Translated and Edited by: La0o9
Orchid Hall
In the dark of night, Gu Qing Shan returned.
He silently took a small bottle in hand, dropped a pill in it on his hand and swallowed it whole.
This is a top-grade healing pill, capable of curing all wounds except fatigue.
After two double hours, Gu Qing Shan woke up from deep meditation, as he viewed himself with inner sight, he found himself returned to peak conditions.
Tapping his Inventory Bag, he took out the large suitcase with the miniature freezing apparatus attached.
Opening it, he took out the piece of space monster heart.
âGo inâ Gu Qing Shan ordered.
Immediately, the heart was sucked into his War God UI, into the last remaining empty slot.
The slot disappeared.
All the slots on the wheel has been filled in, turning into 5 spheres of light.
The light gradually spread out to the entire wheel.
A flashing light of text appeared on the UI.
âConditions has been meet ahead of timeâ
âQuest: War God Thaumaturgy has been completedâ
âThaumaturgy gacha has been prepared, the user can begin breakthrough at any timeâ
Itâs done!
Gu Qing Shan breathed out in relief.
Thaumaturgies can only be obtained when breaking through a realm when cultivators and the essence of the world are resonating. Even the System has no way to give him a Thaumaturgy prematurely.
Right now, all he has to do is break through qi training realm and reach Foundation Establishment realm!
Once he becomes a Foundation Establishment realm, his strength will be increased exponentially
That way, during the world calamities, he would at least have enough strength to protect himself.
Gu Qing Shan was itching to do it right away, but stopped himself.
Breaking through a realm is always a dangerous task. If you arenât careful you can easily lose your mind, all your hard work poured down the drain as you become crippled forever.
Qi training to Foundation Establishment is the very first large step of a cultivator. Even with the experience from his previous life, Gu Qing Shan doesnât dare to underestimate it.
In the past life, so many players, even with the help of the System, faced immense hardship when breaking through from qi training to Foundation Establishment.
Countless people didnât die in the belly of monsters, but instead threw away their lives in the process of breaking through a realm.
When your cultivation is higher, moving up from a high realm to a higher realm, youâll eventually have to face the Lightning Trial, a frightening obstacle to many. (1)
But right now, heâs a disciple of Bai Hua sect, a disciple of the Saint. What rush could he possibly be in that he canât wait until dawn to ask for help from Bai Hua Fairy?
This is the surest way to do things.
Not to mention, with the insight and experience of the Saint, he might be able to gain some knowledge that he didnât have while breaking through during the past life.
As Gu Qing Shan decided, he sat still on the cushion and continued to meditate.
Dawn comes.
White goose flew into Orchid Hall.
âJunior brother. Ah? Youâre preparing to break through?â
White goose scanned Gu Qing Shan and found that his spirit energy has already reached its peak. His state also the best it could be, almost like a bow thatâs already pulled but havenât been released.
âVery well then, I knew you were at qi training stage 7, so originally I was about to give you the method to break through todayâ white goose nodded his head.
âThank you senior brotherâ Gu Qing Shan said.
âNo need to be so formal, letâs go, first weâll have breakfast, your second brother and I will give you guidanceâ white goose said, then turned around and flew away.
Gu Qing Shan also stood up and followed him.
Breakfast is eaten in the main hall of Bai Hua Palace.
This is the place where Bai Hua Fairy deal with all matters big and small, but itâs also where the entire Bai Hua sect go to have their breakfast.
âWeâll eat right here?â Gu Qing Shan asked.
âNo worries, Shifu likes things to be just a bit rowdyâ white goose answered.
Their breakfast today is Snow Spirit Flowers.
This type of flower has a mild sweet flavor, very beneficial to a cultivatorâs soul vessel.
You can use these flowers to make pills, or made into spirit cooking. Eating them for an extended period of time will help nurture a cultivatorâs soul vesselâs flexibility.
A soul vessel thatâs more flexible is harder to be charmed, and isnât easily wounded.
One Snow Spirit Flower is worth 10,000 low-grade spirit stones.
What can you do with 10,000 spirit stones?
You can rent a shop front of a busy business district for a month; you can buy yourself a position in the military thatâs mostly odd jobs and doesnât require you to kill demons; itâs enough for a single cultivator to use from qi training realm all the way to Foundation Establishment realm.
Yet the bowl in front of Gu Qing Shan had a total of 5 Snow Spirit Flowers in it.
This breakfast of his cost 50,000 low-grade spirit stones.
He breathed in, looking at the bowls of others.
Both white goose and Qin Xiao Lou had the same thing him does, 5 Snow Spirit Flowers, while Xiuxiuâs bowl had 9 instead.
Xiuxiuâs wound on her soul still hasnât fully healed, and sheâs also the youngest, so thatâs understandable.
But you can see, breakfast for the 4 of them cost a total of 240,000 low-grade spirit stones.
Gu Qing Shan is so used to spending sparingly in both the previous life and this one, that when suddenly met with such luxury, he couldnât help but silently sighed.
Then he suddenly remembered a line from an old poem.
Painted gates have the stink of meat and wine. (2)
Hmm, but flowers are vegetables, so it doesnât count, yeah it doesnât count.
âWhereâs Shifu?â Qin Xiao Lou asked.
âThereâs some important business at the frontline, so Tianzun and Great Monk are both there, Shifu also left just this morningâ Xiuxiu said.
âA! So Shifu isnât here!â Qin Xiao Louâs eyes glowed.
âThatâs great, Iâve eaten so much of this kind of stupid flower that my mouth is blandâ
As Qin Xiao Lou said that, he put all the flowers in his bowl into Xiuxiuâs.
Then he tapped his Inventory Bag, taking out a long metal skewer.
Then some firewood.
And then spices.
And finally a skinned and washed two-horned spirit goat.
âEating this in the morning, wouldnât it be a bit hard to digest?â Gu Qing Shan asked
âIf you wonât eat, youâre free to not help meâ Qin Xiao Lou looked back down as he rubbed spices onto the goat.
Gu Qing Shan thought for a bit, then decided to help.
âEating this in the morning isnât good for your stomachâ white goose said.
âIf you wonât eat, youâre free to not help meâ Qin Xiao Lou looked back down, rubbed more spices onto the goat.
White goose thought for a bit, then swung his wings, arranging the firewood neatly for grilling, even the fire was already lit.
Xiuxiu chewed on her flower and muttered: âI want a goatâs thigh, second brotherâ
Qin Xiao Lou is known for being an expert at all the 6 arts, but if you had to pick one as his best, it would have to be his cooking skills.
Each and every one of his dishes leave lasting impression, enough that as long as people know heâll be cooking, no one would miss it for anything.
A bit later
Three people and a goose laid flat on the Bai Hua Palace floor, unmoving.
They all ate too much.
âXiao Lou, Qing Shan is about to breakthroughâ white goose suddenly mentioned.
âHm, thatâs a good thing, but I canât move right now, I think heâs also like thatâ Qin Xiao Lou said as he picked his teeth with a toothpick.
Hah, I still had to breakthrough today, I shouldnât have eaten so much, Gu Qing Shan remonstrated himself.
âWeâll discuss it firstâ white goose said
âOk, let me think for a bitâ Qin Xiao Lou answered.
As they heard that, everyone left him alone and waited for his answer.
After a few moments, they heard a snoring sound.
White goose jumped up, kicking Qin Xiao Lou right on his face.
âAaaaââââ
A cry of agony.
A while later, three people and a goose was sitting in a circle.
âBreaking through a realm really is dangerous indeed, I think weâll need to use some formation, plus first brother has to be there ready to protect you to ensure safetyâ
Qin Xiao Lou seriously spoke with a face swollen like a meat bun.
âWhat about the method of breaking through?â Gu Qing Shan asked.
âYou donât need to worry about that, Iâll go prepare itâ white goose said as he flapped his wings and flew away.
âIâll be here to cheer for youâ Xiuxiu shook her little fists and said.
âThank you, junior sisterâ Gu Qing Shan smiled to Xiuxiu.
Breaking through a realm is very serious business, enough to mobilize the entire Bai Hua sect.
âââalthough they only had 4 people in total.
Note:
(1) Lightning Trial: a very common thing in cultivation novels, also called Lightning Tribulation. Hereâs an excerpt from another novel that I think explains it very well: âLegends say that the act of cultivation itself is going against the heaven, as humans take in the essence of the world, they gain karma, and when their karma reaches a certain breaking point, they have to face it in the form of lightning strikes from the sky. Those that survive this Trial is rewarded by the karma they faced, until one day, when enough karma builds up againâ.
(2) Painted doors has the stench of meat and wine: this is part of an old poem. The poem is meant to say that people who can afford paint their doors are so rich that theyâd frequently have enough meat and wine lined up to leave a stench on the door. I think. It might have some other meanings.