Learn from the Bitter Experience

Thus, after reflecting on their painful experience, the two decided to set aside their experiments for the time being and devote themselves to cultivation.

That way, they would also have time to wait until they encountered another Tempered Ice Soul, instead of being troubled by their insufficient cultivation.

In any case, they had already researched many different types of pills—enough to sustain the sect’s external trade. The methods for refining them had also been greatly simplified, and were now kept in the Alchemy Hall, where anyone in the sect could go to study them.

Everyone in the Alchemy Hall had mastered the refinement techniques for those pills. They were more than capable of teaching others as well.

And so, master and disciple Liao Pantu and Sun Yigao learned their lesson and decisively entered seclusion to focus on improving their cultivation.

However, as the saying went, those above set the example for those below.

With the two leaders of the Alchemy Hall entering seclusion because their cultivation was insufficient to support further research and refinement of pills, how could the others in the Alchemy Hall possibly sit still?

The people of the Alchemy Hall, who had originally led busy, fulfilling, and comfortable lives, could not help but put cultivation on their agenda as well.

After all, over the past three years, the old members of the Lingxian Sect had enjoyed peaceful lives. Each day, everyone had immersed themselves in their own careers and hobbies. Those who loved farming worked hard in the fields, while those obsessed with pill refinement spent every day in the Alchemy Hall.

As for cultivation, aside from conscientiously checking in at the cultivation room every morning, they had basically made no other plans.

In fact, over the past few years, some people had even left the cultivation room early because they were thinking about newly planted seeds, newly learned pill recipes, formation patterns, or other matters they considered more important than cultivation.

After all, when someone does something for a long time without a strong sense of purpose, and there are other matters right before them that they can easily attend to, that task will gradually be pushed aside.

There was nothing that could be done about it.

Cultivation sounded simple enough, but it was ultimately something that could almost be said to have no end.

The hardest thing of all was persisting day after day.

As for the later-arriving disciples of Qingyun Peak, most of them had not been particularly gifted at cultivation to begin with. Moreover, many senior members of the sect had been guiding them in learning and experimenting with all kinds of novel cultivation arts.

After spending several months settling into the sect, they had not neglected their cultivation, thanks to the daily lessons at the Cultivation Hall and the enthusiasm that came with having just crossed the threshold into cultivation. But it would be an exaggeration to say that every one of them was full of drive.

Although the disciples of Qingyun Peak had also been divided into study groups so that everyone could encourage and supervise one another, outstanding individuals were still few and far between.

The truly astonishing cultivation speeds belonged only to the most gifted disciples. Those who were merely a little slower made up the majority.

A single step behind led to falling behind at every step. Falling behind at every step eventually gave rise to indifference.

That was how most things in this world worked.

Fortunately, Liao Pantu and Sun Yigao had now taken the lead. Furthermore, the matter concerned the ability of everyone in the Alchemy Hall to continue refining pills smoothly in the future. This finally rekindled their determination to work harder at cultivation.

Most of them were still not particularly advanced in cultivation, so all they needed to do was cultivate diligently in their rooms late at night. This did not affect the Alchemy Hall’s output too much.

Thus, Liao Pantu and Sun Yigao could enter seclusion without any worries. Lin Xiao had also just come out of seclusion, so he probably would not enter it again anytime soon.

With the sect master overseeing the bigger picture, they naturally had nothing to worry about.

Lin Xiao had originally wanted them to enter seclusion in the Nature Platform.

However, neither of them was currently at the threshold of a breakthrough, so they had no intention of entering the Nature Platform. Instead, each chose a place they personally favored for cultivation.

Liao Pantu naturally chose Changming Mountain.

He had long since made arrangements for all the plants and medicinal herbs in the Yaoguang Minor World.

For every precious medicinal herb, he had carefully recorded its growth characteristics, the various problems that might arise, and several possible solutions for each one.

He had even considered paying out of his own pocket to recruit people within the sect and have them learn how to care for the herbs one-on-one.

Lin Xiao, however, had stopped him.

Instead, he hired twenty sect members, paying them in sect contributions, and assigned them to take responsibility for different medicinal herbs. They did not need to watch over the plants constantly; they only had to make time to come and tend to them each day.

However, they had to quickly learn every detail about the habits and characteristics of the herbs under their care.

Under Liao Pantu’s intensive instruction, this was not much of a problem.

At the same time, Lin Xiao hired six other sect members to guard the medicinal herb garden. They worked in pairs, with three teams taking turns on duty each day.

These guards also had to learn some basic knowledge about the precious medicinal herbs. This would ensure that they could provide proper day-to-day care. If a problem arose, even if they could not immediately identify its cause and resolve it, they would at least be able to notice that something was wrong and promptly notify the person responsible for that particular herb.

With that, Liao Pantu could finally enter seclusion at Changming Mountain with peace of mind.

As for Sun Yigao, the place he chose for cultivation was not a quiet room where he could be alone.

Once he decided to focus on cultivation, he made no preparations at all. He simply went straight to the entrance of Yaoguang Floating Island and sat down cross-legged before the Heart-Aligning Mirror.

He then took stack after stack of books from his storage ring and arranged them beside him. He even set up a small formation to protect the books from being damaged by wind, sunlight, or rain.

Out of curiosity, Jiang Youfu and the others had been watching from the side in secret. After seeing Sun Yigao arrange everything, they watched as he sat beside the pile of books, picked up one of them, and began reading with complete concentration.

From time to time, other people passed by to enter or leave the floating island, or some noise arose nearby, but none of it disturbed him in the slightest.

From the moment he began reading, it was as if the words in the book were the only things in his eyes. Nothing in the outside world could move him.

Jiang Youfu, Liu Yunan, and the others could not help sighing in admiration from the side.

He really was still the same scholar from their village who had never been without a book in his hands.

When they were children, the youths from Clear Water Village had rarely interacted with Sun Yigao. They might not even have run into him once in an entire year. Even so, they had always admired someone their own age who could be so disciplined.

When they were young and ignorant, they had thought that if they were shut up at home every day with a densely written book of incomprehensible text, they would never be able to endure it.

As they grew older, they saw that he was still the same. And when they recalled that they themselves could not even stick with the simplest childish games for long, the admiration in their hearts—though they were not consciously aware of it—had already sunk deep within them.

And so, from that day onward, the overall atmosphere within the Lingxian Sect suddenly grew more subdued and focused.

Those who had unknowingly pushed cultivation further and further down their list of priorities quietly brought it back up in their hearts, once again placing it among the most important things in their lives.

Lin Xiao saw this change very clearly and could not help feeling impressed.

Some people simply possessed the ability to make others look to them and strive to follow their example.

They needed no words of persuasion or stern urging. They were silent yet powerful whirlpools, drawing everyone along in the direction of their own footsteps.