“Teach you how to fight?” Zhao Yunxiao raised an eyebrow. “Why are you asking this all of a sudden? Did something happen during your mission?”
“What’s wrong, Junior Martial Sister Lu?” Gu Qiansi asked as well. “Is it because of the corrupted trees? Or is it because of your Senior Martial Brother Zhao’s duel?”
Corrupted trees?
Zhao Yunxiao picked up on it immediately.
“I just want to be able to help as well...” Lu Zhiying said in an uncharacteristically soft voice.
Zhao Yunxiao let out a helpless sigh.
“I understand your feelings, but the last thing that you should be doing right now is to succumb to your impatience,” Zhao Yunxiao advised. “It hasn’t even been two months since you joined the sect. Right now, your focus should be on building your foundation. Honestly, everything else can wait until you have decided on your own path.”
“
Every cultivator dreamt of becoming all-powerful, but things had to be done one step at a time. As a new cultivator, trying to skip steps in order to get stronger at a faster rate was a known recipe for disaster!
As someone whose progression was rather disproportional to the amount of work that he had put in, he had always been eager to find faster ways to increase his strength as well.
Over the years, countless people had advised him to be patient. That if he just kept at it, things would surely turn out well in the end, and that he would eventually become stronger in time to come.
But every time Zhao Yunxiao heard something like that, he could only think that the other party was patronising him.
I understand,” Zhao Yunxiao said. “Give me a few days to think this through, and I will see how I can help. No promises, though.”
“
The group had split up to handle their own matters over the past week or two, so they spent the next few hours sharing some sect gossips and news while Zhao Yunxiao meditated to slowly replenish his essence energy. When he finally felt good enough to walk by himself, they promptly left Lightwind Pavilion so that Zhao Yunxiao could return to his residence for a proper rest.
Unfortunately, Zhao Yunxiao was not about to get his restful moments just yet.
The moment he stepped through the door into his residence, he was greeted by a familiar voice.
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He had initially brought Hua Xian back to Purple Plum Mountain with the intention of handing him over to the sect administrators, then got greedy and wanted to use him for potential experiments first.
Not bad,” Hua Xian said. “You actually managed to beat a Peak Essence Gathering realm opponent despite only having just broken through to the Advanced Essence Gathering realm. You have quite a bit oftalent!”
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“I’ve only just said that you are talented, but it looks like I have to take back my words immediately,” Hua Xian scoffed. “What I did was not to increase your cultivation rate. Instead, it was to create a pseudo environment that aligns more with your physical traits, making it easier for you to overcome the bottleneck that you are facing.”
“I see,” Zhao Yunxiao pretended as if he understood. “But what about increasing my cultivation rate? Are you able to do that as well?”
If that was possible, having Hua Xian around would be equivalent to gaining a cultivation acceleration tool – the envy of all cultivators!
“Do you think cultivation is a joke?” Hua Xian immediately shot him down. “If I could do something like that, wouldn’t I have done that for myself first? After years of doing so, would I still be weak enough for you idiots to capture me?”
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...Sorry, I misspoke.”
But is that really all you are capable of? Isn’t there anything else you can do to help?” Zhao Yunxiao continued to probe, hoping to find a better way to make use of Hua Xian. “How about for the next bottleneck? Would you be able to help as well?”Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
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Close enough. At the very least, your guesswork isn’t too bad,” Hua Xian replied. “Considering that I am at the Essence Physique realm, being able to help someone at the Intermediate Essence Gathering realm break through their bottleneck is already amazing enough, and you still want me to be able to do more? Do you really think that I am some almighty being?”
What a pity!
He had been hopeful, but it would appear that Hua Xian’s value as a cultivation acceleration tool had ended right as it began.
“Why do you look so disappointed? I am still the reason why you managed to win!” Hua Xian reminded.
“Correction – you are the reason why I managed to win as easily as I did. But without you, I would simply have opted for another way to do so,” Zhao Yunxiao reminded. “Regardless, I guess I still have to thank you for it.”
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Zhao Yunxiao did not know about Hua Xian’s history, but it was not difficult to imagine that the latter had taken plenty of lives in the past.
Letting him go was akin to releasing an unreformed mass murderer back into the wilds. That was not something that Zhao Yunxiao could do in good conscience.
That way, Hua Xian would not appear too out of place while enjoying a slightly greater sense of freedom as compared to remaining in the sealed bag. At the same time, Zhao Yunxiao would also be able to continue keeping an eye on him.
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Before letting Hua Xian out of the sealing bag, he still had to find out more about the weaknesses of the fairymist flower demon.
While the presence of the sect administrators meant that Hua Xian would not go unpunished if he ever dared to do anything crazy, Zhao Yunxiao did not want to solely rely on that as a control. After all, the damage might have already been done by then.
In addition, Hua Xian might not be useful as a cultivation acceleration tool for him, but he could still help Gu Qiansi and rest. Not just that, but he also had his value as an experimental subject.
Without a way to suppress Hua Xian himself, it was too risky to let Hua Xian out of the sealing bag.
Not only would he end uplosing a valuable asset if the sect administrators were forced to intervene and capture Hua Xian, but he might also be punished on top of that!
Zhao Yunxiao entered the meditation room after speaking to Hua Xian.
After making sure that the windows were closed, he carefully placed two iron bowls side by side on his table.
With a flick of his wrist, the fire ruby fragments that he had gotten from the celestial meteorite appeared in one of the bowls. Its appearance immediately chased away the chill of the spring night, almost as though the blazing sun of summer had appearedhere in this small room.
Another flick of his wrist, and a glowing crystal appeared in the other bowl.
This was a crystal that he had obtained from the black-spotted colossal lizard’s burrow. Back then, Zhao Yunxiao had no idea what this was. But now, he had a fairly good idea.
Comparing the two gemstones side by side, Zhao Yunxiao could not help but let out a smile.
One emitted a bright red light, while the other emitted a shimmering blue light.
One was constantly generating fire-element energy, while the other was generating water-element energy.
Despite the huge contrast in their energy traits, someone who paid close attention would realise that they were actually extremely similar in terms of their internal structures.
Water sapphire – a precious stone that could be considered the water-element equivalent of the fire ruby.
Back then, it had been easy to recognise the fire ruby due to the sheer amount of it contained within the celestial meteorite, but he did not have that same luxury when it came to the much smaller water sapphire.
It was only after obtaining his share of the fire ruby fragments that he finally caught on to what it could be.
After confirming the identity of the water sapphire, Zhao Yunxiao quickly stored everything away and walked over to open his window.
Around this time every year, purple plum flowers would start to bloom all over the mountain, turning the scenery into a beautiful sea of purple and white.
To the members of the Black Tortoise Sect, this change in scenery was the greatest reminder that a new year had begun. Along with the visual stimulation, it was far more symbolic than the intangible verbal mention of New Year’s day.
At the same time, he understood that this was but a brief respite. There was still a long list of tasks waiting for him to complete.
But before anything else, the grimoire plant would not be able to live forever after being uprooted.