Yao Tuohai was one of the most famous practitioners of Tao Insight Realm in the Southwestern Province of the empire. The only one who could be compared with him both in status and power was Liu Wujun, governor of the Southwestern Province of the empire.

Lian Fei, son of Lian Rufeng, was born in Feiyun Village, and then entered Donglin School in Donglin Town to cultivate.

Lin Xun was naturally very familiar with them.

When he was in Donglin Town, Lin had been framed by Lian Fei for many times. In addition, Yao Tuohai unfairly intervened in the County Test later on. Had it not been for the arrival of the Queen of Dark Night, Lin Xun and Shia Zhi might have been both killed.

Now a year later, when hearing the two names of Yao Tuohai and Lian Fei in the Mist City, Lin couldn’t help but feel a touch of hate in his heart.

The things Lin had gone through that time, as well as the repression, despair and helplessness, had been indelibly imprinted on his mind. How could he forget about it?

But what made him surprised was that Lian Fei had become the son-in-law of Yao Tuohai. But after thinking about it carefully, he found it reasonable. Yao Tuohai unexpectedly intervened at that time because of Lian Fei probably!

“Humph, has generating only a second-class Pond of Spiritual Power made him a prominent genius in Green-maple County? How ridiculous!” Lin thought with a sneer.

It was not that Lin Xun thought highly of himself, but that he had seen many enough top geniuses in the Bloodthirsty Camp. In comparison, the second-class Pond of Spiritual Power Lian Fei had generated when reaching the Gang Spirit Realm wasn’t prominent at all.

Though, it was natural for Lian Fei to be given the name of Genius Teenager when he made such achievement in this big empire.

For many practitioners in this world, a second-class Pond of Spiritual Power was already a remarkable accomplishment after all.

“When this bloke comes for the Province Test, maybe I should find an opportunity to settle the old score…”

Lin was lost in thought.

A while later, he was suddenly awakened by a loud cheer.

A huge venue where tens of thousands of people gathered, waving their arms and yelling crazily, appeared on the “Spiritual Screen”.

A dreamlike slender figure stood on the high platform in the middle of the venue, singing under colorful spiritual lights.

It was a girl of great beauty, with a head of lavender hair. Her eyes were shining brilliantly, and her skin was very delicate. There was a unique temperament of coldness on her comely face.

Countless lads and girls under the platform raised their hands high and shouted a name together,

“Liu Qingyan!”

“Liu Qingyan!”

“Liu Qingyan!”

The scene got very exhilarating with tens of thousands of people yelling uniformly.

After a pause, Lin was to be infected by this enthusiasm. He noticed that many passers-by also looked at the Spiritual Screen, with their eyes radiating ardent affection. Many lads and girls were even screaming.

But soon, the Spiritual Screen shifted back to that woman with solemn manner.

She said, “Since her debut last year, the artistic practitioner, Liu Qingyan, has attracted countless fans with her angel-like voice, unique cold temperament and fair countenance. One of her song, ‘Drunken Flowers, Parting Dreams’, has been popular throughout the empire in just one year and become one of the young practitioners’ favorite songs. She is also regarded as ‘the Soul Singer’.”

“According to reliable resources, Liu Qingyan will arrive at Mist City to attend Keystone Business’s centennial celebration in three months and is very likely to sing on stage.”

At this point, a cheer almost broke Lin’s eardrum. Lin couldn’t help but marvel at Liu Qingyan’s charisma.

Artistic cultivation, like knife cultivation, sword cultivation and medical cultivation, was also one kind of cultivation.

Artistic cultivation started from the four arts (i.e. musical instrument, weiqi, calligraphy and painting) and the four forms of poetry (i.e. verses, ditties, odes and songs). It was a relatively elegant way of cultivation and was rarely seen in the world.

It was because the requirements for becoming an artistic practitioner were too harsh. An artistic practitioner needed not only to have enough cultivation foundation, but also to master at least one category of the four arts or the four forms of poetry.

Take the artistic practitioner who started cultivating with melody for example, the skills cultivated were mostly related with melody and even the sound waves were used for killing in fighting.

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Of course, artistic cultivation was not particularly for wars. Artistic practitioners in this world were all extremely prestigious, and were usually the honored guests of the upper class.

Liu Qingyan was exactly an artistic practitioner. She was proficient in melody, good at singing and also talented in composing lyrics. She won numerous loyal fans across the empire as soon as she made her debut.

Lin Xun had never heard of her before. But judging by reactions of people around him, it was obvious that Liu Qingyan was a very famous artistic practitioner of the empire.

“The Keystone Business went on quite a splurge to invite Liu Qingyan to sing! I’ll go to watch it on site that day!”

“Yes, me too!”

“Humph, don’t get overexcited. I heard that Keystone Business only prepared three thousand places, all of which might have been snatched away by those big shots of the Mist City!”

Discussion went on in every direction. The lads and girls were all looking forward to Liu Qingyan’s arrival.

Lin Xun showed no interest in all of these. He only marveled a bit at how extravagant Keystone Business was. In his opinion, it must be a stunning expenditure to invite such a famous artistic practitioner to come.

With no intention to linger there any longer, Lin turned and walked away.

It was already late at night when Lin returned to his residence. Shue Jin was lying down in the corner as usual, snoring loudly in his sleep. But the moment he sensed Lin was back, Shue Jin shouted immediately, “Hurry, the liquor worms are making a rebellion in my belly. Throw the liquor to me!”

Lin didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He took out a jar of “Soul-burning” schnapps from his storage ring and threw it at Shue.

“Great!”

Shue Jin hurried to take a few mouthfuls of the liquor and heaved an exclamatory sigh, “It’s still the same taste, really fucking strong! By the way, when are you going to sign up for the Province Test?”

Lin answered directly, “I’ve asked about it. The Province Test doesn’t start signing up until half a month later.”

After making a sound which meant that he understood, Shue Jin held the jar in his arms and went fast asleep.

Lin went into his room and sat before his desk. He took out the spiritual ink and ordinary weapons he bought, and after taking a deep breath, began to refine spiritual weapons with his inscribing pen.

Stars twinkled in the sky outside the window, and a light breeze was blowing. Other than Shue Jin’s snores, everything seemed in a peaceful state.

Before the desk, Lin buried himself in the refining process. He meticulously inscribed with the inscribing pen in a smooth way.

To live in the Mist City, Lin had to make money. And the only way Lin could earn money at present was to refine spiritual weapons.

This could also be seen as putting his strength into use. Lin had already been, after all, a spiritual tattooist who could successfully refine a spiritual tattoo formation.

Two hours later, a Snowfall Saber on middle grade of Human-rank was successfully refined. According to the market conditions of Mist City, a Snowfall Saber would bring earnings of 300 imperial silver coins (i.e. 3 imperial gold coins), with costs deducted.

But Lin wouldn’t sell it completely according to the market conditions.

What Lin experienced in Donglin Town had already made him clear that the spiritual weapons he refined would be more powerful than the similar ones ready for sale on the market.

This was what Gu Yanping, the owner of Golden Hall, told Lin, and also Lin’s own conclusion after personal comparison.

Lin Xun didn’t know the reason, either. But he had already had a rough speculation. It was because every time he was about to finish refining spiritual weapons, he would keenly sense that a hardly perceptible undulation would emerge on the Gate to Heaven in the sea of his consciousness.

This made Lin realize that the reason why he could successfully refine spiritual weapons every time might have something to do with the undulation from the Gate to Heaven.

Of course, this was just Lin’s speculation.

After finishing all these, Lin sat cross-legged on his bed, and closed his eyes to cultivate Meditating Magic. After reaching the Human-gang Realm, he had already lightened up eighteen spiritual stars and his perception now could already cover a radius of 330 meters.

General strong ones of the Human-gang Realm, however, could perceive things within the radius of about 200 meters at most.

This was a unique benefit that Mediating Magic had brought to Lin. Of course, stronger soul power would definitely not only produce such a simple effect. The benefits of cultivating Meditating Magic would need no more repetition.

Having finished cultivating Mediating Magic, Lin Xun turned to run Nature Insight & Spirit-devour Scripture without delay in order to refine his cultivation.

This routine of diligent cultivation was like when Lin was in Donglin Town. The only difference was that the person who accompanied him then was Shia Zhi while now it was Shue Jin.

…

Boom~

Pure Gang Qi, glowing light gold, circulated through the vessels and acupoints all over Lin’s body.

In Lin’s Ocean of Qi, the Pond of Spiritual Power rotated like a windstorm whirlpool, corresponding vertically to the new spiritual vortex over the four acupoints of cardiac vessel and producing a kind of terrible grinding power.

The spiritual Gang energy that flowed through this place in the body would be refined again and again, like being compressed by two millstones, and would glow dreamlike light gold.

This would occur only when the quality of spiritual Gang energy had reached its ultimate, i.e. horribly pure. And it also meant that, with a same wisp of spiritual Gang energy, Lin could release more power which could suppress most strong Human-gang practitioners in the world!

And all of this owed to that unique Pond of Spiritual Power in Lin’s body. It wasn’t the first-class Pond of Spiritual Power, Eye of the Windstorm, because even Eye of the Windstorm didn’t have such impressive grinding power.

Lin called it “Windstorm Millstone”.

One after another “Sapphire Gang-refining Pill” was swallowed by Lin, and was then refined again and again till it completely melted into his body, refining and consolidating his cultivation over and over again.

Lin didn’t feel himself reaching the limit until he swallowed the sixth Sapphire Gang-refining Pill. Then he stopped his cultivation.

Lying on the bed, Lin Xun began to contemplate on the martial arts silently.

After reaching the Human-gang Realm, the inner spiritual Gang energy could be sent outside to injure the enemy at a distance. All this also brought metamorphosis to practitioner’s fighting ways.

The Marching Boxing Lin already mastered before was now useless for him. At present, what could come in useful was the Six-word Saberplay and the first movement of Tianyuan Saberplay, Reaching for the Stars.

Of course, the fighting skills learnt in the Bloodthirsty Camp could also be useful. But fighting skills were different from fighting manuals. Practitioners must have the fighting manuals matching with the fighting skills in order to exert the greatest power in real fighting.

However, Lin needed to re-learn these fighting means. He had not had a real fight after reaching the Human-gang Realm, after all.

Lin Xun himself was also looking forward to seeing what extent of power he could exert now in fighting with the cultivation of Human-gang Realm.

Click to read next chapter ahead -> Commune of Spiritual Tattooists on Flying Lines.