Qin Xuan brought the fat cat back to his small courtyard. The cat strolled around, familiarizing itself thoroughly with the terrain, as though planning to drop by for visits in the future.
Soon after, it vanished like a wisp of smoke.
Now that the cat was gone, a spirit pigeon remained in his hand.
This pigeon was as large as a human head and coated in a brilliant gilded hue. If activated with the Eagle Eye Technique, one could form a mutual perception with it to peer across hundreds or thousands of li.
Except...
Qin Xuan reflected that his own Eagle Eye Technique was far from proficient, making the pigeon rather useless to him.
Eating it would be a shame.
Moreover, it had been raised by Daoist Ou of Luogu Peak. The cat's master might not give Daoist Ou any face, but Qin Xuan could not afford to offend him at present.
After a moment's contemplation, he loosened his grip on its wings and cradled it in his palm.
The pigeon cocked its head, peering at him.
"You and I share some karma. Considering that all living things possess spirit, wherever you fly is up to your own fortune. If you are willing to stay in this courtyard, you must obey my rules and give me no trouble. Otherwise, sooner or later, you'll end up filling the temple of my belly."
"Go on..."
Qin Xuan released his hold and let the spirit pigeon take flight. Even if it flew back to find Elder Pan Ang, Qin Xuan wouldn't care.
The spirit pigeon beat its wings and soared into the distance in the blink of an eye.
Qin Xuan returned to his two-story pavilion and was just about to sort through the hundred-treasure pouches obtained from the battle at the Geng residence when he heard a fluttering sound outside the window.
*Oh? It came back?*
He parted the bamboo curtain to look. Upon the courtyard's green pine, in addition to the gilded spirit pigeon, there was now a little silver bird resembling a leaf warbler.
This was quite unexpected.
He experimentally beckoned to them. Immediately, two streaks of light—one gold, one silver—flew over and landed upon his palm.
Looking at the golden spirit pigeon, Qin Xuan couldn't help but chuckle.
"Well now, not only did you refuse to leave, you brought along a companion."
Under normal circumstances, he might not have taken them in. But caught in a whim, and regardless of whether they could understand, he said half-jokingly, "I'll call you Xiao Jin and Xiao Yin. When my cultivation bears fruit in the future, I will enlighten you and make you pharmacy boys in my alchemy room."
With that, he set them free to fly again.
Qin Xuan resumed sorting through the hundred-treasure pouches. There was a share meant for the white crane as well, but the items from the Xieling Sect were useless to it, so everything had gone to Qin Xuan.
There were several unorthodox fiendish artifacts, quite a few Mount Tong talismans, corpse whiskers used to control yin spirits, and a great pile of jars and pots.
Qin Xuan uncapped a few jars; inside were all yin spirits and malicious ghosts.
Many techniques for controlling such yin entities were also left behind.
For instance, the Xieling Sect's Mount Tong Corpse Refining Art and the Flying Corpse Method. The Flying Corpse Method detailed how to refine corpse generals, iron zombies, corpse slaves, and corpse demons. The corpse whiskers, meanwhile, had to be used in conjunction with corpse bugs.
Qin Xuan discovered the method for raising corpse bugs in the hundred-treasure pouch of a Xieling Sect enforcement elder.
It was titled *True Explanation of Corpse Gu*.
This manual meticulously expounded every stage, from corpse bug egg-fetuses to roaming corpse bugs, bone-devouring bugs, ironclad corpse bugs, ghost-faced corpse butterflies, and the corpse king broodmother.
*Was this really something the Xieling Sect could master?*
According to the manual's records, those Xieling Sect elders hadn't even grasped the surface.
Studying it himself, he realized the volume appeared to be a transcription. Some passages were ambiguous, words and sentences were missing, and numerous sections were mere fragments.
The cultivation practices recorded within were excessively cruel, so Qin Xuan held little interest in them.
He released the fiend and unsealed a jar containing a yin spirit. The fiend sniffed around like a curious dog, batted the yin spirit about for amusement, and showed no appetite whatsoever.
Qin Xuan put the fiend away.
He combed through all the Xieling Sect scriptures and organized them slightly, planning to bring them to the Records Hall later to have Supervisor Qian appraise them. He would trade them for temple contribution points, which he could then exchange for Qi Gathering Bait—the most common resource used by Qi Refining cultivators.
During his past cultivation, consuming just one or two pellets a day was sufficient. A single gourd of Qi Gathering Bait could last a long time.
Now that his cultivation had advanced and his body had changed, his requirements had increased drastically.
Qin Xuan wasn't worried, though it would certainly be costly.
Those Xieling Sect members possessed very few spirit stones, and after reading *True Explanation of Corpse Gu*, Qin Xuan understood why.
Those gamblers had poured their spirit stones into raising corpse bugs in hopes of speeding up their breeding. In the end, their flawed methods yielded no powerful corpse bugs, and they reduced themselves to utter poverty instead.
After putting away the sundries, Qin Xuan leaned back in a bamboo chair, intending to take a short nap.
He hadn't slept at all the previous night and had undergone that confrontation in the Enforcement Hall today; fatigue was catching up to him.
Before long, he drifted off to sleep.
The strange phenomenon recurred: in his dreams, he once again felt pine nuts repeatedly pelting his head.
The force was ingenious—just enough for him to feel pain, yet never enough to wake him.
This time, he slept until the next morning.
Qin Xuan walked up to the pine tree in the courtyard and asked in a low voice, "Old Pine, was it you pelting my head with pine nuts in my dreams?"
Naturally, there was no reply.
He searched the courtyard for a long time without finding an answer and finally let the matter rest.
Following the incident at the Enforcement Hall, Pan Ang had retreated into seclusion, Ji An lay low for the time being, and Shen Yunfei and Zhou Cang had become very well-behaved. Qin Xuan felt as though the entire world had grown peaceful...
Days of refining qi and meditating passed swiftly.
Only the dwindling supply of spirit stones and the shrinking amount of Qi Gathering Bait in the gourds served as reminders of the passage of time.
One night, a month after Pan Ang had gone into seclusion.
Qin Xuan bathed in the moonlight. Following a slow, deep breath, he felt the spiritual power within his body suddenly burst through an obstacle like a spring surging from a stone crevice, flowing forth steadily and full of life.
*Is this the true breath?*
He opened his eyes and found his vision considerably brighter; he could even catch the fragrance of distant vegetation.
Checking his hundred-treasure pouch, he found that all three large gourds of Qi Gathering Bait obtained from the alchemy dispensary were completely empty.
Those three gourds of pills had been exchanged using some of his own spirit stones along with the Xieling Sect's artifacts and scriptures. Normally, not to mention a single month, they wouldn't have been exhausted in an entire year.
Not to mention he had also used the spirit dew purified by the ancient mirror from spirit herbs.
According to Perfected One Jiuya's *Huachi Tongqi*, consuming bait at such a speed only occurred when one fell into demonic delusion during communion with heaven and earth.
Only when possessed by a demon would one demand boundlessly, heedless of bodily limits.
Yet Qin Xuan felt in peak condition.
The magic power in his body had nearly doubled. Given his cultivation aptitude, and lacking any special constitution, this should have been virtually impossible.
Of course, what occupied Qin Xuan's mind the most over this past month was the constant dreaming.
He had gradually discovered a pattern.
Whenever he watered the courtyard pine with the spirit water nurtured by the ancient mirror's spiritual glow, the dreams of pine nuts pelting his head ceased. But if he went two or three days without watering it, the bombardment would resume relentlessly.
There was definitely something wrong with the Old Pine, and something seemed ready to sprout from the soil.
Qin Xuan glanced at the pine outside the window, turned to gather a letter from the desk, and heard two chirps before a streak of gold and a streak of silver landed upon his shoulders.
After being fed spirit water, the two birds had grown closer to him and seemed to have gained greater wit.
By now, they could already help with chores.
For example, the new sapling growing in the courtyard was planted by the two birds using the seed of a hawthorn berry he had brought back from Elder Wu's aquatic mansion.
He had treated it with spirit water to serve as a control group for the pine, curious whether he would dream of being pelted on the head by hawthorn berries.
This would prove whether the spirit water was the cause or if the issue lay with the pine tree itself.
Two birds that could work were naturally good birds, and they brought no small amount of vitality to the courtyard.
"I might be away for a few days. Don't forget to water the tree."
With that, Qin Xuan began tidying up the clutter on the table. The two birds hurried over to help, one holding an elixir stove in its beak and the other clutching a cattail fan, busier than Qin Xuan himself, as though rushing to punch the clock. It was a pity Ancestor Qin lacked the vast magic power to enlighten them for now.
Old Daoist Wu had already sent word through the white crane, sharing details from his conversation with Zheng Xiuyuan.
Learning that Madam Wei was short-handed, Qin Xuan was naturally glad to be of service.
The immortal path was fraught with difficulties; forming connections with senior experts could spare him many detours. Though he possessed some fortuitous encounters, he was still tiny and insignificant in the vast Nine Provinces world.
Early the next morning, the white crane arrived in a whirlwind and escorted him to Pine Breeze Lodge.
Before they even reached Old Daoist Wu, He Wushuang chuckled. "Zihou, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that many people couldn't pray for across several lifetimes.
"You must cling tightly to Madam Wei's thigh! She is a descendant of the Seven Friends of Longmen! She might casually impart a precious scripture to you, or seeing how well-behaved and honest you are, she might even betroth her daughter to you.
"A bright, smooth road will lie ahead, and I'll get to bask in your glory and look impressive too."
"Hey, don't make it sound so crass. I'm going to run errands for a senior and uphold Yuansong Temple's traditional virtues."
Qin Xuan rolled his eyes at it and asked, "Where is Huaimin?"
"He's in seclusion, practicing some secret technique. All mysterious and secretive."
While speaking, they spotted Old Daoist Wu, who waved Qin Xuan over.
"Since that night at the Geng residence, more and more forces have been lying low in the city, and the aquatic clans of the Lan River are stirring as well. You must remain vigilant in the city. Though you will mostly run errands and deliver messages, accidents can still happen."
"Understood, Disciple will be careful."
Old Daoist Wu raised his long brows and offered further advice: "Be sharp when the moment calls for it."
Qin Xuan acknowledged the guidance.
"Go on, then."
Old Daoist Wu spoke, yet noticed Qin Xuan hadn't left. "Is there something else?"
Qin Xuan said, "Disciple wishes to ask about the method for ninth-layer embryonic breathing."
Hearing this, the white crane circled Qin Xuan twice, clicking its tongue in admiration.
Old Daoist Wu was taken aback inwardly, but flicked his horsetail whisk and returned to his composed demeanour. He said slowly:
"The immortal path prizes directing qi with the spirit, bringing the spirit into the qi and wrapping the qi around the spirit. When merged into one, coalesced into a whole, and condensed into a single point, the breath returns to its root without drifting aimlessly, gradually following an orderly track. Sustained over time, embryonic breathing is attained."
Qin Xuan pondered for a few breaths and appeared to grasp the essence. Nodding, he made his way down the mountain.
Old Daoist Wu and the white crane watched his departing figure descend.
"Old Daoist, how do you explain this?"
Old Daoist Wu mused, "This may be our Dao Sect's transition from the 'conditioned method' to the 'unconditioned method.' This practice is far too profound and might not necessarily apply to him; his cultivation is still shallow, after all."
...
"Senior Brother Shen, I heard Qin Xuan has gone down the mountain. Should we make a move?"
Inside an elegant hall within the temple, Zhou Cang inquired of Shen Yunfei, who was meditating.
Shen Yunfei shook his head decisively.
"Focus on your cultivation. Elder Pan and Elder Ji will naturally send letters to Luogu Peak; attaching a few notes of our own is more than enough. Ever since that grey-robed senior arrived last time, no one in the temple can openly target Qin Xuan.
"I dislike fighting, and I am no match for him anyway. Do you have the confidence to counter his sword art?"
"No," Zhou Cang replied, shaking his head. "It's too dangerous. Unless I reach the level where my evil qi condenses into astral qi, I won't engage a sword expert of the same tier in a duel."
He added, "However, I heard some news. People from the Xieling Sect seem to be making moves."
"Oh?!"
Shen Yunfei's leopard-like eyes lit up with renewed energy. He quickly stood up and lit three sticks of incense. "The Xieling Sect is certainly persistent. In that case, I wish them all the best of luck..."
...
Chapter 33