After binding with a genius, I became an immortal by exploiting loopholes.

Li Si was the first to notice the changes in Lu Qingchen.

On the eighth day after obtaining the Ling Shu Dao Stele, Lu Qingchen, as usual, practiced his stake-driving exercises in the courtyard.

At that time, they had just finished Elder Chen's meridian class and were practicing stance training in the courtyard.

He unleashed a set of "Spirit Turtle Breath," which was quite different from his usual style—before, his movements were clumsy, his breathing and moves were often out of sync, and he would stumble and stagger when performing a set of techniques, like a child who had just learned to walk.

But now, his movements are much smoother, his breathing is gradually catching up with the rhythm, and he is showing a hint of sophistication.

What Li Si cared about even more was the aura emanating from Lu Qingchen.

In the past few days, he felt that his junior brother in the same room had a kind of inexplicable feeling - not a fluctuation of spiritual energy, but a kind of "composure" that came from the bone and showed that he had achieved success in cultivation.

Like a rough stone, its edges were slowly smoothed out by water.

As he finished his stance, Lu Qingchen's muscles and bones emitted a series of fine crackling sounds, a sign that he had successfully completed the Yi Jin Jing (Muscle/Tendon Changing) technique.

Li Si couldn't help but lean closer, looking him up and down: "Lu Qingchen, you seem to be making rapid progress these past few days?"

"We managed to break through the bottleneck by sheer luck."

Lu Qingchen wiped his sweat.

Wang Ming leaned closer, his eyes scanning Lu Qingchen, and asked with a hint of surprise, "At this rate, you've probably already mastered the Yi Jin Jing, right?"

He paused, then added, "At this rate, I'm afraid it won't be long before you surpass me."

Wang Ming was obviously joking when he said that.

Now that he has entered the Marrow Cleansing stage, Lu Qingchen will need to cultivate diligently for some time to catch up.

But his words carried less of the casualness of before and more of a subtle sense of importance.

"To be honest," Li Si said, stopping his stance and leaning closer, his tone no longer as casual as usual, "did you get some kind of stroke of luck? These past few days, the energy you exude is like that of a completely different person."

"There's no such thing as a stroke of luck."

Lu Qingchen waved his hand: "I just figured out a key point a few days ago, and my internal energy circulation has become much smoother. I guess it's a qualitative change from a quantitative one."

Li Si and Wang Ming exchanged a glance and didn't ask any more questions.

However, the way the two looked at Lu Qingchen was quite different from how they had looked a few days ago.

On this peak of new talent, whoever shows signs of hope before the 100-day assessment deserves to be highly regarded.

Sun Han stood aside without saying a word, simply watching Lu Qingchen finish the entire set of movements to complete the finishing move.

His eyes were even dimmer than they had been a few days ago, and his lips were pressed into a thin line, as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he just lowered his head.

Lu Qingchen noticed the latter, his mind filled with complex emotions.

He still remembers the first few days after arriving at Yuxin Peak, when he couldn't even grasp the key points of the Peiyuan Breathing Technique, and he was so anxious that he couldn't sleep all night.

Sun Han shared the insights he had shamelessly obtained from his senior disciple with him.

Later, when his cultivation progress lagged behind and he was disheartened, Sun Han patted him on the shoulder and said, "What's the rush? There's still time. Let's persevere together."

Two months of sharing a room, not a long time, not a short time, but enough for him to remember this kindness.

Of course he wanted to help Sun Han, but the matter of the Dao Stele could not be exposed, and he himself had limited resources—he had already bribed Wang Hao with those three spirit stones, and now he was penniless and couldn't even buy auxiliary pills.

Don't overthink it.

Lu Qingchen walked over and patted Sun Han on the shoulder, "There are still more than forty days left. Focus on your cultivation, and you might still have a chance."

Sun Han raised his head, his eyes slightly red, his lips moved, but he didn't say anything in the end, he just nodded vigorously.

Lu Qingchen knew how much of what he had taken to heart.

For someone with low-grade Five Elemental Roots, the cultivation speed is extremely slow unless aided by elixirs or other external forces; otherwise, achieving the goal of drawing Qi into the body within a hundred days is a low-probability event.

Of the more than three hundred seedlings in this batch, those with four spiritual roots like Li Si and Wang Ming, as long as nothing goes wrong, have a high chance of passing.

Of those who possess four or fewer spiritual roots, probably less than half will ultimately succeed.

This is the cruel selection process in the world of cultivation.

For every person who makes it to shore, someone else sinks to the bottom.

......

On the fifteenth day after obtaining the Ling Shu Dao Stele, Lu Qingchen finally completed the tempering of all the major tendons in his body, achieving the perfection of Yi Jin, and officially entered the Marrow Cleansing stage, beginning to cultivate the "Yi Jin Xi Sui Zhuang Gong".

The section on "Marrow Cleansing" in "Yi Jin Xi Sui Zhuang Gong" is completely different from the stretching and external exercises of Yi Jin, focusing on "internal vibration" and "nourishment".

It requires specific breathing techniques and subtle internal energy vibrations to stimulate the depths of the bone marrow, gradually transforming it into spiritual marrow capable of generating essence and blood.

This process is not only painful—each deep shock feels like a blow to the soul, bringing a tremor and emptiness from the very source of life—but also requires a massive amount of vital energy to sustain it.

After each cultivation session, Lu Qingchen felt as if his body had been hollowed out, with a deep-seated "hunger" following him everywhere.

The limited amount of spiritual essence provided by the free spiritual food in the canteen is far from sufficient to meet the needs of the Marrow Cleansing stage.

He could sense that without additional replenishment, his marrow cleansing progress would be desperately slow, and he might even damage his foundation due to the depletion of his essence.

"We must obtain spirit stones to purchase elixirs or spiritual foods that nourish our vital essence!"

Alarm bells rang in Lu Qingchen's mind.

The cultivation points transmitted daily by the Dao Stele steadily improved his realm and comprehension of the cultivation techniques.

However, it does not directly fill the "void of vital essence" caused by the body's high-speed cultivation.

This is like having blueprints and the "divine power" to accelerate construction, but lacking the most basic "bricks, stones, and wood".

He came up with a solution: to buy elixirs, such as the Marrow Essence Pill, which is specifically designed to nourish qi and blood and assist in marrow cleansing.

The problem was that he was short of money; his only three spirit stones had already been used to bribe Wang Hao.

Without spirit stones to activate it, one cannot purchase pills to replenish the "empty essence" in the body.

His first thought was to borrow.

The others in the room—Li Si and Wang Ming—although their spiritual roots were better than his, their family backgrounds were also average. The spirit stones they brought when they joined the sect had probably long been exchanged for pills, and now their pockets were emptier than their faces.

Sun Han, like him, came from a poor background, not to mention...

As for the other promising talents, they haven't even exchanged a few words with them. If they rashly ask to borrow money, they probably won't even be allowed to get in the door.

Senior Brother Wang Hao does have a spirit stone.

He accepted the three spirit stones without even blinking that day, which shows he was well-off.

But after thinking about it, Lu Qingchen gave up the idea—he and Wang Hao were just casual acquaintances, why would Wang Hao lend him money?

Even if they are willing to lend it, how will they repay it in the future?

Owe someone a favor from an outer sect steward; the cost may not be less than doing a mission at the Hall of Merit.

After much thought, I realized that borrowing money was not an option.

"I'll have to go to the Hall of Merit and See if there are any missions with reasonable rewards and flexible hours."

Lu Qingchen gritted his teeth and made a decision.

It's better to miss a few days of cultivation than to stagnate or even regress in cultivation.

......