53: Closed door hanging up

Accompanying this silent declaration in his heart, Lin Ye slowly closed the heavy stone door once more.

Lin Ye's heart held no trace of wild joy or excitement; instead, it was filled with calmness and resolve.

Su Qingyue's words had given him the clearest, yet most brutal, understanding of this brand new world within the Inner Sect.

Here, there was no sympathy, no room for luck.

Everything had to be fought for and seized through strength!

“contribution points...”

Lin Ye silently chewed on this term.

He knew that this would be his fundamental basis for establishing himself in the Inner Sect in the future!

He wasted no more time, sitting cross-legged back on the cold stone bed, and with a thought, opened the System Shop. The first thing he considered was disguise.

“Although with my powerful Physical Body control, I can temporarily simulate the effect of concealing my aura, this is ultimately an active effort, not only consuming mental energy but also impossible to maintain continuously in an unconscious state,” Lin Ye analyzed calmly, “The Inner Sect is full of experts, hidden Dragons and crouching tigers. I must be well-disguised! This is the fundamental guarantee for me to pretend to be a pig to eat the tiger!”

Having understood this, he unhesitatingly allocated fifty contribution points from his ample supply, exchanging them for a basic, yet currently most needed, auxiliary secret technique—the Breath Concealment Art.

Immediately, he opened the backend task list, looking at the Iron Sand Palm, Golden Bell Shield, and Aura Simulation currently running, a hint of ambition flashing in his eyes.

“From today onwards, full throttle!”

He added the Wind Control Art, Wind Chasing Sword Technique, which he had exchanged earlier, and the newly acquired Breath Concealment Art, to the backend idle list!

...Time, like sand through fingers, quietly slipped away.

In the blink of an eye, a month had passed.

During this month, Lin Ye completely vanished from everyone's sight.

He did not, like other newly promoted Disciples, rush to build connections or familiarize himself with various Sect locations. He was like a true Cultivator, completely secluding himself in that desolate, forgotten Ninth-Grade Immortal Cave, not stepping out of his door.

Stories about him gradually faded, diluted by the endless stream of new happenings in the Inner Sect.

However, no one knew what kind of magnificent and crazy transformation was hidden beneath this deathly calm!

Inside the Immortal Cave, Lin Ye sat cross-legged, like a stone statue.

In the depths of his consciousness, the light blue System panel was faithfully operating all his hopes at a constant speed. The results of a month of arduous Cultivation were clearly displayed before him.

【Golden Bell Shield, Proficiency: 325/1000 (Third Layer, Bone Forging)】

【Iron Sand Palm, Proficiency: 420/500 (Minor Achievement)】

【Wind Control Art, Proficiency: 280/1000 (Introduction)】

【Wind Chasing Sword Technique, Proficiency: 280/1000 (Introduction)】

【Aura Simulation, Proficiency: 350/1000 (Introduction)】

【Breath Concealment Art, Proficiency: 800/1000 (Minor Achievement)】

Looking at this data, Lin Ye fell into contemplation. “Indeed, simultaneously idling six Cultivation Techniques yields different progress.”

He quickly analyzed the pattern: “A purely auxiliary secret technique like the Breath Concealment Art seems to be most compatible with the System, Cultivating the fastest, and has already reached Minor Achievement. The Wind Control Art and Wind Chasing Sword Technique are Profound Rank Cultivation Techniques. Although they have the bonus of the Inner Sect's Spiritual Qi, their grade is high after all, and they have only barely reached Introduction in a month. Mortal Rank Cultivation Techniques like the Iron Sand Palm and Golden Bell Shield seem to have reached a Bottleneck; without more resource assistance, their proficiency increases most slowly. It seems that multi-threaded idling also requires a strategic choice of priorities, and resources are the key to improving efficiency!”

This discovery filled him with anticipation for the monthly allotment he was about to receive.

On this day, as the first ray of morning sunlight streamed through the tiny ventilation holes at the top of the Immortal Cave, casting a faint pillar of light, Lin Ye finally slowly opened his eyes.

Today was the day for Inner Sect Disciples to collect their monthly Cultivation resources.

He slowly exhaled a mouthful of turbid Qi, which was long and drawn-out, actually pulling a faint white line in the air that lingered for a long time.

“It's time to go out.”

He stood up and stretched his limbs, and all the joints in his body immediately let out a crisp crackling sound like popping beans!

He pushed open the heavy stone door, and for the first time in a month, walked out of his Immortal Cave...