by Imperfection
"Fiend... you're in a bad mood."
Yun Miaoqing spoke while lifting her gaze toward Lü Yang, who sat with his eyes closed in rest.
"A little."
Lü Yang sighed and casually recounted the predicament he found himself in.
"This is what a Demonic Sect is. Treating its own disciples as expendable resources, utterly devoid of humanity." Yun Miaoqing parted her lips softly.
"Fiend... Fellow Daoist Lü, you have excellent talent and a fine temperament. Why debase yourself in a Demonic Sect like this?" Yun Miaoqing said. "If you release the seal on my body and help me escape from the sect, I can put in a word for you and have you taken in as a disciple of my Jade Pivot Sword Pavilion..."
Yun Miaoqing might want to court death, but he had no interest in accompanying her.
When poor, attend to your own virtue. The most pressing matter was still how to improve himself.
After careful deliberation, Lü Yang did not buy any Yin-Yang Immortal Blossoms. Instead, he spent every last point he had on ten Great Vitality Qi Pills that could increase his cultivation base.
This life has basically already reached a dead end.
After all, I have no intention of paying back those loans, and I'm not willing to waste decades slaving away either. Once the loans come due, I'm as good as dead.
So I have to use this time to improve myself as fast as possible!
Lü Yang had already made up his mind. When he started his next life, he would choose cultivation. To that end, he needed to raise his strength to a higher level as quickly as he could.
If my cultivation base is too low, Liu Xin might notice something when the time comes. So at the very least, I need to reach the same realm he was at back then.
Lü Yang thought it over. At minimum, mid-stage Qi Refinement, paired with an aura-concealing technique. Only then would I have a chance of hiding it from him.
Lü Yang had good reason for this confidence.
The Qi Refinement realm had ten layers, divided into early, mid, late, and peak stages. Within a minor stage, there were essentially no bottlenecks. One only needed to accumulate enough Qi to break through.
What truly trapped most Qi Refinement cultivators were the bottlenecks between the minor stages.
From early to mid-stage, from mid to late-stage, from late to peak-stage, the difficulty almost doubled with each step, leaving countless cultivators unable to advance even an inch.
By my calculations, ten Great Vitality Qi Pills plus the cave dwelling's spirit vein should be enough to push me to the third layer of Qi Refinement.
In fact, this is the cultivation level of most disciples in the sect. They rely on grinding away for years, slowly gaining seniority, only to get stuck at the early-stage bottleneck and become beasts of burden for the Saint Sect...
Under normal circumstances, Lü Yang would have been one of them.
But in this life, he held a variable in his hand.
With a thought, a wisp of white qi materialized in his hand, churning and billowing like smoke. It shifted at his command, one moment taking the shape of a sword, the next dissolving into thick mist.
Innate Primordial Qi.
According to Liu Xin, the greatest use of Innate Primordial Qi is actually helping someone break through bottlenecks. His breakthrough to late-stage Qi Refinement must have been thanks to it.
Liu Xin had used it to break through to late-stage Qi Refinement.
Using it to break through to mid-stage Qi Refinement should be no problem at all.
As long as I reach mid-stage Qi Refinement, this life won't have been wasted. Worst case, I start over immediately. With a higher cultivation base in my next life, my starting point will be that much better!
Moments later, a voice came from outside the cave dwelling.
His Great Vitality Qi Pills had arrived.
Lü Yang pushed open the door and stepped out, only to find a woman standing outside. She wore plain robes, her beauty rivaling Yun Miaoqing's, with a fuller, more voluptuous figure that was arguably even more striking.
"This humble one is Qingchen. Greetings, Junior Brother Lü." The woman bowed gracefully, then let out a soft laugh. The sound was almost bewitching, warm and inviting, the kind that made one instinctively feel well-disposed toward her. "I've been tasked with delivering the Great Vitality Qi Pills you purchased. Would Junior Brother please present his token for verification?"
Lü Yang knew the procedure and complied at once.
As they processed the handover, Fairy Qingchen probed gently, "For Junior Brother to purchase so many pills at once, could it be that you've come into some fortune?"
"Senior Sister flatters me."
Lü Yang shook his head, his face full of woe. "I've merely taken out several loans. I'm hoping to raise my cultivation base so I can take on some better-paying missions."
"I see."
Fairy Qingchen nodded, her expression full of concern. "Junior Brother needn't be so hard on himself. Which of us official disciples doesn't carry a few loans?
"However... if Qingchen may speak frankly, Junior Brother, you still don't know how to be flexible."
"Oh?"
Seeing Lü Yang's interest piqued, Fairy Qingchen smiled softly. "There are only so many sect missions to go around. How could you possibly pay off all those loans through missions alone?
"In the Saint Sect, if you only know how to walk the conventional path, you'll never get rich." Her voice was gentle and coaxing. "I actually thought Junior Brother had discovered some departed senior brother's cave dwelling and collected his legacy, thus making a huge fortune. That's why I took the liberty of asking. I didn't expect that wasn't the case."
"A cave dwelling..."
Lü Yang lowered his eyelids. His eyes were calm as still water, but he let his voice betray a hint of temptation. "This humble one is slow-witted. Would Senior Sister care to elaborate?"
"Does Junior Brother know that the Saint Sect was founded within the Heaven-Connecting Sea of Clouds?"
Fairy Qingchen spoke evenly. "Within the sea of clouds, beyond the four peaks of the Inner Sect, there are many other mountains, all established in the past by True Disciples and Elders.
"Yet the path to immortality is long. Over the years, some have inevitably fallen. After their deaths, their mountains and cave dwellings are not removed. They remain within the sea of clouds. While there is a certain degree of risk, every single one of them is a potential opportunity. Even the smallest gain could be exchanged for a massive amount of Contribution Points!"
"If Junior Brother is interested, I happen to have recently discovered a relatively safe cave dwelling..."
Really? I don't think so!
Lü Yang sneered inwardly. Fairy Qingchen's patient, step-by-step enticement was far too reminiscent of how Liu Xin had tricked him into cultivating the Innate Dao Scripture in his previous life.
She's fishing!
The so-called opportunity was nothing but bait.
It seems I've shown my hand. She saw a newly inducted disciple buying this many pills and wants to lure me out, kill me, and take them for herself.
With that thought, Lü Yang put on a look of interest. "I'll need to think it over."
"There's no rush." Fairy Qingchen nodded. "The verification procedure is complete. Once Junior Brother has made up his mind, feel free to contact me..."
"I've made up my mind. I'm not going."
The moment the procedure was done, Lü Yang snatched up the bottle of pills without another word and retreated into his cave dwelling, leaving Fairy Qingchen standing alone outside.
"???"
A moment later, Fairy Qingchen came to her senses and nearly ground her teeth to dust, her beautiful face contorted with killing intent.
"This Lü Yang... he actually dared to play me!"
She turned and left, quickly making her way to another cave dwelling.
---
Inside, a young Daoist in fine robes had been waiting for some time. Seeing Fairy Qingchen's dark expression, he frowned as well.
"It didn't work?"
Fairy Qingchen shook her head. "This person... is excessively cautious.
"And Senior Brother Zhao, he borrowed money but didn't buy the Yin-Yang Immortal Blossoms. He bought pills instead. I suspect he never intended to pay back the loan at all."
"Default on his debt? Not in this lifetime!"
Zhao Xuhe sneered and shook his head. "Do you know that for every newly inducted disciple, the Saint Sect has already secretly assigned them a price?
"And the total amount a disciple can borrow within the sect will never exceed their price. This ensures that no matter what happens, the sect can always recoup its costs. Flesh, bone, organs, soul... these are all valuable commodities, more than enough to settle any debt."
"He wants to raise his cultivation base? Let him.
"As long as the person is still here, a higher cultivation base only makes him worth more."
Zhao Xuhe bared his teeth in a grin that seemed to drip with the scent of blood. "When the time comes, not only will we break even, we might even turn a tidy profit."
"Besides, just because he can afford the pills doesn't mean he'll live long enough to use them. Isn't that right?"
"Senior Brother, you mean..."
Zhao Xuhe nodded slightly, his words laden with implication. "Many things are fine, so long as no one discovers them."
At those words, Fairy Qingchen's beautiful eyes lit up.