Whoosh, Howlingsky ran off again, this time straight out the door.

"Come back!"

Cao Yi raised, or perhaps it was more appropriate to say he took, the bronze cauldron and jogged after him.

"Brother Yu!"

Yi Xiaochuan waved his hand in front of Xiang Yu.

"He's not raising it! He's taking it! And he can jog out like it's a game!"

Xiang Yu looked utterly defeated.

What divine strength!

What traveling the world without seeing anyone stronger than himself—this one before him was, and far surpassed him.

"I didn't expect Daoist Priest to have such ability,"

Yi Xiaochuan, who had been through a lot, wasn't too surprised.

"We must invite this person,"

Xiang Yu secretly resolved.

In less than a minute, Cao Yi returned, one hand holding the cauldron, the other dragging Howlingsky.

"Sorry for the trouble,"

Cao Yi nonchalantly set down the bronze cauldron.

Unlike the tremor when Xiang Yu set it down earlier, this time there was not a sound.

"Sir's divine strength,"

Xiang Yu said, full of admiration.

"Oh,"

Cao Yi replied dismissively, walked to the wall, put Howlingsky down, and grabbed some dog food from the package to sprinkle in the bowl.

Xiang Yu approached Yi Xiaochuan and whispered, "Go outside and bring in the gift."

"Aren't you saying..."

Yi Xiaochuan nearly slapped himself for speaking out of turn.

This was a different time.

On the way here, Brother Yu said no because he looked down on Cao Yi.

Now, in this situation, they had to see if the person wanted it.

Yi Xiaochuan stepped outside.

Howlingsky, eating dog food, suddenly dashed into a nearby doghouse.

The doghouse was built by Cao Yi during his idle days in New York.

"What's wrong with you today?"

Cao Yi looked at Howlingsky in confusion.

With a bang, the doghouse collapsed under Howlingsky, revealing a very ugly scene.

Neatly arranged pieces of gold lay scattered, with three or four piles of feces on top, one still warm.

"You pooped in there again?"

Cao Yi picked up a clean gold bar near the edge, wiped it at Howlingsky's rear, and casually tossed it into the doghouse.

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"Brother Yu, gold..."

Yi Xiaochuan walked in holding a wooden box.

"What gold?"

Xiang Yu shot him a look.

The gold in the doghouse must be worth several hundred taels.

Twenty taels in a small box? Not presentable at all.

As Yi Xiaochuan felt perplexed, he noticed the gold in the doghouse and quietly stepped back outside.

"Brother Yu suddenly remembered something; we'll visit again tomorrow."

Xiang Yu cupped his hands.

"You're leaving just like that? I was hoping to keep you for dinner,"

Cao Yi turned around.

"Let's disturb you again tomorrow,"

Xiang Yu said again, then left.

"Ding! Host has completed a hidden mission, displaying divine power before the character Xiang Yu."

"Reward: 'Golden Liquid Return Elixir Method,' also known as 'Nine Turns Return Elixir Method.'"

Finally, a reward for cultivation! Cao Yi's face brightened. While drawing symbols, hand gestures, and reciting incantations were also Taoist techniques, they weren't authentic.

A message entered his mind: Step one, refine essence into qi...

Unlike the Taoist internal alchemy method of refining essence into qi, this was about refining various heavenly materials containing spiritual energy.

This was simpler, making it easier for beginners; the system had considered this well.

"Forget about you,"

Cao Yi abandoned Howlingsky and returned to the shrine.

He sat on the mat.

Excitedly, he said, "Let's begin."

Information about the 'Golden Liquid Return Elixir Method' flooded his mind. This method came from a Taoist master in another realm and is divided into four stages: refining essence into qi, converting qi into liquid, refining liquid into elixir, and the nine transformations of the elixir.

The master mentioned that cultivation was merely a means; the true path was to seek balance with the heavens and earth. After initial accumulation, one must absorb the essence of spiritual materials and heavenly qi, always remembering the words "endless" and "feedback." Moreover, each step forward required sufficient Taoist scriptures as support for practice.

The elder's words, I shall remember,

Cao Yi thought to himself.

Suddenly, a black hole the size of a basin appeared in front of him, swirling with a rapid vortex.

Cao Yi, having seen this many times, was unperturbed and waited a few minutes. A piece of golden paper floated out and landed on the ground.

Cao Yi looked down, stunned—there wasn't a single word on the golden paper.

"System, what does this mean?"

Cao Yi instinctively asked.

As expected, the system didn't respond.

Cao Yi picked it up and stared at it for a while, then bit his finger and dripped a drop of blood on it. After a while, there was no change.

Could it really be a blank book? Cao Yi took it and went to a well-lit spot at the door. It was just a piece of gold paper, very hard; if thrown with enough force, it could seriously injure someone.

Could it be? Cao Yi suddenly recalled the master mentioning the need for Taoist scriptures as support. The Daoist temple had no shortage of such texts.

"Golden Immortal Verification Treatise," "Respect the Sun and Moon Document," "Kong Yi's Clarification of Truth," "Supreme Jade Emperor's Heart Seal Scripture," "Guang Sheng Emperor's World Enlightenment," "Thus I Heard: Key Points," "Mutual Agreement on the Direct Annotation," "洞玄灵宝定观经," "黄庭遁甲缘身经"...

Cao Yi found many books in the room where various Taoist items were stored, and he began to read them one by one.

After an unknown amount of time, words that looked like tadpoles floated up from the golden paper, merging into Cao Yi's body, who was engrossed in the texts.

Eventually, Cao Yi suddenly looked up, realizing it had unknowingly grown dark outside. He lowered his head to look at the golden paper again; over a hundred characters had appeared, detailing how to refine essence into qi.

"With no master to guide me, I hope I don't cause any problems just following what it says,"

Cao Yi muttered anxiously, grabbing a high-quality jadeite containing spiritual energy from his right side.

As he spoke, a warm current began to circulate within him.

"What is this?"

Cao Yi set down the jadeite and focused on observing.

Once, twice... thirty times, he thoroughly memorized the circulation route of the warm current, which became a thin and indistinct mass, shrinking in the dantian.

"Let's give it a try."

Cao Yi concentrated on the mass in his dantian, one second, two seconds... one minute, two minutes, and the mass began to move.

Success. Following the previous route, Cao Yi made the mass leave the dantian, run a full cycle, and return. Repeating this several times, he fully mastered the qi manipulation method.

"It's time to start."

Cao Yi picked up the jadeite and continued the process. Soon, he felt a cool, heavy sensation in his palm.

No doubt it was the dual attributes of the jadeite's yin and earth spiritual energy! There were also some mixed essences, seemingly from chalcedony.

Cao Yi was delighted, guiding the spiritual energy and essence into his body, following the previous route into his dantian.

"Ah, done!"

Cao Yi sighed in relief.

After continuously absorbing several pieces of high-quality jadeite, feeling a bit uncomfortable, he paused his cultivation and resumed reading the Taoist texts.

Before long, he felt fine again.

He continued his cultivation.