Xing Yi did not expect such sudden bliss upon tasting Martial Uncle Yang’s tea. It was a warm energy that burst inside his

mouth, causing him to widen his eyes in amazement.

“Good, isn’t it?” Yang chuckled.

“It’s amazing, Martial Uncle Yang,” Xing Yi replied, holding the tea cup in one hand.

“It contains an earth-aspected spiritual herb that is actually beneficial for external cultivators. Nearly all spiritual herbs cultivated in this herb garden are of a heavenly-aspect and do not contain energy that is suited for external cultivators. However, this is one of the few earth-aspected spiritual herbs that is useful for pill refining of heavenly cultivators. I didn’t see it being used in the near future so I decided to brew this tea for you. Make sure to thank this old man for his charitability,” Yang eked out a cheeky smile with that last word.

Realising Yang’s kindness, Xing Yi eagerly jumped out of his seat and once again kowtowed to the elderly man.

“This lowly one pays his deepest respects for Martial Uncle's kindness. His gift will not be wasted on this one,” Xing Yi thanked in his high-pitched, childish voice.

Yang nodded his head in stern approval.

“Please, sit back down and finish the tea. After you have finished,

tell me what you are looking for. Make sure to savour it and not simply drink it all down in one gulp. If you do that, I will kick you out on the spot, no questions asked. Such a tea made from a precious spiritual herb for someone like yourself is not something to casually squandered,” Yang explained.

“Yes Martial Uncle,” Xing Yi replied. The boy committed to the task with due caution, carefully sipping the tea and making sure to savour each sip’s taste to its fullest potential. After a few minutes, the tea was finished and he put it back onto the table with an accompanying clink.

Xing Yi could feel a sort of bountiful vitality coursing through him that he had never felt. Just by consciously circulating his inner qi for a brief moment, he could feel the earthly energy resting in his lower dantian and slowly leaking into his meridian.

He almost wanted to turn around, run home and refine this energy as quickly as possible in closed-off meditation, lest the energy began to leak from his dantian and into the outside world.

However, blatantly disrespecting Martial Uncle Yang was not a good idea.

“I see that you have already advanced to the first layer of external cultivation. That is not too bad!” Yang praised, his hand stroking his beard. Despite being a Core-Formation Master of over a couple hundred years of age, he still showed no sign of balding or greying hair. He could still be considered to have a youthful appearance.

“No, this junior is unworthy of Martial Uncle’s praise,” Xing Yi blushed, “But if you don’t mind if this junior asks, how did you read my cultivation?”

This was the first person to recognise his cultivation. No one else had done so, thus far.

“I have dabbled in earthly cultivation to a degree. My abilities only extend so far. I can only read how deep an earthly cultivator’s cultivation is. Nothing more, nothing less,” Yang humbly said.

“Excuse this junior if he offends with his words, but a renowned external cultivator named Lao Qiguang with a layer of cultivation equal to that of our nascent soul ancestor clearly states in his book that if it takes longer than six months to cleanse the first meridian, they should give up. This one simply doesn’t understand how cleansing the first meridian in such an amount of time to be impressive,” Xing Yi said.

“As I suspected, Junior Bai gave you that damn book. To give you some quick background information, Lao Qiguang is a notorious madman amongst the old literature. He was a crazy-talented child prodigy with such sky-high expectations that they manifested in his own personal writing as a way to assert himself over other cultivators.” Yang asked, a sigh escaping his mouth as he ended his last sentence.

Xing Yi was stunned. So he wasn’t as bad as he thought he was? All of a sudden, he felt better about himself. Maybe he did have a chance?

“Well, now that we have gotten to know each other a bit better, let’s get down to business. What are you looking for?” Yang asked, staring towards Xing Yi.

“I’m looking to buy some Brown Calamus,” Xing Yi said.

“And how many spirit stones have you brought on hand today?”

“Three,” Xing Yi held the leather pouch by his waist, feeling the three gems through the leather.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

“Brown Calamus? That is a peculiar herb with only one reason to use. To test the validity of a pill cauldron. It is an old technique but it works,” Yang sighed, “I won’t ask how you got your hands on one. Anyways, before we go outside to harvest the herb, I need to message someone.”

Summoning a white talisman with brown characters written on its paper, he whispered into it before setting it free from his grasp. It disappeared in a brown streak of light and out a nearby window.

A few minutes later, Xing Yi and Yang had arrived out the back of the house and in The Bloody Path Sect’s herb garden. All around them laid several dozen square patches of spiritual herbs of varying colour, height and sizes. For example, there was this mega-sized purple flower that occupied an entire patch itself, black-coloured grass with yellow tips, rainbow-petalled flowers, and even a bush that was literally on fire.

Xing Yi was marvelling at the peculiarities of every spiritual herb-

Yang standing nearby with a calm expression on his face, when an orange ball of flame landed in front of the pair. Xing Yi stepped back and held his hands in front of himself while also circulating his inner qi, fearing that a thread of stray flame would fly towards him.

Fortunately, such a thing didn’t happen and the flame quietly dissipated in an instant, revealing a barefoot teenager with unkempt hair that was similar to that of a birdnest.

“Greetings master!” The barefooted teenager bowed to Yang before turning to Xing Yi.

He pointed at him and said, “Hey, you’re Mortal Xing Yi. The one that cheated his way into the sect! I saw you reading at the library a few months ago.”

Xing Yi cringed. When he looked over to Yang, the man had no reaction and ignored the matter altogether. Xing Yi could still see the other disciple looking at him out of the corner of his eye even as Yang began speaking.

“Ok, He Yazhu, I need you to harvest a Brown Calamus for our guest. I will give you some minor assistance throughout the process, but you will end up doing most of the work. You have studied this plant before, so you should know about it. This is something you must learn how to do and is the reason why I brought you out here. I need not explain myself any further. Let’s begin,” Yang explained before summoning a three-metre wide wooden platform into the air.

Yang and his disciple stepped on as it rose into the air, carvings engraved underneath it blowing glue. Each assuming a seated-lotus position, Yang Steered the wooden platform over the nearest garden patch, directly above a short, brown-leafed plant. Its leaves shot up into the air from its base, forming stiff, brown branches that mimicked a normal plant’s leaves. From a distance they were deceiving, but once one got closer they would be revealed to be completely solid.

After a moment, they each closed their eyes and as they did, a blue cloud of energy coalesced into the air. This blue cloud started out large but grew smaller and smaller until it was about the size of a fist. Slowly moving towards the Brown Calamus, it carefully wrapped around the base of one of its leaves. Over the course of a couple minutes, the base seemingly melted until it finally tipped over. The plant was caught mid-air by the cloud and was safely delivered to above the wooden platform, arriving in the qi-coated hands of Master Yang. He inspected the Brown Calamus before giving a stern nod of approval.

“This is a good quality piece. There is some marking in some parts but it’s good for your first time. A couple more tries and you won’t need assistance to harvest this plant with confidence!” Yang praised He Yazhu.

He Yazhu replied, “Thank you master.”

The pair descended back to the ground and the wooden platform was put back away into Yang’ storage pouch. With the Brown Calamus leaf in hand, he summoned a wooden box and placed it inside. He closed it with a thud. He proceeded to walk over to Xing Yi and handed it to him.

“Here,” Yang said.

Xing Yi stowed it away inside his leather bag. Knowing what would inevitably come next, he pulled out the three spirit stones and awkwardly tried to give them to Martial Uncle Yang. He held all three in the palm of both of his tiny hands as he tried to stop them all from slipping out and falling onto the ground. That would be embarrassing.

Thankfully, Martial Uncle Yang sweeped these spirit stones out of his hands for him and stored them away in his storage pouch.

“I was going to send you off, but something has come to mind,” Yang said before summoning a jade slip from his storage pouch.