At deep night, Ye Chen and Xiong'er came to the mountains behind the Hengyue Sect again.
They counted the snow magnolia flowers stolen in the cave where they stayed.
"Over nine hundred, we're going to make a fortune!"
"Refine all of them into the jade spirit liquid. Half of them belong to you and half me, ok?"
"Deal."
They began to look for other spiritual herbs.
The snow magnolia flower was one of the needed ingredients. Fortunately, the mountains enjoyed lots of other spiritual herbs as well.
Tired, Ye Chen and Xiong'er returned to the cave until dawn.
Over the night they narrowly found all the herbs they needed to refine five hundred bottles of jade spirit liquid.
"Let's start." Ye Chen worked hard, transforming his true fire into a stove.
Spirited, Xiong'er acted as Ye Chen's assistant and plunged the spiritual herbs into the stove as Ye Chen ordered.
A new day was a new start.
The fight among the disciples on the Wind and Cloud Podium was fierce. Sometimes they nearly brawled with weapons.
But that did not distract Ye Chen and Xiong'er.
They cooperated to refine the jade spirit liquid, whose thick medicinal aroma permeated the cave.
One day passed after another.
Nine days went by in a blink.
They rested at an interval and continued their refinement during this period.
On a starry night, several hundred bottles of jade spirit liquid stood next to Ye Chen and Xiong'er, who were exhausted and gasping, lying on the ground. They were happy to see that their efforts were rewarded.
"I had a question for you earlier." Xiong'er flicked a confusing look at Ye Chen, "You have the true fire, why you choose to be an intern disciple? Any disciple with the true fire is the favorite of any sect."
"Talent can cause trouble." Ye Chen shrugged, "Many people covet the true fire. I don't want to stir up any trouble because of it."
"You make sense."
"I don't plan to reveal my true fire before anyone else until I become a superior master."
"There'll be a competition among the outer schools in one month. I think it is hard for you to enter the inner schools if you don't apply your true fire." Xiong'er pinched his chubby chin.
"A competition among the outer schools." Ye Chen muttered.
A martial competition was held every three years among the outer schools of the Hengyue Sect, just like the Zhengyang Sect. The disciple winning the competition earned a chance to enter the inner school.
Upset, Ye Chen thought of the competition. He had been away from the Zhengyang Sect for more than a month. If he had stayed in the sect, he could have been an inner disciple.
The world changed constantly.
The fair god gave him a second chance to cut a brilliant figure in the Hengyue sect, albeit banished and humiliated in the Zhengyang Sect.
"I'm leaving." Xiong'er stood up and patted his hip, cleaning his nose, "My dad may be looking for me all over the world."
Xiong'er jumped out of the cave.
Ye Chen sealed the cave and sat in lotus position after Xiong'er left.
Soon, he downed thirty bottles of jade spirit liquid into his belly. The true fire emerged at once and refined the liquid into pure vital energy.
A torrent of the spirit energy rushed into Ye Chen's elixir sea, where golden waves were rolling. More and more spiritual energy flocked, and Ye Chen's cultivation base boost to the peak of the fourth level of the Qi condensation stage.
Now, his pores all over his body stretched and gulped for the vital energy between the heavens and the earth.