chapter 18

Manager Song gave her the secret art of Wind Manipulation and information regarding Wuliang Sect’s history and rules.

This secret art would allow her to fly at low altitudes and increase her running speed. However, if she wanted to fly for long periods and at increased heights, she’d need to either acquire a flying artifact or subdue a flying spirit beast. Wuliang Sect was one of the seven pinnacle sects of the cultivating world. These so-called pinnacle sects were sects with Crossing Tribulation Stage* Elders overseeing them. And of the seven sects, the Luminous Moon School, which once had a member who ascended to become an immortal, stood at the apex.

The biggest stage in a cultivator’s path, they have to undergo the trial of Heavenly Tribulation(bolts of lightning) which was extremely dangerous. It’s said that having to go through nine deaths and survive isn’t an exaggeration. If by some lucky fluke you succeeded in withstanding the Heavenly Tribulation, you could now pursue a higher realm of cultivation in the immortal world. If you failed several times and didn’t make it past the Crossing Tribulation Stage, you’d became an ‘earth celestial’ and would need to pass the Heavenly Tribulation 9 times in order to ascend to the immortal world.

The Luminous Moon School originally wasn’t known by this name. It was just that after that Daoist immortal ascended, he said ‘how can the entire sea of stars ever compete with the luminous moon’s splendor?’, after which, the school changed its name to Luminous Moon School and its previous name was forgotten. The person with the highest cultivation in Wuliang Sect right now was Spiritual Master Lingwu’s master, the Supreme Elder Gu Fengyang. He was a person of strength at the Crossing Tribulation Stage and a figure of absolute authority in Wuliang Sect. It was just that he rarely showed his face in public and didn’t meddle much in any of the sect’s matters.

The rules of Wuliang Sect were also pretty simple: you can’t collude with cultivators of the demonic path or cultivate demonic martial arts, you can’t pass the sect’s martial arts secrets to other people and sect disciples are prohibited from killing one another. There were no other rules apart from these ones. However, these only counted as the overall regulations of the Wuliang Sect. The Wuliang Sect was made up of three mountains of Immortals in a 品(pin3) shape. Right in the middle was the Wuliang Mountain where the Sect Leader stayed, on the left was the Heaven Firmament Peak where the Supreme Elder resided and it was also the place Su Tingyun was in right now. On the right was Heaven Pearl Peak which was further divided into six additional halls, and each was overseen by a Nascent Soul Stage Elder.

Although Spiritual Master Lingwu was only at the Golden Core stage, he had a strong backer so he possessed nearly half of the resources of the entire Wuliang Mountain. And it was precisely because of this that he was able to attract Alchemy Master Dan Fengyang. It must be known that Dan Fengyang was a Nascent Soul Stage powerhouse; a formidable existence that could refine high level medicinal pills.

Although Dan Fengyan had a bad temper, he wasn’t an evil person. However, those disciples of his were quite arrogant and despotic. In the same way, as long was the cultivators in the valley completed their tasks on time, their lives would be quite good. Otherwise, there also wouldn’t be so many people sharpening their heads and wanting to bore their way here. But the precondition for doing as they pleased was having first finished whatever task was assigned to them. If they weren’t able to do so, the punishment they’d receive would be extremely terrifying. They’d be doomed if they ended up failing when Master Dan and the others needed medicine wights to test their medicines on.

Generally speaking, a majority of these people were able to finish their tasks on time as long as they didn’t encounter any extremely special circumstances. The Gold Puppet Mother this time probably could be counted as an extremely rare accident. Su Tingyun sorted through the information she’d obtained once more. To sum it up, the Heaven Jade Pavilion didn’t count as a very savage and terrible place. As long as she finished her task, her life and safety would be guaranteed!

Thinking up to this point, Su Tingyun felt like a weight had been lifted off her chest. The fact that she was able to discover those fourth rank gold colored bugs proved that she had a great deal of talent in the field of farming, so completing her tasks shouldn’t be too difficult.

After looking through the information she started practicing the Wind Manipulation secret arts. It was the most basic incantation after all, so it wasn’t difficult to put it to use. Su Tingyun was able to grasp most of it in less than half an hour. Her spiritual energy gathered below her feet and her body slowly left the ground. It started with one to two inches, which then increased to one to two feet, until, at the end, she was able to slowly float while she was in the air. But this Wind Manipulation secret arts consumed spiritual energy. She’d only been in the air for ten or so minutes before she felt that all the spiritual energy in her body had been drained. Once that happened she dropped straight down. Luckily, she didn’t fly very high, so the fall didn’t injure her.

If she wanted to fly for longer, she’d have to increase the amount of spiritual energy in her body, which basically meant she had to advance in cultivation.

It’s no good if you don’t cultivate ah! In this world, strength was the most respected, if you fell behind you would be bullied. Not to mention, spiritual energy was also intimately linked with daily life, so she couldn’t laze around either. Thinking of these, Su Tingyun decreased her sleeping time by a half and used the time saved to meditate and cultivate. Only, while she did feel like she was working harder, there wasn’t any clear advancement in her cultivation.

Two months passed by in the blink of an eye. Su Tingyun sat next to the field as she looked at the white clouds drifting across the blue sky above her head, feeling both disappointed and frustrated.

Didn’t the jade scroll say that the Qi Condensation Stage was the beginning stage, so the advancement rate was really fast? It said that for the first and second stages, the progression rate was especially fastce. If you worked hard a little, it said that even people with mediocre aptitudes would still be able to break through the second rank within a month?

She had already been cultivating for two months, so why was she still at the first rank ah!? But then again, the time really flew by. In the past, she felt like the days were dreadfully slow, but she unexpectedly couldn’t stop once she started cultivating. No wonder cultivation had no months or days and those people would seclude themselves so frequency for dozens of years at a time. Once the spiritual energy revolved a couple rounds in your body and your entire attention was concentrated on cultivating, several hours would disappear in just an instant…

Su Tingyun recalled that when she first meet Chu Ling and the others, they said that her aptitude was unusually poor. It seemed like their words weren’t unfounded. It was very clear that her cultivation aptitude was below even that of ordinary people and was struggling at the borderline of complete poverty…

Good thing was that she was an expert at farming and had once again successfully completed this month’s task.

Looking at the lush first rank medicinal grass Spirit Snake Grass that was growing lushly in her farm, Su Tingyun relaxed her body by letting out a deep breath. However, some people had hastily walked over before she even had to chance to finish exhaling. The person that was leading was precisely Manager Song. However, although he was walking in front, he walked with his body turned sideways in a bowing and scraping manner as if he was trying to curry favor with the person behind him. As he walked, he said, “Master Liu, it’s here.”

“The Purple Costus Roots and Spirit Snake Grasses were all planted by here!” Manager Song said as he pointed towards the Su Tingyun that was laying on the grass mat next to the field. “Old Madam Wei, a grandee(person of high rank) has arrived. Hurry and get up to kowtow in greeting!”

Da fudge? She’s already a seventy years old, old woman, yet she still had to kowtow to someone? At this time, Su Tingyun seemed to have forgotten her young maiden heart. She got up and turned her head, then saw that the person behind Manager Song was wearing a robe of white with a long sword at his waist. His face was like a piece of top quality jade, charming and eminently handsome. Even though he wasn’t was stunning as the putative husband, his appearance was still enough to cause people’s eyelids to jump and hearts to thud.

It was just a shame that though he was born with good looks, his personality wasn’t anything much. That young person’s brow lifted. “It was just this old woman?” Then he reached out his hand and grabbed the empty air. Su Tingyun didn’t even have the time to react before her entire body was lifted into midair by a strong force. She, with her one hundred forty catties, was lifted by that person as if he was picking up a cat.

“Old woman, come with me.” Without waiting for anyone’s reply, the white-clothed young man directly flew into the air like a crane spreading its wings. Su Tingyun’s throat was choked by her own clothes and she almost suffocated. Luckily, he moved fast and flew into the array in just a moment. After that, he released his hand and threw Su Tingyun down from a hundred meters in the air.

If she hadn’t learned the Wind Manipulation Technique, she’d be in a sorry state even if she didn’t die.

F-ing! There really isn’t a single good person amongst the strong existences in the cultivation world.

When they got to the ground, Liu Feizhou got straight to the point. “I need you to help me plant some medicinal grass.”

He had also only discovered by luck that this old woman’s medicinal grass had particularly abundant spiritual energy. When he used her medicinal grass, his rate of success when he refined pills would increase slightly. He was still an apprentice alchemist and had just learned from Master for two years. His rate of success was only twenty percent. But a couple days ago, he discovered that his success rate actually increased to forty percent when he used Purple Costus Roots and Spirit Snake Grass to refine some low level Spiritual Energy Pills!

Even though these were all just low level medicinal pills, but to an apprentice alchemist that had just entered the school, this kind of success rate was considered extremely shocking. This was because, even if his Master were to refine it, his success rate wouldn’t surpass eighty percent. And if his Master were to refine other equivalent high level medicinal pills, his success rate would only be around twenty or thirty percent.

High level medicinal pills were expensive to the point that they could be discovered but not sought. This was also the reason why the Alchemy Master’s position was extremely high and he received the sect’s complete support.

Soon, he and the other three disciples will be holding a competition. Only the winner would be able to become Master’s Star Disciple. He was the last to become an apprentice, so even if his innate skill was very high, the odds of success this time still weren’t high. Which why was this old woman was both his only hope and the key for him to triumph.

“Plant what kind of medicinal herb?” Su Tingyun used Wind Manipulation to land, but the hundred meter height caused her to panic and fall a little when she landed. Although the fall wasn’t hard, she still landed on her butt. At present, she pushed herself up into a sitting position with her hands, her tone a little irritated. It naturally didn’t contain the respect it should have contained for Alchemists.

“Rootless Water, Drawn Skullcap, Ironheart Orchid…”

One second rank and two third rank medicinal grass. To grow third rank medicinal herbs, one’s cultivation had to be at the level of at least the Spirit Condensation Middle Stage. Su Tingyun waved her hand and said, “I’m only at the First Stage of Qi Condensation, I can’t even plant a second rank medicinal herb, must less a third rank.”

“No need for you to worry about that.” Liu Feizhou fished out a jade bottle. “This is a bottle of Spirit Opening Pills, it’s enough to let you break through to the Spirit Condensation Stage.” Even though it was just a second rank medicinal pill, to cultivators with average aptitudes, it was still an extremely precious item. Based on the aptitude this old woman’s body had, she didn’t have any hope of breaking through at all. This old woman should be deeply grateful that he was willing to give her such a huge benefit. Liu Feizhou sat and waited for the old lady to kowtow in thanks, but unexpectedly, her expression didn’t turn any happier after she took the bottle. On the contrary, she knitted her brows and squinted as she asked, “Are there any side effects?”

Things that are medicine are three parts poison. And all medicine in the cultivation world were goods that lacked Three*. Although Su Tingyun didn’t know a lot about this world, she still knew that advancing with the help of medicine would cause one’s foundation to be unstable. Didn’t they already tell them back then when they were climbing the Heavens Ascending Stairs that cultivation had to be done step by step and one couldn’t take shortcuts?

refers to goods that have unidentified origins. The three that typically points to not having a manufactured date, no certificate of conformity regarding quality and quantity, and no production source named. Another way of explaining it is, no manufacturer name, no manufacture location and no license of guaranteed hygiene

“Audacious! It couldn’t be that you’re suspecting me of giving you fake medicine!?” Liu Feizhou was infuriated and directly sent a kick over. He sent Su Tingyun flying to one side but it still wasn’t enough to dispel his anger. Just as he was about to send another kick, he saw that the old thing’s eyes had already rolled back and she was about to puke white foam, so he gave a cold humph and said, “This Spirit Opening Pill that I refined was condensed extremely well, even Master praised me on it. If it weren’t for the fact that I needed you to plant medicinal herbs, why would I give such a precious thing to you?”

After saying so, Liu Feizhou swept a cold glance at the Su Tingyun who laid on the floor. “Your aptitude is unusually poor, there’s no way for you to break through to the Spirit Condensation Stage in your lifetime without the help of medicine. Even though advancement will become difficult after you use pills and you might end up stuck at the Spirit Condensation Stage, but what does that matter? Remember this well, I didn’t harm you. What I did was send you a round of good luck.” After finishing, he heaved a sigh before saying, “Your bone age is merely seventy years old, yet you’ve already aged this much. Seriously useless.”