Cultivation Begins with Daily Intelligence Reports

101: Qi Refining Level 4Underground secret room.

Lin Jingyu carefully cleaned up the leftover ash and discarded medicinal dregs from the Alchemy process on the floor.

He glanced at the worn-out Pill Furnace in the corner that had served him so well.

Under the continuous scorching heat and the scouring of Spiritual Qi, the furnace walls had already begun to show obvious deformation and warping.

The lid could no longer even close tightly; its edges were tilted, revealing an ugly gap.

”Sigh, it’s been hard on you, old friend.” Lin Jingyu patted the furnace wall helplessly, producing a dull clank.

”A pity, but ordinary iron ultimately cannot withstand the long-term refining of Spiritual Qi. It’s only a semi-Magical Artifact; after so much of my forceful Alchemy, it’s already impressive that it held on this long.”

He sighed and tossed this ”hero” that had accompanied him through his first Alchemy session into the corner.

Without a handy Magical Artifact Pill Furnace, wanting to become a true Trainee Alchemist would ultimately be nothing but a pipe dream.

Once the Family’s affairs were settled, he would still need to get a proper Pill Furnace.

His gaze turned to the two treasures in the corner—the Six-Tailed Foxtail Grass and the Three-Chambered lantern fruit.

The six ”tails” atop the foxtail grass were full and fluffy, shimmering with a strange glimmer under the night-luminescent pearl.

Lin Jingyu walked over and cautiously plucked a dozen plump, round seeds, like miniature emeralds, from one of the ”tails.”

The seeds felt slightly warm in his hand, containing surging Spiritual Qi and a hint of peculiar vitality.

”I’m counting on you, brother!”

He weighed the seeds in his hand, his eyes burning with intensity.

The Spiritual Qi content of these seeds was even more abundant than a qi gathering pill, making them perfect for him to Cultivate.

Sitting cross-legged back on the prayer mat, he took out a seed and tossed it into his mouth.

Buzz!

The seed melted as soon as it entered his stomach, instantly releasing a massive amount of pure and gentle wood-attribute Spiritual Qi. Like a spring rain, it immediately filled his entire body!

It was dozens of times faster than absorbing the thin Spiritual Qi from heaven and earth!

The Evergreen Art began to operate at high speed on its own!

With the support of his terrifying Mental Energy from ”Mind Dividing into Three Uses,” the Cultivation Technique’s circulation path was nearly perfect!

Every strand of Spiritual Qi was precisely guided and efficiently refined, with almost no waste at all!

This efficiency was a world of difference compared to before his Mental Energy had manifested!

At the same time, another part of his mind sank into his Sea of Consciousness and began to operate the Spirit Refining Art.

Above the Sea of Consciousness, the two Secret Technique Blades condensed from pure Mental Energy floated quietly.

As he operated the technique, invisible, strange ripples like water waves radiated from the blades.

The ripples swept across the three clear lakes of Mental Energy below, triggering a resonance that fed back into and nourished the blades, forming a profound cycle.

Time passed in silence.

At a certain moment, when another new, softer, and more delicate ripple was successfully produced—

This newborn ripple fell silently like spring rain onto the ”surface” of the three mental lakes.

It didn’t stir up any giant waves, yet in the smallest details, it extremely slowly but continuously increased the total volume of the ”lake water”!

The third type of ripple was even more detailed and dense than the previous ones.

Spirit Refining Art First Layer Middle Stage—success!

Lin Jingyu understood clearly.

The ”ripples” of the Secret Technique Blades were both the means to eventually condense into blades to cut Mental Energy and the method to temper and increase Mental Energy!

The higher the level, the more types and the more profound the ripples mastered, the stronger the tempering and growth effects on Mental Energy.

Reaching the Major Achievement of the first layer required mastering five types of ripples.

The Major Achievement Realm required mastering five types of ripples.

Lin Jingyu understood why it was said to be best to Cultivate to Major Achievement before splitting Mental Energy; a blade composed of five types of ripples would be much sharper than one with only two.

He was essentially putting the cart before the horse.

He first used the secret technique to condense ripple blades to split his Mental Energy, and then continued to Cultivate the remaining ripples.

It was lucky his Mental Energy was clear; otherwise, it would have been impossible to succeed.

To reach true Perfection, he had to integrate the essence of these five types of ripples bit by bit into the Saber Intent of those two Secret Technique Blades.

The road ahead was still long.

Time flew by, and in his deep Cultivation, he lost all sense of time.

When Lin Jingyu opened his eyes again, the underground secret room was still dark, but his bodily sensations told him it was already morning outside.

He slowly exhaled a long breath of turbid air.

That breath was as condensed as an arrow, leaving a clear white mark in the air that lingered for a long time.

A sharp light flashed in his eyes before vanishing, becoming deep and restrained.

He lightly clenched his fist.

Crackle!

His muscles and bones rang out in unison, popping like roasting beans!

An aura far stronger, more condensed, and full of vitality than before naturally radiated from his body, filling the entire secret room!

Qi Refining Fourth Layer!

Success!

The dozen or so seeds containing pure Spiritual Qi were completely refined, finally helping him break through the barrier from the Qi Refining Third Layer to the Fourth Layer in one go!

In just a few days, he had broken through two layers in a row!

This speed was enough to make anyone’s jaw drop if word got out.

Actually, thinking about it, it wasn’t too abnormal.

After all, he was already at the limit of the Qi Refining Second Layer before.

However, if noticed by someone with ill intentions, it would still cause quite a bit of trouble.

Lin Jingyu felt the surging power within his body, but his eyes remained calm.

”It’s fast, but my Foundation is still very solid. With powerful Mental Energy to check for gaps and fix leaks, there won’t be any issues like Qi Deviation or an unstable Foundation.”

”However... a tall tree attracts the wind; I still need to hide it a bit.”

With a slight thought, the aura belonging to the Qi Refining Fourth Layer instantly retracted, returning to the appearance of the Qi Refining Third Layer, unremarkable.

He pushed open the heavy stone door at the top of the secret room.

A cool breeze carrying the scent of morning dew rushed in, dispelling the stuffiness of the underground.

Outside, the sky was just beginning to brighten.

The rising sun bathed the small courtyard in soft golden light; on the green leaves of the vegetable patch, translucent dewdrops rolled, refracting rainbow-colored light.

Lin Jingyu stretched comfortably, his entire skeleton making slight popping sounds.

”In the mountains, there is no calendar; when the cold ends, one knows not the year... the ancients truly did not deceive me!” he remarked with emotion.

Just a casual session of secluded Cultivation, and a night had passed.

It seems the legends of those great experts sitting for a hundred years aren’t false either.

He strolled to the entrance of the courtyard.

He saw Lin Lingkuang leading several other Lin Family Cultivators, also looking weary, patrolling back and forth at the entrance.

Lin Lingkuang’s eyes were bloodshot from staying up, and his face was somewhat pale; clearly, his injuries hadn’t healed, and he hadn’t slept all night.

”Uncle Lingkuang!” Lin Jingyu greeted him quickly. ”Go back and rest first. You’ve been tired all night. Those precious darlings in the Family pigsty are still waiting for you to feed them!”

Lin Lingkuang turned around and saw it was Lin Jingyu; only then did his tense nerves relax slightly.

He instinctively spat fiercely toward the ancestral hall, which aggravated his chest injury, causing him to grimace in pain. Yet he still held his head high with a look of being ready to face death:

”Cough! Those pigs are nothing; if they starve to death, it’s just an extra meal! That bunch with the Grand Elder have hearts blacker than ink! And they’re extremely petty.

You scolded him at the clan meeting and now you’ve even crippled Lin Lingming—this grudge is massive! You think they can swallow this? They’re probably brewing some wicked scheme right now!”