Chương 57: Chapter 56 – An Important Reminder

Zhao Ren's new companion beast was extremely indolent. It preferred to stay in his sleeping quarters and feast on all the meat he brought it. Once it was done consuming many times its weight in qi-rich food, it would find a cozy spot and slumber for days at a time. Ren had no issues indulging its whims. Until it learned to control its aura and how to follow basic instructions, he was unwilling to allow it near his other companions. He had a lot of work to keep him busy anyways.

He processed all the corpses of the blind vipers, draining their blood into the blood pool, their flesh onto the moss, and their bones to increase the supply for his yin flame, which was now prodigiously devouring bones. Fortunately, he had quite a large supply. With the abundant qi, his other treasures weren't far behind. With a few dances involving hops, waggling waists, stomping strides, and strange contortions, Ren soon set them on the road to further development.

The resin from the Resin Willow Tree was so abundant now that he could solidify it into his desired shapes. The material was great at channeling qi and made for excellent formation flags. He would use the leaves and twigs from the tree as a core around which the resin hardened into short cylinders. The resin also had a mild medicinal property that the inhabitants of the peak enjoyed. The Mutating Bamboo Sword plant at the wood node seemed to grow faster than its counterparts.

The sutra tended to have an even more drastic effect on it. Making use of that increased speed, Ren had harvested two of the three new shoots and placed them at the two nodes that lacked them so far. At the fire and water nodes. He worried if the roaring yin flame might damage it, so he used a pile of bones as a small barrier. The treasures were quick to accept his offerings and his care because the formation continued to pick up pace in the coming days.

A huge amount of qi of the five elements was available on this cultivation paradise of a peak. The fact that all five main qi types were all tinged with the yin attribute was becoming more and more a beneficial strength. Whatever ground was gained by the storm of qi during the daytime was recovered at night. The increasing amount of yin attribute qi was allowing the formation to run at peak efficiency during dawn and dusk now. Every day the beneficial cycle he had formed settled even firmer.

Without the dragon vein emitting impure qi to form the chaotic storm, it would naturally weaken and eventually dissipate completely. By that point his spirit spring would be the sole beneficiary of the dragon vein and would have become something truly remarkable. The only downside was the formation he had made using his treasures had become a vital part of that cycle. They could no longer be separated safely. Essentially, they had become part of the mountain. Initially conflicted, Ren soon accepted it.

He could still continue to harvest portions from them as he pleased. He just couldn't unroot them in their entirety. Like his first manor, this mountain too would be his legacy for those who came after. That was perfectly fine with him, and whoever that lucky disciple was, Ren would only wish them well. The instant he made peace with it in his heart, Ren felt fluctuations coming from his dantian. He was most surprised but quickly retreated to his abode. He sat amidst the formations he had prepared.

The useful qi gathering formation and, more importantly, the formation that eliminates the impurities his body forced out. He had prepared diligently, unwilling to pollute his home a second time. As he meditated and waited for the right time, Ren went over his recent experiences. Not just the past frantic month that pushed his cultivation to the peak of the 2nd layer but all that he had done and achieved since he had first come to this mountain. It had been a busy time indeed.

Scurrying to find ingredients for his formation. The days spent researching, diving into the enormous collection of resources available in the Hall of Scripture. Reconnecting with his friends and seniors. Attempting to grow foundation realm spirit plants. Setting up those challenges using the best formations he was capable of making at the time. In all that time, it occurred to him that he had taken a more casual attitude towards cultivating.

He still cultivated diligently every day, but seeing as how his cultivation benefitted more from forming karmic connections, he had certainly slacked off in that aspect. Through all those activities, he had only formed a handful of connections, and of those, only the two with the seniors were reinforced with a Karmic Strand construct. His experimentations with his challenges aside, he hadn't sought out more information on karma in the new library, distracted by immediate concerns.

He hadn't written any books to help those who came after him. He certainly hadn't had a chance to be a wise senior who helped his juniors. The only reason he was even close to breaking through now was a slow and gradual accumulation over time. Ren felt a little dispirited. Pulled in so many directions, he had taken his cultivation for granted. It wasn't a huge issue, but it was a problem of his mindset.

If he wanted to participate in the golden dharma trial, which would take place in 3 years, he would need to be in the late stage of the foundation establishment realm. Taking into account the time it would take to travel to the monastery and the qualifying rounds preceeding it, it was more like 2 years. 2 years to reach the late stage was an incredibly challenging endeavor. Epiphanies were unreliable, and the two he had were not to be counted as expected occurrences, no matter how big a role his dao played.

At his current reduced speed, he wouldn't be able to reach his goal. He couldn't afford to relax for a moment.

"Well, now that I've become aware of the problem and reprimanded myself, I'll do my best to keep from taking it casually. The pressure is actually a good thing. It is so very easy to be distracted by all my ongoing projects that having this clear goal can only be a good thing. What's more, if I can take a look at how that Golden Dharma trial works, I might just get an idea of how to create something similar! That's a goal worthy of my dao too!"

Ren felt his mind focus on these goals as the fluctuations from his dantian increased. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Turning his senses inward, he observed his dantian. Like always, the Fire of Life construct was glowing brightly above his spiritual sea. 5 reinforced strands emerged from the tiny flame and extended into the distance. Surprisingly, there were ephemeral strands that flickered in an out of view.

They could only be the connections he had formed through his seeds of intent but left unimbued with a karmic strand. His spiritual sea had also grown, and and flickers of gold flashed on the surface with greater frequency. The turmoil from the impending breakthrough was whipping up the sea into a storm that smashed onto the walls of his dantian. It was strong enough to hold without developing cracks, but it spoke of a worrying future when the spiritual sea increased greatly.

He watched as the tiny sun continued to shrink and expand with increasing speed. Just like his previous breakthrough, it gave off greater spiritual weight until it stabilized. Once again something emerged from it and sped down the 5 glowing strands, leaving his dantian. Strangely, one of them felt much weaker than the others to his senses. Whatever that energy was, it still felt like a good thing to his senses, so he made note of the strand, which had received a lesser portion.

He didn't linger on it long as the qi was now washing through his body and squeezing out impurities hidden within his flesh. The blissful sensations slowly ebbed until Ren felt ready to open his eyes. The last of the black gunk was being erased after his successful breakthrough to the 3rd layer of the foundation establishment realm. After he adjusted to his new strength and once the mountain was stable enough, Ren journeyed to the inner sect. He sought to accomplish many things in this trip.

He needed to find a beast taming method, as the insect taming method had utterly failed on the little black snake. He also wanted to begin forging but couldn't afford the next layer of the Heavenly Sword Smith Art. The sect's method was said to be useful until the core formation realm, but he only had the qi gathering portion. So Ren was considering putting up some of the beast cores he had harvested from the vipers. He had more than he needed, and many of the tortoises didn't seem to enjoy them either.

He went to one of the permanent stores and traded in 50 cores. He still had over 100 left, but he wasn't in a rush. These stores didn't always offer the best prices. In the inner sect, foundation establishment cores were common as dirt, especially the early stage foundation realm cores. He received a measly 100 spirit stones. It was an insulting price, but there was no proper market for these low cores.

If he tried to sell it in the outer sect, very few could use them, and it would take a very long time for him to sell 50 cores to those who could afford it. Other inner sect disciples already had set up well-reputed stores, and he couldn't compete with them. Selling them outside the sect was also an enormous undertaking. So he swallowed his pride and accepted the 100 spirit stones, planning to convert them into contribution points. This kind of market control wasn't new to him either.

He had already experienced it when it came to buying flying swords. The secondhand sword he purchased was extremely slow, but the best swords of the outer sect weren't much better. They were at most a third faster. The prices for flying swords in the inner sect were much higher at around 300 spirit stones. It had forced Ren to continue using his flying sword at a snail's pace.

At the hall of contribution, he found replies from most of the seniors he had reached out to, including those referred to him by senior Biyu. Some said they had no current need for any specific herbs but promised to keep him in mind. Of those, Ren got the impression that they were waiting to see if he could live up to his past reputation. He understood and didn't hold it against them. Given the risk of failure, paying a herb grower could be an expensive affair after all.

But he did receive 4 requests that he was ready to try his hand at. His studies had paid off, and he could identify 3 of the 4 and knew at least 2 could be grown together. He would have to refer to the records for the others. A difference from the days when he planted all the herbs together was he had his formation now. It was perfect for single-attribute herbs of the 5 elements. He hadn't forgotten the highly tempting idea of growing a garden of many different qi types, but that was still a far-off dream.

The 5 main elements were his best bet for now. He left messages to those seniors promising results soon. They too would receive the offer of having to pay after he successfully grew the herbs. But if he grew these 4 well, for the orders after, he would insist on being paid some portion in advance. A track record of 6 foundation realm herbs wouldn't be anything impressive, but it would certainly qualify him as a decent herb grower.

At the hall he saw the notice for the lectures about alchemy would be held two months from now. The formations lecture would actually be held earlier, in 5 weeks. If he wanted to make the best use of a lecture, he would need to have an alchemy method at the very least. With the yin fire ready, he could practice a recipe or two to better understand the challenges and requirements. Merely reading about such things could only get him so far.

Not to mention how alchemy was such an expensive occupation, and he was only now starting to earn money. Hopefully his current set of orders would be enough. The next stop was the hall of scripture. Ren found a list of beast taming manuals to look through. Beast taming had never interested him much, and his peaceful and lazy tortoises had been obedient enough to never warrant it. The same couldn't be said of a beast far stronger than him.

Even if it would only come into its true strength with time, it was still extremely dangerous to have an uncontrolled beast in his vicinity. He had hoped to find a method that wasn't cruel or extremely controlling but one that would ensure a strong relationship. To his surprise, most of the cheap methods involved a level of domination that made him uncomfortable. He finally found one that met his requirements and his budget. It was called the Harmonious Bond manual.

Its strong point was that it allowed stronger beasts to be tamed, but it compromised over the level of control. The beast would retain much of its autonomy, and its obedience depended on the relationship between the beast and the tamer. For a price of 150 merit points, it was absolutely worth it. Before he purchased it, he went looking for forging techniques. He was already aware that the cost of the next layer of the Heavenly Sword Smith Art was 200 merit points.

He hoped to find other methods but couldn't find anything suitable at a reasonable cost. The sheer versatility offered by the sect's approved method was unmatched. Especially with how it teased one of his primary desires. Torn by temptation, Ren went back to sell another 50 beast cores. The shopkeeper, seeing him return so soon, sensed his desperation and gouged the price even more. Claiming a saturation of snake beast cores, he only offered 80 spirit stones this time.

Ren had always been smart in his dealings with merchants, but this was definitely his worst experience in the sect so far. Ren practically cried tears of blood as he accepted the deal.

"Soon." He promised himself.

"I'll finally be able to forge a fast flying sword, and that'll be worth all this trouble!"