Moreover, between the two, he couldn't make a choice for the time being.
"I'll keep this Enlightenment Glimmer for now."
"I'll decide after I break through to the Qi Refining Fifth Layer."
Bai Yi glanced at the information on his Terminal. A week had passed since he entered the Cultivation Room for seclusion.
Thanks to the reward from the assessment, he had now accumulated twenty-eight hours in the Cultivation Pagoda. With all three factors combined, he could shorten the time it would take to break through to the Qi Refining Fifth Layer a little further.
He rose and walked out of the Cultivation Room. Looking at the empty living room, Bai Yi slung the Azure Peak Sword and Heart-Questioning Sword over his back and stepped outside.
No. 2 Middle School Dao Studies, outside the Cultivation Pagoda
"I heard Hua Ming's been going to ask the Old Principal for guidance every day this week?"
"I'm so jealous. That's a senior in the Foundation Establishment Realm!"
"If you'd ranked in the top five in the assessment, you could go every day too."
"I also heard that, under the Old Principal's guidance, Hua Ming's Blazing Fire Talisman is almost at Dao Resonance Major Accomplishment."
"His family even spent a fortune at Guangmi Group to get him a new Magnetic-Light Crimson Fire Talisman Register with first-tier supreme-grade magnetic-base technology."
"If he manages to refine it, it's not impossible for him to pass the Preliminary Trial for the Four Academies and Ten Palaces!"
"Even if he doesn't, as long as he puts in some effort, getting into a First-Rate Academy should be a sure thing."
Beneath the Cultivation Pagoda, more than a dozen Third Year of High School students waiting for Cultivation Rooms chatted about this and that. Envy, jealousy, and resentment flashed across their faces.
Outside, they might have been geniuses who'd gotten into Advanced Dao Studies, as others put it, but here, even getting into a Third-Rate Sect was beyond their reach.
"So what if that Bai Yi from Class 2 got first place by sheer luck? He'll still end up under Hua Ming's heel."
"He can't afford even a single first-tier supreme-grade talisman artifact."
The tall, thin student beside him spoke viciously, envy filling his eyes.
If Hua Ming and the other two were the favored sons and daughters of powerful Lineages and groups, beyond their reach, then they could tell themselves it was because their families weren't good enough, not because they weren't.
But Bai Yi came from an ordinary household like theirs, or even worse than most of them. What right did he have to outshine Hua Ming and the other two and take first place?
"An inferior Magic Art like the Little Breeze Sword Art would be blown away with one strike once Hua Ming's Blazing Fire Talisman reached mastery."
"Talented scions from Aristocratic Clans aren't people we can compare ourselves to."
"Exactly."
Just as their heated gossip reached its peak, a boy was about to speak when he suddenly froze. His face turned pale, and beads of cold sweat seeped from his forehead.
"What's wrong with you...?"
Sensing something was off, another person turned to ask, but his pupils suddenly constricted.
In his field of vision, a Flying Sword wreathed in swordlight and radiating a bone-chilling aura hovered silently before him. Not far away, Bai Yi looked over at them calmly.
"Cough... Bai Yi... It's a misunderstanding..."
They were just about to apologize when the Azure Peak Sword transformed into a streak of swordlight and stabbed downward. Its sharp edge tore through the air, making their necks prickle, while a bone-deep chill surged into their minds.
Threatened on the edge of death, their legs gave out. They fell to their knees, faces drained of color, as strands of black hair drifted slowly down around them.
As the atmosphere froze, the entrance to the Cultivation Pagoda opened.
Bai Yi put away the Azure Peak Sword, turned, and entered the empty Cultivation Room.
Zzi-dong...
[Student ID 100869527: Bai Yi. Cultivation Room time remaining: 28:59:59] [Current Spiritual Energy Index: 193]
In the Cultivation Room, the Qi-Gathering Array unfolded.
Dense spiritual energy washed over him. The Minor Five Elements Art, already perfected within Bai Yi, began circulating instinctively. In the Qi Sea of his Dan Marrow, five Qi Vortices converged like the Five Elements, devouring the surrounding spiritual energy.
In a place approaching a second-tier Spirit Land, combined with his Minor Five Elements Art perfected at the fifth layer, even his normal cultivation and breathing barely matched the results he'd once achieved only by taking Qi-Nourishing Pills.
"No wonder wealth, companions, arts, and land are what all cultivators pursue."
Sitting cross-legged on a Meditation Cushion, Bai Yi circulated the Minor Five Elements Art with all his might. As his Qi Vibration flowed, the five Qi Vortices at his Dan Marrow seemed to merge into one through the Five Elements, forming a faint Five Elements Qi Vortex behind him.
Under the vortex's pull, endless spiritual energy poured into it, refined into liquid that dripped down.
Bai Yi formed a hand seal and controlled his Spiritual Power to take all the pills from his pocket.
One Qi-Nourishing Pill and six Qi-Boosting Pills floated before him.
The Qi Vortex within him circulated. As he breathed in and out, the packaging around the Qi-Nourishing Pill split open, and the pure-white pill flew straight into his mouth.
The pill dissolved as soon as it entered, turning into spiritual energy that flowed from his organs into his Dantian.
Bai Yi closed his eyes and focused. As he looked inward, his Divine Sense guided the spiritual energy to nourish his Meridians, and the Five Elements Qi Vortex in his Dantian's Qi Sea spun rapidly.
The Five Elements' energies circulated through his body, like a millstone grinding away the impurities in the pill.
The remaining impurities seeped from his pores and, evaporated by the cultivation art, formed a mist that drifted away.
A long while later, once the last trace of medicinal potency from the Qi-Nourishing Pill had been refined, Bai Yi's eyes opened slightly. A glimmer of light flashed through them.
He looked up at the projected timer floating in midair, his face lighting up with delight.
Before, refining a single Qi-Nourishing Pill had taken him at least two or three days, and he still couldn't absorb all its medicinal potency.
But now, with the support of the Minor Five Elements Art perfected at the fifth layer, he had completely refined all the medicinal potency in that Qi-Nourishing Pill in just three hours.
That was worth a whole week of painstaking cultivation before.
"And this is only a Qi-Nourishing Pill..."
Bai Yi suppressed his barely contained excitement and turned his gaze to the Qi-Boosting Pills before him.
As prescription pills that only Alchemists from Red Maple Valley could refine, Qi-Boosting Pills far surpassed Qi-Nourishing Pills, both in how little drug resistance they caused and in the strength of their medicinal potency.
His lungs drew in a breath. Bai Yi sucked a Qi-Boosting Pill into his mouth and circulated the Five Elements through his body.
His blood surged like Mercury. The pill melted in his stomach, and its medicinal powder turned into the purest spiritual energy, nourishing his organs and Meridians in return.
The next day
As the last piece of the pill, no bigger than a grain of rice, was completely refined, the Spiritual Power in the Qi Sea of his Dantian, previously like a shallow puddle, visibly grew a little.
"Devour a breath of the world's Qi; refine it into a wisp of an immortal's truth..."
Bai Yi held his palm downward. As his lips and teeth parted, he exhaled a breath of Turbid Qi like an arrow. His brows and eyes were filled with delight.
The Qi-Boosting Pill was worthy of its price of fifty thousand each. Just one was worth nearly a month of his usual painstaking cultivation.
"You get what you pay for."
"Still, compared to Qi-Nourishing Pills, Qi-Boosting Pills are also much harder to refine."
"The day of my breakthrough has come."
Bai Yi looked at how little time remained in the Cultivation Room. The Spirit Land, nearly second-tier, combined with his Minor Five Elements Art perfected at the fifth layer, had still left him spending a full day to completely refine a single Qi-Boosting Pill.
For an ordinary student, completely refining its medicinal potency would probably take at least half a month.
"Prioritize improving my own cultivation."
Bai Yi considered it inwardly. After all, compared to his own cultivation, the Heart-Questioning Sword, although a first-tier superior-grade Flying Sword, was ultimately an external possession.
More than ten minutes later, as the Cultivation Room's remaining time ran out, Bai Yi stepped outside and headed straight home.
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