It was only that her temperament was peculiar; when the words reached her lips, they became mockery instead. "I never expected you to be such a loyal person."
Jiang Xuan shrugged at that, then spoke frankly. "You overpraise me, Senior. I'm not as noble as you think. A large part of why I'm staying is because Four Seasons Valley can devote its full efforts to nurturing me. If I went to the Evolving Immortal Sky Pool, I'd just be one ordinary disciple among thousands. They surely wouldn't pour all their resources into me, would they?"
Granny Blue rolled her eyes at him irritably. "Of course not. Even bringing you in would require this old woman to exhaust every bit of her influence—your Profound-Grade Mid-Tier Spirit Root is, in the end, a tremendous flaw. If you went there, you could only begin as an Inner Disciple, and a reserve one at that."
Those words confirmed for Jiang Xuan that staying in Four Seasons Valley was the right choice.
With the Career Panel system, his future was exceedingly bright. Even the most fundamental issue of cultivation arts would be something his future self could resolve.
He did not even need to trouble himself with plotting out other careers.
The Scripture Mystic Daoist lineage is closely tied to the Scripture Repository. In the game, the Scripture Repository was not merely a place for storing cultivation arts; it was also where arts were deduced, optimized, and raised in grade. Once this career reaches its later stages, raising the grade of cultivation arts will be as easy as turning my hand.
But the future was the future, and the present was the present.
Jiang Xuan understood clearly that, affected by his mediocre Spirit Root talent and the fact that low-level careers lacked sufficient power in their early stages, his most urgent task was to acquire cultivation resources, then use a mountain of them to swiftly pass through this frail developmental period.
In Four Seasons Valley, Jiang Xuan could obtain everything he wanted.
Take the Feast Ritual, for example. Though this Purple Precious Grade skill was powerful, it still required enough food to fully unleash its potential.
Within Four Seasons Valley, so long as he could swallow it, every meal could be spirit food. But at the Evolving Immortal Sky Pool, they might not treat him so generously.
Granny Blue could also understand Jiang Xuan's reasons for staying in Four Seasons Valley.
Still, although she could understand them, Jiang Xuan's willingness to state them openly revealed a forthright character that suited her quite well.
Moreover, Jiang Xuan could cast aside temptation and knew what he truly needed. His refusal to covet empty fame and his clear self-awareness made Granny Blue regard him even more highly. Because of this, she gave Jiang Xuan a promise:
"I'll reserve a place for you at the Evolving Immortal Sky Pool. Whenever you wish to go, come find me."
"And the Innate One-Qi Sword—you must cultivate it properly as well. Formed from Five-Organ Origin Qi, it is the densest and most fundamental vitality within the human body... When you have time, pay more attention to Spirit Trees related to the Five Elements."
Having left behind that promise, Granny Blue, her hair silver-white, turned and departed.
After she left, the atmosphere in the room remained somewhat strange.
"Thank you. Thank you for staying in Four Seasons Valley." Xia He was the first to speak. Her voice was clearly choked with emotion, tears shimmering in her eyes as she looked at Jiang Xuan, yet those eyes brimmed with absolute trust.
That scene instead made Jiang Xuan feel a little embarrassed.
"Ahem. I already said it—a large part of why I'm staying is for the resources. If you let me go hungry, I'll run away immediately."
"Pfft..." Xia He burst out laughing, and the trust and gratitude in her gaze toward Jiang Xuan did not diminish in the slightest.
Clearly, she did not believe that Jiang Xuan had stayed entirely for resources.
Beside them, Zhou Qing immediately patted his chest and guaranteed, "Junior Brother, don't worry about that. With me, Zhou Qing, here, you'll never go hungry."
After him, Meng Yingyue also gave Jiang Xuan a promise, her eyes glistening with moisture.
After some teasing, the atmosphere in the room finally improved somewhat. Seizing the opportunity, Jiang Xuan asked about Granny Blue.
"What is going on with that Senior? I always feel that she bears a deep grudge against the Four Seasons Reincarnation Art. Also, isn't she one of Four Seasons Valley's senior elders? How is she connected to the Evolving Immortal Sky Pool?"
"Granny Blue was originally a disciple of the Evolving Immortal Sky Pool..." As Xia He slowly explained, Jiang Xuan gradually came to understand the entire chain of events.
Over a century ago, she had been an Inner Disciple of the Evolving Immortal Sky Pool. The reason she remained in Four Seasons Valley was that she and the previous Valley Master of Four Seasons Valley had been Dao companions.
The reason she held such deep resentment toward the Four Seasons Reincarnation Art was that too many of her loved ones had died because of it.
The former Valley Master had successfully completed one full Four Seasons Cycle and survived the first Death Tribulation, but unlike Four Seasons Valley's founding patriarch, he had failed to transform the Spirit Seed within his body into a Divine Wood Seed.
Naturally, he could no longer contend with the Upper Branch.
Unwilling to accept this, he began a second Four Seasons Cycle.
Yet withered wood returning to spring was already an act of defying heaven. During the first cycle, one could still rely on a young cultivator's vigorous vitality and have a seventy-percent chance of success; but the second cycle was truly a path where nine died for every one who lived.
The previous Valley Master perished during that second Four Seasons Cycle.
Then came the Valley Master and Granny Blue's son. To inherit his father's legacy, he too set foot upon the path of the Four Seasons Cycle. He suffered an even worse fate, failing during his very first cycle.
However, before his death, he left behind a son and a daughter.
Then Granny Blue's eldest grandson also died because of it—though this was not because he had inherited his father's calling.
With her Dao companion dead and her son having met such a tragic end, Granny Blue had strictly forbidden her grandson and granddaughter from cultivating the Four Seasons Reincarnation Art.
Her granddaughter was fortunate. She possessed exceptional talent, and even without cultivating the Four Seasons Reincarnation Art, she still had a good path ahead of her.
But her eldest grandson was different. His talent was like Jiang Xuan's, merely Profound Grade, exceedingly mediocre within the Divine Firmament Sect—one could even call it poor.
Even with Granny Blue's wholehearted nurturing, he could not enter the Upper Peak. Getting into a Middle Peak was already extremely difficult.
If he had been someone without ambition, perhaps he could have muddled through life beneath Granny Blue's protection.
But once someone had witnessed the splendor of the Dao, who would willingly remain trapped in the mundane world for an entire lifetime? Not to mention that cultivation was intimately tied to the length of one's lifespan.
That man had some ambition, but his mediocre talent prevented him from soaring. Under those circumstances, he set his sights on Four Seasons Valley's Four Seasons Reincarnation Art, hoping to transform and ascend through the Four Seasons Cycle. In the end, he too sank into eternally silent darkness amid Endless Winter.
"..."
After hearing everything, Jiang Xuan understood why Granny Blue held such a deep grievance against the Four Seasons Reincarnation Art.
After being ground down like that, he too would have harbored resentment toward this cultivation art.
Listening to Granny Blue's story did not take much of Jiang Xuan's time. Soon, supported by Xia He, he stood up and performed the Feast Ritual before devouring the vegetables, melons, and fruits Meng Yingyue and Zhou Qing had brought.
What left Jiang Xuan unsure whether to laugh or cry was that, in order to prevent the cold within his body from dissipating, all the food they had brought him possessed yin-cold properties.
The fruits Zhou Qing brought included Ice Spirit Fruit, Ghost-Face Spirit Mushroom, and Profound Frost Grapes.
The Spirit Rice Meng Yingyue brought was primarily Blood Crystal Rice. This Spirit Rice, nourished by Killing Intent, was exceptionally capable of provoking murderous impulses. If ordinary people ate too much of it, Killing Intent would rush to their heads, making them violent and irritable.
For ordinary cultivators, this rice had certain side effects. But for Jiang Xuan, who cultivated Winter Solstice, that biting Killing Intent was precisely what he needed most—he needed to fuse Killing Intent with winter's icy intent, so that before his sword even left its sheath, his enemies would feel endless murderous intent and the deathly intent of winter.
The only trouble Jiang Xuan felt was that after finishing all that yin-attributed food, his already chilly body grew several degrees colder, until even his fingertips carried a frost-white hue.
Fortunately, after leaving the icy lake, Jiang Xuan's Spell Power could barely begin to circulate again.
Seeing this, after greeting Xia He and the others, Jiang Xuan closed his eyes and seized the time to comprehend the Winter Cold.
As for cultivation itself, because of Cosmic Cycle Circulation, he did not need to concern himself with it at all.
"Whew..."
Thus, as Jiang Xuan closed his eyes, all his mind and spirit sank into comprehending the intent of icy winter.
While Jiang Xuan cultivated with full concentration, Di Chuan was gritting his teeth and holding on bitterly in the depths of Winter Valley's icy lake.
Jiang Xuan's progress today had greatly provoked him. Refusing to admit defeat, he too was cultivating with all his strength.
"I won't lose to anyone!"
Elsewhere, within the core hall of Summer Valley.
Wu Shan stood before his master—Yan Shouzhuo, the Valley Master of Summer Valley.
The old man's hair was likewise completely white, his face etched with the marks of time.
Yet after listening to Wu Shan's excited account, Yan Shouzhuo fell into contemplation rather than immediately setting off to meet Jiang Xuan.
This made Wu Shan anxious. "Master, I truly wasn't lying to you. Junior Brother Jiang Xuan is really powerful. His talent is vital to our Summer Valley..."
"I know." Before Wu Shan could finish, Yan Shouzhuo sighed, his tone filled with helplessness. "But precisely because his talent is too good, we cannot invite him over."
"With his outstanding comprehension, he will either learn the Four Seasons Reincarnation Art or leave Four Seasons Valley to cultivate in another Dao Branch."
The current situation was also a shared predicament among most lower-tier Dao Branches.
Because their core cultivation arts were not good enough, they lacked competitiveness and could not attract students with exceptional talent.
Without peerless geniuses, it was difficult for them to optimize their Dao Branch's cultivation arts and raise their grade.
This was practically a dead cycle.
A large part of why Jiang Xuan had come to Four Seasons Valley was because his Spirit Root talent had held him back... If his Spirit Root had been even a little better, then even if Xie Hanyan had clashed with the other person who brought him into the peak, no one else would have jeered along, much less driven him away.
"..." Having understood everything, Wu Shan fell silent as well, his expression somewhat dejected. "There's no way to invite him... I understand."
Just as he sighed and prepared to leave, Yan Shouzhuo suddenly stopped him. "Wait. Inviting Jiang Xuan to our Summer Valley may not work, but if he truly possesses the extraordinary talent you described, it is still necessary to build a good relationship with him."
"Our Summer Valley is, after all, part of Four Seasons Valley. Once he grows up in the future, if we ask him to help optimize our cultivation art, surely he won't refuse."
As he spoke of this, Yan Shouzhuo thought of Autumn Valley.
Within Four Seasons Valley, their lineage's Autumn Equilibrium Boundary Sword surpassed the other Dao Branches by a clear margin, whether in the power of its swordsmanship or the loftiness of its underlying intent. Calling it a mid-tier Dao Branch would not be an exaggeration.
The reason for this was that one of Autumn Valley's former Valley Masters had been intimate Dao companions with a peerless swordsman.
Yan Shouzhuo intended to follow that example and draw closer to Jiang Xuan.
Unfortunately, Summer Valley had no female disciple of note in this generation, so he could only think of another way.
"You, wait..." He had just begun to give an order when he looked at Wu Shan and shook his head. He understood his disciple's temperament too well, so he simply gave up on the idea. "Forget it. You needn't worry about anything else. If Jiang Xuan comes to you to cook in the future, just give it everything you have and do it with care."
"I have my own arrangements for the rest."
"Yes, Master!"