Returning to his outer sect dwelling under the cover of night, Chen An's brows slightly furrowed as he stood in front of his thatched hut.
Before leaving, he had tied a hair around the door as a subtle alarm. Now, the hair was broken, indicating that someone had entered his room.
Pressing his hand against his storage pouch, Chen An cautiously approached the door, his eyes filled with vigilance. Hidden beneath his sleeve, his left arm was coiled with a small black snake, the size of a thumb. The snake flicked its tongue continuously, clearly the red-ringed snake he had tamed using the Spirit Commanding Spell.
"What's the matter? Afraid to enter now that you know someone's inside?"
Just as Chen An was on high alert, a familiar voice came from inside the room—it was Elder Gu.
Hearing this voice, Chen An immediately relaxed. He discarded all his wariness and pushed open the door to enter.
"Knowing it's me, you drop your guard completely? Chen An, are you so sure I won't kill you?" Elder Gu's voice was teasing as he looked at Chen An, though his face was obscured by the shadows, making it impossible to gauge his mood.
"With Elder Gu's strength, killing me would be as easy as flipping a hand. What good would it do me to stay on guard?"
Chen An continued calmly, "Besides, from my perspective, Elder Gu's life is far more important than mine. If you wish to exchange your life for mine, I'd say I'm the one benefiting."
Chen An was subtly warning Elder Gu: if you lay a hand on me, the sect will definitely investigate, and the risk might not be worth it for you.
But Elder Gu wasn't here to cause trouble this time. After all, the two of them had reached a kind of unspoken agreement.
His visit this time was mainly to ask a question.
"A few hours ago, the sect reported that the life tokens of two inner sect disciples—a man and a woman—shattered. Coincidentally, I heard you went to the back mountain with a pair of inner disciples today. Chen An, do you think such coincidences can exist?"
"Quite the coincidence, indeed." Chen An remained calm under Elder Gu's probing. "Senior Brother Lu and Senior Sister Han hit it off with me today. They took me to the back mountain to give me some pointers on cultivation. We parted ways fairly early, so as for what happened afterward, I really couldn't say."
"Couldn't say?" Elder Gu smiled faintly. "You, boy, are a real trouble magnet. You've only been in the sect for a short time, and you've already caused quite a stir. What do you think the sect leader would do if he found out about this?"
"Perhaps Elder Gu would also care to guess if the sect leader would believe that I, a mere outer sect disciple, could kill inner sect disciples?"
The two exchanged a knowing look, like two cunning foxes, before bursting into laughter.
Elder Gu even gave Chen An a friendly pat on the shoulder, offering sincere advice. "In just over half a month, the disciple competition will begin. I hope you can break through to the mid-stage Qi Condensation before then and take the first place. After all, it's been a long time since our outer sect has produced someone as outstanding as you."
"With Elder Gu's blessing, I will certainly do my best," Chen An replied.
After offering a few words of advice, Elder Gu prepared to leave. However, just before departing, he seemed to remember something and paused. "Oh, by the way, I've heard that Yun Xiao, who joined the sect around the same time as you and is a descendant of the Grand Elder's bloodline, has already broken through to the mid-stage of Qi Condensation. Do you think you can defeat him in this competition?"
Without waiting for a response, Elder Gu drifted away, leaving Chen An feeling the weight of the pressure on his shoulders.
Yun Xiao, Chen An's nightmare. Even though Chen An had amassed numerous methods and strategies over time, he still wasn't confident that he could defeat Yun Xiao.
His only option was to push himself to break through to the mid-stage of Qi Condensation in the remaining time. Only then would he stand a chance in a fight against Yun Xiao!
With his mind made up, Chen An wasted no time. He sat cross-legged on his bed, taking out spirit stones to begin his cultivation.
At the same time, his gaze fell on the red-ringed snake coiled around his arm.
After a brief moment of contemplation, Chen An retrieved several poisonous herbs from his storage pouch and called the snake out, curious to see if it could consume them.
To Chen An's surprise, the snake was extremely fond of the poisonous herbs. As soon as its tongue made contact with the plants, it opened its mouth eagerly and began to devour the leaves bit by bit, almost as if it couldn't wait.
"Looks like I was right. These herbs, deadly to ordinary people, are a tonic for you. I wonder if devouring so many of them will lead to any changes."
After letting the snake feast on the poisonous herbs, Chen An finally cleared his mind and began to focus solely on his cultivation.
In the days that followed, Chen An spent less time crafting talismans, focusing more on his cultivation. He continued to create talismans only to exchange them for spirit stones to aid his progress.
But Chen An's cultivation was extremely demanding. Compared to inner sect disciples, who only received five spirit stones per month, he could consume seven or eight spirit stones in a single day for his training.
Such an extravagant method would have quickly elevated an ordinary cultivator to the mid-stage of Qi Condensation.
Yet, Chen An's cultivation remained stagnant. Although he had made progress, there was no significant breakthrough.
To force a breakthrough, Chen An even consumed the spiritual liquid produced by the treasure gourd he acquired after killing Lu Yi and Han Juan, using it in combination with the energy from spirit stones to fuel his cultivation. Only then did he finally touch the threshold of mid-stage Qi Condensation.
...
Time passed, and soon the day of the competition arrived.
Early in the morning, Li Muchen arrived outside Chen An's residence, waiting patiently. Worried about his friend, he had come to accompany Chen An to the Inner Sect Elder Hall.
Everything was ready there, and the disciples who signed up for the competition were to gather, draw lots, and fight in pairs.
As time ticked away and the drawing of lots approached, there was still no sign of Chen An. This made Li Muchen increasingly anxious. He wanted to enter and check on him but feared disturbing Chen An's cultivation.
At the last moment, Chen An finally emerged from his room, just in time to make it for the lot drawing.
Seeing this, Li Muchen immediately grabbed Chen An's arm, and the two hurried off to the inner sect.
"How's it going? Have you broken through?" Li Muchen asked, full of concern.
Chen An shook his head regretfully. "I've gotten very close to mid-stage Qi Condensation, but I haven't managed to break through yet."
Hearing this, Li Muchen felt a bit disappointed but reassured Chen An, telling him that it didn't matter. He encouraged him to treat the competition as an opportunity for experience. Even if he remained in the outer sect, his exceptional talent in talisman-making would ensure a bright future.
Chen An wasn't paying attention to Li Muchen's words, though. Only he knew the hardships he had endured during his recent closed-door training.
In the past half month, he had twice neared a breakthrough to mid-stage Qi Condensation, only to fall back both times. He couldn't quite pinpoint the reason, but it felt as if fate itself was preventing him from advancing beyond the early stage, no matter how hard he tried.
This realization left Chen An feeling deeply disheartened, and for the first time, he began to wonder if his failure to progress was due to his inferior spiritual roots.
Even with the help of his treasure gourd and a vast number of spirit stones, he couldn't seem to overcome the barrier of fate.