Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Qi Refining, Fourth Layer

With a suitable Contract Beast obtained, their outing came to an end. The three once again rode the Azure Sky Falcon back to Limitless Peak of Heaven’s Evolution Sect.

Rong Shu was the first to hop down to the ground and she turned to bid Qin Yuan and Yu Ruan Ruan farewell: “Senior Brother, Senior Sister, it’s late. I’ll head back first.”

Even with the Azure Sky Falcon for transport, the round trip still took several hours, and the sky was already dark.

Qin Yuan nodded: “Go on.”

Yu Ruan Ruan had already adjusted her mood and smiled sweetly: “Junior Sister, see you tomorrow.”

“Mm.” Rong Shu dipped her head.

After leaving the two of them, Rong Shu made a silent decision in her heart: [Tomorrow I’ll set out four hours earlier.] Senior Sister Yu was a bit too enthusiastic; Rong Shu felt she could not quite handle it.

Back at her small courtyard, Rong Shu first fed herself a Fasting Pill, then formed a Cleansing Technique to wash away the slight discomfort of travel grime. After that, she plunged headfirst into the training room.

The next day, before dawn, Rong Shu left Limitless Peak and rode a Red Crowned Cinnabar Crane to the Hundred Herb Garden in the sect’s back mountain. With her task token, she entered the Hundred Herb Garden unimpeded. Her task there was to tend the spirit herbs planted within. The Hundred Herb Garden was vast, and Rong Shu was responsible for only one plot.

She wanted to become an alchemist, and being familiar with the growth habits of spirit herbs was also a compulsory course. The Hundred Herb Garden steward who received her was a hunchbacked uncle in his forties or fifties. After explaining the various precautions, he handed her a jade slip: “Inside are the types, habits, and notes for all the spirit herbs in the plot under your care.”

He warned with a cold face: “Don’t mess it up. Even if we sold you, little girl, it wouldn’t be enough to compensate for the loss of this plot.”

Rong Shu nodded at once: “Yes. This disciple will keep it firmly in mind.”

After the hunchbacked uncle left, Rong Shu began a circuit of inspection around her assigned plot. She pressed the jade slip lightly to her brow, and all the relevant knowledge of the spirit herbs surfaced in her mind.

“Mind Clearing Herb, the primary ingredient of the Qi Induction Pill.”

“So this is Spirit Origin Grass, the main ingredient of the Spirit Gathering Pill.”

“Bone Washing Flower, one of the ingredients for the Refining the Bone and Tendon Pill.”

She spent half an hour identifying all the spirit herbs planted in the plot. There were eight kinds in total. Two served as primary ingredients for the Qi Induction Pill, three for the Spirit Gathering Pill, and the remaining three for the Refining the Bone and Tendon Pill. These three pills were the main ones needed by the outer sect.

According to the recorded habits of the eight herbs, Rong Shu began to tend the plot. Some herbs needed the soil loosened at regular intervals; some required watering with pure spring water from the deep back-mountain spring; some needed manure produced by the spirit beasts in the neighboring Spirit Beast Garden mixed with a preprepared fertilizer to replenish the nutrients the herbs required.

Unconsciously, her work filled two hours. When the task period ended, Rong Shu put down her water buckets and stretched her slightly sore arms. After finishing, she had to go register with the hunchbacked steward and then hand off to the next disciple assigned to the Hundred Herb Garden. Once registered, she hurried straight to the Spirit Beast Garden.

The Spirit Beast Garden steward was a burly, formidable-looking matron. One sweep of her sharp eyes made Rong Shu’s heart tremble and her back straighten instinctively. After checking Rong Shu’s identity information and taking in her thin arms and legs, the matron asked bluntly: “Are you sure you can handle work in the Spirit Beast Garden?”

She detested nothing more than little young ladies who came to the Spirit Beast Garden only to complain about the dirt and stink everywhere or to have their legs go weak with tears at the sight of powerful spirit beasts.

Rong Shu nodded. Seeing this, the matron said nothing more. She assigned Rong Shu’s duties and left.

Ten days later, in the Hundred Herb Garden, beneath a tree, a petite girl sat cross-legged on a Meditation Mat with eyes closed, drawing in the surrounding spiritual energy. The gathered energy poured into her body, turning into a ceaselessly flowing little river that scoured the various meridians of her torso. The qi around her began to surge violently.

Pop… Qi Refining, fourth layer.

Pop… Qi Refining, fifth layer.

Pop… Qi Refining, sixth layer.

Pop… Qi Refining, seventh layer.

After breaking through four layers in a row, there was no lightness or joy on the girl’s small face. Very soon, that unstable seventh-layer cultivation began to fall back.

Pop… Qi Refining, sixth layer.

Pop… Qi Refining, fifth layer.

Pop… Qi Refining, fourth layer.

In the end, her cultivation stabilized at the fourth layer of Qi Refining and did not continue to drop. Rong Shu slowly opened her eyes. Feeling the wind-aspected spiritual energy in her body more vigorous than ever, she let a faint, genuine smile surface. It was like a child who had worked hard for so long finally receiving a candy bestowed by fate.

“Qi Refining, fourth layer.” With the assistance of a cultivation method, Rong Shu’s training was indeed much faster than before. She also noticed something else: the Breath of Life Art was a wind-element method that only took effect on her primary wind cultivation, while the progress of her other attributes had not changed.

[Should I find a chance to visit the Library Pavilion and try some fire and wood methods?] The thought had just risen when she dismissed it. The reason was simple: it would take too much time. It had taken her half a month merely to thoroughly internalize the Breath of Life Art. If she were to add metal, wood, water, fire, and earth methods on top of that, it would take months just to raise each attribute by a single layer. If that were the case, she might as well specialize in the wind attribute as her primary cultivation. The higher her cultivation, the greater her confidence, and the better her chances of surviving in the cultivation world.

[Wind must be the first priority, followed by fire and wood…] After a brief hesitation, she added one more for herself: [and dark.]

Why were multi–spirit-root cultivators slower to progress than single–spirit-root cultivators? The reason was simple. The latter had a single root and specialized along one line of cultivation, while the former had to consider multiple lines at once. The most obvious difference was that a single–spirit-root cultivator absorbed only one attribute of spiritual energy when meditating, whereas a multi–spirit-root cultivator absorbed multiple attributes and had to divide mind and effort to sort them all. Rong Shu was a multi–spirit-root cultivator, yet all the spiritual energy she drew into her body could be converted into a single attribute, allowing her to possess the speed of a single–spirit-root cultivator while retaining the versatility of multiple roots.

After settling on a primary direction for at least the next two years of cultivation, Rong Shu stood and put away the Meditation Mat. Once she had completed her time in the Hundred Herb Garden, she headed to the Spirit Beast Garden as usual. There she was responsible for a flock of Red Crowned Cinnabar Cranes recuperating from injuries, fifty in number. As always, she fed each crane a Spirit Beast Pill, then took a large comb and groomed every bird’s feathers. The Red Crowned Cinnabar Crane had a gentle temperament and was easy to approach; its sleek, beautiful plumage was something it prized greatly.

After working the whole morning, Rong Shu finally returned to Limitless Peak. As she was walking toward her small courtyard, a menial disciple of Limitless Peak stopped her: “Junior Sister Rong, Senior Sister Yu is looking for you. Please go to Joyous Hall.”