Unease weighed on Xu Xuan's heart. Once he returned to Green Luo, he prepared to enter seclusion and break through, leaving Wen Si'an to oversee the sect's affairs for the time being.
First, he needed to perform a preliminary refinement of the [Mystic Prayer Thunderwood].
He summoned the spirit wood and heard a faint rumble of thunder. Charred black as coal, it gave off a lingering aura of death when touched, along with barely audible sounds of sorrow and resentment.
This spirit wood had originally been a wood spirit, already possessed of awareness and intelligence. Had it cultivated for another hundred years and survived its lightning tribulation, it would have become a spirit creature. Instead, someone had harvested it prematurely. No wonder it harbored resentment.
Spirits of the five elements fell outside the five categories of living creatures, suffering Heaven's jealousy and calamities at human hands.
Xu Xuan had also heard of traditions that cultivated this path. In Heavenwater Commandery to the north stood Tip-Feng Mountain, which practiced some tradition called [Hidden Metal]. Twelve Golden Men guarded its gates, all with cultivation at the Foundation Establishment Late Stage. It truly was a great immortal sect.
He refined the [Mystic Prayer Thunderwood] with his magical power, shrinking it steadily until it was only the size of a finger, translucent as jade and flickering with lightning. Only then did its thread of vitality emerge, leaving Xu Xuan refreshed from head to toe, his spiritual seat clear.
He drew it into his qi sea and linked his consciousness to it. Ordinary cultivators mostly used Dao fire to refine their life-bound items, but Xu Xuan dared not do so.
Thunder essence coiled around the [Mystic Prayer Thunderwood]. Refining it with fire would pit incompatible natures against each other, and their clash might cause it to explode inside his qi sea. For now, he could only slowly suffuse it with his own primal essence and shave away the lingering resentment with sword qi. Progress was slow.
Just as Xu Xuan braced himself for an arduous refinement, a change arose in the seal-script inscription above his spiritual seat. The Dark Flood Dragon moved through the sword clouds and let out a roar. The spirit wood shuddered, its remaining trace of sentience vanished at once, and it offered no further resistance to Xu Xuan's refinement.
After a short while, the [Mystic Prayer Thunderwood] finally withdrew its radiance. It even sprouted fresh shoots and took root within Xu Xuan's qi sea.
"It worked."
Xu Xuan quietly sensed the changes in his qi sea. The spirit wood had two uses. First, it could suffuse his magical body with thunder essence, making it more attuned to lightning. Both the speed and power of the secret techniques he used from the Thunder Radiance Spirit-Inquiry Method had increased by twenty percent. Second, it contained a strand of pure vitality that could heal him if he suffered grievous wounds and his life hung in the balance. However, doing so would severely damage the spirit wood, so it could only be used once.
Few people refined items as he did before reaching the Sixth Layer of Qi Refining. After obtaining their [Life Foundation], their qi seas would develop all manner of wondrous properties, making item refinement much easier. Why expend such painstaking effort at the fifth level?
Xu Xuan had little choice. How could the [Life Foundations] sought through the sect's other cultivation methods compare to his in sheer tyranny?
Senior Brother Xi Wei cultivated the third-grade Fire-Crossing Unhindered Art, which allowed him to control fire at will. During Qi Refining, it required a strand of [Fire-Crossing Qi]. Producing that fire required years of Artifact Refining, melting metal and stone, and burning away copper and iron. Only after seven years could one obtain a single wisp. To seek his [Life Foundation], he then needed to scorch his qi sea with fire, opening a furnace and bringing forth flame.
Qiyun cultivated this same method, but he could simply obtain the qi required for Qi Refining from the [Scenery Sun Great Furnace].
Si'an was now at the third level of Qi Refining. She cultivated the third-grade Shangyang Rain-Listening Method, which belonged to the path of [Gui Water] and excelled at summoning clouds and rain, nourishing spiritual vitality and moistening qi. Only through this had Longbright's spirit fields begun to show improvement.
Qi Refining with this method required a strand of [Rain-Listening Nether Qi]. One had to raise a rain sparrow that danced upon hearing the rain, and only after ten years would this qi arise. Seeking its [Life Foundation] merely required following the season of rain, turning qi into clouds, and successfully bringing rain within the qi sea.
Only he, Xu Xuan, had to get struck by lightning to seek a [Life Foundation]!
Still, seeking a [Life Foundation] through the temple's Heavenly Fire Eternal Radiance Scripture seemed to involve being tempered by fire. Thinking of it that way, Liu Xiaowen would probably have a hard time when his turn came as well. Xu Xuan sighed. Master and disciple alike had inherited the same legacy of calamity and suffering.
After leaving the True Abode Hall, Xu Xuan headed to Cloud-Sweeping Peak.
Wang Xiwei was repeatedly hammering a small jade-green sword with his Red Jade Mallet. A mid-grade Qi Refining artifact, it gleamed translucently, with a cool current of qi flowing through it. It appeared to belong to the path of water virtue.
"Senior Brother Xi Wei, who are you making that sword for?"
Xu Xuan was rather curious.
"Junior Brother, how did you refine the spirit wood so quickly? Is everything all right?"
Seeing Xu Xuan emerge from seclusion so soon, Wang Xiwei's eyelid twitched. He assumed the refinement had failed.
Xu Xuan smiled faintly and summoned the [Mystic Prayer Thunderwood] from his qi sea. It had now taken root and sprouted, with lightning forming its branches and trunk. It was quite extraordinary.
"It worked!"
Wang Xiwei was somewhat surprised, but simply attributed the speed to Xu Xuan's affinity with the lightning path.
"Junior Sister Si'an asked me to forge this magical sword. She said she'd spent these past years tied to the fields and neglected combat, so she wanted to learn some swordsmanship. She gave me the materials and asked me to make it for her."
Xu Xuan drew closer and examined the small jade-green sword carefully. Its main material was Qi Refining-grade [Heavenly Rain Jade], and its blade contained a [Light-Bearing Water Talisman], granting it the wondrous ability to divide light and fix images, attune to water and summon rain. Though a fine weapon, it still fell well short of Xu Xuan's [Cinnabar Thunder].
"Junior Sister Si'an took that third-grade [Congming One-Qi Sword Art] from the scripture pavilion. If you have the time, go give her a few pointers."
Wang Xiwei sighed, raised the small jade-green sword in his hand, and examined it against the sunlight before speaking softly.
"You're quick-witted and considerate in handling matters. Naturally, I feel at ease with you as sect leader. But how would those immortal sects with established legacies ever let their own gifted cultivators waste themselves on mundane affairs like these?"
"They'd surely put everyone's talents to proper use. Those suited to fighting would fight, those suited to breakthroughs would pursue them, and those suited to managing affairs would do that. Yet now you have to shoulder it all alone. I only know Artifact Refining and can't help much. These years of toil have made you look almost as old as I am."
The burly man's iron-tower frame stooped slightly as he continued in a low voice.
"Junior Sister Si'an is stubborn to the bone. After Master passed away, she was heartbroken, yet she never shed a single tear. She simply went to Longbright and worked day and night, neither crying nor smiling. Her whole disposition changed."
"I'm old, and my cultivation has stalled. The sect's future still rests on you and the next generation."
"You and Si'an should support each other. Talk more, ask how the other is doing. Otherwise, Green Luo is so vast, and without someone to talk to, doesn't it feel lonely?"
Xu Xuan did not know how to answer. He only settled the arrangements with Wang Xiwei for seeking his [Life Foundation] in three days.
Once the curly-bearded man finished refining the artifact, he asked Xu Xuan to deliver it to Longbright.
Xu Xuan had intended to send Liu Xiao Wen on the errand, only to find that Wang Xiwei had already sent Qiyun and Xiao Wen to White Stone to survey the mineral veins. He had no choice but to go himself.
He took the magical sword, mounted a red cloud, and headed straight for Longbright.
Order had already been restored to the spirit fields. Spirit herbs swayed gently in the breeze, sending out wafts of delicate fragrance.
Not wanting to make a conspicuous entrance, Xu Xuan concealed himself and circled once overhead. At last, he spotted Wen Si'an beside a spirit field among the hills.
She wore plain blue cloth garments, with a white jade hairpin in her cloudlike hair. Xu Xuan thought for a moment. He seemed to have given it to her when she broke through to Qi Refining, yet she had never worn it on any of his usual visits.
"Si'an."
The voice fell straight from the sky, settling into the soft earth of the spirit field and onto the Pure-Origin Peonies in full bloom. Wen Si'an stopped tending the earth veins and summoning clouds and rain.
The voice felt warm and familiar to her, reminding her of the days she had once spent cultivating in Green Luo.
"Senior Brother."
Wen Si'an looked up into the daylight, making her expression difficult to discern.
(End of chapter)
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