As the days passed and the sect entered a frenzy, Aotian and Rihai remained in their caves, focused on their body refinements.

It was the tenth day since they began this body cultivation session under the effects of dew energy, and the results were impressive.

That afternoon, Aotian's body suddenly trembled for a few moments, as if an invisible limit had been crossed.

His body slowly calmed down. Then he exhaled and opened his eyes.

Lowering his gaze to his arms, he clenched his fists, and beautiful muscle lines appeared when he pulled up the long sleeve of his robe.

His body wasn't a mountain of muscles, but neither was it frail. With broad shoulders and defined musculature, Aotian believed he had the ideal proportions for the cultivation world and, narcissistically, thought of himself as devastatingly handsome.

But his focus didn't remain on his appearance. His eyes soon turned to the system screen.

[Host: Long Aotian Cultivation: 1st Level of Golden Core Body Cultivation: 1st Level of Golden Core Physique: Mortal Qualifications: Low-Grade Five Element Spiritual Root (Low Qualification)]

A smile appeared on his lips as he saw the panel.

Although his cultivation hadn't advanced in recent months — after all, the Golden Core realm was relatively high, and with his roots holding him back, it was normal to take time to progress within the realm, even with synthesized techniques. Even though he wasn't too far from advancing, the true reason for his happiness was his body cultivation.

It might seem like a small matter, but now Bao Wuji had both body cultivation and true cultivation at the Void Refinement realm. And when combined with Lei Yun's feedback, Aotian was confident that in combat, he could use the ancestor to fight enemies up to two levels above his current realm.

One should not underestimate one or two levels in Void Refinement. Being an extremely high realm, advances were very difficult and each step forward represented a tremendous change in strength.

Furthermore, users at this stage were never lacking in vast experience. It was relatively common to find a Void Refiner at the 2nd or 3rd level who had been stuck for ten thousand years in that same realm.

If you were to ask a specialist what was more difficult — crossing levels and killing a Void Refiner two levels above, or crossing realms and killing a Golden Core while only being a Foundation Establishment cultivator — the answer would easily be the first option.

Aotian was very satisfied. Compared to before, when he could only use Bao Wuji as a hammer to smash ants, and who would certainly get beaten before someone of the same level, this was truly great progress now that he was even capable of defeating an enemy levels above his own.

Stretching his body after sitting for so long, Aotian leaned back and lazily supported himself on his hands while stretching his legs.

'Ah! I broke the cultivator's posture, how shameful,' he joked inwardly, smiling faintly as he glanced at Rihai nearby, still cultivating with her eyes closed.

'Rihai will still take a few more days to finish. Well, taking a walk in the sect is kind of boring without her, since I already spend all my time there through avatars. I guess I can only go to another room and cultivate normally, without using the dew energy.'

He pondered and, after lazing around a bit, stood up, gave a pat on his butt, and left.

…

In the sect's medicinal garden, another Alchemy Pavilion avatar held a lotus in his hands, while Yang Shi, standing nearby, had another.

The first soon turned into light and invaded the body of the avatar who had not yet gone through the process.

But the one with Yang Shi, no matter how much it was enveloped by his energy, seemed to reject him, as if it felt no attraction to him.

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'It seems that indeed one can only use a Transcendent Sky-Lotus to upgrade a low-grade root into a mid-grade one. Or perhaps it's because Yang Shi already used one. I'll have to test it later, but I've already seen this herb in a compendium, so the notion that it is limited by roots and not by repeated use shouldn't be wrong.'

'If I want to improve my roots to high-grade, I'll need to find at least a Formation-Tier herb that serves that purpose.'

Aotian reflected carefully. Not that he wasn't satisfied with the current result, but he was simply planning for the future.

'For now, I won't be leaving the desert continent in the coming years. If I can't find a way here, I won't go looking for trouble elsewhere in the short term. Fortunately, I'm still satisfied with mid-grade roots, since with my powerful minds and experience in higher realms combined with one, my cultivation speed won't differ from that of a high-grade root, which is already the sect's average.'

Nodding to himself, he felt more confident.

'But I still have to try something better. I don't know if I can use Bao Wuji's equivalent exchange to condense a Formation-Tier Transcendent Sky-Lotus, after all, I've never heard of such a thing.'

'But if the properties for improving a root to high-grade are the same as for improving one to mid-grade, only requiring stronger medicinal power, it might work. It's just that I'll need hundreds of lotuses, maybe more, to carry out such an experiment. For now, the focus remains the same: improve cultivation and plant more lotuses.'

With that decided, he returned to focusing on his cultivation and sect management.

…

In a forest far from the Infinite Dao Sect, a staggering, battered figure, covered in cuts, emerged from among the trees.

He didn't walk far before his body collapsed onto the ground.

With his fall, from beneath his torn blue robes, a beautiful necklace with a green gem slipped free, sliding down to the soil.

Unfortunately for the black-haired youth, a massive shadow loomed behind him, its heavy, menacing steps closing in as if ready to feast.

The creature responsible for his injuries revealed itself to be a huge black wolf. As it reached its prey, it raised its paw, dangerous black claws lifted high, ready to finish the job.

The young man forced his eyes open at that moment, and upon seeing the claws so close, sadness and regret flashed in his gaze.

But his thoughts were different from what one might imagine.

'Looks like master will have to act again,' he thought, disappointed and irritated with himself.

At that exact moment, his thoughts were interrupted by a sudden voice.

"Huh? I finally found the black dog described in the mission, and it's about to kill someone! What luck, I made it just in time."

A somewhat silly voice rang out, and a streak of blue light filled with water elements shot past the wolf like lightning, slicing through its head and raised paw like a hot knife through butter.

The beast didn't even have time to react before dying, its body collapsing in pieces around the youth, drenching him in blood.

"Ah! Oops! I forgot he was right underneath!" The voice sounded again, now in panic.

The boy's mouth twitched as he was drenched in fresh, hot, sticky blood, but instead of getting angry, he was actually relieved.

As long as his master didn't have to act, he was content. After all, every move his master made — even those that required little energy — was difficult to recover from. What the boy truly feared was that, little by little, this accumulation would end up harming his master.

Lying in the pool of blood, the youth sighed in relief, soon hearing footsteps approaching.

"Little brother, are you alright?!" the voice asked, drawing close to his side.

Soaked in blood, injured and exhausted, he couldn't see clearly who was approaching, only felt a hand grab his arm and pull him up without any care, making his wounds throb and his mouth twitch even more.

A wave of energy from his savior circulated through his body, quickly expelling the blood and filth, allowing the exhausted boy to finally see who had saved him.

It was a tall, sturdy young man with a slightly silly expression, who looked at him with concern.

Seeing his expression, the rescued youth immediately realized that his savior's earlier actions, as well as his lack of care, hadn't been out of malice, but simply negligence.

"Little brother, you're seriously hurt? Take this pill, and you'll feel better."

With a serious look, the sturdy young man flipped his hand, and from his ring appeared a small white pill, which he offered without hesitation to the injured boy.

"No need, I have mine here…" the rescued one replied, secretly shocked and alarmed upon noticing that his savior possessed a precious and rare storage ring. Still, he forced a reassuring smile, despite his pain and exhaustion.

Patting the storage pouch at his waist, he made it spit out a similar white pill, which he immediately tossed into his mouth and swallowed.

Even though he had been saved by the young man who had appeared out of nowhere, he kept the caution of not accepting pills from strangers. It could be some kind of poison to control his life. Even if his savior seemed like a good person, in the cultivation world one could never lower their guard to anyone.

Seeing that he had his own pill, the sturdy young man simply shrugged and helped him out of the pool of blood, bringing him to sit beneath a nearby tree.

"Hiss!! Thank you, brother…?" The youth settled painfully, gasping while holding his wounded stomach, but he didn't forget to ask the name of his savior.

"Well, everyone calls me Little Brick. You can call me Brother Brick, if you like. And what's your name, little brother?" the savior, now identified as Brick, asked kindly as he turned to tend to the beast's corpse.

The youth, leaning against the tree and watching his actions, froze slightly at the strange name but forced himself to ignore it.

"Ah, so it's Brother Brick. First of all, I want to thank you for saving me this time, Brother Brick. I owe you. As for my name, well…"

"... my name is Shen He."

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