After returning to his room that evening, Xiao Yan resumed meditating and cultivating. After all, he had spent the entire day refining pills on the mountain behind the clan grounds and had taken several Qi Gathering Pills. Plenty of medicinal energy remained in his body, yet to be fully refined.
Thus, Xiao Yan spent the entire night cultivating.
In the blink of an eye, morning arrived. When Xiao Yan opened his eyes, he suddenly discovered that his strength had risen to that of a Three-Star Dou Practitioner, and he was only a step away from becoming a four-star Dou Zhe.
A second later, he suddenly noticed a system notification appear before his eyes.
[After a night of cultivation, you have comprehended a high Earth Tier Dou Technique: the Forbidden Character Art.] [Using this Dou Technique temporarily prevents your opponent from using their Dou Techniques, at the cost of your own Dou Qi.]
At the sight of the system notification, Xiao Yan froze for a moment before immediately coming to his senses.
After the system notification appeared before his eyes, Xiao Yan froze for a moment, then immediately came to his senses, his heart brimming with excitement.
Holy shit! I actually comprehended an Earth Tier Dou Technique!
On the entire Dou Qi Continent, Dou Techniques were divided into Heaven, Earth, Xuan, and Huang tiers, ranked from highest to lowest, with each tier further divided into low, middle, and high grades.
In truth, a Dou Technique of this caliber was beyond a tiny backwater like Wutan City. Even the Imperial Family of the entire Jia Ma Empire probably possessed only a handful of High Xuan Tier techniques, let alone anything higher.
Most importantly, this Dou Technique's function-or rather, its effect-was to prevent an enemy from using Dou Techniques for a short time. Just how heaven-defying that was went without saying.
At that thought, he felt immensely satisfied and excited.
"With this Forbidden Character Art, whenever I fight someone in the future, all I have to do is use it. No matter how powerful their Dou Techniques are, they won't be able to use them without Dou Qi."
"Though it consumes my own Dou Qi, trading that for sealing my opponent's Dou Techniques is well worth it."
"And this Forbidden Character Art paired with my current alchemy skills is practically a match made in heaven. After all, an Alchemy Master would never lack pills that restore Dou Qi."
"When the time comes, I'll seal their Dou Techniques with the Forbidden Character Art while taking pills to restore my Dou Qi. I could wear them down to death through sheer attrition."
Just thinking about it left Xiao Yan positively elated.
At the same time, he noticed a faint glow emanating from his Storage Ring. A moment later, a shadowy figure slowly emerged from within it.
The soul form that appeared was none other than Yao Ling, his teacher.
Yao Ling floated before him, looked at Xiao Yan, her newly accepted disciple, and spoke.
"My disciple, today I intend to teach you how to refine a Second-Grade Pill."
Hearing Yao Ling's words, Xiao Yan immediately perked up. "Great, Teacher! What medicinal ingredients do we need?"
Yao Ling extended a hand and lightly tapped the empty air. A list of medicinal ingredients then appeared before Xiao Yan.
"This is the formula for the Second-Grade Pill, Qi Condensation Powder. It requires five medicinal ingredients in total."
Most of the medicinal ingredients Yao Chen had just mentioned were sold in Wutan City's Market District, but the final one was rather uncommon.
"Teacher, I should be able to buy the first four ingredients in the Market District, but I'm afraid the last one won't be easy to find."
Yao Ling nodded.
"That's right. This ingredient is indeed uncommon in a little place like yours. However, if there's an auction house here, you could take a look. Places like that should have it."
"From what I've observed during my time here, the largest auction house in Wutan City should be the Mittel Auction House. It seems to be a branch of a major family in your Jia Ma Empire. I imagine they would have it, so why not go and have a look?"
"As for this ingredient, it's used to balance the medicinal properties of Qi Condensation Powder. You could still refine it using another ingredient as a substitute, but its efficacy would drop considerably, so it's best not to settle for a substitute."
After hearing these words from his teacher, Yao Lao, Xiao Yan immediately nodded in agreement.
He then left his room and headed straight toward the Mittel Auction House.
The Mittel Auction House just mentioned was not only Wutan City's largest auction house; the power behind it was the Mittel Family, one of the foremost merchant families in the entire Jia Ma Empire.
Before long, he arrived at the Mittel Auction House and spotted several guards. Each gave off a formidable aura, with strength roughly equivalent to that of a seven- or eight-star Dou Zhe.
Without saying much, Xiao Yan walked straight inside.
But as soon as he entered the auction house's main hall, he noticed a woman with a stunningly voluptuous figure standing behind the counter. She wore a particularly form-fitting qipao that outlined her exquisite curves. Most importantly, she was utterly alluring, especially to young men.
She was none other than Ya Fei, the Mittel Auction House's chief auctioneer.
Seeing Xiao Yan enter, Ya Fei smiled slightly and teased him.
"Oh, isn't this the young master of the Xiao Clan? What brings you to our auction house today?"
Xiao Yan smiled as well, then teased her right back.
"Sister Ya Fei, how could you say that? I missed you, so I came here especially to see you."
Ya Fei immediately rolled her eyes at him. "Oh, stop it, you little rascal. Not a single honest word comes out of your mouth. Tell me, what have you come to buy today?"
Xiao Yan then dropped his joking expression and named the medicinal ingredient he needed.
Upon hearing the ingredient's name, Ya Fei looked somewhat surprised.
"You want that ingredient? It's not something just anyone can use."
Xiao Yan smiled. "Why, Sister Ya Fei? Is it expensive?"
Shifting her body slightly, Ya Fei shook her head.
"It's not expensive, but it is quite uncommon. As it happens, our auction house is holding an auction this afternoon, and that ingredient happens to be on today's auction list."
Xiao Yan inwardly breathed a sigh of relief.
"That's good. I'll come take a look this afternoon, then."
Xiao Yan then completed the formalities and entered the auction seating area to wait for the afternoon auction to begin.
There were not many people in the seating area yet. Xiao Yan chose a seat at random and sat down, but just then, his gaze happened to sweep over a nearby seat, where he spotted a familiar face.
The man wore a brocade robe and had handsome features. Several attendants accompanied him, making his distinguished background obvious at a glance.
He was none other than Jia Lie Ao, the young master of the Jia Lie Family.
At the sight of Jia Lie Ao, something stirred in Xiao Yan's heart.
After all, in the original story, Jia Lie Ao had quite a few conflicts with Xiao Yan. However, the current Xiao Yan had no intention of paying him any attention. He had only come today for that medicinal ingredient.
So he withdrew his gaze and sat quietly in his seat, waiting for the auction to begin.
Before you continue