CH 10

“You did well.”

Elder Qingyue set down the jade pot in his hands, abandoning the thought of watering the spiritual plants for the time being. He should first teach this young disciple their medical cultivations methods.

With such a pure wood spiritual root like this, even a quarter of an hour’s delay was a waste.

“Come with me, I’ll show you our Tianxuan Sect’s medical cultivation method.” Elder Qingyue’s tone was kind.

Chu Qi followed Elder Qingyue and stepped into Zhongling Peak’s Medicine Pavilion. The bottom floor contained all sorts of medicinal ingredients, the second floor was where elixirs were refined, and the third floor was where the training took place.

“The Patriarch who founded Tianxuan Sect passed down a set of medical cultivation methods. They are mainly based on healing techniques as well as elixir refinement and cultivation of medicinal plants to a lesser degree. The Patriarch himself was also a sword cultivator and in battle, any kind of pill wasn’t as timely as a healing technique.”

As Elder Qingyue spoke, he took out the scroll containing the medical cultivation method from the restriction array and handed it over to Chu Qi.

“Close your eyes to perceive and use your divine sense to read.”

Chu Qi followed suit.

The moment he closed his eyes, his spiritual awareness became clearer and clearer. When it fell onto the medical cultivation scroll in his hands, his consciousness was drawn in by a gentle force.

Ancient runes appeared in Chu Qi’s mind while a clear voice instructed him on how to recognize them.

The method was divided into four volumes; one for spiritual healing, one for refining medicine, one for medicinal plants, and one for cultivating the mind.

After sorting out and summarizing each volume, they were further subdivided into spiritual arts that were most suitable for each stage of cultivation.

After a while, Chu Qi opened his eyes. His spiritual awareness had been imprinted with the method, but he lacked practice.

“Start with the mental training, then grow medicinal plants, medicine refinement, and then spiritual healing. In addition to your regular studies, you will also need to attend a class on basic swordsmanship. It is quite practical to learn, though it is quite difficult.”

“This disciple will remember.”

“You can try to train your mind first. I will watch over you.” If something went wrong, Elder Qingyue would be able to stop it in time.

Sitting down on the cushion used for meditation, Chu Qi followed the teachings described in the method and practiced the technique for healing and cultivating the mind.

Before he entered Tianxuan Sect, he had already drawn some qi into his body. Now, he only needed to use the absorbed qi to nourish his wood spiritual root at lingtai1, circulate it through his meridians, and repeat in a big cycle.

Elder Qingyue watched as Chu Qi practiced. His cultivation base was much higher than Chu Qi’s and he could see the flow of spiritual energy as if it were a tangible thing. There was a large Spirit Gathering array in the Medicine Pavilion, and since their Zhongling Peak was situated deep within Tianxuan Sect’s spiritual veins, the spiritual energy was extremely abundant.

Even then, there was still a lot of spiritual energy pouring into Chu Qi’s body. The surrounding Spirit Gathering array even had to speed up its activity in order to supply the spiritual energy he was consuming.

This kind of talent was really rare and far superior to ordinary innate wood spiritual roots. Even if it was a single spiritual root, they were still divided into ordinary, superior, and extreme. If it was the rarest kind of extreme wood spiritual root, it could attract the blessing of the sacred tree, and the dao of medical cultivation would open.

Elder Qingyue stroked his beard. If he guessed correctly, this little disciple of his should have the ultimate wood spiritual root. It seems as if the revitalization of their Tianxuan Sect’s medical cultivation was just around the corner.

Once a person concentrates, they would easily lose awareness of the passage of time around them.

When Chu Qi withdrew from his meditation, the sky had turned dark without him knowing. The spiritual power in his body was abundant, so he didn’t feel tired at all, but since his body hadn’t practiced inedia before, he was a little hungry.

After Chu Qi got up from the cushion, a sound transmission talisman was activated and Elder Qingyue’s voice could be heard from it.

“Little disciple, this teacher has left first to go back to taking care of the spiritual plants. After you finish, if you are hungry, you can find a bigu pill in the qiankun bag on the table. Eat that first. Tomorrow, this teacher will have a handyman disciple deliver meals to Zhongling Peak.”

Chu Qi picked up the qiankun bag on the table and found that not only did it contain more than ten bottles of bigu pills, but also a medicine refining cauldron, a jade pot for watering, and some spiritual stones.

He took out a bigu pill and swallowed it.

Although there was no taste, the hunger in his stomach was quickly soothed. It was really quite convenient.

There was also a refining technique for bigu pills that was mentioned in the medical cultivation method. If he could learn it, he could become self-sufficient and wouldn’t have to trouble the handyman disciples to deliver food. After all, Zhongling Peak was quite far.

Just as Chu Qi was thinking about how to practice in the future, the identity token on his waist flickered and felt warm to the touch.

—This was a sign that another disciple was trying to contact him.

Chu Qi was a Tianxuan Sect disciple in his last life as well, so he naturally understood this.

After inputting some of his spiritual power into the token, he heard a dissatisfied voice come from the other end, “Why are you like this? You clearly said you’d send me a message earlier.”

Chu Qi suddenly came back to his senses. He had been busy today and hadn’t yet contacted Yan Jiuge like he said he would.

“Did you forget? If I didn’t send you a message, would you just pretend that nothing happened?”

It could be heard that Yan Jiuge was very upset.

“I didn’t forget. I just didn’t realize that I would be training for so long today, so don’t be angry.” Chu Qi quickly explained.

“I’m not angry.” Yan Jiuge snorted coldly.

“Okay, you’re not angry.” Chu Qi played along with him.

“…” The voice on the other end of the token was quiet for a while before continuing to ask, “I heard from Liu-shixiong that Zhongling Peak doesn’t have any handyman disciples to do the cooking. Have you had anything to eat?”

“…”

On this end, before Chu Qi could answer, he heard a familiar voice come from the other end, “Yan-shidi, I’ve sent a message to Bai Xuan-shijie. She will be coming down from Zhongling Peak to pick up the food for Chu-shidi.”

Chu Qi listened verbatim, saying with some surprise, “Have you come to Zhongling Peak?”

Yan Jiuge: “…”

He didn’t intend to tell Chu Qi.

“Then I’ll go down with shijie! Just wait for me!”

Before Yan Jiuge could respond, Chu Qi cut the connection and trotted out of the Medicine Pavilion. 

Outside, Bai Xuan had just summoned the white Luan and was preparing to go down the mountain to procure food for her xiao-shidi.

“Shijie! Take me with you!” Chu Qi shouted at her.

“Wow, xiao-shidi, have you finished your meditation? Shifu said that you were still practicing in the Medicine Pavilion, so I didn’t bother you.”

“Just finished training.” Chu Qi replied.

“Shifu has prepared bigu pills for you, but it’s tasteless and definitely not as good as real food. Someone has brought you some and I was just going down to get it.”

“It’s Liu Weiming-shixiong and my friend.” Chu Qi already knew.

The two got settled on the white Luan’s back, and it took off with a flap of its wings.

Bai Xuan was still feeling emotional, “It’s really strange, shidi. This is the first time I’ve seen such a mindful swordsman. Knowing that you haven’t started inedia, he knew to bring you food. Liu Weiming really deserves to be the Sect Head’s disciple.”

Chu Qi: “…”

He had felt that it was more likely that Yan Jiuge had brought up this matter. Otherwise, Liu-shixiong would have delivered the meal by himself and Yan Jiuge wouldn’t have come with him.

They soon arrived at the foot of Zhongling Peak.

Just as Chu Qi jumped off the white Luan’s back, he saw two figures standing there waiting for them.

The moonlight was bright and clear, falling on Yan Jiuge’s body. The corners of his lips were slightly pursed, his expression was cold, and he was standing there quietly. Only when he raised his head to look at Chu Qi, his eyes dotted with moonlight, did his eyes, like a shadow in a cold pool, suddenly soften.

Bai Xuan’s movements were a little faster than Chu Qi’s. She walked to stand in front of Liu Weiming, but saw that he was empty-handed. With a puzzled expression on her face, she asked, “Liu-shidi, you’re here to deliver food, aren’t you? Where is it?”

Liu Weiming explained, “Yan-shidi said that he wanted to bring food to Chu-shidi, but that he hadn’t built his foundation yet. He can’t fly with a sword and I was worried that he wouldn’t be able to find his way, so I came along.”

The food box was in Yan Jiuge’s hands.

Yan Jiuge: “…”

Meeting Chu Qi’s gaze, Yan Jiuge handed over the food, “Here you are.”

Chu Qi was a little moved, “Thank you for your hard work.” It took a long time to travel from Zaohua Peak to Zhongling Peak. It wasn’t easy for Yan Jiuge to come here.

“It wasn’t difficult.” Yan Jiuge’s tone turned a little blunt, “I was just afraid that you’d be stupid enough to starve yourself.”

“It smells so good. They’re all my favorites!”

“Of course. After all, you’re so picky. What if you don’t eat enough?”

“…”

The two boys, one tall and one short, got together to talk. Not far behind them, Bai Xuan and Liu Weiming were standing there waiting for their respective shidi to go back.

Bai Xuan slightly raised her brows. She had seen many sword cultivators, but this was the first time she saw one with such a bad mouth.

Disliking her shidi for being picky, but still sending him food.

The meal was served with so much attention to detail, but his tongue was really sharp. He really wasn’t good at pleasing others.

For a moment, Bai Xuan didn’t know how to evaluate him, but seeing how her shidi answered so skillfully, he was probably used to it?

“Liu-shidi, does Wenjian Peak have morning lectures tomorrow?” Idly making conversation, Bai Xuan asked about the sword cultivator’s daily schedule.

“Yes.” Sword cultivators needed to get up early every morning for sword training. In addition, there was a lecture every seven days. At that time, a sword cultivator Elder would speak at Wenjian Peak to guide disciples in their training. Tomorrow morning would be one of those lecture days.

“That’s good. My shidi hasn’t learned the basic sword forms of Tianxuan Sect yet. I’ll send him to Wenjian Peak to join the class with you sword cultivators tomorrow morning.” Bai Xuan replied.

“En?” Liu Weiming’s expression was puzzled, “Do medical cultivators also learn swordsmanship?”

“It’s a good skill to learn.” Bai Xuan didn’t think there was anything wrong with it. She had learned swordsmanship, and so had Elder Qingyue. For medical cultivators, learning swordsmanship was the icing on the cake. It made it much more convenient when they went out to gain experience.

“Okay. The Elders are there to teach. As long as they’re a disciple of our Tianxuan Sect, they can listen in.” Liu Weiming thought about the notoriety of this shijie, and couldn’t find a way to refute her.

While the two of them were talking, Chu Qi had made his way over with the food box. He naturally overheard them talking about tomorrow’s morning class.

“Will I be going tomorrow to learn swordsmanship?” Then, wouldn’t he get to see Yan Jiuge training?

Chu Qi’s eyes lit up.

“Do you really want to learn it that badly?” It was really difficult for medical cultivators to learn swordsmanship.

Seeing his happy look, Yan Jiuge swallowed the second half of that sentence.

Chu Qi nodded, “En, but I don’t have a spiritual sword yet…” He would have to go to the Treasure Pavilion to pick one out.

“Take it.”

As soon as Yan Jiuge finished speaking, a spiritual sword sealed in a silver scabbard appeared in front of Chu Qi’s eyes.

“You’re giving this to me?”

Yan Jiuge nodded, “This is a spare spiritual sword. I haven’t used it in many years, so you can have it.”

Shhing—! With a sound, the spiritual sword was unsheathed.

Grasping the hilt of the sword, Chu Qi found that the body of this spiritual sword was slender and elegant. Under the moonlight, it looked like it was made of silver. The blade was sharp, but surprisingly light.

When he looked carefully, he could see that in the center of the hilt, there was a pattern within which were the engraved words, ‘Gui Yin’.

“The Gui Yin sword?” Chu Qi’s eyes flashed with astonishment, “I remember your spiritual sword, its name is Long… Long Yin?”

“…It was originally made by the same craftsman, so the names are similar.” Yan Jiuge looked away, glancing down at the spiritual sword on his waist, “If you don’t like it, you can just erase the name and re-engrave it.”

Chu Qi quickly shook his head, “I like it a lot. There’s no need to re-engrave it.”

He was a sword cultivator in his previous life and knowing that swords were born with spirits, changing their names couldn’t be taken lightly. If it wasn’t necessary, one shouldn’t change it easily.

This spiritual sword was very easy to hold. Chu Qi couldn’t help but look at it a few more times. Suddenly, he realized that aside from the name and patterns, this spiritual sword was very similar to the one he had in his previous life.

If a sword cultivator entered Tianxuan Sect without their own spiritual sword, the sect would distribute an ordinary one. When their cultivation level rose in the future, the spiritual sword would be reforged with rare materials and could be placed inside the minggong point2 to warm it with their golden core to create a natal spiritual sword.

Chu Qi remembered that Yan Jiuge also gave him the ‘uniformly issued spiritual sword’ of the sect at that time.

Old matters came to mind as Chu Qi rubbed the engraving on the hilt of the sword. If he hadn’t argued with Yan Jiuge at that time, Gui Yin might not have lost its name.

Forget it, the past was the past, this life was only just beginning.

Putting Gui Yin back into the scabbard, Chu Qi looked at Yan Jiuge in front of him and said, “I like this spiritual sword very much. Thank you.”

Yan Jiuge: “What’s the problem? I’m older than you so I should be taking care of you.”

Chu Qi understood what he meant, “But we’re also in the same generation.”

“There are still shixiong and shijie within the same generation.” Yan Jiuge persisted, “If you’re really embarrassed, you can call me Yan-shixiong.”

Chu Qi: “…”

“It’s not difficult to become a shixiong. If you build your foundation sooner than my shidi, he will naturally refer to you as his shixiong.” Seeing Chu Qi’sslightly embarrassed expression, Bai Xuan stepped in to save the day, “It’s getting late, rest early today? You two have morning classes tomorrow, after all.”

“Okay.” Yan Jiuge responded quickly, with a pleasant tone.

Chu Qi: “…”

Although he was rescued by his shijie just now, she obviously didn’t know that Yan Jiuge was a cultivation genius who built his foundation less than a month after getting started!!!

Unless he could also build his foundation within this month, he would have to call Yan Jiuge ‘shixiong’!!!

[1] Lingtai (灵台) refers to a specific acupressure point. In the standardized nomenclature, this is the GV10 point and is located along the spine, just above the base of the shoulderblades.

[2] Minggong (命宫) is another acupressure point, as far as I can tell it’s located in the center of your forehead, between the brows.