Chapter 5: Cultivating

After wandering around familiarizing herself with the artifact for a bit, Zi Hua returned to the pagoda to wash herself.

Overcome by the excitement, Zi Hua forgot the state that she was in, she's always had a liking to cleanliness though not to the point of a clean-freak.

After refreshing herself and changing into a clean set of clothes in the room, Zi Hua picked up some cultivation books from the shelf that her master left behind so she could understand cultivation better since her previous world was modern and there wasn't anything of the sort like cultivation.

Just by merely reading the basics of the books Zi Hua understood it, after just attempting once she could feel Qi, normally a person would take months to feel Qi but Zi Hua had managed to achieve it so effortlessly.

If others knew they would be infuriated, comparing oneself to an aberrant can be infuriating.

When Zi Hua's soul merged with the Xia Fei Yan, her talent was transferred into her new body and Xia Fei Yan's body was just a vessel to allow Zi Hua to exist in this world. The previous sickly Xia Fei Yan could be considered prettier than average but now Zi Hua was a devastating beauty. In addition before the merging process her master had refined the body.

Zi Hua isn't Xia Fei Yan neither is Xia Fei Yan Zi Hua.

When Zi Hua felt Qi she did not rush to absorb it, but worked to establish a more solid foundation, no matter how talented one is if they do not have some sort of foundation it will cause problems when they advance in cultivation, the more solid the better.

This is why taking long to feel Qi can have some benefits under certain circumstances.

Zi Hua's master specifically wrote that she had to stabilize a foundation and do the same after major break-throughs.

Zi Hua spent a week working on her foundation continuously besides stopping to eat the food prepared by Xiao Chen. Despite it being a short week, her foundation became top-notch which will help her in the future and of course the 'food' Xiao Chen brought wasn't anything ordinary but extremely valuable herbs cooked into 'food'.

Xiao Chen specifically picked things that would aid her in the future and wouldn't bring harm no matter how much is eaten, in addition herbs inside the Heaven-defying artifact will be many more times 'nutritious' than ones outside due to the abundance of Qi.

After tirelessly consolidating her foundation for a week, Zi Hua finally started cultivating.

BOOM!

Qi Gathering...

Martial Practitioner...

Martial spirit...

Martial Master...

Her cultivation rose at a alarming rate skipping 3/4 levels before it finally stopped at High stage Martial Master and that was only in the duration of about a several days, what would take even the most talented a few years - since as you rise in rank the difficulty multiplies several times - was accomplished by Zi Hua under a month...

Her talent is really heaven-defying, perfectly fitting with the Heaven-defying artifact.

Instead of carrying on Zi Hua decided to consolidate her newfound powers as per her master's instructions.

Just cultivating will not help but rather real fighting experience, it just so happens that she was in the perfect place, Wan Shou Mountain.

Zi Hua exited the pagoda after changing into a plain set of clothes that would be more suitable for moving around in a tightly packed forest.

.....

Zi Hua first started at the edges of the forest where there were only beginner ranked spirit beasts, but soon found it too easy and advanced further into the mountain, of course not before collecting the beast cores which were highly valuable for armament masters and alchemists. Though they couldn't compare to the treasures she has, when she leaves this place she needs money but she didn't want to bring unnecessary attention to herself by bringing stuff out from the artifact.

Normal Martial Masters wouldn't be able to defeat beginner rank spirit beasts as easily but Zi Hua's talent allowed her to be stronger than others' her level and don't forget what job she had before arriving here. If she didn't have skills, she wouldn't have survived for long, she perfected many forms of combat just in case of certain situations.

Though with some difficulty, she managed to defeat some spirit beasts of high stage intermediate rank which according to norms only a Martial Expert could defeat it.

But in front of this aberrant norms are non-existent.