A Small Token of Sincerity

After Zhang Miao left, Wu Ming and Zheng Lingxi quickly cleaned up the broken bricks and dust inside the Sect Leader Temple. Then Gu Bai kept them both to share a meal.

A plate of Fruit Pastries and a pot of herbal tea—the very things Zheng Lingxi had just brought out for their guest. The Gujian Sect promoted frugality and forbade waste, and Gu Bai felt for his disciples, unwilling to enjoy the food alone. So, for once, the three of them sat down together at the same table.

Naturally, the conversation over tea and pastries turned to the Four Symbols of Dharma Combat they had just witnessed.

The Liu Family's defeated dogs only needed to cede territory and pay compensation, but the Gujian master and his disciples had a great deal more to consider.

"Ming'er, what do you make of Liu Qi and Zhang Miao?"

Wu Ming replied frankly, "Rich bro, rich sis, send me 50!"

"?"

Wu Ming explained, "As long as they make good on this IOU in our hands, I'll believe them."

Gu Bai couldn't help laughing. "Heh. You really are simple and practical!"

"If Master trusts them, why shouldn't I?"

Gu Bai gave a helpless, wry smile. "Don't think too highly of your master's judgment, either."

"To find three disciples as talented and upright as us in a backwater like Qiongzhou, Master's judgment is more than trustworthy."

Gu Bai could only laugh wryly again at the flattery. After taking a sip of tea, he turned to Zheng Lingxi. "Lingxi, what do you think?"

Zheng Lingxi froze at the question, forgetting to chew the pastry in her mouth. She had always been simple-minded; when things got too complicated, she couldn't make sense of them and couldn't be bothered to think about them. She never would have imagined that she'd be expected to give an opinion on the spot just because she was eating a snack!

Wu Ming was curious, too. "I'd like to hear Senior Sister's opinion as well. Do you think Zhang Miao is worth getting close to?"

Hearing him call her Senior Sister, Zheng Lingxi beamed. She had heard "Senior Sister" countless times over the past month, but it still filled the young girl's heart with joy every time.

She hurriedly washed down the pastry with tea, then began recalling what she'd seen and heard not long ago. After a moment, she wrinkled her nose and said, "Little Sister Zhang Miao smells really nice!"

At that, Gu Bai and Wu Ming both couldn't help nodding.

If Zheng Lingxi felt close to her, Zhang Miao was most likely no wicked person... When it came to simple judgments of good and evil, this clearhearted young Witch was sometimes even purer and more accurate than Gu Bai, who had weathered countless hardships.

She had proved as much when she braved the pressure from her eldest senior sister and brought Wu Ming back to their Tree House!

"But, Senior Sister, I still have to remind you to keep a little distance from Zhang Miao."

Zheng Lingxi blinked again. She didn't say a word, but her clear, wide eyes plainly asked, "Why?"

"...I just don't want the day to come when the three of us are eating together and you secretly use Master and me to wash down your food."

"?"

"?"

Wu Ming coughed and changed the subject. "Master, what did I do poorly in that Four Symbols of Dharma Combat? Where should I focus on improving? I'd appreciate your criticism and guidance."

Before Gu Bai could answer, Zheng Lingxi couldn't help widening her eyes again.

"Huh?"

In her eyes, Wu Ming had been unbelievably impressive in that fight. Picking him up and bringing him back to the mountain had been the right decision after all... Yet he still wasn't satisfied and was actually asking someone to nitpick his performance?!

Even her eldest senior sister, who was always strict with herself, wasn't this harsh!

Oh no. Was Little Junior Brother going to turn into their eldest senior sister, too?

Meanwhile, Gu Bai nodded with satisfaction.

The saying that loving something was better than merely liking it was perfectly embodied in Wu Ming. He had clearly won by a landslide, yet he hadn't truly cared about victory itself. He had even quickly let go of his desire for revenge against the Liu Family, thinking only of how to seize every opportunity to make himself stronger.

Such a mindset was exceedingly rare... So Gu Bai gave him a serious answer.

"In the Four Symbols of Dharma Combat, you won decisively, but not completely. You undoubtedly lost the Physique trial, and you relied on many tricks in the Mana trial as well. If you fought again, Zhang Miao might not use brute force against you. And once the fight became a war of attrition, your advantage in skillfully channeling your power would shrink considerably. At that point, the odds would be even."

Wu Ming nodded. "Going by the stats panel, aside from the Human Dao Seal, Zhang Miao surpasses me in every other attribute."

"That's the advantage of being born into an Aristocratic Clan. If you ask me what else you lacked in the Four Symbols of Dharma Combat, the answer is background, experience, and resources. All the other little details are beside the point; no matter how much you polish them, you'll only be abandoning the root to pursue the branches."

Wu Ming considered this, then nodded again. "True. Rather than waste time polishing my technique and fussing over the details, I should find a way to improve my actual skill level. It's just..."

Given his current circumstances, his cultivation speed had already reached its limit. He had spent the past month grinding through the same routine, but after a month of tweaking and refining it, he had already pushed every last detail of that scripted life to the limit.

Given his Root Bone and Spirit Root aptitude, his progress over the past month had already exceeded common expectations several times over. And considering how few resources the Gujian Sect had, his speed was even more unbelievable.

To make further progress, he'd need the system to smile on him again and give him another gold, so he could refine and stack an enhancement onto Spring Encounter Book or Root Stance. But there was no rushing that sort of thing. Even after winning the Four Symbols of Dharma Combat, the system had only given him two hundred Spirit Crystals—the same reward he'd received for seizing the sword at the gates of Dinghuang Prefecture.

Recreating a legendary scene had earned him five hundred, though.

As for the good old days at the start of his transmigration, when he'd earned a thousand Spirit Crystals for a guide to escaping and six hundred for a beginner's guide, those days were clearly long gone.

As he was thinking this, Gu Bai sighed and said, "It's just that the Gujian Sect has limited resources. I simply can't give you a fair shot against those scions of Aristocratic Clans. Fortunately, your Immortal Fate runs deep, and you always manage to find a way around the obstacles."

As he spoke, Gu Bai pointed a finger, and a delicate little porcelain bottle landed in front of Wu Ming. It was none other than the Red Cloud Essence-Condensing Pill Liu Li had brought to buy his life not long ago.

Gu Bai said, "The Red Cloud Essence-Condensing Pill is the Mingxiao Pavilion of Luohuang Mountain's secret medicine. Nothing else in all of Qiongzhou can match its effects in condensing essence and replenishing qi. The superior-grade pills can even be taken by Nascent Soul Realm cultivators. The spiritual breath contained in each pill is equivalent to what a Golden Core True Person could absorb over a hundred days of cultivation in a spirit-vein-rich area. And the Red Cloud Intent within them can even bring the dead back to life and restore flesh to bare bones."

At that, Wu Ming suddenly understood, then was startled.

This pill was clearly ideal for replenishing the qi and healing the injuries of an old man worn down by fatigue. But Gu Bai had taken it out now, which obviously meant he didn't intend to use it himself. Instead...

Then Gu Bai took an old, worn manual from his sleeve.

[Spirit-Melting Qi-Transformation Art]

"This art can refine high-quality spirit pills and elixirs into qi, temporarily replacing a spirit vein and allowing someone to cultivate by absorbing it. It's an excellent cultivation art passed down in Yuzhou, in the southwest. But it has extremely strict requirements for the pills it uses. Unless you're in Yuzhou, where plants flourish and the art of alchemy is highly advanced, using superior-grade pills as fuel is hardly a sustainable way to cultivate. I came across it by chance when I was young, but never had an opportunity to use it... It seems this Immortal Fate has fallen to you."

"These two Red Cloud Essence-Condensing Pills should keep you supplied for more than two years, enough to break through to the sixth Qi Refining stage of Spring Encounter Book."

At this, Wu Ming couldn't help frowning and interrupting. "Wait..."

But Gu Bai didn't wait at all. "Once you refine the pills, you can draw their Red Cloud Intent into your muscles, bones, and skin, effectively using it as nourishment. After that, I'll teach you the Green Pine Stance for body tempering. Practicing it alongside Root Stance will effectively strengthen your physique."

"But..."

"You could also sell the pills and exchange them for ordinary cultivation resources, such as Spirit Stones and talismans. But after carefully considering it, I still think refining them with the Spirit-Melting Qi-Transformation Art is best."

Looking at the old man's face, clearly exhausted again from all that deliberation, Wu Ming could only sigh inwardly.

The old man always mocked himself as a crippled, useless practitioner of Heterodox Zen, but whenever his disciples needed something, he could always produce the most suitable cultivation art for the circumstances... the Three Pure Ones Orthodox Method, Spring Encounter Book, and now the specialty of Yuzhou, the Spirit-Melting Qi-Transformation Art. He could bring them out just like that. How could he possibly have the background of a truly destitute Rogue Cultivator?

It was only because he had thrown all his resources and knowledge into his disciples without holding anything back that he'd fallen on hard times.

Thinking this, Wu Ming stopped hesitating. "Since Master has already made up his mind, I won't stand on ceremony. Once I make progress in my cultivation, I'll repay the sect twice over."

Gu Bai smiled. His disciple's confidence and decisiveness always made him both admire and comforted.

After smiling, the old man cleared his throat and continued. "Using superior-grade Golden Core pills for daily cultivation might seem unbelievable, but it's actually commonplace among those scions of Aristocratic Clans. Qiongzhou may be relatively poor, but even the talented scions of an entire prefecture often spend hundreds of Spirit Stones a year during Qi Refining."

"As for direct descendants like Liu Qi and Zhang Miao, who have studied under renowned masters, their yearly expenses on spirit veins, pills, and the like are beyond counting. Even if you refine spirit pills now, it's hard to say you'll close the gap between you completely."

Wu Ming couldn't help clicking his tongue. From the way Master Gu Bai put it, the Nine Provinces sounded like the sort of brutally realistic world where you couldn't even cultivate without money.

Fortunately, he'd just opened up a path to wealth: the connections of the rich were always the most valuable resource. If Liu Qi and Zhang Miao truly meant to apologize and make friends, then...

At that thought, Wu Ming felt a stir in his heart and pulled a little brocade pouch from his sleeve.

It was the small apology gift Zhang Miao had just used to weigh down the IOU, saying it was merely a small token of sincerity... Now he could find out just how sincere that rich brother and sister really were.

He loosened the pouch's drawstring, only to find that its opening was pitch-black and unfathomable, like a bottomless abyss. Wu Ming couldn't help being startled.

The pouch itself was clearly a valuable Storage Artifact!

Gu Bai saw it, too, and couldn't help giving a small exclamation of surprise. Then he curled a finger and formed an Object Manipulation Technique, breaking the seal on the pouch's opening. He promptly pulled out four more brocade pouches!

"It's a compressed archive, too!?"