Another failure!

For a long while, Lin Xuan remained silent. Though his expression revealed neither joy nor anger, his hands were clenched so tightly that his nails dug deep into his flesh, and his lips were bitten until they bled.

But this state didn’t last long. A few minutes later, Lin Xuan took a deep breath and wordlessly sat down again to continue his efforts…

Early morning. The sun rose, beginning a new day.

The Soaring Cloud Hall stood magnificent and imposing, its area comparable to a stadium back on Earth. It was Drifting Cloud Valley’s most important building. On the first day of each month, disciples in the Spirit Stirring Realm would gather here to receive what they needed for cultivation.

Though he had cultivated for most of the night again and slept less than three hours, Lin Xuan still arrived at Soaring Cloud Hall on time. In the spacious great hall, over a hundred people already stood in scattered groups—all Spirit Stirring disciples. However, every single one had deeper cultivation than Lin Xuan. His arrival sparked waves of discussion, with cold remarks constantly cutting through the air and reaching his ears.

“See that? That kid has no spiritual roots, yet he still dreams of cultivating immortality—just a mortal.”

“Hmph, doesn’t even look like much either. Having someone like him stay in the sect is simply a waste of pills.”

“Who says it isn’t? I heard he works very hard, but an ordinary person without spiritual roots—how can he compare to us? Three years’ time, and he’s still stuck at the first layer of the Spirit Stirring Realm.”

“Doesn’t know the immensity of heaven and earth. Does he think [unauthorized copy]he can break the Cultivation World’s iron law that hasn’t changed in ten thousand years? A mortal cultivating—destined to have no achievements.”

…

Mockery and contemptuous glances surrounded him, yet Lin Xuan’s expression remained unchanged. He treated it like mad dogs barking and silently made his way to the back of the line.

An ancient, resonant bell rang out. The disciples immediately stopped their discussions and stood properly in line. An elderly man entered the great hall with several attendants. Each attendant held a round tray covered with red cloth, yet waves of refreshing fragrance still emanated from them.

“Uncle-Master Ma!” The disciples bowed in greeting.

“Mm.” The old man held his head high with arrogance. His cultivation wasn’t particularly high—merely the early stage of Foundation Establishment—but he controlled the sect’s medicine storehouse, which meant his position carried great authority.

Besides natural talent and personal effort, pills were indispensable to cultivation—one could even say extremely important. If one had enough pills to consume while cultivating, progress would be much faster. It could be said to be a shortcut. However, the materials for refining pills were all precious rare flowers and exotic herbs, so the sect could only provide disciples with very few pills.

According to the rules, disciples in the Spirit Stirring Realm could receive two Marrow Cleansing Pills each month.

Marrow Cleansing Pills, as the name suggested, could transform the meridians and cleanse the marrow, dissolving impure energy within the body while also catalyzing a small amount of spiritual energy. Of course, depending on each person’s talent, the amount of spiritual energy catalyzed also varied greatly. These pills were only effective for disciples in the Spirit Stirring Realm.

The incense hall was opened and respects were paid to the founding ancestor. The disciples lined up and came forward to receive their pills from the elder’s hands, each face showing expressions of treasure and joy.

Soon it was Lin Xuan’s turn. Elder Ma glanced at him, a trace of contempt appearing on his face. He took a [unauthorized copy]jade bottle from the round tray, poured out two pills from inside, and tossed them in front of Lin Xuan.

“Thank you, Uncle-Master.” Before Lin Xuan’s words even finished, the corner of his eye suddenly twitched. Looking at the two pills in his hand, these were… defective pills?

The path of immortal cultivation encompassed myriad things—cultivation techniques, artifact crafting, pill refining, talisman drawing, and more. Each one contained vast bodies of knowledge.

Take pill refining, for example. Besides various precious materials and rare flowers and exotic herbs, one also needed the True Fire of Samadhi for refining. At the same time, the heat control, dosage of supplementary materials, furnace opening time, and cauldron materials all affected the success rate of pill refining.

Even experienced pill refining grandmasters often had failures, turning a cauldron full of heavenly treasures into useless defective pills.

Defective pills referred to those with excessive impurity content. Such pills not only provided no benefit to one’s cultivation when consumed, but would actually harm the body. Usually, one could only reluctantly throw them away.

Although small sects like Drifting Cloud Valley could only distribute low-grade pills to their disciples, low-grade pills were still useful spiritual medicine. But these defective pills…

The other party was clearly deliberately making things difficult for him. A trace of gloom flashed through Lin Xuan’s heart, but his surface remained completely impassive. This man surnamed Ma held a high position with great authority—offending him would be very unwise.

“Uncle-Master, you’ve made a mistake. These two defective pills—how can they be consumed?”

“What’s wrong with them?” The contempt in Elder Ma’s eyes was fully revealed. Just an overlooked low-rank disciple. He tilted his head back and said arrogantly, “What, not satisfied?”

“With your talent anyway, consuming spiritual pills is ​stolen content​just a waste. Defective pills might actually be just right for you. How about this—Uncle-Master here isn’t unreasonable. I’ll give you a few more bottles.”

As he spoke, he took two jade bottles from the tray and tossed them into Lin Xuan’s hands.

“Other disciples only get two Marrow Cleansing Pills each, but I’m giving you two bottles. How about it? Uncle-Master is treating you well enough, right?”

“Thank you, Uncle-Master!”

Contrary to Elder Ma’s expectations, the dissatisfaction on Lin Xuan’s face completely disappeared. He accepted the pills, performed a respectful bow, and withdrew.

“How can this be?” Instead, Elder Ma’s face filled with astonishment, staring dumbly without being able to speak.

Defective pills, simply put, were garbage. Consuming them brought harm rather than benefit to cultivation. Let alone two bottles—even if you took more, they were worthless. How could Lin Xuan…

This was a completely unexpected reaction. Originally, Elder Ma had thought that with such unfair treatment, Lin Xuan would make a big scene, and then he could seize the opportunity to charge him with disrespecting an elder and expel Lin Xuan from the sect.

This wasn’t because Elder Ma had a grudge against Lin Xuan, but rather because this fellow was naturally snobbish and looked down on mortals without spiritual roots. He felt that allowing Lin Xuan to remain in the sect was simply disgraceful, so he had schemed deliberately, wanting to drive him out.

The plan couldn’t be called flawless, but it was still quite thorough. According to sect rules, low-rank disciples could receive Marrow Cleansing Pills, yet he deliberately made things difficult, substituting defective pills. Such unfair treatment—let alone Lin Xuan, a teenager of just over ten years—even an old fox with rich experience might not necessarily be able to endure it. As long as he lost his temper, Elder Ma could seize the opportunity.

However, man’s schemes are inferior to heaven’s calculations. Although Lin Xuan had no spiritual roots and was just an ordinary person, his mind was far from dull—in fact, quite clever. His character was also tenacious, able to endure what others could not. In his words and actions, he always thought three times before acting, never impulsive. When Elder Ma gave him defective pills, he was indeed angry, but he hid this emotion very well.

From the contempt in Elder Ma’s eyes, Lin Xuan also detected a trace of mockery. A conspiracy. He immediately reached this conclusion. Although he didn’t know the specific details of the conspiracy, nor why Elder Ma would target him when they had no grievances or enmity, these things could be investigated later. The urgent matter was not to fall into the trap.

So Lin Xuan not only didn’t lose his temper, but accepted the defective pills with a calm expression, successfully avoiding persecution. Elder Ma’s plan failed. Unable to frame Lin Xuan, he was instead so angry he couldn’t speak.