Chapter 4, Page 004: Bought the Booklet
However, even someone as unsophisticated as her found these things unappealing. And the outer disciples were quite rip-offs, constantly demanding a hundred low-grade spirit stones for this or that.
It's probably a scam targeting the newly initiated outer disciples. The sect distributes exactly one hundred low-grade spirit stones to each outer disciple.
Song Chi didn't look at it much.
However, on the inner sect side, at the foot of Peach Blossom Mountain, near the Spirit Turtle, there is also a flea market for inner sect disciples.
Song Chi took a look around and found that the inner disciples were all scammers. Everything they offered was only worth a hundred mid-grade spirit stones, probably just a way to rip off newly recruited inner disciples.
The items here are indeed of a higher quality, but there's nothing that Song Chi feels would be enough to change a transmigrator's fate, such as magical treasures or cultivation techniques... there's none of that.
She thought to herself, "No wonder novels are so different from reality."
She walked around the flea market, and at the last stall, she inexplicably took a liking to a yellowed old booklet.
This is a divination book. The title page clearly states that this immortal divination technique can only be obtained by those with the right destiny. But afterwards, all the pages are blank. Bloodstains, burn marks, and water stains are clearly visible. It's estimated that the senior brother who found the manual tried various methods to open the book, but all to no avail.
Seeing her flipping through the divination book, the senior brother at the stall immediately smiled and said, "Junior sister, don't be fooled by this tattered divination book. It actually has a great history. I found it by chance two years ago when it fell into a secret realm. Since only those with the right destiny can understand this wordless book, alas, I had to reluctantly part with it. If you like it, junior sister, I'll sell it to you for a mere hundred mid-grade spirit stones."
And it's a hundred mid-grade spirit stones! These senior brothers can't even change their rhetoric! Besides, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth is as still as a chicken's nest these days; it's said that no secret realm has erupted in a thousand years. These senior brothers are truly speechless.
Song Chi immediately put down the booklet and was about to leave. The senior brother quickly stopped her, "Since you look familiar, how about this, I'll give you a rock-bottom price, fifty mid-grade spirit stones. Don't worry, with your intelligence, you'll definitely gain the approval of the owner of this cultivation manual."
Song Chi thought to himself, "Look at all the bloodstains on it. This thing's probably been tried on by many people, and they've all failed."
"Never mind, senior brother, I don't really like this either."
The senior brother stopped her again. "Junior sister, don't go. How about this, junior sister, how many spirit stones can you offer? If the price is reasonable, I'll give you a rock-bottom price!"
Song Chi then held up one finger.
"Ten mid-grade spirit stones?" The senior brother immediately suppressed the smile on his lips, then quickly put on a serious face and pretended to be in pain.
Song Chi shook her head. "One piece!" she said.
The senior brother was so angry he almost fainted, shooing her away like a fly. The senior sister at the next stall burst out laughing, then called him a swindler. "That thing is just junk. Maybe some mischievous devil deliberately made it mysterious to trick people. Luckily, this junior sister didn't fall for it."
"Tch, where did I cheat anyone?" the senior brother retorted, but after taking a few steps towards Song Chi, he grabbed her sleeve, looking quite pained. "Seeing that junior sister has a kind face, senior brother will be generous today. One mid-grade spirit stone is fine."
Song Chi was actually starting to not want it anymore. But he had a strange feeling that he would be disappointed if he didn't buy it, so he took out a mid-grade spirit stone and bought the booklet. Then, amidst the shaking of the head of the senior sister at the stall next door, he quickly went up the mountain.
Before I could even check when I got back, I heard a clanging sound. It meant the academy had let out and it was lunchtime.
With his stomach growling with hunger, Song Chi immediately rushed to the cafeteria.
The sect is quite humane; the dining halls are located between Peach Blossom Mountain and Qingxue Palace. There are a total of eight dining halls, each four stories high. Dining halls A and B are for the Immortal Masters and other high-ranking members. The remaining six dining halls are naturally for the inner disciples.
Among them, the Geng and Xin canteens are specially set up to provide free meals for new disciples for three months, which can be regarded as a favor from the sect.
Since there was something free, she naturally didn't spend money on it. Moreover, the dishes were actually quite good. Her family could only afford to eat spirit beast meat during festivals, but the canteen here was providing it for free for three months. As a result, Song Chi's three dishes didn't contain a single green vegetable.
Dai Jia, who happened to be eating on the second floor of the Gengzi canteen, teased him for this. "Never eaten meat before? Taking so much, tsk."
Song Chi was speechless. This person was crazy; she couldn't be bothered with him.
After a hearty meal, she went downstairs to find out what time classes were held and what subjects were taught at the academy. She also learned how to use the spirit tortoise for transportation; she had initially thought riding the tortoise daily would cost spirit stones, but it turned out to be free. Of course, only the round trip to the academy was free; being late would require additional payment.
Song Chi thought to himself, "The Azure Sword Sect truly lives up to its reputation as the wealthiest of the eight major sects south of Jade Qiong Mountain. It's said that the sect owns sixteen spirit mines. In contrast, the Changyun Sect, where Song Chi's hometown is located, only has five spirit mines. Therefore, the Changyun Sect is quite poor. The elders and deacons of the Changyun Sect all run some businesses, such as the perfume shop in the Song family. It's like my parents and uncles were just managing the shop for Elder Pan of the outer sect."
After learning about the matters concerning the academy, Song Chi went to Qingyun Pavilion, where the inner disciples' task hall was located.
To her surprise, she discovered that the Azure Sword Sect was indeed different from other sects. They had even created separate tasks specifically for disciples specializing in sound cultivation. These tasks were reportedly set by the sect's founding patriarch.
The founder of the Azure Sword Sect, Immortal Lord Qingxiao, was not only an outstanding sword cultivator but also a powerful sound cultivator who inherited a portion of ancient musical principles. The Azure Sword Sect was originally called the Azure Sound Sword Sect, but its power gradually declined, reducing it from a four-character sect to a three-character sect. Four-character sects, such as the top-tier Lingxu Immortal Sect located in Plum Spring in the Southwest where Ye Qingyu resides, are all four-character sects.
Song Chi spent ten low-grade spirit stones to buy all the mission manuals and then returned to his dormitory to study them.
Her true intention was, if possible, to take the sound cultivation mission. This was because the spirit stone rewards and mission points for sound cultivation missions were doubled compared to other missions.
But she soon realized that this was virtually impossible.
Because even the most basic tasks require studying sound correction courses at the academy before they can be done.
This was simply because the disciples were instructed to play music for the spiritual plants in the sect's herb garden or to perform music at the spirit beast enclosure, based on the musical pieces they had learned in the course.
It is said that the medicinal properties of spiritual herbs nourished in this way will be more concentrated, and the meat of demonic beasts will be more delicious.
Later generations did indeed play music for cows, believing it would make the meat more delicious. Although Song Chi, a self-proclaimed gourmet, had tried it, he didn't notice much difference.
Furthermore, as one's musical cultivation advances, one can use the spiritual energy blades created by the music to drive away insects from spiritual herbs, or to remove lice and other pests that harm demonic beasts.
Secondly, a special note in the task log: If the spiritual energy of the music played during a music cultivation task is unstable, causing damage to spiritual plants or reducing the production of monsters, the disciple will bear all the losses.
Who would dare to do that!
If she were to suffer even the slightest harm, Song Chi currently only has two thousand mid-grade spirit stones given to her by her parents before she joined the sect, plus one hundred mid-grade spirit stones from the sect, totaling two thousand one hundred mid-grade spirit stones... how could she possibly afford to compensate for that?
However, the main reason why sound cultivation harms spiritual plants is because of unstable control of spiritual energy, causing it to fly wildly like blades, thus damaging the plants. With her excessively average spiritual root aptitude, she can indeed consistently output all three types of spiritual energy with a mere wave of her hand… I reckon she can manage this mission if she takes a chance.
Let's see how things go after she learns that music technique. If she can do music cultivation tasks, then that will truly be a relief for her.
Because for ordinary missions, if one doesn't leave the sect, the rewards are basically only enough for an ordinary disciple to buy a Transformation Pill. And even then, one needs to immediately start doing missions after the academy's classes end at Shen Shi (3-5 PM), and even then, one has to fight for those missions.
After all, the Dust-Transforming Pill is quite expensive. All her assets combined are only enough to buy one hundred pills, which is only enough for half a year's consumption.
Missions outside the sect offer more spirit stones, but they are time-consuming and dangerous. Most importantly, disciples must reach at least the fourth level of Qi Refining before the sect will allow them to go out on missions.
Earning spirit stones was of paramount importance to her. From now on, she needed to prepare for Foundation Establishment.
There was no other way. Although the Song family managed two perfume shops, they only received 20% of the profits. They had to support their entire family, plus their grandfather and the others needed to use spirit stones to maintain the spirit-enhancing array in their training room every day.
The Song family actually didn't have much money.
Before she left to become an apprentice, her parents told her that as long as she worked hard in her cultivation, her family would definitely help prepare the Foundation Establishment Pill.
However, with her aptitude, she would need at least ten Foundation Establishment Pills to have a chance of successfully establishing her foundation. The spirit stones her family had saved up could barely scrape together half a Foundation Establishment Pill.
Nowadays, according to the cultivation world, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth is stagnant, spiritual plants grow extremely slowly, and secret realms are out of the question. Therefore, elixirs are indeed sold at exceptionally high prices!
Another reason why the Azure Sword Sect is wealthy is that its Pill Sect is also among the top three of the eight major sects.
Pills are very expensive. Even the Transformation Pill, used for Qi Refining stage cultivators, is very expensive, not to mention the Foundation Establishment Pill, which starts at five thousand high-grade spirit stones each, totaling fifty thousand mid-grade spirit stones. She needs at least ten more…
Fifty thousand high-grade spirit stones—currently an astronomical figure for Song Chi and the Song family.
But no matter what, she must succeed in establishing her foundation.
Although her aptitude is what it is, she is the hope of the whole family. Only by achieving Foundation Establishment can she safeguard the family's meager foundation.
The world of cultivation is not easy to navigate.
Improving her cultivation level is the priority right now, as even ordinary sect missions require reaching the first level of Qi Refining to be completed. Although she had cultivated a little spiritual energy at home, her father had only given her a very basic introductory Qi Refining method. Although her parents had both joined the Changyun Sect, they naturally wouldn't dare pass on the sect's methods to their child. This was the rule of the cultivation world.
Therefore, her cultivation speed using ordinary methods was extremely slow. Now, with the cultivation methods of the Azure Sword Sect and the training room rich in spiritual energy, she could finally achieve her goal.
Song Chi packed up her mission booklet and immediately went to the training room. The Qingjian Sect's cultivation methods were indeed quite different, with varying paths for the circulation of spiritual energy. They also provided categorized guidance based on different spiritual roots. For example, there were separate pages explaining how to cultivate using her metal, water, and wood spiritual roots, including guidance on meridian points.
She began meditating according to this method, and in just one afternoon, she had completed three cycles of cultivation. Previously, she could only complete one cycle in a day. The contrast was brutal. Being a rogue cultivator in the cultivation world was truly not a life for humans.
In just one afternoon, she achieved the first level of Qi Refining, a feat she had struggled to break through for a year. This meant she could now take on one or two ordinary tasks each day.
After having dinner at the cafeteria, I followed the disciples of the academy and rode back with a free spirit turtle.
Song Chi meditated until late at night, watching her spiritual energy grow by another tiny dot, the size of a grain of rice, and felt truly satisfied. In the early stages of cultivation, her cultivation speed was quite fast for someone of her aptitude. However, the sixth level of Qi Refining was a hurdle. Her parents had reached a point where they could barely progress, and it had taken them twenty years. At her current cultivation speed, she feared she could reach it in just two years—a stark contrast indeed.
However, her cultivation speed will slow down when she reaches the sixth level of Qi Refining.
The Qingxue Palace requires ten years of study. In other words, the sect considers ten years the latest timeframe for inner disciples to reach the ninth level of Qi Refining. Song Chi was genuinely worried that he would be at the bottom and unable to achieve it within ten years. That would probably be incredibly embarrassing.
If it weren't for his exhaustion, Song Chi would have continued cultivating in the training room until dawn. After all, if his aptitude wasn't enough, the Scroll King would make up for it.
But her whole body ached, and she could barely open her eyes. She could only wash up and go back to her room to sleep.
Just before going to sleep, she remembered the divination book her senior brother had bought. Even now, she still felt a pang of regret for spending a mid-grade spirit stone; if she dripped her blood on it and got no results… her heart would probably bleed.
She immediately lit a lamp, got up, and unfolded the tattered, yellowed booklet. One glance made her realize she'd been blind; how could she have thought it looked so appealing? Had she been blind?
A note from the author:
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From now on, updates will be at 12 PM every day before the VIP chapters are released. I have plenty of drafts, so feel free to jump in! Please add to your collection, please add to your collection, please add to your collection! [Cat emoji]
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