Zhuang Wei was now twenty-five years old, eight years older than Xu Ziluo, and had already reached the peak of the second layer of Qi Refinement. His cultivation was somewhat below Xu Ziluo’s, but throughout the main family there were plenty of people who, even after the age of ten, remained unable to break through to the third layer of Qi Refinement, so he could still be considered fairly capable.
Zhuang Wei came from a minor family dependent on the Xu family and had entered the main family several years before Xu Ziluo. Somehow, he seemed to have fallen for Xu Ziluo at first sight and had looked after her often from the beginning. Later, as Xu Ziluo’s cultivation advanced faster than his, she began to look down on him, yet Zhuang Wei continued protecting her in every way and paid no mind to her attitude. Once Xu Ziluo broke through to the third layer of Qi Refinement ahead of him, she regarded him with even greater disdain, but Zhuang Wei still did not seem to care.
Anyone who knew Zhuang Wei knew that he was devoted to Xu Ziluo alone. Zhuang Wei was even-tempered and a decent person, whereas Xu Ziluo was quite the opposite. She was somewhat pretty, but her temperament was willful and overbearing. Many of Zhuang Wei’s friends thought she was not worth his devotion, yet he would merely smile whenever they said so.
Xu Ziqing knew nothing of the entanglement between Zhuang Wei and Xu Ziluo, but he liked Zhuang Wei very much. Both were mild-tempered, and after exchanging a few words in the herb garden, they found themselves getting along remarkably well. Xu Ziqing did not look down on himself, and Zhuang Wei did not disdain Xu Ziqing for his low cultivation. Without noticing the passage of time, the two ended up talking for a full hour.
It was Xu Ziqing who finally came to his senses. Glancing at the sky, he smiled at Zhuang Wei. “Brother Zhuang, I haven’t asked yet. What spiritual herb did you come here for?”
Zhuang Wei snapped back to himself as well and slapped his forehead. “I got so caught up talking with you, Brother Ziqing, that I completely forgot. The courtyard master originally sent me to request ten stalks of Red Silk Grass…” He had only intervened first because he happened to see Xu Ziluo about to attack someone in the Hundred Herbs Garden.
Xu Ziqing understood and smiled. “Some Red Silk Grass has just matured. I’ll fetch it for Brother Zhuang.”
Zhuang Wei gave an honest smile. “Then many thanks, Brother Ziqing.”
Red Silk Grass was a low-level spiritual herb. To harvest it, one only needed to use a blade imbued with spiritual power and slice it evenly at ground level. The herb gatherer did not need to use any spiritual power of their own. A simple spiritual herb like this was therefore something even Xu Ziqing could harvest himself.
Xu Ziqing went to the appropriate herb plot, where a little over twenty stalks had matured just the day before. He selected the ten with the best appearance, cut them down, placed them in a wooden box, and carefully carried the box over to Zhuang Wei.
Zhuang Wei accepted the box and inspected the herbs. Sure enough, both their color and leaf veins had been preserved beautifully. Knowing that Xu Ziqing had deliberately chosen the best ones for him, he thanked him again before hurrying away.
Because of this unexpected encounter, Xu Ziqing gained a friend. That evening, while meditating in cultivation, he seemed to experience a flash of insight. The spiritual energy in his dantian rapidly compressed until, with a muffled burst, quantity finally transformed into quality and a tiny spiritual source took root.
From that moment on, Xu Ziqing had truly reached the first layer of Qi Refinement!
*
Old He looked Xu Ziqing up and down, clicking his tongue in wonder. “Good lad! It’s only been three months, yet you’ve already reached the first layer of Qi Refinement. Your fortune is no small thing!”
Xu Ziqing blinked, then hurriedly said, “It’s because Senior taught me well.”
Old He shook his head. “No need to be so modest. The other disciples who entered at the same time as you are still continuously drawing in the spiritual energy of Heaven and Earth, yet you alone have established your spiritual source. That alone shows your talent is good. I truly don’t understand why your aptitude was assessed as ‘lowest.’ If someone like you, who reached the first layer of Qi Refinement in such a short time, counts as having the lowest aptitude, then this old man took three whole years back then. Wouldn’t that make me worse than lowest?”
Xu Ziqing himself was startled. He had established his spiritual source in three months and had assumed everyone else was much faster than he was. Only after hearing Old He say this did he realize that he was actually the fastest.
After marveling for a while, Old He grew serious. “Xu Ziqing, with aptitude like yours, keeping you here to do miscellaneous work would be a waste. If you wish, I can speak to the family head and have you transferred to the Eastern Main Courtyard. Your aptitude was rated poorly by the formation back then, so you would probably have to begin in the Fourth Courtyard. But if you can break through to the second layer of Qi Refinement there with the same unstoppable momentum, I doubt it would be difficult to transfer you directly to the First Courtyard.”
After listening, Xu Ziqing thought for a moment, then shook his head. “There’s no need, Steward He. Ziqing only wishes to cultivate here in the Hundred Herbs Garden. I don’t want to go to the Eastern Main Courtyard.”
Old He looked puzzled. “You truly don’t want to go? You get no resources here with me, but in the main courtyard you’d receive an allotment every month and could even take pills to advance your cultivation. This old man has seen that you work diligently and cultivate hard. If you went there, you might very well make something of yourself.”
Xu Ziqing still refused. “Ziqing is very interested in spiritual herbs. I ask Steward He to allow me to remain here.”
Seeing how firm his attitude was, Old He finally stopped trying to persuade him. He genuinely wanted Xu Ziqing to have a promising future, but when he heard Xu Ziqing say that he loved spiritual herbs and was willing to cultivate on his own in the Hundred Herbs Garden, he felt both regretful for him and secretly pleased. Old He himself dearly loved spiritual herbs. Otherwise, having reached the ninth layer of Qi Refinement long ago, why would he still be here tending them? He could have become a Supreme Elder and enjoyed an easy life instead! Now that he had discovered Xu Ziqing shared the same passion, his favorable impression of Xu Ziqing rose from three parts to seven.
So he smiled. “Since you’ve made up your mind, I’ll keep this matter quiet for you. Just work hard at your cultivation and take good care of the spiritual herbs.”
Xu Ziqing smiled as well. “Many thanks, Steward He. This junior is deeply grateful.”
After that, Old He instructed Xu Ziqing with even greater care and attention. Xu Ziqing could feel that he was gradually becoming closer to this rigid and irascible Steward He.
In recent days, Old He had suddenly stopped teaching Xu Ziqing how to tend the spiritual herbs and instead told him to focus entirely on cultivation, handling all the work in the garden himself. Xu Ziqing could not understand the reason no matter how much he thought about it, but there was certainly nothing bad about having more time to cultivate. He therefore followed the instruction and devoted himself wholeheartedly to meditation.
His absorption of spiritual power remained smooth and steady. The spiritual energy of the other four attributes continued to ignore Xu Ziqing completely, while the wood qi remained especially fond of him.
The Ren and Du meridians could be called the beginning of cultivation, and opening them was correspondingly difficult. Even with a cultivation method to guide him, he could practice day after day without managing to open so much as a single acupoint, and the grinding frustration of it was extremely unpleasant.
Before he knew it, another month had passed, and Xu Ziqing had finally opened eight acupoints along the Du meridian. The first two had been comparatively difficult, but once he overcame that hurdle, the next six came somewhat more easily.
During that time, Old He had also come by to ask about Xu Ziqing’s cultivation progress. After thinking it over, Xu Ziqing reported only three acupoints. It was not that he deliberately meant to guard against Old He. He simply understood that if he wanted to cultivate peacefully in the Hundred Herbs Garden, he could not afford to stand out too much. Old He truly valued him, but he was also loyal to the Xu family. If Xu Ziqing continued advancing at such a pace, then even if Old He kept concealing it, the day the truth came out, neither of them was likely to come off well. Xu Ziqing thought that since the speed at which he had established his spiritual source had been called “extremely fast,” his current pace was probably not slow either. Almost instinctively, he chose to understate it.
Sure enough, when Old He heard that Xu Ziqing had opened three acupoints in a month, he was astonished and repeatedly praised his remarkable progress.
Hearing this, Xu Ziqing frowned inwardly. For some reason, a sense of unease arose in him, and he quickly said, “The first acupoint took a great deal of effort to open, while the next two were easier. But after opening three, I’ve become stuck at the fourth.”
Old He laughed heartily. “How could cultivation ever be that easy? Just focus on cultivating here. If you put in the hard work day after day, there will always come a time when it bears fruit.”
Xu Ziqing bowed. “This junior understands. Thank you for your instruction, Steward He.”
Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, it was time for Kaiyuan.
Kaiyuan referred to the opening of a wilderness called Linyuan, which was itself a small secret realm. Three small secret realms had so far appeared in Haotian Small World. The Xu family, together with the Tian, Luo, Meng, and Wei families, jointly controlled the Linyuan Secret Realm, while the other two small secret realms were held by major sects of the overseas immortal mountains.
The Linyuan Secret Realm opened on an extremely regular cycle, once every five years. Within it were countless spiritual herbs, strange beasts, mountain treasures, and forest riches, and nearly everyone who managed to enter came away with some kind of gain.
Not everyone, however, could enter the secret realm. A jade sword was required as a guide. The heads of the five great cultivation families each possessed one such jade sword. Before entry, it could envelop those entering in a layer of restriction; once they entered, the restriction disappeared, and they could begin searching for treasures.
But since it was a secret realm, danger naturally came with it. Over the years, those allowed inside had either received special permission from a family head, possessed exceptional aptitude, or qualified for some other reason. In any case, the number entering under a jade sword could not exceed one hundred. Otherwise, the jade sword’s effect would go awry, and no one knew where the excess people might be transported.
Only two days before they were due to set out for the secret realm’s entrance did Xu Ziqing learn that he, too, would be going. Steward He had seen how interested Xu Ziqing was in tending spiritual herbs and wanted to take him into the wild to see them for himself. And when it came to places where spiritual herbs grew in abundance, a secret realm was naturally the best choice.
When family head Xu Zhengtian heard that Xu Ziqing might inherit Old He’s mantle and remain permanently in the Hundred Herbs Garden, he agreed to Old He’s request. This was also one reason Old He had been making Xu Ziqing spend so much time cultivating lately. Although the secret realm held many spiritual treasures, there were also plenty of people eager to claim a share. People sometimes attacked others inside, then emerged claiming they had never seen the missing person or that a strange beast had killed them, and get away with it.
Although Old He intended to protect Xu Ziqing carefully inside the secret realm, protection from another person was, after all, not strength of his own. He also hoped Xu Ziqing himself could become a little stronger. Even if he could not repel an enemy, at least he might stay alive long enough for Old He to reach him.
After hearing Old He’s explanation, Xu Ziqing’s eyes lit up and eagerness stirred in his heart. Cultivation had shown him just how vast heaven and earth truly were. Now that he had a chance to experience a secret realm for himself, how could he possibly remain unmoved? Old He had practically dropped a huge windfall straight into his lap!