CH 13

“Speaking of, why were you so distracted during the morning lecture?”

Seeing as how he failed to hear the ‘shixiong’ he wanted, Yan Jiuge threw the question back to Chu Qi.

Under Yan Jiuge’s probing gaze, Chu Qi’s eyelashes trembled. His dark eyes looked away, and only then did he open his mouth to explain.

“Because I was thinking about yesterday’s cultivation practice.”

“…”

Ah-Qi was lying.

Yan Jiuge, who saw through him with a glance, narrowed his eyes slightly, but didn’t expose him. He followed Chu Qi’s words and continued to ask, “What about it?”

“It’s about healing the spirit or something. Shifu said that Tianxuan Sect’s medical cultivation method was all based on this idea.” Chu Qi thought for a while, then simply said what he had thought about yesterday, “I was thinking, when we got out to gain experience, I can treat you. Although, it would be better to not get injured in the first place.”

“…”

Seeing Chu Qi seriously thinking about their future, Yan Jiuge suddenly felt that Chu Qi’s earlier concealment wasn’t as important anymore.

They would be together for a long time. What secret was worth getting along day and night?

After thinking for a while, Yan Jiuge responded, “When we go out, you can’t stray too far from me.”

Everyone knew that the combat prowess of medical cultivators was very weak. They weren’t on the same level of artistic cultivators or beast cultivators, let alone sword cultivators. Protecting them was a matter of course.

According to official agreements, two sides couldn’t take action against each other’s healers. 

But going out into the world to gain experience, this wasn’t always the case. There were fish mixed with dragons out there1, and it was inevitable that there would be some cultivators with bad intentions. When fighting, they would target the medical cultivators first to cut off the opponent’s healing capabilities.

“I know.” Chu Qi nodded.

During their conversation, they arrived at Zaohua Peak.

Zaohua Peak was the place of residence for the sword cultivator disciples. The buildings were well arranged and it looked very lively.

There were a lot of sword cultivator disciples. After all, in Tianxuan Sect, except for the scant three medical cultivators, the rest were sword cultivators.

Yan Jiuge first took Chu Qi to the dining hall for lunch.

After eating, Chu Qi stood at the fork in the road. He wasn’t in a hurry to return to Zhongling Peak, instead talking about another matter, “I heard that four of you sword cultivators live in a courtyard.”

He still didn’t know where Yan Jiuge lived.

“I’m living alone for the time being.” There were only five new sword cultivator disciples this time. The other four shared a courtyard, while he lived alone.

Yan Jiuge glanced at Chu Qi, saw the curiosity in his face, and asked, “Wanna go see?”

“I do.” Chu Qi nodded.

He wanted to know if it was the same courtyard as in the previous life.

However, seeing Yan Jiuge’s eyes drooping and being unable to clearly distinguish the emotions in them, Chu Qi couldn’t help but feel a little alert, “Are there any conditions?” For example, calling him ‘elder brother’ or something.

“No.” Hearing what Chu Qi said, Yan Jiuge curled his lips into a smile, “Let’s go.”

He wasn’t going to raise conditions with Chu Qi over such a trivial matter.

—

The courtyard where Yan Jiuge lived was bigger than Chu Qi’s.

The same as his last life, there was a big locust tree in the yard, and the road down the mountain wasn’t far from the gate. It had white walls and black tiles, plain and simple.

“How does this place compare to your place at Zhongling Peak?” Yan Jiuge stood beside Chu Qi and asked him.

“It’s very nice.” In his previous life, Chu Qi liked the residence at Zaohua Peak very much.

But when it came to Zhongling Peak, there were still some differences between the two, “I also live in a courtyard by myself. There is also a small medicinal field and a swing in the yard.”

“…” Medicinal fields and swings?

On Zaohua Peak, the strong evil qi from the sword cultivators would kill most medicinal plants, so the medicinal field was out.

He could still put a swing under the locust tree, however.

After thinking about it, Yan Jiuge imagined the scene described by Chu Qi in his mind, “It seems that sword cultivators can’t go up to Zhongling Peak.” Otherwise, he also wanted to go and see where Chu Qi lived.

“En, sword cultivators carry a lot of evil qi which will affect the growth of the medicinal plants.” Chu Qi nodded.

“Then could they go up if they blocked off their qi?” Yan Jiuge asked.

“Ah?” Chu Qi was taken aback, “It should be possible? But when the other sword cultivator Elders want medicinal herbs, they will just send a message to shifu in advance, and shifu will have shijie send it down. There’s no need to go up the mountain in person.”

Yan Jiuge: “…”

So he still couldn’t go to Zhongling Peak.

Chu Qi planned it out, “If you need medicinal herbs, you can just message me and I’ll bring it to you.” He already knew where Yan Jiuge lived, so it was convenient to find him.

The hazy look in his eyes was swept away and Yan Jiuge’s mood inexplicably improved, “You don’t need to go to such trouble. I can just fly over on my sword and get it from you.”

“You haven’t even established your foundation yet, how are you going to fly on your sword?”

“I’m going to work hard to achieve a breakthrough.” Yan Jiuge said meaningfully.

Chu Qi: “…”

Although he was happy that his friend was practicing hard, Chu Qi suddenly felt complicated when he thought about how he would have to call Yan Jiuge ‘shixiong’ after he established his foundation.

Chu Qi sighed in his heart, and said, “Then I will go back to Zhongling Peak to train.”

He really couldn’t waste a quarter of an hour.

“Okay, I’ll take you back.” Yan Jiuge didn’t notice anything wrong.

“…”

—

Chu Qi separated from Yan Jiuge at the foot of Zhongling Peak. After returning to his residence, he saw his shifu, Elder Qingyue, waiting for him in front of the courtyard gate.

“This disciple has met shifu.” Chu Qi bowed.

“You don’t need to be so polite.” Elder Qingyue waved his hand and said to him, “Little apprentice, I just went to Zizai Peak to discuss with the Sect Head about the cultivation of medicinal fields. How many mu do you want?”

Chu Qi didn’t expect this to happen, “I don’t know how many medicinal fields were suitable for cultivation. I originally wanted to see what my speed and stamina could handle before making a decision.”

“Your spiritual root is special. With you, the number of spiritual plants on Zhongling Peak will double. It may not be obvious in the early stages, but after you form your golden core, wherever you practice, there will be spiritual plants growing.”

“S–so… powerful?” Wasn’t this too exaggerated?

Chu Qi’s eyes were full of surprise.

A wood spiritual root that can trigger a vision of the sacred tree is such a talent. There was a senior with the same base as you once before in Yunhua Realm and he ascended before he was a hundred years old.” Elder Qingyue sighed, “It’s a pity that he didn’t leave any cultivation methods behind, otherwise it would have been very helpful to you.”

Chu Qi had a new understanding of his talent. He scratched his head, but still couldn’t imagine how many medicinal fields would be suitable to manage, so he handed the decision over to Elder Qingyue, “I’ll leave it up to shifu to decide how many fields to cultivate.”

“Okay, let’s reclaim ten fields first.” Elder Qingyue nodded in response. These ten medicinal fields were just a conservative estimate. As Chu Qi’s cultivation level improved, they would increase the number of fields accordingly.

At that time, some sword cultivator disciples would need to come over to help reclaim the medicinal fields. After so many years, sword cultivators could finally be of some use on Zhongling Peak. 

After Elder Qingyue finished talking about this matter, he left. Once he was gone, Chu Qi quickly began to cultivate.

Chu Qi was only in the early stage of Qi Refining, and there was still quite some time before he could build his foundation. However, medical cultivation was easier than sword cultivation. You didn’t need to practice swords every day, you just had to absorb spiritual energy and use it to care for medicinal plants or refining medicine.

So, in just one day…

Chu Qi, who was practicing hard, treated all the spiritual plants in the medicinal fields on Zhongling Peak.

Standing at the edge of the lush medicinal field, Bai Xuan looked at her shidi in disbelief, “Shidi, what did you do?”

Chu Qi was silent for a moment, and then explained, “It’s as shijie can see, I think they are about to mature. When I was practicing last night, I injected a little bit of spiritual power into them, and today they’re all like this.”

“This batch of spiritual plants were only planted three months ago. Most of them take half a year to mature on Zhongling Peak. There are still three months before they’re finished growing, it’s impossible for them to be almost mature! Your shijie has planted this land for a hundred years, so I couldn’t have calculated the timing wrong!”

Bai Xuan shook her head and sampled the fragrance of the herbs, and continued on, intoxicated, “Shidi, from now on, our medicinal fields on Zhongling Peak will depend on you! The spiritual plants really like you.”

Bai Xuan’s wood spiritual root grade was ordinary, and Elder Qingyue had mixed wood and earth spiritual roots. The two originally planned on joining the line of sword cultivators in Tianxuan Sect, but the medical cultivation methods of Tianxuan Sect needed to be passed on. They picked out whatever wood spiritual roots they could find among the many sword cultivator disciples and persuaded them repeatedly, so that the line of medical cultivators could continue.

When it came to swordsmanship, Bai Xuan and Elder Qingyue could do it well. Although it was a pity to abandon the sword to practice medicine back then, after spending so many years in Zhongling Peak, they also hoped that Tianxuan Sect’s medical cultivation practice could thrive once again.

Following the sound of Bai Xuan’s excitement, Elder Qingyue also came out to see the grand spectacle that was their medicinal fields.

Elder Qingyue thought for a while and felt that his previous plan to acquire ten medicinal fields was indeed too conservative. He tamped down his excitement and immediately sent a message to the Sect Head, asking him to send over a few more sword cultivator disciples.

Their Zhongling Peak was going to reclaim twenty medicinal fields!

After the arrangements were made, Elder Qingyue told his two disciples in a kind tone, “Bai Xuan doesn’t need to continue tending to the spiritual plants. I will leave it to your shidi to practice on. You go to work on refining medicine to improve your medical skills.”

“As for Chu Qi, you can continue to practice normally. You don’t have to work too hard for the growth of the spiritual plants.”

Chu Qi: “…”

He didn’t expect that his spiritual power would have such great influence on the spiritual plants, but the matter of his cultivation needed to be seen out to the end!

“Then, shifu, I’m going back to cultivate.” Chu Qi said in a low voice.

After his rebirth, he was feeling eager to win for the first time. He hoped that he wouldn’t lag too far behind Yan Jiuge in establishing his foundation.

“Okay.” Elder Qingyue responded, not forgetting to remind him, “Also, sword cultivator disciples will be coming to Zhongling Peak to reclaim the medicinal fields, so it might be noisy. When you’re training, make sure to turn on the sound insulation barrier in your yard.”

Chu Qi knew a few things about the reclamation of the medicinal fields. 

He heard from Bai Xuan that sword cultivators entering Zhongling Peak couldn’t be above the Nascent Soul stage. Otherwise, the qi-blocking talismans would be useless on them. The higher the level of the sword cultivator, the heavier the evil qi would be on their bodies.

Thinking about it this way, maybe Yan Jiuge would also be sent to Zhongling Peak?

Chu Qi couldn’t help but look forward to it a little. He had never seen Yan Jiuge working.

However, when Chu Qi saw the sword cultivator disciples that came to Zhongling Peak, he was slightly disappointed.

The other four disciples who had just started came, but Yan Jiuge was absent.

At this time, Liu Weiming, who had led the team to help at Zhongling Peak, saw Chu Qi and greeted him, “Chu-shidi.”

Chu Qi couldn’t help asking, “Liu-shixiong, why didn’t Yan Jiuge come with you?”

“That’s actually what I wanted to tell you.” Unexpectedly, Chu Qi asked him first. Liu Weiming cleared his throat, and with a bit of joy in his expression, he opened his mouth to explain.

“When Yan-shidi got up to go to training this morning, he suddenly realized the meaning of the sword, aroused the vision of Heaven and Earth, and built his foundation one step at a time. He is currently going through his thunder tribulation. Afterwards, he will need to rest for a day or two to adjust his state, so he wasn’t asked to come to Zhongling Peak with us.”

“What did you say?” Yan Jiuge built his foundation today?!

Chu Qi stared at Liu Weiming dumbfoundedly, trying to find some hint of a joking expression on the face of his serious and upright shixiong.

But not only did Liu Weiming show no signs of joking, he even repeated the important parts from just now.

Afterwards, Liu Weiming said again, “When I heard the news, I was also very shocked. Yan-shidi is worthy of being called a genius. To be able to actually do it so soon is a rare thing not seen in a hundred years.”

Chu Qi: “…”

Of course he knew that Yan Jiuge’s talent was very good, but he still shouldn’t have built his foundation for another month, right? This was completely different from the development of his last life!

Before they parted ways yesterday, Yan Jiuge said half-jokingly, “We’ll see if I can realize it.” Then, early this morning, he had a sudden epiphany and directly built his foundation, step by step.

Did Yan Jiuge jinx himself? Why was it so effective?

Chu Qi thought for a while in a daze, but before he fully accepted the fact that Yan Jiuge had already reached Foundation Establishment, a red light flashed from the identity token hanging from his waist.

Seeing that Chu Qi was still distracted, Liu Weinming kindly reminded him, “Chu-shidi, someone sent you a message.”

“Ah? Oh.” Chu Qi nodded blankly, took the identity token from his waist, and answered the summons.

Afterwards, Chu Qi heard Yan Jiuge’s joyful voice coming from it—

“Ah-Qi, I’ll be coming to Zhongling Peak to find you later.”

—

The author has something to say:

Liu Weiming: “Yan-shidi, don’t you need to rest after you pass through your tribulation?”

Yan Jiuge: “Thank you for the invitation, but not only does passing a tribulation feel like drinking water, but after going through it, I feel quite comfortable and not tired at all. Alright, Zhongling Peak’s Chu-shidi, come down quickly.”

Chu Qi: qvq

[1] 鱼龙混杂 – idiom, meaning good and bad people are mixed up.