Chapter Twenty-Four: What a Small Man

  More than a decade later, Xiaodou, who had been on the path of cultivation for nearly fifty years, finally achieved Iron Tree Blooming Flowers and reached the stage of Qi Refining Initial Stage!

  "Hmm, my magical power has not only increased in depth, but also undergone a qualitative change. This is the benefit of advancing to the next level. Previously, I could use the Wheel of Reincarnation for 15 seconds, now I can use it for 50 seconds without any problem. Of course, if I go further, my magical power will be exhausted, and except for my physical strength, I'll be just like an ordinary person!"

  Hehe, he picked up his low-grade flying sword and began to wield it in the small valley, looking at himself swinging the sword like the wind, he couldn't help but grin foolishly, now he was just as powerful as those ordinary people's most powerful top masters!

  When he appeared among his junior brothers and sisters, more than two hundred junior brothers and sisters and three girls cried to the point of being heartbroken!

  "Hmph!" Xiaodou scolded with a displeased smile: "A bunch of useless guys, crying for nothing. At least I can still live for another hundred years, stop howling!"

  Yun Xiaoqiao sobbed and complained: "Big Brother Master, we all know that you once ate the Longevity Pill and can live to be 180 years old. However, it took you 50 years to reach the initial stage of Qi Refining, and it's getting harder and harder afterwards. Even when you reached the Foundation Building Stage, it was useless! Waaahhh~"

  The little puffed up and said: "If not, go rob that cold young master, let him come again with a few more grains of the elixir of immortality, all to be eaten by Xiaodou. Anyway, I absolutely do not allow Xiaodou to die!"

  "Narcissus sighed and said: 'I had checked it out years ago. If there was anything left, I would have taken action long ago. What can be done now?'"

  Xiao Mei angrily shouted: "I told you, and everyone else said it too, that those ancient cultivation methods can't be practiced. What's the point of breaking through to the Pre-Heavenly Divine Art? It's really infuriating!"

  Xiao Dou thought to herself: "Hmph, you haven't even considered my reincarnation yet. If you knew that over the past decade or so, I've been forced to absorb more than half of my cultivation spiritual energy into my reincarnation eye, I reckon you'd all be shocked to death! Alas, never mind, even a foolish child like Xiao Qiao can see what's in store for me a hundred years from now. What's the point of saying any of this?" She immediately broke out into a silly grin:

  "No way, I don't have any qualifications, if I don't cultivate to the fourth heaven of Innate Divine Skill, I can only hope for a miracle to happen, alright, stop annoying me one by one, how are you all doing, aren't you all at the foundation building stage?"

  Yun Rui Yao's small hand wiped away tears, and he smiled bitterly: "Yes, with the help of Shui Xian and Xiao Mei's large quantities of elixirs, we succeeded in more than half of it. The little girl's array helped us succeed several dozen times, and the last few disciples who were slightly inferior in talent took the Foundation Establishment Pill and also reached the Foundation Establishment stage. We also obtained the materials for the Small Return to Youth Spring Water in the ancient forest, although they can't compare to your radiant appearance in your prime, Master Brother. Now everyone has a youthful appearance of twenty or thirty years old, no one died, no one aged. Because of this, our sect sent a great master in the Yuan Ying stage to investigate, and after learning about everything that happened here, the sect said they want to reward you, Master Brother!"

  Xiao Dou shouted with a standard rogue's face: "What good reward, won't it just be an oral reward? I'm relying on it, the sect is so stingy! No way, with this opportunity, we must make these old guys suffer a loss, no one can let me suffer!"

  Everyone smiled wryly, Shuixian covered her small forehead and said helplessly: "We've received everything. Except for a pile of low-grade materials, each person got one piece of foundation-building period cultivator's clothing, each person got one mid-grade flying sword, I got an upper-grade alchemy cauldron, Xiaoxiao got an upper-grade puppet knife, and Xiaomei also got an upper-grade forging hammer. As for you, we helped you get a drop of pure golden sand!"

  "How petty!" Xiao Dou shouted in exasperation: "The sect's reward is just this trash? Is this really the handwriting of a great sect? I can gather better stuff with my brothers and sisters after working hard for a few years. They actually have the nerve to give this as a reward? I'd rather die than accept it from these shameless old men..."

  Yun Rui let out a bitter laugh and said: "I told you, Eldest Senior Brother doesn't even understand what the Pure Golden Sand is. We're together every day, he knows everything we know!"

  Little did you know, with a small kick of her foot, she loudly exclaimed: "Big fool, if you don't understand then don't speak, it's embarrassing! Do you even know what the Pure Golden Sand is? That's the top treasure of all the major sects! For this one drop, we collectively seized the opportunity to kneel for three days and two nights at the Shocking Central Peak! And they only gave it to us because of your master's face!"

  Xiao Dou's heart ached, and he let out a deep sigh. "What's the point? You all know I only have three lives, what's the use of... uh, whatever sand it is? Give it to you guys, I don't need it!"

  Xiao Mei's face turned red, and she slapped him lightly, saying: "This is just right for you, the purest golden sand, collected from the purest spirit of heaven and earth, receiving the purest essence of the sun and moon, the purest blood of all beasts... and so on. To make this treasure, one must exhaust a god to the point of vomiting blood, can you imagine how precious it is? Golden sand is for boys, silver sand is for girls, we asked for this specifically for you, to make you smarter, increase your luck, and speed up your cultivation, do you understand?"

  Fourth Young Master Zhao Kai shouted: "Big Brother, you can use it now! We're all married and you know that. Now only you are single and can use it. However, this thing has its pros and cons. If you get married, it will fall off and return to dust, and it'll be over! What a pity! No wonder there aren't many cultivators with this thing on their forehead!"

  Generally considered the most stupid "Fire Head General" Fan Shidi was pushed forward by everyone with great force, and he stammered:

  "Master, this is... well... it's a bit of a condition, you know? Only the purest gold sand can be used by the purest person. What kind of person is that? It's someone who has never married and hasn't, uh, done anything with a girl on a dark and windy night!"

  What a pain! Yun Xiaoqiao's small fist hit Fan Shidi with all her might, and she shouted angrily:

  "No, not just on a dark and windy night, but at any other time either. Hmph! Just look at you guys, you stinky boys only know one way to chase girls, how boring! Eldest senior brother would never be like you guys!"

  Yun Rui's gloomy face suddenly broke into a smile: "Shuixian, let's do it! We haven't found any evidence that Big Brother Shifu and that female disciple have had any contact, so it should be okay!"

  "Every single one of you is so useless, humph! Xiao Dou, are you still a virgin or not? Honestly, if you're not, just say it honestly, don't waste this heavenly gift, the loss won't be something you can imagine!"

  Xiao Dou said with a look of impatience: "I haven't married a wife, of course it's okay, why do you all use that suspicious gaze to look at me? Alright alright ~ troublesome, how can we do it quickly and then go out to make a big fortune?"

  Shuixian took out a delicate small box and said with an odd expression: "Xiaodou, close your eyes."

  Then, under the gaze of everyone's shocked and amazed expressions, Shui Xian threw a grain of golden sand floating in the air into Xiao Dou's brow. In an instant, Xiao Dou's entire body shone with dazzling golden light, holding a precious sword, wearing white clothes fluttering in the wind, sacred and inviolable...

  Under close scrutiny, there is a golden dot between Xiaodou's eyebrows. Because of that dot, the whole person looks sacred, revered and dazzling!

  Wow, my body feels so warm and cozy! The chill in my bones doesn't hurt as much anymore, it's so refreshing! Haha, and my spiritual energy is getting stronger too! As a beginner in the Qi Refining stage, my energy was originally murky and unclear, but now it's not only clear and agile, but also constantly flowing from my brow point, circulating according to the Heavenly Spirit Technique. Although it's not as fast as meditating, this benefit is just an added bonus - meditation will make it even faster!

  "Hmm~ With this pure golden sand, my body seems to have endless energy, and what surprises Xiao Dou the most is that he seems to have become a bit smarter, his body also seems to be much cleaner, it's an extraordinary feeling, just like returning from the mundane world to the spiritual Nine华Mountain!"

  "Hahaha...!" Just as Xiaodou was closing his eyes to savor the benefits of the pure golden sand, over a hundred junior brothers around him burst out laughing, pointing at him. Some were squatting on the ground, holding their stomachs with one hand, some were sitting on the ground slapping their thighs wildly, and some even rolled around on the spot...

  "Who would have thought that Big Brother is actually a little virgin, hahaha... How silly! Look at him with that innocent and naive look, it's really as cute as can be. Hmm~ When we were in the mortal world, Big Brother was the matchmaker for Qing Song Shibo, but we were really too unhelpful back then. We should have helped Big Brother find 180 beauties to keep him company at night, alas! How could we not know that a full man doesn't know the hunger of an empty man? It's really not right... " The many younger brothers all had mischievous expressions as they teased Big Brother!

  And the junior sisters quarreled loudly: "You guys shut up, don't teach bad things to Big Brother, humph! Big Brother is upright and honest, in the future he will of course marry a noble princess from a prominent family, this is the only one worthy of Big Brother. How can ordinary mortal women be worthy of Big Brother? You bunch of bad people, shut your mouths..."

  "Ah, damn it!" Xiaodou's face turned ruthless, as if she had transformed into a little devil, shrieking and yelling: "On the way out of Jiuhua Mountain, you bunch of little rascals, whenever we took a break, you'd drag all the sisters into the woods without leaving any behind, leaving me to guard the base alone. And now you still have the nerve to mock me? You guys are so unrighteous! Back then, each of you monopolized two or three, and not one of you introduced even one to me. Ugh, the more I think about it, the angrier I get... Watch out, I'm going to hit..."

  At once, Xiao Dou Hu entered the sheep flock and sent flying one by one the foundation-building period junior brothers.

  This awkward topic emerged, and it took several days for everyone to return to normal, laughing and living their lives again. However, they are no longer ordinary cultivators; at the sect's library, they borrowed a copy of the Xuanwu Sword Formation, a formation consisting of 180 people that boasts the strongest defensive capabilities. All the disciples collectively participated in learning it!

  They worked hard to practice their sword formations, and the three girls were also busy. Now, everyone is organizing pre-war drills for the upcoming trip to the ancient forest in the sect's territory, where they will subdue a demon with hundreds of years of cultivation, even reaching the human Nascent Soul stage - the Toad King!

  Due to Xiao Dou's initial cultivation of Qi, the sword array was unable to assist much, and the magic developed by Shui Xian was even more incomprehensible. His task was to take all the useless low-grade flying swords and attire that everyone had submitted, go to the transaction fair on Xiang Yang Peak, and exchange them for some operational spirit stones!

  This guy sells things, it's incredible, anyone who walks by and sees him has a 100% return rate! With his innocent and lovely appearance, he used only eight days to get rid of a small pile of low-grade items, and all the spirit stones he earned were confiscated by Shuixian!

  Firstly, I bought the most important and expensive contract scroll for this trip, a soundproofing array disc, and all the items needed to complete the Five Ghosts' Relocation Technique!

  Alas, supporting these five little devils is nothing for a high-ranking cultivator, but for them, it's quite an expense. Poor little devils, they're not even full - only seven-tenths full!

  All that's left are the healing items, and after preparing until the end, all three of the female leaders were desperate. The expected items simply couldn't be gathered, so they just made do with what they could gather. For this reason, Xiaodou even led everyone to the mountain slope of Shengu Valley, the cliff of Xiao Yao Peak, and every place that could be walked was traversed, in order to collect all the medicinal materials possible!

  Preparations were almost complete, and Xiao Dou, this senior brother, immediately led the crowd of junior brothers and sisters to set foot on Mount Jiuhua, a remote ancient forest journey...