The sound of chatter and bustling bodies filled the lecture room as Fan Zhong sat next to Fan Yong at the back of the room with a bored expression on his face. Around them, various disciples sat in groups or arrived from the entrance to fill the three rows of seats that lined the semicircular room. At the third row, there was space that opened up for people to walk as well as three staircases that led to the center that sloped downward.
Each row of seats was positioned slightly lower than the previous one to allow everyone to view the lecturer and be visible to most others in attendance. Both of them had been sitting in the room for the better part of half an hour waiting for this particular lecture to start. After their drinking the previous night Xing Zheng had reminded Fan Zhong that he should attend some of these as most of his time in the sect previously was spent sparring with the disciples.
In particular, the old swordsman had recommended this talk which covered the basics of refining, its disciplines, and how the practice was broadly done. Although he knew in his heart these words were correct it felt… dry. Compared to how he had spent the last few months sitting down to listen to a lecture sounded like a terribly mundane idea, if a practical one.
To add to this Fan Yong’s time spent as one of the logistical managers of the Fan Clan had beaten into him a sense of timing and propriety. No longer was he a jovial and lazy youth, ok with missing a few meetings here and there or arriving late. Now Fan Yong was very punctual and had insisted they arrive early to both find seats and perhaps strike up conversations with the disciples.
His friend had indeed found a few acquaintances to converse with; however, Fan Zhong had almost no one to talk to. So it came that he sat there, bored and silent. It came as a relief when the chatter died down as a middle-aged woman in a steel gray robe walked down the center staircase, radiating the sharp pressure of a drawn sword.
The woman had piercing yellow eyes and auburn hair as well as a snow-white complexion. From the aura, she exuded and the way, she carried herself no one could mistake her for anything other than a deadly master. Unlike most high-realm martial artists Fan Zhong had met she did not choose to arrive with a rush of wind and blurring speed. Instead, the woman chose to slowly walk through the room and allow her presence to silence the disciples.
“Disciples, I am Master Bai Yi and today we’ll be discussing the basics of refining. As this is a basic lecture for those of you who have some understanding of the practice please bear with simple information for your juniors. Keep note that this will be a lecture on the general practices of refining as an art and as such we will stray away from topics specific to any one field.” Bai Yi let loose more of her Qi into the room as she spoke and her eyes seemed to sparkle with a steely light “Do you hear and understand disciples? If not, leave now.”
As the woman spoke her voice never raised in volume yet it seemed to contain a commanding force, a will that had been tempered and refined through countless years of dedication.
“We hear and understand Master Bai Yi!”
Each and every disciple in the room stood and clasped their hands in a martial salute, shouting their acknowledgment while also bowing to Bai Yi. Fan Zhong did so as well and he felt relieved that Fan Yong had told him of the practice beforehand. It would’ve been incredibly awkward to be the only one left sitting while this went on. Apparently, the small ceremony was considered a very important act in the sect as they viewed being a disciple as treading one's own path.
To the Reclusive Sword Mountain Sect being bound by rigged rules such as forced lessons or training plans was counter to their belief that one should find their own way without restrictions from others. Although they kept up the barest social structures that most sects contained aside from that the disciples had free reign to decide how they progressed. As such if a disciple was forced to sit through a lecture that contained content they thought useless this would also conflict with their beliefs.
Knowing this Fan Zhong could somewhat see why they valued the verbal acknowledgment that everyone present for the lecture clearly understood what was being taught and what was expected of them. When he had questioned Xing Zheng further on this by wandering about disciples simply slacking off and not progressing he had learned that this was the reason why they were so selective about choosing disciples. Normally one had to go through grueling tests and questioning before being recognized as an official disciple of the sect so that they could be sure you were committed to the martial arts with your entire being.
Fan Zhong and Fan Yong were only able to be here by borrowing the status of Xing Zheng’s disguise. Normally as a scion of the Fan Clan, he could visit and receive hospitality from the Sect however, receiving training and instruction were a different matter. As these thoughts raced through his mind Fan Zhong noticed that everyone else was beginning to sit down so he did so quickly as well.
Once everyone was seated Bai Yi nodded at them all slightly before beginning to speak once more.
“To understand refining we must first ask what the term means. The word can be used in many ways. Martial artists refine the mind, body, and spirit to increase our strength. Scholars refine their intellect and the works of their predecessors to reach new heights. It is even said that immortals refine the laws of the world to shape reality to their whims. Alas although these are all good uses for the term what we are specifically referring to today is the art of refining natural treasures into physical items. This comes in three major forms, can anyone tell me what they are?” The woman’s piercing eyes scanned the seated disciples with a lazy look as she paced in a small circle near the middle of the room.
“Master Bai Yi, the three major refining disciples are for treasures, talismans, and alchemy.” The high voice of a disciple with rust-red hair sounded out from the second row across the room from Fan Zhong.
“Yes, very good disciple Tian Su.” The master said, inclining her head at the young disciple before continuing. “Within these three types of refining, the overall process is quite similar. You choose base materials that will act as the final vessel of your product and then refine the rest of the natural treasures into treasure essence. After this, an infusion is used to combine the treasure essence with the vessel. A simple process no?
Bai Yi smiled at the crowd knowingly, pausing for a moment to let the disciples digest the information.
“That's all well and good however, how is it actually achieved, senior?” Fan Zhong spoke up instinctively as confusion grew in his mind.
Brief descriptions of refining had come up in some of the scrolls and books he had read; however, they all sounded vague and very similar to the description Bai Yi had just given. It was as if the information were so simple the authors simply expected the reader to know it but Fan Zhong lacked even the basic steps! After speaking some amount of heat crawled onto his face however, he was someone who had been used to attention from a young age so outwardly he remained calm.
“A good question disciple, I was just about to get to that but the initiative is appreciated.” The woman gave Fan Zhong an amused smile as she turned to look at him.
Inwardly he felt himself become more and more embarrassed and it took all of his self-control to stifle the red that was threatening to color his cheeks. Perhaps he had been impatient however, this was something that had been nagging at him since he asked Fan Cheng for books on the subject all those years ago!
At the time he had just started studying the treasure refining books when the war had broken out and all of his attention had been focused on his martial arts and learning runes for formations. With the information now in front of him, Fan Zhong couldn’t help but yearn for part of something he felt he’d lost within that war. Even if it was only a tiny part, it was a small victory to reclaim some of what was lost!
“Now as I was saying the steps are to choose a vessel, and materials, refine the treasure essence and then fuse them. As such a refiner must have an appraisal technique to determine the effects of treasures, an extraction technique to pull out treasure essence, and a refining technique to fuse everything together.” Bai Yi said in a calm and even tone, speaking slowly enough so that the students could contemplate her words.
“Master Bai Yi, why are there so many different techniques for refining then? Shouldn’t there be a streamlined and supreme technique for each of those steps for each type of refining?” A disciple with white hair in the front row asked.
“Indeed? A good question, does anyone know what the differences in techniques are for refining?” Bai Yi raised an eyebrow in question as she glanced among the disciples.
“Senior, for appraising techniques they should specialize in several areas, identifying energies, interpreting unique effects, and judging the balance of the elemental orders being the major themes. As for extraction techniques, they are similar in that they focus on the amount of essence extracted, extracting certain types of pure essence or keeping balance inside of extracted essence with a focus on one causing the other aspects to fall behind. For refining techniques, they must balance imparting extracted unique effects of the essence and the vessel as well as how efficiently they use the energies inside of the essence.” Fan Yong answered succinctly, smiling with a smug look as he finished.
“Praiseworthy indeed, Disciple Fan Yong, correct?” Bai Yi fixed Fan Yong with an inquisitive look as she spoke.
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“Yes, Master Bai Yi” Fan Yong replied respectfully, rising to bow to the woman.
“It seems that Master Hu Wu wasn’t mistaken when he praised your dedication to Spirit Cooking. Hold up your sect jade.” The woman’s voice was full of praise and she raised her right hand to point a finger at Fan Yong.
As she did so the young man raised a circular jade token with the crest of the sect inlaid into it. Faint gray light blurred from the tip of Bai Yi’s outstretched finger and she nodded her head before continuing to speak. As she did so Fan Zhong lowered his head and whispered to his best friend as he sat down.
“What did she give you?” He asked in a hushed tone while covering his mouth.
Although he also had a token and knew that the ‘Nine Swords’ of the sect could give out contribution points through the jades, how much was given was unknown. To afford basic food and living supplies for a month was around 20 sect contribution points and that could be easily acquired by doing tasks at the job hall. For higher amounts of points though, disciples could obtain items that the sect had collected throughout the years.
Apparently, this system was used in many sects and the Reclusive Sword Mountain Sect’s version of it was made as simple as possible to not limit the disciples. Xing Zheng had even told him it was quite normal for sects to lock lectures like this behind paying contribution points making those disciples who were lacking choose between lectures and food. Here though the uses for the points were far more limited and the cost for basic living needs was met as long as one did their fair share of tasks around the sect.
Still, the store for the points contained various amounts of things from weapons and armor to medicines that could speed up advancement. With all of that taken into consideration Fan Zhong couldn’t help but be a bit curious as to how many points Fan Yong had gotten for such an answer.
“Hmmm, it seems you’ll be needing to ask this king for those extravagant amounts of wine you love to drink.” Fan Yong kept his voice low, a smug smile crossing his face as he looked back at Fan Zhong.
“Pft, king of what? Come on, just tell me.” Fan Zhong gave him a playful palm strike to his arm, feigning annoyance.
“Alright, alright, always violence with you these days.” Fan Yong answered back with mock pain in his voice. “It was 100 sect contribution points, not amazing but considerable.”
However, Fan Zhong didn’t hear his last words, only that the answer was worth 100 contribution points. At that moment his attention to the lecture seemed to magnify tenfold! Fan Yong could only chuckle lightly as he too focused back on the lecture.
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“This is good tea, you said it came from the Sea of Myriad Swords?” Xing Zheng said as he closed his eyes with the tea cup held just under his nose.
As the aroma drifted towards him it sang of tropical islands where sky birds roamed, preying upon sea life that dared to rise to the surface. Salt pervaded the air alongside the rich water and wind energies that had sunk into the leaves with just a hint of earthiness from the land. In all, the tea was very pleasant, however, it didn’t fit the image that he had of the Sea of Myriad Swords in his mind.
During his few visits to the place, it had been full of fish that seemed to move like blurring silver lights eviscerating anything that dared plunder life from the waters. The sea itself gave off the aura of a sword and the water was known to leave white marks on the skin of even First-Grade realm martial artists. Although this was almost unnoticeable near the shore, where the earth had long had time to absorb and dilute the sword energy that had mixed into the water, even just a dozen kilometers from shore turned it into a treacherous place.
In fact, Xing Zheng had even seen a weak master realm martial artist fall into the water and have his body cut so badly that the man bled out in the short time it took to haul him onboard.
“Well, the merchants mainly deal in that area. As to where they source the leaves from, who can say?” A middle-aged man in a steel-colored robe with short rust-colored hair spoke from across the table that sat between him and Xing Zheng.
This was the Sect Master of the Reclusive Sword Mountain Sect Jie Ling and the two had become rather well acquainted over the past few weeks. His impressions of the man were of someone who simply wished to live his life and hone his craft away from the worries of the world. From speaking with him he had learned of the tragedy of the Jie family and it brought a dull pain to Xing Zheng’s heart, like a blow that reminded him of old wounds.
So many tragedies happened under the eyes of heaven, it seemed they were innumerable just as Li Cheng had once told him. Thinking of this he could only sigh and enjoy the company of the man as they drank tea together and spoke of simple things. Through this, he had learned that the founder of the sect Gao Guang had perished in an attempt to break through to the Supreme Grandmaster realm just over twenty years ago.
This had left Jie Ling, his only disciple, in a bind as he was only in the middle of the master realm at the time. Thankfully many of the nine swords of the sect felt gratitude towards the sect founder and had no trouble allowing him to assume the role of Sect Master. In truth this fit well with the style of the sect as one of the requirements to join was a desire to retreat from the world and pursue the heights of the martial path.
Knowing this Xing Zheng couldn’t help but think that this mortal sect really fit the temperament and sensibilities of his neutral faction. If he hadn’t known better from speaking with Jie Ling he would’ve immediately assumed this was some branch of a neutral faction spirit sect used to find talented members of the mortal kingdoms. With these thoughts roaming through his mind Xing Zheng remembered that he did have a duty to the Azure Rainsword Sect, after all, he was one of their core elders!
“Indeed, it can be hard to find the root of such things. In any case Brother Ling there was something I wished to discuss with you.” Xing Zheng's tone was calm and even as he spoke however he allowed minuscule amounts of his qi to start cycling through his body.
Imperceptible to anyone below the master realm the energies atop the raised platform the two sat on at the peak of the sect started to flow like a gentle stream. Slowly the air started to buzz and blur slightly as a bubble surrounded the 10-meter-wide circular platform, cutting off all noise from the outside.
“I… see. Senior Zhang Zheng, please speak candidly. It's obvious I’m not your match so there's no need to be so roundabout.” Jie Ling’s apprehension seemed to gather however it disappeared in an instant as he seemed to resign himself to whatever fate awaited him.
It was as if decades of bone-deep weariness had worn him down and the man was tired of running, tired of looking at every shadow. In that moment resolution formed in the depths of his eyes, a solid will that decided to face whatever would come.
“You misunderstand Junior Ling, this old man has no ill will. It's simply that I've been a bit dishonest with you.” Xing Zheng’s leveled a wry, almost apologetic, smile at the other man.
As he spoke he flared his Qi within the bubble letting his cultivation base fill his body instead of being suppressed. With great control, he removed the veil that would stop the other man from inspecting his realm while carefully keeping the pressure close to his body. After all, He was trying to recruit the man, not crush him into the side of the mountain.
“The truth is that my name is Xing Zheng, elder of the Azure Rainsword Sect. The Baroness is someone close to me and she asked a favor that happened to take me this way, one that would preferably involve less work for the cartographers. You understand, yes?” Xing Zheng allowed his energy to surge to his eyes so that they seemed to glow like azure stars, appearances were key for mysterious immortals after all.
The man seemed utterly taken aback by the news and he almost instantly paled upon sensing the amount of energy flowing within Xing Zheng. It was as if he was staring straight into a wall of death, the slightest flicker of which could end his existence utterly. With all of his willpower, Jie Ling managed to slightly suppress the paleness that had shadowed his face and control his breathing so he could speak.
“What can this one do for the honored brother of the emperor? Please tell me how I can serve.” Jie Ling spoke through gritted teeth, all hopes of resisting any requests from Xing Zheng utterly crushed in his mind.
“Late emperor, and again you misunderstand. I’m simply trying to be honest so we can start off on the right foot!” Xing Zheng turned his face away in obviously feigned offense. “ It just so happens that your sect fits the temperament of my Azure Rainsword Sect’s neutral faction quite well. Would you be willing to become a mortal branch of my sect?”
The other man simply gaped at him in dumbstruck awe. Never in his wildest dreams had he thought he would meet an immortal much less the brother of the previous emperor who he had only heard about in stories from the greater empire as a whole. Now that very man was here offering him what seemed to be an opportunity sent straight from the heavens.
“This… senior… junior has one question…” Jie Ling had a slight bit of apprehension when he spoke these words as if he was afraid the opportunity would go away if he asked even a single thing.
“Hmmm? Of course, this old man isn’t someone who bullies the younger generations. What is it that's bothering you?” Xing Zheng smiled with genuine happiness, feeling good to add such a contribution to the sect on this excursion.
“Do we… have to change the name? Of the sect that is?” Jie Ling seemed almost sheepish when he asked the question as if he himself couldn’t believe he was asking it.
However, the sect's name had been chosen by his master, Gao Guang! If they were to become the branch of some immortal sect then he wanted the legacy of his master to remain in some form. Xing Zheng simply burst out laughing and it took him a few minutes to get himself under control.
“Of course, you can! Trust me, with my backing no one will dare bully your sect either! We can discuss the details later but now I also wanted to discuss your cultivation with you. You're stuck at the peak of the master realm, correct?” Xing Zheng asked, the mirth slowly fading from his voice before he returned to his sagely tone.
“Correct, with the sect at war I think it would be improper for me to try to attempt a breakthrough. Also, I find that… there's something I’m lacking. Perhaps it's simply the fate of my master that has left me terrified or something else. In any case, I simply don’t feel ready to breakthrough senior” Jie Ling replied respectfully.
“Good, solid reasoning. However, for joining my Azure Rainsword Sect you need to receive something. How about as a present you have a duel with this old man?” Xing Zheng’s face took on a wolfish smile and a plan seemed to be forming in his mind.
Jie Ling simply swallowed as he saw that look knowing that whatever the old man had planned was bound to shake up his peaceful life.