For the next three days, Lin Shisan and the others did no work.
Their quarters were fairly spacious, inside a cave in the rear mountain.
Only a wall separated them from the azure spirit fruit the languid beauty had mentioned.
The reason given was as insulting as ever: if they stayed in the orchard, they might dirty the Heartless Azure Spirit Fruit.
As for food, there was practically none.
On the first day, the languid beauty had handed each of them three Grain-Repelling Pills in the hall.
She dressed it up nicely, saying cultivators should not taint themselves with the aura of the mortal world and should avoid eating, drinking, and relieving themselves as much as possible.
But Lin Shisan and the others were only at the second or third level of Body Tempering. With just one Grain-Repelling Pill a day, their bellies were pressed flat against their backbones from hunger before half the day was out.
"Grrrr..."
Clutching his growling stomach, Lin Shisan finished the last apple in his Storage Ring.
"Nine Heavens True Dragon Art?"
Too hungry to sleep, Lin Shisan took the Nine Heavens True Dragon Art out of his Storage Ring as well.
For safety's sake, he had not brought the Little Black Cauldron.
Jade Maiden Peak belonged to the outer sect, where talented people abounded and cultivation levels reached the heavens. Who knew whether someone sharp-eyed might notice something?
Wealth was not something to flaunt.
If anyone discovered that the Little Black Cauldron was a divine artifact, the whole Tai Chi Hall-and perhaps the entire cultivation world-would boil over.
And as its half-owner, he would certainly be the first to be captured and sliced up for study.
"I'll practice some more."
"This time, I'll try a smaller piece of thunderwood."
Having made up his mind, Lin Shisan took a piece of thunderwood about a foot long from his ring.
Resigning himself to the shock, he circulated the true qi in his dantian, gathered it in his right hand, and gently touched the wood to absorb the power of its electric arcs.
"Bzzzz..."
As though injected with chicken blood, Lin Shisan sprang straight up.
The electric arcs turned into tiny points of light, traveling along his right hand into his body and burrowing into his eight extraordinary meridians.
The process was painful, but fortunately, he endured it.
Even after the thunderwood's last arc had been completely absorbed, Lin Shisan remained conscious. He had not been shocked senseless.
"I didn't pass out?"
He looked at the thunderwood, now blackened, then at his right hand, which had not curled into a chicken claw.
A pleased smile spread across Lin Shisan's face.
Looking inward, he found that the true qi in his dantian had not changed, but the dantian itself seemed to have taken on a slightly different color.
"Again."
Delighted, Lin Shisan took another piece of thunderwood from his ring.
It was roughly twice the size of the previous piece, and its electric arcs were thicker and more powerful.
"Bzzzz..."
Just as before, the moment his right hand touched the thunderwood, he shot into the air.
The difference was that this time, the electric arcs made him bare his teeth and grimace, with drool, snot, and tears all streaming out.
After absorbing the final wisp of electricity, he fell hard to the ground with a thud.
The back of his head struck the ground squarely.
Despite the intense pain and the smell of blood, Lin Shisan remained conscious.
His body, however, was numb and rigid.
Only when the sun rose in the east on the fourth morning did he feel his growling stomach again.
Sensation returned to his limbs as well.
"Assemble at the orchard entrance."
A piercing screech that seemed to penetrate the soul rang out, stabbing painfully into his brain.
Lin Shisan hurriedly put his things into his ring, roused the other five servants, and raced toward the orchard entrance.
The languid beauty had not come.
Instead, it was the young fairy who kept the cat.
Cradled in her arms was none other than the cleanliness-obsessed Little Tabby Cat.
What rankled was that both Little Tabby Cat and the fairy had umbrellas, while the six servants stood soaking in the rain.
Lightning still flashed and thunder rumbled overhead.
"Stay alert. You must wait until the lightning shakes the azure spirit fruit loose before catching it."
"Do not touch the azure spirit fruit. Contaminating it means stealing Little Tabby Cat's food, and that will make the cat very angry."
"Meow..."
As if to back up the fairy's words, Little Tabby Cat meowed from her arms.
The cat bared its teeth as though ready to devour someone.
Frightened, Lin Shisan and the other five could not help stepping back.
So they were not supposed to touch the fruit with their hands at all. They had to wait for the lightning to shake it loose, then catch it with a vessel.
"Hand these out."
The fairy gave Lin Shisan six small white bottles.
They looked much like the bottles of Body Tempering Liquid in his ring, but they felt heavy in his hands.
By his rough estimate, each weighed at least fifty jin.
Six bottles weighed three hundred jin. Lin Shisan nearly toppled over.
"...Rumble, boom!"
The sea of lightning overhead drew closer and closer.
Bolts as thick as an arm writhed like roaming dragons, weaving and twisting through the sky.
At the fairy's command, Lin Shisan and the other five raced toward their assigned fruit trees.
"Crack..."
The six had barely taken their positions when the lightning dragons in the sky struck down.
The azure spirit fruit trees crackled again and again.
The Heartless Azure Spirit Fruit on their branches shook violently.
Like frightened children, they trembled and whimpered, one after another.
He could see them more clearly now. They were about the size of a child's fist.
Rather than being round like ordinary fruit, they were somewhat square.
Looking closely, he saw sizzling fluctuations of energy around every azure spirit fruit.
Lin Shisan recognized it at first glance: an electric current similar to the arcs in thunderwood.
So here on this snowy mountain, on Jade Maiden Peak, the first plants he encountered contained electricity.
Heaven really was smiling on him.
"...Bzzzt."
On the azure spirit fruit tree assigned to the servant one position over from Lin Shisan, a fruit swayed from side to side, about to be shaken loose.
But the bolt seemed to do it deliberately: it split in two above the tree, and one branch curved toward that servant.
"Useless fool! If you don't want to die, go back!"
The fairy holding Little Tabby Cat flew into a humiliated rage.
Seeing the lightning strike down, the Servant Disciple who had been about to harvest the fruit instinctively turned and ran.
He even flung away the white bottle in his hand.
"...Whoosh."
Lin Shisan saw everything clearly.
He spun where he stood, skimming close to the ground, and caught the white bottle by a hair's breadth.
Just then, the swaying azure spirit fruit shook loose and, by a perfect coincidence, dropped into the white bottle.
He had caught it.
"...Bang."
"...Li Qingfeng, catch the bottle!"
Lin Shisan hurriedly took the white bot-
-tle and tossed it to the fleeing servant.
Before he could steady his footing, the second branch of the split lightning bolt struck toward him.
It was aimed straight at Lin Shisan's head.
"Pfft..."
The deflected lightning blasted a crack into the ground beneath Lin Shisan's feet.
"Senior Brother Lin, your azure spirit fruit..."
Li Qingfeng did not need to remind him.
Lin Shisan had already seen a Heartless Azure Spirit Fruit shaken loose by the lightning from the second tree under his care.
"Crack, crack..."
Lightning danced like dragons.
Lin Shisan planted both hands on the ground and kicked off hard with both feet.
Like a little skiff, he slipped through the roaming lightning dragons and raised the small white bottle in his hand, catching the fruit squarely.
"...Bang."
"...Senior Brother Lin!"
Amid Li Qingfeng's startled cry, another bolt of lightning struck toward Lin Shisan.
Although he evaded most of it, his right hand was still hit by the chaotic electrical currents.
A tingling numbness came with the smell of scorching cloth. The sleeve on Lin Shisan's right arm caught fire.
At the same time, both his hands twitched into chicken claws. He swayed three or four times, but managed not to fall.
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