Chương 42: Chapter 41 – Forming a Virtuous Cycle

Ren set out early the next morning from the edge of the outer sect on his brand new, er… used flying sword. He had to channel his qi into it to make it hover. He jumped on and waved his arms wildly to find his balance. It was a lot harder to do with a cauldron full of tortoises and a large sapling tied to his back, but he managed. Moving the sword was very intuitive. He could command it as he pleased, but it could only go so fast, and it drank deeply from his qi reserves if he flew too long.

At his current pace, it would take him 2 days to reach the inner sect with multiple breaks and similarly 5 days from there to his home. That would leave him only 2 weeks or so until the auction, following which the tournament would begin. It was all worth it to be able to fly for the first time with his own abilities! It was an entirely different experience than riding behind someone. The first break came far earlier than planned because he lost himself swooping and soaring all over.

When he landed, he collapsed from being drained of qi. The little tortoises immediately spilled out of the cauldron and angrily protested by prodding him with their heads repeatedly. Clearly they couldn't appreciate the exhilaration of flight! All except one that found its way to climb onto his head as he lay on the ground in an undignified manner. After recovering his qi, he set out again with the one tortoise refusing to climb down from his head.

Ren blushed at how he must appear to others, with a palm-sized tortoise acting as an ill-fitting helmet. Yet he couldn't keep the little one from enjoying flight as much as he had, so he just made sure it was secure. Glad for his one enthusiastic companion, Ren flew on. When he finally reached the inner sect, he wondered if he should visit the Hall of Contribution to take a look at the missions but felt there would be no point.

"Also, I'm really not presentable! Who walks around with a tree on their back and a pot full of tortoises and wearing one on their head? If Hua saw me now, he would laugh himself to death!" The journey through the inner sect was more fraught with danger. The beasts were of a higher realm, and Ren was lacking most of his array flags. Not to mention risking the lives of his little friends. He chose to flee whenever he could. His breakthrough had helped strengthen, but the same flaw from the trials remained.

He lacked the techniques and weapons to do significant damage. By the time he reached his mountain home, Ren was exhausted. But before he gave in to sleep, he first brought some water from a stream and dug a shallow pool inside his cave. He didn't want to expose the young tortoises to the impure spirit spring without being around to oversee it. He threw out an assortment of beast cores he had purchased for them to eat and then let sleep claim him.

Ren woke in the dark of the cave with only some dim light entering through the mouth of the cave.

"I have a lot to do if I want to make this cave more comfortable to live in." he said as he stretched his mildly aching body. He looked around and saw the tortoises had left behind certain cores while only leftover fragments of others indicated which ones had been consumed. He took it as a sign that the young ones were starting to settle into their qi attributes. They would still take years to mature into adults, but this phase should have happened a lot sooner.

After taking note of which cores had not been consumed, he laid out some more. Some of these cores were of the foundation realm. It could be dangerous, but he refused to shelter the growing beasts until they became wastrels. It was up to the little ones to know when to stop. Outside, his mountain awaited. The impure spring was releasing a heavily mixed qi into the chaotic flows of the surrounding qi. The snakes continued their unending battles for dominance.

In the distance, other beasts made their presence known through a chorus of calls, howls, and roars. Ren couldn't wait to begin. With the resources he had obtained, he needed to revise his plans a little, but it mostly followed his previous arrangement. The first step was to address the spirit spring. He could cultivate amidst chaotic qi for a while but couldn't risk his meridians being clogged over time. The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

With the pond as the center, Ren measured out the correct distances. He planted the Resin Willow sapling first. It was looking more sickly than ever, so he performed the nurturing rain sutra to liven it up a little. He was tempted to perform the second sutra but held off. It was better to get the cycle of elements up first. Then he went to a rock cliff that didn't share a wall with his cave abode. There he scooped out a small alcove. It was half as large as his room, but it left an entire wall facing the pond open.

Here he laid a large pile of bones. Satisfied it was out of reach of wind and rain, he carefully pulled out the jade box containing the yin spirit flame. He had added many bones to it over the days, but the flame never grew, only rapidly consuming the bones. Hopefully it would grow now that he could feed it all that it needed. He carefully placed the burning bone in the center of the pile. He would lay out more formations to enhance it later.

Next, Ren laid out the patch of flesh eating moss on a large flat boulder. On it he laid a beast corpse that had already been drained of blood. It would slowly devour it, leaving only the skin and bones behind. The formation eye for metal was very easy. He embedded the metal staff three quarters of its length deep into the soil. He also half buried the lunar silver at its base. He finally noticed how even the metal staff emanated yin qi.

Possibly because it was bathed in blood over the years as the inner sect disciple wielded it in battle. He sighed in resignation. The entire cycle of elements was yin aligned. Then to complete the circle, he dug a deep pool at the base of which he laid the red crystal. It was even deeper and wider than the one he had originally found it in. Driven by necessity, he used a formation to harden the walls so the blood pool didn't seep into the nearby spirit spring.

Near the crystal, he planted the 3 seeds of the Purifying Life Lotus. Ren jumped out and performed the nurturing rain sutra once again. He didn't know how it would affect the seed if he performed it after the pool was filled. He then began to take out all the jars of liquid he had taken from the blood pool. It was no longer just blood but somehow changed by the crystal. Maybe because of the life qi that the crystal emanated, transforming it in some way.

After he emptied all his jars, the pool was just a little over halfway filled. He pulled out the blood he had purchased separately and began to pour it in. Normally the blood of foundation realm beasts would have been expensive, but it was currently worth just a little more than qi gathering realm beast blood. Ren was tired by then, but he pushed himself, as the last step was easy. He approached the edges of the pond and planted the spirit plant seeds he had bought.

It looked like a smaller ring inside the larger ring. These spirit plants were nowhere near as impressive as the main cycle, but they could help support it. The attributes of the spirit plant seeds mirrored the formation eyes but with a small difference. From his studies he remembered that 2 of these seeds belonged to yang attribute plants. An idea formed that made his tired eyes light up. Previously he had only ever formed a single cycle of elements.

But each element had a yin and yang alignment that he hadn't bothered with in the past. He had figured out that it was one of the reasons why he remained stuck on 4 spirit plants in his previous crops. Now that he was already planning to make two cycles, and one of them was yin aligned, why not make the other yang to balance it out? Honestly, even though he felt like he was making it up as he went, Ren couldn't help but feel that this idea had merit.

Unfortunately, he didn't have any suitable plants, so it would have to wait until he could go find some. If there was one final complication here, it was that the lotuses growing in the blood pool would be life and yang qi attributed. That wasn't exactly bad, but it introduced disharmony into the cycle. But he had a solution for that already. The Ghost Face tree sapling would be placed beyond the outer cycle, next to the blood pool and equidistant from the wood and metal formation eyes.

The young tree was wood, death, and yin qi attributed. This would be the killing ground where he attracted beasts to kill. Since he planned to build the killing ground using the metal eye of the formation to attack, he felt a rough balance could be achieved. All this had taken the better part of his day. But so far he didn't notice anything different other than slight shifts in qi flow. Only time would tell if his idea would actually work. So Ren rested in his cave and played with the tortoises.

The brief reunion before having to head to the inner sect was not enough for Ren. This time, he got his fill of cute pets and their lazy antics. That evening when the moon rose, he felt a change in the atmosphere. He poked his head out and went to examine the spirit spring. His heart leapt in his chest when he noticed the swirl of qi. As he drew closer, he knew what he had sensed was real.

The cycle of elements was pulling apart the impure mixed qi of the spirit spring and forcibly aligning it according to the formation! Even the tinge of yin qi present everywhere couldn't dampen his joy. His idea worked!! The spirit spring could be purified!