"Xīnér, its you, why have you become so thin?"

  This girl who came face to face was precisely Jian Xianer, Zhao Dis best friend in the Jian family. At this time, she had grown a lot taller and her delicate facial features had lost much of their childishness, becoming a slender and elegant young lady. Due to the fact that cultivators appearances were well-preserved, although she was not much younger than Zhao Di in terms of age, she looked like a seventeen or eighteen-year-old girl. Therefore, even though it had been many years since they last saw each other, Zhao Di still recognized her at a glance.

  The girl smiled and showed two cute dimples, squeezing out a mischievous expression that was extremely familiar to Zhao Di. In a sweet and slightly spoiled tone, she said: "This question should be asked by me! How did you enter the Taiwu Gate? Oh, how can it be that in just a few years, Fifth Brother has reached the eleventh layer of the Qi Refining stage? I almost lost to you!" The girl only then noticed the spiritual light fluctuations emitted by Zhao Di, and his cultivation had increased so much. It was known that she had spent a lot of hard work over the past seven years to cultivate from the eighth layer to the current eleventh layer. But this "Fifth Brother" clearly had poor qualifications, yet in these seven years, he had jumped from the fourth layer to the eleventh layer, leaving her both delighted and shocked.

  Zhao Di burst out laughing: "I didnt expect you to remember what I said on the day we parted. That was just something I blurted out, and I never thought that one day wed meet again. My current level of cultivation is also something I hadnt anticipated beforehand. Lets not talk about this for now, hurry up and tell your brother, why didnt you stay in Jian Family to cultivate diligently, what brought you to Taixu Gate?"

  The girl heard this, and a hint of helplessness flashed across her face, which was full of surprised and joyful smiles. She said: "This is not a place to talk in mid-air, Brother Wu goes to the side of Guchuangquan to wait for me, I want to help my master with a small matter, it will be less than half an hour before I rush over, lets discuss again at that time."

  Zhao nodded and said: "Alright, Guzhuan Spring is on the west side of Guzhuan Peak, Ill go there first to wait for you."

  Guchan Peak is not too high, only a few hundred feet tall, but there is a silver silk-like waterfall that flows straight down from the middle of the mountain, falling into a clear and transparent pool. This is one of the three famous spiritual springs in the Kuanglu Mountains - Guchan Spring. The dense spiritual energy emitted by the spring water here can even be compared to ordinary mid-grade spiritual veins.

  At this time, Zhao Di was sitting on a huge rock extending outwards at the edge of the waterfall, quietly waiting for Jian Xiangers arrival.

  Half a time later, Jian Xiner arrived as promised. The two sat side by side like they did when they were young, chatting about their experiences over the years since they parted ways.

  Since Zhao Di left the Jian family more than seven years ago, Jian Xiner has still spent most of her time on diligent practice. Her own talent is relatively good, and she is also one of the core disciples supported by the family, so the supply of elixirs is far more than that of ordinary disciples. In this way, she basically managed to cultivate to the 11th layer of the Qi Refining stage just over a year ago.

  With her qualifications and cultivation speed, she should have been given priority training by the family and rewarded with a Foundation Establishment Pill to prepare for her future foundation establishment.

  However, several elders of the family almost put their hopes on Jian Yun, a young man with an extraordinary spiritual root. Jian Yun indeed lived up to expectations and, with the help of two Foundation Establishment Pills, successfully established his foundation at just twenty years old, becoming the youngest Foundation Establishment cultivator in the family. Moreover, several elders of the Jian family went to great lengths to arrange a marriage for him, with a partner who was also an owner of an extraordinary spiritual root - a female cultivator with the Thunder Spirit Root, which had the strongest attacking power among all the extraordinary spiritual roots.

  This Lei Linggen girl was born into a small, unknown immortal family called the Han family. It is said that there are only two young cultivators in the family, her and her older brother. She is three years younger than Jian Yun, but has already reached the tenth layer of Qi Refining. If the two were to become dual cultivation partners, they would be able to support each other and ensure the prosperity of the Jian family for hundreds of years to come.

  All the arrangements were originally mutually agreed upon and went smoothly. However, after the Han family sent the young girl to the Jian family, the young girls brother, who was also a cultivator of the Han family, became infatuated with Xianers beauty and begged his father to make a good match for him. His father couldnt resist his only sons persuasion and proposed an exchange marriage plan to the Jian family: to marry the Han familys Linger to Yun, in exchange for their son marrying Xianer.

  The "eldest son" of the Han family had a very ordinary talent and didnt say much, his cultivation was only at the fourth layer of the Qi Refining stage, and his appearance was also that kind of self-proclaimed elegance but actually extremely despicable. Originally, he couldnt match Jian Xianger at all. However, the elders of the Jian family, for the sake of the familys future prosperity, still agreed to this matter without asking for Jian Xiangers opinion.

  Jian Xiner found out about this and was both shocked and furious. She hastily sought out the three elders who usually doted on her to plead for mercy, but unfortunately, these three elders were also powerless in this matter. In a fit of rage, Jian Xiner made a poisonous vow in front of the Han family members: she would rather die than marry into the Han family, and if the Han family insisted on forcing her to marry, she would take her own life on the day of the wedding.

  For a time, due to Jian Xianger and the eldest young master of the Han familys matter, the two families were once in a very unpleasant situation, and the marriage between Jian Yun and the Han familys girl was almost ruined. In the end, the Jian family was forced to marry another girl who was slightly inferior to Jian Xianger to the eldest young master of the Han family, and finally married the Han familys Lei Linggen girl into the Jian family.

  Jian Xiners outburst has thoroughly offended the entire Jian family, and the Jian family elders will suspend their resource supply for her cultivation indefinitely on the grounds of her disobedience to the family arrangement.

  Under helplessness, Jian Xiner also had no choice but to take the initiative to propose going out for training and left the Jian family.

  Although it has been more than a year, Jian Xiner still gets very indignant when talking about this matter. When she reaches the sad part, her eyes even drop a few crystal tears.

  Zhao was silent, and the family elders didnt even ask about the younger generations feelings, having full authority to handle their marriages. In the cultivation world, this was a common occurrence, and it was unknown how many young cultivators felt resentful every year because of this.

  To change the subject, Zhao Di asked again: "And then? How did you think of joining Tai Xuan Men?"

  The girl wiped away the tears from her eyes and said, "Of course, I came for the Taixu Gates foundation-building pill. You also know, Five Roots Brother, that this foundation-building pill is indeed a legendary elixir for us low-level cultivators. For any cultivator who has reached the foundation-building stage, it is an essential item to obtain. If we didnt have this pill, our chances of breaking through to the foundation-building stage would be less than one percent. But with this pill, supposedly, just taking one will increase our chances by more than tenfold. Therefore, this foundation-building pill directly affects whether we can advance further as high-level cultivators in the Qi Refining stage. Unfortunately, the main spiritual herbs required to refine the foundation-building pill are extremely rare and cannot be found on the market. Only the three sects and four gates of the seven major schools have a small medicinal valley that can produce them in limited quantities. Even our Jian familys foundation-building pill was obtained by exchanging valuable treasures with these seven major schools. Among these seven schools, Taixu Gate has the largest medicinal valley and produces the most spiritual herbs, which is why they can refine more foundation-building pills and have become the leader of the seven major schools. I came to Taixu Gate from afar in order to have a chance to successfully build my foundation in the future. Last year, I became an outer disciple within the gate. By the way, Five Roots Brother, you havent told me how youve been cultivating so quickly? How did you end up at Taixu Gate?"

  Zhao Di smiled slightly and said, "I have made some small achievements in the art of talisman crafting, and I can now relatively easily create mid-grade talismans for the Qi Refining stage. With this, I earned a sum of spirit stones, which I exchanged for pills in the market, and then used these pills to boost my cultivation. I dont know why, but recently my cultivation speed has increased by quite a bit compared to before - perhaps my innate talent isnt too bad after all?" Zhao Di briefly glossed over his experiences from the past few years.

  "As for me joining the Tai Xu Gate, my idea is exactly the same as Xing Ers, which is to obtain a foundation-building pill. However, I heard that the Tai Xu Gate only refines a batch of foundation-building pills every five years, and the quantity is also very limited, far from enough for the high-level disciples in the Qi Refining stage to use. Therefore, to get the foundation-building pill, one must participate in the so-called internal competition, right?"

  "Not bad, all outer sect disciples need to participate in this foundation-building competition. Only those who rank high can get a reward of one foundation-building pill. Inner sect disciples are different, not only do they not have to take care of any chores, but also focus on cultivation, and the foundation-building pills are given out one per person, no need to worry about it. We outer sect disciples dont show it, but actually everyone is secretly preparing for the once-in-five-years foundation-building competition." The girls eyebrows furrowed slightly, as if she had thought of something troubling.

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