Liou Yuan took note of all these things one by one, feeling a sense of awe at how much there was to learn about Artifact Refining.

On the way back from Five Extremes Mountain to Xiaopei Mountain.

Qiu Ming fiddled with the giant axe the whole way, clearly reluctant to put it down, muttering complaints about his cousin under his breath.

"That Can of mine is such a cheapskate, can’t even let me buy on credit."

"He’s obviously still holding a grudge about that beating I gave him when we were kids."

Liou Yuan saw things clearly, and put in a good word for Qiu Can: "Honestly, your cousin doesn’t have it easy in the Artifact Refining Pavilion. To put it nicely, he’s an apprentice; to put it bluntly, he’s free labor."

"He doesn’t really get to call the shots on a lot of things."

At this point, Liou Yuan shifted the topic with a hint of envy: "But that so-called Artifact Refiner gig really does make money."

"You guys go guard the medicine garden for ten days or half a month and only get two contribution points."

"Your Can just takes a random job and makes half a month’s worth of your hard-earned points in one go."

"Turns out, if you want to enjoy life here at Five Extremes Mountain, you gotta have a skill."

Qiu Ming just scoffed, retorting, "Among all the immortal arts, which one doesn’t require you to invest loads of time? That totally gets in the way of cultivation."

"See, my Can’s been here way longer than me and he’s only at Qi Cultivation Sixth Layer."

"You and I, we’ve got a bright future ahead of us—no need to waste time on this other stuff."

Qiu Ming didn’t know what Liou Yuan’s talent was, but he wasn’t stupid.

Being able to break through to Qi Cultivation Fourth Layer before Xie Xiaobo and Fu Xueping basically meant he had a Four-Star Star Acupoint for sure, and was probably one of the better ones at that.

So he automatically counted Liou Yuan as a genius on his own level.

"For real." Liou Yuan thought about it and realized it made sense, quietly nodding.

Then a look of contemplation appeared in his eyes again.

He was already thinking about how to get those spiritual hairs.

Qiu Can had said, the business with the talisman brush was tricky; best if you brought your own spiritual hairs when asking an Artifact Refiner, otherwise you risk getting overcharged.

As for how to get ahold of spiritual hairs, Liou Yuan currently had two ideas.

One was to just use contribution points and buy them from other disciples who’d hunted monsters.

The other was to go out and hunt the monsters himself.

Of the two options, Liou Yuan was leaning toward the latter.

"I was actually thinking of doing an out-mountain mission at Shoushan Tower once the Fixed Star Compass was fully charged."

"Might as well just take a monster-hunting task while I’m at it."

"That way, spiritual hairs, contribution points, and the Fixed Star Compass—all three can be taken care of in one go, a triple win."

Liou Yuan’s mental abacus was clattering, the more he thought about it, the better it sounded.

His gaze slid again to Qiu Ming, who was shouldering his giant axe.

"This oaf isn’t weak at all, and now that he’s got a powerful weapon, he’d make a strong partner."

Qiu Ming had already said he wasn’t ever taking on those exhausting, thankless jobs again.

So Liou Yuan figured if he suggested going out to hunt monsters together, Qiu Ming definitely wouldn’t refuse.

And so, Liou Yuan told Qiu Ming his plan.

Qiu Ming, having just scored a handy Magical Artifact, was itching for action. As soon as he heard Liou Yuan’s idea, he agreed without a second thought.

He even got pretty fired up, shouting, "When do we set out? I HAVE to let my big axe taste some blood!"

Judging by Qiu Ming, even if Liou Yuan said, "let’s go right now," the guy would just follow without a peep.

"No rush, let me consolidate my Fourth Layer cultivation for a few more days," Liou Yuan replied, calming Qiu Ming’s restless spirit.

"Alright, just call me anytime," Qiu Ming said, waving his weapon boldly.

It’s true he wasn’t very scheming, but he wasn’t dumb either.

Liou Yuan had just been asking Qiu Can about that talisman brush, then suddenly brought up hunting monsters.

Even with his butt he could figure out Liou Yuan was after those spiritual hairs.

But he didn’t mind.

After all, it was Liou Yuan who’d lent him money to buy this axe—helping out was just repayment for the favor.

Plus, hunting monsters meant more contribution points too.

Honestly, if he was asked to do such a dangerous task alone, he’d be a bit nervous.

But Qiu Ming had faith in Liou Yuan’s strength, and working together meant they could watch each other’s backs.

"With Liou Yuan, we could probably even take down a Fifth Layer beast. That’d be a ton of contribution points." Qiu Ming’s eyes lit up at the thought.

Back at Xiaopei Mountain.

Liou Yuan’s life returned to those days of steady and gradual cultivation.

Of course, the two Star Stones personally delivered by Fang Yu were also used up in this process.

It just so happened that as he finished off the last Star Stone—

The Evil Star Jiaoxiu’s rotation period had ended.

The next month, by great luck, the Auspicious Star was rotating in.

During the Auspicious Star rotation, Spiritual Qi flourished inside the Five Extremes Mountain array, so there was no need to use Star Stones for cultivation.

That ended the urge to trade contribution points for Star Stones to keep cultivating.

Before he knew it, a month flashed by.

Among this batch of Xiaopei Mountain disciples, news of several outer disciples breaking through came through one after another.

Of course, those with Three-Star Talent only broke through to Qi Cultivation Third Layer, not Fourth Layer.

Xie Miaobo and Fu Xueping, both Four-Star Acupoint prodigies, were locked in a head-to-head race this month, both wanting to be the second to reach Qi Cultivation Fourth Layer after Liou Yuan.

So this month, Liou Yuan rarely saw them out and about.

They didn’t lack for Star Stones—what with the six they’d exchanged for with contribution points plus the one provided each month, that was plenty for their training.

Liou Yuan figured, they were probably just about ready to break through to Fourth Layer too—shouldn’t take more than another month.

He didn’t feel any pressure about that.

After all, it’s not like he was standing still this whole month either.

Through sheer effort, he now had six strands of Spiritual Power in his body.

That’s right: in just a month, Liou Yuan had ground up ten more wisps of Spiritual Power and merged them into a full strand.

The Star Stones helped with that, and so did the surrounding starlight energy from Five Extremes Mountain.

Deep in the quiet night, Liou Yuan sat with his eyes closed, feeling the orb of Spiritual Power condensed within him. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

Compared to a month ago, the Spiritual Qi orb had grown a bit larger.

But he was still a long way from reaching Qi Cultivation Fifth Layer.

Only when that orb reached the size of a walnut would he be able to touch the threshold of Fifth Layer.

"To go from Fourth Layer to Fifth Layer, I need ten strands of Spiritual Power."

"That’s double the amount needed."

Liou Yuan quietly ended his meditation, a wry smile on his face.

"No wonder even someone as talented as Qiu Ming hasn’t shown any signs of breaking through."

Still, the difficulty was the same for everyone, so Liou Yuan wasn’t discouraged.

He had already pulled ahead of Fu Xueping and Xie Miaobo.

He was only slightly behind the disciples with Five-Star Star Acupoints.

As for the gap between him and those Five-Star disciples, he had a way to make up for it—namely, the Fixed Star Compass.

The Fixed Star Compass provided rewards like the Micro-Star Elixir to boost cultivation. Sure, maybe those elixirs weren’t super effective for a mid-stage Qi Cultivator like Liou Yuan now—

But who’s to say, as Liou Yuan progressed, the Fixed Star Compass wouldn’t offer even better rewards?

Thinking of this, Liou Yuan sent his senses into the deepest part of his body, where the Fixed Star Compass rested, quietly floating.

At the very center of the Compass, a burst of vibrant, milky-white starlight shone forth.

It was a sure sign the Fixed Star Compass was fully charged.

He’d already been at Five Extremes Mountain nearly three months—at last, the Compass was powered up and ready to use.

"Tomorrow, I’ll call Qiu Ming and we’ll head to Shoushan Tower for a monster-hunting mission." Liou Yuan’s eyes shone; he’d been waiting for this day nearly two or three months.

Ever since his last trip to the Artifact Refining Pavilion, after mentioning the monster-hunt idea to Qiu Ming—

This past month, Qiu Ming kept wandering over in front of Liou Yuan’s hut, often coming face to face yet only managing half-finished sentences.

How could Liou Yuan not know what he wanted?

At first, Liou Yuan tried to reassure him not to rush.

Then he just started ignoring him, which drove Qiu Ming into a restless frenzy, wailing and hollering at odd hours.

This batch of Xiaopei Mountain disciples suffered greatly from his racket, but nobody dared yell at him.

After all, the only one who could really stand up to Qiu Ming among these disciples was Liou Yuan.

The next day, dawn had barely broken.

White frost still clung to the thatched roof of the hut.

Liou Yuan rapped on Qiu Ming’s door.

The door opened, and under Qiu Ming’s eager gaze, Liou Yuan stood in the doorway, Profound Brilliance Spiritual Sword on his back, swept his arm, and grinned: "Let’s go, you oaf—it’s off to Shoushan Tower!"