Great Success

Three days later, Ling Xu kept training in everything that he could make progress.

In the morning, he would continue comprehending and trying to improve his Formless Qi Breathing. Although the progress was extremely slow and he barely saw an increase of one percent in it.

Afterwards, he would circulate the formless qi that was already stored in his body and with every deep breath taken he would refine more. With the accumulation from the last three days, he had already reached sixty percent of his body's capacity.

This pace would be said to be extremely fast by any disciple that was asked since it would normally take a month of refining qi into the body before once managed to advance to the second stage of Qi Refining. But with his current pace, it would only take him two more days before doing so.

Ling Xu managed to do so because he had already reached a higher level of mastery in his cultivation technique than the rest in the same stage. This was because, once one completed the entry level in the cultivation technique, to advance from small success to proficient, it would take several months.

And it would take even longer for someone that practiced Formless Qi Breathing since it was much harder to learn. Taking almost twice the time to reach the proficient level compared to the other cultivation techniques.

Also, the higher the cultivation stage the longer it takes to advance to the next level since every time you open an acupoint you need to refine more qi to complete the stage and breakthrough to the next one.

So those who don't advance in their cultivation technique will have a harder time later, once their cultivation stage increases. But with Ling Xu's current mastery, he would be able to breakthrough all the way to the middle stages without having a decrease in speed.

Apart from that, he had also absorbed qi refining pills that helped to increase his speed of refining qi into the body. He bought a bottle containing ten low grade qi refining pills at the Treasure Pavilion with ten low grade spiritual stones.

The price was the same as the high grade blood tempering pills because the pills from the Qi Refining Realm were in very high demand, lowering it a lot compared to the ones from the Blood Qi Realm.

And finally, he would train with the Flowing Stream Sword at night, since it was the time he liked the most as he felt that he could practice in the forest without any distractions.

Currently, Ling Xu was about to complete the entry level as his sword was flowing continuously like a stream, carrying a trace of qi in the sword. After testing it on a big rock, he made a lot of noise since he managed to cut it in half without much difficulty.

A stick of incense's time later, his sword was showing slight changes as he felt that after every move he made, the power in his sword would increase. Still, this new change was barely noticeable since he had just reached the small success level

"It's time to increase the pace."

After saying that, Ling Xu set free the energy that was in the path between his eyes and his mind reached a state of clarity, falling into enlightenment right away.

With the extremely pure golden energy swimming through his body, every strike he made gained more momentum and after just a few minutes his sword technique had reached the end of small success.

This process continued for an hour as his sword technique had passed through the proficient level, with the trace of qi now showing a subtle form like a stream passing through the sword.

But his improvement didn't stop there since he had advanced all the way to great success. The subtle energy took form and a stream of energy formed in the sword, increasing his strength to a terrifying degree.

Coming out from the enlightenment, Ling Xu returned back to normal and landed his sword on another rock, which was completely turned into crumbles.

"I can't believe I reached this level of mastery!" he said while taking heavy breathes since this move had used up almost all the qi in his body. "This can't be used unless I don't have a choice. Otherwise I will be in danger if I'm fighting against more than one enemy and I don't kill them in that one move."

…

The next day, Ling Xu got up and headed directly to the Affairs Hall, looking to take on his first mission as an outer disciple.

"Let's search for a mission that isn't too easy but doesn't surpass the third stage of Qi Refining or else I will bring up a lot of attention if I complete it alone."

Looking at the missions on the signboard, he was deeply disappointed as he noticed that there wasn't any mission that matched his requirements.

The only missions available for him were for someone in the first or second stage but their rewards were small since they were of low difficulty. And the next missions with a higher level of difficulty available were only for the sixth stage of Qi Refining or higher.

"Although I may be able to complete one of these, I have to hide my strength as much as possible."

If Ling Xu hadn't defeated Sun Qinglan before, he would even consider hiding even more of his strength and only doing missions for second stage disciples. But the reward was very low and it would barely make a difference to the amount of spiritual stones he currently has.

Seeing Zhou Xueqin in his usual working place he approached, "Greetings, brother Xue."

"Brother Xu, how are you doing? I heard that your entrance to the outer sect has been quite complicated." he asked Ling Xu, having heard about his fight with Sun Qinglan the same day he became an official disciple.

"You heard about it too? Fortunately, senior sister Sun went easy on me after seeing that the matter was a misunderstanding. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been so lucky." he responded, implying that Sun Qinglan went easy on him and didn't use her full strength since she didn't want to hurt him.

"I see…" Zhou Xueqin nodded and then continued quite hurried, "Brother Xu, please ask what you want quick because I'm very busy. I can't say if I may be able to help but I will try."

"Is something wrong?" Ling Xu observed his senior's face which showed that he had barely slept for the last few days.

"This is something that shouldn't come out of here." he said, giving a look to him that he couldn't tell anyone.

Seeing him nod, he sighed and continued, "Three days ago, one of the disciples that worked in the Affairs Hall with me disappeared. We still haven't found him so it's very possible that he is dead."

"What?" he asked in a low voice, showing surprise but without overreacting since it was pretty normal for disciples to die or disappear once in a while.

After all, this world was very dangerous and there are many cases of disciples dying while on a mission. But it was still surprising since it wasn't normal for disciples within the sect to disappear.

"Three days ago… is it possible that it has something to do with the person that tried to kill me at night?!" he thought inwardly, feeling that it made sense since it was only normal that those that worked in the Affairs Hall had access to which disciples had just become outer disciples. "After all, he said that he was given the mission to kill any good seedlings, so he must have referred to those that are still unofficial disciples and can only contribute with daily tasks."

"I understand brother Xue, I won't say a word." he said after showing his surprise and then continued with what he came to ask, "I was looking at the missions available but I saw that there are only a few left, do you know why?"

"So that was your concern… this is pretty normal actually. Every month the missions in the signboard reset and that's when the majority of disciples select a mission. Unfortunately, we are at the end of the month and the quantity of missions available is at its lowest so you will have to wait for a few days."

"Now I understand why…" he said as he started thinking if he should take one of the lower difficulty missions or wait until the next month started.

"If you find someone who hasn't completed their mission yet you can ask them if you can join their group." Zhou Xueqin added, giving him another option that he didn't know was possible.

"Many thanks brother Xue!" Ling Xu's face showed relief since he found another option instead of waiting.

"It was nothing, brother Xu. I hope you get lucky and find a group that matches what you are searching for."

Ling Xu then bid his farewell and was about to leave the Affairs Hall, pondering if there was someone that would need another person before the month ended in a few days.

"Are you looking for a mission, junior brother?"

Turning to see who called him from behind, he saw a man of around the same age as him who had a sword in his back and gave the impression of someone mature with his serious expression.

"I'm actually, how do you know?" he asked with a bit of suspicion since he didn't believe that he would be so lucky to have a solution falling out of thin air.

"Don't misunderstand, I heard you talking to the worker inside the Affairs Hall and I was just looking for another person that could fill the last spot."

"Since that's the case, why are you asking me and not someone with a higher cultivation level?"

Looking to the sides in case someone could hear, the man with the serious expression got closer and told him, "That's because the mission is to bring the venom gland from a snake that is at least in the seventh stage of Qi Refining and I alone am enough to get it. I only need one more person to fill in the minimum requirement to take on the mission." he said, sharing openly the details of the mission.

Once he heard it, Ling Xu observed carefully and sensed that the person in front was in the sixth stage of Qi Refining, having a sense of doubt from what he was told.

"May I ask in what cultivation level you currently are, senior brother?" he said carefully, showing that he couldn't perceive his cultivation stage since only those with a similar level of strength could sense it.

Even though Ling Xu was in the first stage of Qi Refining, he was different compared to the rest since he had opened the same amounts of acupoints that someone in the third stage would have been able to.

Also, since he had entered the Qi Refining Realm after going through three blood exchanges and transforming his blood qi, the quality of his qi was incomparable to any outer disciple.

Still, before he would have only been able to sense someone at Lu Wenjie's stage. But after reaching the proficient level in his cultivation technique, his strength had increased a lot and he could now sense the level from anyone in the sixth stage of Qi Refining or lower.

"You don't need to worry about that, junior brother. Although my current level is at the sixth stage, I have recently had an encounter with a snake beast that is at the seventh stage of Qi Refining and I only managed to escape because it started fighting with another beast in the same level."

Thinking about what the person was saying, Ling Xu asked, "Are you implying that it got injured after fighting with the other beast?"

"That's right! Before I returned to the sect, I stayed to see who had won and after an intense fight the snake had won but not without getting severely injured."

"It makes sense." Ling Xu thought to himself, thinking that it was possible for the person in front to defeat the beast on his own if it was actually injured.

…

Returning to his room, he was thinking about how lucky he was since he didn't even need to search for a group, having someone approach him first.

"The date for the mission has been set for tomorrow morning, so we have time to rest and prepare without letting the beast recovers from its injuries."

Ling Xu then sat down in the lotus position and continued comprehending his cultivation technique since the day had just begun and he didn't have anything else to do.

Several hours later, after he ended comprehending the breathing method, he was also about to end his session of refining qi into the body as he called his status panel.

[Name]: Ling Xu

[Realm]: 1st stage of Qi Refining (78%)

[Cultivation]: Formless Qi Breathing (proficient 84%), Existence Shadow Will (40%)

[Techniques]: Flowing Stream Sword (great success 2%), Three Purities Sword (perfection), Blood Thread Transformation (completed)

Seeing that he was a little more than a day short of completing the first stage, Ling Xu decided to dedicate a few more hours after the mission ended to advance to the second stage in one go.

"The panel is getting more complete." he said, remembering how packed it was before he lost all the skills he had once he came to the Skyless Realm.

"The progress of the Existence Shadow Will is also showing progress." he felt the shadow golden energy laying dormant in his abdomen and called it out.

"I wonder what will happen once it covers my whole body. After all, it hasn't even reached half the progress and it's already covering around seventy percent of my body."