His spiritual power utterly spent, Lu Qinghe lay sprawled on the ground. Yet he couldn’t suppress the joy surging through him. To master a technique-for a mortal, that was no different from becoming a god among men.
He finally possessed a means beyond the reach of ordinary people.
He took out a ten-year Blood Ginseng, swallowed it, and sat cross-legged to recover his spiritual power through meditation.
Half a day later, his depleted reserves finally replenished.
Lu Qinghe understood that to wield the Fireball Technique properly, he had to open the Ren and Du Meridians and reach the third layer of Qi Condensation. Only then would his Spiritual Qi form a Great Heavenly Cycle-not only doubling his spiritual power, but multiplying its circulation speed several times over.
His next goal was clear: push through to the third layer.
Yet even consuming Spirit Rice daily and swallowing ten-year Blood Ginseng every three days, he remained a considerable distance from that threshold.
His cultivation regimen was nothing short of extravagant. Three jin of Spirit Rice a day meant ninety jin a month, worth nine Spirit Stones.
A single ten-year Blood Ginseng was worth two Spirit Stones. Ten per month came to twenty.
Twenty-nine Spirit Stones’ worth of resources consumed each month-an amount a Menial Disciple would need years of toil to accumulate.
Such lavish cultivation was beyond what even Outer Sect Disciples dared imagine.
From that point on, Lu Qinghe never left the small courtyard. He cultivated as diligently as ever, not daring to slacken for even a moment.
In his spare time he practiced the Fireball Technique and the Earth Wall Technique. Within another half month, he succeeded in casting the Earth Wall Technique as well.
As his cultivation deepened, he could now cast techniques three times a day. Beyond that, he had to consume Spirit Stones or Blood Ginseng to restore his spiritual power.
Half a year passed in a flash. Lu Qinghe had been at the Taixuan Sect for nearly two years.
He had grown from a scrawny twelve-year-old child into a youth of fourteen. Daily consumption of Spirit Rice had changed his frame considerably-taller, sturdier, no longer the starved waif who had arrived.
Seated upright on his meditation cushion, Lu Qinghe had long since abandoned the practice of drawing in heaven-and-earth Spiritual Qi to advance his cultivation. For someone with his wretched spiritual roots, that method was a complete waste of time.
Instead, he refined the vast medicinal power of Blood Ginseng to push his cultivation forward.
Lu Qinghe opened his eyes. “Just one step from the third layer.”
Over the past few days he had attempted several times to break through the Ren and Du Meridians and advance to Qi Condensation third layer. Each attempt had failed.
Still-reaching Perfection at the second layer of Qi Condensation in under two years was already comparable to Outer Sect Disciples. Many of the Menial Disciples who had entered alongside him hadn’t even touched the threshold of the second layer. You are reading on NovelPing, the official source.
His thoughts drifted to Wang Shan. He had no idea how the other boy was faring after all this time, or whether his cultivation had grown at all.
“Would his jaw drop if he saw my current cultivation?” Lu Qinghe decided to find a chance to seek Wang Shan out.
He rose and walked to the Spirit Field. The Spirit Rice he had transplanted from the Black Soil Space had withered completely-not a single grain harvested.
He had anticipated this long ago, yet seeing the barren field before his eyes still drew a quiet sigh. For any other Menial Disciple, a total crop failure would mean ruin-if not death, then punishment harsh enough to flay the skin from their bones.
Lu Qinghe himself had no idea what consequences destroying a Spirit Field would bring.
He drew a deep breath. “One year is up. Time to report to the Affairs Hall.” His jaw tightened. “I hope Zhou Tong isn’t there.”
If he could, he would stay here cultivating in silence until he reached the fourth layer of Qi Condensation and entered the Outer Sect.
But he knew that was impossible. The Affairs Hall assessed every Menial Disciple’s merit points each year.
Those who failed were expelled from the Taixuan Sect. And for a Menial Disciple, expulsion meant the end of any hope of continued cultivation.
Without a Sect, obtaining cultivation resources or techniques became nearly impossible. Even the ambient Spiritual Qi within the Taixuan Sect was incomparable to the outside world.
The Taixuan Sect was built atop a massive Spirit Vein.
Here, even cultivators with four or five spiritual roots could potentially reach mid-stage Qi Condensation-perhaps even late-stage.
Outside, dangers lurked everywhere and heaven-and-earth Spiritual Qi was thin. Reaching even the second layer of Qi Condensation would be extraordinarily difficult.
This was precisely why so many Menial Disciples served the Taixuan Sect willingly, enduring whatever indignities came their way.
“What must come will come.”
His only hope now was that the Affairs Hall had changed hands.
Lu Qinghe took a steadying breath. He retrieved a thousand jin of Spirit Rice from the Black Soil Space-he certainly couldn’t pull it out inside the Affairs Hall itself.
He looked at the mountain of grain before him. He would need to find an opportunity to purchase a Storage Bag as cover for the future.
Fortunately, a thousand jin was not an unmanageable weight for a cultivator at the second layer of Qi Condensation.
Lu Qinghe channeled spiritual power into his hands and feet, hoisted the thousand jin of Spirit Rice onto his shoulders, and set off toward the Affairs Hall.
Everyone recognized what this was-a disciple assigned to Spirit Field cultivation, delivering his year’s harvest to the Affairs Hall.
What they couldn’t understand was why a disciple entrusted with a Spirit Field didn’t even own a Storage Bag.
He arrived at the Affairs Hall. A number of Menial Disciples were already there, turning in their assignments.
At the front stood Zhou Tong. He hadn’t left. He was personally verifying each Menial Disciple’s work and merit points.
Lu Qinghe, shouldering a thousand jin of Spirit Rice, drew every eye in the hall.
He ignored the stares and waited for the disciples ahead to finish.
Soon enough, his turn came. Lu Qinghe set the Spirit Rice before Zhou Tong and cupped his fists. “Senior Brother, this is my harvest for the year-one thousand jin of Spirit Rice. Please inspect and accept it.”
Zhou Tong had noticed the oddly burdened youth, of course. Something about the face seemed familiar, but he couldn’t place it.
He did not connect this young man with the Menial Disciple from a year ago-the one who had only just drawn Qi into his body. After all, Zhou Tong knew better than anyone that not a single grain of Spirit Rice could possibly grow in that field.
Moreover, Lu Qinghe’s appearance had changed considerably over the past year. Though only fourteen, he looked fifteen or sixteen.
In Zhou Tong’s mind, that particular Menial Disciple should be wallowing in despair right about now. Once the handover deadline passed without him appearing, Zhou Tong would go investigate. When the boy failed to produce any Spirit Rice, Zhou Tong would report to the Sect that a Menial Disciple had ruined a Spirit Field. The boy’s fate after that was easy enough to imagine.
The reason Zhou Tong had gone to such lengths was simple: the Spirit Field’s depletion was his own doing.
To break through to the seventh layer of Qi Condensation, he had secretly used that Sect Spirit Field to nurture a High Grade spirit herb. He simply hadn’t expected the field to give out entirely, its spiritual power draining to nothing.
Zhou Tong weighed the delivery and nodded. “One thousand and five jin. Not bad at all-Junior Brother’s harvest this year is quite impressive.”
“Hand me your token.”
Lu Qinghe passed over his identity token. Zhou Tong glanced at the information inscribed upon it-and his eyes snapped wide, locking onto Lu Qinghe with undisguised shock.
“You’re Lu Qinghe? The one assigned to secondary Spirit Field number fifty-six?”
Lu Qinghe kept his expression respectful and even. “Yes.”