At sixteen, Zhang Yiyi had finally reached the seventh level of the Qi Refining stage, bringing her cultivation to the late stage of Qi Refining. Her speed was decent, but when compared to those inner sect prodigies with single spiritual roots, it was hardly remarkable. After all, two years ago, Fu Jin and Zhang Tongtong had already built their foundations, and the other five disciples who directly entered the inner sect had also successfully reached the Foundation Establishment stage this year.

However, Zhang Yiyi wasn't in a rush. She steadily followed her own plans and pace, focusing on building a solid foundation rather than hastily seeking rapid advancement in her cultivation level. The ancient God Clan specialized in physical cultivation, pursuing the path of bodily sanctification. Combined with their innate bloodline abilities, they dominated all races a million years ago.

But Zhang Yiyi couldn't solely focus on physical cultivation. The world today is vastly different from a million years ago. Apart from the fact that the vast amounts of spiritual herbs and resources needed for the God Clan's physical cultivation were hard to come by, the current world's rules heavily favored the comprehension of heaven and earth.

Fortunately, the inherited memories provided her with other complete high-level cultivation techniques used by Daoist cultivators, which surprisingly complemented her physical cultivation very well. The technique Zhang Yiyi chose to cultivate was called the Qingping Art, which coincidentally shared the same name as the basic cultivation technique distributed by the Yunxian Sect to new disciples.

After careful study and comparison, Zhang Yiyi found that the two techniques were indeed related. However, the Qingping Art she practiced was a complete heavenly-grade technique that could be cultivated from the Qi Refining stage all the way to the Mahayana stage, unlike the simplified and diluted version taught by the Yunxian Sect, which had long lost its essence.

After two days of closed-door cultivation, Zhang Yiyi emerged in peak condition. Thanks to the increasing integration of ancient God's blood in her body, she had successfully completed the first three stages of body tempering. Her physical strength and constitution had been greatly enhanced. However, to continue advancing beyond the initial stages of body tempering, she would need specific spiritual herbs and medicines, some of which were rare and unheard of.

Over the past few years, she had been collecting these resources, but due to being both poor and weak, she was still missing more than half of the spiritual herbs needed to break through the third stage.

"Looks like I'll have to work even harder to earn spirit stones!"

After a brief sigh, Zhang Yiyi quickly gathered her belongings and set off for the task hall, brimming with energy.

Doing missions to earn points had been a regular practice, but the spirit stones she painstakingly saved were barely enough to cover her cultivation needs. She had finally come to understand the frustration of having no backing or support. Although it afforded her freedom, living off of the barren northwest wind was a bitter kind of freedom. If given the opportunity, she would have to work hard to find a wealthy and reliable master after the sect competition. Otherwise, just the spiritual herbs she needed could easily break the bank.

Upon arriving at the task hall, Zhang Yiyi quickly picked a mission from the task steward: hunting low-level demonic beasts on the outskirts of Wanze Mountain. She favored these straightforward tasks; not only did they earn her spirit stones or points, but they also helped her hone her combat skills—a win-win situation.

The outskirts of Wanze Mountain were relatively safe, inhabited mainly by first and second-grade demonic beasts. As long as she was cautious and didn't venture too deep, Zhang Yiyi's strength was more than enough to protect her life. Aside from the first two times she hunted with Senior Sister Pan and others, Zhang Yiyi had since preferred to hunt solo. With a group, the rewards were too little, and she couldn't fully unleash her true abilities for self-improvement. Initially, Senior Sister Pan and the steward at the task hall were reluctant to let her go alone, but after several successful hunts, they saw that she had good judgment and stopped objecting.

Today, Zhang Yiyi's luck was pretty good. Shortly after entering the mountain, she encountered a herd of nineteen first-grade spotted deer. These creatures were weak in combat and easy to take down. While their bodies didn't have much of value, their meat was exceptionally tender and delicious. Just selling the meat from one of these large deer could fetch at least five low-grade spirit stones.

Zhang Yiyi quickly calculated the herd's worth as roughly one hundred low-grade spirit stones and began plotting how to strike without letting any escape. After a moment of reluctance, she decided to use her last one-time-use simplified trapping array to confine the deer.

With the herd scattered over a wide area, the array would only hold for about thirty breaths. Within that time, she would have to take down all of the deer, for once the array failed, these creatures were even better at escaping than some second-grade demonic beasts.

As soon as she deployed the trapping array, Zhang Yiyi launched into action, using the God Clan's unique footwork to charge directly into the array. She didn't even need to use a weapon, relying on her fists alone. With a single punch, each deer fell lifeless to the ground, two falling in quick succession. Her strength, speed, and precision far exceeded the standards of the Qi Refining stage.

In no time, Zhang Yiyi was busy at work, knocking down the spotted deer left and right. As she reduced the herd, The Ninth Peak Master's Qiao Chu happened to notice and paused to observe. The girl, full of vigor, seemed familiar to him—hadn't he seen her somewhere before?

Noticing the Yunxian Sect's outer disciple robes she wore, he was surprised to see such a special female body cultivator in the outer sect. Just as Qiao Chu was about to categorize Zhang Yiyi as a body cultivator, the situation inside the array changed.

Only three spotted deer remained when, unexpectedly, the trapping array gave out a few breaths early, ending its function. As the deer attempted to flee, Zhang Yiyi let out a sigh, "So expensive," but she remained calm and collected. She quickly dispatched the nearest deer with another punch, then pulled out a low-grade flying sword from her storage pouch. With a simple yet precise swing of the Qingping Sword Art, she struck down the two fleeing deer in quick succession.

In less than thirty breaths, Zhang Yiyi had efficiently and cleanly taken down all nineteen first-grade demonic beasts without a single drop of blood spilled. Qiao Chu was thoroughly impressed—she wasn't just a body cultivator after all. Reaching the seventh level of Qi Refining and already capable of wielding sword momentum, able to defeat enemies from a distance with just that—her sword talent was undeniable.

The basic Qingping Sword Art only had three simple moves, and the one Zhang Yiyi had just performed was the first move, a technique every outer disciple knew. Yet in her hands, the most ordinary sword art was pushed to its extreme, its power greatly amplified. Was she aiming to combine body cultivation with swordsmanship?

Qiao Chu suddenly became particularly intrigued by the girl before him. An outer disciple without proper guidance from a master, yet her vision was anything but low. Combining body cultivation and swordsmanship resulted in the strongest defense paired with the strongest offense. If she continued to grow, her future combat strength could very well be unrivaled among her peers.