The day after the clan assembly, Xiao Yan went to the Wu Tan City market and bought the most expensive cultivation resources he could afford — a set of spirit-gathering stones, a month's supply of Fire Lotus Seeds, and a jade cauldron that wouldn't explode under Second Tier pressure. His savings were nearly depleted, but savings wouldn't matter if he was humiliated in three years.

Yao Lao floated beside him, invisible to the crowd, observing the market chaos with the expression of a connoisseur at a wine tasting. 'The Fire Lotus Seeds are good. The spirit-gathering stones are mediocre. The jade cauldron is acceptable. You overpaid for all of it.'

'Price of being in a hurry.'

'Price of not knowing how to haggle.'

'I'll learn.'

Xiao Yan returned to the Xiao compound and immediately went into closed-door cultivation. With the Energy Recovery Pill, he could absorb Dou Qi at nearly double his previous rate, and his 7th Duan cultivation began slowly, painfully climbing toward the 8th.

The 8th Duan was the last step before the barrier that separated the Qi Refining stage from the true cultivation realms. Crossing that barrier would require more than just accumulated energy — it would require insight, enlightenment, and probably a significant amount of physical pain.

'Your body has recovered enough,' Yao Lao said on the third day of cultivation. 'Now it's time to rebuild your foundation properly. Forget the speed of advancement. We're going back to basics.'

'Basics?'

'You've been cultivating with a cracked foundation for three years. We're going to break it down completely and build a new one. Three years of bad habits, erased. Then six months of perfect cultivation to reach where you should have been at twelve.'

'And then?'

'Then you start getting strong.' Yao Lao's spectral form flickered with dark amusement. 'Try not to enjoy it too much.'