Bamboo Mound

Before the knocking had even finished, the master's voice came from inside the courtyard: "Come in."

Pushing open the door, I saw that my master was still meditating under the peach tree.

"Disciple, is there a problem or a bottleneck you've encountered?"

Ning Chang walked to his master's side, bowed his head and said, "Master, I have been feeling restless and agitated during my cultivation lately, and I find it difficult to calm my mind."

To put it bluntly, Ning Changlian's cultivation had become somewhat monotonous, but if he downplayed it, he was afraid that his master would try to fool him into calming down and focusing on his cultivation.

After all, that's how grade-level directors and homeroom teachers are in schools; they only make empty promises. When they see that his grades are good, they don't let him slack off like before, but Ning Chang just doesn't listen.

My master opened his eyes, looked at me and said, "An unstable state of mind is a great taboo in cultivation. I myself have encountered such a predicament in the past."

He stared at Ning Chang for a while, then smiled and said, "Haste makes waste. Cultivation requires a gradual approach, and one must not be impatient."

I see you've already reached the third stage of Spirit Fusion. Although you've only been in the sect for less than a month, you must still be finding it difficult to adapt to the monotonous meditation and cultivation.

After a pause, the master suddenly asked, "How many of the spirit stones I gave you have you used?"

Ning Chang thought for a moment, then gave a false report, "Disciple has already used about half of it." He then took out the fire-attribute spirit stone and handed it to his master.

"Master, I probably won't need this fire-attribute spirit stone, so I'll return it to you for now."

The master stared at the fire spirit stone for a moment, then sighed, "Fine, since you don't need it, I'll pretend I never gave you this spirit stone in the first place."

Then, he took out an ordinary spirit stone and handed it to Ning Chang, saying, "Ning Chang, I will take you as my disciple. I will not only guide your cultivation but also train your abilities."

If you run out of spirit stones, you'll need to complete tasks at the Resource Hall to exchange for more spirit stones, or you can find other ways to obtain them yourself.

Ning Chang took the spirit stone and put it into his spatial bag.

"Disciple knows."

The master continued, "It's mid-May now, and the Three Sects Grand Competition will be held in early June. As for the sect's internal disciple competition a few days later, you don't need to participate."

"You can put aside your cultivation for the next two weeks and go out for a walk. However, I hope you will return to the sect before the Three Sects Competition."

Ning Chang nodded, bowed, and turned to leave.

Just as he was about to step out the door, his master said again, "You can't wear these clothes outside the sect. Go back and ask Xiao Li; he'll know what to do."

As he spoke, his expression suddenly turned serious, and he vanished from the spot in an instant.

Ning Chang turned around, but his master had already disappeared.

After making a note of it, he leisurely returned to his lodgings along the mountain path.

As soon as he entered the courtyard, he called Xiao Li out and explained his thoughts.

Before he could finish speaking, Xiao Li understood what he meant, nodded, went back into the house, and took out two sets of folded clothes, handing them to Ning Chang.

He waved to Xiao Li, then went back inside to change into the tunic and tossed the other one into his spatial bag.

Standing in front of the bronze mirror, Ning Chang examined the robes and realized that they were the outer sect disciples' uniforms, and immediately understood why.

"I see. Outsiders can only recognize him as a disciple of the Qingyun Sect, without knowing whether he is a direct disciple or an inner disciple. This can be considered a form of protection."

Pushing open the door, Xiao Li, who was waiting nearby, said at the opportune moment, "Young Master, you can exchange maps and silver coins at the Resource Hall."

Ning Chang's eyes lit up. He had forgotten all about these things. The currency circulating in the mortal city was still silver dollars and copper coins. If he didn't bring some, he was afraid he wouldn't be able to enter the city.

Upon arriving at the Resource Hall, he randomly selected an empty window and exchanged some Bigu Pills. Here, Bigu Pills could be exchanged for twenty pills with just one contribution point!

Then, I spent five contribution points to exchange for a map of the sect's territory, and one contribution point to exchange for a silver ingot, which I then divided into fifty taels with the help of the receptionist.

After packing up their belongings, they left the Resource Hall and exited the sect through the north gate.

Once outside the sect, there is an endless expanse of mountains and forests. Directly opposite the sect gate is a winding path that leads to an unknown destination.

He took out a map from his spatial bag, unfolded it, and laid it on the ground. It was as big as three beds!

Ning Chang searched carefully for a while before finally finding a circled area on the side of the map, which was the Qingyun Sect's headquarters.

This made it easy for Ning Chang to find, as the garrison was not located in the center of the map, but rather towards the south.

The center of the map, which is also the center of the area under the jurisdiction of the Qingyun Sect, is Chang Le City, where he came from.

However, the map only marks the locations of the various cities, without marking the surrounding villages.

After looking through it once, Ning Chang found Changge City, which was located on the north side of Qingyun Sect and closest to it.

According to the route marked on the map, you can reach your destination simply by following the road straight.

Ning Chang put away the map and headed north along the path.

Along the way, he saw many strange flowers, plants and trees, and some small animals playing and frolicking nearby.

Perhaps due to the spiritual energy, plants in this world grow luxuriantly, and the vines along the roadside all show signs of pruning.

As we walked, the sun gradually began to set in the west.

"It's already afternoon. This can't go on. We don't know how much further we have to go."

He then began to use the Azure Cloud Steps, quickening his pace, since he didn't want to spend the night in the forest.

In order to avoid running out of spiritual energy, he would jog to absorb spiritual energy every few times he practiced the Azure Cloud Steps, keeping his spiritual energy above 90%.

The main reason was that he felt the Azure Cloud Step was quite fast, covering nearly a hundred meters in a single step, heading towards...

Half an hour later, as Ning Chang was running, a roar came from the roadside ahead.

Ning Chang stopped and looked warily in the direction from which the sound came.

Suddenly, a tiger emerged from the woods and blocked his path.

The tiger was enormous, with fierce eyes, and it let out a deep roar as it cautiously approached Ning Chang.

Ning Chang's heart tightened. "Damn it, is there no way out of the sect except for this one road? Don't they know how to clear out the ferocious beasts?"

Although he was at the third level of Spirit Fusion and had mastered Spirit Control, this was the first time he had encountered a situation that required him to fight.

He quickly extended his spiritual energy to sense the tiger's cultivation level.

A moment later, he smiled and relaxed.

Seeing that Ning Chang had let his guard down, the tiger pounced on him in an instant!

Ning Chang casually took a step back, and the tiger crashed down in front of him, falling silent.

He squatted down and reached out to rub the tiger's head. "Tsk, it's a bit hard, not easy to handle."

He lost interest and got up to continue on his way.

Just now, when he probed the tiger with his spiritual power, he discovered that although there was spiritual energy in the tiger's body, it was only equivalent to the strength of a few levels of the Gathering Spirit realm, and it was distributed mixed throughout the body.

So he channeled his spiritual energy into the tiger's head through its ear and crushed its brain.

At the same time, he took a step back to guard against the tiger's nervous reaction. He knew that predators like this usually develop muscle memory for pouncing and then grabbing and tearing their prey.

But the tiger suddenly went silent, saving Ning Chang another effort.