Chapter 185: Returning to Qi Refining Layer Six

He happened to see the Mystic Tiger cub in the Spirit Beast Bracelet and thought that keeping it locked inside all the time wasn't a solution.

Recalling that Zhao Liyu had said she knew a bit about caring for spirit beasts, he decided to just hand the Mystic Tiger cub over to her to look after! This way, he wouldn't have to worry about forgetting it; it was truly easy for Lin Zhangqing to forget a beast that wasn't his own, especially since he had so many other things to attend to.

So, it was genuinely possible he might starve the Mystic Tiger cub to death in some corner of the Spirit Beast Bracelet.

With a thought, he sent a command to Zhao Liyu through the golden rune, telling her to come over to the courtyard as he had something to discuss with her.

Soon, Zhao Liyu arrived before Lin Zhangqing. "Greetings, Master. Did you have something to discuss with me?"

Lin Zhangqing nodded and said, "I have a Mystic Tiger cub here, a gift I intend to take home and give to my younger sister in a while.

I am quite busy usually, so I plan to hand it over to you to care for for a period of time. Can you manage this?"

Zhao Liyu nodded quickly and said, "I can. That is absolutely no problem; I can certainly manage caring for a Mystic Tiger cub."

Lin Zhangqing nodded, thinking this was for the best. He took the Mystic Tiger cub out of the Spirit Beast Bracelet and handed it to Zhao Liyu.

After a moment's thought, he took some demon beast meat out of his storage bag and handed it to Zhao Liyu as well; this was the cub's food.

Remembering that the Mystic Tiger cub was, after all, an untamed creature without a contract, he worried it might not be controlled, so Lin Zhangqing couldn't help but instruct her: "You must keep a close eye on it for me.

Don't let this little fellow ruin the spirit herbs, spirit grasses, or anything else in the space."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Liyu couldn't help but chuckle, saying confidently, "Please rest assured, Master. I will definitely keep a close eye on this little fellow and guarantee that no such thing as ruining the spirit herbs will happen."

Lin Zhangqing nodded; this was the best outcome, and he could feel a bit more at ease.

Seeing that the Master had no further instructions, Zhao Liyu spoke to Lin Zhangqing and then left with the Mystic Tiger cub, intending to find a suitable place to settle it.

Since he had already entered the inner space, he might as well complete today's Thunder True Scripture cultivation task here!

He then chose an unoccupied room, sat cross-legged in position, and began to circulate the Thunder True Scripture. The familiar sensations—soreness, numbness, swelling, and pain—assailed Lin Zhangqing once again.

Soon, two hours passed. Lin Zhangqing had exhausted his body's energy and was drenched in sweat. He walked outside the room to clean himself up.

Then, he summoned Xu Meiniang and asked her to help him with a free muscle massage.

Enjoying Xu Meiniang's increasingly professional massage service, Lin Zhangqing walked out of the courtyard half an hour later, feeling refreshed.

He began to patrol the inner space. After all, there were two more people in the space now, which was equivalent to two more unstable factors.

Therefore, Lin Zhangqing still had to come in more often to observe and check.

Fortunately, after so many days, he hadn't discovered anything amiss, which was a point of relief for Lin Zhangqing.

Since he found no problems, Lin Zhangqing exited the inner space.

Back in his room, Lin Zhangqing prepared to consume the remaining three pieces of Vermilion Fruit flesh. This amount—one and a half fruits—was just about enough to break through to Qi Refining Layer Six.

He cast a spell to activate the Spirit Gathering Array, then sat cross-legged in the center of the formation. After circulating the Five Elements Chaos Sutra for several cycles, the spiritual energy in his dantian was fully restored.

He took out the remaining three pieces of Vermilion Fruit flesh, swallowed them in two or three bites, and then began to circulate his cultivation method.

The fruit flesh transformed into vast spiritual energy, surging straight into his dantian. Lin Zhangqing hurriedly guided it to impact his meridians, as he had done so once before.

Thus, it was relatively easy to break through. It went through like a hot knife through butter until the last acupoint, where it paused slightly before a "Boom" sound broke through it as well. The remaining spiritual energy even broke through a dozen or so acupoints on the next meridian.

Because the place where the Chen family resided had no spirit veins, it relied entirely on the deployed Spirit Gathering Array to provide spiritual energy, but it was still filled with low-grade spirit stones.

So, Lin Zhangqing took two medium-grade spirit stones from his storage bag and held them in his hands to provide spiritual energy for his body to absorb after the breakthrough.

He then concentrated his mind to consolidate his cultivation base, not finishing until the early morning of the next day.

He tested it; his control over spiritual energy at Qi Refining Layer Six was still just as handy and smooth as before—this was the benefit of a solid foundation. Moreover, the total amount of spiritual energy was fifty percent more than at Qi Refining Layer Five, and the quality of the spiritual energy was exactly three times what it had been before he switched cultivation methods.

He had been sitting cross-legged for the whole night. Fortunately, the Thunder True Scripture came with body-refining effects, even though he hadn't entered the threshold yet.

Despite sitting all night, there were no signs of blocked blood or Qi, but he still got up to stretch his body.

He checked the Spirit Beast Bracelet; both Chu Yi and Chu Er had woken up, and Chu Er had successfully advanced to the late stage of the first rank.

He let them both out. Chu Yi was the same as usual, but Chu Er, because it had just been contracted,

was still a bit resistant to Lin Zhangqing's petting. Although it still had dodging movements, fortunately, it didn't fly away directly.

Lin Zhangqing sighed in his heart; after all, it was lured by spirit wine and not tamed by himself, so it was ultimately a bit lacking. He could only slowly cultivate their relationship in the future.

He checked Chu Er's body; its size was about the same as Chu Yi's, just slightly smaller. He spread its wings to compare, and they were only a tiny bit shorter than Chu Yi's. After all, it was a female bird, so it was normal for its size to be smaller.

Except for a pair of golden wings, the color of the feathers on Chu Er's body—cyan and gold—looked quite evenly distributed.

Unlike Chu Yi, which now only had some cyan on its back, with other parts already turning golden; it was almost becoming a pure golden Golden Winged Bird.

Through this point, it could be proven that Chu Yi should have mutated. Perhaps when Chu Yi advanced to the second rank, it would truly become a pure golden bird.

He took a large piece of demon beast meat from his storage bag, cut it into long strips, and fed it to them.

Especially for Chu Er, Lin Zhangqing intentionally fed it a bit more; after all, it had just advanced, and its body needed more nutrition.

After about the right amount of time, he fed each of them a Spirit Nurturing Pill and then opened the formation to let them go out and play. After all, they were Golden Winged Birds, and free flight was what they loved doing most.

He fished Mao Qiu out from the corner. Just now, because there were two Golden Winged Birds in the room, Mao Qiu had scurried into the corner.

Mao Qiu wasn't afraid of Chu Yi, but it was mainly afraid of Chu Er. He guessed that the incident last time had left a deep psychological shadow on Mao Qiu; after all, it had almost been eaten by Chu Er as a snack.

He gave Mao Qiu a Spirit Nurturing Pill and told it that Chu Er had already signed a master-servant contract with Lin Zhangqing and was now Lin Zhangqing's spirit beast just like it, so it wouldn't attack it anymore, telling it not to be so afraid.

Hearing the words Lin Zhangqing transmitted through the contract, Mao Qiu was very happy and excited, immediately running around the room, though it didn't leave the room. Lin Zhangqing didn't bother with it.

He then cut some demon beast meat into small pieces and threw them into the Spirit Beast Bracelet for the Purple Crystal Scorpion swarm, and then he had nothing else to do.

Just then, Chen Zi Ya came over and saw at a glance that Lin Zhangqing had advanced.

She said with pleasant surprise, "Senior Brother, you've recovered your Qi Refining Layer Six cultivation so quickly?"

Lin Zhangqing chuckled lightly, "Yes, after consuming the hundred-year Vermilion Fruit, my cultivation recovered a bit. Otherwise, walking outside while always sporting a Qi Refining Layer Five cultivation, others would think I'm a soft persimmon!"

Hearing this, Chen Zi Ya giggled, although she imagined the scene Lin Zhangqing described.

After a while, she suppressed her laughter and said, "Isn't that just right! Let them deliver themselves to your door automatically; perhaps we can even make a small fortune!"

Lin Zhangqing was a bit surprised that Chen Zi Ya had this thought, and couldn't help but joke, "Oh no, my Junior Sister has been spoiled by me; her courage is getting bigger and bigger, actually targeting robber cultivators!"

Chen Zi Ya said proudly, "This courage was also given to me by Senior Brother. I have confidence in Senior Brother; a few robber cultivators can be dealt with in two or three moves!"

"This is fine to play with occasionally, but if the frequency is too high, you will definitely slip up. If you walk by the river often, how can you not get your shoes wet?" Lin Zhangqing shook his head.

Chen Zi Ya nodded; she understood this point. She was just joking just now and didn't really mean for Lin Zhangqing to take risks.

Afterwards, she began to perform tea art for Lin Zhangqing. Every time this happened, Lin Zhangqing would always appreciate it quietly, and it slowly became a kind of tacit understanding between the two.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 186 =====