"Cloud Soaring Technique"

At the spot closest to the spirit ship, a man in a dark blue official's robe bowed to it and called out:

"Respectfully seeing the immortal off-"

Lin Xiao guessed that the man was probably the county magistrate.

Had he come all the way from the county seat to the town to see the immortal off?

The people standing behind the magistrate followed his lead, bending into deep bows toward the spirit ship and saying respectfully:

"Respectfully seeing the immortal off-"

The middle-aged man standing at the bow of the spirit ship stared straight ahead, without sparing so much as a glance for the officials below. He gave an almost imperceptible nod, then raised one hand and called out:

"Depart-"

On the ground, everyone, whether standing or prostrate, craned their heads up at the spirit ship and saw it suddenly begin to move, flying slowly forward.

Lin Xiao had expected to see the spirit ship rise into the clouds and speed away. Instead, he watched it hover about twenty meters above the ground. Rather than continuing to rise, it flew straight ahead at a steady speed of roughly two meters per second.

And he didn't know if it was just his imagination, but the spirit ship somehow looked as though it was struggling.

Still, that did nothing to diminish Lin Xiao's longing to fly.

As the crowd dispersed, Lin Xiao hurried back to the village and returned to the sect.

He wanted to try creating a Law Technique that would let him fly!

Sitting alone in the sect's main hall, Lin Xiao opened the Law Technique Creation Function and, with practiced ease, placed paper mulberry bark and pine soot ink in the first two slots.

As before, he put a Spirit Stone in the third slot.

In the fourth slot, he began entering his concept for the Law Technique.

This time, Lin Xiao wanted a Law Technique that would let him fly through the air.

So, over the thirty seconds, he ran through every scene of cultivation flight he could think of.

Of course, thirty seconds wasn't enough to get through them all, but Lin Xiao wasn't obsessive about that.

Maybe the Law Technique would turn out even better without all of them?

He never insisted on absolute perfection.

[Ding-Beginning Law Technique creation. Please wait.]

[Law Technique created successfully and delivered to the private storage. Host, please check and collect it.]

As soon as he heard the system notification, Lin Xiao eagerly opened his private storage.

There was now a manual called "Cloud Soaring Technique" inside.

Lin Xiao silently grumbled to himself, I wonder if my brother will feel awkward when he sees this Law Technique?

But that wasn't important.

The system had granted Lin Xiao a passive ability to learn every Law Technique he created, so he had fully mastered it the instant it was generated.

The "Cloud Soaring Technique" was divided into three tiers:

First tier: the Air-Stepping Technique. Using it allowed one to walk through the air and linger there with each step; the length of time depended on one's cultivation.

Second tier: the Soaring Flight Technique. It could form a pair of Spiritual Power wings for flight. Their size depended on the amount of Spiritual Power, but within that limit, one could control their size.

Third tier: the Cloud Soaring Technique. It allowed one to truly ride the clouds and command the mists, freely traveling through the air as in the legends.

The first-tier Air-Stepping Technique could be cultivated and used at the Qi Refining Stage.

The lower one's cultivation, however, the less time one could remain aloft. If it was too low, one might step into the air for nothing at all.

But with Lin Xiao's current cultivation at the Qi Refining Fifth Layer, staying aloft for about a second with each step was no problem.

Lin Xiao was so happy to get this Law Technique that he wanted to grab his father and lift him high in the air!

Never mind that, with his current cultivation, he certainly couldn't use the Law Techniques in the second and third tiers. Just look at the first tier!

The Air-Stepping Technique!

Lin Xiao was already perfectly satisfied.

From now on, when picking fruit from trees, would he still have to worry about how to reach the fruit at the top?

He could just step through the air and strip the fruit trees bald!

Full of enthusiasm, he immediately began trying it out in the sect's main hall.

Lin Xiao sprang lightly upward and gently planted his right foot in the empty air before him. It felt as though he had stepped onto a stair: the sensation of weightlessness vanished, replaced by the solid feeling of having his foot on firm ground.

But that only lasted for barely a second.

The next instant, Lin Xiao felt emptiness beneath his foot, and the sensation of weightlessness struck him at once.

He hurriedly stepped out with his other foot.

Once he had grown used to the rhythm, Lin Xiao strolled through the air inside the sect's main hall as though walking on level ground.

If someone had come in just then, they would have seen the bizarre sight of a youth happily walking in circles through the air around the hall.

Unfortunately,

Jiang Youfu was the first unlucky soul.

"Ah-" Jiang Youfu, who had reached the open entrance to the sect's main hall, jumped in fright at the sight inside.

Though he had been a Qi Refining First Layer cultivator for more than ten days, he didn't think he was any different from an ordinary person.

Oh, except that he could clean his teeth.

So no one could blame him for being startled. After all, nothing like this had existed in his understanding of the world for the past twelve years.

"B-Brother Xiao...?"

Seeing Jiang Youfu frightened outside the door, Lin Xiao hurriedly walked down through the air to him and teased him with a smile:

"Look how scared you are! We're all going to cultivate immortality from now on. We'll only run into more strange and unusual things, so you'd better be ready, Fuzi~"

Only when Jiang Youfu saw him land firmly on the ground in front of him did his little heart finally settle. Hearing Lin Xiao's words, he blinked and asked:

"Brother Xiao, is this a Law Technique too?"

Lin Xiao nodded:

"Of course! It's a Law Technique I just created. It lets you walk through the air! Well? Isn't it impressive? Want to learn it?"

Jiang Youfu's eyes lit up, and he immediately nodded so hard his cheeks flapped:

"Yes, yes, yes! Brother Xiao, you're amazing! You can even make such an incredible Law Technique!"

Lin Xiao, who had a cheat, rubbed his nose, a little embarrassed:

"By the way, why did you suddenly run over here instead of cultivating properly in the cultivation room?"

"Oh, right!" Jiang Youfu slapped his forehead. "Brother Xiao, Tuzi's mother and younger sister came up the mountain. It looks like they came to see you about something, so Tuzi sent me to call you over."

Lin Xiao recalled that the sect's defensive function was always active, so Tuzi's mother and younger sister couldn't get in.

He nodded:

"All right, let's go over there."

With that, the two headed for the entrance to the mountain path.

They moved quickly and soon arrived at the entrance.

Under the Ten-Li Peach Blossom Tree, Widow Liu and Liu Shengsheng seemed to have been stopped by something outside and couldn't take another step forward.

Liu Yunan stood beside them, speaking softly to them.

Lin Xiao didn't listen. He went straight up to the three of them and greeted Widow Liu:

"Hello, Auntie Liu."

Widow Liu hurriedly smiled and said:

"Hello to you too, Brother Xiao. Thanks to the money you gave Nan'er before, Sheng'er was able to get treatment for her illness. I've been busy lately and haven't had time to thank you."

It wasn't that she was busy at all. Lin Xiao was simply like a divine dragon whose head could be seen but whose tail was always hidden: he was never home during the day, and at night it wasn't proper for Widow Liu, a woman living alone, to visit his house.