Qi Refining Fourth Layer

After this experience, Ye Fei felt a yearning to increase his cultivation.

The despair of facing someone powerful had been etched into his bones.

So he had to work hard to grow stronger, to never suffer anyone's bullying again.

Time flew, and a month passed like a white colt flashing past a crack.

After consuming a hundred and fifty Spirit Stones, Ye Fei finally broke through two minor realms in succession, advancing to the Qi Refining Third Layer.

He was overjoyed.

What delighted Ye Fei even more was that the first batch of medicinal seeds he had planted had all matured.

Even the grain he had planted yielded a bumper harvest.

"This is far too fast!"

Looking at the hundred-odd low-grade spiritual herbs before him, Ye Fei stared in disbelief.

This month's harvest was enough to fulfill an entire year's Sect missions.

Not only that, he could keep replanting the seeds from these herbs. With each cycle, his herb garden would grow larger and larger.

Once the herb garden reached ten mu, its output would be truly astonishing.

"Isn't this grain yield a little too outrageous?"

When Ye Fei finished harvesting all the grain, he was even more dumbfounded.

He had farmed alongside Ye Canglong since childhood. For rice, a good harvest from one mu of land was only four or five hundred jin.

Yet the half-mu rice plot he had planted in this medicine field had yielded a thousand jin.

It took more than thirty sacks to hold it all. Even a year of eating would not finish it.

Not only were the rice grains full and plump, they also faintly exuded spiritual energy.

It was easy to imagine how beneficial eating this rice would be for cultivation.

"This medicine field really is a treasure!"

Looking at the Azure Dragon Medicine Field before him, Ye Fei's heart surged with excitement.

He harvested all the mature herbs, then planted their seeds in the medicine field again.

The seeds Ye Fei obtained from just one harvest filled seven mu of the medicine field.

Looking at the remaining three mu of empty land, Ye Fei had an idea and immediately left the Azure Dragon Sword.

He arrived at the summit of Black Cloud Peak.

"Are you there, Senior Brother Li?"

Standing outside the Reception Pavilion, Ye Fei cupped his hands and called inside.

"Come in."

As soon as Ye Fei finished speaking, Li Zaitian's indifferent voice came from within.

Only after receiving permission did Ye Fei step into the Reception Pavilion.

"Greetings, Senior Brother Li."

In the Reception Pavilion's main hall, Ye Fei cupped his hands and bowed to Li Zaitian, who sat upright in the seat of honor.

"No need to stand on ceremony, Junior Brother Ye."

"Hm?"

"You've actually reached the Qi Refining Third Layer, Junior Brother Ye?"

Li Zaitian initially glanced at Ye Fei, but once he clearly discerned his cultivation, he was taken aback.

"I went down the mountain a while ago and obtained a hundred-year-old spiritual ginseng. That allowed me to make a few breakthroughs."

Ye Fei had long since prepared an explanation for Li Zaitian's question.

"I see. You really are blessed with good fortune, Junior Brother Ye!"

Li Zaitian nodded doubtfully. Though he still had some suspicions, he could hardly press for more details.

"Senior Brother Li, I came to collect this month's stipend."

This time, Ye Fei stated his purpose without waiting for Li Zaitian to ask.

"Take these."

"Starting next month, you'll need to carry out some Sect missions, Junior Brother Ye. Otherwise, I won't be able to justify it to the other disciples."

As Li Zaitian handed Ye Fei the Spirit Stones and pills, he spoke with feigned helplessness.

"May I ask what standard my Sect missions will be set by, Senior Brother Li?"

Ye Fei asked with his hands cupped.

He did not complain about Li Zaitian making him carry out Sect missions.

"Since your monthly stipend is four times that of an outer disciple, your mission quota should naturally be four times as much."

"If you fail to complete four times the usual quota each month, your stipend for that month will be docked, just like any other disciple's."

"I'll inform the steward at the Mission Pavilion. Starting next month, you can go directly to the Mission Pavilion and collect your stipend based on your completed missions."

"You have no objections to that, do you, Junior Brother Ye?"

Li Zaitian looked at Ye Fei with a genial smile on his face.

"No objections."

Ye Fei's expression remained unchanged. After exchanging a few casual words with Li Zaitian, he turned and left the Reception Pavilion.

Even though he knew Li Zaitian was deliberately making things difficult for him, he did not care.

Now that he had a medicine field capable of accelerating the growth of spiritual herbs, he no longer took these missions to heart.

"Could Yishan's disappearance really have something to do with you?"

Watching Ye Fei's departing figure, Li Zaitian murmured to himself, his gaze gradually turning cold.

Although he did not believe Ye Fei could have killed Liu Yishan, his investigation confirmed that Liu Yishan and Ye Fei had indeed left the Sect together a month ago.

A few days later, Ye Fei had returned to the Sect alone, while Liu Yishan remained nowhere to be found.

Around that same time, Azure Dragon Valley in Green Pine Mountain had inexplicably vanished.

On top of that, Ye Fei, who had a mixed spiritual root, had actually reached the Qi Refining Third Layer in just one month.

Taken together, these three things made Li Zaitian suspicious of Ye Fei.

However, without confirming that Liu Yishan was truly dead, he did not want to grow branches outside the knot and stir up unnecessary trouble.

After all, Ye Fei was the Grand Supreme Elder's nominal disciple, and he had now successfully begun qi refining. Li Zaitian still needed to be cautious.

With Liu Yishan missing, the Yinluo Banner's whereabouts were also unknown, leaving Li Zaitian both frustrated and somewhat worried.

It was precisely because of this that he had decided to make things difficult for Ye Fei.

Given his former temperament, he would never have made such a decision.

After leaving the Reception Pavilion, Ye Fei went straight to the Hundred Treasures Pavilion.

With these twenty Spirit Stones as a cover, he felt much bolder.

He spent the twenty Spirit Stones on two manuals.

One was a movement technique manual, Mistlike Step, worth eighteen Spirit Stones. The other was a sword technique manual, Nine Leaning Luo Swords, worth two Spirit Stones.

Ye Fei planned to add a few ways of fighting enemies during breaks in his cultivation.

After spending all those Spirit Stones, Ye Fei returned to his cave abode.

After more than a month of growth, the spiritual herbs in the cave abode's spirit field had sprouted tender shoots and were flourishing.

Ye Fei took out some more pool water and watered the spiritual herbs, then returned to his bedroom, took out Spirit Stones, and began cultivating.

Cultivation knew no passage of time, and a month slipped by in a flash.

Of the five hundred Spirit Stones Ye Fei had obtained from Liu Yishan, he had already consumed more than three hundred.

His cultivation had also barely risen from the Qi Refining Third Layer to the Qi Refining Fourth Layer.

After reaching the Qi Refining Fourth Layer, Ye Fei discovered that no matter how hard he tried, his cultivation would not improve even a fraction.

Clearly, he had encountered a cultivation bottleneck.

With no other choice, Ye Fei stopped.

Over the past month, he had harvested another crop of spiritual herbs from the medicine field, and they now formed a large pile inside the Azure Dragon Sword.

He had also collected plenty of medicinal seeds, just enough to fill all ten mu of the medicine field.

"These spiritual herbs should be enough to make the Spirit-Washing Tree bear ripe fruit again, right?"

Looking at the nearly thousand spiritual herbs before him, Ye Fei suddenly thought of the Spirit-Washing Tree.

Then, with a thought, he appeared beside the Spirit-Washing Tree.

Although Ye Fei was only at the Qi Refining Fourth Layer, the Azure Dragon Sword had already acknowledged him as its master. Within this space, he could go anywhere with a mere thought.

Standing before the Spirit-Washing Tree, Ye Fei reached toward the depths of the valley with his right hand and drew the pile of spiritual herbs over.

As soon as the spiritual herbs appeared, the Spirit-Washing Tree devoured them one by one.

A dozen or so breaths later, only forty or fifty of the thousand-odd spiritual herbs remained.

"Good thing there were enough."

Seeing the five round, purplish-red fruits on the Spirit-Washing Tree, Ye Fei could not help letting out a relieved breath.

He reached out repeatedly with his right hand, and in the blink of an eye, all five fruits were in his grasp.

Ye Fei swallowed all five fruits, sat cross-legged on the ground, and began undergoing the cleansing of his spiritual root.

About a quarter of an hour later, the Spiritual Root Cleansing was complete. Ye Fei returned to the pool and washed the filth from his body, then sat cross-legged on the ground and resumed cultivating.

"As expected, it was still a problem with my spiritual root's aptitude."

After cultivating for a short while, Ye Fei discovered that his cultivation bottleneck had actually vanished after the second Spiritual Root Cleansing.

His cultivation speed had also increased somewhat.

Delighted by this discovery, Ye Fei took out Spirit Stones and continued cultivating.

However, after cultivating for just over half a month, Ye Fei had barely reached the late stage of the Qi Refining Fourth Layer when he encountered another cultivation bottleneck.

"Is my cultivation aptitude really this terrible?"

He had run into another cultivation bottleneck without even breaking through a single minor realm. Ye Fei almost wanted to dash his head against a wall.

With no other choice, he slung his longsword across his back and headed to the Mission Pavilion.