The lackeys behind Gu Xiaoyun followed closely behind him and asked, "Senior Brother, how do you plan to deal with that Qin next?"
"Deal with my ass!" Gu Xiaoyun cursed under his breath. "Didn't you see the purple seed beside him? We'll have to take the long view on this matter and see whether we can make a move through the other two purple seeds..."
"Then when you were talking to Junior Brother Zhang Yang just now..."
"Heh heh... Does Zhang Yang really take me for an idiot? Does he think a few words can provoke me into picking a fight with Qin Haoxuan? There's a purple seed standing behind that guy! If I hadn't shown Zhang Yang that I was angry at Qin Haoxuan, wouldn't he have kept looking for chances to provoke me? Haven't I lost enough face already? Since I showed my anger at Qin Haoxuan just now, he won't try stirring me up again for the time being and making me lose face."
As Gu Xiaoyun spoke, he quickened his pace as he left. Yet his mind remained occupied with how to get his hands on Qin Haoxuan's field with the Spirit Spring. Land with a Spirit Spring could grow high-grade spirit herbs. The hundred-year blood ginseng in his own field had already stopped growing; even after two hundred, three hundred, or five hundred years, its medicinal effects would remain as they were today.
Unless he had high-grade Spirit Land! Gu Xiaoyun knew full well that obtaining good Spirit Land from other senior and junior brothers would be even harder. If he planted there on loan... he would have to give others a share later. Now... Qin Haoxuan's land was the best choice!
"Brother Haoxuan, once my cultivation succeeds, I'll throw every one of them into the Icefire Prison for punishment!"
Xu Yu's face held a trace of indignation. Qin Haoxuan could only smile bitterly at the sight. Although Xu Yu and Murong Chao had backed him up and spared him a direct clash with Gu Xiaoyun, they could not support him for a lifetime. Besides, he did not like relying on others to survive. In a place as treacherous as the Taichu Sect, he had to hasten his cultivation and strengthen himself. Only with power could he protect what was rightfully his; otherwise, others would devour him until not even bones remained.
After this incident, most of Qin Haoxuan's drowsiness had vanished. Seeing everyone else desperately carrying Spirit Spring water to irrigate their fields and striving to upgrade their Spirit Land, and having learned from Gu Xiaoyun that Spirit Land came in different grades, he immediately stopped slacking off. He picked up an empty bucket from the ground and went to fetch water.
Though carrying water was grueling labor, it could temper one's Dao heart. For Qin Haoxuan, who urgently needed to raise his strength and improve himself in every aspect, it was also a fine method of cultivation. Cultivating immortality was not merely sitting in meditation and refining qi. Over these days, Qin Haoxuan had placed increasing importance on tempering his heart. Spiritual power could be supplemented through spirit pills, wondrous medicines, and heavenly treasures, but no amount of spirit pills or wondrous medicines could improve one's state of mind.
After carrying nearly a hundred loads of water, noon drew near. Even Qin Haoxuan, a Witch Cultivator, could barely hold on. He sat on the ground to rest, and Murong Chao came over, tossed his shoulder pole aside, and plopped down on the ridge between the fields.
"Senior Brother Qin, thank you for helping me loosen the soil and carry water yesterday."
Although he had been closer to Murong Chao these past two days, Qin Haoxuan had not exchanged many words with him and did not know what Murong Chao was truly plotting.
Qin Haoxuan looked at this young master from a noble family and offered him a gentle smile. "Thank you for getting me out of that situation this morning."
Murong Chao smiled as well. With that smile, the hesitation on his face vanished like smoke. "Senior Brother Qin, shall we be friends from now on?"
"Friends?" Hearing that word from Murong Chao's mouth surprised Qin Haoxuan somewhat. Smiling, he asked, "Why?"
"When I'm with you and Junior Sister Xu, I feel relaxed. There's no scheming against one another, no mutual deception. And there's an indescribable charm about you, a charm that even those three purple-seed disciples do not possess. Among the two hundred disciples in our batch, I think you are the one closest to the Dao."
"The Dao?" Qin Haoxuan looked lost and seemed to mutter to himself, "What is the Dao? What does Dao mean?"
After saying that, he fell silent for a long while. His eyes gazed toward the vast heavens as though deep in thought. Only after a long time did he come back to himself and apologize, "Sorry, I got lost in thought."
"No, Senior Brother Qin. Every word and action of yours, every movement you make, seems to contain philosophy. I could tell just from how you've carried water these past two days. Even Li Jing and Zhang Kuang cannot compare to you, and we are even farther behind."
Sincerity shone in Murong Chao's eyes, utterly unlike the villainous appearance he had shown when fighting over blankets on the night they first arrived at the Taichu Sect. Perhaps the gossip, mockery, and cold ridicule surrounding him these past few days had made him awaken at last.
"Senior Brother Qin, I was born into a noble family and received teachings on ethics and social order from childhood, but those were merely rites and laws followed by ordinary mortals. From you, I learned equality and respect, and understood what it meant to refuse to yield. Cultivators must refuse to yield to heaven if they are to achieve greatness. If one cannot even refuse to yield to other people, how can one speak of refusing to yield to heaven?"
Qin Haoxuan smiled faintly as he listened to Murong Chao.
"Senior Brother Qin, although your aptitude is not as good as mine, you can associate with Xu Yu as an equal, find land with a Spirit Spring, and repay resentment with virtue by helping me! These past few days, even people from Li Jing's camp have been mocking me for not having Rooted yet. You and Junior Sister Xu are the only ones who have not secretly laughed at me. I truly hope to become friends with you. If my cultivation should someday fortunately surpass yours, I absolutely will not let villains like Gu Xiaoyun bully you. If I have the ability, I'll even help you improve!"
Qin Haoxuan smiled again, a trace of warmth flashing through his heart. Judging from Murong Chao's expression as he spoke, he was indeed sincere.
"Friends are people who help and support each other, share hardship and fortune, and share misfortune and blessings. They will never kick someone when they are down in a moment of danger. If you can do that, then we are friends!"
Hearing Qin Haoxuan's solemn words, Murong Chao nodded earnestly. As they smiled at one another, their palms met in a clap, then clasped tightly together.
Over the following days, all the new disciples tended their crops in the morning and cultivated on their own in the afternoon. On the afternoon of the fifth day, a faint ripple of spiritual power came from Murong Chao's room.
Murong Chao had Rooted!
Rooting in fourteen days, while not as fast as Zhang Yang, was still six days earlier than True Lord Huang Long, the current sect leader, who had Rooted in twenty days! All five disciples with special immortal seeds had Rooted. Elder Chu could not help being delighted. After Murong Chao Rooted, he rushed to Murong Chao's room and gave him much encouragement.
After Rooting, when Murong Chao stepped out of his room, he noticed that those from Li Jing's camp who had once mocked him now had evasive looks in their eyes. Li Jing also came forward with a smile, congratulating him on Rooting successfully. Murong Chao was exceedingly indifferent toward a smiling tiger like Li Jing, replying neither warmly nor coldly, just as Qin Haoxuan did.
Li Jing had originally wanted to exchange a few more pleasantries, but Qin Haoxuan and Xu Yu, having heard that Murong Chao had Rooted, also arrived. The instant the two of them appeared, Murong Chao stopped paying attention to Li Jing, who was enthusiastically trying to strike up a conversation. Wearing a smile, he went to greet Qin Haoxuan and Xu Yu.
If not for his plan to win over Xu Yu, Murong Chao's act of publicly humiliating Li Jing would have driven Li Jing to fall out with him long ago. Yet even now, Li Jing secretly swore in his heart, Murong Chao, Murong Chao, just you wait. Once I win Xu Yu over, I'll make you unable to live or die. I'll make you pay for betraying me and warn everyone else that I, Li Jing, am no Zhang Kuang!
"Congratulations." Qin Haoxuan smiled and spoke those two words. They were not flattering sweet talk, but they brimmed with sincerity.
"Senior Brother Qin, I've finally Rooted. From now on, I won't have to be looked down on by those people who judge others with dog eyes. Come, sit in my room. I'll share some of my Rooting experience with you."
Qin Haoxuan did not stand on ceremony in the face of Murong Chao's invitation. Xu Yu had also shared some of her own Rooting experience, but she was, after all, a purple-seed disciple. Her aptitude and comprehension far surpassed those of weak-seed Qin Haoxuan. Her experience was precious, but not entirely suited to him. The Rooting experience of gray-seed Murong Chao would be more appropriate for Qin Haoxuan.
Under Li Jing's cold, furious glare, the three entered the room arm in arm. This made the Prince, whose heart was higher than the heavens, secretly swear even more fiercely that he would someday make Qin Haoxuan and Murong Chao unable to live or die!
Time flew by once more, and another five days passed in the blink of an eye. Five days earlier, Murong Chao had shared his Rooting experience without reservation, greatly inspiring Qin Haoxuan. These past days, he had constantly felt on the verge of Rooting, but like a woman struggling through a difficult birth, the feeling had come for a long time while his immortal seed showed no movement.
That night, Qin Haoxuan sat amid a thicket and finished digesting the pill Gu Yunzi had sent him. After Gu Yunzi left, he examined himself inwardly and discovered that his immortal seed had been wrapped in fine rootlets, leaving him deeply puzzled.
Wasn't an immortal root supposed to be a single main root that plunged into the dantian? Why did his immortal seed have so many fine lateral roots, yet no main root could be seen anywhere?
Qin Haoxuan pondered for a long time, but could not find the problem. Not daring to ask anyone, he could only continue harboring his doubts.
After meditating and refining qi for a while longer, he poured the spiritual power in his body into the immortal seed. The immortal seed, which had intermittently shown signs of Rooting these past days, began to stir again. Having been fooled by it many times already, Qin Haoxuan paid it no heed and continued feeding spiritual power into it.
Just as he was wholly focused on drawing in spiritual power and neutralizing the remaining medicinal power of the One-Leaf Golden Lotus within his body, his heart suddenly jolted for no reason. The immortal seed in his body began to tremble violently.
What was happening? Qin Haoxuan stopped injecting spiritual power into the immortal seed, but its trembling only grew fiercer. Neither Xu Yu nor Murong Chao had mentioned violent trembling of the immortal seed during Rooting when they shared their experience. Could this be a sign that his immortal seed was mutating, or had it absorbed the toxicity of the Corrosion Pill for so many consecutive days after its mutation and was about to mutate once more?
But letting his thoughts run wild now would accomplish nothing. Qin Haoxuan was startled. If he kept thinking this way and it developed into a heart demon, that would be troublesome. He swiftly drove every stray thought from his mind, gathered his essence and guarded the one, calmed his heart and steadied his breath, and silently watched the immortal seed as it changed.
During the trembling, fine rootlets sprouted from the cracks in the immortal seed—more than a hundred in all. After winding once around the entire immortal seed, those hundred fine rootlets began extending toward Qin Haoxuan's dantian.
I have always felt that people should grow, not merely in strength. Sixteen-year-old children climb the mountain to cultivate the Dao; everyone has different aptitudes and different opportunities, and the growth and direction of their states of mind will differ as well. But they should all grow, each in their own different ways. Murong was the first... everyone will be so in the future, but each person's road, direction, and relationships will be different.
Before you continue