The Ninth Level of Qi Refining

With this Yin-Yang Slaughter Array, thinking of that evil aura, Lin Xiao felt a bit more confident in his heart.

He really wanted to see the effects of this array right now, but seeing the requirement of one hundred spirit stones, he could only flinch and step back.

But then Lin Xiao thought about it. Although he couldn't casually throw in a hundred spirit stones, he could try connecting the nodes of the array disk. With some proficiency, he wouldn't be caught off guard when he actually needed to use it.

Thus, he placed the Yin-Yang Slaughter Array disk on the ground and began injecting his own spiritual power to connect the nodes on it.

He wouldn't have known without trying, but once he did, he was startled!

As soon as Lin Xiao's spiritual power entered the array disk, he discovered that there were actually 108 nodes inside!

Good heavens.

And when he tried to connect the first node, he felt his spiritual power flowing into it thread by thread like a trickling stream. He wanted to increase the output of spiritual power, but he felt a sense of sluggish resistance that prevented him from expanding the flow.

However, Lin Xiao could feel that if his cultivation base advanced to the next level, this sluggish resistance would lessen significantly.

In other words, the higher the cultivation, the faster the speed of activating a node.

After a good while, Lin Xiao's spiritual power finally connected the first node and began to enter the next one.

And this was only the first one!

Yet this array disk possessed a total of one hundred and eight nodes!

That meant, with his current cultivation, activating this array disk would actually take nearly two hours!

Lin Xiao thought to himself, that was close.

Fortunately, he had tested it first. Otherwise, if he only discovered this problem when he truly needed to use it, he would have coughed up blood in frustration.

However, after his initial shock over the activation time required for this array disk, Lin Xiao felt even more confident in its power.

Just activating it required him to spend two hours, and after activation, it still needed an investment of a hundred spirit stones. With such massive preliminary preparation, the corresponding power would certainly not be small!

With that, Lin Xiao withdrew his hands in satisfaction and stored the array disk in his private inventory.

Now that he knew the specific situation, Lin Xiao decided not to continue for the time being.

Two whole hours. Instead of wasting that much time, he might as well meditate.

So Lin Xiao quietly went to the cultivation room and joined the others inside in focused meditation and cultivation.

Time flew by rapidly.

When the sun was about to disappear over the horizon, the system's voice rang out in Lin Xiao's mind.

[Ding—Congratulations to the host for advancing to the ninth level of Qi Refining.]

Originally already at the eighth level and about to break through, he successfully stepped into the realm of the ninth level of Qi Refining on the evening of the first day after leaving the secret realm.

Next up!

Foundation Establishment!

Lin Xiao was full of anticipation.

At this time, the crowd in the cultivation room also began to emerge from their meditative states one after another.

Earlier, when Lin Xiao and Sun Yigao had brought Senior Liao over, it was still cultivation time. Therefore, even though everyone had many questions and curiosities in their hearts, they had temporarily held them in.

Now that cultivation was over, they all crowded around them, asking for the details of their trip to the secret realm. Even Yang Jinshu was no exception, though she was a bit more reserved and stood on the outer edge of the crowd.

Only Liao Pantu, who was standing near the crowd, noticed that Lin Xiao had advanced.

He was extremely surprised by Lin Xiao's cultivation speed.

Meanwhile, Lin Xiao was addressing the lively crowd:

"Everyone, don't get excited yet. We'll find another time to properly tell you all the stories from the secret realm! Right now, we have an important place to go! Come, come, everyone follow me. I'll take you to see something good."

Saying this, Lin Xiao waved his hand and led the group out of the cultivation room. More than ten people enthusiastically ran towards the small hill near the sect!

From a distance, the crowd could see eleven houses standing on the hill.

When they arrived at the foot of the hill and heard Lin Xiao say that these were for everyone to use as their living quarters in the sect, everyone boiled over with excitement!

Especially the teenagers.

They actually had their own houses!

This wasn't like at home, sharing with family members, but a private little space that belonged entirely to them alone!

For teenagers, having their own private space was such a delightful thing!

So when Lin Xiao waved his hand again and said:

"Go pick your own!"

After that, everyone immediately charged up the hill like wild horses, rushing into the rooms to claim one for themselves on a first-come, first-served basis.

Only Lin Yun, Yang Jinshu, and Sun Yigao remained standing properly beside Lin Xiao.

Faintly, Jiang Youfu's voice drifted down from the hilltop:

"No, no, this room has to be saved for Brother Xiao—"

Then, a few people were seen playfully running out of the topmost house and into other houses, continuing to jokingly fight over them.

It wasn't that they absolutely wanted a specific house; they just wanted to play around and compete.

By the time everyone had fooled around enough, the houses were basically allocated.

Only then did the crowd head home under the moonlight.

And Liao Pantu became the first resident of this sect dormitory area.

Little Luan looked at his half-black, half-white face and felt a bit scared. She didn't choose to live with him, but instead ran back to the thatched shed at the entrance of the mountain path to continue nesting there.

After returning home, Lin Xiao brought up the matter of cultivation with Lin Dayou at the dinner table again.

"Dad, look, even Aunt Yang went. You're a grown man, why do you have so little courage!"

Lin Dayou only felt his temples throb fiercely. It took a lot of effort to restrain his itching palms. He took a fierce bite of his steamed bun, glared at Lin Xiao, and said:

"If I run up the mountain to cultivate, what about our family's fields? Huh? You silly kid, it's easy for you to say!"

Lin Xiao immediately replied:

"I'll do it, I'll do it. Isn't it just weeding, fertilizing, and watering? I can do it!"

Lin Dayou snorted:

"You? I'm afraid you'll drown all my good seedlings!"

Lin Yun, who was sitting to the side, immediately chimed in:

"Dad, I'll go with him. I'll keep an eye on Erlang!"

Seeing his older brother cooperating so well, Lin Xiao immediately nodded:

"Exactly, exactly, with my brother accompanying me. Look, for those two plots of land our family has, using magic spells won't take me any time at all, right? After my brother and I finish, we'll go up the mountain to cultivate. It won't be any trouble at all!"

With that, Lin Dayou thought about it for a moment before finally agreeing.

When Lin Dayou went up the mountain the next day and was surprised to see the houses covering the hill next to the sect's main hall, he couldn't help but feel a bit emotional.

A month ago, this kid was still asking him to build a house for him.

Now, he could actually build an entire hill's worth of houses all by himself.

For a moment, Lin Dayou somewhat wanted to go to Tomb Mountain to share with his wife the gratification of an old father that he was finally experiencing.

Lin Dayou going up the mountain to cultivate was, unsurprisingly, also handed over to Sun Yigao.

Now, he followed along with Lin Lei, learning to read characters while studying the Taoyuan Myriad Void Art with Sun Yigao.

Although Sun Yigao had now switched to cultivating the Origin Heart Sutra, he was, after all, someone who had cultivated the Taoyuan Myriad Void Art for a period of time previously.