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91.3% Learning To Live As A Cultivator / Chapter 294: Chapter Ninety Four - We welcome in Spring

Chapter 294: Chapter Ninety Four - We welcome in Spring

Likely it was planned so, the end of the Interschool Exchange competitions coincided with the official start of the spring season and though there was the odd frost in the higher regions of the mountains, the snows had mostly melted, filling the rivers and streams with freshened water to run towards the plains and valleys in the south. The days had noticeably lengthened, the formerly trees carried buds of green or blossoms of pastel colours, while wild spring flowers began to sprout from the awakening soils. And to make everything a touch more verdant, the skies would frequently darken to spill heaven's waters onto the ground to be sucked up by thirsty roots.

Spring happened to be the busiest time for the outer alchemist school as everyone bustled to nurture seeds and plant seedlings into the herb fields, a mixture of fast and slow growing crops to fill their empty stores of the most needed herbs for later use. This task was a mandatory chore for all outer school alchemists, Leon was no exception, so after the first years trudged through the mud to till and fertilise the fields with a specialised compost made mostly of sweet sunclover, purple spirit grass and crystal dust, he and fellow seniors carefully planted the nurtured seedlings into carefully spaced holes in specific fields.

It was tiring work that took several days to complete. All of the students who would be chatty over the morning breakfast, would be quieter over lunch and silent over dinner before soaking in baths poured by those off duty then crawling back to their domiciles to collapse a dreamless, exhausted sleep. Leon's home was further than others, so perhaps for that reason a certain stubborn, midnight coeurl took pity on him and carried him the extra distance. Just for that tenday week anyway.

Following this tenday without break, the students were given a tenday to themselves, only those who wanted to gain points and things in exchange for weeding would continue to push themselves into working. At this time, the usual antagonism between inner and outer schools rose to become more than hostile opinions behind the backs of others.

"Outer school students are so lazy."

"It's just growing herbs and they act as if they are dying!"

"If you put that much effort into growing them, how comes they aren't mature enough for us to use yet?"

Of course, these poisonous words simply came from a minority, a mixture of naturally talented elites and born nobles with silver spoons, not the hardworking seniors who strove to transfer from outer to inner sect nor those from a farming background who could sympathise a little better. But it just so happened that this minority were also the most popular or feared or idolised group, thus their opinions became the opinions of the student body of the inner school.

It should be mentioned that it was not that the inner school had no fields, but that their fields were cared for usually by former outer school students who took positions in school after having to graduate without achievements. They were talented in the aspect of herb gardening, but lacked better than average ability in making pills. Perhaps their cultivation was not so excellent as well. Of course, the inner school students were still taught this vital craft, but their lessons were in greenhouses, each having the chance of raising herbs in a miniature garden, using raised beds, pots and such like. How can a metre square of sheltered space compare to several hundred mu of fields?

The inner school defended their decision of course. These were the cream of the crop when it came to alchemist talent! They needed to be guided and nurtured in developing pills and potions for the good of the cultivation world, not hoeing fields and digging out weeds!

"Spoiled inner school brats!"

"Where do they think the majority of the herbs they use come from? Fey and Faeries?"

"I don't think we should share our crops, let them suffer!"

"Shh! Don't let the Teachers hear you!"

Two sides of the fence, yet from the same family, Merylin summoned her sister in order to ensure that their relationship would not be affected by the schism of schools. Merylin was a Di daughter, Maimai a shu-born, Miss Merylin's supporters thought she was too virtuous and kind a person, overly worrying about how Miss Maimai was coping due to her inferior position.

Actually, it was not that at all. Merylin was not like those girls who only schemed to suppress their sisters in order to ensure those girls 'knew their place!' Only by maintaining a good relationship could Merylin continue to rely on Maimai's support in the future or else, wouldn't she simply be severing unknown connections and paths that she could use at that time? Maimai was not unaware of her sister's thoughts, however it was better for a shu daughter with less background to maintain a cordial relationship with her legitimate siblings so that she would not find herself without a place to go one day. At the same time, neither girl would continue to hold onto the other's hand if there came a time when they had no other choice but to separate. So their relationship was just like this.

"Sister," Merylin grasped Maimai's white hands with their now broken nails and tinted stains of mud and looked at her with grieving eyes. "You've suffered! If only I could arrange for someone to replace you there, I'd willingly allow you to shelter with me until all of that ghastly work was done!"

"No need!" Maimai said cheerfully, shaking off her sister's hands so she could pour a cup of tea for them both. Merylin had better quality of tea than herself and it had already been brewed by the girl as well. All Maimai had to do was pour and enjoy, which she did with a savoured sigh.

"Sometimes I find this school's rules so absurd," Merylin muttered, taking the offered cup in one hand and sipping lightly. "How is it that well bred girls should be expected to traipse through mud with boys and commoners? If father knew..."

"If father knew, I'd be withdrawn from home and bored to tears in Li Yiniang's courtyard," Maimai interrupted her. Li Yiniang was her biological mother. She was a delicate lady, prone to tears and a cousin of Merylin's mother. She had come to care for Merylin's mother during the woman's confinement after birth and had ended up staying permanently after falling in love with her daughter's father. Naturally, Merylin's mother was not happy about the matter, but the rice had already been cooked and Li Yiniang was a weak woman who never pitted herself against her cousin, so Merylin's mother tolerated her presence a little more than the other concubines.

"Besides," Maimai smiled warmly to assuage her sister, "it wasn't bad, maybe even a little fun!" Maimai was not great at making pills and was stronger than ordinary girls. Using her natural endurance, smiling without complaint as she worked alongside others, there was a satisfaction to it that she'd not really experienced before. She'd even volunteered to help weed the fields, learning how to identify the plants that sucked out the vital nutrients of the fields, potentially damaging the growth of the herbs alongside Leon who'd come to her aid when he'd noticed that she was about to pull out a seedling.

It turned out that she had better ability, in the end, at removing the weeds intact, not leaving any root behind to regrow and begin to harm the fields once more. This matter required not only physical strength, but also spiritual sight (pouring spiritual energy into the senses), something Maimai was particularly good at. So with Leon identifying the weeds and her removing them, they'd cleared one mu well and efficiently and earned Teacher Sagi's praise.

Using her body in this way had proven to be beneficial in more ways than one. Just yesterday afternoon, while she cultivated after lunch, she noticed that there had been a change in her innersea; she was about to break through into secondary stage.


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
Ebonsolaris Ebonsolaris

With renewed inspiration, I am back with the beginning of a new ‘arc’ for the boys. I’ve a few chapters prepared and unless something unexpected happens, I should keep to my usual schedule from now on. Thank you for your patience!

Chapter 295: Chapter Ninety Five - We experience changes in different ways

The daughters of the Sect Leader were spoiled and their mothers were, although from cultivation families, were not necessarily talented cultivators themselves.  The Leader had married them for connections or because he was interested in them physically, not due to such reasons as love.  But as 'poor' a husband he might have been in EQ terms, he loved his daughters, spoiling them and not placing expectations upon them.

Their mothers, on the other hand, did have expectations, but that was as future mothers of strong sons and as wives of men who could support their father-in-law and his sons in the future.  Thus the daughters of the Sect Leader were given the tools to cultivate, but not expected to succeed in cultivation.

Merylin and Maimai showed talent in cultivation, but their mothers pressed them with lessons to shape them into virtuous wives, stifling their potential until Merylin snapped and begged her father to let them attend the Ascending Mountain Institute.  Originally, it had been her thought to delay her marriage, allow her some freedom from her mother's heavy expectations and overly doting father suffocating affection, but there she had discovered she had real talent as an alchemist.  She began to soar and left her little sister behind in her shadow.

Maimai didn't mind this though, it was nothing new to her and she was happy just to have skimmed some benefits for herself, aka the freedom to be herself and to enjoy whole heartedly her pass times .  Yet now, she too was about to blossom, shedding off the stigma of being stuck in primary stage cultivation due to her mother's interference and beginning the true step onto the path to immortality as a secondary stage Cultivator!

Merylin naturally would not be far behind, but her body was not quite ready for that step yet.

Leon, the best friend and 'long suffering shou' of an 'overwhelming gong', was also experiencing changes in his cultivation, however it wasn't due to the arduous task of herb farming.

He'd forgotten about it, but that didn't mean it had gone away; the discordant yet somehow benign little gem star in his innersea's universe, that moved against the stream of his naturally circling energies.  Just as before, it was weaving in and out, over and under the tiny stars about it, which were sluggishly moving in one direction while it moved in the other.  Whenever a star came into its sphere of influence, that star seemed to glow just a tiny bit more for a while, but otherwise there seemed no other effects to his innersea.

Making pills were as normal, his mostly average pills still average, his good pills still good.  His control over fire and cauldron were unchanged, this ability that was what made him originally stand out over other things.  His innersea was still calm, not turbulent nor deviating, so nothing should have changed, right?

But on this day, he had decided to cultivate some more.  Now the field work was done and he had no Jin Li to distract him (that man had returned reluctantly to the inner Martial Arts school), he wanted to focus on this somewhat neglected task.  If he wanted to catch up to Jin Li, even a little, he really needed to put more effort into this.  He didn't feel like he should rely on them being Dao Companions to keep Jin Li by his side.  Death could still part them without mercy.  The average life span of a secondary Cultivator really wasn't much more than a mortal of noble descent after all and that was because one had to survive still to enjoy old age.  The world of cultivators was as cruel if not crueller than this realms mortal scape.  Only by advancing and becoming stronger could he truly stay beside Jin Li longer.

If Jin Li knew his intentions, he would be smugly satisfied.

As usual, Leon made himself comfortable as he sat and focused on his inner sea.  He stirred the energies within into a quickened pace, that the thick clusters thinned and the space between specks widened before bringing it into his meridians to circulate.  All the while, he chanted the words taught to him within that jade scroll from the library as he moved the energies along a specific route.  Who knew that the discordant crystal star would become suddenly obedient and follow the flow into his fragile meridians!?

A stinging sensation followed in its wake, like a trail of needles poking into his body along the intricate network path. However, before he could debate whether to risk damaging his body by letting it continue or risk damaging his body by forcefully stopping midcycle, the stinging was soothed with a heady warmth and a most comfortable feeling spread throughout him.  He felt that to explain it would be to describe it as if his body had frozen before stepping into a hot bath, suffering the pain and comfort that would come from such. 

So he did not stop midcycle, but continued into the next and that is when he felt that his cultivation had changed again a little.  If the celestial cultivation method had felt smoother than the basic cultivation method, then this feeling was even more so; it was the difference between hemp and cotton before switching to satin or silk.  He couldn't help but expel a long drawn out sigh.

After that, he cultivated without pause, not noticing that the sun had set, the moons taking up the duties of lighting the sky before retiring as the sun once more rose at dawn.  A fierce hunger drew him back from his meditations, his belly rumbling loudly in the confines of the bedroom.  By that time, a whole day had passed and Leon found himself facing two sullen coeurl who'd been forgotten about him again.

The coeurls' growth had not been small during the winter season. Wu Ye's shoulder now met the apex of Leon's head, he would not be able to mount at all if the beast did not lower itself to allow it (in more ways than one). It would not now grow much more in height and width, just muscle mass unless it managed to shed this adult form to become an evolved beast. To evolve was the potential of all spiritual beasts, but only a few would achieve it. Teacher Volun believed that Wu Ye's bloodlines were good, however, so its chances were also excellent.

On the other hand, Li Ming was, while unusual of pattern, only a runt of his litter. That and while its mother's bloodline was good (though not as impressive as Wu Ye), its coat was a sign that it had inherited a second bloodline and in that lie doubts. Female coeurl could carry a litter of many fathers, usually one bloodline or the other was inherited, it was rare to find mixed bloodlines and that in itself was generally not a good thing. Li Ming's growth, however, was reasonable, it was predicted it would definitely reach the height and mass of a full adult Male in due time.

Right now, the tip of its pointed ears were just above Leon's shoulder, its growth having been steady, not explosive like Wu Ye's. However, it had not yet lost the snowy and jet black mess of baby fur around it's neck and the upper portion of its chest. Leon didn't mind this, though it hurt the striped coeurl's pride to mention it, as it was soft and warm to snuggle against.

Apologising to the intimidating midnight coeurl, who shadowed him with its mighty presence, Leon opened the gate of the courtyard to let them out. He did not need to remind them to hunt only in the areas most distant from the schools, they were intelligent beasts, but he did remind them to return before sunset, as he'd most likely lock the gate then. Actually, he didn't need to remind them about that either. The last time it had happened, Wu Ye simply battered the wood door until the lock broke, then sauntered straight in. Unfortunately, that had cost it the promised beast pills the following day as Leon had had to fix the lock instead. There were battles to pick and choose from, Wu Ye might grumble, but it would not bite the hand that its little companion favoured.


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
Ebonsolaris Ebonsolaris

Happy New Year everyone x x

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