Mu Yunran spent several days farming with Chiguzi. During that time, he taught her how to draw spiritual energy into her body.
She sat cross-legged on the ground beside the spirit fields.
“This is one of the places in Clearcloud Sect where the spiritual energy of heaven and earth is most abundant. Learning to draw it into your body here will get you twice the result with half the effort.”
After explaining the key points to her, Chiguzi walked over to the spirit fields and dripped a drop of medicinal liquid into the soil. He circulated his spiritual power. The crops, having absorbed the liquid, ripened in an instant under the force of his power.
He harvested the edible crops, leaving behind the brilliantly colored spirit flowers. Then he dripped several more drops of the medicinal liquid onto them.
The flowers absorbed it and began madly drawing on Chiguzi’s spiritual power. In the blink of an eye, they grew taller and larger than the fruit tree in the backyard. Thick roots and luxuriant leaves blocked the blazing sun, casting a vast patch of shade.
Mu Yunran sensed the change in light. Her eyes shifted beneath her closed lids.
Chiguzi glanced at his disciple and warned, “You must concentrate while drawing spiritual energy into your body. Be careful not to suffer cultivation deviation. Don’t say I didn’t warn you—if you fail, the impact of the spiritual energy will damage your meridians.”
Mu Yunran did not dare let her attention wander. She continued sensing the spiritual energy surrounding her.
Chiguzi released a tremendous amount of spiritual power in one breath, yet his expression did not change in the slightest. He was in such fine condition that he even had the leisure to feed Ahua, who happened to be passing by, a scallion.
Ahua munched on it while staring at the gigantic spirit flower with bright black eyes. Its snout twitched, and it edged closer, hoping to take a bite.
Chiguzi caught Ahua by the scruff. Shaking his head at the disgruntled piglet, he said softly, “Not this one. It’s for your boss.”
He pointed at Mu Yunran, who had already begun absorbing spiritual energy, then released Ahua and poured still more power into the spirit flower.
Once the flower reached the limit of its growth, dazzling light burst from it and its stamens began releasing spiritual energy. Rings of pale green energy circled Mu Yunran and slowly enveloped her.
Chiguzi stood behind her to guard her cultivation. As the flood of energy entered her body, he protected the meridians around her heart and her energy center while guiding the foreign energy through her.
A cultivator who had only just learned to draw spiritual energy into the body had no sea of energy yet, much less a sea of consciousness. The absorbed energy could only remain in the energy center and meridians. Little by little, it would widen the meridians. Once a cultivator completely absorbed it and made it her own, she would have a firm foundation and could advance.
The fire element between heaven and earth sensed Mu Yunran and rushed eagerly into her body. Wood fed fire. The spirit flower’s energy was gradually devoured and transformed into scarlet fire spiritual energy, which spread through the courtyard with Mu Yunran at its center.
Chiguzi placed an array around the courtyard so that not a trace of spiritual energy could leak out of this space. The fluctuations could not affect the world beyond the courtyard, and ordinary people would never notice what was happening here.
In two days, the sect leader would preside over the ceremony in which the new disciples formally acknowledged their masters and received their badges. If a new disciple still could not draw spiritual energy into her body by then, the masters would become laughingstocks, while the disciple would be demoted from an outer disciple to a menial one.
The cultivation world followed the law of the strong preying on the weak. Those who cultivated too slowly could not obtain good training resources within their sect. Every five years, the Four Great Sects held a competition among their new disciples. As leading representatives of the cultivation world, none of them wanted to lose face at the gathering.
Chiguzi did not care much about his reputation, but he had no desire to be mocked by those irritating old fellows. On the day he accepted Mu Yunran, he had discovered that part of the girl’s Heavenly Soul was missing and that her cultivation would be far slower as a result. Afraid his new disciple would immediately be demoted to menial work, he had devised this method to increase her cultivation speed.
Put simply, he was forcibly flooding her with spiritual energy.
The process proved much easier than Chiguzi had expected. Her incomplete Heavenly Soul hindered her less than he had imagined, and she absorbed spiritual energy at an astonishing speed—far too fast for an ordinary person.
Mu Yunran felt hot all over, and she liked it. It was like soaking in warm water. All her weariness melted away, and her entire body relaxed.
Once Chiguzi saw that she could absorb the energy on her own without injuring herself, he sat down on the open ground in front of her to rest.
“This child… Other people take two hours at most to draw spiritual energy into their bodies, but you’ve been at it for half a day and still aren’t finished. Just look at that little expression. You’d think you were having a wonderful dream.”
Chiguzi remained at her side until the moon rose above the treetops. Only when the spirit flower had shrunk, withered, and finally turned to mulch did Mu Yunran finish drawing the energy into her body.
“Oh? Finally done?”
Hearing her master’s voice, Mu Yunran opened her eyes and examined herself. “I’m done, Master. I succeeded.”
Chiguzi ate a meatball and glanced at the rotted spirit flower. *It would be stranger if you hadn’t succeeded.*
“Eat your dinner, then feed Ahua and the others. Once you’re finished, go rest. You don’t need to farm with me for the next two days. As long as you don’t wander onto another peak, you’re free to do as you please. Still, I suggest you consolidate your cultivation first. You might even advance. But one should keep a low profile. You understand what I mean, don’t you?”
Mu Yunran’s heart gave a thump. She still could not hide it from her master. The moment she finished drawing energy into her body, she had already reached the peak of Spiritual Energy Refining. If she advanced again, she would reach Foundation Establishment.
Reaching the peak of Spiritual Energy Refining less than ten days after entering the sect would bring no small amount of trouble if anyone found out.
“I understand, Master.”
* * *
After feeding Ahua and the others, Mu Yunran washed up and sat on her bed. She opened the system interface and claimed the reward for her cultivation achievement. She had now reached level ten, unlocking the exchange system.
“Host, do you want to exchange this leaf for mission points?”
The little ball of light hovered in the air and stared at the leaf from the Cloudblossom Tree. It did not believe a fallen leaf could be worth many mission points.
Mu Yunran selected the leaf in her inventory and confirmed the exchange. The next instant, it vanished from her hand.
System notification: Congratulations on completing an exchange. One hundred mission points have been added to your balance.
Mu Yunran froze for a moment. The corner of her mouth rose as she shot the ball of light a triumphant look.
“One leaf is worth a hundred points. That really is quite a lot, isn’t it?”
The little ball turned from green to red, then disappeared in front of her.
Mu Yunran looked from her hundred mission points to the absurdly expensive treasures and decided to visit the Cloudblossom Tree the next day.
Early the following morning, she hurried to the tree and searched the surrounding ground for fallen leaves.
“I was too distracted to examine this tree closely the other two times I came. Now that I look, all its leaves together seem to form the shape of a sharp sword.”
Intrigued, Mu Yunran studied the tree as she searched. *The blade formed by its leaves points straight at the heavens, as if it means to pierce the sky.*
The Cloudblossom Tree observed her for a while. When another breeze stirred its branches, several leaves fell.
Mu Yunran pounced on them as though she had found precious treasures. She quickly gathered them and placed them in the small pouch Lu Qingran had given her.
She stopped when she saw the little origami swallow inside. She had not opened this pouch in a long time because she never needed anything in it. Lu Qingran had specially made the swallow-shaped lifesaving item for her, afraid that she might encounter danger outside Clearcloud Sect.
When she first received it, Mu Yunran took it out and looked at it every other day. Each time, she counted the days as she waited for Lu Qingran to come. She counted for an entire year and took out the little swallow nearly two hundred times, but Lu Qingran never appeared.
Eventually, Mu Yunran stopped counting. She realized that Lu Qingran would not return. Later still, she came to Clearcloud Sect as promised, became one of its outer disciples, and finally became Lu Qingran’s junior sister.
Mu Yunran took out the little swallow and lowered her head with a soft laugh. *Back then, was I longing for her whenever I looked at this? I wonder what my Senior Sister Qingran is doing now.*
* * *
Lu Qingran rode her sword to the Cloudblossom Tree. There was something she wanted the sacred tree to answer for her. Whenever she had been unable to make a decision in the past, she had relied on its help.
She had only just jumped down from Frost-Touched Sword when a familiar voice reached her ears—the voice of the person she had seen in her dream the night before.
Lu Qingran looked up and saw Mu Yunran beaming with delight as she ran toward her.
Mu Yunran had changed again in the few days since they last met. She now wore the pale pink uniform of a Sword Intent Hall disciple. Half her long hair was tied in a high ponytail, while the other half fell naturally across her shoulders and back. Her fringe reached below her brows without covering her eyes, clearly arranged with care.
Pretending not to see her was impossible. Lu Qingran replied coolly, “Junior Sister Mu.”
Mu Yunran did not mind the form of address. Smiling brightly, she cupped the little swallow in both hands. “Senior Sister, do you still remember this?”
Lu Qingran’s expression instantly chilled, and rejection entered her cold voice.
“No,” she said. “I don’t remember it.”
