Another Formidable Cultivator Training in the Cold Pool Appeared in the Outer Court!

Early the next morning.

Cao Youqian's biological clock woke him early. He had long since grown accustomed to resting for three shichen and cultivating for nine each day.

As soon as he stepped outside, he ran into Xiao Chen.

"Good morning, Senior Brother."

"Good morning, Junior Brother."

After greeting him, Xiao Chen asked, "Junior Brother, are you going to cultivate?"

Cao Youqian nodded. "That's right, Senior Brother. I've gotten used to spending my days cultivating."

Xiao Chen smiled. "Sure enough, once people receive Master's guidance, they all come to love cultivating."

"..."

Cao Youqian froze for a moment, but on second thought, there wasn't the slightest thing wrong with what his senior brother had said.

In the past, he had spent every day thinking either about making money or indulging in pleasure.

Only when he got tired of having fun would he occasionally cultivate for a change of pace.

But now, all he could think about was cultivating and growing stronger.

"You're right, Senior Brother. I wasted far too much time before. Now that I have a renowned master like ours to guide me, I naturally won't waste a single moment I could spend cultivating."

Xiao Chen patted Cao Youqian on the shoulder. "Keep it up, Junior Brother. I believe you won't disappoint Master."

"Mm."

Cao Youqian nodded, feeling full of vigor.

Thousand-Year Cold Pool, here I come!

"Junior Brother Cao, wait a moment."

As Xiao Chen called Cao Youqian back, he took a storage bag from his robes.

"Junior Brother, there are a hundred thousand low-grade spirit stones in this storage bag. I'll be leaving the Miscellaneous Dao Institute in a while.

"Once I do, I won't be able to stand guard for you anymore. Take these spirit stones."

Cao Youqian froze for a moment. Naturally, he recognized the storage bag.

It was the one he had lost to his senior brother. He quickly shook his head. "Senior Brother, I absolutely can't accept this storage bag."

Hearing that, Xiao Chen immediately put on a stern face. "What, you've only completed two parts of the five elements body forging, and you're already refusing to listen to me?"

Cao Youqian's heart warmed, and he accepted the storage bag. "Thank you, Senior Brother."

After watching Cao Youqian leave, Xiao Chen murmured, "Junior Brother Cao's affairs have been settled. I wonder how Junior Sister Liu is doing.

"If I can't see her enter the True Fate Realm, I won't be at ease traveling down the mountain. I'll pay Junior Sister Liu a visit in a little while."

Cao Youqian walked briskly and soon arrived at the Merit Hall.

It was still early, and there weren't many people inside.

He entered the Merit Hall and found the deacon in charge of its various resources.

"Deacon Han, I'm planning to cultivate in the Thousand-Year Cold Pool for three months. May I ask if there are any cold pools available?"

As one of the cultivation holy lands on the Profound Heaven Continent, the Dao-Seeking Academy not only had excellent teachers but also every kind of cultivation facility.

When Deacon Han heard the words "Thousand-Year Cold Pool," he assumed Cao Youqian was a disciple of the Body Cultivation Institute.

After all, they were the ones who could use the Thousand-Year Cold Pool for cultivation. The other institutes rarely had any use for it.

"Are you an inner court or outer court disciple? How large a cold pool do you need?"

The disciples of the Dao-Seeking Academy's various institutes received different treatment.

Cao Youqian said, "I'm an outer court disciple. I need a ten-foot cold pool."

"A ten-foot cold pool costs ten merit points a day, so three months comes to nine hundred. First, take out your disciple token and let me see whether you have that many merit points."

Deacon Han spoke in a strictly businesslike manner.

Outer court disciples of the Dao-Seeking Academy could also take on missions. Of course, they were also given some merit points each month as cultivation resources.

Although the money Cao Youqian had on him had been taken away earlier, his merit points remained.

He placed his identity token directly on the table.

When Deacon Han saw the name on the identity token, his eyes went wide.

He stared in astonishment at the sturdily built, vigorous young man before him and asked, "Are you really Cao Youqian?"

In Deacon Han's memory, Cao Youqian was a profligate who usually came to the Merit Hall to buy and sell merit points.

Yet today he had come to cultivate, and in a place like the Thousand-Year Cold Pool at that.

Who would believe that if he told them?

Cao Youqian knew his appearance had changed drastically. Never mind people like these, who hadn't been close to him before.

Even those who used to spend time with him would have trouble recognizing him.

He smiled and said, "Deacon Han, do you think anyone would dare impersonate me?"

At those words, Deacon Han finally recognized the feeling.

That was it, that was it. This was how the great profligate Cao spoke.

Cao Youqian had been so polite just now that he had thought he had the wrong person.

"Martial Nephew Cao, how did you come to look like this?"

"Since when was it your place to concern yourself with my affairs? Hurry up and finish the formalities."

Cao Youqian also knew that speaking nicely to these fellows wouldn't work. Only when he acted this haughty and arrogant would they do things for him.

"Of course, of course."

Although Deacon Han had heard about what had happened to Cao Youqian at the Pill Dao Institute,

he didn't dare make things difficult for him. If the Profound Fire Pill King happened to remember this junior one day and took him back, he would be in serious trouble.

Soon, Deacon Han handed Cao Youqian a numbered token.

"Junior Brother Cao, this is your cold pool token. It's valid for three months."

"Mm."

Cao Youqian took the token, turned around, and left.

After exchanging some points for a few fasting pills, he flew toward the Thousand-Year Cold Pool.

The Dao-Seeking Academy's Thousand-Year Cold Pool was built atop a first-grade Yin vein.

The entire mountain gave off cold air all year round.

Besides the Thousand-Year Cold Pool, there were ice chambers and various other places where cultivators of ice and Yin attributes could train.

He glanced at his numbered token. His cold pool was number ninety-nine.

Small cold pools like this were all out in the open, with neither a pavilion nor a surrounding wall.

There was only a fence around it, and people at the other cold pools could see anyone cultivating there.

But now he didn't need to burst out of his clothes. He could cultivate inside wearing a blue robe and get the same effect.

When Cao Youqian arrived, only two body cultivators were cultivating in the several ten-foot cold pools nearby.

He didn't greet them, instead going straight into the cold pool assigned to him.

The instant he entered the water, Cao Youqian felt a bone-piercing chill. If he hadn't already completed fire and wood body tempering,

let alone staying in here for nine shichen, even two would have been difficult.

He now had experience with cultivation.

After entering the cold pool, he began circulating the Spiritual Qi in his body, using the cold pool to temper his body.

In the blink of an eye, half a month passed.

Cao Youqian's life followed a strict routine, no different from when he had been at the Miscellaneous Dao Institute.

But to other passersby, it was especially frightening.

Over the past few days,

a rumor had spread like wildfire through the Body Cultivation Institute's outer court.

"Have you heard? A cultivation maniac has appeared over at the Thousand-Year Cold Pool!"

"What's so surprising about that? Which one of us at the Body Cultivation Institute isn't a cultivation maniac?"

"That guy stayed in the Thousand-Year Cold Pool for fifteen days straight!"

"Holy shit, you're kidding, right?"

"..."

At first, everyone said the man was an inner court senior brother.

But someone soon stepped forward and said the cultivation maniac wasn't wearing inner court disciple robes at all.

Hearing this, everyone sucked in a breath of cold air.

It hadn't even been a year since the outer sect competition, so how was someone already cultivating so bitterly?

Quite a few people, curious, went to check on the cold pool every morning.

For seven or eight days in a row, they saw the bald man cultivating motionlessly in the cold pool.

Most startling of all, although a layer of white frost covered him, there wasn't the slightest trace of pain on his face.

A formidable man. This guy was definitely a formidable man.

After Senior Brother Jin Gang, our Body Cultivation Institute was going to produce another exceptionally formidable man!

News traveled fast in the Dao-Seeking Academy. At first, the Body Cultivation Institute's disciples discussed the matter, but within a few days, the news had spread throughout all seven institutes.

Apart from the powerhouses of each institute's outer court, the other young disciples all began paying attention to the formidable man cultivating in the cold pool.

The news soon reached Xiao Chen and Chu Feng.

Chu Feng heard it as an amusing bit of news and didn't pay it much mind.

Xiao Chen, meanwhile, was quietly happy for Junior Brother Cao.

That day, he found Chu Feng and said respectfully, "Master, I'm ready to go down the mountain to train."