In the blink of an eye, it was already the next afternoon.
"Whoo..."
As a stream of concentrated Dao Power sank into his dantian, Chen Xian opened his eyes and exhaled a breath of turbid air.
Sword Disciple, Third Stage. He'd made it!
With a Qi Induction Pill to help, he could skip the process of absorbing and refining the world's Dao Qi. No wonder his cultivation speed had more than doubled.
The third stage was a minor hurdle.
Every major realm had nine minor stages. When cultivators broke through each set of three minor stages, they considered it a breakthrough into a new realm heaven.
That meant that crossing every three minor stages brought a leap in strength, a difference as vast as heaven and earth.
The First Realm Heaven of a Dao Disciple was the entry level, where one could use the body to unleash Dao Power in battle.
The Second Realm Heaven was the next stage. One could wield weapons with one's power, and it was also the minimum threshold for practicing the Sword Control Technique.
The Third Realm Heaven meant a cultivator had already touched the threshold of Dao Master and could begin trying to learn cultivation techniques and secret manuals.
"I need to break through to the Second Realm Heaven as soon as possible and learn to fly on my sword. Otherwise, I feel bad hitching a ride on other people's Tailwind Swords every day."
Muttering to himself, Chen Xian stood up and poured himself a cup of cool boiled water.
The System Panel appeared in his mind.
[Realm: Dao Disciple, Third Stage (Dogged Sword)] [Lifespan: Two years and seven months] [Skills: Candied Hawthorn Making (Master), Clothing Mending (Proficient), Crop Planting (Proficient)] [Equipped Traits (4/5): Mystic Jade Sword Bone (Mysterious), Sword Genius (Mysterious), Few Illnesses and Disasters (White), Gossip Ear (Common), Empty] (Note: With the breakthrough, the secondary trait slots have expanded by +1. The next expansion requires Dao Disciple, Sixth Stage.) [Available Traits: Natural Pill Heart (Yellow), Longevity and Old Age (White), Hundredfold Sobriety (Common), No Constipation (Common), Swift as Flying (Common), King of Verbal Combat (Common), Light Sleeper (Common), Widow's Friend (Common)] [Copy Points: 12 (+1 point/year, recoverable)] [Refinement Points: 640 (+1 point/month, obtainable through refinement)]
"Hm?" Chen Xian's face lit up. His trait equipment slots had actually gained an extra space.
He could now equip five traits.
He immediately equipped the Yellow-grade trait he'd copied most recently, "Natural Pill Heart."
Now his trait slots held two Mysterious-grade traits and two Yellow-grade ones. Quite the dazzling lineup.
After admiring his sparkling trait slots for a while, he furrowed his brows again.
He was running low on Copy Points.
He could only copy one more Yellow-grade trait.
And what did recoverable and refinable mean on the points display?
His attention fell on the new functions.
[Currently recoverable copied traits (2 Mysterious, 1 Yellow, 2 White, 7 Common). Select a trait to recover and receive 50% of its Copy Points.] [Recover/Widow's Friend (Common)] [Ding! Copy Points +0.5!]
"That's highway robbery! Half off just because it's secondhand?"
Chen Xian cursed in fury, his eyebrows and beard quivering. His vision went black, and he nearly gave himself high blood pressure.
He looked at the refinement function.
[Currently refinable traits (2 Mysterious). Select a trait to refine and receive 50% of its Copy Points. The trait's grade will decrease accordingly.]
"Sharks!"
He didn't even want to try this function. Refining Mystic Jade Sword Bone back to Yellow-grade would only give him five Refinement Points. He'd have to be insane to do that!
Only after downing three cups of cool boiled water did Chen Xian manage to calm down.
After a short silence, he gritted his teeth and recovered almost all the White-grade and Common-grade traits in his trait library.
He kept only King of Verbal Combat.
When selling things, he needed to have a quick tongue, and arguing with customers was unavoidable.
This Common-grade trait was very useful.
Thanks to King of Verbal Combat, he'd previously held his own against every old lady in the village in a war of words.
[Recovery complete! Copy Points +8. Current balance: 20]
Only after seeing he could now copy two Yellow-grade traits did Chen Xian feel a little better.
To him, two Yellow-grade traits were as good as two Mysterious-grade ones. After all, refining a Yellow-grade trait to Mysterious-grade only cost ten Refinement Points.
And he still had plenty.
So his equipment slots now looked like this:
[Equipped Traits (4/5): Mystic Jade Sword Bone (Mysterious), Sword Genius (Mysterious), Natural Pill Heart (Yellow), King of Verbal Combat (Common), Empty]
With a thought, ten Refinement Points were deducted.
[Congratulations! Natural Pill Heart (Yellow) has upgraded to Masterful Pill Crafting (Mysterious).] [Masterful Pill Crafting (Mysterious): You have an exceptionally high talent for the Alchemy Path. As long as you have the right ingredients, your pill success rate is nearly 100% (quality depends on your proficiency). You also have a certain chance of incorporating alchemy methods into other crafts.]
"Not bad! Not bad! Another great talent."
Chen Xian was very pleased.
A 100% chance of successfully making pills—that alone was incredible.
Once his cultivation improved, he could start learning about the Alchemy Path.
A Qi Induction Pill cost ten Contribution Points. Making them himself would surely use far fewer Contribution Points' worth of ingredients.
When the time came, he could make them for his own use and take off right from the spot!
He closed the panel.
Now that he'd broken through and finished refining his trait, it was time to start making Candied Hawthorn and earning money.
His gaze fell on the iron pot beside him.
He'd borrowed it from the small kitchen on Mystic Cloud Peak.
The Xuanyun Sword Sect was one big community. Everyone, from top to bottom, ate from communal pots, gathering at the Dining Hall for meals.
But each Inner Sect peak also had its own small kitchen, used for gatherings and special meals.
That suited him just fine.
Making Candied Hawthorn indoors wasn't safe, so Chen Xian first built a stone platform in the courtyard, then started chopping firewood and lighting a fire.
Candied Hawthorn wasn't hard to make. It only took four steps.
Choose fruit, wash it, and dry the surface. Then make the syrup, dip the fruit, and finally let it cool and set.
As long as you watched the heat and the timing of the dip, it would basically turn out fine.
He'd prepared the fruits and vegetables he bought from the Dining Hall the previous day, when he came back.
He'd removed the hawthorn pits and strawberry stems, then dried their surfaces.
First step: make the syrup.
"This sugar... Hmm, this should work too, right?"
Chen Xian's gaze fell on the cloth bag beside him.
Its mouth gaped open, revealing small, translucent chunks of pale-red crystal.
Back in Chang-le Village, the villagers made sugar from a crop similar to sugar beets.
But there wasn't any here at the Xuanyun Sword Sect.
He'd heard they had some in the city below the mountain, but with his old legs, the round trip would take at least two or three days.
So he'd made do with the sect's sugar.
The stuff in the bag looked like red crystal and was called Rattan Blood Sugar.
They said it was made from the blood rattan, a plant that had reached the Second Realm Heaven of Dao Disciple.
This little bag weighed less than two pounds, yet it had cost him five Contribution Points!
That was because it was an alchemy ingredient, used to remove bitterness from medicinal ingredients and help combine them.
He'd asked a part-time disciple at the General Store Hall:
Could this sugar be dehydrated at high temperatures to form a concentrated sugar melt? Would the sugar molecules crystallize when rapidly cooled? Would they finally "freeze" into a transparent, hard, brittle, amorphous glass?
The part-time disciple: "?"
Unfortunately, the disciple wasn't very good at physical chemistry, so Chen Xian had to try it himself.
It could indeed be used in place of rock sugar or white sugar to make Candied Hawthorn.
"Everything's ready. Let's get started!"
Chen Xian rubbed his hands together and poured the Rattan Blood Sugar into the pot.