Everyone was clear on one point. The critical issue was to find the father and son of the Yan family. No matter if it was the Floating Cloud Valley or the Flame Spirit sect alliances, they all sent out countless disciples to search everywhere for their whereabouts.

But Lin Xuan was careful and meticulous when he took action and did not leave any evidence or tracks. The various sects worked for a long while and still did not turn up anything.

Only when Lin Xuan finished purifying the pills and came out to get some fresh air did he hear about these things from Zhao Ming. He did not show anything on his face but was endlessly shocked in his heart.

He did not think that the death of the father and son of the Yan family would cause such an uproar. Of course, he did not feel guilty about it at all.

Firstly, the reason for this whole affair was because Yan Tian Heng attacked and killed the people of w.a.n.g family and stole their cultivation technique. That had nothing to do with Lin Xuan. Secondly, Lin Xuan killed the two of them because they wanted him to die there. Should he not have taken action and waited for them to kill him?

Lin Xuan was not dumb. If you do not offend me, then I won’t offend you. If you offend me, then I will immediately and mercilessly take action. To survive in the cultivation world, one needed to learn how to be cold-hearted. Lin Xuan was not addicted to killing, but when dealing with enemies, he would not show a shred of mercy.

It doesn’t matter how big the uproar in the world is, it had nothing to do with him. Even if the sky fell, there would be people higher than him to support it, he would let those expert elders worry about it. As to himself, his top priority right now to was single-heartedly devote himself to raising his strength.

Because Lin Xuan’s cultivation was still not at a level where he did not need sustenance, he ordered Zhao Ming to have the kitchen prepare for him a lot of dried meats and rations. The children were not suspicious at all, they thought that the lord immortal was preparing to shut himself in and sleep in again.

After having finished preparing everything, Lin Xuan started to focus on cultivating.

Consuming pills everyday, sitting meditation, training his spirit……

This so-called cultivation was basically absorbing the energy of heaven and earth. changing it into one’s own spiritual power, and storing in one’s dantian. But the cultivation techniques of the Spirit Gathering stage were very basic which all involved the circulation of that vital energy.

Although they were all about moving the vital energy through one’s meridians, but different cultivation techniques had different paths through the meridians. The effects on one’s cultivation were also very large.

For example. the cultivation technique that Lin Xuan previously practised. It was only a basic one that the sect gave to ordinary disciples. The rate at which it converted the natural energy to spiritual power was only so-so. It also didn’t have any special characteristics.

But in this journey, other than the mid-rank cultivation technique, he also bought the Soaring Cloud technique. This was the best basic cultivation technique of the Soaring Cloud sect. Compared to the Flying Cloud Spirit technique that the Floating Cloud Valley gave to its disciples, it was not at all inferior. They each had their own merits.

Lin Xuan held the jade slip in his hand and inserted his spiritual sense into it. Immediately afterwards, he lifted his head, a happy expression on his face. The Soaring Cloud technique had a well-deserved reputation. The path of circulation of vital energy described in it was more exquisite, fine, and meticulous. Although he had not yet practised it, with just a look, he could already tell that it was out of the ordinary.

Calming down and sitting down, Lin Xuan wanted for the effects of the pills he consumed to manifest, then following the methods recorded in the Soaring Cloud technique, started the new path of circulation of vital energy.

……

Four hours later, Lin Xuan opened his eyes. With that cultivation technique he was practising before, it would only take a little over one hour to complete one cycle of vital energy circulation. But now he had spent over three times that, and the tempering effects on his meridians were better than before. Also, the rate at which natural vital energy was converted was greatly increased. This Floating Cloud technique was definitely not an ordinary technique.

But it can’t be said that there were no downsides. Compared to ordinary cultivation techniques, the circulation of vital energy of the Floating Cloud technique was much harder. Doing it once would consume five or six times the amount of energy that would have been consumed before.

If it was someone ordinary, they would definitely not be able to persevere.

Lin Xuan finally understood why the sect only gave the ordinary disciples basic cultivation techniques and only gave those elite disciples the good techniques. It wasn’t that the sect did not want to keep it a secret, but instead, the better the cultivation technique, the harder it was to practice. The vital energy circulation of these techniques would not be able to be practised by these disciples with lower apt.i.tudes.

As for Lin Xuan, he was a special case. Although he had no spiritual roots, but he was wise and extremely tenacious. He was even able to endure the Heart Refinement Road. Normally, where everyone else did three circulations of vital energy, he did nine. Therefore, although he had low natural talent, with his willpower, he was still able to learn such a cultivation technique.

This had nothing to do with the support of pills. It was purely because Lin Xuan worked harder than others.

……

Day after day pa.s.sed, in the blink of an eye, over a month had pa.s.sed.

The waste pills storage was quiet was usual, the children were bored and once again, sunning themselves. The manager’s door was still closed. They really admired that fact that he could sleep for so long.

This was all a ruse by Lin Xuan to avoid the suspicion of others. In reality, at this moment, he had arrived at a critical point of breaking through the bottleneck.

With the Floating Cloud technique and the support of the medicinal pills, Lin Xuan made progress with lightning speed in the short period. He had already arrived at the peak of the fourth layer. With one more step forward, he would be able to step into the realm of the latter layers of the Spirit Gathering stage.

He consumed two mid-grade pills and started to attempt to break through. The spiritual power in his body endlessly circulated and formed into a ball in his dantian. The vital energy he absorbed mixed with the medicinal power of the pills and continuously supplemented that ball of spiritual energy.

The originally light cyan ball of spiritual energy, under the nourishment of medicinal power, started to become darker in colour. It started to speedily rotate and then started to decompose into many strands of spiritual power.

The ball of spiritual power became smaller. But the spiritual power in his meridians was continually being replenished. Just like this, they once again entered into the ball of spiritual energy and were tempered once more before being dispersed.

Do not underestimate this process. It was easy to describe but very hard to complete. If one was even slightly inattentive, the spiritual energy ball would split open, cause one to fail in breaking through the bottleneck.

But if all the spiritual power in one’s body underwent this tempering, then they would undergo a metamorphosis. They would have successfully stepped past the threshold of the latter stages of the Spirit Gathering stage.

Lin Xuan’s forehead was drenched with sweat. He was being very careful. It took a lot of effort to arrive at this stage, he did not want all of his previous effort to go to waste.

The minutes and seconds ticked past. Lin Xuan’s clothes had all been drenched with sweat but he stayed motionless and continued to persevere.

……

Another two hours pa.s.sed. Lin Xuan suddenly swayed and fell back onto the hardwood floor. It was not because he had failed in breaking through the bottleneck. He had succeeded but was so exhausted that he did not even have the power to sit up.

“So dangerous!” Although he was so tired that he did not even want to move his fingers, he still had a smile on his face. He has finally reached the fifth layer and entered into the latter layers of the Spirit Gathering stage.