"Sect Master, why are you suddenly siding with that damn rice-thrower?" Nuomi pouted, unhappy that her Sect Master was turning his loyalty toward an outsider.
Suddenly, a terrifying yet plausible explanation occurred to her. She looked at Zhou You in shock, as if seeing him for the first time.
"C-could it be... Sect Master, have you been taken as her kept man?"
"Sect Master, even we ghosts have our bottom lines! As a human, you need principles too!"
"What kind of nonsense is that!" Zhou You exploded with indignation. Did he look like that sort of person?
It was still Chu Xiaoyao who understood Zhou You best and knew his character. After all, they had known each other since middle school and knew each other inside out.
"Don't worry, Zhou You isn't that type of person. With looks like his, Su Tingxue wouldn't be interested."
Zhou You nodded. "Leave it to Xiaoyao to understand me... Wait, what?"
Zhou You turned his head and glared at the Empress. *That doesn't sound like a compliment!*
"I earned this spirit stone fair and square by gathering intelligence!" Seeing that both the human and the ghost harbored such gross misunderstandings about him, Zhou You had no choice but to explain everything from the beginning.
"Last night, I logged onto the Immortal Cultivation Forum and saw a bounty post asking if any major events involving Golden Core cultivators had ever taken place in Chang'an."
"I don't know much about the local cultivation world, so I forwarded the post to Su Tingxue. She made money off it and gave me a spirit stone as my cut."
Also sitting in the back row, three seats away from Zhou You, Lian Yi's expression gradually grew bizarre.
She had only intended to eavesdrop in passing and gather some intel, but the more she listened, the more this seemed to involve her directly!
"You should have said so earlier! If you'd asked me, I know what major events happened in Chang'an." Chu Xiaoyao thought it was some grand dilemma. Zhou You was really something, throwing away a money-making opportunity to Su Tingxue for nothing.
"You know?"
"This Seat's return from the Hongmeng Continent—that is the single greatest event in Chang'an."
Eavesdropping, Lian Yi showed a look of bewilderment. *The Hongmeng Continent... where on earth is that?*
Countless blessed lands and grotto-heavens flashed through her mind, but not one of them was called the Hongmeng Continent.
*Why does that name sound like something made up on the spot?*
Zhou You curled his lip. "Forget it. Even if it's true, the original poster wouldn't believe it anyway. Let's not waste our breath."
The demonic calamity and the Golden Core tiger demon building a safari park that Su Tingxue mentioned were things the poster had the means to verify. But how could anyone verify the Carefree Empress? Come interrogate Chu Xiaoyao in person? That was completely unrealistic; the poster would never believe it.
*It's actually true?!*
Lian Yi was astonished. Chu Xiaoyao had returned from the Hongmeng Continent—could this be the true secret of the Carefree Sect?
*Finally, a breakthrough!*
She had never expected that after only a few days here, she would uncover such monumental intelligence.
With the spirit stone's origin cleared up, Zhou You could finally concentrate on cultivating.
His claim of being at the grand completion of early Qi Refinement was not without foundation. He could feel that his cultivation attainment had reached its utmost limit. If he followed the regular course of cultivation, he would break through in a few days anyway.
Having a spirit stone, however, was even better.
Every pore across Zhou You's body opened, drawing forth the abundant spiritual qi within the spirit stone. Wisps and strands of energy entered his body, nourishing his flesh, warming and soothing his meridians, and suffusing even his soul with a sense of fullness.
It was an inside-out fulfillment that no mortal could ever experience; anyone who experienced it even once would fall in love with the sensation.
Classes, breaks, cultivating, lunch break, cultivating...
Zhou You seized every single second to cultivate, his schedule packed to the brim, truly feeling the hectic grind of a student in their third year of high school.
When dinner came around, Zhou You ordered a bowl of noodles with diced pork and eggplant. The taste was ordinary, but one couldn't expect much from cafeteria food.
Chu Xiaoyao was having braised eggplant over rice, which looked very appetizing. She ate slowly, chewing each mouthful thoroughly, so by the time Zhou You finished his entire bowl, she was only halfway through.
Zhou You took advantage of waiting for her to cultivate. The spirit stone had dimmed noticeably compared to before, with nearly half of its spiritual qi refined and absorbed by Zhou You.
Zhou You felt an unprecedented sensation emerge within him, akin to being fully sated. Yet this feeling did not originate from his physical body, but from something deeper, something far more fundamental... his soul.
His soul was expanding, and spiritual power surged within his meridians. Zhou You felt as if he were strapped without any protection to an airplane hurtling straight into the clouds, the tremendous pressure threatening to tear his body apart.
He lost track of time—it might have been ten minutes, or perhaps only a few seconds—until the plane broke through the cloud deck and entered the stratosphere, looking down over the cloud sea. Zhou You's body suddenly felt light as a feather, yet every inch of skin and every muscle thrummed with strength.
Focusing his senses, Zhou You observed his surroundings: Chu Xiaoyao's eating motions, the cafeteria lady's hand ladling dishes, the water running over washed trays... Everything around him seemed to slow down. Then he realized—it wasn't that the world had slowed down, but that he had gotten faster.
"I'll take a bite of your food," Zhou You said. Picking up his chopsticks, he seized a moment when Chu Xiaoyao wasn't looking to pluck a single grain of rice cleanly from her plate.
The braised eggplant made the rice sticky, so picking up one grain usually brought several clinging along with it. With a subtle flick of his wrist, Zhou You shook off the extra grains, steadily holding only that initial single grain.
All of this happened faster than the human eye could track; only a high-speed action camera could have captured the motions clearly.
"I broke through," Zhou You said, examining the grain of rice with smug satisfaction. In the past, he could never have pulled off a feat like this.
In wuxia movies, martial arts masters could catch flying flies with chopsticks. Catching a fly was far too disgusting, but snagging a grain of rice was pretty much the same idea.
"It's just mid Qi Refinement. Look how smug you are," Chu Xiaoyao said sourly, shoveling food into her mouth.
"Sect Master, you're amazing!" Nuomi clapped continuously, her applause smacking loudly with unmistakable sincerity.
Nuomi truly thought Zhou You was incredible. He had broken through to a new realm in such a short time, whereas in the two years since her memories began, she hadn't shown the slightest sign of growing stronger.
"Nuomi really is the best," Zhou You sighed with deep gratification, feeling guilty for having taken Su Tingxue's side earlier.
Eating her meal not far away, Lian Yi witnessed the whole scene.
*How did he manage to break through?*
The spirit stone Zhou You used for his breakthrough had come from Su Tingxue, which, rounded off, had come straight from her own pocket!
*So you're telling me I helped him break through?!*
Lian Yi decided not to dwell on it; dwelling on it would only ruin her mood.
Zhou You then ran to the cafeteria entrance and bought a bottle of mineral water. Gripping it with one hand, he exerted a slight squeeze with his thumb and forefinger, easily twisting off the cap!
"My strength really has changed dramatically!"
Zhou You remembered that when he first reached the Qi Refining stage, he could also twist off a bottle cap, but it had required a great deal of effort, nowhere near as effortless as this.
Next, Zhou You tried having his soul leave his body again. He could clearly feel the change in his soul's strength. It was no longer limited to merely picking up a pen; now, a punch from it could genuinely hurt someone. It was a qualitative leap.
This meant he couldn't actually spar with Chu Xiaoyao to test it out—he didn't want to accidentally hurt her. He would just have to find a big tree later and kick it a couple of times while in his out-of-body state to gauge his strength.
"As for range..."
Back in early Qi Refinement, his soul couldn't travel more than three paces from his physical body. Now that he had advanced, how far could it go?
Zhou You's soul stepped backward, drawing away from his body. It passed through cafeteria tables and chairs and drifted straight through the bodies of several passing students, continuing until it reached a distance of twelve and a half paces before feeling any pulling sensation.
"More than four times as far."
Zhou You's soul returned to his body. He hadn't expected the range to increase by so much.
"If I'd had this level of cultivation when we dredged up your little treasury, I wouldn't have needed to learn skin refining at all. I could've just let my soul leave my body and gone straight into the water," Zhou You remarked wistfully. Nuomi wasn't a water ghost and couldn't enter the water, but his soul faced no such restrictions and could enter Big Stone Lake at will.
"How about we make another trip to Big Stone Lake and fish up your little treasury?" Although hell banknotes were worthless, Zhou You figured Nuomi had gathered them bit by bit after all, so she might hold some sentimental attachment to them.
"No," Nuomi refused flatly.
*Big Stone Lake? A little treasury?* Lian Yi, who had been eating with her head down while eavesdropping, had her eyes light up. Her head snapped right up. This was her lucky break!
That Nuomi girl clearly had secrets behind her, and her private hoard was bound to be valuable.
"If you don't want it, then it's mine," Lian Yi smiled to herself. After being down on her luck for so long, fortune had finally turned in her favor!
Chapter 57