This Treasure Changed Again

Ye Han sat cross-legged in the Cultivation Room, circulating the Azure Mystic Art as specks of green light streamed steadily into his body.

Compared to before, the green specks around him had grown considerably brighter.

After cultivating for over two hours, Ye Han opened his eyes and looked at his hands. He shook his head in disappointment. "This is so hard! I never thought breaking through the second level would be this difficult!"

With that, he stood up and stretched his limbs, then took the Purple Cauldron out of his robe...

The Purple Cauldron now resembled translucent purple jade, no longer looking anything like the stone it once had.

Yet its appearance only disappointed Ye Han, because he felt that the Purple Cauldron no longer did much to help his cultivation.

More importantly, just as Zhang Qingshan had told him that day, Zhang Qingshan could not stay in his Cave Abode all day long to guide his cultivation...

As an inner sect disciple, Zhang Qingshan had to take on a routine assignment every month and complete at least one sect mission a month.

Routine assignments were ordinary tasks disciples could do for the sect within their abilities. For instance, anyone skilled at growing medicinal herbs could take a herb-growing assignment and tend the herbs in the medicinal garden every day...

Those skilled at mining could mine Spirit Stones or dig up rare materials for artifact forging.

Those with a knack for artifact forging could help smelt materials for spiritual artifacts and the like.

In short, in a sect as vast as the Azure Profound Sect, every disciple could find a suitable routine assignment. Everyone ought to make their own contribution so that the Azure Profound Sect could grow ever stronger.

The other category was sect missions. By completing routine assignments, the sect's cultivator disciples could earn a certain number of Spirit Stones as payment.

Sect missions, however, were much harder. Some required searching for treasures born of heaven and earth, others called for finding particular materials, and some even involved slaying Demon Beasts.

Some were difficult, while others were not.

Of course, with Ye Han's current cultivation, there was nothing he could accomplish besides cultivating. Whether it was growing herbs, mining, or anything else, he knew not the first thing about it. In any case, no one had asked him to do such work yet.

All he needed to do was cultivate diligently in his Cave Abode and improve himself.

But just because Ye Han did not have to do those things did not mean Zhang Qingshan could avoid them.

After all, Zhang Qingshan was a full-fledged inner sect disciple and had already accepted quite a few missions. His routine assignment had to be completed.

Zhang Qingshan's routine assignment was forging spiritual iron ingots. His body-refining techniques were exceptionally advanced, and with his strength, he could forge the ingots much faster than ordinary disciples. Thus, working just three or four days a month was enough for him to fulfill his assignment.

Previously, of course, Zhang Qingshan had worked seven or eight days a month, because he also wanted to earn an extra reward, obtain more Spirit Stones, and buy cultivation pills and the like...

But while cultivating in Ye Han's Cave Abode lately, he had no need for such aids, because the cultivation speed in Ye Han's Cave Abode alone was already sufficient.

Of course, taking pills while cultivating would produce even better results.

However, Zhang Qingshan did not have that much time, because he also had to spend a great deal of it guiding and looking after Ye Han...

More importantly, he needed to boldly pursue his understanding of the Azure Mystic Art and strive to reach the twelfth level of the Qi Refining Realm within a certain period. Once he reached that stage, he would have a better chance of taking part in the sect's competition for Foundation Establishment Pills.

As long as he became a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator, a tremendously promising future awaited him.

Still, the reason Zhang Qingshan was absent from Ye Han's Cave Abode was that he had left the mountain a few days earlier to complete a sect mission.

When would he come back?

Fortunately, before leaving, Zhang Qingshan had prepared half a month's worth of food for him.

Zhang Qingshan had actually told Ye Han that cultivators could take a Grain-Repelling Pill, which freed them from needing ordinary food and drink.

But only cultivators in the Foundation Establishment Realm or above could afford to take them. Cultivators below that realm still relied on ordinary food to sustain themselves.

It was just that Qi Refining Realm cultivators like them did not need to eat very much.

After all, cultivators could spend several days indoors meditating and cultivating. Who had time to prepare food every day?

After practicing the Azure Mystic Art for a while, Ye Han began practicing the Blood Refining Art.

He repeatedly lowered himself into a half squat. Each time he sank down, sweat covered his body, and strands of cold, blood-red light rippled across his skin...

Surprisingly enough, Ye Han might not have achieved much with the Azure Mystic Art, but his results with the Blood Refining Art were astonishing.

In just half a month, he had broken through to the first level of the Blood Refining Art, making his body's defensive power and strength all the more formidable.

He discovered that his strength already far surpassed an adult's. When he exerted himself fully, he could lift something weighing two or three hundred jin in an instant.

He was only a ten-year-old child, yet he already possessed such fearsome strength.

That showed just how powerful the techniques of immortal cultivators truly were.

Moreover, Ye Han vaguely sensed that the Blood Refining Art Zhang Qingshan had taught him was no ordinary technique. It might even be better than the Azure Mystic Art.

Unfortunately, the technique was incomplete. If he had the complete version, it could allow him to cultivate to an extremely high level.

Still, his cultivation was only at the Second Layer of the Qi Refining Realm. Even at the twelfth level, the Blood Refining Art would still have other benefits.

One only had to look at Zhang Qingshan to know that. He had been practicing this body-refining technique all along...

Soon, practicing the Blood Refining Art left Ye Han utterly exhausted, drenched in sweat as though he had just been hauled out of the water.

His skin had also turned purple all over, his lips trembled, and his legs shook incessantly, as if they could no longer hold him upright.

The Blood Refining Art was nowhere near as easy to practice as it looked. Every time he squatted down, an excruciating, stabbing pain tore through his flesh...

That was because the Blood Refining Art used pain to stimulate his body into growing stronger, boosting the circulation of his blood and vital energy, building muscle, absorbing Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy, and tempering his skin's defensive power.

Every step caused him tremendous pain.

Thus, after each practice session, he had to lie on the floor, unable to move for a long time. That alone showed how fearsome the Blood Refining Art was.

When Zhang Qingshan first taught him the Blood Refining Art, he had assumed that Ye Han would never be able to persevere at such a young age.

He truly had not expected Ye Han to possess such tenacity despite his tender years. It had been utterly beyond his expectations.

But effort always bore fruit. Although Ye Han had made little progress with the Azure Mystic Art, practicing the Blood Refining Art had already made his body remarkably powerful, not at all inferior to that of a martial artist...

If he faced an ordinary martial arts expert now, he felt he could win...

However, Ye Han also felt he was in a bit of trouble. He had finished all the food Zhang Qingshan had prepared for him, but Zhang Qingshan still had not returned.

Would he have to go out himself?

With that thought, Ye Han waited for his body to recover. Just as he stood up, the Purple Cauldron fell out of his robe...

It struck the floor with a crisp clink, giving Ye Han quite a fright. He thought it might have shattered.

But when he looked at the Purple Cauldron, his eyes suddenly lit up, and delight spread across his face. "This treasure changed again!"