Chapter 11: Three Years

The next day.

Early morning.

Fang Qing carried a bundle of sky-blue hemp on his shoulder and arrived at a mountain peak on Pill Island.

This peak was exceptionally graceful and spiritual, carrying with it a chill, pristine aura.

At the summit, there was also a waterfall that descended like a jade ribbon, forming a cold pool below.

Around this cold pool were numerous cold springs, linked together like strings of pearls.

From time to time, several Pill Island disciples could be seen using the spring water to cleanse and temper medicinal ingredients.

“The first step of water-method pill refinement is extraction… extracting the essences of various medicinal materials and turning them into medicinal liquid. It takes quite a long time…”

Although Fang Qing had never personally done it, he had seen it often enough to speak with some understanding.

“Just the extraction techniques alone are divided into four major schools: ‘Sink, Separate, Combine, and Gather’… If one truly delves into it, it’s practically endless, vast and profound…”

“Moreover, the most important tool in water-method pill refinement isn’t a pill furnace, but a good spiritual spring… Those senior brothers and sisters who became pill refiners all spent huge sums to set up spiritual pools or spiritual springs inside their own cave dwellings…”

Spiritual springs were tied to underground water veins and required specialized geomancers to survey the land and formation masters to set up arrays.

Not only was it enormously expensive, but once established, it was also very difficult to relocate.

In comparison, if a fire-method pill refiner ran into trouble, they could simply roll up their pill furnace and flee.

A water-method cultivator, however, couldn’t exactly hoist a spring eye and run overnight. It was a small but notable drawback.

“The best spring eyes on Pill Island are Third Tier, belonging to the Lord of Pill Island, who is also the Azure Sea Sect’s number one pill refiner… The remaining Second Tier spring eyes are all occupied by Foundation Establishment elders, with only a very few falling into the hands of True Disciple heirs.”

“As for wild spring eyes, most aren’t even ranked, and only a small portion count as First Tier…”

Those First Tier spiritual springs naturally had disciples occupying them to attempt pill refinement.

Fortunately, Fang Qing wasn’t planning to refine pills.

He was merely washing fibers, so he had no requirements regarding the Five Elements balance of the spiritual spring, nor its cold or heat attributes.

He casually found an unattended spring eye and placed the sky-blue hemp into it.

“Hiss…”

The moment his hands entered the water, Fang Qing felt a wave of cold surge upward along the skin of his palms.

He hurriedly circulated his spiritual power to protect his hands, only then feeling somewhat better.

“No wonder no one wants this spring. Pill-refining water values gentleness and softness—this cold energy is a bit too violent… Even with spiritual power protecting me, I probably won’t be able to endure it for long. This is truly bitter work.”

Fang Qing knew very well that jobs with high pay and little effort would never fall to him. He could only keep his head down and work hard.

After immersing the sky-blue hemp into the cold spring, as time passed, the original hemp gradually loosened, transforming into wisps and strands of fine threads.

At this point, using spiritual power to temper and gather them together would yield a bundle of ‘Azure Spirit Silk’.

The finished Azure Spirit Silk was semi-transparent, finer than silkworm silk, and carried faint points of azure spiritual light.

After working for only a short while, Fang Qing already felt his spiritual power faltering and had no choice but to sit cross-legged nearby to recover.

“The ‘Azure Spirit Inner Armor’ refined from Azure Spirit Silk is quite famous within the sect. It’s a First Tier top-grade artifact…”

“Judging by this pace, even if I finish all of this, I probably won’t even have enough materials for half a set of ‘Azure Spirit Inner Armor’…”

“Those clothed in silks and brocades are never the ones who raise silkworms…”

After resting for a bit, Fang Qing took out a Fasting Pill and swallowed it, preparing to continue working.

At this time, more disciples gradually appeared around the spiritual springs.

“Senior Brother Fang?”

A clear, youthful voice rang out, carrying a childlike tone.

Fang Qing looked over and saw that it was Zhu’er, with Gong Susu and Hua Lingsu beside her.

“Junior Sister Zhu’er.”

A faint smile appeared on his face. “Long time no see. How have you been lately?”

Zhu’er had grown noticeably taller, but the closeness on her face was lighter than before. She said, “Zhu’er has been fine…”

“Junior Sister Zhu’er has already been accepted as a disciple by my master, ‘Floating Cloud Daoist’… In ten years, she may well become a True Disciple.”

Gong Susu spoke from the side, then glanced at the sky-blue hemp on the ground. “Junior Brother Fang is… washing fibers? Hmm, although researching artifact refinement is a bit of a deviation from proper duties, it’s still a steady path.”

After exchanging a few polite words, Zhu’er took her leave.

Before departing, however, she stuffed a palm-sized, grayish pouch into Fang Qing’s hands.

“Hm? This is… a storage pouch?”

“Within the sect, usually only mid-stage Qi Refining, or even late-stage Qi Refining disciples are equipped with these…”

Fang Qing refined it with his spiritual power and sensed a space of roughly one cubic meter inside. He couldn’t help but feel delighted.

At last, he no longer had to carry sacks everywhere every day.

Even though this storage pouch was only the smallest size, it was more than sufficient for his use.

Inside the storage pouch were also several low-grade spirit stones.

Seeing this, Fang Qing fell silent.

……

“Junior Sister Zhu’er…”

After Zhu’er and Gong Susu had walked some distance away, Hua Lingsu thought for a moment before speaking. “That storage pouch just now?”

“My master has already given me a better one. I gave that low-grade storage pouch to Senior Brother Fang.”

Zhu’er patted the small fragrant pouch at her waist, her smile fading slightly. “My grandfather always said that during the Sea Dragon King’s Birthday, we used others to block calamity, and he felt deeply indebted… After this, the debt is cleared.”

“Mm. Junior Sister, your future is boundless. There’s no need to be entangled in cause and effect.”

Gong Susu nodded. Zhu’er’s change pleased her greatly.

As for a low-grade storage pouch and a few spirit stones? She truly didn’t take them to heart.

……

Cultivation knew no years.

In the blink of an eye, three years had passed.

Azure Sea Sect, Pill Island, inside a cave dwelling.

Fang Qing had grown considerably taller and was sitting cross-legged.

Spiritual energy flickered unpredictably around his body—he was clearly breaking through a bottleneck!

Boom!

After an unknown amount of time, he felt the dark, black-water spiritual power within his dantian sea of qi boil and roar, surging into another ring of meridians and expanding his dantian, making it far deeper.

“Finally… Qi Refining Third Layer!”

Fang Qing opened his eyes, a sharp glint flashing through them. “This speed is neither fast nor slow among those with Mid-Grade Spiritual Roots… but it’s still a bit inferior to someone like Zhu’er, who has top-grade aptitude.”

According to what he had heard, Zhu’er had already reached the peak of the Qi Refining Third Layer and was preparing to charge at the bottleneck of mid-stage Qi Refining.

For those with top-grade aptitude, cultivation during the Qi Refining stage basically had no bottlenecks, and the probability of breakthroughs was very high.

Thinking of Zhu’er led him to think of these three years. Fang Qing’s expression gradually calmed.

“Zhu’er and I gradually reduced our contact. It was only natural… and good for both her and me.”

After letting out a sigh, he focused more on his own path. “Early-stage Qi Refining is the easiest. Even so, it took me a full year to perfect the First Layer and break through to the Second Layer, then another two years to accumulate enough power at the Second Layer to break through to the Third… To fully accumulate the Third Layer, it might take another three years?”

“Moreover, although my mid-grade aptitude makes breaking into mid-stage Qi Refining relatively unproblematic, late-stage Qi Refining is another matter… Each layer of Qi Refining is more difficult than the last.”

“And according to the classics, the best age for a cultivator to establish a foundation is before one full sixty-year cycle! If one hasn’t reached Foundation Establishment before sixty, it’s not that it becomes impossible—but the probability drops sharply.”

After calculating, Fang Qing still felt uneasy about whether he could reach the peak of the Qi Refining Ninth Layer before his sixtieth year, even without bottlenecks.

“As expected… I still need to invest more resources, even to the point of consuming pills.”

Over these three years, he had relied mainly on hard cultivation and had already understood that he was no genius.

“If I want pills, I need to earn Contribution Points… Ordinary sect tasks only barely let me survive. To suddenly get rich… I’d have to become a pill refiner, or take on even more dangerous missions.”

Whether it was hunting down vicious criminals or joining fishing teams, the rewards were generous, but the danger was equally great—options Fang Qing rejected.

“These past three years, aside from cultivating and working, I’ve spent my time reading medicinal manuals, identifying medicinal properties, and attending lectures at the Pill Cauldron Platform…”

“I’ve also mastered one water-control technique. Combined with the Contribution Points I’ve saved up, I can barely scrape together enough materials to refine a batch of ‘Jade Splendor Spirit Water’… I’ll give it a try. If I discover some talent in water-method pill refinement, I can earn spiritual resources this way without venturing out into danger.”

Half a day later, beside a spiritual spring.

Fang Qing took a deep breath and patted the storage pouch at his waist.

Amid waves of spiritual power light, three jade boxes floated out, opening one by one, each containing materials for refining ‘Jade Splendor Spirit Water’.

“Qi-Replenishing Grass, Spirit-Melding Flower… and the most crucial main ingredient, the juice of a Jade Splendor Treasure Fish…”

Fang Qing checked them again, confirming that the materials he had spent his entire fortune on were of excellent quality, and nodded in satisfaction.

The pill refinement methods of the Small Huan Sea fully embodied the principle of living off the sea. Marine spiritual objects and sea-beast materials made up a large proportion.

“This Jade Splendor Spirit Water is quite suitable for early-stage Qi Refining cultivators to increase their spiritual power, especially those with Water Spiritual Roots… This pill formula and these materials… have consumed all the savings I had left from the past few years.”

Fang Qing’s expression darkened slightly, but he quickly steadied himself and formed hand seals.

Crash!

Black-water spiritual power surged, the spiritual spring rippled, and soon formed a vortex.

“First step: extract the Qi-Replenishing Grass…”

Fang Qing tossed the Qi-Replenishing Grass into the spring, forming hand seals with both hands as the vortex swallowed it, then… shattered it, spun it…

This was one of the water-control techniques he had cultivated—Mystic Origin Three Revolutions!

Among the techniques of water-method pill refinement, water control was extremely important, and was further divided into different tiers based on three, six, and nine stages.

It was said that Zhu’er’s master, Floating Cloud Daoist, was a Second Tier pill refiner who had mastered the water-control technique ‘Six Vortices Flying Stars’.

As for the Lord of Pill Island, the Azure Sea Sect’s number one pill refiner, he had cultivated water control to the realm of ‘Nine Dragons United’.

During water-method pill refinement, the spiritual springs of the entire Cold Spring Peak would twist and turn nine times and eighteen bends, each surge and circulation raising the purity of the medicinal liquid another level.

Moreover, water-method pill refinement was famously grand in scale and could even enlist the assistance of many pill refiners.

Whenever the Azure Sea Sect had any large-scale pill refinement task, the entire Pill Island would resemble a festival, with medicinal springs cleansing the whole mountain…

As these thoughts passed through his mind, Fang Qing’s hands continued forming seals, causing the vortex to spin faster and faster.

Gradually… that mass of azure medicinal liquid actually began to separate into layers…

‘This… inexplicably feels like a centrifuge.’

Fang Qing muttered inwardly, swiftly collecting the most refined medicinal liquid before immediately adding the Spirit-Melding Flower…