Today's lesson lasted nearly an hour.
After explaining the key points of cultivating the Qi Guiding Art, the elder seated on the Dao Stone turned the time over to the nominal disciples, letting them ask questions freely while he cleared up their doubts.
Chen Yu's Dao companion, Yun Miaozhen, was the first to rise. She asked how to break through the bottleneck at the Qi Refining Second Layer.
The elder answered, "When the water comes, the channel forms."
Liu Sanli, seated beside Chen Yu, also raised his hand. "Whenever I draw in spiritual energy, I feel it dispersing. I'm afraid that even after it becomes Spirit Essence, it won't be condensed enough. How can I improve this?"
The elder replied with a smile, "Talents differ, and so do the results. There is no need to force things."
No matter what question he faced, the old man on the Dao Stone always answered with patient guidance and a kindly expression.
A bamboo grove,
a Dao Stone,
disciples asking questions.
An elder answering them.
If not for the white bones on the ground, Chen Yu really would have thought this was a tranquil, elegant haven of immortal cultivation, filled with warmth and harmony.
Once the lesson ended, Chen Yu didn't linger for a moment. He turned and slipped away.
Beside him, Liu Sanli had still wanted to share his insights into Qi Refining with Chen Yu, but after calling out several times without getting any response, he could only give up.
On the Dao Stone.
The elder, with his immortal bearing and sagely air, sat upon his meditation cushion and watched the nominal disciples walking below. His gaze was less that of someone looking at juniors than someone inspecting a crop of wheat about to ripen. Stroking his graying beard, he smiled. "At last, harvest season has come again."
With that, he took the Spirit Essence out of his sleeve.
He examined it carefully.
The smile on his face deepened.
"Truly excellent Spirit Essence!"
Behind him, two white-robed Dao Sect disciples stared at the Spirit Essence in the elder's hand, their eyes blazing with undisguised desire.
"Go deal with that." The elder glanced at the white bones on the ground.
"Yes."
The two bowed to accept the order, then drifted down beside the bones.
One formed a hand seal, and spiritual power wound around the dry bones like threads, lifting them up. They turned precisely in midair and were carried toward the Mass Burial Grounds.
The old man seated on the cushion sniffed the surrounding air and murmured to himself, "The Soul-Delighting Incense those fellows at the Alchemy Hall developed truly is extraordinary. Its sweet fragrance refreshes the heart and lungs, and it can merge with spiritual power unnoticed, quietly influencing the mind. Even an impatient man like me has become considerably more patient after breathing it in."
He clicked his tongue in wonder, then caressed the fresh Spirit Essence in his hand.
"Heh heh, this trip has yielded quite a fine harvest!"
He tucked away the Spirit Essence,
and formed a hand seal.
A clear crane cry rang down from the heavens.
The elder flicked his sleeves lightly, rose gracefully into the air, and landed steadily upon the crane's back, riding the wind leisurely into the distance...
Chen Yu returned to the Mass Burial Grounds.
Compared with the elder's lesson, the Mass Burial Grounds, thick with sinister Yin Qi, actually felt peaceful now.
"What fucking kind of Dao Sect is this?"
The teaching elder had refined a living person into Spirit Essence in full view of everyone.
Not only had the other disciples shown no fear, they had even regretted that they weren't the ones the elder had refined into Spirit Essence.
Whenever he recalled Liu Sanli asking him in all seriousness, "Why should I be afraid?"
Chen Yu felt his brain shriveling.
Are these people even human?
He tried searching his predecessor's memories for an answer, but no matter how hard he looked, he found no clues.
In those memories, his predecessor had either been cultivating or having his essence drained by Yun Miaozhen, with very little contact with anyone else. Even when attending the elder's lessons, he had remained a mortal and could never enter into the atmosphere of the class. As for the sweetness in the air... he hadn't paid it any particular attention, merely assuming it was a scent drifting out of some building.
Besides, before this lesson, there had never been an instance of an elder refining someone alive into Spirit Essence.
"I'd better gather those sixty experience points as soon as possible!"
The only thing he could do now,
was hurry and break through to the third layer of Qi Refining.
Sitting cross-legged in a mountain hollow, Chen Yu closed his eyes and quickly entered a meditative state.
Just as he was about to circulate the Qi Guiding Art, two sets of footsteps suddenly sounded nearby. Chen Yu hurriedly stopped cultivating and poked his head out to look. Two white-robed Dao Sect disciples were walking toward the Mass Burial Grounds.
As the footsteps drew closer, Chen Yu heard their conversation.
"Senior brother, once the sect harvests this batch of Spirit Essence, could you and I... get a portion or two?" one asked.
"Stop indulging in wild fantasies." The Dao Sect disciple addressed as senior brother said, "You and I are only outer disciples. If we want Spirit Essence, we can only accumulate it slowly according to the sect's rules."
"Oh..." The junior brother sounded disappointed. "I noticed two of them have already reached the peak of the Qi Refining Second Layer. Maybe they can break through to the third layer before the assessment and enter the outer sect?"
"Enter the outer sect?" The senior brother scoffed. "Impossible."
"Huh?" The junior brother was startled. "Why?"
"You haven't been in the sect long, so it's only natural you don't know the inside story," the senior brother explained. "To our Dao Sect, those nominal disciples are nothing but expendable materials. Their only value lies in being refined into Spirit Essence. Even if some of them really reach the third layer of Qi Refining, they still can't advance to the outer sect."
"The sect's resources are limited, and every portion of Spirit Essence is precious. One more person entering the outer sect doesn't just mean one less portion of Spirit Essence. It also means one more disciple who needs supporting."
"The elders carefully plan how many nominal disciples to recruit each time. Not a single portion of Spirit Essence can be spared!"
"So, even if some of them really reach the third layer of Qi Refining, they still have to challenge an existing outer disciple. Only by winning can they take that disciple's place."
The junior brother beside him was already listening in a daze. He asked, "Then the outer disciple who loses..."
"Gets refined into Spirit Essence, of course," the senior brother said. "The missing Spirit Essence has to be made up somehow."
"Ah!"
The junior brother was shocked.
Then the senior brother chuckled. "Still, in nearly twenty years at the Dao Sect, I've never seen a nominal disciple enter the outer sect. After all, they've only learned the Qi Guiding Art and don't possess even the most basic means of attack. How could they defeat outer disciples who've studied proper martial techniques?"
"Th-that's true." The junior brother nodded.
"All right." The senior brother looked around. "No need to go any farther. Just dump them here."
"Okay!"
There was a clatter.
The sound of broken bones scattering across the ground rang out.
Then the footsteps gradually receded, disappearing into the mountains.
In the mountain hollow.
Having heard such shocking inside information,
Chen
Yu's brows knitted tightly.
"After breaking through to the third layer of Qi Refining, I still have to challenge an existing outer disciple, and only if I win can I enter the outer sect?"
He had originally thought reaching the third layer of Qi Refining would be enough to become an outer disciple.
Now it seemed he had been thinking too simply.
"Raising my level is easy, but martial techniques..." Chen Yu took a deep breath and stopped dwelling on all those tangled thoughts. "I'll gather experience points first. In theory, as long as my cultivation is high enough, I can win through raw stats even without martial techniques!"
Time was the most precious thing now. Every single experience point he could earn was crucial.
Chen Yu closed his eyes,
and began cultivating...