Xu Ziqing stroked the fledgling’s fuzzy head and could not help laughing. “You really do grow fast.”
The fledgling merely puffed out its belly, then in a few hops climbed back into the crook of his neck and curled up.
Xu Ziqing crouched down and carefully examined the plant. He had once memorized several ancient texts on spiritual herbs and thought they were fairly comprehensive, yet he did not recognize this plant at all. Clearly, the natural world was too vast to be encompassed by what a few books could record.
Since he did not recognize it and had no idea whether it was poisonous, he decided to do nothing more than admire it.
The entire plant was pale green, while its leaves were a clear jade-green. Each leaf was translucent enough that its veins seemed visible. The fledgling had dug around its roots in search of insects, and now that the insects had been eaten, Xu Ziqing could see the roots themselves. They were a goose-yellow color and about as long as ginseng roots, but without any of ginseng’s knobby growths. He therefore had no idea whether they were useful or possessed any medicinal properties.
After looking it over, Xu Ziqing scooped up the loose soil beside it and carefully covered the roots again. Chonghua had only dug there to find insects. It would hardly be right if the plant died for no reason because of that.
From then on, Xu Ziqing and the fledgling settled down in this grotto-heaven. Since it was as warm as spring inside, there was no need to build a house. Xu Ziqing therefore enjoyed the pleasure of sleeping beneath the open sky. During the day, he accompanied the fledgling as it hunted for insects. Later, man and eagle would go outside the cave to the lakebed and watch the whirlpool. Whenever his body grew tired, he would meditate for a while and nourish his flesh with spiritual energy. Living this way was not difficult at all.
Yet every night when Xu Ziqing fell asleep, he would involuntarily enter that dark, unfathomable place. Each time he stumbled forward through it, he inevitably encountered the white-robed man.
The man in white never spoke to Xu Ziqing. At first, Xu Ziqing still had to ask him for directions, but later, the moment the man saw him, he would simply sweep his sleeve and send Xu Ziqing away.
This happened every day, leaving Xu Ziqing rather apologetic, yet he had no idea how to control it. He wanted to thank the man in white, but every meeting ended before they could exchange a word. Thinking that this stern man probably disliked conversation, Xu Ziqing could only remember the favor, hold his gratitude in his heart, and hope to repay it someday.
Even so, he still did not know where that place was or what sort of person the man in white might be. He had once thought it might be some corner of the road to the Yellow Springs, but after learning that he was still alive, he could no longer guess.
Before he knew it, more than ten days had passed. One day, just as Xu Ziqing was about to accompany the fledgling to eat as usual, his stomach suddenly growled. He pressed a hand against it and immediately felt hungry.
It turned out that the effect of the lower-grade Fasting Pill had worn off. By now, it was time for him to eat again.
Elio’s Notes: The raw labels this item as a “lower-grade Foundation Establishment Pill” here, but the surrounding context and the established item from earlier chapters identify it as the Fasting Pill. FD treats this as a source-text slip and keeps the established term.
He had truly lost track of everything these past few days. Settling his thoughts, Xu Ziqing lowered his head and smiled at the fledgling. “Chonghua, why don’t you eat first, then come with me afterward. All right?”
The fledgling tilted its head and lightly pecked his cheek. “Jiu.” It had agreed.
So they found another plant and let the fledgling eat its insects. Only afterward did Xu Ziqing continue forward in search of branches bearing fruit. After walking a little over a hundred steps, he saw three to five shrubs diagonally ahead on his left, each about two chi tall. Their branches were laden with so much fruit they nearly bent beneath the weight.
Xu Ziqing stopped and leaned closer. The fruits were perfectly round and about the size of longans, some green, some red, and some purple. They grew in clusters beneath yellow leaves the size of a palm and gave off a faint, fresh fragrance.
He wrapped his hand in the hem of his robe, picked a cluster of purple fruit, and brought it close to smell. The fragrance was clean and proper, and he felt no dizziness. It ought to be edible, perhaps, but he still could not be certain.
Yet he had no idea how many years or months he might have to live inside this grotto-heaven. No matter how suspicious he was, he could not simply starve himself to death. After considering it repeatedly, he carefully peeled one fruit, removed its skin, and gave it a tentative lick.
The flavor was rich and mellow. He waited a while and felt no discomfort, so only then did he eat it. The flesh was sweet and fragrant, and once it entered his stomach, it transformed into a warm current. In an instant, his hunger vanished completely.
Xu Ziqing was delighted. If a single fruit could have such an effect, then this would save him a great deal of trouble. Since the skins were rather hard, he picked several more clusters, took off his outer robe, and tied them up inside it as a bundle.
He had just turned to head back when the fledgling suddenly beat its wings rapidly and, with a burst of flapping, lunged ahead! Xu Ziqing was shocked. Chonghua was still so young. How could it fly already?
But the fledgling kept stumbling and flapping onward. No matter how Xu Ziqing called from behind, it refused to stop. Helpless and worried, he could only hurry after it.
During all these days, apart from the insects beneath the plants, Xu Ziqing had not seen another living creature, so he did not think there was much danger. Still, the forest ahead was denser. If Chonghua disappeared in there, how could he not be distressed?
The fledgling circled around two clumps of trees and passed through a curtain of vines before arriving at a secluded place. Spiritual energy surged there several times more densely than elsewhere, but only within an area of a few meters, nourishing a lush patch of vivid green ground.
A clean, fresh qi rushed into Xu Ziqing’s nose, wonderfully pleasant. The fledgling hopped onto the patch and kept patting at one spot while chirping without pause.
Xu Ziqing assumed the fledgling had caught the scent of some new insects and laughed. “Chonghua, did you find something good?”
The fledgling tilted its head and looked at him, adorably simple and innocent. Xu Ziqing indulged it, followed its wishes, and went over to scoop away the soil with his hands.
The earth here was moist. When he rubbed some between his fingers, it seemed faintly tinged with red. Its earthy scent was very fresh, yet carried an almost imperceptible sweet, fishy note that was exceedingly unusual.
After digging for a quarter of an hour without finding any insects, he instead unearthed a palm-sized green rootstock. Its color was rich, its surface moist and full, and its spiritual energy was tightly restrained within. It looked as though it would be wonderfully thirst-quenching.
Xu Ziqing wrapped it in cloth and held it up to the light. Against the clear green, he saw a single red speck clinging within and leaned closer to examine it. Suddenly, the red speck flew straight at him and struck him between the brows. Xu Ziqing felt as though a great hammer had smashed into his head. With a thunderous crash in his mind, he toppled to the ground.
The fledgling chirped frantically beside him, flying around Xu Ziqing again and again but unable to wake him. The green rootstock gradually seeped into Xu Ziqing’s body like grease dissolving into water. His face shifted between green and white, all the clothes on his body tore apart, and his skin reddened and swelled. Threads of green qi seemed to writhe beneath his skin before the turmoil finally settled.
Xu Ziqing, however, had now reached an extremely dangerous moment.
This green object was not actually a plant rootstock. It was the condensed essence of Yi-Wood qi, called the “Essence of Yi Wood,” born where Yi-Wood qi was most abundant. Ten thousand years could produce a single drop of essence. Once that essence settled, countless more years were needed before it could congeal into one li of gelatinous substance. Li by li, it accumulated until it finally became solid.
Elio’s Notes: Yi Wood (乙木) refers to the Yin-Wood aspect associated with the second Heavenly Stem, 乙. Keeping “Yi” preserves the specific cosmological term rather than flattening it into generic “wood.”
No one knew who had created this grotto-heaven. It lay within a secret realm that opened only once every five years and beneath the whirlpool at the bottom of the lake, making it exceedingly difficult for anyone to enter. Most of the shrubs, vines, and green grasses within the grotto-heaven were all Yi Wood, so Yi-Wood qi was extraordinarily abundant. Over the accumulated years, that qi produced essence. For so much of it to have formed a piece the size of a palm, there was no telling how many years it had taken.
If Xu Ziqing had been luckier and simply consumed the Essence of Yi Wood naturally, its endlessly renewing, yin-natured qi could have repaired his dantian and returned him to cultivation. Unfortunately, his luck was poor, because attached to this many-years-old Essence of Yi Wood was a seed.
That seed belonged to the Bloodthirsty Demon Vine.
As its name suggested, the Bloodthirsty Demon Vine was the most violent and bloodthirsty vine-like plant in the Nine Thousand Worlds and was exceedingly rare. Legend said it could survive only in places steeped in blood and baleful qi. Once its vines grew, they fed by sucking the flesh and blood of every race, whether mortals, cultivators, or immortals. Any being of flesh and blood caught by it could not escape. Few things were more vicious.
No one knew who had brought this seed here. It had somehow remained beside the Essence of Yi Wood year after year. Its baleful nature had gradually weakened, yet it had never sprouted. Now that Xu Ziqing came close, the demon-vine seed sensed a living person and immediately lunged at him. If Xu Ziqing had not absorbed the Essence of Yi Wood at that very moment and thereby acquired a familiar aura, he would likely already have been sucked dry into a human husk.
Yet it was a blood-soaked, baleful thing after all. The moment it entered a human body, Xu Ziqing was plunged into terrible pain. The demon-vine seed actually intended to parasitize his body and remain forever inseparable from the Essence of Yi Wood.
For a time, the demon-vine seed tried to fuse with Xu Ziqing’s blood essence, while the Essence of Yi Wood rapidly dissolved into his flesh, blood, and meridians to repair his damaged dantian. The two forces fought and merged at once, leaving Xu Ziqing as though trapped between ice and fire, alternately freezing and burning, in pain beyond description.
In the end, the Essence of Yi Wood’s restorative power was stronger. All the essence accumulated over countless years became Xu Ziqing’s, and in the blink of an eye, his dantian was completely restored. His consciousness was hazy, but by instinct he sought some way to lessen the pain and naturally began circulating the Herb Transformation Art. Yi-Wood spiritual energy poured in wildly, descended through his spiritual roots, and circulated at tremendous speed. In an instant, he returned to the first layer of Qi Refinement. Then, drawing on the power of both the essence and the seed, he continuously opened acupoints, the energy renewing itself endlessly as it cycled without cease…
After a long while, several more meridians opened without obstruction, and Xu Ziqing’s cultivation surged upward. Sensing how active the Essence of Yi Wood had become, the demon-vine seed felt an instinctive closeness to it and gradually settled down.
After still more time, the Herb Transformation Art began to slow and finally stopped, yet spiritual energy continued pouring in. Suddenly, it seemed to strike some unseen obstruction. Countless lines of cultivation formulas rang in Xu Ziqing’s ears, plunged directly into his sea of consciousness, and crashed back and forth with deafening force!
Within his dantian, spiritual power formed a vortex and spun rapidly in accordance with this newly born art. Spiritual power coursed through his entire body. Everywhere except the meridians that had not yet opened became unobstructed and free-flowing. The power then settled into his dantian, gathering thicker and thicker until it was immensely deep and vigorous.
The demon-vine seed had originally lodged at Xu Ziqing’s brow. Now, the attracting force suddenly dragged it downward into his dantian and swept it into the vortex. Little by little, the remaining baleful qi was ground away until the seed merged with the vortex itself.
At last, it was tamed.
At that exact moment, Xu Ziqing’s eyes snapped open. “Hah!” he shouted, and immediately woke.
The instant he regained consciousness, Xu Ziqing noticed the changes throughout his body. He felt light as a swallow, even more relaxed than when he had been cultivating properly before. Looking down, he saw that the green rootstock in his hand had vanished. A realization immediately came to him. He sat cross-legged at once and made a brief inspection. Sure enough, his dantian had been restored!
When he entered meditation again to examine his condition, Xu Ziqing was astonished.
Of the twenty meridians throughout his body, eight were already open. This situation could mean only one thing… he had actually reached the fifth layer of Qi Refinement!