Chapter 13
Chapter 13: The Wonders of Divine Abilities
“Having something is better than having nothing,” Shao Heng told herself. “Once I cultivate Origin-Nourishing Qi-Raising Art, my cultivation speed will increase.
“Afterward, if I run into a better chance, then I’ll consider switching.”
While she thought, she still kept a sliver of attention on Elder Zhao Tang’s teaching.
Most of the lecture focused on entering the Qi Induction Realm—useless to Shao Heng now. But Elder Zhao Tang also explained the movement traits of the five-element energies, adding her own comprehension as a Third Realm cultivator. Those details echoed what Shao Heng had read the night before, clarifying several knots in her mind.
The lesson ran for hours. Without spiritual power to circulate and recover, the new disciples sagged as time passed. Even those who had swallowed Fasting Pills began to look wrung out—hair limp with sweat, eyes dull, backs stiff from holding still.
When the bell finally rang, relief flooded the hall like air rushing into a sealed room.
Elder Zhao Tang swept her gaze across the crowd. Her voice remained stern.
“Today’s lesson is over. Hurry and enter the Qi Induction Realm. Do not slack off in your cultivation.”
Shao Heng tucked the spell booklet into her robes—then stored it in her storage ring—and smoothed her sleeves as if she had not just memorized every page.
Once she stepped out of the Wondrous Dharma Tower, she headed back toward the disciples’ courtyard with her head lowered, thoughts moving quickly.
[Graded immortal arts are rare. The sect won’t hand them out casually. Disciples have to complete missions to earn contribution points, recorded in the disciple token.
Then you spend contribution points on the fifth floor of the Wondrous Dharma Tower to exchange for immortal arts.]
She wanted them.
Unfortunately, she had been in the sect for two days. Her contribution points were a fat zero.
Immortal arts were out of reach for now, but she could begin practicing the basic spells from the booklet. Scraps or not, scraps still had value.
Back in her residence, she activated the formation at the doorway, sat down, and emptied the contents of her storage ring onto the table.
Spirit stones.
She picked one up and turned it between her fingers.
The stone had been cut into a neat hexagonal pillar. Its pale purple color was pleasing, and if she looked closely, cloudlike wisps drifted inside as if the stone held a trapped sky.
According to the jade plaque’s information, spirit stones were the cultivation world’s common currency—and the most important consumable for cultivation.
Spirit stone veins formed when rich natural spiritual qi was compressed and condensed by earth veins. Once mined, the spiritual qi inside could be absorbed directly. Because it had been compressed, it was purer than loose spiritual qi in the air, easier to convert, and faster to refine into one’s own spiritual power.
On her table were 120 spirit stones. Beside them were three bottles holding nine First Grade Origin-Boosting Pills.
All the cultivation resources she would receive for the year.
Shao Heng tightened her grip around a spirit stone and sank her mind inward. Soon she sensed the spiritual qi inside. Perhaps because it had been buried deep underground and condensed into crystal, its metal and earth energies were stronger.
With a thought, she drew that qi into her body and guided it through her meridians.
After two small cycles, it condensed into droplets and merged into the yellow sprout in her qi sea, adding one more furnace of spiritual power.
“Cultivating with spirit stones has two benefits,” she murmured, watching the change inside herself. “First, no time wasted sensing spiritual qi from the world—you aren’t limited by the environment.
“Second, it converts more easily. By my estimate, it’s about thirty percent faster than normal.”
When the spirit stone’s qi was drained, it turned from pale purple to ashen white, cracks spidering across its surface. It was useless now.
Shao Heng set it aside and took out the green jade slip recording Origin-Nourishing Qi-Raising Art. She pressed it to her forehead and read.
Within half an hour, the full thirty thousand words were fixed in her mind. The key points were clear. She lowered the jade slip, stood, and sat cross-legged on the cushion.
“Compared to the circulation described in this art,” she admitted, “my earlier breathing and absorption were crude.”
Elder Zhao Tang had said she would spend the first half-month teaching the basics of entering the Qi Induction Realm. For Shao Heng, attending just for scattered explanations of five-element traits was inefficient.
She decided she would not attend.
She would use that time to cultivate Origin-Nourishing Qi-Raising Art first, then practice the basic spells from the booklet.
Shao Heng closed her eyes, relaxed her mind, and sensed the spiritual qi around her.
The One Yuan Sect was built in a blessed grotto-heaven. Even in the outer sect, the concentration of spiritual qi was far beyond what she had felt in the spirit ship’s cabin. The qi surged toward her in soft, invisible waves, drawn in by the art’s circulation and forged into a new, smoother cycle.
As she cultivated, Shao Heng noticed something off.
The Azure Emperor sigil hovering beside the yellow sprout had condensed two drops of emerald-green liquid beneath it.
She kept her expression calm and inspected it carefully. Only then did she realize: every time a strand of spiritual power flowed into the yellow sprout, the bluish-gold sigil quietly siphoned off a hair-thin portion.
Each theft was minuscule. Converting spiritual qi into spiritual power already involved natural loss, so it did not slow her at all.
If not for those droplets, she might never have noticed.
As if sensing her attention, the sigil trembled—then pressed closer to the yellow sprout, furtive and oddly comical, like a thief trying to hide behind a lamppost.
Shao Heng nearly laughed.
“The ranking described it as ‘grace the four directions, frost covers the world,’” she murmured inwardly. “A divine ability can have variations. These green droplets should be the first variation of Azure Emperor.”
She considered, then decided, “I’ll call it Grace the Four Directions.”
She had tasted the liquid before. It had not been unpleasant.
A ridiculous thought flickered across her mind—would food taste better with it?—and she crushed it before it could grow teeth.
Then she remembered the maidservant’s description.
Plants growing wildly.
A spark lit behind her eyes.
Maybe these droplets could spur plant growth.
In the cultivation world, there were spirit grains and spirit plants used for spirit meals. There were rarer spirit materials and precious medicines that could be used directly for cultivation.
If these emerald droplets truly worked on them…
Her thoughts ran fast.
Each year, disciples of the One Yuan Sect had to complete missions, but the options were not all the same. Some chased criminals across a thousand miles and wiped out devil cultivators. Others stayed in the sect and handled assorted duties.
Shao Heng remembered the jade plaque mentioning planting-type missions. A disciple could receive seeds and a spirit field at the Law Enforcement Pavilion and, within an allotted time, turn in a set amount of spirit plants and precious medicines.
“That’s a good way to test it,” she decided.
But not yet.
Since the Azure Emperor sigil was not affecting her cultivation, Shao Heng chose to ignore it for now. She returned her focus to the art’s circulation.
As the cycle grew smoother, her mind could hold only that one thing. Stray thoughts stopped rising.