[Ji Wuqing finally tired of scolding Ji Xiaosong and remembered you were still beside her.]
[Seeing you cultivating, she didn’t disturb you.]
[But her curiosity was intense—she wanted to know what cultivation technique you were practicing.]
[So she pressed two fingers together and swiped them across her eyes. Using some Divine Art, golden patterns flowed through her gaze.]
[When you finished one circulation cycle and withdrew your energy to regulate your breathing, Ji Wuqing spoke to you.]
["That was a fifth-grade Qi Refining Art you were practicing, wasn't it?"]
["That's right."]
[Ji Wuqing had lived for centuries and was at the Late Stage of the Transcendent Realm.]
[She came from a prestigious family, the direct daughter of the main bloodline, backed by vast resources and surrounded by famous masters.]
[She had comprehended many Divine Abilities. Thanks to her family's foundation, she didn’t need to spend time adapting Divine Arts on her own—she simply studied from the family's repository of Divine Arts that corresponded to the Divine Abilities she had already grasped.]
[So, it didn’t surprise you that she could tell what technique you were cultivating.]
["Your immortal root is only fifth-grade. Practicing a fifth-grade Qi Refining Art is too slow..."]
[Ji Wuqing had misjudged your immortal root.]
[She based her assessment on your cultivation speed.]
[Your cultivation speed matched a normal seventh-grade immortal root plus the Winged Clan talent—Extreme Fire Affinity—making it appear as fifth-grade.]
[In reality, you were twice as fast as that, thanks to your «You Get Stronger Just by Breathing!».]
[With that, Ji Wuqing reached out and snatched Ji Xiaosong, who had been about to slip away, yanking him by the scruff of his collar from midair.]
["Take my family token and go to the Myriad Books Hall. Get me a third-grade Fire-type Qi Refining Art. Hurry up!"]
["Cousin, you’re making me run errands again. Can’t you just send a telepathic message or a phantom clone or something?"]
["Do you think my divine power grows on trees!? Go now, or I’ll report to the family that you’ve been building unauthorized structures up on the mountain!"]
["Fine, fine, fine! I’m going! I’m going!"]
[Ji Wuqing wasn’t joking.]
[On a First-tier Star, energies like True Qi, Primordial Energy, and Divine Power actually cost money to buy!]
[If you didn’t pay, you couldn’t absorb the Immortal Qi, and of course, the energy couldn’t be recovered once used.]
[Before the Holy Dragon Society, all beings were charged equally.]
[You might ask, if Second-tier Stars didn’t charge, why not go there instead?]
[Because Second-tier Stars had sparse Immortal Qi. The higher your cultivation, the more your speed dropped exponentially. Most cultivators couldn’t stand it.]
["Hey, who is this sweetheart of yours, anyway?"]
[While waiting for Ji Xiaosong to run the errand, Ji Wuqing’s gossip soul ignited again.]
["Even if I told you, you wouldn’t know her."]
["Is she beautiful?"]
["The most beautiful in the Five Regions!"]
["How does she compare to me?"]
[You studied Ji Wuqing seriously.]
[Ji Wuqing immediately straightened up, chest out, standing tall and putting on her best posture.]
["You each have your own charms, but I’d say she’s slightly ahead of you."]
["What?! Well, is she at a higher cultivation level than me?"]
["Now you’re joking. She was in the Void Realm—no matter how talented, she couldn’t beat you there. But she’s come to the Real Realm now, and she might surpass you in the future."]
["Outrageous! Looks like I have to find a way to become an Immortal Lord!"]
["Are you stuck at a bottleneck?"]
["As if it were that easy! It’s not like just anyone can become an Immortal Lord."]
["Aren’t you supposed to be very talented?"]
["If heaven doesn’t grant its favor, talent alone is useless."]
[The two of you chatted casually for a while.]
[A short time later, Ji Xiaosong came running back, panting heavily, clutching a jade slip.]
["‘Triple-Origin Body Tempering Mystic Art.’ This Qi Refining Art has many wonderful qualities. Practice it diligently."]
[The best Qi Refining Art was actually fourth-grade, because like Divine Arts, once a Qi Refining Art reached third-grade, it became tied to a Divine Ability.]
[Without comprehending the Divine Ability corresponding to the third-grade art, you couldn’t practice it.]
[But the art Ji Wuqing gave you was special: the «Triple-Origin Body Tempering Mystic Art» didn’t require the practitioner to comprehend a specific Divine Ability—just to have mastered a Divine Ability in general.]
["I saw you use a Divine Art, so this technique should work for you.]
Although I can only sense you at the Core Formation realm, I assume you’ve concealed your true cultivation level, right?
[Rogue cultivators always do that—playing the pig to eat the tiger. I understand, I understand."]
[That’s just how someone who loves gossip is—always filling in the blanks with imagination.]
["Actually, the family does have a first-grade cultivation technique. But even direct descendants can’t all practice it, and it also requires specific Divine Abilities. So I can’t give it to you for now."]
[You smiled.]
["No worries. A third-grade is already great."]
[You flipped through it casually and discovered that this «Triple-Origin Body Tempering Mystic Art» could accumulate Triple-Origin True Fire within your body during Qi refining.]
[The true fire could be used both in battle and for tempering your physical body, further strengthening its durability!]
[Additionally, this Qi Refining Art was extremely useful for artifact forging. From now on, you wouldn’t need to worry about having earthly fire available—Triple-Origin True Fire far surpassed it!]
[The wonders of the «Triple-Origin Body Tempering Mystic Art» didn’t stop there. It also came with built-in killing moves and spells in great variety.]
[In other words, if a cultivator mastered this one Qi Refining Art, they could roam the world comfortably.]
[Of course, for you, with your abundance of trait tags and methods, that wasn’t the main point. What mattered was that it could boost your cultivation speed.]
[Ji Wuqing prepared to head down the mountain.]
[She had long hit a bottleneck in her realm and rarely came to Ancient Cloud Mountain to cultivate. She mostly spent her time traveling, challenging others, or even leaving Vermilion Violet Star to adventure and search for treasures on other planets, hoping to find an opportunity for a breakthrough.]
["Oh, right. Let me give you something so you won’t get bored while cultivating."]
[Ji Wuqing took out a silver scroll.]
["What’s this?"]
["A product of the Holy Dragon Society. The Celestial River Monthly Report, updated once a day. You can read about major events happening across our local galaxy on it."]
["A... a news report?"]
["Paper? This isn’t paper. It’s made from special materials, quite expensive. And you have to pay a monthly fee to read it. But don’t worry—I’ve already paid for three hundred years upfront."]
[After asking how much the monthly fee was, you realized this gift from Ji Wuqing was extremely generous.]
["Miss Wuqing has already helped me so much. I can’t accept such an expensive gift anymore."]
["To my Ji family, this is just a drop in the bucket. You’re welcome to be polite with me, but there’s no need to be polite with my family!]
[While you’re at the Ji family, eat my family’s food, drink my family’s drinks, use my family’s stuff—just don’t do anything for my father or the Ji family!"]
["What? Do you have a grudge against the Ji family?"]
[Something flickered in Ji Wuqing’s eyes. She opened her mouth as if she had things to say but found it inconvenient to speak.]
["In short, just do as I say. Don’t feel burdened at all. I’m off!"]

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