Chapter 14: Shin Sumi's Botanical Garden
Shin Sumi stayed a whole day and a night doing breathing exercises next to the pond.
She had put a spirit stone on her lap, hoping that being in contact with it during a long time would help her feel the Shinsoo.
Her breathing had been calm and steady for hours, with one long inspiration and a short expiration. From what she had learned by observing others and from what Xiao Yue told her, it was the best way, although slightly uncomfortable at first.
It was not a natural breathing technique and it felt strange in her chest but Shin Sumi was patient and determined.
The rumbling of her stomach forced her to stop her session of meditation. Stretching while she cooked her last remaining portions of spirit plants, Shin Sumi observed her body.
Although it still showed no results, meditation was good for her body and her mind. After twenty four hours of exercises, she wasn't tired in the least and her heart was like a mountain lake; calm and pure.
She ate her spirit food, enjoying the strange taste like nothing from the mortal world, then returned to her meditation spot.
Adjusting her breathing, she found her rhythm of one long, one short and closed her eyes. Soon her mind was slowly drifting off while her body tried to absorb more Shinsoo.
During meditation, Shin Sumi was completely motionless but that didn't mean her body stopped its normal activity.
After another day long session, she found her robes sticking to her skin. It wasn't particularly warm outside, especially with the Shinsoo formations of the courtyard altering the ambient heat and humidity, but Shin Sumi was still covered in sweat.
"Maybe that is part of cultivation. Does that mean I'm getting close to Shinsoo Gathering?" she wondered as she bathed and washed her robes.
It had been three days since she had come back to the sect's lower valley and Shin Sumi was already one high grade spirit stone down.
Her consumption of resources was incredibly high and was enough to make the wealth of any cultivator under the Core Development stage pale in comparison.
For Shin Sumi it was almost normal because she had only ever tried to cultivate with high grade materials.
She had donned her robes again and felt light and refreshed when she decided to leave the valleys of the sect for the training grounds of the mountain. She wasn't particularly keen on walking through the jungle again but she could easily endure it in order to get to the chasm.
On her way, she made a stop at the fields where she picked up more seeds. She carefully chose plants that had a bigger Yin Shinsoo affinity. It was clear that this kind was more suitable to grow at the bottom of the chasm.
The path to the western gate from there went either in the direction of the Quests Pavilion or crossed the North Cultivation Plaza.
She had no business in the Quests Pavilion and she hadn't been to the Cultivation Plaza in awhile.
The trees swayed due to a light breeze in this part of the lower valley. It was a forest area spanning a few hundred meters in all directions. A dozen of dilapidated courtyards could be seen from the path.
Just like Shin Sumi's they were reserved for green talent Honorary Disciples and it was clear that they hadn't had an occupant in years.
One of the courtyard's Shinsoo formation was broken and the gates were open. In just one glance Shin Sumi could see that it had lost all of its luster, now being nothing more than a fancy house.
There was no doubt that the Shinsoo quality there had deteriorated over time without the protective spells in place.
"I am glad that I was assigned a courtyard in the southern forest area. At least mine is hidden and in better conditions" she thought.
Along the way she had been feeding seeds to the nut regularly. Shin Sumi had had an idea and was very happy with her results. It turned out that she didn't need the nut to be out in the open to feed it ressources.
From her bag of holding to her wrist, Shin Sumi watched as seeds after seeds disappeared upon contact with the skin on her wrist. The leaf imprint flashed in an almost undetectable manner every time even though the nut was still inside.
She was about to leave the forest area when the sound of laughter entered her ears.
"It's coming from the abandoned courtyard. The open one!" said Shin Sumi while looking around her.
Intrigued by a possible presence there, Shin Sumi walked under the trees in silence. She drew closer and closer to the open gates as the voices progressively entered her range of perception.
"... and that's what I told him! Can you believe it Sister Liu?"
The voice was unfamiliar to Shin Sumi, although she had heard the name 'Sister Liu' before. She was wondering where when a second voice rang.
"Did Brother Zhao really asked you out? Wow Sister Fan, you are so lucky!"
"Hmpf. Do you really think someone like a Liquid Realm disciple like Brother Zhao would take interest in you? Sister Fan you are pathetic. He is clearly using you. Nobody would even look at you if you weren't with me all the time. Senior Brother Fen likes me so he must have pulled a few strings to get his followers closer to mine in order to reach me."
After the last person had spoken, ending with a cold snort full of disdain, there was only silence. Clearly the other voices were too afraid to reply.
Shin Sumi recognized the last voice and the harsh words almost immediately.
"This is definitely Chu Erlong. I should go quickly before they spot me!" she muttered.
Shin Sumi turned and started walking away much faster than previously. She absolutely didn't want to confront the yellow robed Chu Erlong, besides she had been spying on them, which was not really appropriate behavior.
If Chu Erlong knew, she would be furious without a doubt.
Shin Sumi was almost back on the path when her toes got stuck in a root. Caught in her momentum, Shin Sumi stepped loudly on a dead branch to find her balance.
CRACK !
"Oh no, I hope they didn't hear me!"
She didn't turn back to verify and made her way to the path. Shin Sumi left the forest as fast as she could without looking suspicious.
At the gate of the dilapidated courtyard, a yellow figure appeared. Her followers hadn't heard anything but Chu Erlong was far into the Shinsoo Gathering stage and could reach the Liquid Realm anytime. Her senses were far more developed than that of her followers.
Her brows were furrowed and her gaze contained something unreadable. She turned to sit back on the stone tiles under the curious look of the three red robed girls in front of her, not sharing any of her thoughts.
***
Shin Sumi slowed down only when she reached the North Cultivation Plaza.
Her heart rate was a bit fast and she was biting the inside of her cheek as a punishment.
"In the Immortal world, being too curious can lead to dangerous situations. Sumi you're better than this, try to be more cautious!" she reminded herself.
She was right. In this society where power was everything, she couldn't afford to be careless, especially when she was at the bottom of the food chain.
Without delay, she made her way to the western gates.
When the gates were far behind her and she had reached the end of the marked path, Shin Sumi rubbed her wrist. The nut came out and directly rolled across her skin to settle between her breasts.
Shin Sumi was not bothered by it anymore, and even found it reassuring to have it close to her. The nut had an insane sensibility for any danger and Shin Sumi now trusted it fully.
With the nut's indications in the form of light or stronger bites, Shin Sumi avoided many troublesome areas.
Her mind compass followed the direction to the mysterious chasm, not bothering to explore around more.
"I was lucky to stay safe while exploring the chasm and even finding a treasure. Now is not the time to push my luck too far. I can always explore around later when I have reached Shinsoo Gathering!"
In a few hours' time, Shin Sumi was back above the dark cliffs of the ravine. It didn't take her much time to find the slope and she was soon climbing downwards.
About a quarter of the way down a crystalline metallic sound rang in her ears. The copper bell in her bag of holding had activated itself and dissipated the confusion due to the darkness and the strange Yin energy.
The bell had absorbed some of Shin Sumi's blood and now formed a bond with her in much the same way the little nut had back in the Foggy Maze.
Shin Sumi's knowledge was too shallow to fully understand but she had become the master of the two treasures.
She was next to the cave she had used as a shelter during her first night in the chasm when she heard the first hissing sounds.
The snakes were visible a few meters below. They didn't seem interested in her in the slightest, rushing towards the waterfall area.
Shin Sumi walked there at her own pace, and when she arrived the snakes had disappeared.
"A beast must have fallen off the cliff. It should be no more than bones now" she commented.
Her previous fear regarding the pile of bones was gone now that she understood the place better. As long as the snakes didn't turn to her she was completely fine with whatever.
She was the one who had come into their home after all!
Looking around, Shin Sumi was stunned upon seeing the crops she had planted.
Her hand brushed gently the leaf of one on the stalks. The Worm Roots flowers had grown in an exaggerated fashion. In just a few days the plants had turned into small trees wider than her arm and twice as tall as her.
The roots were a pink beige and ondulated on the floor. "I guess they don't call them Worm Roots flowers for nothing" Shin Sumi observed.
A hint of gold was visible on the veins of the leafs, the result from the little nut's powers of refining.
At this point Shin Sumi had no idea what was the name of the evolved Worm Roots flowers and she didn't care. Her biggest worry was how she was going to harvest them and put them all into her bag of holding.
It took about an hour to pull out the first plant out of the soil. Unfortunately Shin Sumi had torn off most of the roots in the process. The flower was still rare but had lost value because of it. Even someone without any botanical knowledge like Shin Sumi was able to tell.
The second time Shin Sumi was more careful and extracted a full plant in less than an hour. Her hand wiped off the sweat from her forehead and she let out a long sigh.
That wouldn't do. She needed tools! How could she have predicted that the plants would grow this big in just a few days?
Shin Sumi was thinking about the combined powers of the nut's refining and the high density of Yin type Shinsoo down there while walking around the waterfall pool.
For the second time in her life Shin Sumi saw the enormous pile of bones. Her idea was to use one of the bones to dig the soil more easily in order to extract her plants.
Shin Sumi looked a bit closer at the pile. Thousands of beast skeletons had been mixed over the years. The snakes had devoured everything except the bones. Even the crushed skulls were empty.
Using all of her willpower to refrain herself from vomiting, Shin Sumi drew even closer to the pile.
All sorts of bones were in the mix, coming from various animals. Long reptilian vertebrae, sturdy tusks, even birds skeletons were in there, which Shin Sumi found a bit weird.
Some of the older bones in there turned to dust when she accidentally stepped on them to reach one particular piece.
It was a shoulder blade that had come from a hog like creature. Shin Sumi didn't know and definitely didn't want to know where it was from.
The only thing she was interested in was that it was hard and big enough to dig with. That was all that mattered.
She was about to get down the pile when she looked in the distance.
The pile was in the middle of the canyon and had previously blocked off her view of the rest of the chasm. The scar in the earth spanned a few kilometers in length but Shin Sumi didn't go past a few hundred meters.
There were more flower patches in the distance, more trees and certainly more big white mounds.
"How many bones are there..." Shin Sumi asked herself in half confusion half disbelief.
She stayed perched on the clean pile of bones looking in the distance long enough to get the feeling that the further away the darker the environment became.
The copper bell's powers overcame the darkness but Shin Sumi could tell that it was still there and it was most concentrated further ahead.
Turning back, Shin Sumi returned to her small farm the other side of the waterfall. She would eventually unravel the many mysteries of the dark ravine but she had time for that.
Besides she was afraid there were more dangers there and it would be safer to wait until she was at least in the Shinsoo Gathering stage.
Using the hog shoulder blade as a shovel, unearthing the Worm Roots flowers was much easier now.
She had planted almost a hundred seeds and all of them had turned into beautiful specimens. It was probably because they were all high grade after being refined, their growth wouldn't fail.
It took a few hours to harvest them all and Shin Sumi was exhausted by the physical labor but she wore a smile on her face. It was a complete success!
"Soon I will be able to sell them hopefully!"
Waiting for the twelve hours of refining time to pass, Shin Sumi bathed in the pool. She didn't go deep inside the pool, preferring to stay close to her stuff and more especially the copper bell.
Only there was she certain that the snakes posed no threat to her and she was able to enjoy her bath. Besides in the range of its powers the bell turned the water from extremely cold to perfect temperature, there was no way Shin Sumi would go further away.
The water droplets were glistening without light as they streamed down her naked body. It was exhilarating to be able to bath naked in the open like that. There were no walls, no Shinsoo formation, but she was still covered in darkness.
Had someone been watching her, they would have found the situation very weird. A mortal girl enjoying her bath in the darkest of places, surrounded by poisonous snakes, without a care in the world.
According to her calculations, the twelve hours period had ended while Shin Sumi was washing herself. The nut was still inside of her wrist and had not resurfaced in a long time.
Rubbing the location of the leaf imprint, Shin Sumi collected the nut as well as many glowing seeds. It was strange to see them come into existence, seemingly pouring out of her own body.
She planted them all in the place previously occupied by the Worm Flower roots, which were now inside her bag of holding.
The goal of her trip had been to retrieve the plants once they were ready to be harvested and plant new seeds. Now that it was done she could go back to the sect.
"It is not that bad here but I feel like the sect is still a better place to cultivate. I should leave now in order to arrive next morning."
She was about to leave in the direction of the entrance of the ravine when an idea popped into her mind. Turning back quickly, she went to the pile of bones and picked up a few random strange ones that seemed complete.
Her plan was to sell things in the market to obtain spirit stones. Who knows, maybe she could take advantage of the bones and sell them?
***
Once again the way back to the lower valley of the Dark Sky Starry Sect was tiring. Shin Sumi avoided areas when the nut told her to. Nothing out of the norm happened to her, except when she hid herself inside of a hollow tree trunk to avoid being seen by a red robed disciple with a malicious air.
She felt followed and her heart was beating really fast after that, but she reached the western gate of the lower valley.
"I am safe now. Whoever that was, they can't do anything to me inside the sect."
Shin Sumi still walked with hurried steps back to her courtyard, just in case.
Counting the Worm Roots flowers inside of her bag of holding, she tried to calculate how many spirit stones she could obtain if she sold them all. Normal spirit flowers this size would cost approximately one spirit stone each from what she had seen in the market.
Considering the fact that these were all evolved versions of the usual flower, she should be able to sell them at double the normal price.
Shin Sumi was bursting with excitement!
She picked up a wooden box from under her bed mattress. It was the box containing the refined confusion pills.
Without hesitation she popped one into her mouth where it dissolved almost instantly, leaving an aftertaste resembling that of fresh mint.
"It is time to go now, I am going to be rich!"
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
d3trois
d3trois Hi everyone,
Because I'm going on a trip soon, the schedule will be messy.
I'm not sure I will be able to produce another edited chapter for two weeks.
The normal schedule will be back for sure after the 27th of August though, so don't worry.
Sorry for all the readers, I'll see you soon!
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