Cultivation begins in Qingfeng Market.

Xu Chuan lowered his voice and said, "These guys don't need the sect to give them Foundation Establishment Pills. Their families and teachers have already prepared everything."

"I came here mainly for the sect's unique training environment and the opportunity for guidance in the Hall of Inquiry."

Lin Zhao remained silent. He recalled how the Lin family had spent seventy years preparing for that Foundation Establishment Pill, expending countless efforts and even sacrificing the lives of several elders…

He shook his head, shaking off the slight bitterness that was rising within him, and suddenly squinted at Xu Chuan: "Wait, kid... don't you also have a Core Formation elder behind you? Don't tell me you don't have one either..."

Xu Chuan coughed lightly and glanced to the side.

Lin Zhao stared at him for two seconds, then finally let out a long sigh and uttered a sentence only she could understand: "What a rich bastard."

Xu Chuan immediately jumped up, feigning anger, and said, "What are you saying! Are you looking for a fight!"

The two playfully pushed and shoved each other a few times before walking back arm in arm.

Lin Zhao didn't feel there was anything unfair about it. It was already rare for the sect to give everyone a "relatively fair" starting point and opportunity. He could always obtain Foundation Establishment Pills in the future.

The fourth year's courses were significantly easier, consisting mostly of "miscellaneous courses" to broaden students' horizons, much like a perk the sect gave to its disciples before they rushed to Foundation Establishment.

However, some of the content is quite interesting.

In one course on Taoist alchemy, the instructor, in high spirits, proposed a viewpoint: elixirs should be divided into two categories.

One type is "medicine," which is used to improve cultivation, heal injuries, and replenish qi during daily practice. It is nothing more than the combination of spiritual materials and the control of the heat. Many methods in the various arts of immortal cultivation can achieve similar effects.

The other type is the real "Dan".

"What is Dan?" the instructor asked, his eyes gleaming. "Dan means round. What does roundness symbolize? Perfection, cycle, the world!"

The true elixir should be created using a furnace as its foundation, simulating a small world within it.

By harnessing the laws of heaven and earth and the power of creation, things that defy fate and change destiny are born—such as Foundation Building Pills and Longevity Pills.

These elixirs touch upon the power of 'creation.' They possess incredible effects.

Lin Zhao wholeheartedly agreed. He had already seen it in the notes of the token exchange list:

The Foundation Establishment Pills offered for exchange by the sect are not actually refined batch by batch by alchemists.

Within the Yunhai Cangming Sect, there are thirty-six Heavenly Gang Secret Realms and seventy-two Earthly Fiend Secret Realms.

One of the Earthly Fiend Secret Realms has been transformed into a pill furnace by the sect's cultivators using astonishing methods! The secret realm operates on its own, absorbing and releasing spiritual energy, and by borrowing the power of heaven and earth, it can naturally produce tens of thousands of Foundation Establishment Pills every once in a while.

"I heard," Xu Chuan once gossiped to him in secret, "that in those secret realms, mountains and rivers form arrays, streams act as guides, and earth fire and heavenly winds serve as fuel, creating a completely self-contained cycle."

Not to mention Foundation Establishment Pills, even the herbs needed for Connection Pills can be "grown" in the secret realm.

The reason our sect has such abundant low-level resources is because these 'secret realms' are so powerful... Manpower? Our sect hasn't needed that many people for a long time."

To refine an entire secret realm into a furnace that automatically produces pills... What an incredible feat!

"The Seventy Thousand Years of the World-Suppressing Holy Sect"

It not only has countless cultivation techniques and powerful individuals, but also a resource production system that has surpassed ordinary people's imagination and is almost a self-contained world.

I am but a minor cultivator who has just found his path in this vast system.

Speaking of the miscellaneous courses in the fourth year, they were truly diverse.

The most chilling incident involved a teacher surnamed Ding.

"Dragon-Slaying Technique"

Of course, I'm not teaching you how to kill dragons; these "dragons" refer to those deeply entrenched forces and dynasties.

Instructor Ding was incredibly outspoken during his lectures.

In the first half, he carefully teaches you how to build a stable force from scratch, how to balance internal affairs, and how to expand and develop, explaining everything in great detail.

But in the second half, the style suddenly changes—he starts teaching you how to destroy your newly built power from within, using all sorts of underhanded methods! Sowing discord, vying for resources, open and covert assassinations... he uses every means at his disposal, making people's spines tingle.

That wasn't all. In the summary section, Instructor Ding directly used a ready-made example from the sect to attack!

He singled out each of the four surnames and seven families, analyzing their family structures for weaknesses, potential internal conflicts, and how to proceed with his "dragon-slaying technique," predicting their possible eventual collapse...

The disciples sitting below, especially those who came from these families themselves, felt extremely uneasy, sweating profusely, their hearts pounding: Is the sect... going to target the family forces? Is it going to purge them?

As a result, Instructor Ding shifted his focus, pointing directly to a higher level—the systemic flaws of the "Five Halls and Seven Halls" structure! He complained about the bloated organization, unfair resource allocation, and low efficiency…

The family members in the audience breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that it wasn't specifically targeting them after all.

Immediately afterwards, we heard Instructor Ding begin to comment on the Nascent Soul True Monarchs in that bland and unremarkable tone!

"Some ancestors, they are in seclusion for years, ignoring worldly affairs, yet they occupy the best cave dwellings and the largest resource allocations..."

In my opinion, this treatment should be reduced; the extra resources could be allocated to more promising disciples.

The lecture hall fell into a deathly silence. Everyone's face turned pale, and they all had one thought: We're doomed! We heard something we shouldn't have! Would the sect kill us all to silence us...?

Fortunately, the Yunhai Cangming Sect's reputation over 70,000 years is well-deserved.

The next day, Teacher Ding came to class as usual, but he looked a bit miserable—he had a pair of conspicuous dark circles under his eyes and was walking with a limp.

But the half-smile on his face seemed to say: See? This is what happens when you fail to "slay the dragon" and get trampled by the "dragon".

Immediately afterwards, a new course appeared in all the disciples' tokens: "Sect Law Enforcement Course".

The instructor was a Mr. Wu, who had never appeared before. He was a refined and fair-skinned man who spoke softly and had a warm smile.

His lectures were surprisingly "gentle." He began by recounting how the Enforcement Hall was incredibly perceptive and thwarted one conspiracy after another against the sect;

Then, it details how those forces or individuals who violated the rules of the sect were "properly dealt with" throughout history.

When he gets to a particularly interesting part, he will pause deliberately, smile and scan the entire audience, waiting for everyone's applause, making sure everyone has heard him clearly.

The most outrageous example he gave was: "Eight thousand years ago, a senior of our sect who was at the peak of the Core Formation stage went astray in his pursuit of the Nascent Soul stage and cultivated a demonic art that was against the natural order. His family, on the other hand, not only did not dissuade him, but also secretly provided him with a lot of help."

Instructor Wu's smile grew even gentler. "Later, this senior suffered a backlash from his cultivation technique, lost control of his mind, and killed all the clansmen who had helped him... Alas. On the contrary, several disciples in the clan who strictly adhered to the rules and did not participate in this matter remained unharmed."