Ch148 Cultivators

Members of the Lin and Wei Clans grow up with the understanding that they are greater than others from the surrounding clans.

They do not think of rogue cultivators much more highly than mortals, and many higher-ups in their clans even believe submitting to the hierarchy of the Sect is below their worth.

However, this mindset only helps those with some talent, and those that are in good standing with the main bloodline. They are able to leverage their faster-than-average cultivation speed while using their family name to gain opportunities others wouldn't.

All members of these clans with 6th grade or greater roots have guaranteed slots in the Inner Sect.

Those with 7th grade roots are guaranteed high positions in the outer sect and eventually make it to the inner sect if their branch families grant them more resources to climb.

Anything lower, they are often not prioritized. With such wealth in their clans, 8th and 9th grade roots still gain positions in smaller cities to serve the branch families and maintain a comfortable life, but there is no hope of glory for them if they stick by the family’s side.

Wei Ping’s mother is a mortal servant who died when he was born.

His father lives atop a mid-grade spirit vein peak not far from Lingshi City Wei Clan Branch Family, with many concubines and plenty of offspring that share his poor grade roots.

Many of these children work on this plot with their father; others go to the city to learn a craft under one of the mentors that finds young talents in their branch family to either send to the sect, or raise themselves in foundational cities. On rare occasions, if a child is extremely special, they’ll even be sent back to the capital’s main bloodline in exchange for rewards.

Wei Ping never managed to get the attention of any mentors over the years he grew up, and began to see that many other 8th grade roots like himself grew old and resentful, staying with the clan too long.

The hard workers that make it into the mid stage of qi refining are all made to work in minor storefronts, or manage small peaks and spirit stone mines.

Many never even break out of the initial stage of qi refining, and they are not allowed to show off their Wei Clan name proudly like the elders do. They work on isolated peaks, to keep the public prestige of these major clans higher.

The only way for this young boy to not end up like these sour old men was to try something different.

This is why he volunteered himself as tribute to enter the sect, to make something of himself.

His initial experience, being purchased and favored by Li Hao before the war, was far more than he ever expected to gain.

Back on his old peak, the concubine mothers of his brothers and sisters would shun him and hoard the resources for their young.

His father would spend all day drinking spirit wine and never hear his pleas for fairness. He was just one of dozens of trash root kids.

Only the occasional 7th grade root that was born on his home peak got special treatment and was praised by the rest of the clan, brought into the public eye.

Wei Ping was luckily found by Li Hao, someone that gave him structure and rewards for his work, then left it all behind without asking for anything in return when he went off to war.

Using the spirit stones and qi gathering pills, Wei Ping made it to the 2nd level of qi refining before his progress began to slow. He used a high-grade marrow cleansing pill gifted from Li Hao to continue to progress, reaching the perfected stage of level 2, but at such a young age, even with all this help, the bottleneck moving forward seems insurmountable.

He has settled into a routine at the steward camps, as every few weeks, as the forests are cleared, they move further and further past the ravine.

His mutated earth spiritual root reacts with the qi-saturated rocks and dirt all around him very subtly, but he is nowhere near aware enough of this sensation to make any use of it. He just believes he’s easily mesmerized by nature.

All of the wood is processed and sent up the mountain to the alchemy peak.

Many newer outer disciples there do not have spare spirit stones to spend on flame talismans or fire stones to use as a heat source for their cauldrons, so they use charcoal from trees that have saturated small amounts of qi from the natural veins in these wilderness areas over the years.

The young boy discarded by the Wei Clan overhears the many tales of other stewards with 9th or even 8th grade roots just like him, and how they’re happy to finally achieve the 3rd level of qi refining before they die.

He visits the Red Pine Market a few times, but no resources appear there even close to that high-grade marrow cleansing pill that Li Hao granted him. There is nothing that can break such a bottleneck, other than thousands of spirit stones’ worth of pills or decades of focused training.

On top of this, when he asks for advice, no other stewards have the same spark in their eyes, or even half the vitality Li Hao did. They all tell him to give up and enjoy life here as a steward until he grows old.

Even when Wei Ping buys new servants from auctions and attempts to show the same kindness that Li Hao did, none of them are diligent enough to make use of his gifts.

Wei Ping starts to feel as though these camps are a dead end, but the sharp youthful determination in his eyes does not leave.

One day, an emerald swallow finally flies down from the trees, rewarding his resolve.

“Senior Li did not forget about me…” he whispers with a wide smile as the bird flies off.

Left in the young boy’s hands is a storage ring holding a thick tier 1 heavy mountain acquired physique booklet. It is in pristine condition, upgraded to smooth out any of the errors that may have been mistranslated by the minor foundational clan that had it before.

Beside it, a dense earth element stone, a brown 6th grade armored boar egg, and a low-grade soul contract rest.

A few hundred spirit stones, a handful of low quality earth element stones, and a communication talisman with a single message are left behind.

–

Within the same week, atop the Alchemy Peak, Outer Disciple Chen Yilin diligently practices concocting qi gathering pills.

He has used up all of the thousands of spirit stones Li Hao granted him in order to watch private lessons from almost every one of the named disciples.

His excuse was that his mid-stage qi refining family gave him resources to learn as much as he could here on the alchemy peak, but he’s become an inside joke to all of the named disciples that try to teach him.

The middle-aged man has 8th grade roots but was fortunate enough to only have 3, making it possible for him to break through to the 4th level of qi refining at the age of 40 with a few qi nourishing pills.

Among the upper ranks of this outer peak, there is not a single cultivator with lesser than 7th grade roots, and also none in the mid stage of qi refining.

It is near impossible to concoct qi nourishing pills until reaching the late stage, and they are the most profitable and sought-after pill in the sect for outer disciples.

Healing elixirs are a close second, but even they are extremely difficult for mid-stage cultivators to ever produce anything above inferior grade. With the amount of impurities inside one of these pills, unless it's an emergency, a cultivator might be better off healing naturally.

This is why many higher-ranking disciples joke about Chen Yilin, as he’s asked every single one of them for lessons on qi gathering pills to try and perfect this craft. Considering the amount he spends on lessons and the fact that he still produces only inferior and low-grade elixirs every time he attempts to cook them himself, he will never turn a profit.

Even the Vice Peak Master, Sun Jingwen, has overheard the chatter about this new outer sect disciple’s failures, but does not care to step in. She has been overseeing the Alchemy peak for many decades, and has seen countless disciples like this burnout before.

Alchemy cannot be learned overnight.

It is a slow process that rewards consistency, discipline, and creativity under pressure. In a few years, this disciple will understand his failures and have a chance to rebound with more wisdom.

Her beliefs are quite accurate. The middle-aged man has an obsession with pill making, but an anxiety is beginning to build up in the back of his mind. It is making his concoctions less and less effective.

It is mainly due to the fact that the mysterious senior stopped giving him any tasks after he provided him with burnt Barrier Breaking Pills; his only orders were to climb the ranks of the alchemy peak and grow his connections.

Chen Yilin sometimes overhears the whispers of disciples, laughing at the fact that he’ll be concocting low-quality qi gathering pills for the rest of his life because of his lack of root talent. Others laugh even harder at the fact he squandered his family's fortune on taking lessons from the named disciples.

He hasn’t actually wasted any of his family’s spirit stones, but he feels as though he’s letting this mysterious mentor down.

This worry is sometimes all-consuming, leaving entire batches burnt and not even good enough to claim inferior grade.

These moments of shaky confidence begin happening more and more frequently, until an emerald swallow flies through the window while he’s sleeping one night.

The man’s hands shake as he looks inside, and his eyebrows scrunch in confusion when a small piece of white jade with a character for enlightenment on its front side falls out, along with a communication talisman holding a single message.

–

Far away from the Alchemy Peak, in Lingshi City, atop the Wang Family mountain, in a back courtyard of the main estate, there is a young 14-year-old boy training alone.

Sweat soaks his robes as he relentlessly spars against his spirit beast, a shimmering steel crab.

The young boy’s knuckles bleed, as his spirit beast has a single metal spiritual root and can already use an innate body hardening spell to make its shell tougher.

Wang Tengru is still at the 3rd level of qi refining, and at his age and root maturity, even with 6th grade spiritual roots, the bottleneck to the mid stage is still not going to be broken anytime soon, even with the resources of a foundation establishment clan at his disposal.

There are still naive child-like mannerisms in his punches, and in the minor frustration he shows from being fatigued after longer bouts of training.

However, a memory plays over and over in his mind. It is the image of Li Hao’s back, wielding a massive green shield, not hesitating in the slightest to fight against dozens of enemies while he was still frozen in fear.

He remembers that he asked to spar with this cultivator, but now sees that they are leagues apart.

From deep within the inner chambers of the estate, far from where he trains, subtle pulses of qi hit his senses every few days.

He knows that is where Wang Ming and Mu Shulan have resided since the wedding and have not come out since.

These are the same pulses he’s felt a few times before when he broke through minor realms in his own qi refining over the last few years.

“Big brother Ming and sister Mu Shulan are getting stronger too… I have to catch up before I’m left behind…” he murmurs to his steel crab, and continues sparring.

–

Down the mountain, in Lingshi City, the shopping district has become far more lively.

News of the Jiang Family’s annihilation has brought in traffic from neighboring smaller clans to see if it is really true.

There are frequent sightings of the 3rd Ranked Beauty of the Azure Cloud Sect far more often than usual, and rumor has spread that she has become even more stunning than before.

Many believe it must just be an exaggeration; now that she has confirmed kills of foundational cultivators, it is the sect that is promoting these words to boost her influence. However, everyone that manages to see her in passing in the streets understands that these are no mere rumors.

There is something about her that has changed.

She enters the Li General Store often to check in on how the new barrel of wine is selling and asks Wang Ruze if he has any more leads on enchanted items from his connections.

One day, a pair of grey eyes watches her enter this shop as she always does, from far away down an alley with a dark cloak over himself.

This old man completely conceals his qi cultivation using the Illusory Demon’s Concealment Art.

He speaks into a communication talisman in a raspy tone, “That’s the 10th level qi refiner everyone is talking about. Innate Physiques sure are unpredictable... That woman’s aura makes no sense.”

Another man concealing his aura with the same technique on the other side of the alley messages him back, staring at the same shop. He holds a pristine bottle of half-drunken spirit rice wine in his hand. “She’s going into the same shop that sells this wine… I’ve never tasted a Tier 1 bottle of this quality even when I visited the capital last year.”

A third voice echoes through their communication talisman; he is completely hidden on top of the roof of an abandoned storefront a block over. “That shop was in our briefing; it is owned by a kid that showed up out of nowhere, and the Wang and Mu Clan favor quite a bit. He could very well be our target, but I haven’t seen any sign of him in the two weeks we’ve been scouting. There’s no way to compare him to the recording.”

The first voice vibrates back. “We’ll wait. There’s no time limit on this mission. All that matters is we get it done.”