Chapter 48
At the end of the week, the blackberry bush that Renton had planted was fully grown, thick and healthy and covered with its fruit. Renton spent some time while Kora was occupied meditating on one of the problems that he’d given her to instruct the gardeners on how to care for it while he was gone, and he traded recipes with the compounds cooks about what to do with the berries.
“Once it’s plucked from the bush, you have about three months before the berries go bad. They’ll be delicious and rich in Qi the entire time, but never as fresh as the moment you pluck one of the ripe fruit from the bush. You can make a Qi rich jam or preserves with them, bake them into pastries, or eat them raw. Basically anything you’d do with a normal berry you can do with this,” he explained.
“And for the purposes of cultivation, what is the best way to harvest them?” Toh asked eagerly. Although she was a water cultivator with a specialization towards ice, she was extremely enthused about what the bush meant for the fire cultivators of her family. Especially her daughter.
“You could mix them in with other reagents and form a powerful Qi pill,” Renton admitted reluctantly, “But the fire aspect of the berry would be diminished. I’ll have the imperial pill masters send you a few suggestions on how to refine it. But for Kora and any other fire cultivator who is set to benefit from the plant, I recommend eating the berries in their natural form.”
“Thank you, Master Shen,” Toh said, bowing humbly to the Imperial servant. He just sighed and acknowledged the bow.
On the final day of his visit, the Zang family gathered in the courtyard to see him off. He smiled and gave a brief speech before leaving.
“It has been a pleasure to be hosted in your compound over the last week. I assure you that the Emperor will know of your generosity and hospitality. While the merging of the Zang family with the Shen family remains poised upon the hearts of two young children, I am pleased to say that I will be giving my recommendation to my brother that he marries my nephew to your daughter, especially if she can reach the next stage of her cultivation before the meeting.
“Which I have every confidence that she will manage. While she has not had another breakthrough since the imperial baths, she has received a significant number of insights into the nature of fire which will make her progress rapid and beneficial both to herself and those around her. Do not let her gorge herself on the fruit of the Ever-burning Blackberry bush, but a handful of those berries every day will greatly speed her cultivation as well.
“And with that, I bid the Zang family farewell,” Renton finished.
The air suddenly smelled of ozone, and Renton turned into lightning and flashed out of the courtyard, leaving the amazed Zang family behind.
Once he was gone, the elders pulled everyone into a meeting to discuss what had just happened. Kora was featured at the center of the meeting and interrogated relentlessly about their guest, now that he was gone.
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“He never gave me his exact position aside from declaring himself a servant of the empire,” she admitted. “Aside from being the most powerful cultivator I’ve ever met, save for the emperor himself, I am not certain what exactly he does. He never answered any question on the matter and simply said that he was here to teach, not to work.”
The elders continued to interrogate her about the experience until she was exhausted and exasperated. She managed to convince them to leave her alone by claiming that she needed to cultivate. She went out to the courtyard, plucked a handful of blackberries, and retreated to her room.
The blackberries were the most delicious fruit she had ever tasted. She could taste the Qi in them it was so thick, and as she slowly digested both the fruit and the rich and concentrated Qi within them, she reflected on the week.
Her head was still spinning with the insights that had been imparted. She was further along the path than she’d ever imagined she’d go. She just needed to cultivate with her new understanding, and she’d catch up to Tan in no time, she was certain.
So she closed her eyes and began to cultivate in earnest.
Six hours later, she broke through into the seventh stage of the Initiate’s realm. Not the profound realm, as she’d been calling it. She preferred the Shen family’s measurements to her own.
She grinned and took a break, brushing her hair and standing before the mirror. She grinned at herself. She was not being narcissistic to notice that she was beautiful. She wondered if Tan was at the age where he started to notice such things. She hoped so, it would make things much easier for her when they met again.
After she finished grooming herself, she sat down by her bed and wrote a few observations, thoughts, and musings that she’d had during her cultivation session into her private journal, then reread parts of the Treatise of the Rising Sun. She still hadn’t read the third section. Renton had told her not to read the third section until she was certain that she could find no more insights in the first two, both individually and in how they worked together.
She was desperately tempted to peak, but while the third section was the thickest of the three and she longed for the insights it contained, she was willing to wait. She had enough insights to last for years after studying with Renton, and she had eyes beyond the Foundation Realm at this point.
She would become the strongest cultivator in the Zang family. She would surpass her mother, her grandmother, and all of the elders to become someone who was not just strong for their isolated corner of the empire, but who was truly strong. The kind of strength that the Shen family had.
Then she would become part of the Shen family itself, and bring the Zang’s into their fold. With the resources she could claim with that alliance, she would elevate her clan and make them a formidable force in the empire.
She grinned as she jotted down another thought before extinguishing the candles in her room and getting into bed.
In her heart, the fires of ambition burned brightly.