She looked at the burlap sack that had been thrust into her hands.
At this point, Li Yingling was no fool.
How could she not know this was another sect's Medicine Field?
As a well-educated young lady from an aristocratic clan, stealing really tested the limits of her conscience!
Li Yingling was about to ask something.
But Chu Xingchen's gesture for silence startled her, and she shut her mouth again.
Chu Xingchen hurriedly whispered, "Keep it down. Don't wake our good brother sleeping in there! Go on, take whatever you see!"
The sack in her hands, the Spirit Plants inside, her master's urging!
At this moment, the arrow was already on the bowstring-she had no choice but to loose it!
Li Yingling gritted her teeth and carefully slipped through the large hole!
Didn't all the storybooks say the cultivation world was full of scheming and deceit?
Her becoming an immortal meant someone else couldn't!
Cultivation! This had to be how it worked!
Once inside the Spirit Field, the nervous Li Yingling didn't care what anything was. She grabbed the nearest Spirit Plant and yanked it out by the roots.
Whatever effects it might have, whether her technique was right or wrong, she stuffed everything into the sack.
Before she knew it, she was getting excited too, and began specifically pulling out whichever plants glowed brightest!
These things were like candles. She could take them back and use them as lamps!
Only after stuffing the entire sack to bursting did Li Yingling prepare to run back, still hungry for more.
Now it was Chu Xingchen's turn to gape. Good grief, this Spirit Field hadn't been very big to begin with.
It belonged to a small sect, after all.
He didn't dare pick a fight with any large sects at his current level.
She really hadn't held back at all-she'd nearly stripped a quarter of the field bare.
Li Yingling had just run out, her face brimming with excitement.
Perhaps she was too excited to keep her footsteps quiet, because the disciple dozing beside the Medicine Field woke with a start.
He opened his bleary eyes to discover a huge swath of herbs missing from the Medicine Field. In particular, several plants the sect master urgently needed had been uprooted, without even their roots left behind!
What kind of brainless thief even stole potency-restoring herbs?! Were they as impotent as the sect master?!
The guard disciple hurriedly roared while ringing the alarm bell:
"Thieves! Someone, get over here! Thieves!"
Li Yingling's heart instantly raced at full tilt.
Chu Xingchen reacted swiftly too. Grabbing Li Yingling's hand, he immediately used earth escape and fled.
Li Yingling faintly heard...
"Which goddamned thief stole the immortal herbs I finally managed to gather?! Furong! I've let you down!"
Chu Xingchen's earth escape was something the system had specifically given him for running away.
He also practiced it diligently, so it was lightning-fast.
When they emerged again, they were already somewhere unfamiliar.
With practiced ease, Chu Xingchen quickly laid a false trail to mislead their pursuers, then fled in the opposite direction with Li Yingling once more.
Chu Xingchen repeated this sequence at least eight times.
Only then did he cautiously burrow back to the ruined temple.
Taking the sack from the still-shaken Li Yingling, Chu Xingchen began sorting the Spirit Plants inside.
After identifying two of them, Chu Xingchen frowned.
Why did this girl bring back nothing but yang-boosting herbs?
Still rattled, Li Yingling asked, "M-Master, we won't get caught, will we?"
Chu Xingchen looked perfectly calm. "No. Your master already took precautions just now. We're safe as hell!"
She recalled Chu Xingchen's practiced movements and lightning-fast earth escape.
Then she looked at Chu Xingchen now, perfectly composed without the slightest hint of nerves.
He was clearly an old hand at this!
Li Yingling asked, "Master, do you do this often?"
"Not often. Back when my cultivation was low, people tended to make trouble for me while I traveled around the Black Tortoise Kingdom, so I practiced it along the way."
"But Master, your cultivation should be pretty high now, right? Why did we still run?"
"What else should I do? Kill everyone who comes after us?"
Chu Xingchen picked through the Spirit Plants, then said:
"Don't overthink it. I had a little run-in with that sect before. Pulling up a few of their herbs today settles the score."
Curious, Li Yingling asked, "What kind of run-in?"
Chu Xingchen sighed. "That sect master has a cultivation partner. She's pretty enough, but her character leaves something to be desired. Unfortunately, he's deeply in love with her."
"Later, she fell for your master's unparalleled bearing and tried to seduce me several times without success, but the sect master found out."
"I explained to him that I wasn't the only one she'd tried to seduce. His eldest disciple was having an affair with her too."
"But that only made him angrier. Then that old dog chased me for three days and three nights."
Hearing this, Li Yingling couldn't help laughing.
Chu Xingchen glanced at her but said nothing, merely finishing sorting the Spirit Plants.
Then he selected a few Spirit Herbs of suitable age, removed their roots, and tossed them straight into a nearby pot.
As for the other Spirit Plants he had no immediate use for, he kept them, putting them into his spatial ring.
Light the fire, add water, start cooking!
The system's beginner gift pack had included basic alchemy and artifact-refining techniques.
Unfortunately, one required an alchemy furnace, and the other required a forge.
However, after careful study, he had discovered that while artifact refining required a forge, alchemy didn't actually require a furnace.
A pot worked just as well, though the results were somewhat less effective.
And of course, the finished product wouldn't look as pretty as something made in a proper Refining Pill Furnace.
He held his breath, focused his mind, and began refining!
Sure enough, after reaching the Golden Core realm, controlling spiritual energy had become much easier.
The essences within the herbs were quickly extracted.
Before long, the pot of water had turned a vivid green.
Then he reduced it over high heat, preserving its medicinal potency.
An entire pot of water condensed into a droplet the size of a pill.
Chu Xingchen carefully wrapped the droplet in spiritual energy, then looked at Li Yingling and said:
"Open your mouth, my good disciple."
Li Yingling could only stare, dumbfounded.
Didn't everyone else refine solid pills? Why was hers liquid?
And this vividly green liquid pill looked like poison no matter how she looked at it.
How was she supposed to open her mouth for that?
Li Yingling asked timidly, "Master, are you sure this thing is edible?"
"If eating spirit-nurturing grass directly weren't so ineffective and didn't have side effects, I wouldn't even bother refining it for you," Chu Xingchen said irritably. "Hurry up and open your mouth. Once you've eaten it, go cultivate."
Hearing that, Li Yingling helplessly opened her mouth and swallowed the vividly green liquid pill.
As the liquid burst across her tongue, its overwhelmingly bitter taste twisted Li Yingling's face.
She nearly spat it back out.
But it was indeed effective. Spiritual energy began surging within her.
Li Yingling hurried back to her bed, immediately sat cross-legged, and began cultivating.
Chu Xingchen carefully checked Li Yingling's condition. After confirming there were no problems, he returned to his own bed and sat down.
Then he opened the system interface and examined it.
There were two beginner quests in total: one was to recruit a qualified disciple, and the other was for that disciple's cultivation to reach the Foundation Establishment Realm.
Once Li Yingling achieved Foundation Establishment, the second beginner quest would be complete too.
At that point, he would be rewarded with a divine ability manual.
He would also unlock the regular quests.
He could cry. Whose beginner quests took more than three years to complete?
Before you continue