Yesterday was a grueling day for him—he was both starving and exhausted. Even though he had consumed a Bigu Pill in the grotto-heaven during the day, the psychological sense of hunger remained acutely intense.
And last night, he had used his spiritual consciousness to lift that white Go piece. Although he managed to hold on for a mere three seconds, the looming precursor of a collapse in his consciousness sea had given Li Pingyi a severe fright.
Upon waking up this morning, he instinctively checked his consciousness sea and was pleasantly surprised to find that it had condensed slightly, while his stunted spiritual consciousness had also grown by a fraction.
Right now, after grabbing a bite to eat, he instantly felt brimming with vitality.
Yet this made him quietly mutter to himself: was that white piece some special training regimen Chess Brother had cooked up specifically for him, seeing how short, fast, and lousy he was?
How was it identical to the aftermath of a workout in his past life?
Just as Li Pingyi was slurping down his broth and letting his imagination run wild, Liu Yaqin, hearing the commotion, strode in from outside, holding a jade slip between her fingers.
"Snake broth. It's from that snake you brought back yesterday."
Liu Yaqin walked over and sat down beside Li Pingyi. Reviewing the jade slip in her hand, she answered her son's question offhandedly, her brow furrowed as if she were wrestling with the final math problem on the college entrance exam.
Hearing this, Li Pingyi took a massive slurp of the broth and mumbled indistinctly:
"Ma, your cooking has slipped. The stuff you made before tasted way better."
Liu Yaqin shot him a sidelong glance and sneered, "Getting cocky, are we? Daring to roast your mother? Don't think I don't know what you and your old man were discussing the other day. Just say the word if you're itching for a beating."
With that, she tapped Li Pingyi lightly on the head with the jade slip, and Li Pingyi instantly put on an exaggerated grimace of agony.
"That Uncle Ning of yours just couldn't hold back last night. He came over late to ask about that spirit object, and on his way out, he casually processed the snake, taking half the pot with him to give your Sister Susu a nourishing treat.
"He just saw some fresh game and couldn't resist, saying it's been ages since he's seen such fresh, wild green bamboo pythons."
Li Pingyi nodded repeatedly upon hearing this. Uncle Ning's secondary pursuit was being a spirit chef, and the rare times he actually deigned to show off his skills, his ingredients were usually bought from the chamber of commerce.
As for those ingredients transported via Qiankun Pouch, although the meat was fresh, the spiritual power had mostly dissipated due to the long journey.
"Having vast resources like the Qingxuan Sect has its downsides, too. At the very least, within a radius of a hundred miles around here, monster beasts are practically extinct, aren't they?"
"We still haven't had a single practical combat class on monster beasts. If we had, I wouldn't have gotten ambushed so easily by that green bamboo python," Li Pingyi grumbled as he walked over to the pot and scooped up another full bowl of snake broth.
One had to realize that the Qingxuan Sect was a top-tier major sect in Western Province. The living conditions for monster beasts in the immediate vicinity of the Qingxuan Sect could easily be imagined.
Take Li Pingyi himself: the comprehensive encyclopedia of monster and spirit beasts he had stayed up late to memorize was filled with uncolored line drawings—illustrations so abstract that it was utterly impossible to discern what the creatures actually looked like.
According to his parents, the monster-extermination missions posted by the Qingxuan Sect's inner and outer sects had so many applicants that people actually had to draw lots just to take one...
This gave Li Pingyi the distinct impression of applying for a license plate through a lottery system...
The higher-ups of the Qingxuan Sect had racked their brains over this dilemma. The scarcity of monster beasts near the sect left the Qi Condensation disciples lacking practical trials, resulting in insufficient combat experience. When faced with genuine danger, they would panic and bungle things, needlessly driving up casualties.
Word had it that a while back, Inner Sect Elder True Lord Niu had spent months in seclusion, racking his brains until he finally came up with a proposal:
"On the Feasibility of Crossbreeding and Reproducing Spirit Beasts and Monster Beasts."
At the mere thought of this, Li Pingyi almost burst out laughing, narrowly avoiding spitting out the snake broth in his mouth.
Back then, every single spirit beast in the entire sect had been driven frantic and miserable by the experiments.
In the end, they had even dared to set their sights on Lord Xuanbing Chilong.
That was a genuine sect-protecting spirit beast, an entity that had guarded the Qingxuan Sect's orthodox lineage for over a thousand years!
The grapevine had it that True Lord Niu was summoned by Senior Chilong for a cup of spiritual tea, and when he came out, he had to be carried away on a stretcher.
Ever since then, True Lord Niu's crossbreeding theory had quietly faded into oblivion.
Later on, True Lord Niu cobbled together a second proposal to establish some sort of monster beast breeding base.
Well, this time, the entire Qingxuan Sect was sent running in circles. Even his parents were drafted to pull overtime shifts for the construction, to the point where sometimes they couldn't be seen for days on end.
"Oh right, how's that monster beast breeding base coming along?" Li Pingyi asked casually as it suddenly crossed his mind.
Liu Yaqin frowned and replied:
"Seems they're still picking a location, the array materials aren't ready yet, and the sect hasn't hammered out a budget for the later stages. Sigs, who knows how long it'll actually take to finish."
The moment Li Pingyi heard this, he understood completely: insufficient funds, cast unconfirmed, script missing—it was the exact same routine as that famous director Lu Xiaobu from his past life.
A project for the lifetime series, eh? He was well-versed in this.
"There's no need to run your mouth so much while eating breakfast. Finish up and get straight to the schoolroom. You dawdle every single time," Liu Yaqin said impatiently, furrowing her brow again to study the jade slip.
After finishing the last drop of broth in his bowl and letting out a resounding burp, Li Pingyi made a funny face at Liu Yaqin and bolted out the door without looking back.
By the time Liu Yaqin snapped back to reality, Li Pingyi was already far away. Watching her son's hasty retreating figure, she initially wanted to call him back to mention something, but after a second thought, she shook her head instead:
"Did I forget to tell him something? Oh well, it's nothing urgent anyway; I'll tell the little brat when he gets back. It's all because of this crappy jade slip the kid brought back that I didn't get any sleep last night."
With that, she once again immersed herself in the jade slip.
The Sifang Market, having been closed for a single day, was exceptionally lively today. Cultivators streamed past in an endless, bustling flow.
Some were scrutinizing magic treasures at the stalls, engaging in fierce bargaining with the vendors;
Others gathered around spirit plant shops, clicking their tongues in wonder at exotic flora.
Walking on his way to the schoolroom, however, Li Pingyi felt somewhat unenthusiastic. He suddenly remembered that his day off had gone down the drain, and a wave of general malaise washed over him.
"Did you guys hear? A major event happened yesterday," a middle-aged woman selling spirit talismans by the roadside bellowed at the top of her lungs.
"Huh? What happened?" People nearby immediately crowded around.
"A Qi Condensation-tier grotto-heaven popped up right in the market. Even my dog knows about this by now," a middle-aged man selling magic treasures chimed in with a scoff.
"What do you know? Word is someone scored a bottle of immortal medicine in that grotto-heaven yesterday!" the woman lowered her voice and said mysteriously.
Hearing this, Li Pingyi instantly slowed his pace, his ears pricking straight up.
"Did you drink a fake batch of wine last night and fry your brain along with it?" the middle-aged man mocked dismissively.
"Seriously. An immortal medicine in a Qi Condensation-tier grotto-heaven? Keep dreaming!" someone in the crowd chimed in agreement.
Anxious at the pushback, the woman raised her voice:
"Shopkeeper Zhang of the Fairyland Inn on the East Side saw it crystal clear. The moment that person reappeared, the Qingxuan Sect hauled them off right away. Word has it they swallowed the immortal medicine inside the grotto-heaven itself."
"No kidding? You said they dragged him off immediately? Then how do you know he ate the immortal medicine?" an old man selling elixirs stepped forward with a curious expression.
"That immortal medicine, see, it's something that increases length. They say when he came out, his pants couldn't even cover it—it dragged on the ground and reached all the way to his shins! That's definitely an immortal medicine. If it were my old man..."
The woman lowered her voice while her eyes darted around, her hands gesturing out a length as a mysterious smile played across her face.