Chapter 2, Senior Sister Liu
Holding the jade slip of the Qi Refining Formula and the clothes for a handyman disciple, Lin Hao walked into the wooden house in front of him.
The wooden house was a double room, with two simple wooden beds in it, looking rather shabby.
"After all, this is a cultivation sect. The treatment for handyman disciples is really poor!"
Lin Hao frowned. This place was not even as good as the house where he lived when he was the leader of the mountain bandits.
"Are you the new handyman disciple?"
Inside the room, a chubby young man's eyes lit up when he saw someone coming in and asked.
"Yeah, I am."
Lin Hao nodded. Seeing the words "handyman disciple" on the chubby young man's clothes, he knew that the young man had the same identity as him. So he asked very politely, "My name is Lin Hao. May I ask how to address you, senior brother?"
"Lin Hao, I don't dare to be called senior brother. I've only been here for half a month longer than you."
The chubby young man quickly waved his hand and said, "Just call me Wang Fu."
"Okay."
Lin Hao continued, "Brother Wang Fu, I've just become a handyman disciple. Could you tell me what our handyman disciples mainly do?"
"We are handyman disciples in the ore area. The main thing we have to do every day is to mine ores."
Wang Fu looked worried and said, "According to the regulations in the ore area, if you dig out five catties of spirit iron, you can exchange it for a meal. Since I came here, I've been starving every day... My family has been doing business for generations in the State of Zhao. We are considered a wealthy family throughout the whole State of Zhao... Alas, I really miss the days when I was the young master of the family. There were big fish and meat for every meal, endless money, and beautiful maids serving me. But then I was found to have the aptitude for cultivation and became the hope of the whole family. My father insisted on spending five thousand taels of silver to send me to Xuanyue Sect to cultivate immortality... As a result, I'm just mining ores here. I can't even have enough to eat, and sometimes I even get beaten."
"Five thousand taels of silver...?"
Lin Hao was stunned for a moment, extremely surprised in his heart.
He had worked hard as a mountain bandit, robbing passing merchants, and it would be good if he could get a few taels of silver in a month.
Five thousand taels, such a large amount of silver, how long would he have to work as a mountain bandit to earn that much!
"Yeah! Xuanyue Sect is one of the four major cultivation sects in the State of Zhao. Although it ranks last, it's not a place that ordinary people can enter."
Wang Fu continued, "I spent five thousand taels of silver because I have quite good cultivation aptitude. For those whose cultivation aptitude is worse than mine, they have to spend even more silver. For example, Han Dali, the eldest young master of the Han family, has such poor aptitude that it's said he spent ten thousand taels of silver to barely enter Xuanyue Sect."
"It takes... so much money to enter a sect!"
Lin Hao was shocked in his heart.
He originally thought that it was his bad luck to be captured by that woman and brought to Xuanyue Sect as a handyman.
But after hearing what Wang Fu said, it turned out that he had actually earned thousands or even tens of thousands of taels of silver for nothing.
Thinking of this, Lin Hao's mood suddenly became much better.
"Lin Hao, how much silver did you spend to enter Xuanyue Sect?"
Seeing his strange expression, Wang Fu couldn't help asking.
"I didn't spend any money. A woman surnamed Liu, who can fly, brought me here."
Lin Hao hesitated for a moment and told the truth.
"Someone who can fly is either a Foundation Establishment expert or an amazingly talented direct disciple!"
Wang Fu suddenly looked astonished and said, "Among the people in the sect who meet this condition, there's only one. Could it be that you were brought back to the sect by Senior Sister Liu Qinghan, the only closed-door disciple of the sect leader! What's your relationship with her?"
"I don't know Senior Sister Liu. Is she that important?"
Lin Hao was a bit surprised.
"You don't know Senior Sister Liu but were brought back by her without having to pay any silver. You must have excellent cultivation talent."
While envying Lin Hao in his heart, Wang Fu couldn't help but think more highly of him.
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"Could you tell me something about Senior Sister Liu?"
Lin Hao couldn't help asking.
"Senior Sister Liu is really amazing. In our Xuanyue Sect, she's one of the most outstanding talents."
Respect showed on Wang Fu's face as he said, "She's just in her early twenties, but her realm has already reached the ninth level of Qi Refining. All the cultivators in the cultivation world of the State of Zhao know her name. It's said that she has a great chance to cultivate to the Golden Core realm in the future. She's the hope of our Xuanyue Sect..."
The chubby young man Wang Fu was very enthusiastic towards Lin Hao, who was about the same age as him. Besides telling Lin Hao a lot of things about Senior Sister Liu, he also talked about many other things about Xuanyue Sect.
After chatting for a while, Lin Hao got to know a little about the unfamiliar Xuanyue Sect.
"Lin Hao, among the new handyman disciples in Area D of the ore area, there's a person named Yan Heng that you must not provoke."
Wang Fu paused for a moment and kindly said, "Tomorrow, after you finish your mining task and get the spirit porridge, don't eat it right away. You have to give half of the spirit porridge to Yan Heng first, or he'll beat you up."
When mentioning Yan Heng, Lin Hao clearly noticed that there was a look of fear on Wang Fu's chubby face.
"What's the origin of Yan Heng?"
Lin Hao frowned and asked.
"Yan Heng is the son of General Yan of the State of Zhao. He came to Xuanyue Sect three months earlier than me, and his cultivation level has already reached the first level of Qi Refining."
Wang Fu said, "Because he practiced martial arts since childhood, he's really good at fighting among us new handyman disciples. No one dares to provoke him."
"He robs others of their spirit porridge. Doesn't the sect care about him?"
Lin Hao asked.
"Our Xuanyue Sect, in order to encourage disciples to work hard in cultivation and to encourage competition among disciples, handyman disciples don't have much status in the sect and are just doing hard labor. For some minor conflicts among them, the deacons won't care."
Wang Fu whispered, "As long as no one is seriously injured, the deacons will turn a blind eye. So we new handyman disciples have to be careful and not cause trouble in the sect. Only when we become outer disciples and our status improves and we are protected by the sect rules will this bad situation be improved."
"Thank you, Brother Wang Fu, for telling me these things."
Lin Hao's heart sank.
He understood that Xuanyue Sect, this cultivation sect, was not a good place and it wouldn't be easy to get along well here.
"Alas, this handyman area is not a place for people to stay. We can't even have enough to eat every day."
Wang Fu said, "I won't say much more. I have to hurry up and cultivate, and strive to reach the third level of Qi Refining as soon as possible and become an outer disciple and leave this lousy place."
Then, he sat on the wooden bed, crossed his legs, closed his eyes and started cultivating.
Lin Hao still wanted to ask some questions, but seeing that the chubby young man had already started cultivating, he didn't want to disturb him. So he put on the clothes for the handyman disciple of Xuanyue Sect that he had just got.
Then he picked up the jade slip that recorded the Qi Refining Formula and prepared to try cultivating. Lin Hao followed the method told by the young man in the blue robe, concentrated his attention and stared at the jade slip.
Just in a moment, the content in the jade slip appeared in his mind.
The Upper Part of Xuanyue Qi Refining Formula!
This jade slip recorded the cultivation methods from the first level to the third level of Qi Refining in great detail, and there was also a diagram of the human meridians.
After transmigrating, Lin Hao's mind was extremely sharp. Whatever it was, he could remember it after reading it a few times.
Before long, he had memorized the Upper Part of Xuanyue Qi Refining Formula in his mind and knew how to cultivate.
"Let's try cultivating."
Lin Hao sat on the wooden bed, crossed his legs, closed his eyes and sat in meditation.
Following the method of the Xuanyue Qi Refining Formula, he concentrated his spirit to sense the spiritual energy around him.
He didn't know how long it had passed before Lin Hao entered the mysterious meditative state mentioned in the Xuanyue Qi Refining Formula.
He found that some light spots suddenly appeared in the originally dark surroundings with his eyes closed.
Lin Hao was overjoyed in his heart, knowing that these were the spiritual energy in the world.
He had to draw the spiritual energy that looked like light spots into his body and reach a certain amount, and successfully circulate it through the meridians for a full cycle to enter the first level of Qi Refining.
Lin Hao calmed down and began to absorb the light spots of spiritual energy around him according to the method of the Xuanyue Qi Refining Formula. With some efforts, several light spots of spiritual energy near him moved closer to him and entered his body.
"How comfortable!"
With the spiritual energy entering his body, he felt a warm and cozy feeling.
Lin Hao kept operating the Xuanyue Qi Refining Formula, absorbing the spiritual energy between heaven and earth and guiding the spiritual energy into specific meridians.
He still had too little spiritual energy at present and couldn't make the spiritual energy circulate through the meridians for a full cycle at all.
In this way, the whole night passed unconsciously.
Early in the morning.
Lin Hao opened his eyes and felt refreshed.
At present, the amount of spiritual energy in his body was not much, and there was still some distance from successfully guiding the spiritual energy to circulate through the meridians and entering the first level of Qi Refining.
However, Lin Hao keenly felt that after cultivating for a whole night, after the spiritual energy entered his body, his strength had obviously increased a lot.