Back in the Registration Hall, the old woman could no longer hold herself back and summoned the spirit beast centipede she kept.

“Has it been planted?”

She asked, a look of anticipation surfacing in her eyes.

Hearing this, the centipede twisted its body and obediently nodded its head.

“Excellent! It seems now I need only wait patiently for her to cultivate to the Middle Attainment Realm!” The old woman spoke excitedly, the thrill on her face impossible to conceal, her eyes brimming with madness!

* * *

Time flew by in the blink of an eye. It had already been over a month since Zhou Che came to the Hehuan Sect.

Now, her spirit absorption had reached perfection, and she was about to begin shedding her mortality and practicing inedia.

The cultivation method of the Heart Desire Lure was to fuse desire qi with spiritual energy, forming desire spiritual power, then circulate it through the body’s celestial cycle, thereby stepping into the Minor Attainment Realm.

And to produce the so-called desire qi, one must reach a state where thoughts and desires become completely unrestrained, then through the special incantation of the Heart Desire Lure, transform that desire into qi.

This stage was extremely simple, so Zhou Che very easily produced desire qi within her body. As long as she perfectly fused it with spiritual power to form desire spiritual power, she would truly shed mortality and practice inedia, stepping onto the path of cultivation.

Zhou Che sat cross-legged in the courtyard. The cold, clear moonlight spilled down as endless moonlight essence intertwined with spiritual energy, slowly merging into her body.

The night Wang Er died, the old woman had told her the mysteries of the abode’s layout.

The two ponds formed a yin-yang shape. As long as one cultivated in this courtyard, the absorption of surrounding spiritual energy would become extraordinarily stable.

Ever since, Zhou Che would move to the courtyard every time she cultivated.

And just as the old woman had said, cultivating in the courtyard indeed accelerated her progress in absorbing spirit energy significantly.

Normally, Zhou Che cultivated during the day. The reason she chose nighttime today was because the Heart Desire Lure had another important characteristic. It could transform both moonlight essence and yin qi into spiritual energy. Thus, cultivating under the moonlight at night yielded twice the result with half the effort.

As spiritual energy and desire qi continuously intertwined, Zhou Che began to sweat profusely.

Within this sweat, impurities from her body were expelled. Before long, her clothes were soaked through, stained a filthy mess.

Sticky sweat mixed with black, viscous filth, gradually encasing Zhou Che’s entire body.

An extremely foul stench then spread throughout the entire abode…

At some point, Zhou Che was completely wrapped in a black, sticky layer of grime, just like a clay figure, the stench on her body utterly unbearable.

At this moment, the desire qi and spiritual energy within her had perfectly fused and began to circulate through the acupoints all over her body.

As the desire spiritual power took shape, the surrounding spiritual energy actually started surging into her of its own accord.

Immediately after, plumes of white smoke rose. The sludge covering Zhou Che’s entire body began to slowly melt away as if being evaporated and burned, until it completely vanished.

As dawn brightened, the foul smell and grime on Zhou Che’s body had been replaced by a fragrant aroma.

Spiritual energy automatically transformed into desire spiritual power, continuously burrowing into her body, completing the celestial cycle.

With this, Zhou Che had finally successfully stepped onto the path of cultivation, shed her mortality and practiced inedia, reaching the First Stage of the Minor Attainment Realm!

Now, she felt as if she possessed inexhaustible strength. Not only could she control spiritual power at will with a mere thought, but even her divine soul and perception had been greatly enhanced. With her eyes lightly closed, her divine soul could see everything within a one-li radius outside the abode.

A smile appeared at the corner of Zhou Che’s mouth, and she stood up from the ground.

‘So this is immortal cultivation!’

Zhou Che was extremely satisfied with the changes in herself.

Only, she felt a bit chilly all over, and when she stood up, the soles of her feet experienced the sharp sensation of stepping barefoot on pebbles.

Sensing something amiss, Zhou Che looked down. The next moment, her face flushed bright red, and she darted back inside like a rabbit.

“Damn it all!” Zhou Che yelled inwardly, feeling as if ten thousand grass-mud horses were galloping through her heart.

The so-called shedding of mortality and practicing of inedia did not only mean casting off the mortal shell—even the mortal objects on one’s body would be completely dissipated by the impact of spiritual power.

In other words, after just breaking through, Zhou Che had been sitting on the ground utterly “unencumbered.”

After changing into a cyan outfit, her face still felt slightly hot.

Now that she was ultimately in a female body, it was very inconvenient in many situations.

Because after shedding the mortal shell, the physical body would automatically absorb spirit and cultivate, ordinary mortal clothing could no longer withstand the flow of spiritual energy, and it wouldn’t be long before it was eroded and dissolved by spiritual power.

So she recalled what Zhao Shuang had said before: After breaking through to the Minor Attainment Realm, you can go to the Spirit Treasure Hall to receive the Outer Sect Secret Order and advance to Outer Sect Disciple, as well as cultivation resources, spirit garments, and a Spatial Pouch.

Sighing, Zhou Che looked up at the sky, which was slowly revealing the white belly of a fish.

‘It seems it’s time to go collect my cultivation resources. I hope the secret order mission they assign is a simple one.’

Zhou Che thought to herself, then carefully dressed up and headed in the direction of the Spirit Treasure Hall.

After a Registered Disciple advanced to the Outer Sect, they could use the Outer Sect Secret Order to gain trial qualifications for numerous cultivation grounds.

Of course, when the secret order was first issued, it was still in a sealed state and required completing a secret order mission to unlock it.

And the so-called secret order mission was random. After a cultivator established a divine soul link with the secret order, the mission would surface within their mind.

The unlocking condition of each secret order was different, but ultimately, all were tasks that an Outer Sect Disciple could accomplish.

After Zhou Che arrived at the Spirit Treasure Hall, with the help of the Spirit Treasure Hall’s elder, she received her cultivation resources, along with seven sets of spirit garments and a Spatial Pouch.

As her divine soul established a connection with the Outer Sect Secret Order, she officially became an Outer Sect Disciple of the Hehuan Sect.

The secret order mission slowly surfaced within her sea of consciousness. Upon seeing the condition for lifting its sealed state, Zhou Che was astonished beyond words.

Seeing Zhou Che’s expression, the elder distributing the secret orders thought her mission must be difficult and hurriedly spoke up, “Once a secret order establishes a divine soul link, it recognizes its master and cannot be exchanged. If your mission is challenging, you can go to the Technique Repository Hall to learn more techniques. After increasing your strength, you can then lift the sealed state.”

“Thank you for the reminder, Elder.”

Zhou Che nodded, bowed respectfully, and then took her leave.

The Spirit Treasure Hall was very large. Though the cultivators inside appeared sparse, there were at least several hundred of them.

Quite a few had witnessed the elder’s reminder. They all assumed Zhou Che’s mission was extremely difficult, so they all cast their gazes at her, wanting to see which poor soul was so unlucky.

After leaving the Spirit Treasure Hall, Zhou Che couldn’t help but sink into deep thought.

The reason for this was precisely her secret order mission.

Everyone thought her mission was hard, but the truth was the complete opposite. Her secret order mission could be said to be simple beyond measure.

And that mission was to obtain the Pure Maiden Ten Tears.

As for what the Pure Maiden Ten Tears were, the secret order had already considerately explained it to her.

Simply put, it was an item refined from the tears of ten virgins, processed using desire spiritual power.

The Pure Maiden Ten Tears was a pure yin spirit item. Though obtaining it was extremely simple, due to its effects, no one in the entire Hehuan Sect would ever refine it.

Thus, Zhou Che would have to make a trip outside the sect. After all, to refine this item, she still needed to find ten virgins. But within the Hehuan Sect, finding them would likely be harder than ascending to the heavens!

Returning to her abode, Zhou Che shed her cyan garment and changed into a white spirit robe.

That cyan garment, though she had only worn it for half a day, had already begun to decay.

‘Although the Pure Maiden Ten Tears is a spirit item, it can only be used to extract yin evil qi, and its efficacy is very poor, far inferior to similar types of spirit items. Moreover, though Hehuan Sect cultivators cultivate desire, yin evil qi is overly fierce and malignant, so generally no one would cultivate it. But there’s one point that puzzles me greatly. Because this Pure Maiden Ten Tears is precisely a required material for cultivating the Evil Dragon’s Four Crossings. Could it be that the conditions for unlocking the secret order are all related to the cultivator themselves? Ah, it’s just hard on me. I’ll have to make a long trip out!’

Zhou Che sighed, then tidied her appearance and headed toward the mountain gate.

After shedding her mortality, practicing inedia, and stepping into the Minor Attainment Realm, her features had become even more exquisite, and her bearing even more transcendent.