Chapter 74: New Recharge Channel Added

Qin Yi selected the mission, and after claiming it with his Sect Jade Token, the three of them left the Sect Affairs Hall.

"Junior Sister Ruan, are you really not going? The reward for this mission is quite generous, five hundred Contribution Points. If we split it among the eight of us, each person will get over sixty." Zhao Fengchun said to Ruan Xing with regret.

Ruan Xing shook her head, "No, you all can handle it yourselves. If you take me along, you'll have to split it another way, and the others will surely be unhappy about it. I used the Spirit Qi from the Spirit Gathering Array to cultivate yesterday, and I feel I can break through to Qi Refining Perfection in these two days. Let's wait until next month to start doing missions."

"Alright, focusing on cultivation is more important anyway." Zhao Fengchun felt a bit disappointed and didn't say anything more.

Ruan Xing hesitated for a moment, then took out two enhanced 【Speed】 Talismans and gave them to her, urging: "Your cultivation is not as high as the other fellow disciples. If there is danger, prioritize self-preservation. These are two talismans for escaping; keep them safe yourself."

Zhao Fengchun felt a warmth in her heart, "Okay, thank you, Junior Sister Ruan."

Although they had only known each other for a few short days, she felt that she and Junior Sister Ruan were already like sisters. Junior Sister Ruan opened her heart to treat her well, and she could not let down this friendship. It was a pity that her cultivation was insufficient to provide help to Junior Sister Ruan in terms of cultivation, so she could only be more attentive in daily life.

Ruan Xing, however, only sighed silently in her heart. They were to set off early the day after tomorrow. In this day and a half, if she could not make the Demon Cultivator give up the idea of eliminating them, then they could only pray for their own luck.

Do not blame her for being cold-blooded; selfishness is human nature. She could not even protect herself; if she left the sect, it would be certain death. How could she have the spare energy to help others?

After the three parted ways, Ruan Xing sent a message to Xie Huai via her Sect Jade Token, and after asking for his location, she hurried over.

The two had already added each other as friends when they transferred the points last night.

Xie Huai told her to meet at his residence. After Ruan Xing arrived, she knocked on the door directly; it opened after just one knock.

Xie Huai looked down at her, "There are many eyes and ears outside, come in first."

The houses in the Jia-character Courtyard were much more spacious, a bit like those small farm-stay courtyards.

"What is the matter?"

A faint smile hung on Xie Huai's handsome face. The moon-white disciple robe outlined his straight back and waist, giving him the image of a refined gentleman, yet his eyes and tone revealed a hint of coldness.

"Returning your Contribution Points." Ruan Xing was concise and to the point, taking out her Sect Jade Token without any nonsense to prepare for the transfer.

Hearing this, Xie Huai froze for a second, stunned: "Didn't you say three days? You used them up in just one morning?"

Ruan Xing raised an eyebrow, "Are you unhappy that I'm returning them early? Here, the transfer is done. Take a look; if there's no problem, I'll be going."

Her carefree attitude made Xie Huai even more wary.

It was impossible that she borrowed these Contribution Points just to transfer them around for fun; she must have used them to achieve some goal, only he did not know what it was yet.

And her speed was so fast, which was enough to prove that she was not completely ignorant of the Xuanbing Sect. Within this Xuanbing Sect, there might be other deeply hidden evil-path fellow disciples.

He still needed to make more preparations.

Ruan Xing did not care what Xie Huai was thinking. After returning the Contribution Points, she hurried back to her room to perform a Simulation.

She had one hundred and fifty-five Low-grade Spirit Stones on her, enough to pay the rent for the Jia-character Courtyard for three months at once. Unfortunately, she only had a little over a month of cultivation time. Calculating carefully, it would be more cost-effective to spend half on buying Gathering Qi Pills and half on absorbing Spirit Qi.

She only had three or four bottles of Gathering Qi Pills in her Storage Bag; under high-intensity cultivation, they were definitely not enough.

Ruan Xing sat on the couch and opened the Text Simulation. Under her personal will, Ruan Xing in the simulation ignored everything outside her window, cultivating like a madman for twenty-four hours. She only spared two hours for a short nap after struggling for two or three days. In over a month, she consumed all the Spirit Stones, Gathering Qi Pills, and Bigu Pills she had.

After the simulation ended, Ruan Xing chose the cultivation realm. A stream of pure Spiritual Power suddenly emerged within her dantian, circulating and perfectly merging with her original Spiritual Power.

Her cultivation had improved a bit, but she was still at Qi Refining Layer Nine.

Ruan Xing made a determined effort and continued the simulation. The benefits brought to her by the Spirit Bone modified by the ice pool water were quite significant. Her cultivation speed was much faster than when she was in Yunyang City. Back then, it took her until she was twenty-three in one simulation to break through a layer, but now it took less than ten simulations, totaling over a year, to reach Qi Refining Perfection.

However, this was also related to the fact that she had not fully absorbed the pool water when she was in the ice pool back then. Much of the Spirit Qi in the ice pool water was hidden in her meridians, silently nourishing her Spirit Bone and meridians.

After all, that was a derivative of the Hanshan Snow Marrow that could refine Spirit Tools. It would probably take at least until Ruan Xing reached the Foundation Establishment Late Stage to absorb all the ice spirit energy.

Next was Foundation Establishment.

Ruan Xing took out two Foundation Establishment Pills she had obtained in the simulation, and combed through the Tongxuan Scripture in her mind from beginning to end. To be safe, she used two Real-scene Simulations to experience the breakthrough to Foundation Establishment.

With full preparation, Ruan Xing clicked to start the simulation, and a trace of joy appeared on her face.

Breakthrough successful!

Unable to wait, she chose the cultivation realm. The Spiritual Power in Ruan Xing's body surged like a violent wind sweeping away fallen leaves, scouring her limbs, bones, and internal organs. It did not even spare her skin, flesh, and blood, as if her body were being sifted bit by bit, removing the dross and keeping only the essence.

However, her body had already been modified by the ice pool water, so the expansion of meridians brought by Foundation Establishment did not have much effect on her, and the level of pain was still within a tolerable range.

Moreover, because she broke through from martial arts to the Innate realm and entered the Dao, her physical strength was different from other cultivators who directly guided Qi into their bodies. The physical strength tempered after Foundation Establishment was naturally stronger than that of Foundation Establishment cultivators at the same stage.

After all the processes and steps were completed, and the Spiritual Power had washed through her body several times, Ruan Xing finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Foundation Establishment was achieved.

All the impurities in her body had been expelled, forming a thin layer of gray soft shell on the surface of her body. With a gentle tear, the tender, porcelain-white skin underneath was revealed.

It was just like molting.

It was always uncomfortable to have dirty things stuck to her body. Ruan Xing took off her clothes and tore off all the skin fragments on her body in a few quick movements. After successfully using the Dust-Gathering Technique after a few attempts to channel her Spiritual Power, she tidied herself up to be clean and refreshed, then put on the moon-white disciple robe.

The Xuanbing Sect did not force disciples to wear the issued uniform, but many disciples took pride in joining the Xuanbing Sect and wore it voluntarily.

Looking at the old clothes taken off on the floor, Ruan Xing felt it was a pity. The small dress she wore underneath was fine; it didn't matter if she threw it away. She quite liked the black cloak on the outside; it was the night-traveling suit Hu San had ordered for her back then. She had worn it from the Red Head Gang until now. The cloak even had a hood; putting on the hood and covering her face made her look cool and stylish.

Later, she would find a servant to come over and help her wash it so she could keep wearing it. Giving a few taels of Silver would make those servants who did odd jobs very happy to do things for cultivators.

And there was the small leather vest she had made herself. She didn't have any defensive magic robes now, so wearing this thing was at least some protection; it could not be lost.

Ruan Xing went to the young man next door to borrow some fire, burned the skin fragments and the small dress together, and then used the Dust-Gathering Technique to clean up the remaining ash and odor.

After doing all this, the afternoon passed quietly.

She did not continue the simulation; the Simulator had entered an upgrade again because of her breakthrough in cultivation.

She would have to wait until tomorrow afternoon to continue using it. She didn't know how much the points for one simulation would increase... She had no ability to earn Spirit Stones now, and she only had over five hundred points left, so she still had to be frugal.

Counting the one hundred and fifty-five Spirit Stones remaining in her Storage Bag, she wondered if her Foundation Establishment Early-stage cultivation could be taken seriously by the Demon Cultivator...

After lying down for a short nap, Ruan Xing got up to go to the canteen to get today's dinner. She had to hide from the Demon Cultivator for a day, because she didn't know how the Demon Cultivator would react when he saw she had reached Foundation Establishment. Now that she couldn't use the Real-scene Simulation, it would be bad if an accident happened.

Moreover, her going from Qi Refining Layer Nine to Foundation Establishment Early-stage overnight was easy to explain to the Demon Cultivator, because he already thought her identity was mysterious. It was also easy to explain to the sect, because she had only joined for one day and the sect didn't know her background at all. As long as she didn't reveal that she was cultivating the Tongxuan Scripture for the time being, it would be fine.

But for Qin Yi and Zhao Fengchun, it was a bit hard to explain.

Therefore, Ruan Xing decided to hide from them as well. If she succeeded in stopping the Demon Cultivator, they wouldn't be too shocked to find she had reached Foundation Establishment when they returned in half a month.

If she failed to stop him... then it wouldn't matter whether they knew about her cultivation or not.

After dinner, Ruan Xing began to practice some small magic arts like the Dust-Gathering Technique in her room. They were of no help in a fight, but they could make life more convenient.

She also practiced the Illusion Technique by the way, but unfortunately, this magic art was high-level and could not be successfully upgraded with one or two practices.

After practicing until tired, Ruan Xing meditated for a while; at the Foundation Establishment stage, one no longer strictly needs daily sleep to restore mental energy, as meditation can serve as a substitute, but she was still not quite used to it and felt that sleeping was more comfortable, so she changed positions and lay down, sleeping soundly until dawn.

Perhaps because she had previously said she wanted to focus on Cultivation, neither Zhao Fengchun nor Qin Yi sent any messages; she stayed in her room until the afternoon, and when the Simulator finally finished updating, she impatiently opened it and first paid attention to the increase in the consumption of Simulation Points.

Text Simulation costs one hundred points per use, and Real-scene Simulation costs ten points per use.

Phew—another tenfold increase.

Ruan Xing let out a long sigh and began to look at the new features added to the Simulator.

On the character panel, behind every skill with a level in the skill column, there was now a small "+" symbol.

Eh? I can upgrade skills without doing a Simulation?

Ruan Xing was delighted, clicked on Illusion Technique, then rolled her eyes and closed it again.

Illusion Technique from level one to level two requires five thousand Low-grade Spirit Stones?? Why don't you just go rob someone? What is the difference between this feature being updated and not being updated? Ruan Xing firmly believed that with her own ability, upgrading through Simulation would definitely be faster than upgrading by adding points.

The Simulator just felt that since she had reached the Foundation Establishment stage, she was no longer a rookie without the power to protect herself, but a mature leek ready to be harvested, so it opened a pay-to-win channel for her.

Thanks, you're quite thoughtful, but you've overestimated my strength.

She currently only had one hundred and fifty-five Low-grade Spirit Stones on her entire person, poor as a church mouse.

This was probably the most penniless Foundation Establishment cultivator in existence.

Ruan Xing held onto a final shred of hope, thinking it might be because the grade of Illusion Technique was relatively high, so she clicked on Lianyun Sword Art, Alchemy, and Talisman Making, but they were all astronomical figures, and her heart grew colder the more she looked.

She angrily closed the task panel.

Ruan Xing felt the imminent pressure to make money even more acutely.

But she still had to go and see the Demon Cultivator's attitude first.

Taking a deep breath, Ruan Xing tremblingly chose Real-scene Simulation, watching helplessly as ten points left her.

She got up and angrily sent a message to Xie Huai.

【What are you doing?】

Xie Huai replied quickly, 【Cultivating.】

Ruan Xing went straight on the offensive, 【Cultivating my foot, what use is the low-level Spirit Gathering Array in the Outer Sect to you?】

She was now at the Foundation Establishment Early-stage, and the Spirit Qi that the Bing-character Courtyard could gather was completely thin for her.

No wonder everyone was popping Pills to cultivate; there was no such thing as "pill poison" here either. She had originally thought that only those with poor aptitude chose to pop Pills, but it turned out this was the norm; Pills that assist in Cultivation were simply necessities for a Cultivator in the world of Cultivation.

Relying solely on the natural Spirit Qi between heaven and earth to cultivate, one would likely never achieve any results in a lifetime.

Those at Qi Refining Layer One in the towns who were seventy or eighty years old might just be that way because they lacked resources...

【If you have something to say, say it in person, don't send messages.】

Through the Sect Jade Token, Ruan Xing could imagine Xie Huai's frowning expression.

Xie Huai was a cautious person; this Sect Jade Token relied on the local area network of a Formation to communicate, and since he was proficient in Formations, he must have felt that this thing was unsafe.

He was quite afraid of his identity being exposed, but this was a Simulation, so Ruan Xing didn't care and ran straight to Xie Huai's residence, getting straight to the point: "Do you want to kill Qin Yi and Zhao Fengchun?"

His deep, quiet black eyes swept over Ruan Xing, and Xie Huai said leisurely: "How did you reach Foundation Establishment."

"I'm asking you a question." Ruan Xing tapped the table in dissatisfaction.

"What does who I kill have to do with you?" Xie Huai retorted, "Being so concerned, could it be that they are your underlings planted in the Xuanbing Sect?"

"If they were, would you not kill them?"

Xie Huai smiled and said softly: "Of course I would."

Ruan Xing scoffed, "I guessed what you wanted to do; it's nothing more than that frame-up routine, but have you never thought that if you slander them as internal traitors, they will drag you down with them?"

"Dragging me down is also dragging you down; don't tell me you aren't afraid of being investigated." Xie Huai tapped his Sect Jade Token with his neatly trimmed nails, "The transfer record of Contribution Points is still there; if you and I have no connection, how do you explain me transferring you so many Contribution Points for no reason? Don't say you're innocent; even if you really are, I have ways to have us both judged as accomplices."

The words Ruan Xing had used to threaten Xie Huai the day before had come full circle; it seemed he had already figured something out, and Ruan Xing frowned in thought.

Xie Huai continued: "Aren't you already at Foundation Establishment? You can go and be their savior, but do you dare to leave the Sect?"

Ruan Xing fell silent; she indeed did not dare.

Thanks to book friend 20240304224115275 for the monthly ticket~ Thanks to Lyne for the monthly ticket~(End of chapter)