The moment Su Bai and Lu Canghai landed back on the familiar grounds of Clear Cloud Peak, the old man’s smug aura instantly evaporated.

He let out a long, satisfied sigh and turned to his disciple with a wide, mischievous grin.

With a flick of his wrist, Lu Canghai produced a small, beautifully carved jade vial and tossed it to Su Bai.

"Take it, my disciple," Lu Canghai chuckled. "The true reason for our grand tour wasn’t just to brag. It was to collect ’gifts’ from those old fossils. They gave you quite a bit, didn’t they? Though... that Yao Ding at Verdant Peak is as dense as his own beard. He didn’t offer a single congratulatory gift, so I took the liberty of borrowing something quietly on our way out."

Su Bai caught the vial. His eyes widened in shock.

So his master hadn’t just been annoying his peers for the sake of petty office politics. He was actively running a guilt-trip shakedown to acquire assets for his disciple. And when the alchemist didn’t pay up, Lu Canghai literally pickpocketed him during a catastrophic cauldron failure!

Su Bai popped the cork and peered inside. Resting at the bottom was a perfectly round, translucent pill that looked like a drop of golden tree sap. He immediately recognized it.

Living-Amber Stasis Pill.

"It is a highly potent concoction," Lu Canghai explained as he stroke his beard. "It is typically used by beast tamers. When swallowed, it floods the meridians with heavy Yin energy, instantly paralyzing Foundation Establishment spiritual beasts so they can be safely transported. Although, knowing your bizarre constitution, I am certain you will find a way to benefit from it."

Su Bai smiled warmly. Indeed he would.

He looked up at his master, clutching the stolen pill. "Master... are you absolutely sure the cultivation world called you the ’Utmost Gentleman’?"

Lu Canghai nearly choked on his own saliva. He coughed violently as his face flushed red. "What are you talking about, brat? I am still a peerless gentleman! I merely... relieved him of a physical burden."

Su Bai stared at him with a deeply suspicious, flat expression.

Lu Canghai broke eye contact, looking up at the sky with a heavy, melancholic sigh. "Circumstances change people, my disciple. Go cultivate."

Deciding not to press the issue of his master’s questionable corporate ethics, Su Bai bowed and excused himself.

Returning to his courtyard, Su Bai sat on his favorite flat stone and took inventory of his newly acquired assets.

Thanks to his master’s aggressive networking, the yield was fantastic. He had received a sleek, high-grade flying sword from Heavenly Forge Peak, a sword technique from Azure Sword Peak, and a thick stack of Qi-gathering talismans from the other Elders.

But the most important item wasn’t from the Elders. It was from the system.

Su Bai opened his inventory and retrieved the automatic sign-in reward he had gained while visiting Azure Sword Peak.

A single, iron-colored pill materialized in his palm. It radiated an aura so sharp it actually made the skin on his hand sting.

[Marrow-Severing Sword Pill]

[Description: An ancient, brutal execution method. When swallowed, it unleashes millions of microscopic, razor-sharp needles of Sword Qi designed to violently shred the target’s meridians and Dantian from the inside out.]

Su Bai’s smile widened into a full corporate grin.

Deciding to optimize his workflow, Su Bai formulated his cultivation plan. He would take the Stasis Pill first to flood his system with energy, and then use the Sword Pill to upgrade his internal plumbing.

He tossed the stolen Living-Amber Stasis Pill into his mouth and swallowed. It tasted faintly of pine and cold honey.

Instantly, a massive wave of heavy, paralyzing Yin energy exploded in his stomach, rushing outward to freeze his meridians solid.

Su Bai calmly closed his eyes and began to circulate his Qi using the Void-Sunflower Supreme Method.

The Reversal Body caught the paralyzing agent in a microsecond. The freezing, locking sensation was violently inverted. Instead of paralysis, an explosive, hyper-active wave of pleasant, boundless energy flooded Su Bai’s entire body. He felt incredibly light, powerful, and bursting with extreme vitality.

And then, a very unexpected side effect hit him.

Because the Void-Sunflower method was constantly throwing "fatal Yang-combustion errors," his body was already generating massive amounts of life force to temper his flesh. Combined with the inverted, hyper-active vitality of the Stasis Pill, the massive surge of energy finally reached a part of his biology that had been dormant for six years.

Down there, Su Bai felt something profoundly lively occur.

His reproductive system suddenly woke up.

Su Bai’s eyes snapped open. His face flushed a brilliant shade of crimson.

For the past six years, he hadn’t thought much about it. He assumed his lack of... morning vitality... was just a side effect of being a depressed, overworked corporate slave trapped in a teenager’s body.

But in reality, his crippled "Dead Wood" spirit root had been leeching every ounce of his biological life force just to survive, essentially rendering him physiologically impotent.

But now, his Dead Wood was a thriving Sapling, his foundation was flawless, and he was running a program specifically designed to overcharge a castrated man’s Yang energy.

His body was fully, aggressively functional again.

’Oh, thank the Heavens,’ Su Bai breathed a sigh of profound, masculine relief. A strange, deeply satisfied smile crept onto his face.

It was the exact feeling a man got when a long-paralyzed limb suddenly regained full motor function.

Fortunately, he was sitting cross-legged under his voluminous white robes, so no one could witness his sudden biological triumph.

However, Su Bai was a man of supreme corporate discipline. This was the middle of a workday, and he was in the middle of a high-stakes performance review of his own body. He could not afford to be distracted by hormonal pop-up windows.

Taking a deep, steadying breath, he expertly suppressed the teenage hormonal rush. He forcefully meditated to distribute that lively, concentrated Yang energy equally across all his major energy centers. The distraction faded, leaving him in a state of absolute, serene focus.

Without pausing to celebrate his restored manhood any further, Su Bai grabbed the Marrow-Severing Sword Pill and popped it into his mouth.

The shell of the pill dissolved instantly.

A terrifying storm of microscopic, razor-sharp Sword Qi blades erupted inside his body, violently tearing into the walls of his meridians. The pill’s sole objective was to permanently mutilate his internal pathways.

But his ultimate firewall was ready.

The microscopic blades did not dissolve. They stopped attacking healthy tissue and turned into hyper-aggressive internal surgeons.

The millions of tiny blades swept through his widened fiber-optic meridians, violently scraping away microscopic biological impurities, microscopic scar tissue from his six-year slump, and any lingering blockages. It was a flawless, hyper-aggressive arterial scrub.

Su Bai gritted his teeth as the profound, tingling sensation washed through him.

When the microscopic blades finally faded away, Su Bai opened his eyes and exhaled a long breath of murky, grey impurities.

He inspected his internal network. His meridians weren’t just wide now. They were completely frictionless. His thick, liquid Qi flowed through his body with zero resistance.

’Efficiency increased by three hundred percent,’ Su Bai calculated.

Because his pathways were completely unblocked, he realized he could now push his Devouring Maw to terrifying new limits. He could vacuum up energy faster and smoother than ever before.

Sitting alone in the quiet courtyard, surrounded by his newly acquired assets and boasting a flawlessly optimized physical and spiritual body, Su Bai smiled.

His cultivation was going incredibly well.