Chapter 38.1: The Night Before the Storm
When they got back to the pond in Heaven Firmament Peak, Li Xinmei was still leaning against the orchid tongue grass.
She had fallen asleep.
Liu Feizhou carefully examined her body. “She has pretty good luck. Someone has treated her with spring comes upon a withered tree. If not for that, she wouldn’t have survived long enough for me to come.”
“Can she be treated?” asked Su Tingyun carefully.
“The only way is to nourish her with pills and after a couple years, she’ll be able to return to her previous level. She can cultivate, but as I’ve said before, she has a severe internal injury. Even if she doesn’t fear pain or death, she won’t be able to get any further than Spirit Condensation.”
“You two have already been accepted into Wuliang Mountain, so as long as you don’t commit any crimes, you won’t be kicked out. Although it won’t be the most carefree, just staying here until you die of old age isn’t that difficult.” Liu Feizhou’s tone soften a little bit when he saw the injury on the girl. “And aren’t you also Spiritual Master Lingwu’s great benefactor? Just grab onto that backing tightly and you’ll be fine!”
“What pills does she need?” Su Tingyun didn’t reply to this and just started asking about the pill.
“She’s only at the Spirit Condensation Stage right now, so have her take second rank meridians-moistening pills and full spirit restore pills. Simmer an ointment that helps replenish the meridians for external application. After a couple years of this, she’ll probably recover.”
Liu Feizhou glanced around, then reached out to pinch the orchid tongue grass’s fat leaf. However, Su Tingyun spread out her arms protectively to block him like a mother hen protecting her chicks.
Liu Feizhou was annoyed. “I was planning to write down the way to make the full spirit restore pill for you on a leaf, but you’re stopping me?”
Su Tingyun’s house was near a large tree, so she hastily went over to pick a couple leaves before offering them to Liu Feizhou with a bright smile.
He gave a cold humph, then started carving tiny words onto the leaves with his spiritual consciousness. After doing all of this, he flicked the leaves and sent them stabbing into a nearby rock. “You helped me make pills yesterday, so this makes us even. Don’t bother me anymore.”
He turned and was about to leave, but when he saw how Old Madame Wei was very carefully wiggling the leaves out one by one, he frowned slightly. With a flick of his hand, he threw a spirit stone to her feet.
Su Tingyun was starting to worry about the fact that she didn’t have enough spirit stones to buy medicinal herbs to make this pills when she noticed the spirit stone that rolled to her feet. By the time she looked up, Liu Feizhou had already gone quite far away. Su Tingyun picked up the upper rank spirit stone and felt that, how do you put it? Liu Feizhou wasn’t a good person, but he wasn’t rotten to the core either. But in any case, she owed him for this favor. Once she earned enough money, she’d pay him back for this spirit stone.
After all, she was going to leave the cultivation world in the future, so what need was there for spirit stones? Her chest of gold and gems was way more useful.
During the following days, regardless of how chaotic it was outside, the tree, house, and pond at the side of Heaven Firmament Peak’s public square was exceptionally peaceful and relaxed.
Everyday, after Su Tingyun finished making pills for the day, she would chat with Li Xinmei and would tell her the stories she had read before in order to distract her so that she could be a little happier.
The orchid tongue grass also liked to listen to the stories she told. Every time she got to the climax, if she left them on the cliffhanger and said that she would tell them the rest tomorrow, the orchid tongue grass would be unhappy and start throwing a tantrum. Su Tingyun just stuck to her decision smugly and no matter how much the orchid tongue grass wailed and shouted, she didn’t continue until the next day.
Xiao Mei couldn’t help but laugh at this scene of a person fighting with a plant. This was also something Su Tingyun did purposefully.
Every once in a while, Su Tingyun would hear news about the outside world from Yin Li. That mysterious palace had drawn the attentions of several influential powers and now, there were rumors that some secret area’s array had opened ahead of time. Spiritual Master Lingwu had been training in seclusion for fifty years to form his golden core and lacked battle experience, so he had been sent out to learn through experience. After this period of time, he had gained quite some fame. Even the daughter of the Luminous Moon School admired him, and this added a lot of topics for everyone to gossip about.
Su Tingyun wasn’t Wei Yun, so she didn’t feel anything upon hearing this news. She felt that it was good for Su Lijiang to walk out of this past’s shadow and love a person properly. If this happened, it would finally put a true end to those past events.
In the blink of an eye, five years had passed. Su Tingyun’s cultivation level gradually climbed to the second level of Spirit Condensation. Li Xinmei was finally able to start cultivating again and her cultivation was still at the third level of Spirit Condensation. The majority of the batch of new disciples that had been accepted with her had already successfully established their foundation. Xu Wei was still the most advanced out of the group and was now already at the third level of Foundation Establishment.
After reaching Foundation Establishment, it was much more difficult to advance. To most people, it was already good to be able to increase in one level every ten years. The reason Xu Wei had been able to advance so quickly was because he had pretty good natural talent at the sword and he also obtained his master’s recognition and was bestowed quite a lot of treasures. There was also the factor that luck played. When he was training outside, he just happened to eat a hundred year amethyst fruit that had the effect of cleansing his bones and purifying his meridians.
So if one wanted to obtain a chance, one had to leave home and make one’s way in the world. Su Tingyun had heard about this from Du Xizhi but she didn’t dare to tell Xiao Mei.