Chapter 17

Chapter 17: Milking the Perks, Pure Bliss

However, this did remind Jun Xiu Ran of something.

The road to Scarlet Sun City was long. Ruan Ruan and Qin Yuan both had Flying Treasure Artifacts, but Rong Shu had nothing.

If something unexpected happened and they were separated, with Rong Shu’s cultivation at only the first layer of Qi Refining, she would have to rely on her own two legs to walk back to Heaven’s Evolution Sect; wouldn’t that take two or three months?

“…In addition, I grant you this Flying Treasure Artifact,” Jun Xiu Ran said.

He took out a palm-sized little boat and tossed it. The boat instantly enlarged several-fold until it could seat two or three people.

“Wow!” Rong Shu exclaimed at just the right moment: “Master, is this for me? Thank you, Master!”

She accepted it happily.

Jun Xiu Ran reminded her: “Your cultivation is limited. At most you can drive this Flying Treasure Artifact for the time it takes to drink a cup of tea. Before leaving the sect, prepare extra Spirit Gathering Pills.”

Rong Shu clenched her small fists and nodded seriously: “Mm-hmm, Master, your disciple understands.”

“Once I finish my tasks in Hundred Herb Garden and Spirit Beast Garden, I should have three hundred contribution points. I can exchange them for two or three bottles of Spirit Gathering Pills at Pill Treasury Pavilion.”

Jun Xiu Ran’s first thought was: Two or three bottles of Spirit Gathering Pills? How could that possibly be enough!

Before he even realized it, he had already tossed out a Storage Pouch stuffed with a thousand Spirit Stones.

“Take it.”

As his disciple, she should not have to grind those sect tasks like an outer sect disciple, earning only a handful of points a day. That was far too demeaning.

Rong Shu naturally stowed it away in a flash, then piled on the flattery to express her thanks: “Thank you, Master! Master, you’re the best! Even my parents never gave me so many Spirit Stones!”

“Ahem, remember to cultivate diligently.” Though the words were praise for him, a faint, almost imperceptible guilt crossed Jun Xiu Ran’s ever-unchanging icy face.

He could not help reflecting.

Had he been too harsh with Rong Shu?

This kid had always been well-behaved, never fighting or scrambling for anything.

Why had he entertained the notion that if he got too close to Rong Shu, it would make Ruan Ruan sad?

“Mm-hmm. Your disciple will remember Master’s teachings!” Seeing that she had gotten what she had come for, Rong Shu took her leave at the right moment: “Master, I’ll head back first and not disturb your cultivation.”

Jun Xiu Ran nodded: “Very well, go.”

“…”

Having successfully milked some benefits from her Master, Rong Shu hummed a little tune on the way back: “A blurred profile under the dusk, the young man who has forgotten pain… once there were obsessions, casually deep and shallow… the final words of thanks, with an extra apology…”

Back in her small courtyard, Rong Shu first tried operating the Flying Boat.

With fire-aspect qi at the first layer of Qi Refining, a brief flight drained the fire spiritual energy in her body.

She immediately switched to wood-aspect spiritual energy and continued to drive the Flying Boat with fresh vigor.

After that she switched again, to dark-aspect and wind-aspect spiritual energy.

[I can exploit a bug?] Rong Shu’s eyes lit up.

She had so many hidden cultivations. Switch one after another; as long as she did not use the Flying Boat for long stretches at a time, she would not need to supplement with Spirit Gathering Pills at all.

This would be especially useful when fleeing. The enemy would think she was only a first-layer Qi Refining cultivator who could last a quarter of an hour, never suspecting she would still be flying afterward, unable to be stopped.

“There’s also the Defensive Talisman; it needs to be worn close to the body,” Rong Shu said to herself.

She took out an empty Brocade Pouch, carefully folded the Talisman, tucked it inside, and placed it against her chest.

“With a thousand Spirit Stones, I can buy Spirit Gathering Pills and a weapon for self-defense. As for the rest… once I reach Scarlet Sun City, I’ll go to the Alchemists’ Guild branch to buy some spiritual herbs and a Pill Furnace. That should be enough, right?” she calculated in her head.

Doing the math, Rong Shu suddenly realized that a thousand Spirit Stones felt a bit tight.

After reaching the fourth layer of Qi Refining, she would next have to open the meridians of the four limbs and the head, which carried certain dangers and risks.

Before that, cultivators in the Qi Refining Stage usually prepared Tendon and Bone Pills in advance to fortify their muscles and bones before opening their meridians.

Although she had not felt much obstruction or danger when opening the arm and leg meridians during her “roller-coaster” training, she still needed to take precautions.

Moreover, even aside from breaking through, the Tendon and Bone Pill could strengthen the entire musculoskeletal system; it was definitely a good thing.

So she had to buy Tendon and Bone Pills too.

“Only when you need money do you realize how little you have!” Rong Shu sighed.

She put together the Spirit Stones she had saved over the past three months with the thousand from her Master.

On her very first day she had given Senior Brother Fang Ren one Spirit Stone; the remaining one hundred and forty-nine Spirit Stones she had saved up.

After a quick tally of her property, Rong Shu slipped eagerly into the training room.

She was going to break through to the fifth layer of Qi Refining before heading to Scarlet Sun City.

…

The next day.

Back mountain, in Hundred Herb Garden.

Rong Shu rubbed her identity token and muttered: “I have a few more Spirit Stones now, but my contribution points are almost gone, all because the Spirit Gathering Pills cost so much…”

After emerging from her last seclusion, she had gone to the Pill Treasury Pavilion and purchased not only Fasting Pills but also Spirit Gathering Pills that aided cultivation.

In daily training, taking a Spirit Gathering Pill could speed up absorption of spiritual energy.

One bottle of Spirit Gathering Pills cost fifty contribution points. Rong Shu bought a month’s supply and spent one hundred and fifty points.

“As for the Tendon and Bone Pill, I could afford one bottle with the Spirit Stones I’ve saved, but a cultivator at the first layer of Qi Refining buying a pill that is used at the fourth layer of Qi Refining looks suspicious no matter how you see it.”

If someone with an agenda looked into it, they would notice something off.

It was impossible to argue that Rong Shu was purchasing the Tendon and Bone Pill in advance. In others’ eyes, that would be unnecessary; it would be better to buy a few more bottles of Spirit Gathering Pills.

[How about skipping the Tendon and Bone Pill and directly attempting to break through to the fifth layer of Qi Refining?] she wavered.

Her gaze drifted, landing by chance on the Bone Washing Flower planted in the herb field.

Its tender green leaves set off a shy bud; when a breeze passed, the Bone Washing Flower swayed lightly.

A bold idea sprang into Rong Shu’s mind.

Once, when she was “clocking out” after a shift, she had gone past the hunchbacked uncle’s shack and seen him secretly collecting the roots and leftover leaves of some spiritual herbs, then grinding them himself into medicinal powder and paste.

That discovery had felt like stepping into a new century.

The patch of medicinal fields Rong Shu was responsible for contained the main ingredients for Refining the Bone and Tendon Pill. If she plucked a few root hairs here and a few scrap leaves there from each, no one would notice, since such trimmings had to be cleared anyway to keep each plant healthy.

Since she could not obtain Tendon and Bone Pills for now, using trimmings of the main ingredients for Tendon and Bone Pills to prepare a low-grade muscle-and-bone powder and paste was a fine alternative.

After some time in Hundred Herb Garden, Rong Shu understood medicinal properties well enough.

Directly ingesting certain harmless main ingredients of the Tendon and Bone Pill would not match the pill’s full efficacy, but it would still have an effect.

Having decided, Rong Shu rubbed her hands together, eyes shining, and walked toward the patch she tended.

“There’s a naughty little bad root here. Pull it out!” she declared.

“Huh? Why is this leaf yellowing? Pick it, pick it!” she said.

Gently stroking the pure ‘grass-body’ of the Hundred Refinements Grass, she muttered righteously: “This is for your own good. It’s all so you can grow up strong.”

“Woohoo, this is a leaf you dropped, not something I knocked off!” she said to a perfectly innocent Bone Washing Flower, pointing and prattling as she snatched up a fallen petal with ruthless efficiency.

Hundred Refinements Grass and Bone Washing Flower: …