In the small grove, Liu Yi and Qian Duoduo stood facing each other, falling into a momentary silence.
Qian Duoduo, as his name suggested, relied on his startling business talent and the protection of his elder brother in the Inner Sect to lend out spirit fragmentation stones among the Outer Sect Disciples, thereby earning a vast amount of spirit fragmentation stones.
And at this moment, his shrewd eyes were showing the oppressive Aura of a creditor without any concealment.
After all, in order to break through his Qi Refining Stage, Liu Yi had borrowed a full 100 spirit fragmentation stones from him.
"Grandpa, you are my own dear grandpa!"
Qian Duoduo lunged forward and tightly hugged Liu Yi's thigh, shouting at the top of his lungs, "The debt of those 100 spirit fragmentation stones, you should finally pay me back now!"
"This debt has been owed for a full 30 years! Now I have finally managed to Cultivate to the Ninth Layer of Qi Refining and am about to charge toward the Foundation Establishment Realm; I need a massive amount of spirit fragmentation stones to buy Foundation Establishment Pills!"
Liu Yi's entire body instantly stiffened. He had long known that Qian Duoduo acted without regard for trivialities, but he hadn't expected the other party to be so utterly without a bottom line.
"If you want spirit fragmentation stones, I have none; if you want my life, I have one."
He sighed helplessly. "It's not that I don't want to pay you back, it's just that my pockets are shy; I can't even produce a single spirit fragmentation stone."
Instead of letting go, Qian Duoduo hugged even tighter, his face full of disbelief:
"You aren't working overtime to earn spirit fragmentation stones anymore, so haven't you struck it rich? Hurry and return my spirit fragmentation stones."
"Also, you better hurry up. If you still can't break through to the Foundation Establishment Realm by next year, you'll be expelled from the Tianqi Sect!"
"Overtime? It's impossible to work overtime again in this lifetime." Liu Yi shook his head with a bitter smile:
"Three days ago while working overtime, I almost lost my life. Even if I earn spirit fragmentation stones, what use is it if I'm not alive to spend them?"
"Besides, relying on that bit of spirit fragmentation stones from overtime is simply a drop in the bucket. Only 12 spirit fragmentation stones a year; wanting to break through to the Foundation Establishment Realm is simply a pipe dream."
Only then did Qian Duoduo let go, standing up and patting the dust off his clothes, his gaze full of doubt:
"Then what do you plan to do? You can't just wait around here."
"You're already 145 years old. If you can't reach Foundation Establishment within a year, you'll be expelled from the Sect. At that time, I'm afraid you won't last more than a few years. Do you really want to wait for death in despair?"
"I still want to Cultivate and achieve Immortal Ascension! Not working overtime means I'm thinking of a way!" Liu Yi curled his lip and responded crossly.
Qian Duoduo frowned and rubbed his chin, his tone certain: "To break through to the Foundation Establishment Realm, besides relying on a massive amount of Spirit Stones and Foundation Establishment Pills, there is simply no other way to break through quickly."
Suddenly, his eyes widened, and he stared at Liu Yi in shock. "Could it be that you've found a rich woman in the Tianqi Sect to take care of you?"
"Although I admit you are handsome and elegant with an extraordinary temperament, you are already 145 years old now."
"Although you look young on the outside due to the youth-retaining effects of the Immortal Cultivation Technique, in reality, you are a proper piece of 'old cured meat.' Can your body handle it?"
Liu Yi looked at Qian Duoduo's gossipy face, and black lines instantly covered his forehead. "Who is old cured meat? What nonsense are you thinking! How could I possibly do such a thing!"
But in his heart, he couldn't help but start calculating: "This actually is a path. Cultivators generally don't have bad looks; it seems selling my body isn't entirely out of the question."
As soon as the thought arose, he hurriedly shook his head to suppress the beautiful fantasy. "Forget it! Forget it! My body definitely couldn't take it, and if I become an Immortal in the future, this would be dark history. How embarrassing it would be if it got out!"
Qian Duoduo looked at Liu Yi's righteous and awe-inspiring appearance, and the doubt in his heart gradually faded.
After pondering for a moment, he reached into his robe and pulled out 5 spirit fragmentation stones, handing them over: "Brother Yi, take these 5 spirit fragmentation stones to use for now. Return them to me once you've struck it big in the future."
A smile tugged at the corners of Liu Yi's lips as he reached out to take the spirit fragmentation stones: "Don't worry, once I've struck it big, I will definitely pay you back."
"I'll remember those words!" Qian Duoduo waved his hand, turned around, and strode away.
Watching that receding figure, a sense of warmth rose in Liu Yi's heart.
With Qian Duoduo's shrewdness, how could he not understand that these spirit fragmentation stones would surely be borrowed without return?
Rather than a loan, it was more like providing timely help in a desperate situation.
Thinking of this, Liu Yi couldn't help but feel that his predecessor's luck wasn't too bad.
Back when Qian Duoduo had first entered the Outer Sect, as a Senior, he had merely given him a hand in passing, yet it had earned him this friendship.
Liu Yi gathered his thoughts, turned to leave the grove, and walked quickly toward the Scripture Pavilion.
He urgently wanted to gain a deeper understanding of this world by reading ancient texts, while also searching for a Cultivation Technique to lay the foundation for creating his own technique in the future.
The Scripture Pavilion of the Tianqi Sect was magnificent, divided into nine floors in total.
The first floor displayed Qi Refinement Stage techniques as well as basic theories for Formations, Alchemy, and Artifact Refining, along with Jianghu martial arts Secret Manuals from the Mortal Realm.
Any one of these martial arts manuals, if circulated in the Jianghu, could trigger a bloodbath.
According to the Sect's regulations, the first floor of the Scripture Pavilion was open to all Disciples for free; the second floor required a daily payment of 10 spirit fragmentation stones to enter; and for the third floor and above, one must use Sect contribution points to exchange for reading privileges.
Liu Yi stepped into the Scripture Pavilion. The vast first floor appeared exceptionally empty. Over a hundred thousand volumes of books were neatly arranged on rows of bookshelves, yet only about ten people were buried in their reading.
Without the slightest hesitation, he went straight to the Qi Refinement Stage technique area and found the bookshelf where the Five Elements Spiritual Root techniques were kept.
He saw that there were only about thirty Secret Manuals on the shelf.
He casually picked one up and began reading it quickly.
Relying on his photographic memory, in a short amount of time, he had committed all the content of the book to heart.
Immediately after, he began reading other Secret Manuals, greedily absorbing the knowledge like a thirsty person drinking water.
Ten days later, Liu Yi had finished reading all the different elemental Qi Refinement Stage Secret Manuals in the Scripture Pavilion.
After this extensive reading, he had a new idea for creating his own technique. He planned to make improvements based on the Five Elements Qi Refining Art he was currently practicing, integrating the essence of various Secret Manuals.
The goal was to make the speed of Spiritual Qi absorption and refinement faster. This way, he could accumulate spiritual power more quickly to break through Realms.
However, he also remembered from the novels he read in his past life that if one could open up all the acupoints in the body and utilize them, the cultivation speed and potential would be greatly enhanced.
Coincidentally, he discovered that his 129,600 acupoints were actually all unobstructed. He didn't know if this was a benefit brought by his Transmigration.
Such an opportunity must not be missed!
To miss it would be to invite a lightning strike from the heavens!
Liu Yi no longer hesitated and immediately mobilized his powerful deduction ability, beginning to frantically deduce in his mind.
In an instant, a large number of Cultivation Techniques flowed rapidly through his mind. He screened for the essence and discarded the dregs, gradually integrating them into the Five Elements Qi Refining Art.
Another ten days passed, and Liu Yi opened his tired eyes.
The new technique was complete!
But he also found that his deduction ability still had great limitations.
His computing power was insufficient. Although his current deduction ability was relatively strong, it was still difficult to meet the demand of deducing a Cultivation Technique in a short period of time.
During these ten days, he had to work his shift and deduce the technique; he almost died from overwork again.
High-intensity deduction was truly too dangerous; it almost made his head smoke. It would be great if he could enhance his deduction computing power.
For now, he could only think of two ways to enhance his deduction computing power.
Either strengthen his Soul, or refine an auxiliary deduction cheat brain, just like a computer from his past life, to enhance computing power.
But he had no way to strengthen his Soul, and as for refining a cheat brain, he knew absolutely nothing about Artifact Refining knowledge.
So these ideas could only be set aside for now.
Liu Yi examined the self-created Five Elements Qi Refining Art 2.0, his heart full of complexity.
The new technique was indeed powerful beyond imagination, but the dangers hidden within were equally chilling.
After all, it was a brand-new Mind-Cultivation Technique born entirely from deduction. No one had ever practiced it before. Even a slight mistake could cost him his life.
His expression flickered uncertainly. After a long silence, he finally gritted his teeth and decided to practice it.
Cultivating might not necessarily lead to death, but not cultivating definitely would. It was only the difference between dying sooner or later.
Either way, it was death; he might as well take a gamble.
This Cultivation World was already crazy and mad enough.
If he wanted to survive, he had to be even crazier and madder than them.
Thinking of this, Liu Yi sat cross-legged. After taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and cautiously circulated the technique.