Chapter 12: Breakthrough to the Mid-Stage

After returning, Chen Lin continued his alchemy.

Having successfully obtained ten Chuyuan Pills, he began crafting talismans.

Although he still had some spirit stones on him, he needed to sell some talismans to maintain his persona as someone who made a living through talisman crafting to avoid drawing unwanted attention.

Perhaps due to his increasing cultivation, his state was exceptionally good today, and his proficiency in crafting Fireball Talismans improved once again.

Combined with his innate talent, he actually succeeded three times out of ten!

As the three talismans, each bearing a flame pattern, were laid out in a row, Chen Lin grew increasingly delighted the more he looked at them.

With a success rate of thirty percent, after deducting costs, he could earn seventeen or eighteen spirit stones for every ten sets of materials. Among the rogue cultivators in the shantytown, he could be considered upper class.

After a burst of excitement, he picked up his talisman brush, intending to craft more in one go.

Unknowingly, the night grew deep.

"Clang!"

A dull bell toll startled Chen Lin from his immersion in talisman crafting.

He froze momentarily, then stood up with a look of confusion and walked toward the bronze bell.

"I set the timer myself, so why did I set it to ring at this specific time?"

Looking at the mechanical device atop the bronze bell, Chen Lin realized once again that he had forgotten something.

But the ringing time was definitely his setting; even the timing device was something he had crafted personally, relying on his "ten-try guaranteed success" talent to complete it.

What exactly had he forgotten?

Why had he set an alarm for this moment?

Chen Lin pondered bitterly.

That's right, the red lines!

Suddenly, a flash of light crossed his mind, and everything he had forgotten came rushing back.

He rushed to the window, opened it, and looked toward the sky.

It was silent.

The moon was round and the stars were bright, but there was nothing else unusual.

The thin red lines that appeared every night were nowhere to be seen.

"Is it that the red lines haven't appeared, or have I simply lost the ability to see them?"

Chen Lin's expression began to shift erratically.

After waiting for a full half an hour, he closed the window with a grim face.

"Something must be wrong with me," he muttered to himself, sitting helplessly in his chair.

The joy of his improved talisman crafting skills vanished instantly.

After a moment of silence, he stood up again, quickly stripped naked, and inspected himself inch by inch.

When no physical abnormalities were found, he began an internal inspection to check his bodily condition.

As he proceeded, his expression grew increasingly grim.

His body showed no abnormalities.

The greater possibility was that the abnormality existed, but he simply could not perceive it.

He didn't even need to think to guess: it must be related to how he had been connected to those red lines last night.

He was now one of those "marionettes"!

Not only could he no longer see the red lines, but he had even previously regarded the sidelong glances and sneers of those people as perfectly natural.

He was being "assimilated"!

The more he thought about it, the more fear gripped him.

Fortunately, he was cautious enough to set an alarm to serve as a reminder.

Although this alarm was not a magical tool, the materials used to make it included fragments of magical tools, giving it a certain soul-awakening effect; he had considered the possibility of such an occurrence when he made it.

Of course, his ability to regain clarity was not something this tiny alarm could achieve; it likely had to do with his innate talent or his special soul as a transmigrator.

Chen Lin gazed at the sky, his face as dark as water.

To be able to turn all the cultivators in an entire city into marionettes—it was unimaginable how powerful such an existence must be. Even if he was somewhat special, it wouldn't matter.

But why would the opponent do this? What was their goal?

How could he escape?

He fell into a deep sense of helplessness and terror.

For several days, Chen Lin failed to see the spectacular scene of red lines filling the sky at midnight, and he gradually calmed down.

Regardless, he had no good solution.

Fortunately, his mind was still relatively clear and he was aware of his situation, unlike the other cultivators in the city who were completely oblivious.

Therefore, he would stick to his original plan: raise his cultivation to the middle stage of Qi Refinement and leave this place once he learned the Flight Technique.

Following this, Chen Lin began to craft talismans frantically. Once he accumulated a certain amount of spirit stones, he would purchase alchemy materials to refine Chuyuan Pills.

With the accumulation of medicinal pills, his cultivation rose rapidly.

During this period, the city became increasingly unstable.

Following the disappearance of the Zhang family's Foundation Establishment patriarch, the head of the Han family—one of the five great families—also vanished without reason, causing even more panic among the already chaotic cultivators in the city.

Furthermore, due to the heavy snowfall, not only were the plants in the wild completely covered, but the merchant caravans that used to appear frequently had not been seen for a long time, causing food supplies in the city to become tight.

It wasn't just food; the prices of other cultivation resources were also climbing steadily.

Fortunately, he had purchased a large amount of supplies in advance for his secluded cultivation; otherwise, he would have gone hungry.

Chen Lin ignored the outside world, focusing solely on refining pills and cultivating.

Under such intense concentration, time flew by.

Winter passed, and spring arrived.

Three months later.

Sitting cross-legged, Chen Lin suddenly opened his eyes.

He checked his body in disbelief, and only after confirming his state did a look of wild joy appear on his face.

"I really broke through!"

Chen Lin lightly clenched his fist, feeling the increased mana within his body, his heart surging with emotion.

He had originally only intended to try, not expecting to break through to the fourth level of Qi Refinement like this; even he found it hard to believe.

The process had been simple and smooth, without any startling incidents, except that because he had taken three pills at once, the medicinal power was too intense, causing waves of stinging pain through his meridians.

But compared to advancing to the middle stage of Qi Refinement, this minor side effect was negligible.

After calming his emotions, Chen Lin raised his hand and struck a palm toward the table in front of him. Instantly, an invisible burst of energy was released, causing the table to shake.

He had succeeded!

External release of mana—this was the hallmark of entering the middle stage of Qi Refinement!

He nodded in satisfaction.

In the early stage of Qi Refinement, one needed a medium to use mana and could not release it out of thin air.

Only upon entering the middle stage was this possible.

This was why those in the early stage of Qi Refinement could not learn spells.

Though the mana he just released only made the table shake, that was because he had not yet learned any spells; once he did, the power would naturally increase significantly.

With the mana in his body having increased several times over, Chen Lin, in his excitement, continuously tried various ways to release it, turning his room into a mess.

It took a while before he calmed down.

Then, he took out two items.

A copy of *Detailed Explanation of Basic Spells* and a small, slightly greenish short sword.

He had prepared these before his seclusion, fearing that major changes in the city might make them impossible to buy or cause their prices to skyrocket.

It seemed he had made the right choice.

The short sword was named the "Carefree Sword."

The name was quite domineering, but in reality, it was merely a lowest-grade, first-tier, low-rank magical tool, offering limited amplification of mana.

Even so, it was worth several hundred low-grade spirit stones.

This was already among the cheapest magical tools; anything slightly better would cost much more.

After learning the prices of magical tools, Chen Lin even entertained the idea of becoming an artifact refiner.

The *Detailed Explanation of Basic Spells* was much cheaper.

This was normal, as books could be copied. If it weren't for the fear of buying flawed counterfeits, it would only cost the equivalent of two Fireball Talismans at a street stall rather than in a formal shop.

He opened the book; the first page recorded the "Fireball Spell."

This spell was essentially a must-have for any cultivator, and all middle-stage Qi Refinement cultivators knew it.

In the common knowledge of the cultivation world, there were barriers to practicing spells.

To practice a certain series of spells, one needed to possess the corresponding spiritual root.

For example, to practice this Fireball Spell, under normal circumstances, one needed a Fire Spiritual Root; otherwise, one could not sense the fire-attribute elements in heaven and earth to form the spell.

However, during the Qi Refinement stage, the barriers for spells were not strong. Even without the corresponding spiritual root, one could use certain mediums to cast spells, and low-end medium items were easy to find and very cheap.

Of course, the more effortless method was to use talismans.

Unable to learn fire-attribute spells?

No matter; if you want to use any spell, just buy the corresponding talisman!

Money can solve everything.

(End of Chapter)