That night when I went back inside and informed my parents that I had managed to breakthrough to the Seventh Foundation stage they both immediately threw a ‘celebration’ that warmed my heart despite its awkwardness.
Mother peppered me in kisses before starting dinner while Father made his way back into the town to pick up some extra goodies, leaving me alone with Mother and allowing her to constantly heap praises onto me even as she maneuvered around the kitchen to cook.
It was warm even if she was just repeating similar enough phrases each time since she didn’t really know what to say since she didn’t cultivate at all, and it didn’t really get much better when Father returned since he wasn’t one for discussion anyways.
He did come back home with a large loaf of bread as well as a small cake, though instead of praising me some more he just gave me a slight look and said something about Bianca giving them to him for a steep discount because of me.
Trying to not grin at that was very hard, and also withstanding his piercing obsidian gaze as he tried to figure out why the baker’s daughter was willing to practically give away really good bread and a cake for such a low cost…
that was difficult too.
My promiscuity wasn’t exactly a secret – in this house or in town – but the people that I messed around with weren’t known, and someone like Bianca was meant to be a bit more…
‘respected’ since her and her own Father commanded a great deal of respect and influence in the town.
A baker didn’t seem that ‘important’ but the bread the man baked there was simply perfection, with it being one of the best things to eat in this entire town; he sold it relatively cheap and made it so delicious that the few other people who baked in the town tended to keep quiet about their talents since nothing really compared to his loaves.
Nice, talented, a bit wealthy and very well connected, the baker was one of our main pillars in the town, so me banging his daughter whenever I wanted without wanting to tie a knot with her was a bit…
Thankfully she always took some herbs and made it clear to me that she didn’t want to marry anyone anytime soon anyways, so we just had some casual fun every now and then, like we did this morning.
Father didn’t push and just ate dinner quietly, offering thanks and telling me to keep at it since the Elders should be arriving in a few days; Mother gave me another batch of kisses before retiring for the night, and I meandered back outside and enjoyed the cool night air as I stared at my hands.
I had really broken through to Seventh Foundation…
and I had done it with maybe a grand total of like…
thirty or so Spirit Jades used my entire life; that was barely anything considering we sold so many, and if I had been selfish and demanded more for myself I might even be Eighth Foundation already, maybe even on my way to Ninth Foundation…
Being on the cusp of making it into Spirit Blossoming was merely a fantasy for me though, at least with what I did so far in this life of mine, but if I could make it into the Sect when the Elders came around…
Spirit Blossoming wasn’t that far out of reach.
I don’t think, anyways, since Disciples of the Sect got access to a few Spirit Jades every month to aid in their cultivation, alongside good foods, pills, and all sorts of other things that were meant to help in all kinds of ways.
With that in mind I just sat atop my rock again and continued to ponder things whilst cultivating, shoring up my recent breakthrough as best I could while also praying to the Gods above that the Elders would accept me into the Sect without any complications. Read this novel at novelping dot com for the best experience.
The next day the celebration continued a little with Father heading out before the sun rose to get another fresh loaf of a sweet bread while Mother added some extra spices to the breakfast for more flavor.
She tried to give me some more compliments and whatnot but her lack of understanding limited her praise to things that were repeated from the night before, and although I told her she could keep showering me in the same sort of praise all she ended up doing was ‘smacking’ the back of my head and telling me to be a bit more humble.
Breakfast went by – and oh~ my~ did I love~ the bread that Bianca sent over alongside the sweet bread, especially when I stuffed some bits of meat inside and squished it down into a small bite sized ball~!
– and I immediately began to cultivate again, further shoring up my foundation however I could.
There was only so much I could do though before the anxiety and excitement began to hum inside of my veins, so before I could get overly wound up I grabbed the cart and a pickaxe before heading for the minds, wanting to lose myself to the usual ‘thrill’ of mindlessly mining away at this black stone.
It wasn’t something I did without purpose though, since swinging the pickaxe had me using my muscles in ways that normal training didn’t entirely hit – at least not in the same manner – while it also helped me get accustomed to the small boost in physical strength that had come with breaking through.
I could tear away larger chunks of the stone with a lot more ease, lifting everything wasn’t killing my back as quickly, and the pickaxe was much easier to swing at this point, allowing me to focus more on the accuracy rather than just hitting the wall with brute force.
And honestly being able to just hone in on the precision of the strikes scratched this itch in my mind that I wasn’t really aware was there, helping soothe my nerves about the imminent arrival of the Elders as I told myself that they would really care about how good I was with a pickaxe…