Two months later.
The doors and windows of Yi Yang's main room were tightly shut, just as usual.
For the past two months, Yi Yang had cultivated diligently, never slacking for a moment.
In the Prefectural City, strength was the best currency for making oneself heard. Yi Yang was working hard to build the strength to back his words.
At that moment, he sat cross-legged on a meditation cushion inside his room, his eyes half closed.
Several things lay on the desk.
The brocade box holding the Purple Spirit Flower stood wide open. Only a layer of grayish-white petal residue remained inside, its medicinal potency long since exhausted.
Five white porcelain medicine bottles lay scattered at one corner of the desk, all empty.
A wooden bucket sat in the corner, its sides coated in dried, dark brown medicinal grime that gave off a faint, rank smell-the remnants of boiled Mutant Beast marrow.
Over two months, he had consumed four Treasure Pills from his monthly stipend, the five taken from Jingyuan's and Jingming's corpses, some limited-stock Treasure Pills he had purchased, and all the essence of the Purple Spirit Flower, which could have been used to refine a Mid-Grade Treasure Pill.
It was fair to say that Yi Yang had burned through every resource he possessed in those two months.
Now, a line of numbers appeared on the panel in his mind.
[Wood-Nurturing Longevity Art · Inner Energy Section, First Level (149640/150000)]
This was the result of those two months.
Three hundred and sixty points.
He needed just three hundred and sixty more points to break through.
But Yi Yang was in no hurry. His breathing grew exceedingly slow and long, the rise and fall of his chest almost imperceptible.
Dense, pure qi surged through his Qi Sea. The