"Xiao, I'm heading out."
Liu Benxin finished tending his Spirit Field early, just as he always did. He waved goodbye to Xiao Chen, who was meditating at the edge of the field, then made his way to the sect's Cultivation Chamber.
He had no shortage of funds for the Cultivation Chamber, so he always went to cultivate in the ones built on the Spirit Vein.
The concentration of Spiritual Qi there was higher and more conducive to Introducing Qi into the Body.
Influenced—or rather, spurred on—by Xiao Chen, Liu Benxin had also increased his daily cultivation time, trying to reach the sixth level of Qi Refining as quickly as possible.
He admired his neighbor from the bottom of his heart.
After returning from the Feihong Mountain Range, Xiao Chen had spent just a few days reading, apparently catching up on some knowledge about Spirit Beasts.
Then, he had resumed his former arduous cultivation routine. Outside of tending to his Spirit Field, he spent all his remaining time meditating.
At first, Liu Benxin had also tried to imitate Xiao Chen, wanting to see if there was anything special about his cultivation method.
But he soon found he couldn't stand it; after all, refining Spiritual Qi was an incredibly tedious affair.
You introduce Qi into the body, refine it into Magical Power using a fixed Technique, and circulate it along the route prescribed by your Heart Method, either in a Grand Circulation or a Minor Circulation. The rest is just repeating this process endlessly.
Repeating a task with fixed steps ten times isn't difficult. Repeating it a hundred times becomes annoying. Repeating it a thousand, or even ten thousand times, is simply a form of torture.
Liu Benxin simply couldn't understand how Xiao Chen possessed such immense self-control.
Of course, Xiao Chen wasn't as incredible as Liu Benxin imagined. The reason he could be so disciplined was that with each day of practice, he could feel himself making tangible progress.
Especially after consuming the Purple Peach Blossoms and the Qi Gathering Pill, his cultivation speed was fifteen times that of an ordinary cultivator.
His actual gains were nearly thirty-fold!
One day of his cultivation was roughly equivalent to a month for the other Outer Disciples, so the progress he felt was naturally quite distinct.
With such immediate and continuous positive feedback, he naturally had plenty of motivation to cultivate.
More than half a month passed quietly in this fulfilling routine.
Until one day, Steward Chen arrived and asked, "Xiao Chen, there's a victory banquet today. Are you going?"
Xiao Chen emerged from a patch of spirit rice in the Spirit Field that was as tall as a man, looking a bit dazed. "Whose victory banquet?"
"You really don't know!" Steward Chen was astonished. "The Three-Sect Joint Competition was just a few days ago. How could you not have heard a peep about something so important?"
"No wonder I didn't see you in Heishi County."
"Huh?" Xiao Chen blinked. "No one told me."
Steward Chen comforted him, "It's all right. It was a Beast Taming tournament. I recall you don't practice Beast Taming, so it's no great loss that you missed it."
"That said, your personality is a bit too withdrawn. You should get out and interact with your fellow disciples more. Then you wouldn't be so clueless about major events like this."
Xiao Chen nodded in agreement. "I understand. I'll try to be more social in the future."
Steward Chen explained, "The Three-Sect Joint Competition is held once every three years. This time, our very own Li Huo Sect's Song Zhongwen won the championship, and Song Zhongming took tenth place."
"The sect is holding a victory banquet for the two brothers. Song Zhongming is a disciple from our Second Division, so I plan on going to congratulate him. Are you free? We could go together later."
As it happened, Xiao Chen had just finished tending his Spirit Field for the day. "Steward, I'm free."
Steward Chen said, "Good. We'll meet at the division entrance at 7:45 PM."
"I'm going to notify Ye Fei first. If you see Liu Benxin, be sure to tell him as well. No idea where that kid has run off to."
Xiao Chen replied, "Alright, I'll remember."
Xiao Chen and Liu Benxin had chatted from time to time recently, so Xiao Chen knew his neighbor liked to practice in the Cultivation Chamber.
And sure enough, he found him in the Cultivation Chamber and told him about the victory banquet.
Upon hearing the news, Liu Benxin exclaimed, "As expected of the Song Family! They really are in a class of their own when it comes to Beast Taming. Looks like the top Beast Tamer of the next generation will be a Song once again."
"The Song Family is a Beast Taming clan?" Xiao Chen took the opportunity to ask for more information. "I thought they were involved in caravan trading."
Liu Benxin was surprised. "You didn't know? The Song Family Ancestor made his name through Beast Taming."
Seeing that Xiao Chen was truly clueless, he immediately began to explain, "The Song Family Ancestor had a particularly powerful Foundation Establishment-level Spirit Beast and even cultivated a Secret Technique for combined attacks with it."
"That's precisely how their family successfully joined the trade caravans. Ever since, they've been raising Spirit Beasts while engaging in commerce, earning massive quantities of Spirit Stones."
"As far as the Li Huo Sect is concerned, the Song Family is probably the wealthiest of all right now."
It was a revelation for Xiao Chen. "So that's how it is. Thank you for clearing that up for me, Junior Brother Liu."
The two walked on together, chatting more about the various Cultivation Clans on their way.
It was mainly Liu Benxin doing the enthusiastic explaining, and Xiao Chen used the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the Li Huo Sect's Five Great Clans.
The newly risen Jiang Family, masters of Alchemy; the Plain Liu Family, experts in Spirit Fields; the old-guard Chen Family, possessing Pill and Artifact Dual Proficiency; the Nanhu Su Family of the leaping carp and lotus flower; and the Beast Taming Song Family, whose wealth was beyond words.
These were merely their primary advantages. The great clans had hundreds, if not thousands, of members, and with each person following a different path of development, there were naturally talented individuals who had achieved Mastery in all sorts of skills.
Some disciples from branch families would even take the initiative to cultivate obscure skills, hoping to achieve victory through unconventional means or to blaze their own unique trail.
Although most failed, those who were fortunate enough to achieve some success could often expect to receive extra support from their clan. Their future prospects would then be no less than those of the main-branch disciples.
In a way, this competition also helped accumulate a wide variety of experience, adding to the clan's overall depth and foundation.
"So, Xiao decided to show up. I thought you'd be too busy cultivating to attend such a trivial event."
The speaker was Junior Brother Li, whose full name was Li Sibao. He was actively radiating the aura of a sixth-level Qi Refining cultivator, his eyes filled with smugness.
Xiao Chen had a faint memory of him; he was the one who had been blocking the exit of the northern valley in the Feihong Mountain Range.
He hadn't expected that in just over half a month, the guy had actually broken through to the sixth level of Qi Refining. It was quite a surprise.
What made Xiao Chen even more curious was the faint hostility he sensed from him. 'Why does he seem to hold a grudge against me?'
'Did I offend him somehow? I don't think so...'
"Ah, Junior Brother Li. Congratulations on your cultivation breakthrough."
Seeing Xiao Chen greet him with a smile, Li Sibao found it difficult to lash out. He curled his lip and replied in a perfunctory tone, "Thanks for the praise, Senior Brother."
From his attitude, even the surrounding disciples could tell that he had an issue with Xiao Chen.
Li Sibao had no intention of being subtle; he was acting this way on purpose. In truth, he was here on a mission to cause trouble.
Half a month ago, on his second day back in the Second Division, a mysterious contact had approached him.
The person had produced a bottle of special Spirit Pills and proposed a trade with Li Sibao.
This person claimed the Spirit Pills in the bottle could help him quickly break through to the later stages of Qi Refining. As a down payment, they would give him one pill to take, which would help him directly break through to the sixth level of Qi Refining.
Li Sibao couldn't resist the temptation. He tried one of the Spirit Pills, and sure enough, he broke through to the sixth level of Qi Refining in just ten days.
To get the rest of the Spirit Pills, he used the contact information the person had left him and sought out the mysterious figure in the Marketplace.
He then received a mission that sounded both very simple and very strange.
He was to teach Xiao Chen a lesson, making sure it was all perfectly "reasonable."
Li Sibao wasn't an idiot. He immediately sensed there was something fishy about this mission.
But on second thought, the unlucky one would be Xiao Chen, and maybe some others, but definitely not him.
And so, he readily accepted the mission.