Chapter 20: Experience is Knowledge and Opening Doors
Shin Sumi had always been weary of Elder Zhu.
During four months she had never stayed in the sect's lower valley for too long, wondering patiently what the next move of the Elder would be.
She would leave by the western gates to go directly to the chasm. Then she would cultivate while waiting for her plants to grow. As soon as they were ready to be harvested, Shin Sumi would dig them out and replace them.
From all the batches she sold, about one quarter of the high grade spirit stones the nut would refine would be used to speed up the process of growing plants.
Sometimes she would come back to the sect as Shin Sumi, sometimes as Yan Yan, never allowing too many coincidences to occur.
Her line of reasoning was "if people always see me leave and Yan Yan only return, it won't be long before my secret is discovered".
The only person that possibly knew about her secret was Fen Wudao. Shin Sumi still didn't know if the Liquid Realm cultivator actually knew or not.
She always kept an extra Yin type spirit plant for him. Most of the time he would come by himself, allowing Shin Sumi as Yan Yan to spare her Shinsoo instead of having to send him a message.
Fen Wudao always acted the same way around her, being the smiling and gentle youth he always seemed to be. He never mentioned anything about Shin Sumi, and his interest seemed to be strictly centered on the spirit plants.
Because of the frequent visits of the Liquid Realm prodigy, Yan Yan's little shop had seen its reputation grow exponentially.
By now everybody in the lower valley had heard of Yan Yan, her alluring beauty and her miraculous plants. Even the Pill Concoction Pavilion sometimes sent a disciple to retrieve plants from her.
The Pill Concoction Pavilion usually was more interested in the resources that resulted from the quests, but the mysterious Yan Yan had simply made too big of an impression for them to ignore.
Nobody really knew who she was and how she found the plants. It made no doubt that she was an Honorary Disciple from the lower valley. There would have been no point for a higher disciple to go to that market to sell plants.
Something else that everybody knew was that the person behind Yan Yan used a Confusion Pill.
The disciple that actually uncovered that act was one of Shin Sumi's most frequent clients as well as her close friend, Lan Hui.
By working at the Affairs Pavilion it was easy for him to search the records and Yan Yan's name was nowhere to be seen.
When word started to get around, Shin Sumi had hesitated to tell Lan Hui who she really was but had decided against it. She trusted the boy with her life at this point, but it was important to keep some secrets.
Besides, most of the highest sellers of the market hid their real identity just as a safety measure.
Even Xiao Yue came by a few times to buy Yin type spirit plants.
The first time it happened, Shin Sumi nearly called her 'Yue' as she would have normally. She only refrained from doing so at the last moment, earning a strange stare from her friend.
Shin Sumi hadn't seen Xiao Yue for weeks after she had left for her quests.
The same night the girls had reunited in Shin Sumi's courtyard.
"Thankfully I finished assimilating all the excess Shinsoo yesterday" thought Sumi the night Xiao Yue came knocking at her gates.
"Sumi, are you there?" giggled an excited voice behind the Shinsoo formations.
Shin Sumi opened the gates to be completely overwhelmed by an orange colored blur.
Before she even had time to realize, Xiao Yue was embracing her, her head resting on Shin Sumi's shoulder.
"Why were you gone so long, Yue?!" asked Shin Sumi in an excited voice.
The absence of the girl had been intensely felt by Shin Sumi and she seemed to realize just now how much heavier her heart felt in her chest.
Xiao Yue looked into her eyes, smiling and not willing to let go of her friend.
"I was trying to complete a quest that would have put me directly to the first twenty spots of the ranking!"
Shin Sumi opened her eyes wide, her 'O' shaped mouth and high brows waiting for an explanation.
"A Storm Tiger had been spotted near the eastern training grounds just before you arrived in the sect. It's a rare species around here. It's about as strong as a four vortexes Liquid Realm cultivator but I couldn't let the opportunity go."
She continued, finally letting go of Shin Sumi and walking around her while emphasizing her words with her arms.
"I had prepared a long time for this, and when scouts reported another sighting I simply had to go. The tail of the Storm Tiger as well as its heart are worth a lot of spirit stones! And about nine thousand status points. But there is something even better about hunting."
"What is it?" asked Shin Sumi, baffled by the amount of status point that had just been announced.
"Experience!!" bursted Xiao Yue. "It was about time I did something really exciting. Don't you find life in the sect really boring? I mean except for the quests, us Honorary Disciples can't go out much. I was tired of the same routine, cultivating all day everyday."
Shin Sumi looked at her with a weird expression that she quickly hid. Her life couldn't really be called boring. She had almost been killed a few times, be it the by snakes or the jungle, and of course through Elder Zhu's attempt with the plant trap.
Xiao Yue didn't know yet, she reminded herself. Besides, who else in the lower valley had to maintain two different appearances and had founded the most profitable store in the whole market?
Shin Sumi thought about it for a second. "It is true that besides that I haven't really done anything exciting. I always tell myself that everything will be different when I breakthrough to the Liquid Realm, but I don't want to spend all my time pursuing cultivation."
"I have my own dream of becoming a librarian. I want to have more knowledge" she thought.
Xiao Yue had let her reflect on her previous words, but now she turned to Shin Sumi again.
"You know, experience is not just about doing something thrilling. It is knowledge."
Shin Sumi froze for a second. That was exactly what she was thinking about. The eyes of Xiao Yue were fixed onto hers, as if she was reading her innermost thoughts. The feeling vanished quickly, "surely it is just a coincidence" thought Shin Sumi.
"Anyway, I guess it is better to wait until we officially become cultivators. Honorary Disciples is just another way of saying 'mortals' after all. The Immortal world is so big and dangerous, without having enough Shinsoo there is only so much we can do..."
Shin Sumi was looking at Xiao Yue from the side. For some reason the last words of her sworn sister were strange. It contrasted a lot with the rest of her speech. They seemed almost... desperate.
Xiao Yue brought Shin Sumi back from her deep thoughts, her head disappearing in the collar of her robes.
"Sumi, can you help me disrobe? For weeks I have dreamed about taking a bath here again."
Shin Sumi laughed and helped her friend, not paying too much attention to the fact that she had even asked for help in the first place.
The laughter froze on her red lips, her fair skin paling to an abnormal degree when the tanned skin of the petite orange robed girl appeared in front of her.
"Yue, what happened?!!"
The left side of Xiao Yue's body that had been hidden until now was not in good shape. Her arm was fine but the entire area between her smooth breast and her thigh was red. The skin seemed to have been torn off here and there and scabs the size of her fist could be seen.
Shin Sumi had seen her friend naked before. But now all the excitement and pleasant feeling about taking a bath with Xiao Yue had disappeared.
Xiao Yue sighed.
"The truth is, I wanted to convince you that experience is important for a cultivator before you saw that. I guess if there is another life lesson to be learned, it is that no great reward comes without risk."
Xiao Yue, supported by Shin Sumi, stepped into the fresh spring water, her skin shivering slightly.
"Locating the Storm Tiger was easy. I had everything ready to kill it and bring back what I needed. But I underestimated it. I had laid traps all around the area and prepared follow-up attacks. I still can't use magical Shinsoo techniques so it was pretty basic but strong enough. I simply didn't expect the Storm Tiger so close to death to attack with a renewed might. He bit me a few times and threw me against a rock. When I woke up a few hours later he was dead, but I had lost a lot of blood."
Shin Sumi was silent. She listened to Xiao Yue with a tear in her eye, but she was thinking about something else.
"I should have been back about a month ago" said Xiao Yue, "but beneath the Liquid Realm it is impossible to use Shinsoo to heal faster."
With a laugh supposed to be reassuring but sounded bitter, Xiao Yue told Shin Sumi that everything would be fine, she could ask a sect Elder to treat her and she would soon be the same as before.
At least she had completed her quest and was assured a good place in the ranking.
Xiao Yue was laying down with just her head out of the water. Shin Sumi was sitting down next to her, gently stroking her hair.
Now that she could look at her from up close, she could see traces of exhaustion and internal pain that were absent before her departure.
Shin Sumi was thinking about her sworn sister's story. Little by little, she was realizing what it meant to pursue the life of an Immortal.
Had it happened a few months prior, Shin Sumi would have been devastated. She would even have had occasional nightmares, probably. And she certainly wouldn't have understood how Xiao Yue could be so calm and rational about the whole thing that happened to her.
But the Shin Sumi of today understood. Things like that happened everyday. Cultivating meant overcoming the barriers of the mortal existence, reaching further and further ahead.
"Does that mean losing everything that matters to us humans?" she pondered deeply. The thought of her family that she left behind surged for an instant in her mind.
No, they wanted to force her into a life she never desired. She would not let her emotions get the best of her.
Her mind was in turmoil. For the first time, she appeared to realize something. It was like some great truth of life. Unfortunately every time she tried to grasp it and comprehend it, it seemed to slip away, remaining unattained.
A soft but painful groan came from under her hands. Without noticing, her fingers that were only lightly stroking Xiao Yue's shoulders had started to press harder.
Shin Sumi retracted her hands and made sure that Xiao Yue was sound asleep.
"Don't worry Yue, Sumi will take care of you" she whispered, not even louder than the flow of water from the small waterfall at the end of the pond.
Tapping her wrist twice, a green flash revealed the grey nut that had been staying quietly inside.
It was the first time that Shin Sumi summoned it in the presence of somebody else. She had learned how to do so naturally. The truth was that she needed a tiny sliver of Shinsoo to call the magic nut out.
After having used an innumerable amount of high grade spirit stones to cultivate in the dark chasm, Shin Sumi now had gathered enough Shinsoo to put to shame many Honorary Disciples that had been in the Dark Sky Starry Sect for longer than her.
Although she had no way to know that yet, she had finally caught up with what her supposed green talent should have done to her dantian. The only difference was that she needed many more resources than normal.
Shin Sumi picked up the nut between her fingers. The nut let her do as she pleased as it was soon submerged in the waters.
In the dark of night, the soft green glow of the nut was noticeable but Shin Sumi didn't care. The only person present was Xiao Yue and she was asleep and in need of help.
Without prompting, the nut started to heal whoever was in the waters. Shin Sumi didn't know if it would work on someone other than her. She had, after all, bonded with the nut by blood.
These aspects were somewhat blurry for Shin Sumi, whose knowledge of the Immortal world was still shallow.
She blew a bit of air from her mouth, relieved that it was working.
Leaving the nut under water, she moved a bit closer to Xiao Yue, slowly to not wake her up.
Shin Sumi concentrated for thirty breaths of time, just the time for the tip of her fingers to turn a soft blue. She had learned the Yin Aperture Shinsoo Awakening months ago but had been unable to practice it.
The technique had certain conditions to be met before working. It would only succeed in a Yin type environment. Plus, the practitioner obviously needed a small amount of Shinsoo.
Working along the Shinsoo passageways openings of Xiao Yue's body, Shin Sumi slowly massaged her friend.
She ended up doing it all night, until the sun started rising above the clouds and the first sign of Xiao Yue waking up scared the nut into hiding inside the leaf pattern.
"Hmmm Sumi? Did I fall asleep?" Xiao Yue asked in a sleepy voice.
Shin Sumi laughed and tousled her sister's hair. Xiao Yue sat up straight and stretched a bit.
"Uh?" she exclaimed. "I feel great! My injuries, they all feel better!"
Sumi looked her straight in the eyes and decided to tell a half-truth.
"I tried the Shinsoo Massaging technique on you! It works wonders, although... I couldn't remember exactly so I had to improvise."
"Are you serious? I feel so great! Even the marks on my side have almost disappeared! Your way of doing it is clearly a better tier! It's almost a different technique."
Shin Sumi explained what she had done in details, only omitting the fact that what she had done was simply following the evolved version of the technique. Or the complete version, if she wanted to be more accurate.
"I will call it the Yin Aperture Shinsoo Awakening technique then. I can teach it to you if you want" Shin Sumi said, hiding her smug smile.
As the girls wrapped themselves in their robes again, Shin Sumi imprinted the technique on a piece of jade. It was a word-for-word copy of the one in the book with a bark cover that hid within the nut. The only difference was that she didn't write the line saying the technique could be applied to oneself.
She would have to 'find out by coincidence' later and then tell Xiao Yue.
Xiao Yue left the courtyard first, having to do a few things since she had only come back to the sect the day before.
Shin Sumi took her jade medallion imprint, finally having reached Shinsoo Gathering. With it, the girls would be able to communicate wherever they were, as long as they had enough Shinsoo to cover the distance.
Shin Sumi stayed in her courtyard, seated on her stone bench.
Crossing her legs, she patiently waited until her heart and mind were at peace and tuned with her body.
She had found out a few days ago that her progression while cultivating had slowed down rapidly. That could only mean one thing.
She had used the opening technique on herself regularly before and had gathered enough Shinsoo for her first try. She was ready to open her first Shinsoo passageways!
What would be an exciting breakthrough for all disciples was simply a normal task in Shin Sumi's mind.
It is true that it was her first time doing it, but she knew that with her complete Shinsoo Gathering Manual, she would have to do it a few times in the future in order to reach the perfect sixty-four openings foundation.
Each step should be easier than the last, with the first one being the most difficult.
Shin Sumi took out a large stock of high grade spirit stones. The nail sized beads formed a small pile next to her as she didn't want them to get too close to her for now.
If she encountered difficulty in breaking through, she would simply use a spirit stone to give her a little boost. She was so rich at the moment that spirit stones that virtually everybody in the sect would kill for were just some kind of energy snack for her.
Inhaling and exhaling in rhythm, Shin Sumi slowly woke up the flow of Shinsoo in her dantian.
Bubbling up, the Shinsoo circulated with more and more speed with each turn. The control of the Shinsoo flow inside one's body came as a natural sense upon reaching Shinsoo Gathering. Just like sight comes to a newborn. But as a newborn would sometimes have trouble seeing for a while, it would take cultivators more or less time to acquire full control, an obstacle that talent impacted greatly.
Thankfully Shin Sumi had forced her talent to reveal itself and although she didn't know where on the color scale she was placed now, she was pretty confident in her ability.
She was spinning her Shinsoo as fast as she could, approaching the limit where her internal energy would circulate too much for her to handle.
Concentrating intensely, Shin Sumi diverted the flow of Shinsoo with all its might in a sudden way.
All of it was directed towards one sole point along her passageways. The first Shinsoo aperture.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone