essence into qi and entering the Qi Transformation Realm was no simple matter.

Once one achieved the Qi Transformation Realm and developed mana, one could use it to cast all manner of profound spells. Even in the ancient flourishing age of cultivation, one would be worthy of being called a cultivator, truly stepping through the gates of cultivation.

In terms of raw power alone, spells were naturally far inferior to divine abilities. But in convenience and versatility, spells possessed unique advantages of their own.

After all, spells had a low barrier to entry and didn't require precious Seeds of Divine Ability, giving them the foundation to flourish vigorously.

At the peak of the cultivation world, basic spells had seeped into every aspect of people's lives. Cultivators could even rely on spells to produce enormous quantities of crops and support billions of people; the convenience of their lives was no less than that of modern times.

It was only the arrival of the spiritual qi depletion era that reduced the civilizational foundations built by spells to ruins.

No matter what, spells were absolutely something cultivators had to master.

Moreover, ordinary cultivators only gained true extraordinary combat power after entering the Qi Transformation Realm and mastering spells. Before that, all they could rely on was the strength of their physical bodies and essence.

Thinking of the records about spells in those Falling Cloud Sect disciples' diaries filled Shen Yuan with anticipation.

Just as Shen Yuan was preparing to end today's morning practice, a crisp sound suddenly rang in his ears.

"Ding!"

Shen Yuan froze for a moment, then immediately realized it was a system notification and hurriedly opened the system interface.

Ever since Shen Yuan completed the beginner tutorial by becoming the Falling Cloud Sect's sect master, the system seemed to have entered a logical bug state and vanished without a trace for a long time.

When he had completed the hidden achievement earlier, it only gave feedback after Shen Yuan defeated the Sword Slave. Now that an active notification sound had appeared again after so long, Shen Yuan felt a faintly bad premonition.

System: Congratulations, Host. After enduring countless hardships, you have completed the Hundred-Day Foundation Establishment and advanced to the Essence-Refining Late Stage.

Shen Yuan carefully recalled it. The total time he had spent advancing from the Essence-Refining Early Stage to the Essence-Refining Late Stage hadn't even reached a hundred days, and he fell silent.

Yet more prompts continued to pop up on the system interface.

System: Now that the Host has advanced to the Essence-Refining Late Stage, you may begin preparing for Essence Refinement into Qi. Once you enter the Qi Transformation Realm, you will shed your identity as a menial ￥% sect master @# and advance to become an outer sect disciple.

Shen Yuan glanced at the system interface. Beneath his name, the two golden characters "Sect Master" were prominently displayed, and he fell silent once more.

A sect master advancing into an outer sect disciple—no matter how he looked at it, the matter was utterly absurd.

Even a system as stupid as this one seemed to have noticed the logical conflict and fallen into some sort of logical chaos.

The system interface before Shen Yuan began constantly displaying garbled text, and even the screen showed signs of lagging.

At last, the Artificially Stupid System seemed to stabilize after a bout of chaotic judgment, and another notification popped up.

System: About to advance to outer sect disciple. Final stage of beginner tutorial triggered.

Beginner Tutorial: Please proceed to the Sect Spirit Pool and use the spirit pool to complete Essence Refinement into Qi.

Mission Reward: Luoyun Sect Cave Abode Token (Disciples above the Qi Transformation Realm may use this token to establish a cave abode)

Looking at this so-called beginner tutorial, Shen Yuan felt his eyelids twitch wildly.

Shen Yuan had seen someone mention the so-called Sect Spirit Pool in the Falling Cloud Sect diaries. It wasn't a pool in the conventional sense.

The Sect Spirit Pool was a sacred tract created by Falling Cloud Sect elders using the sect-protecting grand formation to gather the spiritual qi of heaven and earth. Its spiritual qi was as dense as water, hence its name, and it was also where Falling Cloud Sect members and disciples entered seclusion.

Even the lowest-ranking menial disciples could apply to enter the spirit pool when breaking through a cultivation realm.

With the dense spiritual qi of the spirit pool assisting during Essence Refinement into Qi, the mana that emerged would be purer and more robust than that of ordinary Qi Transformation Realm cultivators.

Though the Sect Spirit Pool couldn't compare to a true heaven-and-earth spirit pool, its value spoke for itself. Even in the flourishing age of cultivation ten thousand years ago, only a reclusive immortal sect like the Falling Cloud Sect, which had produced an Earth Immortal, possessed such foundations.

If Shen Yuan truly had been a menial disciple of the Falling Cloud Sect ten thousand years ago, he would only have needed to accumulate his essence to its peak before entering the Sect Spirit Pool to make his breakthrough.

However, this was ten thousand years later. Leave aside the Falling Cloud Sect, which had been destroyed for over ten thousand years—even those sects that had passed down their inheritances likely no longer possessed the foundation to construct a Sect Spirit Pool.

The immense resources and vast quantities of spiritual qi required to rebuild the sect-protecting grand formation were almost impossible to obtain in this era when the Spirit Tide had only just returned.

But if he wanted to complete this mission, rebuilding the sect-protecting grand formation and creating a Sect Spirit Pool seemed to be the only way.

At this moment, the last sect master of a ten-thousand-year immortal sect, the first Peerless Sword Immortal of the Qi Tide Era, fell into profound doubt.

"You call this a beginner tutorial?"