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11.49% Learning To Live As A Cultivator / Chapter 37: Chapter Thirty Seven - Jin Li is accepted into school

Chapter 37: Chapter Thirty Seven - Jin Li is accepted into school

Jin Li quickly stole the attention of the Teachers, senior students and applicants after he stepped up upon the platform for the martial arts students. The man... youth (Leon still had trouble accepting that he was younger than him) favoured the sword, so a senior who was skilled in this proficiency was selected to greet him.

Their stances differed, but both warily eyed the other, attempting to evaluate the person before them. This surprised Leon, he had always viewed Jin Li as impulse and without hold upon his temper. Clearly, his opinion had been too narrow, but then, he had never actually seen Jin Li do much but bluster and eat. He placed his thoughts aside and watched with new eyes as Jin Li easily blocked the tentative slice of the sword that came his way.

As if that slash was an invitation to duel, the pair swiftly engaged in a more frantic battle that even more quickly evolved into a deadly dance. As neither was attempting to hurt the other, Leon began to find the duel between the pair mesmerising. Others crowded beside him, some enjoying the entertainment as much as he, others still sneering in clear jealousy or baying for blood.

"I could do such moves if I had half the chance," muttered one fellow. These words were spoken by the young master who had fallen as Leon, Jin Li and Pike had entered the pavilion. Leon did not hear him speak these words as he was too caught up in watching Jin Li thrive in his element. Pike, however, turned to eye the young master and clearly found him lacking. He suspected that the boy had never lost a fight before as his opponents had always had to lose or surrender, not because of his skills, but because of his background. Such false ego would only be his downfall in the long run. But who was he to judge, he had been much the same, until a senior had beaten the snot out of him. Fortunately, Pike had not been one to snivel and whinge for long and had risen through hard work and unexpected talent to be where he was; a part of the inner school and under the apprenticeship of a Master.

After ten minutes, the Teacher who was standing in judgement, used his own sword to end their battle. Jin Li looked a little frustrated, but Leon could clearly see this was not directed at his opponent. Jin Li and the senior gracefully bowed in expressed appreciation of the other, the senior added that he would look forward to sparring with Jin Li again in the future. Jin Li nodded in agreement.

"Your friend is very good," Pike complimented.

"Y-yeah," Leon replied, just coming out of the daze that had trapped him, his face a little flustered as the swell of unfamiliar feelings slowly dissipated.

"I hope he joins our school of marital arts," Pike mused. Actually, this was practically a given. The small beasts of the taming school were either intimidated by him or simply loathed him, either way, none would interact with him and Jin Li had no patience for them. His spiritual root was Lightning, considered a minor root, despite its offensive strength, but mages tended to favour long distance combat and Jin Li felt this was weak, although he would begrudgingly admit that a strong Mage of similar level to his could easily challenge him and win. He would not choose to join the magic school. Both the other schools taught non-combative skills, he was not interested in either.

Jin Li was temporarily admitted to the outer circle of the martial arts school. This was due to questions over his cultivation level. An ordinary seventeen year old Cultivator might at most be at the peak of the primary level, those who had broken through to secondary level at his age considered talented even prodigies. But even prodigies seldom reached tertiary level until the age of 30, the youngest known was thought to have been 27. Of course, this was the common knowledge of cultivators in the middle realms.

Leon left him in Pike's care, for which the seventeen year old was less than pleased with, before returning to Mino and apologising for the wait. Leon still had more shopping to do; fabrics, needles and more dried food stuffs were on his list as well as vegetable seeds. And then, he was looking forward to being able to sleep on a bed by himself.


Chapter 38: Chapter Thirty Eight - I commission a small stove?

"Wow, looks like a 'ammer woz takin' to i'," the apprentice exclaimed as he sought to remove the nails that fixed the broken hinge to the door. "Don' worry like, I'll 'ave this dun in a jiffy."

The apprentice had met with Leon and Mino in the morning as promised and the student had guided them both to his set apart little hut in the woods. He had offered them both tea, wanting to try the dried herb blend he had purchased the day before. Mino had declined, but cheekily suggested that he was looking forward to obtaining a fresh batch of mushrooms. He had left them not long after, once Leon had showed him which direction he needed to take in order to get back to the heart of the school.

Leon lit a little tinder and carefully tempered the fire in the pit until it was burning away nicely. And then he placed the tripod over the fire and balanced the kettle on it in order to heat the water and stew the leaves. The apprentice watched him for a moment before returning his attentions back onto the door. After finally prying off the broken hinge without too much damage to the wood, he began to hammer the new one into its place. By the time the tea had been brewed and seeped through a cut of linen, he had completely fixed both door and frame to the new hinge. He tested his workmanship a few times before carefully shutting the door of the hut and joining Leon, who placed a cup before him.

The tea was fragrant and fresh to taste, with just a hint of sweetness. "'oney?" The apprentice questioned. "You added 'oney t'the tea."

"Y-y-Yeah," Leon replied. "D-do you n-not l-l-like it?"

"Na, it be good," the apprentice told him. "People don' norm-a-ly. 'Oney ain't cheap." Leon agreed with that statement. The small jar of honey was a whole silver, but he had always loved the sticky, sweet product and had decided to splurge. The apprentice passed Leon his empty cup. "I no'iced tha' you don' 'ave a fireplace in ya hut."

"N-no," Leon agreed.

The apprentice scratched his head. "I' be jus' tha'... well I fancied makin' this me'al box with i's own chimney for hea' and cookin' like. But me Master thought like i' be a to'al waste o'time like, seein' as peeple use a fireplace. I was tryin' to come up with a way t'get porridge withou' ash innit!"

Oh, it sounds like he wants to make some sort of stove. Leon was intrigued. "That s-sounds a-m-mazing," he said honestly, causing the young man to beam. He was missing a tooth in front. They discussed it a little more and when Leon was convinced it would work for him, he gave him 2 silver to help begin his personal project and agreed to pay for any additional costs of materials and labour once it was completed and installed.

After the apprentice left, Leon examined what herbs he had in his inventory, noticing that they seemed to remain fresher for longer within the interspacial bag. Perhaps he ought to invest in another one once he made his next trip down the mountain. He was looking forward to testing the keg.

There were enough ingredients for a handful of pills as well as others that could be turned into potions. Namely, the only potion that he knew how to create; the basic purifying potion. Unfortunately, Leo had not created an improved version of the potion. He had not created any improved versions of any potions, so perhaps he hadn't gotten around to it or was just more interested in pills. Leon was curious to wonder how the boy had come to the conclusion that he could make tiny adjustments to the recipes and improve them. Leo had made some comments about the herbs themselves in his diaries, perhaps he had gained some clues from his learnings. If that was so, it would not hurt Leon to follow suit at some point.

Leon began the process of making the potion, using his cauldron to boil the water and not pouring it into the keg until the powered nettle roots were completely dissolved. After adding the sunclover, he slowly added his spiritual energy to the lid until it was sealed. He hadn't been sure just how much energy to use, but the lid sealed with a satisfying clunk and he could not pry it loose with his hands. Now he could leave the potion to itself.

Seeing as his spiritual energy remained plentiful, he decided to create normal pills for the remainder of the day, so that he had plenty to take to the Herb Hall the following day.


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