A day later, the door to the Alchemy Room opened once more.

This batch of Spirit Gathering Pills was refined quite successfully, yielding three authentic pills.

It exceeded his usual standards, comparable to the work of a Tier Two Low-Grade Alchemist.

Zhou Xun refined them all to premium quality, then separated one and placed it alone in an Elixir Bottle.

Time passed quickly, and ten days flew by.

Tomorrow, Lin Xueying, Wang Erniu, and others would set out.

Zhou Xun held a farewell for Lin Xueying and Wang Erniu in the cave mansion.

"Big brother, are you really not returning with us?" Wang Erniu asked reluctantly.

Zhou Xun smiled and shook his head.

His heart was resolute.

"Alright then," Wang Erniu finally stopped trying to persuade him.

"Big brother, don't forget to write to us!" Wang Erniu said, tossing back a cup of Spirit Wine.

"I will!" Zhou Xun nodded.

At this moment, Lin Xueying came over with a cup of Spirit Wine.

Tonight, the eldest daughter of the Lin Family was as beautiful as a setting sun, her complexion fair as jade, wearing a stunning red gown.

Standing beside Zhou Xun, her gaze was intense, looking at him steadily without a word, drinking down her cup of Spirit Wine silently.

Zhou Xun raised his cup as well and swallowed the Spirit Wine.

Afterward, as the banquet ended, Zhou Xun escorted everyone to the entrance, watching them return to their respective cave mansions.

Watching their departing figures, Zhou Xun wasn't sure how he felt.

"Perhaps the path of seeking the Dao is just this lonely!"

With a light sigh, he turned and returned to the cave mansion.

Suddenly, a sweet breeze wafted by, carrying a faint fragrance.

"Miss of the Lin Family!"

Zhou Xun was suddenly embraced, enveloped in a fragrant grip.

Looking down at the beauty, her cheeks were blushing like flames, lightly biting her lip, she gazed at Zhou Xun with a longing look.

"Zhou Lang~"

As she finished speaking, a warm, fragrant breath arrived, and a softness touched his lips.

Zhou Xun was momentarily stunned but didn't remain aloof, and they kissed.

Moments later, Zhou Xun cradled the beautiful woman who had collapsed against him, picking her up and walking into the cave mansion.

Their silhouette gradually disappeared into the cave mansion, as the door closed automatically.

Candlelight shadows flickered through the night.

The next morning, he awoke to a pair of jade arms wrapped around his neck, her skin as white as snow.

"Zhou Lang~" a lazy voice sounded.

"Are you really not going back to the Lin Family with me? I can talk to my father, you won't need to marry in!" Her voice was pleading.

"What would it accomplish to return to the Lin Family? My heart is set on the Great Dao and I'll eventually have to leave!" Zhou Xun sighed, speaking frankly.

Lin Xueying, so intelligent, understood Zhou Xun's meaning immediately.

With his Middle-Grade Spirit Root, no matter how well the Lin Family treated him, they couldn't offer an opportunity for Foundation Establishment.

Feeling silent within and even tempted to stay,

However, this emotion was fleeting, quickly suppressed by her sense of responsibility.

The Lin Family was reestablishing itself, needing people, and she, as a legitimate daughter of the Lin Family, could not stand aside.

She could only sigh deeply.

"Who knows when we will meet again!"

...

The next day, the Song Family caravan set out, with Lin Xueying and Wang Erniu's couple among them.

By nightfall, the caravan camped on the spot.

Lin Xueying lay in her tent and opened the Treasure Box Zhou Xun had given her.

Inside lay a pill.

"Premium Spirit Gathering Pill!"

Seeing it, Lin Xueying couldn't help but smile.

...

On the other side, after bidding farewell to Wang Erniu and the others, Zhou Xun returned to the shop.

At night, he returned to the cave mansion.

Suddenly, in an inconspicuous corner, he found a strange wooden box.

Curious, Zhou Xun picked it up, opening it slowly to reveal a milky white pill.

"Spirit Gathering Pill!"

Seeing this, Zhou Xun was slightly stunned, then gently smiled.

How could he not guess that it was left by Lin Xueying?

With a wave, he stored the box in his Storage Bag.

Afterward, he ate Spirit Rice and entered his routine cultivation.

Now with only Zhou Xun left at Qingyue Square, his life became even simpler.

A year later, in the Quiet Chamber.

Sitting on the ground, the mana within Zhou Xun surged, his entire aura surpassing the past.

After a long while, Zhou Xun opened his eyes.

"Finally, the Fifth-Layer Qi Refining!"

Now, his strength surpassed the past.

This breakthrough not only increased his mana strength but also expanded his divine sense's range to over twenty zhang, comparable to a Ninth-Layer Qi Refining Cultivator.

Taking out the Golden Cicada Mother-Child Blade for a test flight, it was more agile than before, and its power had increased as well.

Now, with just the Magical Artifact, he was confident he could suppress a Seventh-Layer Qi Refining Cultivator.

Adding Body Refinement, he could also suppress an Eighth-Layer Qi Refining Cultivator.

Now, a year on, his Body Refining Cultivation was nearing Second Layer Perfection.

Leaving the Quiet Chamber and the cave mansion, he headed to "Danhai Pavilion."

"Master!" A slender man with a goatee, Shopkeeper Huang, saw Zhou Xun and came over to greet with clasped hands.

He seemed to have noticed the change in Zhou Xun's mana aura.

"Congratulations Master, on your significant advancement in cultivation!"

"Mm," Zhou Xun responded blandly and walked in, arriving at his Alchemy Room in Danhai Pavilion to start alchemy.

He came to this Danhai Pavilion every five days to refine a batch of elixirs.

Some were refined for sale in the shop; others were for people who provided Spirit Medicine and entrusted Zhou Xun to refine them.

Zhou Xun took out the Spirit Medicine and was about to activate the Silence Array when outside noises disturbed him.

Zhou Xun furrowed his brows slightly; since Danhai Pavilion opened, no one dared cause trouble here.

After all, his relationship with the Song Family at Qingyue Square was excellent.

Especially after the eldest daughter of the Lin Family revealed her identity, the Song Family treated Zhou Xun with even greater respect.

Zhou Xun thus went outside, reaching the first floor of the shop.

He saw a middle-aged woman in a ruqun kneeling and crying continuously.

Beside her, a middle-aged man with a blackened face lay on the ground, life or death uncertain.

Zhou Xun knew these two people.

The man was Zhou Jimin, a Low-Grade Spirit Farmer with Fourth-Layer Qi Refining Cultivation.

The woman was his wife, Yu Xiue, with Third-Layer Qi Refining Cultivation.

Both were natives of Qingyue Square and lived on the east slope of Qingyue Mountain, like Zhou Xun, though their cave mansion was a Middle-Grade one.

Since the route from the shop back to the cave mansion overlapped, they had met many times and were acquaintances.

"Alchemist Zhou, please save my husband!" the middle-aged woman pleaded.

"Stand up first, come inside to talk," Zhou Xun said calmly, heading toward the elegant room.

Shopkeeper Huang assisted in helping Zhou Jimin from the ground as they went to the elegant room together.

"Tell me, what happened?" Zhou Xun asked.

"My son is fifteen this year, already at the Peak of Second Layer Qi Refining. My husband braved danger to hunt demons to buy an elixir for his breakthrough to Middle-Stage Qi Refining,"

"Who would have thought the demon beast wasn't successfully hunted, instead he was wounded and poisoned!"

"Now his life hangs by a thread, Alchemist Zhou, please help us, we will repay you with our lives!" Yu Xiue pleaded, bowing continuously with a forehead bruised purple.

Zhou Xun sighed upon hearing this.

"Parental love, so selfless!" After all, it was for their fifteen-year-old son.

Zhou Xun looked at Zhou Jimin and said:

"Your husband is poisoned severely. If you want me to save him, you both need to work for Danhai Pavilion for ten years, I will help you!" Zhou Xun contemplated for a moment and said.

Danhai Pavilion, as it developed, indeed lacked hands for miscellaneous tasks.

Shopkeeper Huang had mentioned it several times, but Zhou Xun was delayed by other matters, now this incident served both ends.

"I'm willing, I'm willing!" Yu Xiue nodded repeatedly.

Zhou Xun then took out a High-Grade Antitoxic Pill and gave it to Zhou Jimin.

Visibly, the poison receded from Zhou Jimin's body, and he woke after a while.

Seeing him awake, Zhou Xun nodded and asked casually.

"What demon beast injured you?"

"It was a Demon Snake, I discovered a peculiar Spirit Grass, I failed to notice the guarding demon snake when picking it, and was injured, had it not been for an ancestral Earth Escape Talisman, I wouldn't have returned!" Zhou Jimin said with a wry smile.

"Spirit Grass?" Zhou Xun's interest was piqued.

"Describe what it looked like!"

"About one foot high, with three blue leaves on each side and a fluffy blue ball in the center..."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Xun thought of an obscure Tier Two Low-Grade Spirit Grass.

"Blue Spirit Lamp Flower!"

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