This day, a bright sound of a crane that even suppressed the thunderous sound of the valley echoed out.

After half a year, the crane had descended in Thunderclap Valley once more.

By the time it landed on the ground, it was already transformed into the redheaded beauty. Looking at Su Zimo, she remarked softly in surprise, “You’ve succeeded?”

Su Zimo nodded and bowed. “It’s all thanks to you, senior.”

Even though she was not the one who gave him the Void Thunder Manual, Su Zimo would not have been in this place if not for her help half a year ago, let alone resolve the hidden ailment in his blood through the sound of thunder.

“That’s right.”

The redheaded beauty praised, “Let’s go. There’s no point in staying here anymore.”

With that, she swept her robes and left Thunderclap Valley, bringing Su Zimo with her.

The wind howled in their ears and in the blink of an eye, both of them arrived in the skies above Weapon Peak.

“Go on down. Try to raise your cultivation to Foundation Establishment as quickly as possible to become an inner sect disciple.”

The redheaded beauty said, “Even though Ethereal Sword is no match for your sword formation, the real strength of Ethereal Sword does not lie in its power, but its unpredictability. First, Feng Haoyu did not manage to unleash the full power of Ethereal Sword and chose to fight you head-on. Second, he had only managed to cultivate Level 1 of Ethereal Sword, Shadows.”

Su Zimo nodded.

For it to be one of the sect’s three major secret skills and even the foundation of one of the five major sects, there was no way it would be an ordinary skill.

Pondering silently for a while, the redheaded beauty continued, “After becoming an inner sect disciple, you must not slack off. You have to raise your cultivation as quickly as possible and fight for a position as a legacy disciple so that you have the rights to learn our sect’s secret skills. Other than Ethereal Sword, the other two secret skills are extremely important for you as well. In fact, one of them can even raise your melee combat strength by a fair bit!”

When he heard that, Su Zimo’s eyes lit up.

Melee combat was his trump card.

The stronger his trump card was, the more powerful he would be and his journey through the cultivation world would be safer as well.

After a few more reminders, the crane turned to leave as Su Zimo descended slowly upon Weapon Peak.

Weapon Peak did not change much after half a year.

Around the Weapon Refinement Hall, Su Zimo caught sight of a few familiar faces.

“Eh, Junior Brother Su is back!”

Xue Yi looked at Su Zimo with a bright smile and greeted him while rushing over.

Some of the nearby Weapon Peak disciples looked towards Su Zimo as well.

After half a year, many of the Weapon Peak disciples had an improvement in their cultivation. Xue Yi was now at the peak of Perfected Qi Condensation and could advance to Foundation Establishment at any time.

Everyone knew that Su Zimo must have suffered quite a bit in the Thunderclap Valley. As such, they did ask him about it and merely chatted with him casually about the changes in the sect.

Feng Haoyu did not wallow in despair after his defeat half a year ago. Instead, he was even more focused in his cultivation and completely gave up on supplementary skills such as weapon and elixir refinement.

After becoming an inner sect disciple, he reached mid-stage Foundation Establishment in less than half a year. Within the inner sect, he was also well known and strong.

A month ago, right as he entered mid-stage Foundation Establishment, Feng Haoyu defeated a late-stage Foundation Establishment senior brother and rose to fame after that fight!

Even though he was only at mid-stage Foundation Establishment, there were rumors in the inner sect that apart from being a legacy disciple, he was already the number one of the inner sect!

It would not be long before Feng Haoyu became a true legacy disciple.

Even Leng Rou who also had a variant spirit root could not match up against his terrifying cultivation speed.

But of course, Leng Rou was now an inner sect disciple as well and as at the peak of early-stage Foundation Establishment.

After chatting a little more with Xue Yi and the rest, Su Zimo left and returned to his cave abode.

The spirit tiger and little crane were guarding the place. The moment they caught sight of Su Zimo returning, they were naturally elated.

The tiger and crane pondered for a moment – they were going to have more elixirs in the future…

The moment Su Zimo sat down, the sound of clothes fluttering could be heard from the skies outside.

Right after descending at the cave abode’s entrance, heavy footsteps echoed out. Su Zimo smiled and knew who it was immediately. Waving his robes, the entrance door opened.

“Bro, I’ve missed you so much!”

Little fatty ran over and gave Su Zimo a passionate bear hug.

“Bro, you’re really amazing. Nothing much happened to you despite spending half a year in Thunderclap Valley!” Little fatty laughed.

“You aren’t bad either. You’re already at early-stage Foundation Establishment.”

It was easy to check on little fatty’s cultivation using the Spirit Peering Art.

“Hehe.”

Little fatty chuckled. He saw that Su Zimo was still at Level 9 Qi Condensation and had not made any progress for the past half year. Assuming that he would feel dejected over that fact, little fatty comforted Su Zimo, “Bro, don’t be discouraged. Given your endowment, it’s only a matter of time before you catch up to us.”

Su Zimo laughed.

He had spent quite a lot of inferior-grade spirit stones to break through to Level 9 Qi Condensation. If he wanted to reach Perfected Qi Condensation, he would require even more spirit stones.

However, his storage bag was empty now.

Without sufficient spirit stones and perfect Spirit Gathering Elixirs, it was indeed not an easy task to catch up to little fatty and company.

Sensing that Su Zimo seemed to be troubled, little fatty thought for a moment and said suddenly, “Right, bro. Tomorrow, a few of us inner sect disciples are heading out for a sect mission. How about joining us to let off some steam?”

“Inner sect mission?”

Su Zimo shook his head. “I’m only a trial disciple. How am I qualified to take part in inner sect missions?”

Little fatty waved it off. “Don’t worry. It’s nothing much for you to tag along, bro. Furthermore…”

Pausing for a moment, little fatty continued mysteriously, “This mission is actually rather simple, bro. You can even get some spirit stones just by tagging along.”

“Oh?” Su Zimo was a little moved.

Right now, he was exactly in need of spirit stones.

“What sort of a mission is it?” Su Zimo asked.

“A disciple out on training discovered a spirit mine outside of Linfeng City and he’s currently mining it. Because this senior brother is alone, he’s worried that itinerant cultivators might covet the spirit mine. So, he requested the sect to send some cultivators to assist him and collect the mined spirit stones back to the sect.”

Little fatty winked. “I’ve asked around in the sect. For a mission as such, even if we were to secretly keep some of the mined spirit stones ourselves, the sect would not mind about it.”

Su Zimo was deep in thought.

Thinking that Su Zimo was worried about his safety, little fatty laughed. “Bro, don’t worry. It’s just an inferior-grade spirit mine and the majority of it is inferior-grade spirit stones. Even if there are middle-grade spirit stones, they will be extremely limited. With a Foundation Establishment Cultivator leading the way, there won’t be any danger at all!”

“Furthermore, Ethereal Sect is one of the five major sects of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No itinerant cultivator would have the guts to try and steal a spirit mine from us!”

“Once we arrive at Linfeng City of Qi Country, even the city lord will have to welcome us with good food and drinks! We’ll stay there for a couple of days and once the mining is complete, we just have to take the spirit stones back to the sect.”

“Alright,” Su Zimo agreed to it.

Raising his brow, little fatty gave a strange smile and said, “Bro, we’ll meet at the front peak tomorrow morning. There’s even a surprise, hehe!”