It was still midmorning.
Yue Shuo preferred to follow his own way of keeping time, so he marked it as around nine thirty.
He had already completed four rounds of cultivation, with 36 points of Divine Sense remaining.
After doing a little math,
he decided to maintain ten cultivation sessions a day from now on, roughly ten hours. Switching cultivation methods would probably have some effect.
He would use his remaining Divine Sense to grind Talisman Crafting first.
After all, one point of Divine Sense meant one proficiency point.
It was quite easy to grind in the early stages.
Based on his current cultivation and recovery, Yue Shuo estimated that he had around 160 to 170 points of Divine Sense available each day.
Fifty points of that would be fixed for cultivation.
That left 110 to 120 points.
He decided to pile whole numbers into Talisman Crafting proficiency, then use whatever remained to improve the Qi-Replenishing Technique and Lesser Cloud-Rain Technique.
He had already cultivated four times today.
He still had six sessions to go.
After taking a Grain-Repelling Pill, he did not need to eat, which saved him some time as well.
Yue Shuo planned to begin carrying this out from now on.
Starting at nine thirty in the morning, he selected one cultivation method from the remaining four and began cultivating it.
After some thought, he chose the Thousand Waves Formula.
Before cultivating:
[Thousand Waves Formula (First-Tier): 1/100 (Beginner)]
It took him seven hours to complete six cultivation sessions, averaging one hour and ten minutes per round.
[Cultivation: 38.8/1000 (+2.4)] [Thousand Waves Formula (First-Tier): 7/100 (Beginner)]
"It's a little slower than the Wood Essence Art, but it's only at the Beginner stage right now... The cultivation time is shortening even faster than before..."
Yue Shuo compared the two cultivation methods.
After completing his ten cultivation sessions for the day,
Yue Shuo threw himself back into recovering, casting techniques, and crafting talismans.
An entire day passed.
The next day, the twenty-third, Gu Jiu still had not returned. Yue Shuo stood in the Spirit Field and glanced toward the little wooden hut, lost in thought.
Did something happen again?
Or had he done as he said—bought some pills outside, taken them, and entered seclusion to advance?
The latter would be fine.
If it was the former, Yue Shuo began to feel somewhat pressed for time.
He glanced at his Talisman Crafting level.
Because he had ground out one hundred proficiency points last night, he was already halfway through.
[Skill: Talisman Crafting (Tier-One Low-Grade) 100/200] [Water Condensation Talisman (Basic): 10/100 (Major Achievement)] [Fire-Starting Talisman (Basic): 0/100 (Major Achievement)] [Dust-Cleaning Talisman (Basic): 0/50 (Minor Achievement)]
Yue Shuo did not craft any First-Grade Runes.
He only had enough materials for ten talismans, and it had not even been ten days since he had traded Gathering Spirit Grass for Spirit Carp.
Only eight days had passed!
Nor could he take Gathering Spirit Grass to trade for First-Tier Talisman Crafting materials again.
Growing ten Gathering Spirit Grass plants in a month and a half
using the extreme cultivation method,
along with his wood-element Spiritual Root, talent in the Three Planting Arts, high comprehension, and natural affinity with the Wood Essence Art,
was already barely understandable.
Moreover, Yue Shuo had discovered that Shopkeeper Qin Yan had not told Chong Ying or Tian Wan about his purchase of Spirit Carp.
Gu Jiu had also kept the matter secret from outsiders.
While this improved Yue Shuo's impression of Shopkeeper Qin Yan,
he also repeatedly reminded himself
that this meant
both Shopkeeper Qin Yan and Gu Jiu thought the matter was eye-catching enough that it needed to be concealed.
It had only been a few days.
And he was going to send over Gathering Spirit Grass again?
That did not fit Yue Shuo's low-key, steady style of doing things.
After all, it was not yet a matter of absolute necessity.
Next, out of a certain cautiousness, Yue Shuo adjusted his morning cultivation plans and worked on Talisman Crafting first.
He ground Talisman Crafting proficiency, rested to recover Divine Sense, then continued!
By noon, he had completed the Talisman Crafting upgrade.
[Skill: Talisman Crafting (First-Tier Mid-Grade) (0/500)] [Water Condensation Talisman (Basic): 10/200 (Perfection)] (Tier-One Low-Grade: You have some understanding of First-Grade Runes.) (First-Tier Mid-Grade: Your understanding of First-Grade Runes has improved.)
The two descriptions were extremely vague.
But Yue Shuo seemed to gain a faint insight.
So, before that insight could completely fade away, he immediately took out First-Grade Blank Talisman Paper and Talisman Ink.
Qi-Concealing Talisman!
Scratch, scratch!
It flowed from start to finish in one breath!
Continue!
Invisibility Talisman!
Scratch, scratch!
It flowed from start to finish in one breath!
Continue again!
Qi-Concealing Talisman!
Success!
Continue again! Failure!
Yue Shuo stopped his talisman brush amid a wave of dizziness and mental exhaustion.
His vision swam for an instant.
Fortunately, he was inside the Spirit Field, where noticeably dense spiritual energy had been slowly and automatically flowing into his body all along.
He only closed his eyes for a few seconds before recovering.
After resting for a few more minutes,
he looked inward.
He smiled bitterly.
[Divine Sense: 0-1/75]
Only beneath his gaze
did his Divine Sense slowly recover to 1 point.
While he still had a tiny shred of awareness left, he immediately tucked the completed spirit talismans away close to his body in three separate places.
Especially the three successfully drawn First-Grade Runes.
Afterward, Yue Shuo collapsed in the Spirit Field and fell asleep. He truly could not hold on any longer.
After three hours of sleep, he woke naturally.
After waking,
before he could even stretch and move around,
the people waiting outside the Spirit Field gave him such a fright that he nearly jumped.
Yue Shuo's entire expression froze.
People!
Two strangers... no, two familiar faces!
They were the middle-aged man
who had tested his Spiritual Root nearly two months ago, and the young man who had been with him.
Yue Shuo subconsciously activated one of the two newly crafted First-Tier Qi-Concealing Talismans he had stored close to his body.
The Spirit Field was covered by an array.
Yue Shuo did not know whether the two people outside had seen anything clearly.
However, the auras inside and outside were isolated.
At least, he had tested it from outside before.
He could not sense the spiritual-energy fluctuations or vitality of the Gathering Spirit Grass within the Spirit Field. Only after entering the Spirit Field could he sense them.
Yue Shuo noticed that the two men seemed to have realized he was awake.
Their gazes turned toward him.
His heart tightened slightly.
He paused, then left the Spirit Field and saluted them. He just did not know how to address them, so he could only use the general term, Senior.
"Greetings, Seniors! May I ask..."
Neither of them moved, nor did they surround him front and back. Their gazes were calm.
With a faint trace of surprise.
For the moment, he detected no hostility.
Yue Shuo did his best to read their expressions, without completely concealing his nervousness.
"You are Yue Shuo, the Five-Element Spirit Root cultivation disciple who arrived two months ago?" The middle-aged man looked him over with a hint of surprise.
Yue Shuo nodded and answered honestly,
"Yes, Senior. You were the one who tested my Spiritual Root."
As he spoke, Yue Shuo adjusted his expression to show the relaxed feeling of seeing someone familiar, then asked curiously,
"Senior, you came all the way here because... Oh, right, please come to the small courtyard for tea!"
With youthful fluster, he awkwardly pointed toward the courtyard atop the small slope.
The middle-aged man gave him a slight smile.
Then shook his head.
"No need. This old man is merely making an inspection to see how you are doing. By the way, where is your martial servant?"
Seeing that the other party had not agreed, Yue Shuo did not insist.
He guessed inwardly that they had come because of Gu Jiu or the previous incident.
Gu Jiu was more likely.
After all, the earlier matter had passed several days ago. They would not have come looking for him only now, while Gu Jiu had been gone for nearly two days.
With some mental preparation, Yue Shuo "told the truth."
"He was too weak and got injured in the previous fight, so I gave him the Spirit Stones I exchanged and sent him to buy pills to increase his strength."
The moment those words came out, the middle-aged man's expression became a little strange.
The young cultivator who had come with him
looked at Yue Shuo as though he were looking at something indescribable.
That gaze was far too complicated for Yue Shuo to make out, so he could only pretend not to notice.
"Senior, did something happen to Gu Jiu?"
Yue Shuo was not merely playing dumb. After all, he intended to leave others with the impression that he was not someone foolish with too much money.
"He is fine. He has already advanced to a First-Class Martial Artist."
The middle-aged man answered amiably.
The young man beside him spoke instead.
"Since the source of his Spirit Stones and pills is legitimate, and you confirm that you sent him out, he will be released after registering this afternoon!"
Released?
Yue Shuo guessed some of what had happened. On the surface, he nodded firmly.
"I sent him out. He didn't fight with anyone, did he? He didn't lose, did he? Don't tell me he got hurt again..."
The middle-aged man could not help laughing.
He glanced at Yue Shuo's Spirit Field again.
Then reminded him, "You have grasped the Three Planting Arts. Go to the External Affairs Pavilion promptly to register and verify it; there are rewards!"
Yue Shuo muttered reflexively,
"But there's never anyone at the External Affairs Pavilion."
The middle-aged man paused as well, then helplessly reminded Yue Shuo again, "There are generally people there during the first two days of every ten-day period."
Yue Shuo nodded obediently.
"Then I'll go next month!"
The middle-aged man smiled and nodded. Then he prepared to leave, though before departing, he could not help glancing at the Spirit Field twice more.
"Your talent for cultivation is excellent. Don't waste it!"
With that, he and the young man, who also turned back to smile and nod at Yue Shuo, streaked away and vanished from sight.
Yue Shuo watched the two leave.
Turning back, Yue Shuo glanced at the Spirit Field, his face thoughtful. What exactly had those two seniors come for? To remind me to register?
He channeled spiritual power into his eyes and looked toward the Spirit Field.
Within it, a thin mist shrouded each stalk of Gathering Spirit Grass. Apart from the thirty newly replanted ones, which had only tiny buds,
the remaining Gathering Spirit Grass had all grown to at least three inches tall.
Their leaves had unfurled, lush and emerald-green.
They carried a glossy, vibrant sense of overflowing life.
So, they had discovered his astonishing talent for cultivation?
Yue Shuo felt somewhat relieved. Earlier, he had harvested the ten Gathering Spirit Grass stalks he had focused on cultivating and stored them in the wooden box.
He currently had twenty mature stalks of Gathering Spirit Grass in reserve.
The Gathering Spirit Grass in the Spirit Field
looked to have only been growing for three or four years at most. Cultivating them for three or four years in two months, coupled with how diligently he lived in the Spirit Field,
should... be explainable, right?
Yue Shuo thought it over himself and felt that it did not seem all that astonishing.
Moreover, he could tell
that the two who had left were exceedingly friendly toward him, far warmer than their indifferent attitude after testing his spirit roots.
Yue Shuo returned to the Spirit Field and sat cross-legged, recalling the conversation they had just had.
After reviewing it, he confirmed that there had been nothing unusual.
Only then did he glance over his character panel again.
Everything else was normal.
Only the "Talisman Crafting" section under skills had gained proficiency entries for two new First-Grade Runes.
[Skill: Talisman Crafting (First-Tier Mid-Grade) (6/500)] [First-Tier Invisibility Talisman: 1/100 (Beginner)] [First-Tier Qi-Concealing Talisman: 2/100 (Beginner)]
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