Chapter 20: The Nine Clouds

  Wang Lin was also happy with his leisure, although he was expelled from the main courtyard and secretly heard many disciples' ridicule, but he didn't take it to heart. In this month, he had a general understanding of Xian cultivation, which was divided into five levels: condensing Qi, building foundation, forming Dan, Yuan Ying, and transforming Shen.

  The entire Hengyue Sect, currently there are only two masters who have condensed the elixir. They live high up in the rear mountain where the spiritual energy is most concentrated and spend their days closed off in seclusion, cultivating in secret. Unless it's a major event for the sect, they do not participate. Within the sect, even those in the foundation building stage do not exceed ten people, belonging to the middle echelon of power, enjoying special privileges, with sacred stones and magical treasures at their disposal.

  Apart from these people, most of them are still in the Qi Condensation stage, such as Sun Dazhu, who is only at the fifth layer of the Qi Condensation stage.

  Cultivating immortality is extremely difficult, requiring a tremendous amount of time. If one's innate talent is lacking, even several decades of life will not be enough for cultivation. The Qi Condensation stage is already so arduous, let alone the Foundation Establishment stage and above. Apart from having sufficient spiritual energy, one must also possess great opportunities and enlightenment; any deficiency is unacceptable.

  Wang Lin deeply understood the importance of spiritual energy and was anxious to retrieve the mysterious pearl.

  Although he still can't infuse spiritual energy into his body until now, he believes that as long as he often drinks spring water soaked with pearls, it will definitely speed up the process. After all, what is meant by "condensing energy" is just accumulating spiritual energy.

  From Sun Dazhu's point of view, the spring water that the pearl was soaked in should be very dense with spiritual energy. Thinking about this made him extremely excited. The spring water was nothing compared to the place where he hid the pearl, which had three calabashes of dew, and this stuff must have even heavier spiritual energy.

  If he drank it, it would not be worse than taking medicine for a month, and might even have a better effect. So Wang Lin was overjoyed that he could leave the hospital without being monitored by Sun Dazhu.

  As an inner disciple, although he didn't live in the main courtyard, he could also freely find a place to stay in one of the five secondary courtyards. Wang Lin set his residence in the Fire Courtyard near the east gate and found a secluded house to live in.

  Inner sect disciples, based on the color of their clothes, enjoy some treatment. Wang Lin has learned a lot about these things through Sun Dazhu over the past month, such as how every tenth day of each month, they can go to the main courtyard's Dan House to receive a piece of low-grade spiritual stone fragment and an Increase Spiritual Energy Seizing Pill.

  Accumulating ten fragments can be exchanged for a complete low-grade spirit stone from their respective masters.

  Wang Lin tidied up his new residence and did not immediately go to retrieve the mysterious pearl. He was worried that Sun Dazhu would secretly monitor him, so he went to the mountain spring during the day as usual and meditated in his room at night.

  In fact, Sun Dazhu also reluctantly monitored for more than ten days and finally gave up completely.

  One month later, Wang Lin quietly left one night and made his way through the mountains to where the gourd was hidden. He retrieved both the pearl and the gourd, placing them in a storage bag, and no one suspected anything.

  After being cautious for a few days and finding nothing unusual, Wang Lin finally felt at ease. He no longer went to the mountain spring during the day, but instead stayed home all day studying the pearl.

  Wang Lin stroked the bead, and at a glance, he saw that the clouds on the bead had changed from seven to nine. Presumably, the humidity in the mountains was heavier, and the bead had absorbed a lot of water vapor.

  As for the three gourds, Wang Lin opened them one by one and found that the dew inside had become sticky, especially the gourd containing morning dew, which had almost turned into a paste.

  Wang Lin looked at the bead and then at the three calabazas, and suddenly an idea rose in his mind. The mysterious bead needed water to increase the clouds, so if he used all the dew from these three calabazas on the bead, would it be possible to catalyze it to immediately produce the tenth cloud?

  His heart skipped a beat, this pearl was originally not big, now on its surface, nine clouds densely covered almost the entire surface, leaving only a place the size of a fingernail. Wang Lin analyzed that here is very likely to be the location where the tenth cloud appears.

  He pondered for a moment, and in his heart he really wanted to know what would happen when the clouds above turned into ten. After all, from the outside, there was no place for the eleventh cloud, so this tenth one might very well be the last.

  However, today was the day to go to Zhengyuan to receive the Ling Stone. Seeing that it was almost dark outside, Wang Lin carefully put the pearl and gourd into his storage bag and walked out of the room after storing them in his bosom.

  He is now extremely familiar with the roads within the sect and will soon arrive at the main courtyard. Taking advantage of the fact that it's not yet dark, he hurriedly quickened his pace and rushed straight to the Dan House.

  Not yet close, a familiar voice came from afar.

  "Zhou Shijie, Master asked me to close my door and cultivate for three months to impact the first layer of condensing energy, but I always thought about you in my heart and couldn't calm down. I just wanted to cultivate quickly so that I could see you, and finally last night I succeeded in practicing the first layer, and went to the mountain overnight to pick this flower for you, look at how beautiful the petals are, there was a big snake guarding beside it at the time, I worked hard to kill the snake, look at my arm, it's all injured."

  Wang Lin's footsteps paused for a moment, his eyebrows slightly furrowed, and he sneered inwardly as he continued walking calmly.

  At this time, a crisp and clear female voice like a skylark came: "Wang Shixiong, my family has been a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner for generations. This flower is obviously just an ordinary jasmine, I saw many of them when I went up the mountain, but it's the first time I've heard that snakes like to guard it. If that's really the case, then our Hengyue Sect would probably have snakes all over the mountain, wouldn't we? Zhou Shijie, don't believe him."

  At this time, Wang Lin walked into the Danfang Garden, his eyes scanning the area. There were four people here, two men and two women, all wearing red clothes.

  One of the two men had a handsome face and a dignified appearance, but at this moment he looked embarrassed, just about to retort, when his eyes suddenly stared straight at the door, revealing an incredulous expression, and he exclaimed in a low voice:

  "Wang Lin! You... how are you here? You should be at home doing carpentry with your dad!"

  "Wang Lin? Ah, you're Wang Lin, the one who became a famous disciple by committing suicide and became Sun Shi's uncle-disciple through flattery! It's really you!" A girl next to him covered her mouth in surprise. She had a big braid, shiny black hair, thick eyebrows under which were embedded a pair of bright, shiny black eyes, looking quite pretty.

  At this time, the other two people beside him also had a look of surprise on their faces, constantly sizing up Wang Lin. The woman's face had a pair of beautiful eyes with a hint of childishness, decorated with long eyelashes, like two crystal grapes, which sparkled from time to time, revealing a rather interested expression.

  Wang Lin's face was expressionless, and he swept his gaze over a few people before fixing on the girl who had just spoken. He immediately recognized her as the same girl who had mocked Wang Zhuo earlier. However, there was something familiar about her appearance, and after some thought, Wang Lin realized that she was actually the same girl who had passed the Tiancai test several months ago. Since he had identified her, it went without saying that the other girl must be Zhou Shijie, the one to whom Wang Zhuo had presented flowers.