Having nothing else to do, Ji Fengyan unwrapped the gifts that Xing Lou had rejected. Linghe had chosen the items and they composed mostly of fine jade pieces and accessories—all worthy of grand tutor's status. The items were all traded from Gong Zhengyu, just that Ji Fengyan had yet to take a look at them.
Looking at the tableful of treasures, Ji Fengyan eyes brightened slightly.
However, it wasn't the glittering ornaments themselves that had captured Ji Fengyan's attention—it was the spiritual energy emitted by those articles that had given her a faint jolt!
"How could these things contain spiritual energy?" Ji Fengyan reached out in puzzlement and took a ruby ring in her hand. Turning it over and over in her palm, she could feel that the energy originated from the ring and not the ruby.
The spiritual energy emanated was even somewhat stronger than that of rare ores.
Furthermore, it wasn't just the ruby ring that was radiating spiritual energy—most of the exquisite ornaments on the table contained an abundance of it.
Ji Fengyan was roused by the discovery and she suddenly remembered the piece of jade that she had won from Su Lingsheng. That jade had a decent amount of spiritual energy, though nothing special. Ji Fengyan had thought it was because the jade lost some of its energy after being carved. Now it seems like that was not the case.
Ji Fengyan studied the ornaments for a long time, realizing that the more intricate the carvings, the richer the spiritual energy emitted. On the other hand, the stones that had yet to be carved gave out almost no energy.
Ji Fengyan's mind started to form a conjecture.
During her previous life, machinery had replaced almost all manual craftsmanship. The machinery produced all varieties of exquisite-looking pieces, but caused them to lose part of their spiritual energy. Whereas items carved by master craftsmen with their god-like skills still retained their naturally rich spiritual energy.
This spiritual energy originated from the persevering souls of those craftsmen, whose hands had been immersed in their art for decades—their each and every grinding motion unknowingly infusing these ornaments with the spiritual energies contained between heaven and earth.
It's a pity that during her previous life, there were only a few craftsmen who attained that level of skills and each and every one of their ornaments were highly prized. Ji Fengyan and her master were also cloistered deep inside the mountains and rarely came into contact with the outside world.
But…
In this world, every skill was once created by a person and the legacy of his ingenuity lived on within the ornaments.
Ji Fengyan calmed herself and held those essence-bearing ornaments in her palm, gradually absorbing their spiritual energy.
Spiritual energy flowed through her veins and gushed into her crushed inner core, slowly and gently nourishing her.
However, this subtle feeling caused Ji Fengyan to quiver. She could clearly feel her inner core surging with heat as the spiritual energy poured in.
Ji Fengyan suddenly opened her eyes and looked at the treasure pile. Her eyes sparkled.
"This is so unexpected… the spiritual energy from these ornaments… is even stronger than that of rare ores!"
For almost a month, Ji Fengyan had been using a rare ore for her recovery—which only just repaired half of one of the cracks on her inner core!
With a sudden burst of energy, Ji Fengyan jumped off her bed in a single leap. She was prepared to take out all the remaining treasures from the storage room for her cultivation!