Chapter 8

The green, thread-like wood essence densely fused into Yiyun's body.

The most arduous part of refining qi is condensing essence, but at this moment, the wood essence was surging towards him; Yiyun could hardly keep up. By the time he had fused all the wood essence into his body, he was drenched in sweat. Looking down at the broken flute on his lap, he noticed that the purple light from the first hole had become noticeably brighter.

"Could my cultivation have already improved?" Yiyun hesitated, worried that it might be just an illusion. Picking up the broken flute, he muttered to himself, "I guess I need to find time to ask that scoundrel Xubai Ze, the great master, how to accurately determine one's cultivation level through the brightness of the light." Then he thought, "Didn't Xubai Ze say something about an appraisal mirror 250? I wonder how hard it is to get one."

While he was deep in thought, the broken flute in his hand flashed. Upon closer inspection, some characters resembling tadpoles appeared and slowly moved along the flute.

"Hey! What's going on?" He carefully lifted the flute and noticed that the edge had a bit of bloodstain. It was from the blood that had dripped onto the *Zixu Qi Refinement Technique* earlier, which he hadn't noticed after Kaka bit his finger, causing it to bleed again onto the broken flute.

"Does everything need to be activated with my blood?" Yiyun cursed inwardly, becoming even more convinced: "Anemic people definitely can't cultivate qi."

He observed the tadpoles moving on the flute for a while, finding nothing unusual. He speculated, "Is this broken flute showing these moving tadpoles to indicate that its name is 'Tadpole Flute'?"

Puzzled, he fiddled with the broken flute, and his finger accidentally pressed the first hole, immediately covering the purple light.

His finger tingled, and the tadpoles immediately changed direction, slowly moving from the flute along his finger and into his body.

A melodious flute sound then echoed in his ears. Listening to the flute, Yiyun felt as if he had walked into a lush bamboo forest.

In the gentle flute sound, a poetic and rhythmic voice resonated in his mind:

"For those at the second level of the Purple Rank, having the foundation of the first level, you can learn the Purple Sound. Essence is wood, flexible and pliable, and should produce a wind sound as a score."

Suddenly, a figure identical to himself appeared on the other side of the bamboo forest.

Yiyun was startled and reached out to touch it, but there was nothing in front of him. He was puzzled: "What's going on? Are there two of me?" Looking around, Yiyun was stunned. He couldn't see his feet, and the situation was as if his eyes had completely detached from his body, observing himself standing in the lush bamboo forest from a third-person perspective.

"First Wind Sound, the Clear Sound of the Bamboo Sea."

A faint voice sounded, and the self in the bamboo forest held the broken flute and began to play. Green bamboo leaves flew out from the flute.

When a bamboo leaf touched a stone on the ground, the stone split in half; when it brushed against a bamboo, the bamboo split open.

"Wow, that's too powerful!" Yiyun exclaimed, suddenly feeling weak and dizzy. The scene of the bamboo forest vanished from his mind. Looking around, he found himself back in his stinky rented room.

Completely drained, he collapsed onto the pile of bedding. The tadpoles on the flute had stopped moving.

Recalling the situation, he realized, "It seems I have indeed advanced from the first level to the second level of the Purple Rank. This broken flute must show that scene when I reach the second level of the Purple Rank."

Struggling to sit up, he tried to play the broken flute as he had seen in the scene.

A distant flute sound echoed.

He was secretly delighted, "The flute sound is there."

"Amazing!"

Watching a green bamboo leaf slowly fly out, Yiyun's eyes were filled with excitement.

"Snap!"

The bamboo leaf flew towards the window sill, which was cluttered with instant noodle cups, and a sharp tearing sound echoed.

Looking closer, he saw that the instant noodle cups and the entire window sill were covered with scratches. He went over and lightly touched them.

"Whoosh!"

The entire window sill and the stack of instant noodle cups turned into a cloud of dust, which was blown away by the wind.

A large hole appeared in front of Yiyun.

His rented room was on the fifth floor of the landlord's building. A gust of wind blew in through the hole, instantly dispersing the stench in the room.

Yiyun was stunned, "What the hell! The entire window sill turned into dust and was blown away. If the landlord sees this hole, I'll probably be sliced into a thousand pieces. That gay landlord will definitely drag me into the house and ravage me, and he won't let me go until my anus is as big as this hole."

Thinking of this, Yiyun was terrified and quickly started packing his things. Looking around the room, he felt extremely desolate: "After struggling in this city for so many years, when it's time to leave, I realize that there's nothing worth taking with me."

Feeling extremely desolate, he barely gathered a few valuable items from the room, which didn't even fill a denim bag.

After packing, he saw Kaka jumping on the old wooden table.

"Kaka... Kaka..."

The little creature seemed to be asking if he should take the wooden table.

Yiyun waved his hand, "It's the landlord's."

Seeing Yiyun wave his hand, Kaka let out a joyful chirp.

The next scene made Yiyun's jaw drop.

A black light quickly circled the wooden table, and it vanished into thin air. Kaka's body then gained another thin green stripe.

"Kaka... Kaka..."

Kaka quickly jumped onto the open *Zixu Qi Refinement Technique* on the ground and started bouncing and chirping.

"What, you want me to refine qi again?" Yiyun was surprised.

A black light flashed, and a sharp pain shot through his back.

"I'll refine qi! I'll refine qi!" Kaka's bite was more painful than a toothache.

Sitting cross-legged, he began to refine qi.

Kaka floated in front of him, and the green stripe on its body flashed, producing more green, thread-like wood essence.

Yiyun immediately understood: The wood essence was transformed from the wooden table Kaka had consumed. He then realized that the previous wood essence must have come from Kaka consuming his old wooden bed.

"Kaka has this ability!" Yiyun was excited. When he first started refining qi, it took him half a day to condense a tiny bit of wood essence, showing how difficult it was to condense essence.

But Kaka could transform his old wooden bed and table into wood essence, which would greatly accelerate his cultivation. The more he thought about it, the more excited he became: "It seems my chances of survival have greatly increased!"

He tried to refine the wood essence according to the method in the *Zixu Qi Refinement Technique*. After fusing a small part of the wood essence into his body, he felt dizzy and spat blood onto the open book.

A text appeared:

"The fusion of essence is related to one's physical strength. Only the corresponding physical strength can withstand the corresponding essence. You are the first person in history who can't fuse essence into the body due to lack of physical strength!"

Yiyun was devastated, watching the wood essence that couldn't be fused into his body gradually disappear. His physical strength was that of a typical shut-in, never having been exercised. Seeing the precious wood essence disappear, he regretted deeply: "Damn, I should have bought a few dumbbells and exercised every day. Or helped catch thieves on the street. If that didn't work, I could have followed those girls in revealing clothes every day!"

If other cultivators saw the wood essence gradually disappearing in front of Yiyun, they would probably die of shock. It would take at least a year or two to condense such essence.

While he was regretting, his wrist tingled, and the voice transmission rope flashed. He touched it, and three words appeared: Ling Jianan.

Thinking of the girl he had met at the Jiuli Mansion Witch Department Co., Ltd., Yiyun became excited. He smoothed his hair, found a dusty mirror on the ground, and tidied himself up, wiping the sleep from his eyes.

"Ah! Oh! Ee! Ya!" He tried a few sounds, then put on a smile and carefully tapped the voice transmission rope.

An angry voice burst out:

"Yiyun, right? Are you dead? Why did it take you so long to hear the message? Did you get eaten by a monster before you even started catching them? Do I look like I have nothing to do? Hurry up and get ready and come contact me. I'll only wait for you for ten minutes!"

Yiyun's ears rang from the shouting, and his smile turned into a blank expression.

He had to gather his emotions and respond in what he thought was a magnetic voice, "Ling Jianan, hello. This is Yiyun. Can we schedule a meeting place?"

The hand rope flashed again, and Yiyun opened it.

This time, he was thoroughly enraged:

"Yiyun, you bastard! Do you think this is a telegram? You repeated yourself! Do you want to add 'fire at you' too? Find the nearest trash can and bring your hand rope close to it, and I'll come find you."

"Trash can?" Yiyun was confused, thinking he had heard wrong. He listened again and felt depressed: "A trash can isn't a mailbox. Does it have a location function?"