Chapter 47: Lingxi Second Floor

At the Heavenly Secret Merchant Alliance, Liu Quan politely escorted Lu Ye to the door. Most cultivators in the outer ring were quite poor, except for disciples from major sects. Transactions involving dozens of spirit stones were not common, and Lu Ye had a straightforward personality. Naturally, Liu Quan wanted to build a good relationship with him for future business opportunities.

As Lu Ye's figure disappeared from sight, Liu Quan turned around, and a fragrant breeze wafted past him. Someone was standing right behind him.

"You startled me!" Liu Quan exclaimed, annoyed. "Shouldn't you be tending to customers? What are you doing standing behind me?"

The person replied softly, "I missed you."

Liu Quan, with a guilty conscience, furtively glanced around to ensure no one was paying attention before lowering his voice. "I'll come find you after work tonight."

"Alright..." the woman responded with a smile.

Liu Quan walked back to the hall as if nothing had happened, attending to other customers. The woman, meanwhile, cast a lingering glance in the direction Lu Ye had left, a thoughtful expression in her eyes.

That night, after a period of intimacy, the two casually chatted. The woman subtly steered the conversation towards the day's transaction. Liu Quan, feeling tired, replied vaguely until he soon fell into a deep sleep. Lying in his arms, the woman found it difficult to sleep.

If she wasn't mistaken, the customer from earlier was the same one she had attended to half a month ago – selling many ores and buying some spirit pills. She hadn't expected him to return to sell ores again after only half a month. From his appearance, the customer was undoubtedly a rogue cultivator. It was certainly noteworthy for an unattached rogue cultivator to accumulate dozens of spirit stones in such a short time.

Working at the Heavenly Secret Merchant Alliance, even with extra income, she earned a maximum of twelve or thirteen spirit stones a month. This made her recall her days as a rogue cultivator, and the comparison left her feeling a little bitter. After much contemplation, sleepiness finally came, but she still couldn't rest soundly.

Meanwhile, in a cave in Qingyun Mountain, Lu Ye was cultivating. After completing his transaction at the Heavenly Secret Merchant Alliance earlier that day, he used his remaining spirit stones to buy a large amount of food. He then rushed back without delay, arriving at the cave just before nightfall. With enough spirit pills, he immediately began cultivating by consuming them. As spirit pills were consumed one by one, the spiritual energy in his fifteenth aperture gradually filled, then surged towards the sixteenth.

Twelve days later, inside the cave, Lu Ye sat cross-legged, calming his breath and focusing his mind. Today was a momentous day. If all went well, he would advance to the second layer of the Spirit Creek Realm. Since returning twelve days ago, he had continuously consumed over thirty Spirit Cultivating Pills, finally opening his eighteenth aperture and cultivating its spiritual energy to full capacity.

Recalling the cultivation route in the Golden Cicada Leisure Art, Lu Ye channeled his spiritual energy, guiding it from the tenth aperture, successively through the eleventh, twelfth... all the way to the eighteenth. He had done this when he reached the first layer of the Spirit Creek Realm, so he was quite proficient this time and encountered no difficulties. The spiritual energy smoothly flowed through the nine apertures like a gentle stream. As Lu Ye performed his art, the energy's speed within these nine apertures continuously accelerated, circulating repeatedly through the full cycle.

Reaching a peak, Lu Ye felt his entire body vibrate, and a surge of energy swept through him. The spiritual energy flowing from the tenth to the eighteenth aperture began to circulate on its own.

Spirit Creek Realm, second layer – achieved!

Having experienced this once before, Lu Ye felt no excessive joy, only the natural calm of success. He was no longer the lowly three-aperture cultivator who had drifted into the Spirit Creek Battlefield more than two months ago. If reaching the first layer of the Spirit Creek Realm gave him the qualification to survive in the outer areas of the battlefield, then reaching the second layer gave him the qualification to venture further. Of course, there was still a gap compared to cultivators with higher cultivation, but Lu Ye was already quite content.

Compared to achieving the first layer of the Spirit Creek Realm, his promotion to the second layer this time took even less time. From opening his three apertures to reaching the Spirit Creek Realm, he had spent approximately forty days, but from the first layer to the second, it took him less than a month. This was mainly due to abundant cultivation resources. Even so, this cultivation speed was incredibly fast.

It's important to note that in the early stages of cultivation, it usually takes a cultivator about ten days to open a single aperture. This is because their primary method of cultivation involves absorbing and expelling the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, and with insufficient cultivation, the efficiency of this process is low, naturally limiting their cultivation speed. This situation would only slightly improve after reaching the fourth layer of the Spirit Creek Realm. In other words, it was normal for ordinary cultivators to advance one layer every three months at the beginning of their cultivation. But for Lu Ye, advancing a layer on average every month – that was the joy of cultivating with pills.

At the first layer, Lu Ye only had one minor circulation cycle within his body, from the prime aperture to the ninth. After reaching the second layer, he gained another cycle, starting from the tenth aperture and ending at the eighteenth. He now had two spiritual energy circulation systems within his body. As a result, he could channel more spiritual energy in a short amount of time, naturally increasing the destructive power of his spiritual energy. Upon reaching the third layer, there would be three such minor circulation cycles, and so on. A cultivator at the ninth layer of the Spirit Creek Realm would have nine minor circulation systems within their body.

He still had thirty Spirit Cultivating Pills. Although Lu Ye really wanted to continue cultivating, he knew the principle of "haste makes waste." He first ate something, then went outside the cave to find a mountain spring, where he took a bath and changed into clean clothes. Then, to the sound of the babbling spring, he took out the Golden Cicada Leisure Art and began to study it. Next, he needed to progress towards the third layer of the Spirit Creek Realm, and he had to understand the locations of the apertures beyond the eighteenth to facilitate his continued cultivation.

The wilderness was serene, occasionally punctuated by the chirping of birds and the buzzing of insects. Dappled sunlight pierced through the canopy of leaves, illuminating the young man's profile, making the scene resemble a painting.

"What are you doing, lurking around?" Lu Ye called out without lifting his head.

From the trunk of a large tree nearby, a small head poked out. With its dishevelled hair, anyone unfamiliar with it would surely be startled. Yiyi glanced at the book in Lu Ye's hand. After realizing it was a low-level cultivation technique, she pouted slightly, looking disdainful.

"Something wrong?" Lu Ye asked, tilting his head, barely suppressing the urge to punch her.

"When are you leaving?" Yiyi asked.

Although Lu Ye hadn't come out to hunt during this period, this was her and Dahu's territory; how could they allow someone else to snore beside their bed? If not for her apprehension about the spirit talismans in Lu Ye's possession, she would have long since cooperated with Dahu to drive him away. However, having suffered a loss at Lu Ye's hands once, Yiyi was still hesitant to act rashly. Furthermore, Yiyi could tell that Lu Ye had become much stronger than he was two months ago.

Lu Ye closed his book, stood up, and stretched. "I'm sleepy. Time to go back and sleep!"

"Hey, I'm talking to you!" Yiyi said angrily, but received no reply. She could only grit her teeth and curse, "You rogue, you stinker, you infuriate me! Wah-yah-yah-yah..." She then furiously scratched at a nearby tree, sending wood chips flying.