Sun Yigao

Lin Xiao took the freshly made "Purification Technique" out of his private storehouse.

He flipped through it.

Well, well!

Delight burst from Lin Xiao's eyes.

It was much better than he had imagined!

The Purification Technique was a progressive Law Technique.

It had five tiers in all.

The first tier was the Dust Removal Technique. As its name suggested, it removed surface dust and impurities of that level.

The second tier was the Qi Purification Technique, which could purify filthy Qi and refine "Qi," such as Spiritual Qi and human Qi.

The third-tier Heart Purification Technique could purify the mind and the Sea of Consciousness.

The fourth-tier Scouring Technique could scour a person or an object. In other words, as long as he had enough Spiritual Qi, he could even bleach a cultivator who didn't cultivate Spiritual Qi into one who did.

The fifth-tier Elimination Technique eliminated: destroyed, cleansed, and erased.

[Ding-this system has detected that its host is currently the master of a sect and cannot be in two places at once. The host has therefore been granted a special privilege for cultivating Law Techniques: from this day forth, the host will be considered to have learned all Law Techniques he creates by default, saving the host time. This system hopes the host will grow the sect into a great and powerful one as soon as possible and not disappoint its expectations.]

The sudden good news made Lin Xiao very happy. Then he asked the system:

"Can't you waive the cultivation requirement for cultivation methods too?"

[Ding-because cultivation methods are directly linked to the host's cultivation and Dao heart, both time and State of Mind are required to temper them before the host can prove his Dao in the future. If the host chooses to give up ascending to immortality in the future, the system can unlock advancement without cultivation for the host. Reaching Golden Core overnight will no longer be a dream.]

[Does the host wish to give up attaining immortality and unlock the function for advancement without cultivation?]

Heh.

Lin Xiao decisively chose no.

He could cultivate on auto anyway.

There was no need to give up such a wonderful chance to attain immortality for the likes of Golden Core or Nascent Soul.

No need, no need.

Auto cultivation was better. Wasn't it just a matter of spending a few Spirit Stones?

Besides, when he had time to ponder his cultivation method, he could greatly increase his cultivation progress.

Now that he had a Law Technique, Lin Xiao was like a child who had received a new toy.

He stood up and cast a Dust Removal Technique on the grass mat he had just been sitting on.

In the blink of an eye, the grass mat, which had only recently been made, looked brand-new again.

Even the sun-dried yellow wheat stalks took on a sheen.

As for Lin Xiao, he couldn't feel any decrease at all in the Spiritual Power in his Dantian.

He didn't know whether the Dust Removal Technique simply consumed very little Spiritual Power, or whether he already possessed quite a lot despite being only at the Qi Refinement Second Layer.

If only Fuzi could use Law Techniques too. Then he would have something to compare against.

After looking at the second-tier Qi Purification Technique, Lin Xiao didn't try it.

One reason was that he had no target to cast it on.

The other was safety.

In theory, the current Lin Xiao could use all five tiers of the Purification Technique.

As long as he had enough Spiritual Power in his body.

But in practice, there was also the issue of the size of his output channel.

The instantaneous Spiritual Power output required by each tier of the Purification Technique was on an entirely different scale.

He was only at the Qi Refinement Second Layer. Even if he had enough Spiritual Power in his body, if he rashly used a high-tier Purification Technique, the sudden excessive output of Spiritual Power could very well burst his meridians.

So, although he really wanted to try the later Law Techniques,

Lin Xiao refrained.

When cultivating immortality, it was best to play it safe.

It was nearly noon.

Jiang Youfu came out of the grass shelter, holding his belly.

"Brother Xiao, is it lunchtime yet? I'm so hungry."

Lin Xiao raised his head, saw the great sun hanging directly overhead, and nodded as he got up.

"Come on, let's go catch some shrimp today."

At the mention of catching shrimp, Jiang Youfu's eyes lit up.

He wasn't bragging, but no one in the whole village was as good at catching shrimp as his Brother Xiao!

Others couldn't catch as many shrimp in most of a day as his Brother Xiao could in half an hour!

Though the shrimp weren't plump in spring, they still tasted wonderful. Jiang Youfu immediately tucked away some dry rations and followed Lin Xiao down the mountain.

A stream ran alongside Xiushui Village.

The villagers called it Mountain Stream.

That was because it flowed out of the mountain range to the north.

Mountain Stream wound around half of Xiushui Village, so its people all felt that their village was embraced by mountains and encircled by water, with excellent feng shui. Whenever they went to market and shot the breeze with people from neighboring villages, they liked to show off their village's terrain to feel a little superior.

When Jiang Youfu and Lin Xiao reached a spot along Mountain Stream where fish and shrimp gathered, they squatted down and splashed several handfuls of water onto their faces as a quick wash.

Jiang Youfu sprawled contentedly on the tender green grass.

"Cultivate a little, catch some fish and shrimp, and have a fine meal in this lovely weather. Brother Xiao, I think a life like this would be plenty good enough for me~"

Lin Xiao got up and prepared to catch shrimp. Hearing that, he broke into a smile and said:

"I think so too."

Jiang Youfu lay there watching Lin Xiao and sighed silently to himself:

My Brother Xiao is so handsome, and he's even more handsome when he smiles. No wonder everyone in the village likes him, from seventy-year-old grannies to three-year-old girls.

If only someday I could be three-tenths-no, two-tenths as handsome as Brother Xiao...

Then Jiang Youfu turned his head and saw his own protruding belly.

After a pause, he silently looked away again.

He turned to gaze downstream, then suddenly sat up as though he had spotted something unusual and nudged Lin Xiao, who was concentrating on catching shrimp beside him, with his elbow.

Without looking up, Lin Xiao said, "What is it?"

Jiang Youfu pointed into the distance downstream.

"Brother Xiao, look! Isn't that Sun Yigao, who vowed to shut himself at home and study hard for ten years? He actually came out to fetch water. Did the sun rise in the west today?"

Lin Xiao glanced up briefly, took in a rough outline of the person, then lowered his head and went back to concentrating on catching shrimp.

"Can't he care about how hard his family works and come out to fetch some water?"

Jiang Youfu said, "Oh, come on, that's not it. Am I that kind of person? Brother Xiao, you don't know what Sun Yigao's mother is like. Their house is behind mine. Let me tell you, that auntie is something else. Tietou and the others and I once went looking for Sun Yigao to play, and Auntie Sun chased us right out, telling us not to disturb her son while he was reading.

"Normally, never mind fetching water, they won't even let Sun Yigao touch a broom or a rag at home. Once, Uncle Sun told Sun Yigao to buy some meat from Hunter Yang's house, and Auntie Sun made a fuss with Uncle Sun over it all day. I could hear every word clearly from my house."

Lin Xiao treated it as a bit of gossip and said casually:

"To spoil a child is to harm a child."

Jiang Youfu nodded repeatedly.

"Exactly. My mother says Sun Yigao is a good kid, but Auntie Sun will ruin him by raising him like that. Luckily, Uncle Sun isn't muddleheaded, but even he can't stand Auntie Sun arguing with him over these things all day, so he usually just pretends not to see and only gives Sun Yigao a few words of guidance in private.

"I just don't know what's going on today. The Sun Household actually has Sun Yigao out fetching water."

Hearing Jiang Youfu say that, Lin Xiao raised his head again and looked downstream.

Now that he was at the Qi Refinement Second Layer, his eyesight was excellent.

Downstream, a boy who looked about fifteen or sixteen and wore a long robe had his sleeves rolled up and was drawing water from the stream with a wooden bucket, his movements very unpracticed.