Chapter 35

Chapter 35: Rong Shu’s Origins

Within six hours, she had crammed her little head as full of formulas as it could go. The moment she stepped out of the Myriad Books Tower, she broke into a run and left the Alchemist Branch Guild.

Once outside, she snatched paper and brush from her Storage Pouch and poured everything she had memorized onto the page in one go. After writing, she checked it once through; wherever something felt fuzzy, she marked it, planning to confirm it on her next visit to the Myriad Books Tower.

She murmured as she counted: Qi Induction Pill, Spirit Gathering Pill, Tendon and Bone Pill. In all, she had memorized twenty formulas.

To reduce mistakes, she had not tried to memorize too many. Besides, in addition to the steps and herb lists, she also needed to memorize the entries on the herbs themselves; knowing only the surface procedures and ingredients was far from enough. She had to understand how the myriad interactions of medicinal properties could combine and transform.

She tucked the written formulas carefully into her Storage Pouch, a warmth rising in her chest: [Tomorrow I will confirm whether my Tendon and Bone Pill formula is correct, then I can try refining the Tendon and Bone Pill.]

Her wind-element cultivation had been stuck at the fifth layer of Qi Refining for nearly two months. After months of roller-coaster rises and dips, this was her first time truly feeling a bottleneck. If she could refine a Tendon and Bone Pill and pair it with its medicinal effects, she should be able to break through and continue improving.

Over the next few days, she could attend the intern lecture held every afternoon, and she made a few adjustments to her cultivation schedule.

In the morning, she went to the Myriad Books Tower to memorize formulas, then copied them onto paper afterward.

In the afternoon, she attended the intern lecture; when class ended, she tried opening the furnace to refine pills. Although the Alchemist Branch Guild had alchemy rooms, she was strapped for cash now, so she gave up renting one. In the end, she found a quiet, out-of-the-way little grove.

At night, she returned to the inn to meditate.

Her days became a three-point line: the Alchemist Branch Guild, the grove, the inn.

Nothing unexpected happened during this time, except that when she walked the streets she occasionally overheard passersby discussing a thief at the City Lord’s Manor, which made her a bit more alert.

But after she learned that the thief had not stolen any precious treasure and each time seemed to merely stroll through the manor before leaving, she loosened the protective grip she kept on her Storage Pouch a fraction.

If even the City Lord’s precious treasure did not catch that thief’s eye, surely he would not target a small fry like her.

On the morning of the fourth day, she ended her meditation and was about to rise when she noticed the slightest change in her body.

She quickly sat back down and looked inward at her dantian.

[Hm? The dark attribute has already reached the third layer of Qi Refining?] Sensing the feedback from the dark-attribute spiritual qi, she was a little surprised.

All along, she had paid little attention to cultivating the dark attribute. Every time it seemed to advance, it felt so… [natural?] [Effortless?]

She had not yet found a cultivation method or techniques for the dark attribute, so she had simply left it as it was. She had not expected its progress to be so strong.

[Am I just an ordinary human? Not some descendant of a demon lord, monster clan, or ghost clan, right?] Thinking of her family in this life, her expression grew momentarily unfocused.

In this life she had blood relatives, although the feelings between them were mild, neither good nor bad.

Among her generation there were seven or eight clan juniors; she was in the middle and the least remarkable. As children, her siblings were mischievous and liked to tease her. Later, when they saw she always acted silly and blank, neither crying nor laughing, they lost interest and left her alone.

A few years after that, everyone grew more sensible and had no quarrel with her. Since she did not fight for anything, no one was bored enough to make trouble for her.

When outsiders mentioned Rong Shu, they would say: poor thing. But she did not feel pitiable. In fact, aside from the instability of the cultivation world, she thought this life was not bad.

Though she was not favored, the clan did not stint her food or clothing. When she was injured at seven, the clan spent a fair sum to hire a physician. Half a year ago, when she and three siblings tested for spiritual roots, the clan made arrangements before and after to send them to the entrance trials of various sects.

In the end, Rong Shu entered Heaven’s Evolution Sect. The other three did not join the same sect, but each found a path and opportunity. Especially her eldest sister, whose spiritual root aptitude was very high; on the day of testing, she was chosen by the Grand Elder of one of the four great sects, the Glorious Radiance Sect, accepted as a personal disciple, with a clear promise that she would inherit the mantle in the future.

She patted her cheeks twice: pa, pa.

[Cultivate, cultivate,] she told herself, hopping down from the bed and making two little fists to cheer herself on.

As usual, she first went to the Myriad Books Tower to memorize formulas, then headed to the intern lecture at the proper time.

When the lecture ended, she left the Alchemist Branch Guild for the little grove: [Today I can try refining the Tendon and Bone Pill.]

In the previous days she had been refining Spirit Gathering Pills, producing between five and nine pills per batch. From each furnace she kept only five for herself and sold the rest back to the Alchemist Branch Guild; her shrunken war chest started to plump up a tiny bit.

Since the Tendon and Bone Pill was more valuable than the Spirit Gathering Pill, and she had long set her sights on it, she decided to refine it today.

Just then, several cultivators flew over the street in uniform, clearly members of the Scarlet Sun City Guard. The bystanders made way at once, and Rong Shu, in the crowd, also stepped back.

They barked as they swept past: Where is the target? Lost them again. Check over there.

The guards arrived in a rush and left in a rush, seemingly pursuing someone.

It had nothing to do with Rong Shu.

After the brief commotion, she continued toward the grove.

In the little grove, a figure perched on a flourishing tree, one knee casually bent.

Lin Dao took a dark, rhombus-shaped crystal the size of a fingertip from his Storage Pouch. Within it pulsed streams of dark spiritual qi.

He studied it and thought: Dark Spirit Crystal. Aside from being needed by cultivators with a dark spiritual root, it has another use, as one of the materials for artificially creating a dark spiritual root. This Yan Cheng Qian lineage has never produced a cultivator with a dark spiritual root.

In the next instant he sensed someone entering the grove and heading in his direction. His eyes cooled.

[Hounds from the City Lord’s Manor? Getting bolder; they actually tracked me this far this time?]

But when he saw the figure moving below, a flicker of surprise crossed his gaze.

[So it is that little girl?]