Chapter 46: Qi Refinement Level Five

The entire cultivation room was just under four meters tall, with none of the faintly visible shimmering lights that adorned the sect's main hall. From the outside, it looked like an ordinary structure made of mud and wood.

The roof was also covered with dull gray tiles.

But as soon as Lin Xiao opened the door and took his first step inside, he knew that the initial spirit-gathering array and the few spirit stones he had put in were well worth it.

The moment he stepped inside, he felt a rush of dense spiritual energy pouring in from all directions!

In such an environment, drawing in spiritual energy would be at least a hundred times faster than outside!

Lin Xiao felt immensely pleased. Without wasting a moment, he didn't even check his mission rewards but immediately dashed to the grass hut.

He made a slight noise to break everyone's cultivation and, with a smile, said, "Come on, everyone, I'll take you to a great place for cultivation!"

With that, he lifted the grass hut's curtain and beckoned them to follow.

Everyone, curious but obedient, followed him.

When they saw the new structure in the distance, they were momentarily surprised but quickly calmed down, remembering the sect's main hall. After all, they had seen something like this before.

As they got closer, they noticed that this new building looked different from the main hall. It seemed to be just an ordinary house. However, it was definitely more refined than the houses in the village, with tightly packed mud bricks and neatly arranged walls.

When they arrived in front of the building, they examined it closely.

Indeed, it seemed like a simple house.

But before they could voice their confusion, Lin Xiao had already pushed the door open and eagerly gestured for everyone to go inside.

Still puzzled, they obediently stepped inside.

Wow!

The concentration of spiritual energy!

Seeing the rows of straw mats lining the room, everyone immediately understood. Without waiting for further instructions from Lin Xiao, they quickly found spots, sat down, and began their cultivation.

Seeing this, Lin Xiao felt a deep sense of satisfaction, like a proud father.

The cultivation room was a success!

Ah, in just one morning, he had expanded a large spiritual field and completed the cultivation room. He felt immensely accomplished.

Content and at peace, Lin Xiao basked in the spring sunshine and drifted off to sleep.

It wasn't until midday, when the smell of food woke him, that he stirred.

Turning around, he saw that Fuzhi and the others were heating lunch nearby.

Lin Xiao looked around and didn't see his brother, Lin Yun, who had probably already gone down the mountain.

He walked over to the fire where everyone was heating their dry food and found a spot to sit down.

"You guys are eating lunch without calling me."

Jiang Youfu replied, "Xiao, we saw you were sleeping deeply, probably tired from this morning, so we didn't want to wake you. We wanted to let you rest a bit more."

The others all agreed.

Seeing everyone eating dry food by the fire, Lin Xiao took out a sweet potato and a steamed bun from his own stash.

Sun Yigao then took out a lunchbox from his storage pouch. When he opened it, the box was filled with three dishes and a soup, and even though the food was cold, the aroma wafted through the air, tantalizing everyone's noses.

Sun Yigao placed the lone bowl of white rice on his lap, then generously placed the lunchbox in the middle of the group, inviting everyone, "Let's share this together."

Seeing his generosity, no one hesitated. With smiles and a word of thanks, they broke off tree branches to use as chopsticks, occasionally taking bites from the dishes in the lunchbox and mixing them with their own dry food, eating heartily.

This leisurely and content life of cultivation passed quickly, and five days soon flew by.

In Xiushui Village, many people speculated about Lin Xiao and the others going up the mountain every day. However, only their close family members, as well as the village head, Hu Clan Leader, and a few village elders who had witnessed immortals recruiting disciples thirty years ago, knew the truth.

But for some reason, aside from their closest kin, these elders didn't share their suspicions that Lin Xiao and the others might be cultivating. Those who knew kept quiet and didn't mention it to others.

Thus, most villagers merely speculated that the young men were going up the mountain to practice martial arts. They believed Lin Xiao, in particular, was exceptionally skilled—how else could he have easily crippled Liu Laoda's limbs?

As with all gossip, the truth was mixed with speculation, creating a blend of fact and fiction.

For Xiushui Village, today was an ordinary, quiet day.

But for Lin Xiao, it was a day of great excitement.

Two significant things happened early that morning, shortly after he had gone up the mountain.

The first was that he checked the Morus field, as he usually did, and to his delight, he discovered that the spirit silkworms had started spinning silk!

Some had even formed cocoons!

This revived Lin Xiao's hopes of creating sect uniforms, a goal he had almost given up on.

The second event happened shortly after his discovery of the silkworms, when a system notification suddenly sounded in his mind.

[Ding—Congratulations, disciple Sun Yigao has advanced to Qi Refinement Level Two. You may check his progress on the disciple panel.]

What?

Sun Yigao had reached the second level of Qi Refinement!

Lin Xiao immediately opened the disciple panel to check.

Sure enough!

[Name: Sun Yigao]

[Gender: Male]

[Bone Age: 15 years]

[Aptitude: One in a million]

[Cultivation: Qi Refinement Level Two]

[Sect Status: Direct Disciple (Changeable)]

[Sect Position: Teaching Elder (Changeable)]

As expected of someone with exceptional aptitude!

Though he wasn't the first to join the sect, he was the first among the disciples to advance to the second level of Qi Refinement.

And just yesterday and the day before, even the slower cultivators like Qin Jianghe and Hu Liang had reached the first level of Qi Refinement.

Now, every member of the Lingxian Sect had reached the Qi Refinement stage!

Lin Xiao believed that this rapid progress was half due to everyone's hard work and half due to the benefits of the cultivation room.

As the saying goes, "To do good work, one must first sharpen one's tools"—this was proving to be true.

Nowadays, Lin Xiao often joined everyone in the cultivation room, and the results were evident.

With his personal cultivation, his understanding of the cultivation techniques improved rapidly, and his cultivation level continued to rise.

He was now just a small step away from reaching the fifth level of Qi Refinement.

As Lin Xiao emerged from the silkworm field, preparing to head to the cultivation room to complete that final step, he saw Qin Jianghe approaching. Jianghe was supposed to be going to the home of the girl he had been matched with to deliver a formal gift today.

Looking distracted, Qin Jianghe walked right past Lin Xiao, not even noticing him, and headed straight for the cultivation room.

Seeing him like this, Lin Xiao worried that Jianghe might lose focus during cultivation and quickly grabbed his arm, asking, "Jianghe, what's wrong? Why do you look so down?"