Not to mention the disparity in fighting strength between cultivators and mortals; one only had to look at the attitudes of the people at the foot-of-mountain camp and in Qingxi City to know that, to mortals, cultivators were beings to be looked up to. Even the wealthy people in the city addressed cultivators as “my lord” with every other breath.
In a world like this, for a mortal to kill a cultivator was like asking an ordinary commoner to personally slay the emperor. Whether they could actually do it aside, it took tremendous courage… More importantly, would an existence like the Fang family allow a group of mortals who had killed a cultivator to keep living?
At that thought, Xia Yunzhao’s expression turned serious. “Tell me exactly what happened.”
The others exchanged glances. Xiao Qi said, “I’ll tell you.”
He lowered his voice. “Brother Xiao Xia, do you know Sister Manman?”
Of course Xia Yunzhao did. He had lived at the lakeside camp for so long that even if he was not familiar with everyone, he had at least met them all.
Sister Manman’s full name was Yang Manman. She was in her early thirties, slender and pretty, very thin, and not especially talkative. But she was excellent with a knife; the fish slices she cut were thin enough for light to pass through. When she and Chang Haiping worked together to butcher fish, it took them less than half the time needed to drink a cup of tea to turn a fish fresh from the lake into pink slices of raw fish.
Xiao Xia looked puzzled. Sister Manman was certainly skilled with a knife, but not to the point that she could kill a cultivator, right? Forget Xia Yunzhao as he was now—even when he had been at the first layer of Qi Refining, no, even when he had only just drawn qi into his body, an ordinary mortal would have found him difficult to deal with.
Xiao Qi continued, “A few years ago, before Sister Manman came here, disaster struck her family and she fled all the way to Qingxi City. A cultivator passed by, saw that she was pretty, and told her he wanted to take her home to do some odd jobs. That was how he tricked her outside the city and tried to take advantage of her.”
“That day, the deputy leader happened to be taking people down the mountain to sell fish and ran into them. She used a few tricks, killed that cultivator, and rescued Sister Manman. Afterward, Sister Manman came back with the deputy leader.”
Xia Yunzhao’s mouth fell open. He looked at Chang Haiping, and she nodded at him, indicating that yes, that was exactly what had happened.
After a long moment, Xia Yunzhao raised a thumb. “Sister Chang, you’re amazing.”
Chang Haiping had been wondering what he would say. Hearing this, she did not know whether to laugh or cry. “Didn’t I say I used a few tricks? First, I had people dig a trap and put some explosives and poison inside. Then we pretended we wanted to offer that cultivator a spirit item, lured him into the trap, and only then killed him. That cultivator didn’t seem especially strong. At the very least, he was no match for you. If he’d had something like one of those gourds of yours, we would probably have been the ones who died.”
Xia Yunzhao laughed, but inwardly he admired Chang Haiping’s courage even more.
Although ordinary people could use some lowest-grade magical artifacts, in truth they knew very little about cultivators. They did not even know what cultivation realms existed, much less how powerful cultivators really were in battle. What they did hear were countless legends of great cultivators overturning mountains and seas or changing the sun and moon. Under those circumstances, Chang Haiping had still been willing to take such an enormous risk to save someone. Loyalty, courage, and intelligence—she had lacked none of them.
Xiao Xia asked, “If that cultivator died several years ago, why bring it up again today?”
Chang Haiping said, “Before he died, he begged for his life and offered to take us to a place filled with spirit pearls. We didn’t believe his nonsense. After he died, a magical pouch he was carrying broke, and everything inside spilled out. We sold the spirit items we recognized that didn’t bear any markings. All that remained was a map, a letter, and a few things we couldn’t identify.”
As she spoke, Chang Haiping took out a small cloth pouch. “So much time has passed without anyone coming to look for that cultivator, so there should be no danger now. We thought we’d give these things to you. Maybe they’ll be useful.”
Xia Yunzhao froze for a moment before realizing that he had thought everyone wanted his help, when in fact they had called him over to give him something.
Then another thought occurred to him. Everyone knew he was a cultivator, yet they were willing to tell him such a huge secret. That trust was more precious than anything in the pouch.
So he accepted it with a smile. “Thank you, Sister Chang. I’m sure these things will be useful!”
Chang Haiping had rarely smiled since the funeral, but now she actually smiled a little. “That would be best.”
With that, she lifted the curtain and left. Not far away, Sister Manman was waiting for her, and the two walked off slowly while talking.
＊
The camp spent the entire morning clearing mud but refused to let Xia Yunzhao help. So Xiao Xia sat with Granny all morning, listening obediently with his hands on his knees while Granny scolded him at length in her people’s language, pretending he understood every single word.
At noon, Granny made his favorite meat pies, with fully half the flour replaced by spirit-rice flour. They were so fragrant and rich with oil that even with Xiao Xia’s appetite, he ate until he could barely stand.
After lunch, he returned to his grass shelter and first took out the pouch Chang Haiping had given him. It was not a storage pouch, merely an ordinary cloth bag. The cultivator’s storage pouch had shattered, and Chang Haiping’s group had found a place to bury it instead of bringing it back.
That had been very smart. Cultivators backed by powerful factions often put identifying marks on their storage pouches, just like the Fang family did.
Then again, purely by probability, there was a very good chance that cultivator had been from the Fang family…
Sure enough, the bag contained a map and a letter, along with an oddly shaped jade pendant made from spirit jade and a talisman.
Xiao Xia picked up the talisman first. It looked familiar—a Protective Talisman, identical to the ones he had bought himself. It might even have come from the same shop. He tucked it into his belongings. Protective Talisman count: plus one.
He looked at the map next and could not identify it. The lines were all straight and orderly. It did not depict the mountains and looked more like a map of a city, but its shape did not match Qingxi City and it had no scale…
He turned it this way and that for a long time before finally deciding that it seemed to be a map of an interior space. More specifically, it looked like a maze. Traps and mechanisms had even been marked on it.
…That makes it even harder to find. Who knows where this maze is? It might not even be in Qingxi City!
Then he examined the letter. Calling it a letter was generous; it looked more like a task list. It read:
[Deliver one Hundred-Refinement Pill every morning and evening.
Deliver one dose of Mind-Bewildering Powder every three days.
Deliver two Wind-Walking Pills every five days.
Do not delay. Remember this well.]
He had no idea what Hundred-Refinement Pills or Wind-Walking Pills did, but Mind-Bewildering Powder certainly did not sound like anything good. The more Xiao Xia read, the more confused he became. Just what had that cultivator been doing?
Then he examined the jade pendant. It was oddly shaped, semicircular at the front with a longer handle at the back. It did contain spiritual energy, but only faintly, and he had no idea what it did.
Xia Yunzhao studied it for a long time without figuring anything out, so he had no choice but to put everything away.
Over the next few days, light rain occasionally fell in the mountains. Everyone in camp worried that the lake might rise again, so Xia Yunzhao did not go out either and simply stayed home.
Apart from cultivating, refining pills, and refining artifacts each day, he spent his time reading the cultivation notes Du Qianshan had left behind.
In fact, he was getting a little addicted to them. By now he knew that Du Qianshan had been a Foundation Establishment cultivator. Before reaching the fifth layer of Qi Refining, Du Qianshan had cultivated with the Du family in Beiliang City. Only after reaching the fifth layer did he leave to travel.
Every so often, he mentioned that his young nephew A-Yan had left home to apprentice under a master and wondered how he was doing.
Later, Du Qianshan met the sharp-tongued “Fellow Daoist Xu” and was hired to protect him. Supposedly, Fellow Daoist Xu was a pill cultivator with little fighting ability, which was why he needed a hired guard.
Xia Yunzhao thought of the character “Xu” embroidered on the storage pouch. Could that storage pouch have belonged to Fellow Daoist Xu?
The notebook was not very thick, and Xia Yunzhao finished it within a few days. The final entry said that Du Qianshan planned to secretly visit Liancui Mountain to find a piece of Yellowheart Jade for Fellow Daoist Xu as a birthday gift.
He probably never imagined that his life, like the notes themselves, would come to an abrupt end there.
Xia Yunzhao closed the pages, feeling a little melancholy.
Clatter-clatter—
The moment Xiao Qing saw him finally put the book down, it shamelessly hopped over and bounced around in his arms, clearly asking for something to eat.
Xia Yunzhao rubbed it several times as though petting a dog and pretended not to understand. He had more than ten thousand spirit pearls on hand now, which sounded like a lot, but Xiao Qing’s appetite had grown too. At this point, a ten-pull would probably require at least five thousand spirit pearls. One pull and his wealth would instantly shrink by half.
Can’t handle it. Absolutely can’t handle it…
While he was thinking, the noise outside grew louder. He heard Xiao Qi and Brother Geng shouting something, and people throughout the camp answered one after another.
Curious, he tilted his head and listened carefully. He finally understood what had happened. The frequent rain had probably washed turbid qi out of the earth veins, and a huge patch of Turbid-Qi Mushrooms had sprung up near the camp.
These mushrooms were only lowest-grade and contained very little energy, but they held a large amount of turbid qi. Mortals who ate them would become ill, and even cultivators could suffer unstable spiritual energy. If left alone, the mushrooms would multiply until they covered the forest and then release turbid qi from the earth veins, harming people all the same.
Over time, everyone had learned that as soon as these mushrooms appeared, they had to be gathered immediately and either burned or buried deep underground. One way or another, they had to be disposed of.
Once Xiao Xia understood, he stretched and stood up to go help. Hearing what was involved, Xiao Qing stopped trying to climb onto him. It clearly wanted to stay home, laze around, and sleep.
Seeing that Xiao Qing did not want to go, Xia Yunzhao let it be. He reached the doorway and was just about to lift the curtain when he suddenly stopped—
He turned around.
Xiao Qing, which was just looking for a comfortable place to curl up and sleep: ?
Xia Yunzhao strode back over, picked it up, and stared at it. “That’s right!”
Xiao Qing: ?
Xia Yunzhao said excitedly, “Why do I have to use spirit pearls for gacha pulls? Why can’t I use Turbid-Qi Mushrooms?”
First of all, Turbid-Qi Mushrooms contained spiritual energy. Very little, sure, but the point was that they did contain some!
Second, Turbid-Qi Mushrooms contained turbid qi, so nobody wanted them. Nobody wanted them, which meant they were cheap. Like Lingwei Grass, they were basically free… No, they were even more free than Lingwei Grass!
He had always thought Xiao Qing’s ability to draw cards was incredible. He could not buy the cultivation methods and formulas it produced even if he wanted to, so spending a few more spirit pearls had seemed worthwhile… But now he realized that turning trash into treasure was the proper method all along! He had been far too upright before!
With that thought, he looked at Xiao Qing with sudden paternal affection. “Xiao Qing, come on. Let’s go pick Turbid-Qi Mushrooms with your master.”
Xiao Qing: ?
Xiao Qing: !
Clatter-clatter—
I already said I’m not going! I want to stay home and sleep! Sleep!
Xia Yunzhao stuffed it into his clothes and headed straight for the mushroom-gathering site. Sure enough, it was not far from camp. Huge swaths of yellow-brown mushrooms stretched across the ground as far as the eye could see. The continuous rainy weather had probably accelerated their growth, because there were already this many the moment they appeared.
Every short distance, someone from camp was bent over gathering them. Everyone knew how troublesome these mushrooms were. If they did not clear them quickly, the elderly and children would fall ill.
The air was thick with the distinctive smell of mushrooms and a faintly choking, dusty odor. It was not actually smoke or dust, but the turbid qi emitted by the Turbid-Qi Mushrooms. This was only the beginning; given enough time, as the turbid qi accumulated, it could even form poisonous miasma.
Picking the mushrooms was easy enough. Disposing of them was the real headache. Burying them meant digging a huge pit, which took both time and labor. Burning them consumed an enormous amount of firewood, which meant cutting down piles of wood as well.
Xia Yunzhao bent down, picked a Turbid-Qi Mushroom, and stuffed it into Xiao Qing’s belly while the latter was still clatter-clattering curses at him. Whoosh— The little mushroom vanished.
The Turbid-Qi Mushroom contained so little spiritual energy that Xiao Qing digested it before it even realized what had happened. It did not have time to taste anything, and the progress bar did not react at all.
Xia Yunzhao’s eyes lit up. It can eat them! That’s all that matters!
He ran over to Geng Jingwu, said a few words, and even took out a handful of spirit pearls…
Geng Jingwu slapped him on the shoulder. “Good brother, if you can dispose of this batch of Turbid-Qi Mushrooms, what spirit pearls would we take from you? I’d happily pay you spirit pearls!”
Xiao Qi cackled beside them. “Come on, come on! We piled all the mushrooms we gathered over here. I’ll take you there. Hehe, this is great! No need to dig pits or chop firewood!”
Xia Yunzhao followed him and sure enough found a pile of Turbid-Qi Mushrooms already half a person tall. People were still arriving with full baskets and dumping the mushrooms onto it.
Several bonfires burned nearby, iron kettles hanging over them as water bubbled gurgle-gurgle to give everyone something hot to drink and warm themselves.
Xiao Qi said, “It’s great if these Turbid-Qi Mushrooms are useful to you. Every rainy season, disposing of them gives us a headache. The deputy leader has tried to think of solutions year after year, but these things can’t be eaten or sold. They only waste our effort.”
Xia Yunzhao laughed too. “You have no idea. These mushrooms are helping me enormously!”
Xiao Qing in his arms: …
Xia Yunzhao rubbed his hands together, set Xiao Qing down, scooped up a huge armful of Turbid-Qi Mushrooms, and stuffed them into its belly.
Xiao Qing itself was only the size of a palm, but the space inside its belly seemed limitless. Spirit items of any size could be shoved inside.
Xia Yunzhao had never felt so exhilarated. He stuffed armful after armful of Turbid-Qi Mushrooms into it. Around the fifteenth armful, the progress bar finally appeared and began creeping upward, bit by tiny bit.
Slow was fine. These Turbid-Qi Mushrooms were free! Completely free! He did not even have to gather them himself!
He was at least a fourth-layer Qi Refining cultivator, so even his mushroom-stuffing speed was faster than everyone else’s. He quickly finished the hill-like pile. After that, things became easy: whenever someone arrived with a basket of mushrooms, Xia Yunzhao took it and poured the whole thing directly into the little alchemy furnace.
Soon everyone in camp knew that their Xiao Xia was collecting these unwanted Turbid-Qi Mushrooms!
People came running from every direction, some to watch and some to bring him mushrooms. There were mushroom collection piles in several other areas too, and once people heard he wanted them, they simply loaded them onto handcarts and hauled them over. Everyone was delighted and thinking the same thing as Xiao Qi: Great! No digging pits or chopping firewood!
Before long, Xiao Qing had been fed enough to fill its first progress bar and blew out a sheet of paper. Xia Yunzhao did not even have time to look at it. He caught it, stuffed it into his clothes, and kept pouring in the next basket.
They continued until evening, when the moon was already hanging above the treetops and torches had been lit all around. At last, everyone had cleared the entire patch of Turbid-Qi Mushrooms.
Xiao Xia poured in the final basket, then straightened. Even with his Qi Refining body, he was feeling thoroughly tired.
The turbid qi had vanished from the air, leaving only the smell of mushrooms… Xia Yunzhao sniffed. All right, that mushroom smell seemed to be coming from Xiao Qing…
Fortunately, this bronze pig did not burp. Otherwise every burp right now would smell like mushrooms—and not especially pleasant mushrooms at that.
Everyone else in camp was exhausted too, but happy. In previous years, gathering the Turbid-Qi Mushrooms had only been the first step; disposing of them afterward was even more tiring. This year, they could simply go home and rest.
Xia Yunzhao returned to camp with them, took out a bottle of Lingwei Pills, dissolved them in water from the Water-Purifying Gourd, and poured it into the camp’s large drinking-water vat. He left only a hurried instruction: “This is for everyone to drink.”
Then, without even waiting for their thanks, he went straight back to his wooden shelter.
All that work had not been for nothing. Xiao Qing had produced three sheets of paper today!
The moment they entered, Xiao Qing huffily burrowed into the bedding and went to sleep. It was happy to have spirit items to eat, sure, but chewing mushrooms all day had been exhausting!
Xia Yunzhao did not disturb it. He simply pulled the sheets of paper from his clothes and looked at them. Then—
【Profound-Grade Cultivation Method: Spirit-Transmutation Art!】
Xia Yunzhao blinked, blinked again, then shot to his feet!
He had used a pile of Turbid-Qi Mushrooms so worthless that nobody wanted them and drawn a Profound-grade cultivation method?
Heaven, Earth, Profound, Yellow, Human, Lowest—Profound was the third-highest grade of cultivation method, making this the highest-grade method he had obtained so far!
A Profound-grade cultivation method! He had never even seen one! Could the triangular-eyed cultivator’s method have been Profound-grade? Could the Fang family’s method possibly be Profound-grade?
Xiao Xia paced excitedly around his little wooden shelter twice before finally calming himself enough to read the description carefully.
【Profound-Grade Cultivation Method: Spirit-Transmutation Art: This art has no attribute restriction. It can extract spiritual energy from spirit pearls, spirit stones, and spirit treasures and transform it for one’s own use. Highly efficient, simple, and direct. Once cultivated to its highest layer, even the spiritual energy of the laws of heaven and earth is not beyond extraction.】
Xia Yunzhao could not stop himself from sucking in a breath.
Extract spiritual energy from spirit stones and spirit pearls… It’ll consume a lot of spirit pearls, sure, but wouldn’t that make cultivation frighteningly fast?
No wonder everyone says cultivation burns money. So the expense isn’t limited to cultivation methods—it’s here too…
And when he read further, he saw that even the spiritual power of spirit treasures and the laws of heaven and earth could be extracted. Then what about the spiritual energy inside other people? Once I master this art, could I even extract someone else’s spiritual energy? Wouldn’t that make this a cultivation-world Star-Absorbing Art—and without any hidden dangers?!
The more he thought about it, the more terrifying it became. This art was frightening! It was hard to imagine that he had traded a pile of Turbid-Qi Mushrooms for such a lethal weapon…
Xiao Xia took several deep breaths to calm himself and looked at the second sheet.
He froze again. There was not a single character on it?
Then he checked the information box… Fine. This was one sheet of low-tier blank talisman paper.
Right. Talismans were written on talisman paper, which naturally had to be bought as well, and he had heard it was not cheap. But… Xiao Xia turned the sheet over and over in his hands, embarrassed. He did not know how to make talismans. He wondered whether Du Yan would buy it.
Thinking of Du Yan reminded him that Du Yan had previously said he had sent a letter to the Du family in Beiliang City. So much time had passed; who knew whether the Du family had arrived yet? Xia Yunzhao still had to take them to Du Qianshan’s grave.
Xiao Xia put away the blank talisman paper and turned to the third sheet.
This one was extremely useful: 【Artifact Blueprint: Seven-Star Ring】
【…A growth-type magical artifact that can grow as high as Level Three. It takes the form of seven silver rings the size of longan fruits. They can form a Seven-Star Formation to guard the wielder’s body, or be thrown to kill enemies…】
Xiao Qing seemed fairly satisfied with today’s draws. Neither the Spirit-Transmutation Art nor the Seven-Star Ring blueprint had earned any snide commentary from it.
Xia Yunzhao was very satisfied too. His gaze locked onto the words “growth-type magical artifact.” Even though he still knew little about magical artifacts, he understood that a growth-type artifact had to be more powerful than an ordinary one!
He was absolutely getting this Seven-Star Ring!
He unfolded the Seven-Star Ring blueprint. The long sheet was densely packed with thirty or forty different materials, many of which he did not recognize…
Snap. He closed it.
Ahem. He still wanted it. There was simply no hurry. No hurry at all.
A startled cry came from outside, apparently from someone who had drunk the water containing dissolved Lingwei Pills and shouted something in delight. Laughter rippled through the crowd.
Xia Yunzhao relaxed with them. Thirty or forty materials—so what? Given time, he would collect them all. Shang Shuangze had managed to gather every material for a Level-Two pill; the Seven-Star Ring started out as only a Level-One magical artifact.
Once his mood had settled, Xiao Xia took out the Spirit-Transmutation Art again and read it from beginning to end.
Then he sat cross-legged, poured every spirit pearl from his storage pouch onto the ground around him, and slowly began circulating the method to cultivate the Spirit-Transmutation Art.
He was only in the Qi Refining stage, while more than ten thousand spirit pearls surrounded him. He probably would not use very many. But since this was his first time cultivating it, setting out more would make it easier to get started. It was like the first time he drew qi into his body; now that he thought about it, if he had been somewhere rich in spiritual energy, he probably would have taken far less time.
Once the spirit pearls were arranged, Xiao Xia expertly settled into the five-centers-facing-heaven posture.
The only proper cultivator he knew was Shang Shuangze, and the two of them had never discussed cultivation, so he had no idea whether his cultivation speed was fast or slow.
Still, he vaguely sensed that the Spirit-Transmutation Art did more than simply increase his cultivation speed.
The Qi-Guiding Origin-Connecting Art was already second nature to him. Xiao Xia swallowed a Dew-Condensing Pill, quickly soothing the discomfort in his meridians, while spiritual energy obediently began polishing his meridians and major acupoints.
Once his cultivation was running smoothly, Xiao Xia tentatively and slowly began circulating the Spirit-Transmutation Art.
Suddenly, a gentle yet surging wave of spiritual energy rushed irresistibly into his meridians, and the efficiency of his cultivation method instantly increased fivefold!
The spiritual energy not only helped him polish several earlier sections of his meridians in one sweep, it rapidly finished polishing his fourth acupoint and then rushed straight toward the fifth—lighting it!
Xiao Xia almost effortlessly crossed another minor realm: the fifth layer of Qi Refining!
It was fortunate that Xia Yunzhao was neither impatient nor shortsighted. With his current cultivation speed, anyone else might have thrown caution aside and kept charging forward!
But Xia Yunzhao had grown up in a happy home. His family had been tolerant and loving, and over many years they had taught him the truths of the world bit by bit, as patiently as holding his hands while teaching him to walk.
So although Xiao Xia had never accomplished anything earth-shattering, he had a clear head. He understood perfectly that if you wanted to build a tall building, the foundation mattered most. The taller the building you wanted, the deeper its foundation had to be.
Xiao Xia did not want to end up like the triangular-eyed cultivator or those Fang family cultivators, dying halfway along the road. So he was more than willing to settle down and polish himself little by little.
With the Spirit-Transmutation Art, even polishing his meridians was four or five times faster than before.
The feeling was unbelievably comfortable, like someone who normally had no choice but to walk to work suddenly getting a car.
Ordinarily, Xia Yunzhao cultivated for only half the night and spent the rest resting and sleeping.
But tonight, time seemed to pass especially quickly. It felt like only a few breaths had gone by when he opened his eyes and found daylight outside. People were already moving around, and even the fragrance of breakfast drifted in.
Xia Yunzhao stretched in complete comfort and examined himself inwardly. His fifth acupoint was already one-fifth polished. Five more days and it would be finished! Without the Spirit-Transmutation Art, it would probably have taken an entire month.
He was now a cultivator at the fifth layer of Qi Refining, and the improvement was not limited to his cultivation level. He had used even more spiritual energy to polish his meridians. The meridians connecting his first four acupoints were now fully polished and unobstructed, and the speed at which spiritual energy circulated through them had more than doubled.
When he fought the triangular-eyed cultivator several days ago, his inability to react in time had not only been due to lack of experience, but also because his spiritual-energy circulation was slower than his opponent’s. They had both been at the fourth layer of Qi Refining, but Xia Yunzhao had been cultivating for less than a month, while no one knew how long the other man had remained at that level. Naturally, the other man’s spiritual energy circulated more smoothly and freely.
Today, however, things were different. Xiao Xia felt spiritual energy flowing through him with silky smoothness and silently estimated that both his reaction speed and spiritual-energy circulation had increased twofold.
Satisfied with the results of the night’s cultivation, he prepared to go out for breakfast.
But just as he started to stand, he suddenly froze.
Xiao Qing, waiting for him to take it out to breakfast, swayed and tilted its head: What now?
Xia Yunzhao slowly raised a trembling hand and pointed at the empty ground, where only a little powder remained. “Pot… Your master thinks he might be seeing things. Where did my enormous, gigantic pile of spirit pearls go?”