Chapter 20: Breakthrough to Intermediate Martial Artist, Return to Blue Star!

  Han Jihai chuckled and said,

  “Xiao Chen, aren’t you going to thank your senior sister?”

  “Thank you, Senior Sister!”Lin Chen quickly bowed and spoke, then raised the jade pendant in his hand to examine it carefully.

  Under the sunlight, the jade pendant revealed mysterious patterns. A gentle, nourishing energy seemed to flow from it, subtly enhancing his body.

  This was a spirit jade!Lin Chen's heart trembled. Though he didn’t know the exact origins of the pendant, it was clearly something extraordinary.

  Han Jihai hadn’t paid much attention at first, but when he caught a clear glimpse of the jade in Lin Chen’s hand, he froze.

  He looked down at his now-empty belt, and his expression changed drastically.

  “Mi Ke’er! You actually stole my jade pendant!”“No wonder I couldn’t find it… You little thief! That’s the heirloom passed down from your grandmaster!”

  Seeing Han Jihai’s angry, huffing-and-puffing face, Mi Ke’er just burped tipsily and said carelessly:

  “Hic~ Old man, didn’t you take on this little junior disciple just to pass down your legacy?”

  “You’re going to die sooner or ter anyway—he’s going to inherit it. Might as well give it to him now!”

  Han Jihai nearly spat out a mouthful of blood in fury.

  “You wretched girl! I’m not dead yet!”“Damn it! Losing that jade pendant… I’ll probably die two years earlier!”

  Lin Chen, startled, reflexively tried to return the jade pendant, but Mi Ke’er stopped him with a wave of her hand.

  “Oh, quit acting, old man.”“You told me you were about to die twenty years ago, but here you are, still alive and kicking!”“At this rate, I’ll die before you do!”“So just admit it—are you willing to give the pendant to our junior brother or not?”

  Han Jihai was left speechless, then sighed heavily and muttered:

  “I must’ve been cursed the day I took you in as a disciple…”“Go brew your damn pills and stop bothering me! Just looking at you makes me annoyed!”

  Mi Ke’er giggled, winked at Lin Chen, and said,

  “I’m going to sleep~ Once I finish brewing that Dragon Tongue Wine, I’ll let you have some!”

  She staggered back into her room, still drunk.

  “Dragon Tongue Wine?”Han Jihai froze for a moment, then suddenly panicked and dashed off toward the herb garden.

  Moments ter, Lin Chen heard an anguished shout:

  “You ungrateful disciple! That was my thousand-year Dragon Tongue Flower!”

  Witnessing the absurd back-and-forth between master and disciple, Lin Chen stood at the door, rubbing his nose awkwardly.

  “My master and senior sister… seem a bit different from what I imagined.”

  Then he thought of his two other senior brothers.According to Han Jihai, they were both out on sect missions and wouldn’t be back for another month or two.

  ——

  Ever since taking the Marrow Cleansing Pill, Lin Chen had become increasingly curious about alchemy.

  After lunch, he knocked on Han Jihai’s door, wanting to ask about it.

  Han Jihai was still mourning the loss of his Dragon Tongue pnt. When Lin Chen entered the practice room, he stood for a while before awkwardly saying:

  “Master, uh… I’ve already reached the first yer of the Evergreen Art. I wanted to ask you about alchemy…”

  Han Jihai sighed deeply and said earnestly:

  “Xiao Chen, you’re a good kid… Just don’t follow in your senior brother and sister’s footsteps, okay?”

  Lin Chen nodded earnestly.

  Only then did Han Jihai rex and say:

  “You want to learn alchemy?”

  “It’s still too early. Wait until you reach the mid-stage of Qi Refining, then I’ll teach you.”

  “You’ll also need a spiritual fire to refine pills properly.”

  “For now though…”

  Han Jihai thought for a moment and asked:

  “Are you willing to learn the art of Spirit Cultivation (Yuling) with me?”

  Spirit Cultivation?

  Lin Chen’s eyes lit up, and he quickly said:

  “Yes, Master! I’m willing!”

  The so-called Spirit Cultivation Art involved growing spirit pnts and cultivating spiritual farmnd.

  And Lin Chen just happened to be looking for a way to acquire spirit rice seeds to introduce them to Blue Star.

  What surprised him was that Han Jihai, upon hearing his agreement, was even more excited than he was. Tears shimmered faintly in his eyes.

  “The heavens have mercy! At st, a disciple willing to learn Spirit Cultivation…”“My lineage finally has a successor…”“Chen’er, why didn’t I meet you sooner?! What kind of karma did I suffer with those other disciples?”

  Seeing Han Jihai about to get emotional again, Lin Chen quickly interrupted:

  “Master, let’s just start learning Spirit Cultivation now!”

  Han Jihai nodded vigorously and led Lin Chen to the spirit fields.

  “Chen’er, Spirit Cultivation is a deep and complex art: summoning rain, fertilizing, weeding, hastening growth…”

  “But the first step is to sense the spiritual essence within the pnts—what we call the spirit of vegetation.”

  “Once you grasp this, you’ll be able to grow spirit pnts in decades that normally take centuries.”

  He rambled on for quite some time, then pulled out a small pouch and handed it to Lin Chen.

  “Inside are some spirit grains. Once you can sense the pnt spirits, try pnting some spirit rice.”

  That afternoon, Lin Chen followed Han Jihai and studied the Spirit Cultivation Art diligently.

  As dusk fell, he finally returned to his room.

  Tired after a long day, he found that his dinner included a few extra pieces of braised pork.

  After a hearty meal, he resumed practicing his breathing technique.

  Two hours of quiet cultivation passed…

  When Lin Chen finally finished, he clearly sensed a change in his body.

  Subconsciously, Lin Chen gnced at the blood energy value on his wristwatch—20.2!

  “Did I just… successfully break through to an intermediate martial artist?”

  “What happened to the bottleneck between beginner and intermediate? Why didn’t I feel it at all?”

  Lin Chen paused, confused.

  Logically, even for a genius martial artist, breaking through such bottlenecks usually took a day or two.

  But for him, it was as if the bottleneck simply vanished.

  Could it be the effect of spiritual food…?

  “Wait, the Marrow Cleansing Pill! It purifies and remakes the body…”

  Suddenly, a realization hit Lin Chen, and he muttered in awe:

  “It was the Marrow Cleansing Pill! It allowed me to bypass the martial bottleneck?!”

  “That effect… is way too overpowered!”

  Lin Chen could hardly imagine it—if he had no martial cultivation bottlenecks at all, how fast would his strength grow?

  And what if every martial artist in the Xia Nation could be free of such limitations?

  Then what were the demonic beasts and foreign races even worth?!

  Everyone could become a Martial God, and they could storm the beast dens and wipe them out…

  After pondering for a moment, Lin Chen said slowly:

  “No matter what, the Marrow Cleansing Pill’s effect far exceeded my expectations.”

  “Once I return to Blue Star, this pill will definitely attract national attention!”

  Originally, Lin Chen had only pnned to bring back spirit rice and rare metals, but now he had this amazing Marrow Cleansing Pill as well—an unexpected surprise.

  ——

  In the next two days, Lin Chen continued his daily cultivation and training under his master in Spirit Cultivation.

  Gradually, he began to faintly sense the so-called spirit of pnts and vegetation…

  Until the early morning of the eighth day, Lin Chen gnced at the countdown on his left arm.

  1 hour, 12 minutes.

  He had arrived on the first day at 6 a.m.—and at 6 a.m. on the eighth day, it would be a full 168 hours.

  Knowing the moment of return was near, Lin Chen ended his practice session and began checking the supplies he would take back to the Xia Nation.

  “One small pouch of spirit rice seeds—this is a must.”

  “Nine Marrow Cleansing Pills remaining…”

  “Two Clear Wind Talismans, one bottle of Vitality Pills…”

  “And five pieces of exotic metals, totaling about fifteen kilograms…”

  Lin Chen was cautious—he did not pce everything into the storage pouch, but carried them on his person instead.

  Because of the special nature of his time-travel method, he wasn’t sure if items in the pouch’s spatial dimension would return with him.

  Technically, items inside the storage pouch’s subspace were not in direct contact with his body.

  As for the weapons he brought from the Xia Nation, he just left them in the room.

  Since the return was instantaneous, he didn’t worry about anyone noticing anything strange.

  Looking at all the materials stuffed on his body, Lin Chen felt a strong sense of anticipation.

  “This is a critical step forward! Once I return to Blue Star, the cultivation world's resources will definitely gain massive national attention!”

  ——

  After making all the necessary preparations, Lin Chen took one st gnce at the countdown timer and silently counted in his mind:

  “Three… two…”

  “One!”

  In the next second, Wang Xinyu’s voice rang in his ears—

  “How much longer until the transfer starts?”

  (End of Chapter)