109: Chapter 109 Half a Year

Life returned to stability, and Lin Qing completely settled his mind, transforming into a Disciple dedicated to learning.

Every day, he would go to the Lecture Hall to attend classes, and the skills he studied were no longer limited to just the Dao of Formation.

Medicinal Pills, Artifact Refining, Talismans, Spiritual Plant cultivation, Yao Beast taming... he dabbled in every skill related to the Cultivation System.

The path of Cultivation is never just about increasing one's Realm; Spells, Alchemy, Artifact Refining, and Formations complement each other. The more skills one masters, the more confidence one will have when traveling outside in the future.

The difficulty of Alchemy, in particular, was somewhat beyond his expectations.

Before this, he had always felt that Alchemy was nothing more than cooking; as long as one controlled the timing and heat well, and added the corresponding Spiritual Plants in order, one could successfully form a Medicinal Pill.

However, after experiencing it himself, he realized just how rigorous this skill was.

For the same type of Spiritual Plant, even if the variety is identical, the shape and size can differ. When refining, one must adjust the strength of the Pill Furnace's heat and the angle of the flames flexibly according to the appearance of the Spiritual Plant.

Even if one manually cuts the Spiritual Plant into uniform pieces, the density of the medicinal properties within the different textures of the plant still varies, so one cannot simply follow the book rigidly.

Not to mention the age. Setting aside a difference of several years, for some Spiritual Plants, even a difference of just a few days requires adjustments in the control of heat during smelting.

Even for Spiritual Plants with the exact same age, the medicinal properties nurtured can vary significantly due to differences in the soil, sunlight, and Spiritual Qi environment in which they grew.

All these intricate and complex conditions are intertwined; if one link goes wrong, the entire furnace is ruined.

The complexity of the Dao of Alchemy far exceeded his previous imagination and caused many Disciples who tried to achieve financial freedom through Alchemy to lose everything.

But what did Lin Qing have?

Lin Qing had the System!

After verification, the System could also play a role in Cultivation skills such as Alchemy, Artifact Refining, Formations, and Talismans.

By repeatedly refining the same Medicinal Pill, he could accumulate proficiency in that specific Medicinal Pill.

And after maxing out the proficiency of various Medicinal Pills of the same rank, he could still trigger the System's completion mechanism to achieve the effect of gaining insights into other areas.

The same situation applied to skills like Formations, Artifact Refining, and Talismans.

To maximize learning efficiency, Lin Qing continued to use the strategy he employed when he first entered the Martial Dao: learning step-by-step starting from the first rank, advancing layer by layer.

Time flew by, and half a year passed quietly.

Through day-after-day of research and practice, Lin Qing cultivated all common Cultivation skills to the 5th-rank Perfection.

However, this level of skill proficiency only corresponded to the Pulse Opening Realm in terms of a Cultivator's cultivation level. It belonged to the learning scope of the Chuyun Immortal Sect's Outer Sect Disciple, so the Sect Contribution Points required for attending classes were not high; with his high monthly stipend, he could still afford it.

But every Realm is a new world; the cost of cultivating 6th-rank skills became expensive.

The Elders of the Lecture Hall no longer provided 6th-rank Pill Formulas, Formation Diagrams, and the like for free.

In these six months, most of the Medicinal Pills and Formation Diagrams Lin Qing refined were 4th-rank and below, which had almost no market in the Chuyun Immortal Sect where the entry-level was 5th-rank.

This also led to his six months of skill cultivation only continuously consuming Contribution Points without any income, keeping his budget in an imbalanced state.

Although he had recently started producing 5th-rank items, the time was still short, and he needed to accumulate them slowly.

During these six months, it was not just various skills that improved. Under the support of the large low-rank Spirit Gathering Array covering the entire Sect and the small high-rank Spirit Gathering Array covering Juechen Island.

His Realm also successfully broke through, reaching the 7th-rank.

[Host: Lin Qing]

Realm: Spirit Pill Realm (Breakthrough time: ∞)

Talent: Innate Mysterious Fetus, Ultra Instinct

Fused Cultivation Technique: Yunxi Heart Sutra (Expand)

Recorded Cultivation Technique:

Spell Control Rating: Intermediate

Recorded Spells:

Cultivation Skills: 5th-rank Alchemist, 5th-rank Formation Master...

The Spirit Pill Realm is the next Realm after the Spirit Sea Realm; it is similar to the Golden Core in his impression, just with a different name.

The process of cultivation is to continuously compress and refine the gaseous spiritual power in the Spirit Sea, condensing it into solid spiritual power.

After the spiritual power condenses, it not only allows one's Spiritual Qi capacity to increase significantly, but the quality of the Spiritual Qi will also have a qualitative leap.

Compared to the promotion from 5th-rank to 6th-rank, which mainly improves a Cultivator's endurance, the promotion from 6th-rank to 7th-rank brings a comprehensive increase in a Cultivator's combat power.

However, with the Breakthrough in Realm, matters like 6th-rank Pill Formulas and Formation Diagrams had to be put aside for now; no matter what, he had to first exchange for a 7th-rank Cultivation Technique to Cultivate and push his Realm forward first.

...

That afternoon, Lin Qing received a message from the Sect Head, asking him to go to the Sect Main Hall.

Lin Qing arrived at the Main Hall. Inside, the Sect Head sat at the top, and there were some Elders he had met before around him.

Lin Qing cupped his hands in salute:

"Greetings, Sect Head, Senior Brothers."

The white-haired Sect Head nodded slightly and asked in an easygoing tone:

"Junior Brother Lin Qing, your bone age should not yet be thirty, right?"

"Replying to Senior Brother, not yet." Lin Qing answered truthfully.

The Sect Head gently stroked his beard and stated the reason for calling Lin Qing over:

"The once-in-a-decade Sect Entrance Examination is about to begin, and most of the Prodigies selected from various Empires have now arrived at Chuyun City below."

The Chuyun Immortal Sect's base floated above the sea of clouds in the sky, while on the ground directly below, a magnificent city was situated.

The city was located at the intersection of several Empires and was an important hub for the Immortal Sect's governance of the territory.

"The examination venue of our Chuyun Immortal Sect is a Secret Realm for Prodigies retrieved by an Old Ancestor of the Sect during the ancient era. The Secret Realm has rules and constraints, only accepting young Cultivators with a bone age under thirty."

"Whenever the examination begins, the Sect selects a group of Disciples who are of appropriate age and possess outstanding strength to enter the Secret Realm alongside the examinees."

"On one hand, they must supervise the order of the examination; on the other hand, if there are unavoidable dangerous incidents, our Sect Disciples will take charge of the situation and protect the group of participating Prodigies."

"You are a Disciple brought back personally by Old Ancestor Juechen, so your strength must be far superior to your peers. After much consideration, I intend to appoint you to lead the team into the Secret Realm this time. What do you think?"

"By the way, I'll ask in passing: what level has your cultivation reached exactly?"

Because Lin Qing had the ring gifted by Jue Chenzi on him, the high-level members of the Sect had never known his true Realm.

"Replying to the Sect Head, I just luckily broke through to the 7th-rank!"

The Elders in the hall were shocked, and the Sect Head even plucked out a handful of his beard.

"What?!"