To prevent theft, Brian Carter set up restrictions all around the courtyard. These low-level restrictions weren’t very lethal, but if triggered, they would cause a huge commotion.

The entire small courtyard was dilapidated and decayed, with spider webs everywhere, and all the furniture had rotted away. The formations inside the house had also fallen into disrepair over the years and could no longer function, so no one competed with him for the place.

This didn’t affect Brian Carter much; he liked to sleep on the roof at night, meditate in the quiet room, and left the other rooms empty or used them as storage for ordinary food. As for formations, he had someone re-carve a simple illumination formation for use at night, but he couldn’t be bothered to spend money on the rest.

Sitting on the meditation cushion, the dense spiritual energy around him made him so comfortable he almost moaned. He controlled his emotions, calmed his mind, and let his physical and spiritual energy circulate slowly.

The cultivation method he practiced was the [Tenfold Righteous Heart Method]. As a widely spread second-grade method, its main feature was its calm and balanced nature, so there was little risk of going astray. Most outer disciples of the Wukong Sword Sect chose it as their main method, but its success rate for foundation establishment was very low. Ambitious disciples needed to exchange more sect contributions for higher-level methods.

Brian Carter seemed to enter a void, spiritual energy circulating slowly along a fixed route, and with each completed cycle, his body felt lighter.

With his seventh-level Qi Refining cultivation, he could persist for three cycles each time. He could feel that with every breath, a portion of the spiritual energy he inhaled merged into the spiritual energy circulating within his body. The surrounding spiritual energy was dense, so he absorbed quite a lot each time. Over the past two years, being able to rise from the third to the seventh level of Qi Refining was thanks to this small spiritual vein.

After three cycles, his mind withdrew from the void.

He felt refreshed all over, all previous fatigue swept away.

He casually ate something to fill his stomach. Before reaching Foundation Establishment, cultivators still needed ordinary food. While ordinary food couldn’t provide spiritual energy, it was essential for Qi Refining cultivators. Fortunately, ordinary food was cheap, so no one had to worry about starving.

He took out the jade slip he bought yesterday. This jade slip was made from high-quality jade, lush and green, cool and solid to the touch.

In his mind, he pictured a mountain of spirit grain, lying on top of it in utter satisfaction.

—What a desirable life!

In the dim room, a skinny man with a wooden, stiff face let out a series of eerie chuckles, sending chills down one’s spine.

After his daydream, Brian Carter began to seriously study the jade slip in his hand.

Infusing spiritual energy into the jade slip, a flood of words immediately appeared in his mind.

The jade slip contained five techniques: [Minor Cloud and Rain Technique], [Earth Qi Technique], [Geng Metal Technique], [Grass and Wood Technique], and [Red Flame Technique]. Except for the [Minor Cloud and Rain Technique], the other four were all new to Brian Carter.

Being able to learn new techniques made Brian Carter quite excited, and he couldn’t help but take a deep breath.

It was foreseeable that for a long time from now, he would need to focus his main efforts on the remaining four techniques.

The first one he studied was the [Geng Metal Technique]. Of the five elements, metal governs killing and destruction, and most metal techniques are related to slaughter. Spirit grain has many natural enemies, which are quite troublesome. For example, there is a type of aphid with many varieties that burrows into spirit grain plants to reproduce, sometimes hollowing out the main stalk. Ordinary growers simply can’t deal with them.

The [Geng Metal Technique] was a good solution. It allowed metal energy to penetrate the spirit grain, killing pests inside the plants. This was exactly the technique Brian Carter needed most at the moment. Besides the agreements he had with his fellow disciples, he had also rented fifty acres of spirit fields himself.

The harvest from these fifty acres made up a significant portion of his annual income.

He read through the [Geng Metal Technique] word by word, not daring to miss a single detail. He had learned pitifully few techniques, so learning a brand new one was immediately challenging.

An hour passed with no progress. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t condense the Geng Metal Qi Blade described in the [Geng Metal Technique].

All the techniques in the [Geng Metal Technique] were derived from the Geng Metal Qi Blade. Without condensing it, he couldn’t learn any of the techniques in the [Geng Metal Technique].

His zombie-like face remained wooden, but a hint of fierceness flashed in his lively eyes.

Section Four: Wuwang

The dawn broke through the darkness, the orange-red sun slowly rising, sunlight slanting through the window into the quiet room, and the skinny fingers suddenly shone with golden light!

Brian Carter placed his index finger in front of his bloodshot eyes.

His index finger looked as if it wore a golden ring. Brian Carter’s face was expressionless, but his eyes were intoxicated. As the sunlight gradually shifted away from his finger, it returned to normal, a faint golden gas swirling slowly around Brian Carter’s index finger.

Geng Metal Qi Blade!

Just then, clang, clang, clang, clang, clang—the melodious bell rang five times in a row, echoing through the mountains.

The golden light on his finger trembled, and the Geng Metal Qi Blade instantly collapsed.

Brian Carter jumped up from the ground in a panic. Damn! It was already the hour of the dragon. Ignoring his rumbling stomach, he dashed out like the wind.

If you looked down from above Wukong Mountain at this moment, you would see hundreds of figures rushing out from their courtyards, all converging in one direction.