Twenty days ter, Su Shier exhaled a puff of white air, his joints crackling like popping beans.

  At this moment, his eyes were bloodshot, his body noticeably thinner, and he looked utterly exhausted. Yet, a faint smile lingered on his face.

  These twenty days had felt like an eternity to him, filled with immense suffering.

  However, the effects of refining this Qi Gathering Pill were evident. The true essence within his body had grown from the size of a grain of rice to that of a soybean.

  Now, he could truly consider himself a Qi Refinement Stage, First Layer cultivator.

  "Indeed, pills are truly remarkable! Although consuming the Spirit Gathering Pill brought me great pain, my cultivation speed has increased more than tenfold. When you think about it, it's still worth it!"

  "According to Senior Sister Xiao Yue, Han Yu reached the Qi Refinement Stage, First Layer in just ten days. Although I'm not as fast as him, I'm probably not far behind the average person."

  Su Shier clenched his fists, his face filled with excitement. He wasn't trying to compare himself to anyone. For him, being able to advance to the Qi Refinement Stage, First Layer in such a short time was already a great achievement.

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

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

  "If I don't wait for my meridians to recover and try again, I'll surely die."

  "But this is a good opportunity to practice those two techniques from the cultivation manual. Otherwise, if I encounter real danger, I won't have any means to protect myself."

  Su Shier pondered silently. After swallowing a Small Recovery Pill to heal his injuries, he got up and walked into the courtyard.

  Recalling the information about the Fire Control Technique, he tried to channel his true essence and formed hand seals.

  "Whoosh…"

  In the next moment, a fist-sized ball of high-temperature fmes appeared in front of him.

  The fmes flickered rapidly, as if they might escape his control at any moment. Su Shier had no choice but to increase the flow of his true essence, but the more he did so, the more unstable the fmes became.

  In the blink of an eye, his true essence was completely depleted.

  The fmes in the air sputtered and vanished into nothingness.

  At the same time, Su Shier's body went limp, and he colpsed onto the ground in the courtyard. Drenched in sweat, he felt as if all his strength had been drained.

  The difficulty of the Fire Control Technique and the amount of true essence it consumed far exceeded his expectations.

  But Su Shier wasn't one to give up easily. He sat cross-legged on the ground, silently recovering his true essence.

  Once his true essence was restored, he immediately resumed practicing.

  This cycle repeated over and over, and it could be said to be extremely monotonous and tedious. For other children his age, it would have been hard to endure such boredom, but Su Shier, driven by sheer determination, didn't find it dull at all.

  Gradually, his control over his true essence became more and more refined. Through this constant cycle of depletion and replenishment, his true essence even grew slightly.

  This discovery filled Su Shier with joy.

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

  One evening, in the woods next to the Waste Pill Room, Su Shier was hunched over, leaning against a towering tree as he gasped for breath.

  Compared to half a year ago, his skin had noticeably darkened, and his body had become much more robust.

  In front of him, three low-level wolf demons with blood-red eyes, bodies as rge as oxen, and covered in scars were slowly closing in, baring their fangs.

  Facing this crisis, he remained calm. With swift hand seals, he mustered the st bit of his true essence.

  "Wind Summoning!"

  "Fire Control!"

  With a series of low shouts, a fierce wind swept through the forest, and the sandstorm obscured the wolf demons' vision. Several high-temperature fireballs took advantage of the chaos and nded on the wolf demons.

  "Bang! Bang! Bang!"

  Sparks flew amidst the sandstorm.

  The three wolf demons, already at their limits, couldn't hold on any longer. With pitiful whimpers, they colpsed and died.

  Seeing this, Su Shier didn't rush forward. Instead, he sat cross-legged on the ground to recover.

  After a moment, he got up and threw several more fireballs, smashing the heads of the wolf demons to pieces. Only then did he step forward, skillfully stringing up the wolf demons' bodies with a rope and heading back to the Waste Pill Room.

  After half a year of cultivation, Su Shier had not only mastered the two techniques but also increased his true essence from the size of a soybean to that of a broad bean.

  "I've become quite proficient with these two techniques, but unfortunately, my true essence is still too limited. I can only activate the techniques three times at most. Next, I'll have to rely on the Qi Gathering Pill to continue my arduous cultivation. But before that, I need to collect the Foundation Building Pill that the sect distributes."

  "Although I have the Mysterious Pill Furnace and can produce as many Foundation Building Pills as I want, it would seem suspicious if an entry-level disciple like me deyed collecting the pills for too long."

  "Moreover, if possible, I should also try to find out the true identity of that bck-robed man."

  Su Shier walked along the path, silently pnning.

  He had always been clever, and over the past six months, consuming Foundation Building Pills daily had not only improved his physique but also made his thinking even sharper.

  After delivering the wolf demons' bodies, he changed into the disciple robes issued by the sect and immediately set off for the Pill Hall.

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

  The sect distributed pills and other resources once a year, and disciples could collect them at any time.

  In just an hour, Su Shier arrived at the Pill Hall on Luo Fu Peak.

  From the outside, the Pill Hall looked like a square courtyard. The open gate had a pque hanging above it, inscribed with the words "Pill Hall."

  Looking through the gate, one could see a massive five-meter-tall pill furnace standing in the center of the courtyard. It was unclear what was burning inside, but the fragrant smoke wafted for miles.

  Su Shier walked straight into the courtyard. As soon as he entered, he saw seven entry-level disciples, all around his age, lining up with joyful expressions to collect their pills.

  Among them were the three children who had joined Luo Fu Peak with him that day.

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

  Compared to Su Shier, these children looked much more naive.

  When they saw Su Shier enter, the three children immediately recognized him and were visibly surprised.

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

  None of them had expected that Su Shier could survive for so long alone in a pce like the Waste Pill Room.

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

  "Didn't they say the Waste Pill Room is full of wild beasts? How does this little beggar look even stronger than before?"

  After muttering to himself, Zhu Hanwei paid no further attention.

  In front of the children stood a chubby, burly attendant disciple in his twenties.

  In front of him was a pile of medicine bottles. He was zily checking an identity token with a look of impatience before handing three bottles of pills to a square-faced boy at the front of the line.

  The square-faced boy was ecstatic. As soon as he received the bottles, he eagerly opened one and poured the pills into his hand to inspect them.

  [--------------------------------------------]

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