Sun Yigao

Lin Xiao took out the freshly minted Purification Spell from his private vault.

He flipped through it.

Good heavens!

Pleasant surprise burst from Lin Xiao's eyes.

It was much better than he had imagined!

This Purification Spell was a progressive spell.

It had a total of five tiers.

The first tier was the Dust Removal Spell. As the name suggested, it removed surface-level impurities like dust.

The second tier was the Qi Purification Spell. It could purify foul and polluted qi, refining qi such as spiritual qi, human qi, and so on.

The third tier, the Mind Purification Spell, could purify the soul and the sea of consciousness.

The fourth tier, the Cleansing Spell, could cleanse people or objects. In other words, as long as he had enough spiritual qi, he could even directly cleanse a non-cultivator into a spiritual qi cultivator.

The fifth tier, the Eradication Spell. To eradicate meant to annihilate, completely wipe out, and obliterate.

[Ding— Detected that the system's host is currently a sect master and lacks the time to attend to everything. Special spell cultivation privileges have been unlocked for the host. From this day forward, all spells created by the host will automatically be considered learned by the host to save time. It is hoped that the host can expand and strengthen the sect as soon as possible and not disappoint the system's expectations.]

Hearing this sudden great news, Lin Xiao was extremely delighted. Then, he asked the system:

"Can't the cultivation methods be exempted from practicing as well?"

[Ding— Because cultivation methods are directly linked to the host's dao heart, they require the dual tempering of time and state of mind in order to prove the dao in the future. If the host chooses to give up ascending to become an immortal in the future, the system can unlock a cultivation exemption function for advancement. Becoming a Golden Core expert overnight will not be a dream.]

[Does the host wish to give up attaining the dao and becoming an immortal to unlock the cultivation exemption function?]

Heh.

Lin Xiao decisively chose no.

He could use idle cultivation now anyway.

There was no need to give up the excellent opportunity to attain the dao and become an immortal just for the likes of the Golden Core or Nascent Soul realms.

It wasn't worth it at all.

Idle cultivation was still the best; it just cost a few spirit stones, that was all.

Moreover, when he had free time, comprehending the cultivation method could also greatly increase his cultivation progress.

With the spells, Lin Xiao was like a child who had just received a new toy.

He stood up and cast a Dust Removal Spell on the straw mat he had just been sitting on.

In the blink of an eye, the already newly made straw mat looked brand new again.

The sun-dried, yellow wheat stalks even faintly gleamed.

However, Lin Xiao felt that the spiritual power in his dantian hadn't decreased at all.

He didn't know if it was because the Dust Removal Spell consumed very little spiritual power to begin with, or if he already possessed a lot of spiritual power despite only being at the second level of Qi Condensation.

It would be great if Fuzi could also use spells; that way, he would have a point of reference.

Looking at the second-tier Qi Purification Spell, Lin Xiao didn't continue experimenting.

One reason was that he had no target to cast the spell on.

The other reason was for safety.

Theoretically speaking, the current Lin Xiao could use all five tiers of the Purification Spell.

As long as he had enough spiritual power in his body.

But in reality, there was also the issue of the size of his output channels.

The instantaneous spiritual power output required for each tier of the Purification Spell was not on the same scale.

Currently only at the second level of Qi Condensation, even if he had enough spiritual power in his body, rashly using a high-tier Purification Spell would suddenly output an excessive amount of spiritual power, which would very likely rupture his meridians.

Therefore, although he really wanted to try the latter few spells.

Lin Xiao still refrained from doing so.

In immortal cultivation, it was best to play it safe.

It was nearing noon.

Jiang Youfu came out of the thatched shed, holding his belly.

"Brother Xiao, is it time for lunch? I'm so hungry."

Lin Xiao looked up, saw the bright sun hanging right above their heads, nodded, and stood up:

"Let's go, we're going to catch some shrimp today."

Upon hearing about catching shrimp, Jiang Youfu's eyes lit up.

Not to brag, but no one in the entire village was as skilled at catching shrimp as his Brother Xiao!

The amount of shrimp others caught in half a day wasn't even as much as his Brother Xiao could catch in half an hour!

Although the spring shrimp weren't plump, they tasted incredibly good. Jiang Youfu immediately grabbed some dry rations and followed Lin Xiao down the mountain.

A stream wrapped around the edge of Xiushui Village.

The villagers called this stream the Mountain Stream.

Because it flowed out from the mountain range to the north.

The Mountain Stream surrounded half of Xiushui Village, so the villagers all felt that their village was encircled by mountains and water, giving it excellent feng shui. Whenever they went to the market and chatted with people from neighboring villages, they loved to show off their superiority using their village's terrain.

Arriving at an inlet of the Mountain Stream where fish and shrimp gathered, Jiang Youfu and Lin Xiao squatted down and splashed handfuls of water onto their faces to wash up.

Jiang Youfu comfortably sprawled out on the tender green grass.

"Cultivating a bit, catching some fish and shrimp, and having a good meal in this beautiful scenery. Brother Xiao, I think living my life just like this is pretty great."

Lin Xiao stood up, preparing to catch shrimp. Hearing him say this, he broke into a smile and said:

"I think so too."

Jiang Youfu just lay there looking at Lin Xiao, silently sighing in his heart:

My Brother Xiao is really handsome, and he looks even more handsome when he smiles. No wonder everyone in the village, from seventy-year-old grannies to three-year-old little girls, likes him.

If only I could have three parts, no, two parts of Brother Xiao's handsomeness...

Then, Jiang Youfu turned his head and saw his own bulging belly.

He paused, then silently shifted his gaze away.

He turned his head to look downstream. Suddenly, as if he had discovered something novel, he immediately sat up and nudged Lin Xiao, who was earnestly catching shrimp beside him, with his elbow.

Lin Xiao didn't even lift his head as he asked, "What is it?"

Jiang Youfu pointed far downstream and said:

"Brother Xiao, look! Isn't that Sun Yigao, who resolved to study diligently at home for ten years? He actually came out to fetch water. Did the sun rise from the west today?"

Lin Xiao hastily looked up and glanced over, only catching a rough outline of the person before lowering his head to continue focusing on catching shrimp.

"Can't you allow him to be considerate of his family's hard work and come out to fetch some water?"

Jiang Youfu said, "Sigh, no way, do I look like that kind of person? Brother Xiao, you don't know Sun Yigao's mother. Their house is behind mine. Let me tell you, that auntie is fierce. In the past, Tietou and I went to look for Sun Yigao to play, but Auntie Sun directly chased us out, telling us not to disturb her son's reading.

Normally, let alone fetching water, she wouldn't even let Sun Yigao touch a broom or a rag at home. Once, Uncle Sun asked Sun Yigao to go to Hunter Yang's house to buy some meat. Auntie Sun threw a fit at Uncle Sun over this matter for a whole day. I heard it loud and clear from my house."

Lin Xiao treated it as just listening to gossip and casually said:

"Spoiling a child is like harming a child."

Jiang Youfu nodded repeatedly:

"Exactly. My mother said that Sun Yigao is a pretty good kid, but being raised like this by Auntie Sun will ruin him. Fortunately, Uncle Sun isn't muddle-headed, but he can't withstand Auntie Sun arguing with him about these things all day long. Normally, he just pretends not to see it and only teaches Sun Yigao a few things in private.

I just don't know what happened today for the Sun family to actually have Sun Yigao come out to fetch water."

Hearing Jiang Youfu say this, Lin Xiao looked up downstream again.

Now at the second level of Qi Condensation, his eyesight was excellent.

He saw a young man downstream, about fifteen or sixteen years old, wearing a long gown with his sleeves rolled up, very clumsily using a wooden bucket to fetch water from the stream.