Five hours after the battle in front of the Baiyin Spiritual Qi Vein gate, Mu Chen opened his eyes and got up from his bed.
His body no longer ached. He was already back in his room, where he saw Su Qingyue sitting at the cultivation altar, cultivating with the Primordial Origin Qi Seed.
He stood up and stretched his joints, letting his whole body relax and feel comfortable. Su Qingyue opened her eyes and saw that Mu Chen was awake.
She stopped cultivating for a moment, put the seed away, and quickly walked over to him.
"Mu Chen? Are you alright? How are you feeling?"
Mu Chen gave a small smile and explained that he was completely fine. Su Qingyue felt relieved.
She then added that if Mu Chen still held a grudge against them, she could go to the Liuxi Sect and destroy them.
"There's no need. It was just a misunderstanding," Mu Chen replied.
"It's not a misunderstanding if you ended up hurt like this."
"I wasn't injured because they attacked me. I got hurt because I tried to go beyond my limits."
"I'm fine now, Yue'er. You don't need to take revenge for me."
Su Qingyue actually wanted to repay what those people had done to Mu Chen. However, Mu Chen was kind-hearted and humble. He clearly did not want to drag this matter out any further.
"If you don't want revenge, then I won't do anything either," Su Qingyue replied.
"Thank you, Yue'er."
The woman standing in front of Mu Chen then brought out ten mortal-grade technique scrolls that she had bought from the best shop in the city. He was startled, staring closely at the ten scrolls floating before him.
"I already bought ten mortal-grade technique scrolls that suit you, five offensive techniques and the rest defensive ones."
"You've only learned the Mountain Shattering Palm technique. That alone isn't enough."
"Take a look. Maybe there's something useful for you," Su Qingyue explained.
Mu Chen nodded slightly, his eyes glowing gold as he looked ahead. Out of the ten scrolls, four emitted a golden qi light, while the others did not.
He did not know what the golden qi on those four scrolls meant, but Mu Chen guessed that those techniques must be closely related to either the Primordial Origin Qi or the Ancient God Cauldron.
His hand reached out and took the four scrolls, leaving the other six stored inside his bag of holding.
The four technique scrolls consisted of three offensive techniques and one defensive technique. Mu Chen looked at their names.
Cloud Sword Technique... Qi Dragon Technique... Lightning Sword Technique... Qi Shield Technique.
They're all at the mortal grade, perfect for my cultivation level.
"Are you going to learn all four of them?" Su Qingyue asked.
"Yes," Mu Chen replied, "but I need to do something first."
"What?"
He did not explain. Mu Chen summoned the Ancient God Cauldron and let it float in front of him.
Su Qingyue was shocked when she saw Mu Chen throw all four technique scrolls into the cauldron. As far as she knew, those scrolls would be destroyed if he burned them inside it.
"What are you doing? Those are technique scrolls, not weapons. They'll be destroyed."
"I already learned this yesterday," Mu Chen replied. "I can increase the power of these techniques just by refining them inside the Ancient God Cauldron."
"Refining them? I don't understand."
Mu Chen turned to look at Su Qingyue and gave a small smile as he circulated his qi to ignite the cauldron.
Flames rose, and the cauldron began to burn. Mu Chen closed his eyes to sharpen his focus as he refined the technique.
If my guess is right, then I'll have at least five enhanced technique scrolls.
That will greatly help my attack options.
Su Qingyue still could not make sense of what Mu Chen was doing. Refining technique scrolls? To any other cultivator, that would be the worst possible way to destroy a technique.
However, Mu Chen had been showing incredible, miraculous, and strange things since yesterday.
Su Qingyue assumed that Mu Chen's Ancient God Cauldron truly worked that way, defying the laws of nature.
She would see the result later. For now, Su Qingyue decided to focus on absorbing her Primordial Origin Qi Seed.
Mu Chen remained on the bed as he continued refining the technique scrolls. The time required was quite long. What initially took five hours had now become twenty hours.
Refining one technique scroll required five hours. For four scrolls, it would take around twenty hours.
Mu Chen did it without stopping. Su Qingyue turned to look at him, worried about the man. Sweat poured down his body and soaked his hair as time passed and night arrived.
Su Qingyue could not directly help Mu Chen with the refinement, but she assisted by summoning a qi-gathering formation above his head, preventing him from running out of qi.
In the middle of the night, a burst of qi suddenly erupted, startling Su Qingyue, who had been cultivating alone at the stone altar in the room.
She stopped cultivating again, glanced to the side, and saw that the center of the qi burst came from the golden cauldron.
Mu Chen also opened his eyes and pointed upward, lifting the four technique scrolls out of the golden liquid inside the cauldron.
"The aura of those scrolls... it's gotten stronger?"
"But their quality is still only mortal-grade."
The man let out a long breath, then looked ahead and reached out his hand. One of the scrolls landed in his grasp, the one labeled Cloud Sword Technique.
"Yes," Mu Chen replied as he opened the scroll, "refining technique scrolls only increases their combat power, not the quality of the technique itself."
"Even so, if its power has increased, then its actual strength should be comparable to profound-grade," Su Qingyue replied.
"I don't know, but it seems that way."
Mu Chen studied the technique, following the hand seals described in the scroll before trying to use it.
"Yue'er, help me test this technique," Mu Chen said.
"Alright. Attack me with all your strength."
He drew his sword, activated the Cloud Sword Technique, and launched an attack forward. Su Qingyue raised her hand and directed it ahead, activating a defensive qi barrier.
Mu Chen's sword suddenly split into many identical blades, drifting from one cloud to another before launching a relentless barrage against Su Qingyue's defensive qi wall.
This is insane! Its power has increased. A Qi Condensation cultivator would be injured if hit by this.
No. Even a Foundation Establishment cultivator would be injured and overwhelmed.
Mu Chen was impressed. He drew his weapon back with a glow of qi and deactivated the technique.
"That's amazing. Its power really did increase."
"It seems so. I'm going to try the others. Help me judge what each attack is like."
"Of course, Mu Chen!" Su Qingyue said firmly.
In the middle of the night, Mu Chen studied the four technique scrolls one by one, starting from the sword techniques and moving on to the dragon technique, ending with the golden qi shield wall.
Everything went well and smoothly. Su Qingyue could feel that Mu Chen's strength had become far more dominant. He could even use all of his techniques without difficulty.
A small explosion occurred when Mu Chen's golden qi shield wall successfully blocked Su Qingyue's sword attack. The woman smiled brightly, impressed and satisfied with Mu Chen's abilities.
"With abilities like this, no one below Foundation Establishment will be able to hurt you."
"You're right, but cultivation is still the most important thing. I still need to improve my cultivation so my strength can continue to grow," Mu Chen replied.
To complete the next mission, I need to at least break through to the 7th Layer of Qi Condensation.
Looks like I need to use my time now to cultivate.
"Do you want me to help you break through?" Su Qingyue asked.
"How?" Mu Chen asked.
Su Qingyue smiled. She waved her hand, summoning around five thousand low-grade spirit stones that scattered across the room.
"Ever since I reached Soul Transformation, I no longer have much need for spirit stones, especially low-grade ones."
"With all of these, I'm sure you can break through to the 6th or even the 7th Layer of Qi Condensation."
She's helping me so much. It seems she's not as bad as I imagined.