บท 55: There Isn't Much Time
บรรณาธิการ: Caron_
Having received their rewards in the steward's hall, Mo Tiange and Liu Yidao went back to their residence, chatting and laughing along the way.
Senior Martial Brother Zhou returned ahead of them and was currently attending to the spiritual plants, which had been neglected for several days, growing beside his house. When he saw them, he smiled and nodded towards them.
Senior Martial Brother Zhou's name was Zhou Jinan. He ranked first in this time's competition and thus obtained two kinds of rewards, causing everyone to be extremely envious of him. Because they had traveled together in Miwu Valley, albeit only for a short while, his attitude towards them was different from how it was in the past.
After hastily returning his greetings, Mo Tiange and Liu Yidao returned to their house.
Qin Xi and Xu Jingzhi had been waiting for them in the sitting room. As for Jiang Shanghang, they could already sense his breath in his room. Presumably, he had already returned and was cultivating. Although losing must've been a very heavy blow for him, they weren't close with him and really had nothing much to say to him.
The four of them split up after chatting for a while. Seeing that everyone had returned to their respective rooms, Mo Tiange hesitated for a moment but still decided to knock on the door of the room beside hers.
The door opened and Qin Xi appeared behind it. "Junior Martial Brother Ye, can I help you?"
Mo Tiange raised her eyebrows to see him holding onto the door. "Senior Martial Brother Qin, you're not going to ask me to come in?"
Qin Xi gave a faint smile. He moved aside and turned around to walk back into his room.
This room… was different from everyone else's. She hadn't seen Jiang Shanghang's room, but she'd seen Liu Yidao's and Xu Jingzhi's. Xu Jingzhi's room was similar to hers—the bedding and praying mats were provided by the sect while things like teacups and pots were taken from their own homes. Liu Yidao, on the other hand, didn't add too many things to his room. There was nothing else aside from things required for cultivating in his room.
This room really wasn't the same as theirs. The praying mat wasn't the one provided by the sect and she could sense that it wasn't just any ordinary object. There was a green jade tea set that contained pure translucent spiritual aura on the table; it was clearly another extraordinary thing. In addition to this, a furnace was in the middle of the room. Apparently, it was a furnace used to concoct medicinal pills. Equipment to lay a formation was also spread all over the room. Praying mat, tea set, concoction furnace, formations—these kinds of things were the additions to this room and not one of them was ordinary!
Even though she didn't understand the three other objects, she had some knowledge about the formation laid in this room. This was a fusion formation; an amalgam of defending, spiritual aura gathering, restriction of divine sense, and blocking spiritual aura from leaking. Inside this formation, the density of spiritual aura was comparable to the density of spiritual aura in the North Peak!
Mo Tiange thought about the formation. With her and Second Uncle's skills in formation-building, they definitely couldn't make this kind of formation. This formation must've been created by a cultivator in the Core Formation realm or higher and was put on the market. Its worth was definitely more than several thousand spirit stones.
She turned around and saw that Qin Xi was staring at her with a faint smile on his face. Realizing that she had forgotten herself, she directly said, "Senior Martial Brother Qin, since I received the reward, we should divide it up now."
Once she finished speaking, she took out a pouch from her Qiankun Bag and said, "There are 700 spirit stones here. 200 of them were obtained from the identity tablets you gave me before. As for the other rewards, I'm in dire need of Aura-Converging Pills and since Senior Martial Brother's cultivation level has reached the tenth layer, I presume you don't really need them. Therefore, I think you can have the spirit stones and I'll take the Aura-Converging Pills."
Qin Xi only swept a quick glance over her before answering: "Since I said I was going to compensate you, I won't fight with you for the rewards now. Just keep them for yourself."
"Although Senior Martial Brother doesn't want them, I still think it's better for us to divide them fairly. After all, I also didn't want to be too conspicuous and chose to get out of the competition early; it wasn't entirely because of you."
After muttering to himself for a while, Qin Xi took the pouch and grasped a handful of spirit stones from it before throwing the pouch back at her.
Mo Tiange was bewildered. "This…"
"I've taken about 200 spirit stones. Just treat it like you've returned my identity tablets. As for the rest of the rewards, you received those items because you took some risk—I don't want them. Besides, do I look like I'm lacking in spirit stones?"
This… Mo Tiange could only show a bitter smile. Based on the things in this room, this Senior Martial Brother Qin presumably didn't care about several hundred spirit stones. Hence, she had no choice but to say, "Alright, today I'll accept Senior Martial Brother's kindness."
Qin Xi nodded then asked her another question, "Junior Martial Brother, is there another problem?"
"No…" Mo Tiange froze for an instant then helplessly said, "This being the case, I'll take my leave first."
Qin Xi showed another faint smile, obviously very satisfied over her tactfulness. "As you wish, Junior Martial Brother Ye."
He said as you wish, but in fact, he was ushering me to go, right? Mo Tiange's helplessness increased, but since she also didn't want to stay any longer, she obeyed his wishes and left.
Upon returning to her own room, she cleaned herself then lay on the bed, lost in her own thoughts.
This time, her harvest was considerably abundant. 1,000 spirit stones and a bottle of Aura-Converging Pills. Including the one bottle of Aura-Converging Pills she already had, they would be sufficient for her not to worry about spirit stones for two years. She could concentrate fully on cultivating until she reached the tenth layer of the Aura Refining realm.
Nevertheless, when she thought about Qin Xi, she couldn't help but feel perplexed. Truth be told, she just said a few things to try to probe him, not to find out about his secret, yet this person seemed like he was completely unafraid of her knowing that he had a hidden goal. It was as if he was certain she wouldn't tell others what she knew. She wondered why he was so certain about her.
As she pondered the matter, she suddenly got goosebumps. Could he perhaps have found out about her secret and was so certain she wouldn't leak things about him? In retrospect, the way this Senior Martial Brother Qin treated her was indeed slightly different from how he treated other people, yet she couldn't tell what the difference was.
After thinking for a long time and still being unable to understand the reason, she finally shook her head and decided to sleep. Tomorrow, she'd go down the mountain and ask her Second Uncle. Second Uncle had a lot of experience—he definitely could tell her what to do.
She fell asleep soon after she closed her eyes, but her sleep was filled with dreams. First, she dreamed about her childhood. Her mother was still healthy and was cooking in the kitchen while she herself was still about three or four years old, sitting on a small wooden bench watching her mother. She also dreamed about Li Yushan. When she was a child, she didn't know what a Human Furnace was, but now she knew and it made her even more frightened. She then dreamed about Ye Jingwen, she and Second Uncle were taken to Xuanqing School and were treated arbitrarily. After that, she dreamed about Yunwu Sect. Her secret was discovered and she was in the main temple, kneeling before the Sect Head awaiting her punishment.
Mo Tiange woke up drenched with sweat and felt very tired. She patted her forehead. It seemed that she was really scared yesterday. Now that she was awake, she stepped out of her room to fetch some water to clean herself and prepared to go down the mountain.
After going to the sect's shop to pick up the spirit stones she gained from selling the formations at the shop and buying some healing medicinal pills, she went to the little courtyard where she lived with Second Uncle before.
Having opened the formation covering the courtyard, she walked inside. Nevertheless, she didn't have the chance to knock on the door because she already heard her Second Uncle's voice. "Xiaotian?"
Mo Tiange opened the door. "Second Uncle, it's me."
A smile appeared on Ye Jiang's aging face, but Mo Tiange was quite stunned. Having not seen him for a month, the tiredness on Second Uncle's face was even more apparent; his complexion looked dull and old. He unexpectedly got a lot older in just a month! She realized that during her ignorance, Second Uncle actually turned out like this. With Second Uncle's cultivation level, although he had no hopes of reaching the Core Formation realm, he could still look for a little cultivation group where he could peacefully spend his remaining years. However, for the past eight years, Second Uncle had been taking her all over the place to avoid Xuanqing School and racking his brain to earn some spirit stones to the point of being injured.
"Second Uncle…" Tears welled up in her eyes as she whispered, "Did your wounds worsen? Why didn't you tell me?"
Ye Jiang stared at her and showed a faint smile. "Xiaotian… Tiange, I think my lifespan is running out… Even though as cultivators our lifespans are longer than mortals, we still have to face death at the end. You don't need to be sad—this day was always going to come."
"But…"
Ye Jiang waved his hand to stop her. "I can sense that I have two more years at most. Even if my wounds are healed, this won't change. Nowadays, your cultivation level has reached the eighth layer of the Aura Refining realm. I hope I can see you advancing into the Foundation Building realm before I die. At that time, even if I am to die, I'll die smiling."
Tears had been involuntarily falling from Mo Tiange's eyes, but after hearing this comment, she hastily wiped them away. She took out her Qiankun Bag, poured all the spirit stones and medicinal pills out, smiled at Ye Jiang and said, "Second Uncle, take a look! I defeated a lot of people in Miwu Valley and got these as a reward. They'll be sufficient for me to cultivate until the tenth layer."
Ye Jiang smiled. "Second Uncle always believed you could do it. Rest assured, Second Uncle will persist until the last moment, so you have to cultivate diligently, understand!?"
Although Mo Tiange nodded, her heart was aching. She knew this inevitable day would come. Ever since Second Uncle got injured, he always reminded her that his lifespan was limited. Cultivators naturally had to be stoic when it came to life and death. While Mo Tiange's heart understood this, she still couldn't help but feel sorrowful.
When she was ten years old, her mother abandoned her and now, it was Second Uncle who would do the same. The most important people in her life always left her behind.
"That will do. Let's talk about your trip in Miwu Valley. Second Uncle might be able to give you a few pointers."
Once she calmed down, Mo Tiange recounted everything that happened in Miwu Valley and finally mentioned Qin Xi.
Ye Jiang was silent for a long time before saying, "This person's origin definitely isn't ordinary. From what you told me, his experience in fights of magical power is abundant and he possesses an ample amount of valuable objects… Indeed, he doesn't resemble an Aura Refining cultivator. Unless he isn't really an individual cultivator, he might either have high-level cultivators as elders or he has gone through some adventures and obtained a lot. You don't need to be too worried about him. From his previous deeds, he obviously doesn't have any malicious intentions towards you. Decreasing your interactions with him in the future will suffice."
Mo Tiange felt slightly relieved. "I know, I shouldn't pay too much attention to what he does and I just need to treat him like I did before."
"Correct! Now you should go back and continue your cultivation; Second Uncle doesn't have much time and has to make the most of it."
Mo Tiange was silent, yet in the end, she listened to him. "I know, Second Uncle."
บท 56: Two Years, the Tenth Layer of Aura Refining Realm
บรรณาธิการ: Caron_
Once she returned to Mount Yunwu, Mo Tiange officially started her Closed Door Meditation. Aside from visiting Second Uncle, which she did every half a month, she no longer went out or walked around.
Sometimes, when she paused her Closed Door Meditation, she would find some Summoning Talismans attached to her door. They came from Murong Yan, Wang Qianyi, and even Shen Bing. At first, they weren't really familiar with each other, but they grew a lot closer after the trip to Miwu Valley. Knowing that she was in a Closed Door Meditation and cultivating diligently, everyone came to send their greetings. Shen Bing and Wang Qianyi even indicated to her that she didn't need to hesitate if she ever needed their help. Nevertheless, Mo Tiange understood in her heart that it would be inappropriate for her to have too many interactions with them, so she only gave a courteous reply but didn't request anything of them.
Every time she left her Closed Door Meditation and ran into those Senior Martial Brother housemates of hers, she would always be ridiculed, especially by Xu Jingzhi who was filled with envy and jealousy; he said that although her looks were pretty good, her skinny appearance didn't resemble that of a man. He wondered why, despite her obviously being less handsome, tall, and as elegant as him, those Senior Martial Sisters known for their beauty throughout the sect treated her so well.
Mo Tiange smiled bitterly in her heart, becoming even more distressed with the situation. Men and women were different. As time passed by, she increasingly felt that pretending to be a man was becoming more and more difficult. There wouldn't be any problems if her cultivation level was high—she could directly use Illusory Transfiguration Technique and change her appearance as she liked. However, if she, as a small Aura Refining cultivator now, wanted to use Illusory Transfiguration Technique to deceive a high-level cultivator, wouldn't that be the same as seeking death?
Two years passed in a flash.
Although she grew slightly taller, her growth was indiscernible. She wasn't considered tall among women, let alone men. Liu Yidao was more than a head taller than her while Qin Xi was a head taller; even Xu Jingzhi, who wasn't considered tall either, was half a head taller than her… Perhaps she was out of luck—all the men in this house were tall, thus accentuating her petiteness even more.
Even though she long lost a woman's attitude from years of pretending to be a man, her slim shoulders and thin stature were extremely conspicuous. Xu Jingzhi often mocked her and said she was a girly-looking man. Even though his remarks didn't cause the others to feel suspicious, it sounded the alarms for Mo Tiange, causing her to constantly remind herself to be cautious with everything.
After two years of exhausting her spirit stones, she finally reached the tenth layer of the Aura Refining realm. Right at this point, Yunwu Sect's minor inner competition was about to be held. Therefore, once she finally stabilized her realm, she left her Closed Door Meditation.
When she went out, the three others were waiting for her in the sitting room. In these three years, Liu Yidao's and Qin Xi's cultivation levels became even higher while Xu Jingzhi, although he was a bit inferior compared to the others, also managed to reach the ninth layer of the Aura Refining realm and was close to reaching the tenth layer.
In order to celebrate her finishing her Closed Door Meditation, all of them decided to stroll around and do some sightseeing as well as have a picnic while they were at it. Because Murong Yan often said she missed the roast meat Mo Tiange made, Mo Tiange also sent a Summoning Talisman to invite her. Since Murong Yan was invited, naturally Mo Tiange also had to invite Wang Qianyi and Shen Bing. She didn't forget to invite Senior Martial Brother Zhou either.
Originally, although Mo Tiange assumed Murong Yan would definitely come, she thought it wouldn't necessarily be the case with Shen Bing and Wang Qianyi, let alone Senior Martial Brother Zhou. To her surprise, however, all of them came.
Thus, this group of people could be seen chatting and roasting meat beside the lake beneath the waterfall in the South Peak.
Mo Tiange was sitting on the lakeshore, working arduously to skewer some beast meat. Her left hand was applying a fire spell, spreading a flame on the meat. A piece of burlap was spread under a tree not too far from her with tea and various pastries arranged on top of it. Liu Yidao and Senior Martial Brother Zhou exchanging their cultivation knowledge by the side. Xu Jingzhi was sitting together with Wang Qianyi and Shen Bing, trying to amuse them. Qin Xi was leaning lazily on a tree, basking in the sun. As for Murong Yan, she was sitting beside Mo Tiange, watching her roasting the meat with drool dripping from her mouth, occasionally asking whether or not the meat was done already.
This group… They said they were celebrating her success in reaching the tenth layer, but in the end, they said her skills in roasting meat were pretty good, asked her to roast some meat for everyone, and made her do everything by herself, alas…
Eventually, she finished roasting one batch. As she wiped her sweat, she passed a tray to Murong Yan. "I'm done, call them here to eat."
In fact, they didn't need to call the others at all. Once Mo Tiange finished roasting, those extremely laidback people descended upon her like a swarm of bees and dug in, one by one.
Having finished gnawing the piece of meat he had in his hand, Xu Jingzhi blurted out, "Delicious! Junior Martial Brother Ye, you should roast some more!"
Upon hearing what he said, Mo Tiange, who had just washed her hands in the lake, rolled her eyes and said, "Provide me with the fire, and I'll roast the meat for you."
Xu Jingzhi scratched his head. "Fire? I don't have a fire spiritual root; I can't cast fire spells…"
Everyone laughed. Senior Martial Brother Zhou said, "Junior Martial Brother Ye's craft is indeed good. These taste more delicious than what we usually have in the dining hall."
Murong Yang repeatedly nodded. "Exactly! I was about to die from my cravings because I couldn't have this for two years."
Liu Yidao stroked his belly as he said, "At this point, we really haven't had enough… Junior Martial Brother Ye, just roast some more for us."
"…" Mo Tiange sighed. "Someone please help me with the fire. I'm honestly not too good at casting fire spells; it's really tiring to do it for a long time."
Murong Yan promptly said, "I don't have spiritual roots with fire attributes either. How about using talismans? I have some talismans that can be used to cast fire spells."
"That would be very wasteful!" Xu Jingzhi hastily cut in. "For fire spells, Senior Martial Brother Qin is the master! Senior Martial Brother Qin, come and help us!" This guy! Ever since he met these three martial sisters, he became extremely polite and hospitable. No need to mention how he started calling Senior Martial Sister Shen Bing and Wang Qianyi out here and there, that mouth of his seemed to have been plastered with honey.
Mo Tiange finally shook her head and smiled. She saw that although Qin Xi looked helpless too, he didn't refuse the idea. He stood up and dusted off his sleeves before walking towards her. "Alright, I'm not going to eat for free. Junior Martial Brother Ye just needs to tell me what to do."
Unlike her who was only half competent in fire spells, Qin Xi specialized in them. Naturally, she bluntly accepted his help.
With a thin blade, Mo Tiange cut the meat into pieces and used branches to skewer them as she said to Qin Xi, "Senior Martial Brother Qin, don't make the fire too big. If the branches are burned and broken, they'll be wasted."
Qin Xi nodded. He then hovered his right palm on top of the meat. Flames instantly appeared from his palm and very quickly, the fragrance of roast meat started to float around.
Watching his actions, Mo Tiange felt that things were off and she hastily called out, "Senior Martial Brother Qin, wait!" She had neither added the seasoning nor flipped the meat over—he mustn't burn the meat. Alas, using a powerful fire spell evidently wouldn't do either. It was hard to control the heat…
Nevertheless, with Qin Xi's help, roasting the meat took much less time than before. Before long, the pile of roasted meat filled the entire tray and the two of them finally stopped working.
"Done! This time, this should be enough for all of you, right!?" Mo Tiange pushed the tray towards Murong Yan. The meat on this tray was equal to half a spiritual deer!
Murong Yan cheered out loud, "Junior Martial Brother Ye, you're really kind!"
When she finished washing her face and came back, there was only half a tray of meat remaining. Qin Xi, who was leaning against a tree, chuckled and said, "Junior Martial Brother Ye, you better drink some tea and eat some pastries. This tray of meat… I think it's just enough for them to eat."
Mo Tiange rolled her eyes. She spent a long time roasting these but she didn't even get a share to eat!
Liu Yidao burst out laughing and patted her shoulder. "Junior Martial Brother Ye, who told you to be so good at this craft? The most capable one usually does the most work!"
"Ok, ok, ok! I'll just take it as I've once owed you guys!" Anyway, now she could already abstain from eating and was no longer that fond of eating as she previously was.
Once everyone finished eating, they chatted while drinking some tea. The topics they talked about never strayed from the sect's minor inner competition that would be held in the near future.
In general, every cultivation group held minor and major inner competitions. Major inner competitions were usually held every several dozens of years or even every several hundreds of years. Aura Refining, Foundation Building, and Core Formation cultivators from each realm would participate in this competition. As for minor inner competitions, they were held once every ten years maximum. Only Aura Refining disciples took part in it.
Even though the rewards from the major inner competitions were ample, as Aura Refining disciples, they were still far from ready. Aura Refining disciples usually paid more attention to minor inner competitions because they gave Foundation-Building Pills as the reward.
Among the group, except for Xu Jingzhi and Murong Yan who were in the ninth layer of the Aura Refining realm and Senior Martial Brother Zhou who was in the eleventh layer, everybody was in the tenth layer. Aside from Senior Martial Brother Zhou, all of them wanted to participate in the minor inner competition because it was only in this competition that they had the possibility of obtaining Foundation-Building Pills. With Foundation-Building Pills, they could build their foundation.
However, their sect was only a medium-size sect; it could only provide about twenty to thirty Foundation Building Pills every ten years, so everyone's chance of success was only about ten percent. Except for Senior Martial Brother Zhou whose progression into the Foundation Building realm was pretty much certain, the outcomes for the rest of them were hard to predict. Not to mention that it was already hard to contend for a place against several hundreds of people, obtaining Foundation-Building Pills also didn't guarantee they would be successful in building their foundation.
In fact, Foundation-Building Pills weren't the only way to reach the Foundation Building realm; it was just that the other methods were basically impossible for ordinary cultivators. Taking Legendary Panacea of the Distant Past era, having a cultivator in the Nascent Soul realm or higher using a secret technique to pour in their spiritual aura, or perhaps other fated chances that abruptly injected a great amount of spiritual aura could cause one to have a realm-breakthrough. These methods were completely out of reach for ordinary cultivators like them. Thus, Foundation-Building Pills became their only hope.
This topic became increasingly heavy as they chatted. At the end of the day, everyone no longer had any interest in chatting; they concluded the gathering simply and returned to their respective residences.
Mo Tiange also felt heavy in her heart. Although she managed to advance into the tenth realm and had about a fifty percent chance in obtaining an opportunity to participate, her chance of succeeding in building her foundation was only less than ten percent.
She hadn't forgotten she had five spiritual roots. The ancestor of the Mo family, Mo Yaoqing, once said her natural endowments weren't ordinary five spiritual roots. They were, in fact, equally strong five elements spiritual roots known as Spiritual Roots of the Origin inherited from her other ancestor. With the designated cultivation technique, the cultivation speed of those possessing the Spiritual Roots of the Origin wasn't at all slow.
Nevertheless, after being in the cultivation world for so long, she and Second Uncle had gone through countless ancient manuscripts and records, but in the end, they still didn't know what Spiritual Roots of the Origin was.
Two years ago, Second Uncle said there were only about two or three years left in his lifespan. Now that two years had passed, she had smoothly reached the tenth layer of the Aura Refining realm. However, she also found that the path towards immortality was vague, and her journey towards the Foundation Building realm was still very long.
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