Cautiously Cultivating Immortality in a Strange World

Chapter 12: Breaking Through the Middle Stage

After returning, Chen Lin continued to practice alchemy.

As expected, he obtained ten Initial Yuan Pills and began to craft talismans.

Although he still had some spirit stones on him, he had to take out some talismans to sell in order to maintain the facade that he was living off of talisman-crafting.

Perhaps due to his cultivation growth, his state was exceptionally good today, and his level of crafting Fireball talismans had increased again.

Adding his innate abilities, he succeeded three times out of ten attempts!

The three talismans with flame patterns arranged in a row made Chen Lin increasingly delighted.

With a success rate of 30%, minus the cost, he could earn seventeen or eighteen spirit stones per material, which was considered top-notch among the scattered cultivators in the slums.

After getting excited, he picked up the talisman pen and prepared to refine more in one go.

Before he knew it, the night had deepened.

A dull bell sound startled Chen Lin, who was immersed in crafting talismans.

He was stunned at first, then stood up with a puzzled look and walked to the copper bell.

"That's right, I set the time, but why did I set it to ring at this time?"

Looking at the mechanical device on the copper bell, Chen Lin once again realized that he had forgotten something.

But the bell-ringing time was definitely set by him, and even the timing device was made by him personally, relying on his "Hit Every Ten Times" innate ability to succeed.

What exactly had he forgotten?

Why did he set the alarm for this time?

Chen Lin racked his brains.

Ah, the red thread!

Suddenly, a bright light flashed in his mind, and he remembered everything he had forgotten.

He quickly rushed to the window, opened it, and looked up at the sky.

It was quiet.

The moon in the sky was full, and the stars were bright, but there was no other abnormality.

The red thread that appeared every night was nowhere to be seen.

"Is it that the red thread hasn't appeared, or is it that I can't see it myself?"

Chen Lin's face began to change unpredictably.

After waiting for half an hour, he closed the window gloomily.

"There must be something wrong with me."

He muttered to himself and sat down weakly on the chair.

The joy of improving his talisman-crafting skills had vanished.

After a moment's silence, he stood up again, quickly took off all his clothes, and inspected himself inch by inch.

After not finding any abnormalities, he began to look inside the body to check the condition inside the body.

After all the checking, his face became more and more ugly.

His body had no abnormalities.

The greater possibility was that there were abnormalities, but he couldn't detect them.

It didn't take much thought to guess that it was related to being connected by the red thread last night.

He was now one of those "puppet" cultivators!

Not only could he not see the red thread, but he even thought the cold laughter of those people was normal.

He had been "assimilated"!

The more he thought, the more Chen Lin feared.

Luckily, he was cautious enough to set an alarm, which helped him recover his memories.

Although the alarm wasn't a magical tool, the materials used to make it were fragments of magical tools, which had a certain awakening effect. When he made it, he had considered preventing such events from happening.

Chen Lin looked up at the sky and his face was as calm as water.

What kind of eerie existence could turn an entire city's cultivators into puppets?

Why did they do this, and what was their goal?

How could he escape?

He fell into deep despair and terror.

For several days, Chen Lin didn't see the magnificent scene of the red thread filling the sky at midnight, and he gradually calmed down.

No matter what, he didn't have a good solution.

Luckily, his mind was still clear, and he knew his situation, unlike the other cultivators in the city who were completely unaware.

So, he still had to follow his original plan, raise his cultivation to the middle stage of Qi Refining, learn flying techniques, and then leave this place.

Next, Chen Lin began to frantically craft talismans, accumulating spirit stones to buy alchemy materials and refine Initial Yuan Pills.

Under the pile of pill medicine, his cultivation rapidly increased.

During this period, the city became increasingly unstable.

Following the disappearance of the Zhang family's Foundation Establishment patriarch, the patriarch of the Han family, one of the five major families, also vanished without a trace, making the already chaotic city cultivators even more anxious.

Moreover, due to the heavy snow, the plants outside were all covered, and the merchant teams that used to appear frequently had not been seen for a long time, causing food shortages in the city.

It wasn't just food; the prices of other cultivation resources were also skyrocketing.

Luckily, Chen Lin had stockpiled a large amount of materials before closing up to cultivate, otherwise, he would have gone hungry.

Chen Lin didn't care about the outside world, focusing solely on alchemy and cultivation.

Under such focus, time flew by quickly.

Winter passed, and spring arrived.

Three months later.

Chen Lin, who was sitting cross-legged, suddenly opened his eyes.

He incredulously checked his body, and only after confirming did he reveal a joyful expression.

"I really broke through!"

Chen Lin gently clenched his fist, feeling the growing Qi in his body, and his heart was filled with excitement.

Originally, it was just a trial, but he didn't expect to break through like this, and even he himself found it hard to believe.

The process was simple and smooth, and nothing surprising happened. It was just that he took three pills at once, which caused the medicine to be too strong, causing the meridians all over his body to tingle.

But compared to advancing to the middle stage of Qi Refining, this small side effect was negligible.

After calming down, Chen Lin raised his hand, and with a gentle palm strike, a formless Qi was released, shaking the table in front of him.

Success!

The release of Qi was a sign of entering the middle stage of Qi Refining!

He nodded in satisfaction.

In the initial stage of Qi Refining, one needed to borrow a medium to use Qi and couldn't release it freely.

Only by entering the middle stage of Qi Refining could one do so.

This was why one couldn't learn techniques in the initial stage of Qi Refining.

Although the Qi he had just released only shook the table, it was because he hadn't learned any techniques yet. Once he learned them, the power would naturally increase greatly.

With his internal Qi growing several times over, Chen Lin was excited and continued to try various release postures, messing up the room.

After a while, he finally calmed down.

Then, he took out two things.

A book titled "Detailed Explanation of Elementary techniques" and a small, slightly green short sword.

This was something he had prepared before going into seclusion, fearing that if there was a big change in the city, he would not be able to buy it, or the price would rise.

Now it seemed like he had made the right decision.

The sword was called the "Wandering Sword".

The name "Wandering Sword" sounded quite domineering, but in reality, it was just a low-level, one-grade inferior magical tool that had limited amplification of Qi.

Even so, it was worth several hundred low-grade spirit stones.

This was already the cheapest option among magical tools, and slightly better ones were even more expensive.

After learning about the prices of magical tools, Chen Lin even had the idea of becoming a tool-refining master.

The "Detailed Explanation of Elementary Technique" book was much cheaper.

This was normal, as books could be copied, and if you weren't afraid of buying defective goods, you could find them at small stalls outside for just two Fireball talismans' worth of money.

First, he opened the book, and the first page recorded the "Fireball technique".

This technique was basically a must-have for cultivators, and all Qi Refining middle-stage cultivators would know it.

In fact, in the common knowledge of the cultivation world, cultivating techniques had barriers.

To cultivate a certain series of techniques, you need to have the corresponding spiritual roots.

For example, to cultivate the Fireball technique, you normally needed to have fire spiritual roots; otherwise, you couldn't sense the fire attribute elements in the heavens and earth, and you couldn't form the technique.

However, during the Qi Refining period, the barriers of techniques weren't strong, and even without the corresponding spiritual roots, you could use some mediums to cast techniques, and low-end medium-grade materials were cheap and easy to find.

Of course, a more convenient method was to use talismans.

Can't learn fire attribute magic techniques?

No problem, if you wanted to use a certain technique, you could just buy a talisman!

Money could solve everything.