That was not all.
The female cultivator's eyes were hazy, her breath fragrant as orchids. The moment she entered, she slipped off her gauzy robe.
It was a stark contrast to the terror and despair Lin Mo had seen on her face when he selected her earlier.
Lin Mo could have guessed what had happened with his toes.
But that had nothing to do with him.
He was merely an ordinary customer, here to fulfill his cultivation goals through dual cultivation.
Under the pill's effects, the female cultivator did not care whether Lin Mo was a decrepit old man or a handsome youth.
She eagerly began attending to him.
Late that night, Lin Mo finished his first paid session at the Drunken Immortal Pavilion.
The female cultivator, who had been in reasonably good physical and mental condition during the day, now had a pale face and purple lips.
She even seemed to have grown noticeably thinner.
By contrast, Lin Mo was brimming with vitality, looking nothing like someone who had just undergone strenuous exercise.
"I actually didn't break through..."
After getting dressed, Lin Mo checked the spiritual power within his body.
It was considerably stronger than before, but he had still failed to reach the fifth level of Qi Refining.
Still, the improvement was obvious. He was now only a step away from the fifth level of Qi Refining.
What's going on? Is it because my cultivation has increased, or... was this woman's cultivation too weak, with too little yin energy?
Lin Mo silently pondered the question.
He felt both factors were at play.
Shangguan Wuqing's cultivation was certainly far stronger than that of this captured female cultivator, so the yin energy within her was naturally much more abundant.
"Help me, please..."
Suddenly, Bai Hua's weak voice came from behind him.
Bai Hua was, of course, the name of the female cultivator with whom Lin Mo had dual-cultivated this time.
He had learned her name during the session.
Lin Mo turned to see Bai Hua staring at him pleadingly, tears clinging to the corners of her eyes.
"Help you? How?" Lin Mo asked, puzzled.
Bai Hua explained everything she had heard and seen to Lin Mo in detail.
Apparently, once a female cultivator captured and brought to the Drunken Immortal Pavilion had served a customer, she was considered a sword that had been sharpened. She would not be assigned a second customer.
Most of them would afterward be thrown into the Tower of Self-Cultivation and Self-Immolation, where the last of their value would be squeezed out.
Bai Hua clutched Lin Mo's scrawny arm and begged through her tears, "I won't resent you. I just want to live. As long as... as long as you tell them you want to take me back with you, that's enough."
"Please... if fate lets us meet again, I'll repay you!"
"..."
Lin Mo considered it for only a moment before pushing Bai Hua's hand away. Expressionless, he said, "Sorry, little girl. Whether you live or die is none of my concern."
He could barely keep himself safe, and he was supposed to help someone else? What a joke.
Lin Mo had spent practically his entire life in the First Saint Sect.
He had seen far too many things like this.
Even Bai Hua's tearful pleas failed to stir the slightest pity in him.
Noble qualities such as mercy, innocence, and kindness did not exist in the First Saint Sect.
Or rather, anyone with such noble qualities could never survive in the First Saint Sect. Sooner or later, their head would be parted from their body.
If Lin Mo had been an ignorant youth in his teens or twenties, one who had yet to experience the treachery of the world, perhaps he would have helped Bai Hua.
Unfortunately, he was not.
"Don't go, please! I'm begging you!"
Bai Hua's heart-rending cries reached his ears. Lin Mo paused for only a moment before slamming the door shut and walking away briskly.
"Finished?"
When he came out, the female disciple from earlier that day was still at the entrance.
Lin Mo smiled and nodded.
"Please come again."
With that, the female disciple turned and entered the Drunken Immortal Pavilion.
Presumably, she had gone to deal with Bai Hua.
As for what ultimately became of Bai Hua, what did that have to do with Lin Mo?
Returning to his little wooden cabin in Purple Heaven Palace, Lin Mo immediately sat cross-legged, took out fifty spirit stones, and began pushing toward the fifth level of Qi Refining.
Just two days later, Lin Mo encountered no obstacles; the breakthrough came as naturally as water flowing into a channel.
He smoothly reached the fifth level of Qi Refining.
Lin Mo threw a punch, its tremendous speed rapidly compressing the air until it burst.
The wind from his fist alone was several notches stronger than it had been at the fourth Qi Refining level.
"It's still nowhere near enough!"
A sharp gleam flashed through Lin Mo's cloudy eyes.
Without some fortuitous opportunity or chance encounter, he would still have to visit the Drunken Immortal Pavilion if he wanted to increase his cultivation quickly.
But today's experience had also led Lin Mo to a conclusion.
As his cultivation increased, dual-cultivating with weaker female cultivators would yield progressively smaller benefits.
So he really could not mindlessly keep choosing female cultivators in the Qi Refining period.
Even if he visited the Drunken Immortal Pavilion three more times and spent all the thousand spirit stones he had left, Lin Mo estimated that reaching even the seventh Qi Refining layer would be difficult.
If he cultivated normally, however...
A thousand spirit stones would be enough for him to reach the eighth level of Qi Refining.
"Given my current cultivation, I should still choose a Qi Refining Period Female Cultivator first. That's how I can maximize my gains..."
"Tomorrow, I'll sell the Spirit-Boosting Pills first, then visit the Drunken Immortal Pavilion."
It would be wonderful if Shangguan Wuqing came looking for him once more in the meantime.
That way, he could save over a thousand spirit stones.
But Lin Mo could not control Shangguan Wuqing, so he could only leave it to fate.
The next day.
Lin Mo arrived at the First Saint Sect's Sect Trading Market.
This was a place where sect disciples could trade freely, but disciples who set up stalls to sell goods had to pay the sect a five-percent site fee.
Even early in the morning, the market was already teeming with people and bustling with activity.
Lin Mo shuffled along, attracting no attention. He picked an empty spot at random and put a Spirit-Boosting Pill on display.
Soon, the Spirit-Boosting Pill caught the attention of several Inner Sect Disciples.
But they merely stood there pointing and commenting, with no intention of buying.
Naturally, Lin Mo could not be bothered with them.
Before long, a familiar figure appeared before Lin Mo's stall.
It was Shangguan Wuqing.
The two merely exchanged a glance, showing no sign that they knew each other.
"Old servant, do you know how many spirit stones a Spirit-Boosting Pill generally costs?" Shangguan Wuqing asked.
"It should be a hundred and fifty spirit stones. I wonder if I'm right."
"Yes, but a hundred and fifty is the highest price. Usually, getting a hundred and twenty or thirty is already pretty good."
Although Spirit-Boosting Pills could increase the rate at which one absorbed spiritual energy for a time, they were consumables, after all.
Moreover, the pills were not high-grade, and their effects were greatly diminished for cultivators above the Golden Core period.
Selling one for over a hundred spirit stones was already quite good.
Shangguan Wuqing was indeed right. In the end, Lin Mo sold all five Spirit-Boosting Pills for a hundred and thirty spirit stones apiece.
After packing up his stall, Lin Mo paid the Sect Trading Market's administrators thirty-three spirit stones as a site fee.
"Old servant, why are you walking so fast? Afraid I'll eat you?"
Lin Mo had barely left the Sect Trading Market when Shangguan Wuqing caught up with him.
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