Immortality Cultivation: Fellow Daoists, please live for two more episodes!

The cave was pitch black and eerily quiet.

Liu Yinyin had no idea how long Shen Ye had been gone.

She had no way to keep track of time, so she could only roughly estimate by the number of times the water overflowed from the stone trough in the corner.

It has overflowed three times now.

Three days.

She leaned against the corner, clutching a sharpened wooden stick tightly in her hand.

The stick was rubbed raw little by little with stones, and the tip was barely enough to break the skin.

This kind of thing is no different from being unarmed in front of a cultivator, but having it in your hand is better than being empty-handed.

Footsteps suddenly came from outside the cave.

Her fingers tightened suddenly, and the tip of the stick was aimed at the doorway.

The door opened.

The figure of the newcomer was reflected in the light, looking extremely disheveled. His clothes were torn into strips, his body was crooked, his left shoulder drooped down, and he staggered with every step he took. There was not a single part of his body that was intact.

But she would never mistake that face.

The wooden stick in his hand fell to the ground.

Liu Yinyin's tears fell the moment she saw his face clearly.

She rushed over and hugged him tightly, her lips moving for a long time, but she couldn't utter a single complete word.

He just kept repeating the same sentence over and over again.

"You're back..."

"You're finally back..."

Shen Ye didn't say anything, but simply put one arm around her shoulder and placed the other hand on her back, patting her gently.

It took her quite a while to gradually recover.

Shen Ye reached out and wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes.

"Alright, stop crying."

"I'm back."

……

Once everything was settled, Shen Ye finally had time to sit down against the corner of the wall and took out the dusty cloth bag from his pocket.

I dusted off the dirt and grime and untied the knot. There weren't many things inside, just two items.

Shen Ye first picked up the first item, a thin jade slip, its surface smooth and warm, without any signature or markings.

The second item was a small, emerald-green porcelain bottle with a ring of fine, dense spiritual patterns engraved on its surface. It was slightly warm to the touch.

Shen Ye probed the jade slip with his divine sense, and lines of text appeared.

Although he had just broken through the barrier and his spiritual sense was pitifully weak, it was barely enough.

【Mu Ling Jing】

It is not for combat, but rather a method to aid in cultivation.

Once mastered, the affinity with spiritual energy will be greatly enhanced, and the cultivation speed of cultivators of the same level will be at least 30% faster.

Upon seeing this, Shen Ye couldn't help but gasp.

The cultivation technique he obtained in the secret realm was already quite efficient, and the speed at which he cultivated it far exceeded his expectations.

Compared to the cultivation methods he had seen and could choose from when he first started, this was several times faster.

Now, with this supplementary skill added on...

He knew perfectly well what the combined effect meant.

After putting down the jade slip, Shen Ye picked up the second item.

As I uncorked the bottle, a delicate fragrance wafted out. Inside, there was only a tiny drop of liquid, shimmering with a faint green light, clinging to the bottle's surface.

Shen Ye couldn't tell the grade of this thing, but his intuition told him that it was definitely not simple.

Let's keep it for now.

After putting everything away, Shen Ye leaned against the stone wall and remained silent for a moment.

I was both surprised and delighted.

Whether it's the Mu Ling Scripture or that porcelain bottle, it just doesn't make sense that something of that caliber would appear on a corpse in a chaotic battle.

However, considering the scale of that chaotic battle, with magical artifacts flying everywhere and spiritual light scattering, and countless people dying, it's not impossible that some unlucky soul might have dropped something valuable.

If you can't figure it out, then stop thinking about it. There's no reason to take back what you've got.

Shen Ye did not hesitate, sat down cross-legged, and began to circulate the energy according to the instructions in the Mu Ling Jing.

……

After an unknown amount of time, Shen Ye exhaled a breath of stale air and slowly opened his eyes.

Having mastered the auxiliary cultivation technique, the improvement in spiritual energy affinity was immediately apparent. When breathing in, the speed at which spiritual energy flowed into the surrounding area was significantly faster than before.

Just as he was about to continue practicing his internal energy, footsteps suddenly came from outside the cave.

Liu Yinyin walked in carrying a rough pottery bowl.

The bowl contained a small amount of clear liquid, with a light turquoise hue, and steam rose gently from its surface.

"for you."

She handed the bowl over.

Shen Ye took the bowl, and the spiritual tea went down his throat. It was refreshing and sweet, with a subtle, indescribable fragrance in the aftertaste.

Without thinking much about it, I gulped it down.

Liu Yinyin took the bowl back, but instead of leaving, she sat down opposite him.

Shen Ye noticed that her face was slightly flushed, her eyes were somewhat unfocused, and her fingers were unconsciously tugging at the hem of her trousers.

"What's wrong?" Shen Ye asked.

She hesitated for a long time before speaking softly:

"I... have something I've been keeping from you."

Shen Ye looked at her, waiting for her to continue.

"While you were away, the effects of the snow lotus medicine kicked in, and my ailment of being chilled and afflicted by cold yin... is now cured."

She paused, then lowered her voice even further:

"After I recovered, I used the points you left me to exchange for a cultivation technique in the cultivation technique section and secretly started practicing it myself."

Shen Ye was slightly taken aback: "You've already started cultivating?"

She nodded, her face flushing even more.

"Hmm... the barrier has been broken, and the first level of Qi refinement has been achieved."

Has the entryway been broken?

When he left, this girl was just a sickly mortal. Unexpectedly, in just a few days, she had already become a disciple.

But that's not the point. The real issue is... isn't this girl's cultivation speed a bit too fast?

"That's amazing."

Shen Ye nodded: "What cultivation technique did you choose, girl?"

Her fingers unconsciously clenched the hem of her trousers.

"It's called... 'Jade Dew Yin-Nourishing Technique,' and it's said to be suitable for female cultivators with a cold constitution."

She bit her lower lip, as if she had made up her mind:

"This technique itself cannot be used for fighting, so it breaks through levels faster, but it also has one... another use."

"What's it for?"

"This skill requires the fusion of spiritual energy between two people... After practicing it, one can transfer their own spiritual energy to others through their skin."

"When the spiritual energy of two people is mixed together, it creates a resonance, and the cultivation speed is much faster than when one person cultivates alone."

After she finished speaking, she finally raised her head and looked into his eyes.

I want to help you.

Shen Ye remained silent for a moment.

"No."

He shook his head: "I can handle the cultivation myself, you don't need to."

He stopped abruptly halfway through his sentence.

Suddenly, the spiritual energy within his body became restless, and a surge of heat inexplicably rose from his dantian.

It came on so fast and fiercely, as if someone had set up a fire under his internal organs.

The spiritual energy in his meridians began to surge uncontrollably, with a rapid and fierce momentum that even made his ears burn.

Could this be...?

Shen Ye's expression changed drastically.

"Girl...you???"