Heart-Severing Cold Syndrome

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Chapter 10: Heart-Severing Cold Syndrome

"That's impressive," Chen Qin said admiringly. "I remember you just started your second year of high school. Have you chosen your cultivation companion beast yet?"

"I have a few candidates, but I haven't settled on one," Chen Beiwu said.

The Azure Spirit Newt was only a fallback. If the rainbow-colored fortuitous encounter triggered successfully and led him to a cultivation companion beast with greater aptitude and more compatible attributes at the Spirit Beast Pavilion, Chen Beiwu certainly wouldn't pass it up.

"The companion beasts in the Spirit Beast Pavilion are gentle, and their quality is a cut above the spirit beasts sold on the market. I happen to have some information on water-type spirit beasts in Fallen Dragon Prefecture. You can use it as a reference." Chen Qin took a translucent jade slip from her handbag.

Chen Beiwu accepted it without making a fuss and thanked her.

"What are you thanking me for? We haven't seen each other for a little while, and now you're treating me like a stranger. You weren't this polite when you felt up my boobs!" Chen Qin shot him a surprised glance.

"Qin, that was CPR. I was trying to save your life," Chen Beiwu said helplessly.

Chen Qin smiled, lifted her chin, and thrust out her chest, deliberately teasing him. "I don't care. Just tell me whether you touched them."

Chen Beiwu instinctively glanced at the full, tempting fruit before him and shook his head slightly. "Qin, stop teasing me."

"All right, I won't give you a hard time." Chen Qin turned toward the fountain in the residential complex and got down to business. "Beiwu, have you ever listened to the Cleansing Spirit Tune?"

"No." Chen Beiwu shook his head.

Musicians used music as a medium, playing particular tunes to guide the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and grant cultivators various enhancements.

Among the hundred arts of cultivation, musicians weren't especially sought after. They couldn't compare with popular professions such as alchemists, talisman masters, or formation masters, but they still held a place of their own.

The Cleansing Spirit Tune was a musician's introductory piece. Anyone who could play it successfully from beginning to end qualified as a first-tier musician.

Passed down from ancient times, the Cleansing Spirit Tune contained a trace of the profound rhythms of heaven and earth within its melody. It could help mortal cultivators at the Qi Refining stage improve their cultivation and break through bottlenecks. Unfortunately, it only worked on the first hearing; listening again did nothing.

Besides that, the Cleansing Spirit Tune had another drawback: it depended heavily on comprehension.

For those with poor comprehension, its effects were extremely limited-not even as good as a first-tier, low-grade Spirit-Gathering Pill.

Conversely, those with strong comprehension could swiftly grasp the rhythms within the Cleansing Spirit Tune, greatly increasing the purity of their magical power. They could even glimpse a higher realm and break through their bottlenecks.

Precisely because of this, the Cleansing Spirit Tune had a nickname known to every cultivator: the [Genius Screening Tune]. Cultivators who advanced a minor realm while listening to it were hailed as geniuses.

Chen Beiwu had once wanted to test how much substance there was to the Immortal Seed Screening Tune, but its steep price had ultimately scared him off.

"Good, as long as you haven't heard it." Chen Qin breathed a sigh of relief, her gaze growing more serious as she looked at him. "A little advice: try not to listen to the Cleansing Spirit Tune until you reach the ninth level of Qi Refining."

Chen Beiwu froze briefly, but instead of asking why, he simply nodded.

The sight warmed Chen Qin's heart.

After a moment's hesitation, she rose onto her tiptoes and whispered into his ear, "I'll let you in on a secret. Listening to the Cleansing Spirit Tune after reaching the ninth level of Qi Refining can improve your chances of breaking through to Foundation Establishment."

The delicate fragrance curling around his nose and the warm breath against his ear made Chen Beiwu instinctively step back.

"Tch, why so shy? I'm not some man-eating tigress." With her hands behind her back, she walked away, her boots clicking crisply and pleasantly.

Watching Chen Qin's figure disappear into the distance, Chen Beiwu fell into a daze.

"What, you've been looking at her since you were little, and you still haven't had your fill?"

At those words, Chen Beiwu spun around. A muscular middle-aged man with dark, rough skin immediately came into view.

"Dad, when did you get here?" he asked in surprise.

"I was here the whole time. Neither of you seemed to have eyes for me, though."

Chen Dong spread his broad, thick palms and shrugged. "A wife three years older is a gold brick in your arms. If that's what you want, I won't object. You might have to talk your mother around, though."

"Qin and I are just friends." Chen Beiwu looked toward the lingering glow of the distant sunset. "You can say that in front of me, Dad, but don't go playing matchmaker in front of Mom."

After returning home with his father and finishing dinner, Chen Beiwu discovered that the spirit beast meat left drying in a ventilated spot for more than ten years had suddenly vanished.

Noticing where her son was looking, Huang Xiaoling began clearing the dishes from the table. "Go focus on your cultivation. You don't need to worry about things at home."

Realizing his parents had something to discuss, Chen Beiwu could only get up and return to the cultivation room.

Lying on the soft meditation cushion, he sighed.

Clearing the cold poison from his mother's body without leaving any lingering problems would require at least three Frostfall Pills-nine hundred low-grade spirit stones.

That was an enormous sum. Even emptying every last bit of the family's funds wouldn't cover it.

Even if selling their assets could just about scrape together enough, his mother would never agree, given her temperament.

But three years should be enough! Chen Beiwu lowered his gaze to his heart.

Different regions offered different rewards for the college entrance examinations.

In the relatively remote Far Sky County, successfully

gaining admission to the Seventy-Nine Upper Sect would earn a candidate a reward of one thousand low-grade spirit stones from the Immortal Alliance's Hall of Worldly Affairs. Students admitted to the Thirteen Immortal Sects would receive ten thousand low-grade spirit stones.

As for admission to the Five Great Grotto-Heavens, that was a dream beyond the reach of countless candidates.

The grotto-heaven reward publicly announced by the Immortal Alliance alone amounted to five hundred thousand low-grade spirit stones, not to mention the enormous sponsorships from local cultivation clans and businesses.

Forget little Far Sky County-even Fallen Dragon Prefecture, one administrative level higher, had yet to produce a single student who gained admission to a grotto-heaven. The difficulty was easy to imagine.

It was no exaggeration to say that students admitted to the Five Great Grotto-Heavens had effectively reserved a ticket to the Nascent Soul stage. That ticket was simply too hard to obtain; even Chen Beiwu wasn't completely confident.

But he didn't need to get into the Five Great Grotto-Heavens. As long as he entered a cultivation university at the level of the Thirteen Immortal Sects or higher, his family's troubles would unravel like bamboo beneath a blade.

In the kitchen on the first floor.

"How many spirit stones are we still short?" Chen Dong asked gravely.

Huang Xiaoling's hand clenched into a fist as she washed the dishes, then slowly relaxed. "We've sold everything we can. We're still five hundred low-grade spirit stones short."

Chen Dong's brows knitted tightly, and he rose to head outside.

"Where are you going?" Huang Xiaoling asked at once.

Chen Dong stopped. "To borrow some spirit stones."

Huang Xiaoling pressed her lips together, hesitation showing on her face. "You know what things are like for our neighbors. We won't be able to borrow more than a few spirit stones, and Beiwu needs spirit stones for cultivation too. Why don't I stop taking my medicine?"

"The pills only cost a few spirit stones. Don't do anything foolish!" Alarmed, Chen Dong immediately halted. "The tile factory has a kiln-firing job available lately. The pay is good. If I take it, we should just about have enough for the surgery."

"No, that's too dangerous," Huang Xiaoling blurted out.

Kiln-firing jobs at the Azure Radiance Tile Factory were anything but simple. Taking one was little different from trading one's body for spirit stones.

"Then tell me what we're supposed to do. I can't just stand here and watch you die." Chen Dong slammed his palm onto the table, his chest heaving.

"Everyone dies. It's only a question of sooner or later," Huang Xiaoling said, feigning calm. "Heart-Severing Cold Syndrome can only be cured completely by reaching Foundation Establishment. Even if the surgery succeeds, it'll only give me a few more years."

"You mean...?" Chen Dong's pupils contracted.

"Beiwu's aptitude far surpasses ours. Spending those five hundred spirit stones on him could open up a much broader future for him." She forced a smile.

(End of chapter)