Chu Li stood before the crowd and laughed heartily as he asked, “Who else would like to challenge me?”

　　The crowd was stunned into silence.

　　He had been very arrogant, but given his abilities, they could see that he had the right to be like that. These disciples who had gone ahead and challenged him had been unconvinced of his abilities because they were the top-notch disciples among the crowd.

　　In the end, they had all failed miserably. Therefore, there was no need for anyone else to come forward and bring humiliation upon themselves.

　　Chu Li laughed and asked again, “Is there anyone else who would like to challenge me?”

　　“I’d like to challenge Senior Brother Zhao in your swordsmanship!” a girl in green clothing called out.

　　Chu Li swept his eyes over her. “Senior Sister, it can be dangerous to use weapons. Be careful not to hurt yourself!”

　　“It’s okay!” the girl in green replied and snorted.

　　Chu Li did not recognize who this senior sister of his was. Nonetheless, he could tell that her cultivation level was rather high and that her swordsmanship was most likely top-notch.

　　Elder Yang shook his head before he waved a hand. Instantly, two ironwood swords flew off the weapons rack beside the field and landed in their hands.

　　The ironwood sword looked very similar to an iron sword. Even its weight was the same as that of the Emerald Tipped Sword.

　　Chu Li adjusted his grip and swiftly waved the sword around before he nodded with satisfaction at the comfortable grip. Then, he raised the tip of his sword slightly. “Go ahead then!”

　　The young girl in green calmly replied, “Junior Brother Zhao, please make the first move!”

　　Chu Li chuckled. “If I make my move first, I’m afraid you might not have the chance to make a move afterward, Senior Sister.”

　　“Go ahead!” The young girl rolled her eyes at him.

　　Chu Li shook his head in resignation. Then, he glided forward abruptly and swung his sword at her.

　　Before the young girl could react, her sword was hit by his and it flew out of her hand.

　　The ironwood sword rotated in the air as it flew over the crowd. With a thud, it finally landed twenty meters away on the ground.

　　Chu Li lowered his sword and smiled faintly as he said, “Thank you for letting me win!”

　　The girl in green knitted her eyebrows together while she stared at him.

　　All her techniques had been rendered useless before his strength since he had not given her the chance to use them at all. What he had was mainly dependent on force and speed as well as brawn and body movement technique. Essentially, he had won because of his profound cultivation level which in that aspect, she could never compare with him.

　　Elder Yang announced solemnly, “Zhao Dahe won!”

　　Chu Li waved his sword about and asked, “Anyone else?”

　　The crowd remained silent.

　　It was hard to tell how skilled Chu Li was at swordsmanship. However, judging by the way he had wielded his sword, they knew that they were incapable of overcoming his speed and strength. He would not give his opponent the chance to use any intricate sword techniques, and this made his rough and crude ways very effective.

　　“Anyone else?” Chu Li laughed proudly. “Don’t tell me you’re all convinced of my swordsmanship?”

　　Mo Cuicui was standing amidst the crowd as she curled her lip scornfully and he scoffed, “No one’s convinced of your swordsmanship. We’re just convinced of your cultivation level!”

　　“You guys haven’t been working very hard,” Chu Li said while he shook his head. “When I first arrived here, many of your cultivation levels were higher than mine. Now, my level has become far higher than yours, so that means you guys haven’t been putting a lot of effort into cultivating after all!”

　　“Zhao Dahe, that’s enough!” Elder Yang said patiently. “Since no one else wants to challenge you, just let them carry on with what they were doing!”

　　Chu Li smiled and replied, “Alright then. Elder Yang has spoken. You may all be dismissed.”

　　He flung the sword back onto the weapons rack before he came to join Mo Cuicui, Sun Lihua, and Song Donglin once again. He grinned smugly and asked, “What do you think?”

　　Mo Cuicui glared at him disdainfully. He scoffed, “You’re very outrageous!”

　　Chu Li looked rather pleased with himself as he said, “Who dare not admit defeat now?”

　　“At the bottom of their hearts, they haven’t admitted defeat!” Mo Cuicui retorted with a scoff. “They’re just putting up with you right now. It’s impossible for you to stay the strongest anyway!”

　　“I will only become more and more powerful!” Chu Li replied with a smile.

　　Then, he said, “I’ll visit the Sutra Library tomorrow and look for a better body movement technique.”

　　“Our Time Steps is a top-notch body movement technique,” Sun Lihua replied. “In fact, it’s not just a body movement technique but also a light-body technique, and it has incredible speed. Junior Brother Zhao, aren’t you satisfied?”

　　Chu Li shook his head. “I get a feeling that it’s not good enough. I’d like to look for a more intricate step technique.”

　　“There are many step techniques in the Sutra Library, but none of them are superior to the Time Steps,” Sun Lihua replied and gently shook her head. “I’ve never heard of any step technique like that anyway.”

　　“Is there any other martial art that’s very hard to cultivate for most people?” Chu Li asked. “The type of martial arts that others fail to cultivate is my favorite.”

　　“How arrogant!” Mo Cuicui scoffed. “In any case, you can’t return to the Sutra Library yet!”

　　Chu Li started to laugh.

　　Sun Lihua looked astonished as she asked, “Junior Brother Zhao, you can return to the Sutra Library now?”

　　Chu Li replied proudly, “I can move around freely and go anywhere I like now. This is the benefit of gaining merits!”

　　Sun Lihua and the other two stared at him in shock.

　　Song Donglin said enviously, “This is a wonderful thing that would usually happen only in our second year.”

　　Chu Li said, “After working so hard all this time, I have finally managed to gain some merit. I’ll be visiting the Sutra Library more often after this, especially the third floor. Junior Sister Mo, I would appreciate your advice.”

　　Mo Cuicui gritted her teeth. She then gave a cold scoff before she turned her head away to ignore him.

　　…

　　As a bright moon hung in the night sky, everything else was bathed in its pale light.

　　Chu Li suddenly appeared in his courtyard on the small island belonging to the High Duke’s Public House.

　　He had brought along a few spirit herbs in his hands. He then bent over to plant them in the spirit land. After that, he infused the herbs with strong and rich spiritual energy as well, so that they would be able to adapt to the environment here.

　　Xue Ling yawned a few times as she walked out of her room. She said sleepily, “Young Master, you haven’t returned in a long while.”

　　She was wearing a moon-white nightgown that concealed her graceful and slender figure. Her dark, silky hair was scattered over her shoulder which made her face look even fairer. Under the pale moonlight, her skin seemed like a white jade that gave off a warm glow.

　　Chu Li replied, “It’s been very busy over there.”

　　Xue Ling nodded. “You’re not that busy now?”

　　“I finally managed to take a break.” Chu Li pointed at the twenty over spirit herbs on the ground. “Water those two spirit herbs once every three days. Water these two once a day. As for those two, water them once every five days…”

　　“These herbs must be very valuable, right?” Xue Ling asked.

　　Chu Li replied, “These are spirit herbs that cannot be found in the Ji Dynasty. They’re very useful. In the future, I’m going to harvest some of these herbs to refine and produce pills.”

　　“Refining and producing pills isn’t an easy task though.” Xue Ling shook her head. “It’s easy to gather spirit herbs, but it can be difficult to find a pill-refining master.”

　　Refining and producing pills were different from planting spirit herbs since it required great talent. That was why pill-refining masters were just as rare as masters in medicine.

　　After mixing the spirit herbs together, certain conditions would have to be fulfilled before any actual transformation could happen so that the herbs would turn into spirit pills. In fact, when some herbs are mixed together according to a certain amount and then cooked for some time, the product might not be spirit pills but herbal medicine instead.

　　There was a huge difference between spirit pills and herbal medicine, just like how clouds and mud were vastly different as well.

　　While herbal medicine could be used to treat illness and wounds, spirit pills were ten to twenty times more effective than herbal medicine. For a wound that would initially require ten days to heal, spirit pills would allow it to heal within a day. Spirit pills could also be used to treat whatever injuries that could not be treated with herbal medicine, but herbal medicine might not be capable of treating wounds that could be treated with spirit pills.

　　While herbal medicine might be effective enough for dealing with common illnesses, its efficacy would not be sufficient for martial arts masters. Since the injuries they suffered were usually much more severe than ordinary people, herbal medicine would not be able to heal their injuries due to its level of effectiveness.

　　Moreover, herbal medicine could never achieve the effect of replenishing inner energy, unlike spirit pills.

　　Pill-refining masters had to be keenly observant of the most minute changes in the temperature and be very careful when controlling the heat so that they would be able to capture that fleeting moment when the spirit pills would form. The temperature was the most crucial element here. Without reaching the optimum temperature, the spirit pills would never form. Meanwhile, exceeding the optimum temperature would destroy the spirit pills.

　　Chu Li grinned and said, “I’ve never gotten the opportunity to learn how to refine and produce pills before this.”

　　“Young Master, you’re a genius at martial arts cultivation, but you may not be capable of learning how to refine and produce pills,” Xue Ling replied and chuckled. “Nonetheless, we have a pill-refining master in our residence, so you can learn from him directly.”

　　“Okay.” Chu Li slowly nodded. “Learning how to refine and produce pills isn’t that hard. The crucial part is the formula for the spirit pills.”

　　Based on what he knew, they did not have that many formulas in the residence, but since they had the formula for the Spirit Blessing Pill, they had been able to get by without many other spirit pills. Unfortunately, the spirit herbs needed for the Spirit Blessing Pill were a big problem. It was only because of the additional supply of spirit herbs from the Glory’s Will Courtyard that they had managed to sustain themselves thus far.