Hearing that, Su Qingyue's eyes narrowed sharply. Her attention fixed straight ahead, and the qi aura radiating from her body slowly picked up, enough to catch Mu Chen off guard.
Unlike before, Mu Chen now had something to hold Su Qingyue's anger in check. Not his cultivation, but his ability to think through a problem and the Ancient God Cauldron in his possession.
"You want me to stop blocking your cultivation path?" Su Qingyue asked.
"Yes," Mu Chen said. "You can still travel with me. But I will be the one deciding what my cultivation path looks like."
The woman went quiet for a moment. Her palm opened, and three blue crescent moon projections appeared above it. Mu Chen didn't react, didn't even flinch.
Su Qingyue's attention shifted forward, not to Mu Chen, but to the Primordial Origin Qi Seed in his hand.
After holding each other's gaze for a while, Su Qingyue's spiritual qi aura settled. She dismissed the three crescent dao projections.
"Alright."
Su Qingyue reached out and took the Primordial Origin Qi Seed from Mu Chen's hand. He was caught off guard.
"I will follow your terms, as long as you do not betray me again, Mu Chen."
The Primordial Origin Qi Seed floated in front of Su Qingyue, pulsing steadily with golden qi. She never thought the day would come when she could actually hold Primordial Origin Qi in her hands.
Mu Chen didn't overreact. He had heard and taken note of Su Qingyue's words. Going forward, he could negotiate with her using that seed as leverage.
Su Qingyue put the Primordial Origin Qi Seed into her bag of holding. She rose from her seat at the wooden table, raised her hand, and shot a beam of spiritual qi light toward Mu Chen's forehead.
He flinched, feeling a brief sting in his head. But the pain slowly faded. A crescent moon mark appeared on Mu Chen's forehead.
"What... did you just do?"
"This place is not suitable for my cultivation," Su Qingyue replied. "I am going to go and absorb the qi energy in this seed."
"The mark I left on your forehead is my mark. Through it, I can see what you are doing and where you are going."
She is not letting me be fully free.
Mu Chen let out a slow breath and cleared his throat, still sitting on the stone altar in the room. "I'm not going anywhere."
"I hope that stays true, Mu Chen."
Su Qingyue vanished in an instant, leaving behind a shimmer of white spiritual qi. Mu Chen felt a wave of relief. That difficult woman was gone and no longer watching his every move.
Even so, he had to stay careful. Su Qingyue was still capable of doing something reckless if Mu Chen acted carelessly and hurt her feelings.
He tapped his bag of holding, pulled out the technique scroll he had bought, and began opening it.
The technique was the Mountain Shattering Palm, a Mortal-grade technique within Mu Chen's ability to study.
His eyes moved steadily left and right, up and down. He read through the entire technique and found he could understand it.
I should give it a try.
Mu Chen formed the hand seals described in the technique, concentrating his spiritual qi energy into one hand.
Within seconds, red magic runes appeared in front of his face, with a projection of a palm at the center.
He thrust his hand forward. The red palm strike shot out at a moderate speed and hit the room's wall.
A tremor ran through it and the ceiling shook. The explosion from Mu Chen's red palm strike wasn't all that powerful, given it was still only Mortal-grade.
What if I refine this technique the same way I refined the sword? Would the quality increase?
Mu Chen summoned the Ancient God Cauldron again and tossed the scroll into the cauldron basin.
He heated the cauldron and lit the flame again, focusing his spiritual qi to help refine the technique.
Unlike refining the sword which had taken three hours, refining the technique took Mu Chen five full hours.
From inside the cauldron, the technique scroll emerged radiating a stronger qi aura than before. Stronger, but the quality hadn't changed.
It looks like the refinement only boosted the technique's power without raising its grade.
Still, an improvement was an improvement. Either way, Mu Chen needed to test the technique with its enhanced power.
He read through it again and copied the hand seal diagrams. The magic rune shifted to gold and grew larger.
Mu Chen aimed his palm forward. A golden palm strike shot out hard and detonated.
The explosion wasn't strong enough to blow through the wall, but secondary effects followed, a gust of wind and crackling lightning at the moment of impact.
The power... is a lot more frightening.
Even so, using too much Primordial Origin Qi drained him quickly. He now had two versions of the technique, one that ran on ordinary spiritual qi and one that ran on Primordial Origin Qi.
He put away the Ancient God Cauldron and brought out his Primordial Origin Qi Seed.
Earlier he hadn't fully absorbed the qi energy in the seed because Su Qingyue had shown up without warning.
Now no one would be around to interrupt him. He could focus on cultivating.
The Primordial Origin Qi Seed floated before him. Both hands began forming a hand seal, activating the Heavenly Refinement Art, First Layer.
No obstacles came up. The more often Mu Chen used this technique, the more his body adapted to the intensity of it.
He cultivated continuously from afternoon into night, six hours without stopping. Even so, his Primordial Origin Qi Seed showed no sign of running out, unlike spirit stones which depleted fast.
Mu Chen opened his eyes and paused his cultivation for a moment. There were no signs of a breakthrough yet, but he could feel his cultivation was far more efficient with the seed.
The only reason Mu Chen stopped was the hunger in his stomach. Su Qingyue hadn't returned yet, and he decided to visit a restaurant and order something to eat.
He stepped out of his room and walked away from the Spiritual Qi Vein Territory. He moved with the crowd on the city's main road, where lanterns and street lights were glowing along the path in the nighttime air.
It was far more crowded than during the day. Most of the merchants were selling food and snacks rather than equipment.
Mu Chen's steps paused when he glanced over and spotted a small eatery right at the edge of the city center. He walked in and saw that it wasn't busy, with most of the customers being mortals.
"Welcome. What would you like to order?" the shop owner asked.
"Not sure. Just give me your best."
"A new person, I see. I'll put together the best I have for you. Go ahead and sit down."
Mu Chen gave a polite nod, walked to an empty table in the room, and sat. A few customers were busy eating. Quite a few others were drinking and relaxing.
The door of the eatery opened, and three cultivators in grey-red uniforms came in. They ordered food and sat close to where Mu Chen was, but he paid them no attention at all.
"The Longtian Sect really is stubborn. They won't hand over their techniques and artifacts no matter how many times we attack them," one of them complained.
"I heard they're being protected by a Soul Formation cultivator. But I don't know how true that is."
"If it is, our sect won't be coming out ahead in this sect war."
The three cultivators kept talking among themselves about the sect war. Mu Chen listened but chose to say nothing and stay out of it.
From the direction of the door, Mu Chen looked over and was surprised to see Su Qingyue walk in. She was smiling wide and gave a small wave, stepping over toward him.
"You were hungry. Sorry I wasn't there to get food for you," Su Qingyue said.
"It's fine. I can find my own food."
The three cultivators glanced over and were briefly taken by Su Qingyue's appearance. Even dressed in a simple cultivator robe, her natural beauty had all of them looking twice.
"Lady," one of the cultivators called out.
Mu Chen and Su Qingyue both turned and looked at the cultivator who had called out to her.
"What?"
"You have a strong and stable cultivation base. What do you say about joining us?" the man asked.
Su Qingyue looked at him coldly, then turned back to Mu Chen with a wide smile. "What do you think, Mu Chen?"
Mu Chen smiled, picked up his cup, and took a sip of tea. "I don't think I'm interested in their sect."
The woman across from him smiled again, and then the sweet expression on her face dropped away, replaced by cold indifference. "You heard him? I'm not interested in any of you!"
"So stop bothering us!"