As she chewed, Lin Zhiyue drafted her thoughts in her mind. During the morning class, Elder Wan had spent half the time lecturing on the classification of spiritual veins and the basics of spiritual energy circulation. She had only half-understood it, but she remembered one particular quote: “Spiritual energy is like a stream, and spiritual roots are like a riverbed. The wider and deeper the riverbed, the smoother and swifter the water flows. However, if the water flows too swiftly, the banks are easily breached. One must use their character as the riverbank, constraining its force without blocking its flow.”
Returning to her quarters, she sat at her desk for a moment, spread out a sheet of paper, and began to write.
“Today, I first heard the principles of spiritual veins and spiritual energy circulation taught during morning class. Though they seemed simple at first, deeper reflection reveals their profound depth. Comparing spiritual energy to water and spiritual roots to a riverbed is indeed straightforward, but the width of a riverbed is not built in a day, nor should the speed of the current be rushed blindly.
In my opinion, the key to cultivation lies not in speed but in stability, not in ferocity but in longevity. A torrential current easily breaches its banks, while a gentle flow eventually forms a river. Thus, my realization today is this: cultivation is like water management. Guide it rather than block it; direct it rather than suppress it. By proceeding slowly and steadily, there will naturally come a day when it flows into the vast sea.”
She filled an entire page, set down her brush, and read it over. She felt she had been more earnest writing this than she had been writing the acknowledgments for her thesis in her past life. As she folded the paper and stored it in the system space, a reward notification popped up on the light screen: 【Quest completed! Advanced Draw Ticket ×1 has been distributed.】
Lin Zhiyue did not draw immediately. She leaned back in her chair, letting out a long sigh as she watched the sun gradually sink outside the window. The shadow of the old pine tree stretched long and thin, and the occasional laughter of passing disciples drifted in from outside the courtyard wall.
Tiance Palace's morning classes, quests, and card draws were actually much more in sync with her than she had expected. At least writing reflections here did not require plagiarism checks, nor did she have to worry about an advisor rejecting her draft and making her rewrite it.
She stored the Advanced Draw Ticket away, stretched, and decided to flip through the first two pages of the 《Wind and Frost Void-Returning Formula》 before it got completely dark.
Liu Fengyao's voice echoed from outside the door, “Junior Sister! The cafeteria has honeyed spiritual lotus root tonight! I'll go grab us seats first—”
Lin Zhiyue called out in response, smiling as she stood up and pushed the door open to walk outside.
Lin Zhiyue's past half-month had been exceptionally fulfilling.
Every morning, she followed Liu Fengyao to morning class. At noon, she rushed to the cafeteria with Liu Fengyao to grab food. In the afternoon, she would nestle in her courtyard to flip through the 《Wind and Frost Void-Returning Formula》 or complete various minor quests assigned by the system.
“Record today's morning class key points,” “Write a three-hundred-word cultivation reflection,” “Observe at least one match at the martial arena and analyze both sides' strengths and weaknesses,” “Greet at least three disciples from different peaks of Tiance Palace”—the quests issued by the system were incredibly diverse, but the reward tickets grew more numerous each time.
Having saved up for half a month, she had accumulated exactly ten Advanced Draw Tickets.
This afternoon, she had just returned from morning class. She had organized Elder Wan's lecture on “the application of the five elements' generation and restriction cycles in actual combat” from start to finish, filling three whole pages of notes. Just as she set her brush down on the Ink-jade Brush Rest and prepared to take a breather, she heard footsteps approaching the courtyard gate.
Looking up, she saw Qi Yan standing outside the courtyard gate.
For once, he was not wearing his red and black martial attire, having changed into a dark green casual robe. The pitch-black long saber still hung at his waist, and his high ponytail shimmered faintly in the afternoon sunlight.
He stood at the courtyard gate without stepping inside, his gaze sweeping over the courtyard and the room's furnishings before landing on the pile of books and notes stacked on her desk.
Lin Zhiyue immediately stood up, walked to the door, and bowed. “Master.”
Qi Yan waved his hand, stepped into the courtyard, and came to a stop in front of her desk. He glanced down at the open notes on the table, picked them up, and flipped through them.
Lin Zhiyue's heart skipped a beat.
Those notes were filled entirely with content she had compiled for her system quests over the past few days—records of Elder Wan's classes, her own insights and reflections, and case analyses from observing the martial arena. The handwriting was neat and well-organized, with small annotations marked after every point.
She had originally only compiled them to complete the system's requirements, finding it convenient to have everything in one place for her own review. However, to an outsider, she looked exactly like a diligent, hard-studying student.
Qi Yan flipped through a few pages, his expression remaining neutral as he placed the notes back where they belonged.
“Your notes are not bad,” he said, his tone flat. “You have your own insights.”
Lin Zhiyue did not dare to reply.
“You are only at the third level of the Qi Refining Stage,” Qi Yan continued. “Relying solely on taking these notes can build a foundation, but without actual combat and practice, your cultivation will stagnate.”
Lin Zhiyue nodded.
She knew that most of the system's quests only helped her accumulate basic knowledge and draw tickets. Her cultivation's progress indeed relied on her own daily meditation to circulate spiritual energy, which was how she had slowly climbed to the third level of the Qi Refining Stage.
For someone with a dual ice and wind Heavenly Spiritual Root, this speed was actually considered slow.
“Sit cross-legged now,” Qi Yan said, chin-gesturing toward the futon in the room. “I will clear your meridians. Since you have attended so many days of introductory classes, you should know how to circulate spiritual energy. See if you can use the opportunity of clearing your meridians to break through directly.”
Lin Zhiyue froze for a moment, then realized what he meant—he was going to personally clear her meridians.
This was nothing extraordinary in the cultivation world. A master guiding energy and clearing meridians for a new disciple was a perfectly normal introductory process. It was just that Qi Yan had not mentioned it for the past half-month, so she had assumed he intended to let her slowly grind through it on her own.
Without asking further, she turned and went back inside, sitting cross-legged on the futon. She formed a hand seal over her knees, calming her mind and breathing.
Qi Yan walked up behind her and came to a stop, pressing a warm, dry palm against her back.
The warmth from his palm seeped through her clothes, feeling much hotter than she had anticipated.
The palm of a cultivator with a Flame Heavenly Spiritual Root pressed against her body, which possessed a dual ice and wind spiritual root, felt like a gentle fire being enveloped by a layer of ice, slowly permeating inward.
A powerful yet gentle surge of spiritual energy poured in from her back, flowing all the way down her meridians into her dantian, widening the narrow acupoints that had still felt a bit sluggish when she circulated her own energy.
Closing her eyes, Lin Zhiyue followed the methods she had learned during the past half-month of morning classes, guiding the foreign spiritual energy to circulate through her body's pathways.
At first, she was a bit unaccustomed to it. The foreign spiritual energy carried a scorching heat that initially clashed slightly with the ice and wind spiritual energy inherent to her body, like oil and water mixing together.
But she tried to relax and not resist, allowing both types of spiritual energy to flow side-by-side through her meridians—circulating cycle after cycle without interfering with each other.
Gradually, the scorching heat began to soften, and the feeling of repulsion vanished. She felt the invisible barrier inside her body being washed over layer by layer, growing thinner, until finally, with a gentle tremor—
The spiritual energy vortex in her dantian suddenly expanded. The flow of spiritual energy, which had previously been only as thick as a finger, became as wide as a wrist. The dual ice and wind spiritual energies spun and intertwined within, and a crisp, cold aura seeped from her pores, condensing into a razor-thin layer of white frost in the air around her futon.
Fourth level of the Qi Refining Stage.
The moment of her breakthrough during the meridian clearing was entirely painless, bringing only a sensation of clarity so smooth she almost sighed in comfort.
Lin Zhiyue slowly exhaled a breath of white vapor. When she opened her eyes, she felt her consciousness was even clearer than before.
The palm behind her back was withdrawn.
She turned her head and saw that Qi Yan had already stepped back two paces. He was looking down at the thin layer of frost that had condensed around her futon, then raised his eyes to look at the faint silver luster rising slightly on her cheeks due to the abundant spiritual energy.
“You have reached the fourth level of the Qi Refining Stage.” His tone still lacked any fluctuation, but Lin Zhiyue inexplicably felt that the corners of his mouth had softened slightly. “For a dual ice and wind user to progress this steadily is not bad.”
She stood up and stretched her limbs, feeling much lighter and swifter all over. Qi Yan had already turned to walk out. When he reached the courtyard gate, his steps paused. He did not turn around, only showing half of his face.
“Come to the martial arena on the west side of the main peak at the hour of Chen the day after tomorrow. I will teach you your first saber technique.”
Lin Zhiyue, who was currently rotating her wrists, froze upon hearing this. “I am learning the saber?”
“You can also learn the sword,” Qi Yan left these words behind and departed without looking back.
Lin Zhiyue stood in place, opening her mouth and then closing it again.
She shrugged, not letting it bother her. In any case, learning was learning. If Qi Yan was willing to teach, she was willing to learn.
Once Qi Yan's figure had completely vanished at the end of the stone steps, Lin Zhiyue turned back into the room, shut the door, rubbed her hands together, and summoned the system's light screen.
Ten Advanced Draw Tickets lay neatly in the interface, glowing with a soft blue light. She took a deep breath, hovered her finger over the “10-Pull” button for a second, and then tapped it decisively.
The light screen exploded into a dazzling vortex as ten spheres of light fell one after another.
Her eyes lit up, and she squatted in front of the desk, beginning to look through the newly drawn components one by one.
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