The white jade flying boat descended before the grand plaza of the Duty Peak. Ye Shanhu stored the vessel with a casual wave and strode gracefully toward the Duty Hall.

The rest of the disciples scrambled to follow. Jiang Xiaochuan cast a glance back at Xu Changshou; seeing him dawdling, he quickly sped up to trail right behind Ye Shanhu.

Having visited the Duty Hall once before, Xu Changshou treated this second trip like an old, familiar road.

The moment they crossed the threshold, Ye Shanhu and her sycophants vanished from sight. The cavernous hall was simply too vast, packed shoulder-to-shoulder with cultivators, and their slight statures were instantly swallowed by the sea of people.

Xu Changshou swept his gaze across the expansive chamber. There were dedicated counters peddling Pills, displays showcasing gleaming Magical Artifacts, stalls hawking yellow talismans, and merchants trading in all manner of Daoist robes and dharma garments.

Without a second thought, Xu Changshou made a beeline for the Pill dispensary.

He was here for elixirs and elixirs alone. He harbored neither the interest nor the Spirit Stones for frivolous treasures.

He had secured his footing in the Green Immortal Sect; his absolute, paramount priority was to elevate his Cultivation realm as rapidly as humanly possible.

Upon reaching the counter, he found a young maiden in her early twenties presiding over the wares. She possessed an enchanting figure and skin as flawless as pristine snow. Xu Changshou had never beheld a woman of such staggering beauty; he felt that her every smile and subtle frown was a masterpiece beyond mortal description.

In truth, while the maiden was undeniably attractive, she fell short of possessing a truly kingdom-toppling allure. However, Xu Changshou was a mud-bound peasant who had seen nothing of the wider world. Until today, the pinnacle of feminine beauty in his mind had been Zhang Taohua, the village headman's daughter.

He recalled the day Zhang Taohua was wed, her face painted with striking red lips and a powdered white complexion, searing a profound impression into his youthful heart. To his naive mind, she had been a goddess, yet the maiden standing before him eclipsed Zhang Taohua's charm tenfold.

He subtly extended his spiritual senses to gauge the maiden's Cultivation. Good heavens! The Twelfth Layer of Qi Condensation!

Xu Changshou's demeanor instantly snapped to one of flawless, deferential obedience. He respectfully cupped his hands and bowed.

"Senior Sister, how might I address you?"

"You must be a newly inducted Junior Brother. Greetings, my name is Liu Rushi. And how might I address you?"

Her voice chimed with the crisp, melodic ring of silver bells.

Liu Rushi. A name as elegant as the woman who bore it.

"This humble Junior Brother is Xu Changshou. Well met, Senior Sister Liu!"

"Ah, Junior Brother Xu. What manner of Pill do you seek today?"

"Qi Gathering Pills."

Liu Rushi nodded slightly, a polite smile gracing her lips. "Qi Gathering Pills are priced at one Spirit Stone per bottle. They may also be purchased individually. How many do you require?"

Xu Changshou calculated his meager funds for a moment before replying, "I would like five Qi Gathering Pills."

With careful precision, he produced a single Spirit Stone and handed it over. He had initially resolved to liquidate eighty percent of his total wealth purely into medicinal resources.

Yet, the ingrained paranoia of poverty held him back; he dreaded the possibility of encountering a sudden, desperate need for hard currency in the future, rendering him too terrified to drain his coffers entirely.

"Very well!"

Liu Rushi smoothly swept up the Spirit Stone, replacing it on the counter with a delicate white jade vial and exactly fifty Spirit Stone fragments.

Popping the cork, Xu Changshou peeked inside the jade vial. Five emerald-green spheres nestled at the bottom, their hue vibrant and lustrous, exuding a dense, intoxicating medicinal fragrance.

His mouth practically watered at the sight.

"Many thanks, Senior Sister. May we meet again."

"Farewell, Little Junior Brother."

Departing from the dispensary, Xu Changshou circled the grand hall a few times. Failing to spot Ye Shanhu or the others, he abandoned the search and boarded a public flying skiff back to Chuxiu Peak alone.

Upon returning to his quarters, Xu Changshou meticulously secured the door. Settling into a cross-legged meditative posture on his bed, he retrieved the Ten Daos Mantra.

The energy circulation pathways of the Ten Daos Mantra held only minute, subtle deviations from his previous Spring Longevity Art.

Given his shallow roots in Cultivation, swapping out his foundational technique posed no risk. After a mere four hours of focused breathing, he had transitioned from a Novice to becoming Proficient in the Ten Daos Mantra.

He glanced outside; dusk was rapidly devouring the sky.

Stepping out into the corridor, he noted Jiang Xiaochuan's door remained tightly shut. Who knew where that chatterbox had wandered off to.

Unbothered by his neighbor's absence, Xu Changshou relished the tranquility. He made a swift trip to the Spirit Kitchen for a hearty meal, returning immediately after to resume his Cultivation.

Night fell.

Having bathed and changed into fresh robes, Xu Changshou sat perfectly still upon his mattress. This was the first time in his life he would consume a true Cultivation Pill, and a creeping dread of making a fatal misstep gripped his heart.

With the reverence of a mortal handling a divine relic, he tipped a single Pill into his palm. In the pitch-black confines of his room, the elixir pulsed with a faint, ethereal green luminescence, akin to a fabled night-pearl.

I wonder if this single drop of medicine will be enough to blast open the bottleneck to the Fourth Layer of Qi Condensation?

Without further hesitation, Xu Changshou tossed the elixir into his mouth and frantically cycled his Cultivation technique to refine it.

The moment the Pill breached his stomach, it detonated into a surging torrent of warmth, which rapidly splintered into hundreds of gossamer threads of energy.

Beyond merely bolstering one's Cultivation base, the Qi Gathering Pill also imparted a minor degree of Inedia, suppressing the mortal body's need for sustenance.

The hundreds of gossamer threads darted wildly through his meridians. Yet, despite their frantic pace, they never breached his flesh, and the converted Spiritual Qi proved remarkably docile, posing no threat of internal injury.

Though the elixir had been swallowed, its medicinal payload was far too vast to digest in a single sitting. It demanded slow, meticulous refinement.

Cultivation renders time meaningless. When Xu Changshou finally fluttered his eyes open, harsh daylight was spilling through his window.

Feeling no pangs of hunger, he clamped his eyes shut and resumed refining.

Another full day bled away. He had barely processed a tenth of the elixir's stored efficacy.

This single, unassuming Qi Gathering Pill contained the equivalent of at least half a year's worth of agonizing, unassisted meditation.

Xu Changshou could distinctly, viscerally feel his Cultivation base rocketing upward at an absurd pace.

The sheer, intoxicating euphoria of this explosive growth defied description. It was a thrill far more satisfying than the finest mortal feast.

An entire day passed, and still, his stomach made no demands.

Keep refining...

Time flowed like water. In the blink of an eye, ten days had vanished.

Having absorbed more than half of the medicinal power, a hollow ache finally gnawed at his belly, though it remained entirely manageable.

Keep cultivating. I can gorge myself once the dregs are thoroughly refined.

Gritting his teeth with stubborn resolve, Xu Changshou squeezed his eyes shut.

Boom...

Time slipped away once more.

The very instant the final wisp of medicinal efficacy melted into his meridians, Xu Changshou's body violently convulsed, as if a rusted iron gate within his soul had been violently kicked open.

Turning his spiritual senses inward, he gazed at the Guanyuan acupoint nestled in his lower abdomen. The once-paltry cyclone of Spiritual Qi had swollen to the size of an infant's clenched fist.

The Fourth Layer of Qi Condensation. The bottleneck was shattered.

That Spirit Stone had been worth every single jagged fragment.

"So hot. What is going on?" he muttered.

A sudden, searing heat flared against his chest. His hand snatched at his robes, his fingers brushing against the fiercely radiating Bloodline Jade Talisman.

Yanking it from his inner pocket, he saw the usually muted artifact glowing a vicious, blood-red hue, vibrating intensely against his palm.

Heavens above, the Bloodline Jade Talisman is reacting! Is it finally unlocking?

A wild, paranoid thrill of excitement surged through his veins at the thought.

But just as quickly, the jade artifact's frantic tremors began to subside, and the scorching heat gradually leached away into the cool air.

Moments later, the artifact reverted to its dull, unremarkable state.

"Why is this happening?" he muttered.

A crushing wave of disappointment washed over Xu Changshou. He had braced himself for a world-shaking revelation, only to be slapped with a false alarm.

He analyzed the pattern: the Bloodline Jade Talisman had first forced its way out of his flesh the very moment he sensed Spiritual Qi. Now, upon his ascension to the Fourth Layer of Qi Condensation, it had stirred once more.

The logic was brutal but clear. It was preparing to unseal itself, but his Cultivation was still far too pathetic to meet its minimum threshold.

If the Fifth Layer of Qi Condensation proved insufficient to crack the seal, he would undoubtedly have to grind his way to the Seventh Layer.

The Seventh Layer of Qi Condensation... I will reach it soon.

...

"Argh!"

The moment Xu Changshou attempted to stand, the world spun into a pitch-black void, and his knees buckled, nearly sending him crashing to the floorboards.

An apocalyptic tidal wave of starvation suddenly crashed over him.

Hungry. He was so utterly, desperately hungry.

Back when that vicious harpy, Landlord Wang's wife, had locked him in a shed to starve for three days, it hadn't felt a fraction as agonizing as this. This was a hollow, consuming void that made him feel he could devour an entire ox raw.

He had failed to realize the trap he had set for himself.

As a complete Novice blindly consuming his first elixir, Xu Changshou had made zero preparations, stubbornly choosing to refine the entire Pill in a single, unbroken marathon.

He had been sitting perfectly still for half a month. Fifteen days without a single drop of water or grain of rice. It would be a miracle if he wasn't starving to death.

"I'm going to starve! I'm actually going to starve to death!"

Stumbling wildly across the room, Xu Changshou seized his water jug and practically unhinged his jaw, gulping down more than half its contents in a desperate frenzy.

Yet, the moment the cold water hit his empty stomach, the monstrous agony of his hunger only magnified.