Chapter 23: Third Layer of Qi Refining

Chapter 23: Third Layer of Qi Refining

"Heh, Junior Brother's black cat sure has a personality!" He Xiao laughed awkwardly and dared not try again, though deep down he was incredibly envious.

He was also a little puzzled: was the Marquis of Qinghe's Manor really so extravagant that even an illegitimate son could afford a spirit cat?

In this world, demons and monsters ran rampant, and spirit beasts were especially rare and precious — each one worth a fortune. Even many cultivators from orthodox sects rarely had spirit beasts by their side.

At that thought, the faint sense of superiority He Xiao had been nursing receded like a tide, leaving him feeling deflated.

He forced a few more words of small talk about amusing incidents at the Hall of Seeking Sons, then climbed into bed fully clothed and fell asleep.

That night, what Li Qingyun heard was not only snoring, but also He Xiao's lascivious laughter drifting out of his dreams.

"Sigh... I really need to find my own place eventually. Ideally something like Senior Sister Zhao's wooden cabin she built herself in the valley..."

The next day, He Xiao went back to the Hall of Seeking Sons to put in his hard work.

Meanwhile, Li Qingyun quietly cultivated a total of twelve furnaces of Dharma Power and, without drawing any attention, stepped into the second layer of the Qi Refining Stage.

At this level of cultivation, he could already seek out a senior in the temple to serve as a Dao master, take him as a disciple, receive their protection, and enjoy all manner of conveniences.

But Li Qingyun had no such intention — not for now.

In his heart, his impression of Lu Nanling was poor. He felt that taking a master required careful consideration; falling in with the wrong person would only invite karmic entanglement down the road.

Besides, even without taking a Dao master within the temple, once his cultivation reached the right level, he could bypass Lingbao Temple entirely and walk straight through the gates of the true Lingbao Sect.

Lingbao Temple, as it stood now, was nothing more than a temporary foothold on his long road of cultivation — not worth spending too much thought on.

Meditation, contemplation, practicing techniques, the dining hall...

Several days passed in succession. Under the blessing of the mysterious Dao Effigy, Li Qingyun's cultivation broke through to the third layer of the Qi Refining Stage.

This rate of progress was simply outrageous.

Concealed beneath his increasingly refined qi-suppression technique, he still appeared to be at the level of someone who had merely sensed qi.

But by this point, he had clearly hit a bottleneck. His cultivation stagnated at around thirty furnaces of Dharma Power and he could not break through no matter what.

Even in meditation, Dharma Power continued to be generated — but this newly born power was like mud dropped into the ocean. The moment it arose, it dispersed into the void within his body and could not flow into the Qi Sea's Treasure Furnace.

Lacking the cultivation techniques for the fourth layer of the Qi Refining Stage and beyond, Li Qingyun could only focus on comprehending the qi-suppression technique and the Thunder Seal.

By now, Li Qingyun could wield the Thunder Seal with a certain ease — a sense that wherever his seal moved, thunder would follow.

He was urgently in need of money. He craved wealth like a man dying of thirst.

Over the past few days, the big black cat had been sleeping by day and prowling by night — sometimes dragging back a small bottle of Minor Herb Pills, other times bringing him a ghost-suppressing talisman.

Its injuries had mostly healed, and the great cat lord was once again strutting about with its old swagger.

The back mountain was in for some trouble. With this new "menace" added to the mix, disciples who failed to keep their belongings properly secured would soon find things vanishing before their eyes — and that would become the norm.

Li Qingyun felt somewhat helpless. He had warned Yuanbao many times about this "wealth-gathering instinct," but the spirit cat truly had its own proud and willful temperament — it did whatever it pleased regardless.

All he could do was speak earnestly and remind Yuanbao to be clever about it: stay away from the residences and important areas of powerful figures on the back mountain, and whatever it did, don't get caught.

As for the rest — let the little troublemaker do as it wished.

After all, he was a laid-back cat owner...

On the fifth day after returning from the wooden cabin in the valley, when Li Qingyun went to the dining hall for a meal, he found it unusually lively.

The dining hall, which normally never filled up with its constant stream of disciples coming and going, was today nearly packed to capacity, buzzing with noise and laughter.

It was the first time he laid eyes on the person Zhao Yifan had mentioned — Gu Zijian, the "Great Wealthy Gu" that people had been talking about for days. And indeed, the man was generous to a fault, magnificently so.

"Fellow Senior and Junior Brothers, everything in the dining hall today — including the Spirit Rice Porridge — is on me. Eat to your hearts' content!"

The so-called Great Wealthy Gu stood at the center of a crowd of admiring disciples, radiating confidence and high spirits. With the spiritual light of magical artifacts gleaming all over him, he was undeniably the most dazzling figure in the entire dining hall.

"Many thanks, Senior Brother Gu! Senior Brother is mighty and magnificent!"

"Senior Brother descended the mountain this time to subdue a demon — a ferocious corpse-eating rat of the fierce grade, no less — and slew it successfully! Now he returns in triumph, having earned the highest praise from Keeper Lu and several other Dao masters. Let us all raise a toast to Senior Brother Gu!"

"Thanks to Senior Brother Gu's generosity, I can finally have two bowls of Spirit Rice Porridge..."

Amid the chorus of praise from the disciples, the stocky, somewhat rugged-looking Gu Zijian repeatedly returned the gestures with a smile and a cupped-fist salute. Despite his wealth, he was remarkably approachable, without a trace of arrogance.

"Third layer of the Qi Refining Stage, and his Daoist robe, hairpin, and silk shoes are all magical artifacts — this Gu Zijian must be the legendary loaded disciple everyone talks about."

Li Qingyun observed Gu Zijian from a distance through the crowd.

He found the man quite forthright and easy-going, and with such an open-handed nature, it was no wonder he was so well-liked among the back mountain disciples.

He squeezed his way toward the spiritual food counter in the dining hall and, with a stroke of luck, snagged the last piece of spirit beast meat.

Free food truly was the best food.

He sat down and finished it in a few bites, still wanting more.

Once the spirit beast meat settled in his stomach, it swiftly transformed into a warm current that nourished his body, and his Dharma Power seemed to subtly increase by a thread as well.

"What a fine thing — shame it's so expensive. A small piece like this normally costs one Spirit Stone!"

After finishing his meal, Li Qingyun made his way over toward Gu Zijian and called out his thanks from beyond the crowd.

"Thank you for your generosity, Senior Brother. May your path of cultivation be fruitful and your future be brilliant!"

Gu Zijian nodded and smiled in response. He found this unfamiliar junior brother rather sweet-tongued, and gave him an extra glance as if to commit his face to memory, before turning back to chat and laugh with the elite disciples around him.

"Back in Qinghe County, I had a reputation as a charitable young gentleman — but this Senior Brother Gu is even more open-handed than I ever was..."

With that thought, Li Qingyun walked out of the dining hall and headed back toward his bamboo quarters.

"You're Li Qingyun, aren't you? Hold on!"

A voice from behind stopped him.

Li Qingyun turned to look and saw a middle-aged Daoist with an unfamiliar face — someone he had never seen before.

The middle-aged Daoist had an ordinary appearance but an overbearing manner. A scar ran close to the corner of his left eye, and his gaze was sharp as a hawk's. Judging by the surging aura of Dharma Power emanating from him, he was clearly one of Lingbao Temple's elite disciples.

Several disciples walking out of the dining hall caught sight of the middle-aged scarred Daoist and immediately stiffened in surprise, bowed respectfully, then hurried away.

"I wonder what guidance this Senior Brother has for me?"

Li Qingyun felt a faint stir in his heart, then composed himself and asked with a polite bow.

The middle-aged scarred Daoist looked sideways at Li Qingyun, whose Dharma Power aura was nearly imperceptible, tilted his chin upward, and said with a smile that didn't reach his eyes: "My name is Cui Xinghuo. We're both under Keeper Lu, so you ought to call me Senior Brother Cui."

The moment he heard the man's name, Li Qingyun's expression shifted ever so slightly.

He felt the shadow of the Cui Clan closing in around him once more.

With the surname Cui and that confrontational attitude, Li Qingyun immediately connected him to the Cui Clan.

Sure enough, the scarred Daoist Cui Xinghuo spoke with undisguised contempt: "Someone has asked me to keep an eye on you here in the temple. But a worthless piece of trash like you — with no Dao Bone and no Spiritual Root — should count yourself lucky just to be surviving in this place."

"Oh, I almost forgot the real business. You've been in the temple for some time now, yet you show no respect for your elders — what kind of conduct is that? My elder sister wrote to instruct me: you are to write a letter home within the next two days, so the family doesn't have to worry about you..."

Cui Xinghuo barked in a commanding tone, his manner domineering and imperious.

It was plain to see he was accustomed to ordering people about, and clearly held some degree of authority within Lingbao Temple.

Li Qingyun's handsome face turned faintly cold. He was about to retort, but the words died on his lips before they could form.

There was no point in bickering with a petty person like this right now. Once he had Divine Abilities to his name, all of this would be nothing but dust in the wind.

His eyes carried a thread of cold intent as he held Cui Xinghuo's gaze for a long moment, then gave a single nod and turned to leave.

"Still got a bit of a temper! A worthless bastard son — without the family's support, let's see how long you can keep that stubbornness up in this temple!"

Cui Xinghuo snorted coldly through his nose, then clasped his hands behind his back and walked away.

What he did not see was the flash of thunderous, razor-sharp light that flickered in Li Qingyun's eyes as he turned away.

"The Cui Clan of Hejian — truly insufferable."

Li Qingyun had not expected the Cui Clan of Hejian to have such a long reach, with members even inside Lingbao Temple.

After all, Lingbao Temple on Maple Mountain was nearly a thousand li from the Cui family's home in Hejian.

That Cui Xinghuo appeared to be no young man, and his cultivation was somewhat difficult to see through — likely at the third layer of the Qi Refining Stage or above. Given his age and cultivation level, he had clearly been a disciple of Lingbao Temple for a long time and had carved out a name for himself within it.

For now, a direct confrontation was inadvisable. Best to find an opportunity and eliminate him quietly, without drawing attention.

"Even within the Daoist temple, the Cui Clan presses down on me, disturbing my Dao heart — this truly is an unpleasant feeling. But you want to know the state of my cultivation and the Soul-Devouring Gu inside me... and I, for my part, am only too happy to use this to lull you into complacency, you venomous woman..."