Twenty days later, Su Shi'er exhaled a breath of white mist, and his whole body emitted a cracking sound like popping beans.

At this moment, his eyes were bloodshot, and he had lost a noticeable amount of weight, looking particularly exhausted. Yet, a faint smile lingered on his face.

These twenty days felt like years to him, filled with unbearable pain.

However, refining this Gathering Qi Pill had obvious effects. The True Essence within him had grown from the size of a grain of rice to that of a soybean.

Now, he could truly be considered a Qi Refining stage cultivator.

"Indeed, pills are truly wonderful! Although consuming the Gathering Qi Pill brings immense pain, the speed of cultivation increases more than tenfold. In this sense, it's definitely worth it!"

"I heard from Senior Sister Xiao Yue that Han Yu reached the first level of the Qi Refining stage in just ten days. Although my speed isn't as fast as his, compared to ordinary people, it's already quite good."

Su Shi'er clenched his fists, filled with excitement. He wasn't trying to compete with anyone; for him, reaching the first level of the Qi Refining stage in such a short time was already an achievement.

Suppressing his excitement, Su Shi'er didn't rush to continue cultivating.

"Although I barely managed to refine this Gathering Qi Pill, my meridians have been damaged as a result."

"If I don't wait for my meridians to recover and try again, it would be certain death."

"But this is a good opportunity to practice those two spells from the cultivation technique. Otherwise, if I encounter danger, I won't have the power to protect myself."

Su Shi'er thought to himself. After swallowing a Healing Pill to treat his injuries, he got up and went to the courtyard.

Recalling the information about the Fire Control spell in his mind, he tried to mobilize his True Essence and formed seals with his hands.

"Whoosh..."

In the next second, a fist-sized flame appeared in front of him, burning with high heat.

The flame flickered rapidly, as if it would escape his control at any moment. Su Shi'er had to increase his True Essence, but the more he did, the more unstable the flame became.

In the blink of an eye, his True Essence was exhausted.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

The flame in the air vanished with a puff.

At the same time, Su Shi'er's body went limp, and he collapsed in the courtyard, drenched in sweat and feeling utterly drained.

The difficulty and True Essence consumption of the Fire Control spell were beyond his imagination.

But Su Shi'er wasn't one to give up easily. He sat down on the spot, silently recovering his True Essence.

Once his True Essence was restored, he immediately resumed practice.

This cycle repeated itself, and although it was extremely monotonous, unlike other children his age who would find it hard to endure the solitude, Su Shi'er was driven by determination and didn't find it boring at all.

Gradually, he became more adept at controlling his True Essence. In the process of continuous consumption and replenishment, his True Essence subtly increased.

This discovery delighted Su Shi'er immensely.

In the blink of an eye, half a year had passed since he joined the Cloud Song Sect.

That evening, in the woods beside the Discarded Pill Room, Su Shi'er was hunched over, leaning against a towering tree, panting heavily.

Compared to six months ago, his skin had become noticeably darker, and his body had grown more robust.

In front of him, three low-level wolf demons with blood-red eyes and bodies as large as cattle, covered in scars, were baring their teeth and slowly approaching.

Facing the crisis, he remained calm, quickly forming seals with his hands and mustering the last bit of his True Essence.

"Summon Wind!"

"Control Fire!"

With a series of low shouts, a fierce wind swept through the forest, obscuring the wolf demons' vision with sand and dust. Several high-temperature fireballs took advantage of the opportunity to land on the wolf demons.

"Boom boom boom~"

In the swirling sand, sparks flew.

The three wolf demons, already at the end of their strength, couldn't hold on any longer. They let out whimpers and collapsed, dead.

Seeing this, Su Shi'er didn't rush forward but instead sat down to meditate.

After a moment, he stood up and threw several more fireballs, smashing the wolf demons' heads to pieces. Only then did he approach, skillfully stringing the wolf demon corpses with a rope and heading back to the Discarded Pill Room.

In six months of cultivation, Su Shi'er not only mastered the two spells but also increased his True Essence from the size of a soybean to that of a broad bean.

"These two spells are now quite proficient, but unfortunately, I have too little True Essence, and can only cast spells three times at most. Next, I'll have to rely on the Gathering Qi Pills for intensive cultivation. But before that, I should collect the Foundation Pills distributed by the sect."

"Although with the mysterious Pill Furnace, I can have as many Foundation Pills as I want, it would be strange for a new disciple not to collect the pills. Moreover, if possible, I need to find out the true identity of that black-clothed person."

Su Shi'er walked along, silently planning.

He was already quite clever, and over the past six months, consuming Foundation Pills daily hadn't improved his physique, but it had made his mind sharper.

After delivering the wolf demon corpses, he changed into the disciple's robe issued by the sect and immediately set off for the Pill Pavilion.

Each peak had its own Pill Pavilion, and in principle, disciples could only collect pills from their respective peak's pavilion.

The sect distributed pills and other resources once a year, and they could be collected at any time.

In just an hour, Su Shi'er arrived outside the Pill Pavilion on Luofu Peak.

From the outside, the Pill Pavilion looked like a square quadrangle courtyard. The open door had a plaque hanging above it, inscribed with the words 'Pill Pavilion.'

Looking through the door, he saw a massive pill furnace over five meters tall standing in the center of the courtyard. Smoke curled up from the furnace, filling the air with a fragrance that spread for miles.

Su Shi'er walked straight into the courtyard and immediately saw seven new disciples around his age, each with a joyful expression, lining up to collect their pills.

Among them were three children who had joined Luofu Peak with him that day.

For the past six months, they had been learning to read and write. Today, they finally passed and couldn't wait to collect their pills.

Compared to Su Shi'er, these children appeared much more naive.

Seeing Su Shi'er enter, the three children recognized him at once, each showing great surprise.

It's that little beggar! He's still alive?

None of them expected that Su Shi'er could survive alone in a place like the Discarded Pill Room for so long.

The chubby boy at the end of the line, Zhu Hanwei, raised an eyebrow and widened his eyes.

"Didn't they say there were fierce beasts in the Discarded Pill Room? How come this little beggar looks even sturdier!"

Muttering softly, Zhu Hanwei paid no further attention.

In front of the children stood a servant disciple in his twenties, overweight and with a face full of flesh.

The man had a pile of medicine bottles in front of him, and with an impatient look, he checked an identity token before handing three bottles of pills to a square-faced child at the front of the line.

The square-faced child was thrilled, eagerly opening the bottles to examine the pills.

The next second, the square-faced child suddenly froze, his expression changing slightly.