Chapter 9: Gathering

  With Yang Ze's guidance, Lin Feng's confidence increased greatly. He spent the whole day holding the Spiritual Plant Compendium in the courtyard where spiritual medicine was being prepared, reciting and comparing from the descriptions and pictures in the book to the real-life appearance, color, smell, changes before and after harvesting, and initial processing of various aspects, memorizing them all. In less than a month, he had already memorized over a hundred types of spiritual medicines. Now, for many spiritual medicine herbs that Yang Ze often used, Lin Feng could distinguish them without any mistake, which made Yang Ze very satisfied. He began to explain some methods and secrets of processing spiritual medicines to Lin Feng from time to time when they were preparing the medicines together, benefiting Lin Feng greatly.

  However, at the same time, Lin Feng did not slack off in his cultivation. He persisted in practicing qigong for one hour each morning, noon and night, regardless of wind or rain. Although he still hadn't produced any internal energy, Lin Feng had calmed down and continued to cultivate diligently.

  Today, it's the first day of another decade. According to convention, it's the time for Yang family's Qi-refining period disciples' collective lesson. In the past, Lin Feng was not very willing to go at such times. The reason is that collective lessons are usually when Master Shi answers the difficulties encountered by the disciples in their cultivation, but Lin Feng doesn't even have any perception of Qi, let alone difficulties in his cultivation, so going or not going makes no big difference. This is one major reason why he didn't want to go.

  Another reason is that among the current Yang family disciples, he is now the only one who has not yet sensed the aura of the Qi Refining stage. Although no one says anything unpleasant, for someone with a strong sense of self-respect like him, there is always a feeling that everyone is looking at him with contemptuous eyes, which makes him extremely uncomfortable.

  However, no matter how unwilling he was, Lin Feng still had to go, because generally speaking, the masters would publicly explain the problems that most people encountered, although he couldn't use it now, but he believed that he would be able to use it sooner or later. Moreover, this was the rule, and Lin Feng had to follow it, as he didn't have any privilege to break this rule yet.

  However, due to some achievements in learning alchemy, Lin Feng is more confident today than before, and the inferiority complex of being afraid to see his fellow disciples has been greatly alleviated.

  As soon as they entered the spacious and tidy lecture hall in the back mountain, Lin Feng saw hundreds of his fellow disciples standing together in groups of three or five, either whispering to each other about their cultivation experiences or comparing and competing with each other's sword techniques. Yes, sword techniques - this was different from ordinary people's sword techniques, it was a technique that could infuse spiritual energy into the sword to defeat enemies. This sword technique was similar to ordinary people's sword techniques in the early stages, except for its greater power, there was no difference. But when cultivated to the later stages, as long as the spiritual energy was sufficient, one could make the sword fly out of their hand and kill enemies from a distance, it was very formidable.

  In the crowd, several senior brothers in the Qi Refining stage of seven or eight layers were manipulating their swords. When they were one or two meters away from their bodies, they would make swift and slow slashing movements, earning rounds of applause from many fellow disciples around them. However, including Lin Feng, everyone knew that their seemingly fancy sword techniques actually had no attacking power due to insufficient spiritual energy. To truly wield a sword to defeat an enemy, the requirement for spiritual energy must be at least at the Foundation Building stage.

  But even so, being able to make a sword fly with the cultivation of the Refining Qi stage is still very impressive. Moreover, what's most important is that the sword they used wasn't something an ordinary Refining Qi stage disciple could possess. Unlike the fine steel swords Lin Feng and the others had obtained, their swords were magical artifacts, weapons forged by artifact-refiners using spiritual ore and inscribed with various array patterns.

  In the Cultivation Realm, magical instruments are divided into ordinary magical instruments, also known as magical instruments; treasure-grade magical instruments, also known as treasure instruments; spirit-grade magical instruments, also known as spirit instruments. It is said that there are also immortal-grade and divine-grade magical instruments, also known as immortal instruments and divine instruments, but almost no one has seen immortal instruments and divine instruments. And for each level of magical instrument, according to the difference in quality, they are generally divided into upper, middle, and lower three grades. A very small number of extremely high-quality special magical instruments are also called extreme-grade magical instruments, but this kind of good thing is usually rarely seen.

  These few senior brothers used the most ordinary low-grade artifacts, but even such low-grade artifacts are worth at least a hundred spirit stones, which is not something that an average refining period disciple can possess. The several senior brothers who own them are either direct disciples of the family's foundation-building period masters or old men who have been cultivating for over a decade, and most of them got them because they obtained unexpected wealth.

  There are two meanings of "unexpected wealth". One is good luck, picking up good spiritual medicine or spiritual ore. The other is to kill and rob after arguing with other cultivators. In the Tianyuan Star, the cultivation world is mainly divided into Taoist cultivation, demonic cultivation, and evil cultivation according to different cultivation methods. The two major forces of Taoism and demonism have always been at odds, often leading to disputes when they meet. Evil cultivators are numerous and varied, acting solely on their own whims, making it unclear who is better between the two paths of Taoism and demonism. They also frequently participate in various disputes, so the cultivation world is actually quite chaotic.

  Looking at the envious expressions of his fellow disciples around him, Lin Feng only took a glance and didn't look again. It wasn't that he wasn't envious or didn't have any desires, it was just that thinking about it was pointless. In the Yang family, he was an ordinary disciple without a master, so it was impossible for someone to give him a gift. As for going out to make some "unexpected" money, with his current abilities, basically going out would be looking for death.

  But now Lin Feng, due to his study of alchemy, has an inflated sense of confidence and can't help but think about buying a better magical instrument than everyone else's. He deliberately doesn't look at them anymore. However, as someone who lacks even the slightest bit of aura, he is completely invisible in the eyes of his many senior brothers, making his thoughts somewhat comical.

  But even if Lin Feng was nothing, most people didn't care about Lin Feng's existence, but he still had his own group. Just as he entered the lecture hall, a voice awakened Lin Feng from his reverie: "Brother, here, come quickly, we've been waiting for you."

  Lin Feng looked over and saw a seven or eight year old chubby boy waving his short arms wildly at him, as if afraid he wouldn't see. Next to him, a man and woman wearing the Yang family's uniform Daoist robes were smiling at him. The three of them were sitting next to a man who was meditating in stillness. They were Wu Lin Pu, Wang Lei, and Zhou Lan, who had been chosen by the Yang family along with Lin Feng. And the chubby boy shouting loudly was Zhao Chun, the child prodigy whose innate talent in cultivating the Way of Heaven had shocked the entire Yang family.

  In the Yang family, Lin Feng and the other four were the latest to enter the Cultivation Realm. Not only were they the youngest, but their powers were also the lowest. As a result, the few of them formed their own clique whether in everyday interactions or in cultivation sparring. Over time, the few of them had developed some emotional connections, with relationships that were much closer than those of other senior brothers.

  Among the five, the one who got along best with Lin Feng was this chubby genius Zhao Chun. For some reason, from the moment they started learning together, Zhao Chun seemed particularly close to him. Since they were both kids, they wouldn't produce any irrational emotions like prejudice or jealousy due to their natural talents. Before long, the two became good friends.

  Seeing Zhao Chun's summons, Lin Feng walked over a few steps and said: "Why are you all so early today!"

  "What's with the 'early' every time, can't you just come late for once? Look around, how many people haven't arrived yet?" Wu Linbai, who was meditating, opened his eyes to glance at Lin Feng, said a sentence, and then closed his eyes again to continue meditating.

  Lin Feng deliberately made an awkward expression, but he didn't mind his words at all. He knew that this martial brother was a cultivation madman, always cultivating everywhere, as for the purpose, Lin Feng was well aware of it, he was secretly competing with Zhao Baozi.

  "Lin Shidi came so late, I suppose it's because he hasn't cultivated his qi yet and is a bit embarrassed?" Zhou Lan said with a smile. She always spoke directly like this, but she didn't have any ill intentions.

  Several people have an unusual relationship, Lin Feng faces them without a hint of embarrassment, rubs his nose and smiles: "Sister Zhou really has good eyesight, I just have this little secret but you saw through it at a glance. However, I heard from my mom that women shouldn't be too smart, otherwise no man will want them."

  "What did you say? Watch me collect you!" Zhou Lan said, chasing after him with a slap. Lin Feng knew her temper and had already run to hide behind Wang Lei before she finished speaking. This Brother Wang was an honest man, in this kind of situation he would usually intervene to stop it.

  As expected, Zhou Lan's palm strike came, and Wang Lei hastily raised his hand to block it, saying: "Zhou Shimei, Lin Shidi hasn't even reached the Qi Refining stage yet. If this palm of yours lands, I'm afraid he won't be able to take it!" This was indeed true. A cultivator at the first level of the Qi Refining stage in the cultivation world was considered to be of the lowest rank, but compared to ordinary people, even an adult wouldn't be a match. So for Lin Feng, a ten-year-old boy who was still considered ordinary, Zhou Lan's palm strike wasn't something he could withstand easily.

  Zhou Lan also knew this principle, so she didn't really pursue him relentlessly. She just made a show of scaring Lin Feng and then laughed and said: "Little Lin, wait until you enter the Refining Qi stage, and see how I'll deal with you." After finishing speaking, she smiled again and retreated back to her original position.

  Lin Feng knew that every month, the Yang family would hold a small competition to test their disciples' progress and correct any mistakes. Fortunately, this was only for disciples in the Qi Refining stage, so Lin Feng was not included for now, but as soon as he entered the Qi Refining stage, he could no longer avoid such competitions.

  Zhou Lan entered the Refining Qi stage earlier than him, so his skills were naturally higher. When the time came to find a problem and propose a competition with his Shifu, he would only be left with the fate of being abused. So Lin Feng immediately showed a difficult expression and apologized to Zhou Lan, provoking a burst of laughter from several people, clearly everyone knew this was just a joke. As for Wu Lin, it's unknown whether he really entered meditation or pretended not to hear the laughter, but the four didn't care about him, they were already used to this situation.