Crystals and a Beloved Disciple

Crackle, crackle...

In a shady spot, a pile of firewood burned with a faint crackle. A row of meat skewers roasted over it, filling the air with a rich, charred aroma.

Lin Sui sat on a rock, watching Su Fuxi with considerable surprise. She seemed untouched by the mundane world, yet she turned the skewers with calm, practiced ease.

"Don't just sit there. They won't taste good once they're cold." Su Fuxi handed Lin Sui a skewer that looked and smelled as good as it tasted.

When he only stared at her blankly, she raised an eyebrow:

"Don't look at me. Is it not good? Could it be that my roasting skills aren't up to par?"

"No, no, no! It's not that... Um, Master, aren't you eating?"

"I've abstained from food for many years. I don't need to eat these things."

"Oh." Lin Sui lowered his head and took a bite. The meat was a mix of fat and lean, roasted to perfection, and tasted delicious. He wondered where she had found the spices.

He also thought that she truly was untouched by the mundane world, yet she was quite skilled at such trivial matters.

A breeze rustled the leaves, and the air was fresh and cool. Beneath the trees, master and disciple enjoyed a rare moment of peace.

Seeing him eat so heartily, his face full of enjoyment, Su Fuxi couldn't help feeling a little pleased that her cooking skills were still as good as ever.

Now she also found a bit of pleasure in feeding a little pet, so she unhurriedly roasted a few more skewers. Only after the little brat had eaten his fill did she cast the Water Ball Technique to put out the fire.

"Since you don't need to rest, I'll teach you to refine Slaughter Qi. Come on, release your Slaughter Qi."

Lin Sui had yet to open his sea of consciousness, so he could only contain and conceal the Slaughter Qi in his middle dantian.

With his current abilities, he could contain at most seven strands. Any more, and he would lose control of them, causing them to disperse.

He obediently released all his Slaughter Qi.

A chilly aura appeared at once, lowering the temperature around them a little.

Seven vortices circled his body. One of them might have absorbed the killing intent from the Wolf King, as its color was darker.

"Watch carefully. Restrain it with spiritual power..." Su Fuxi raised a hand and formed a seal. Her formidable spiritual power poured out, enveloping a gray vortex and slowly eroding it.

"Slowly refine the Slaughter Qi into... a Slaughter Crystal."

Sure enough, her pink light gradually refined the gray vortex, compressing it smaller and smaller. At last, spiritual light flashed, and the vortex shrank into a gray crystal the size of a grain of millet.

It fell into her palm. "This is a Slaughter Crystal. They were all produced by ordinary wolves, so they're rather tiny. Once you've gathered enough crystals, you can make a Soul of Slaughter puppet. But for ones this small, I'm afraid you'd need over a thousand."

"You can try refining a strand of Slaughter Qi and see how long it takes."

Su Fuxi returned the crystal to him. "Once you reach Foundation Establishment, you'll be able to contain Slaughter Qi directly in your sea of consciousness."

Lin Sui thought the God-Slaying Finger was very useful, and the Soul of Slaughter sounded like a puppet formed from condensed killing intent. He tried refining a vortex himself.

But he discovered that while Su Fuxi had done it effortlessly, refining one in just three breaths, he took a full quarter of an hour to refine one!

He understood the gulf between cultivators' realms. Glancing at Su Fuxi, he thought it was no wonder everyone in the Azure Cloud Sect knew she had failed to form her Nascent Soul, yet still dared not look down on her.

More than an hour later, Lin Sui had refined all the slaughter vortices into crystals and put them in his storage pouch.

At the same time, he received a newly inscribed jade slip from Su Fuxi. "This contains all the techniques I've practiced. If any interest you, give them a try."

They were all basic techniques she had taken pains to collect over the years.

Back when she first began cultivating, Su Fuxi had discovered that the supposedly commonplace cultivation techniques simply didn't circulate among rogue cultivators or in the Tianshui Kingdom!

As for advanced methods like the Five Elements Escape Technique, she could forget about them altogether!

Aside from techniques obtained by killing people, Su Fuxi had exchanged resources and spirit stones for almost all of them at the scripture library over the years.

For example, entry-level five-element arts like the Fireball Technique were only available to core disciples of the inner sect.

She had obtained them by trading with others and only practiced them after forming her core... As for internal cultivation methods, core disciples of the Azure Cloud Sect naturally practiced the inherited Azure Cloud Scripture.

Su Fuxi, on the other hand, had started with the low-level Like a Dream Scripture, which she had paid a large sum of spirit stones to have copied. Even then, it was only a fragment.

As she saw it now, the Like a Dream Scripture was crude and riddled with errors and omissions.

But to Su Fuxi, who had only just entered Qi Refinement at the time, it was the best technique she could obtain with ten years of savings.

Only after breaking through to Foundation Establishment did she have the chance to enter the inner sect and practice the Azure Cloud Scripture. The technique required the Foundation Establishment Stage, so naturally there was no hurry for Lin Sui to learn it now.

Lin Sui examined the jade slip and found dozens of basic techniques recorded inside, including object manipulation, wind travel, and fireballs.

The only escape technique was called Thousand-Li Earth Escape, which Su Fuxi had directly imprinted into his spiritual platform.

He was interested in all of them and planned to learn object manipulation first. He practiced on a small twig for quite a while, but perhaps because his mind was unsettled, he had little success.

"Let's go." Su Fuxi paid him no mind. Seeing that it was about time, she grabbed Lin Sui and headed for their next prey.

Unexpectedly, Lin Sui had improved rapidly after the morning's training. As soon as he approached the black bear, he killed it with a single stroke of his sword and took its blood.

They now needed to collect ordinary beast blood, and this bear was an ordinary wild beast.

Su Fuxi knew that, besides the Wolf King, the mountain range had only one other demonic beast: a giant python at the Qi Refining Fourth Layer, deep in the forest. It wasn't suitable to send Lin Sui to his death now.

Leaving the task of collecting beast blood to Lin Sui, she sat cross-legged on a boulder and cultivated.

Only at the end of dusk, after collecting enough essence blood, did the two return to Chongming Pavilion.

The courtyard behind it was already bathed in moonlight.

"Tired? Get in and soak. Once you're done tonight, get a good night's rest and cultivate again tomorrow."

Seeing Lin Sui secretly yawn, Su Fuxi knew he really was exhausted. She had no wish to be an uncaring elder.

She said, "Swallow this Body-Tempering Pill directly. It will help you absorb the medicinal bath. Taking a whole pill like this is your current limit. I'll pass the Body-Tempering Art on to you; cultivate it yourself."

The Body-Tempering Art required the Qi Refinement Third Layer to circulate, which was why she hadn't passed it on to him last time and had instead added the Body-Tempering Pill to the blood.

After Su Fuxi left the room, Lin Sui circulated the Body-Tempering Art. A sudden stabbing pain spread through his body, drawing an involuntary groan from him. The pain instantly drove away every trace of his exhausted drowsiness.

He had never expected that swallowing the Body-Tempering Pill directly, combined with the Body-Tempering Art and the addition of the Wolf King's essence blood, would multiply the blood bath's effects severalfold!

The more he practiced the formula, the more his body hurt.

"...Ugh." Clenching his teeth tightly, unwilling to make a sound, Lin Sui lost track of time. Only when the pain seemed to reach a steady level did his brow relax, caught between pain and joy.

He could feel the immense medicinal power refining his flesh, while even more spiritual qi gathered in his meridians.

At this rate, he would soon be able to advance!

After the blood grew paler, the steady pain suddenly intensified again. This time, Lin Sui felt unbearable pain rise from every limb and bone in his body. It hurt, tingled, and itched, as though countless tiny insects were gnawing at him.

His head was covered in sweat from the pain, and his consciousness drifted away. He could only keep the formula circulating through sheer stubborn will. Finally, dizzy and seeing stars, he could hold on no longer and passed out.

Su Fuxi, who was meditating outside the door, immediately opened her eyes. Listening closely, she found that the room had indeed fallen silent. Even the muffled groans of suppressed pain had stopped.

She flashed inside and saw that Lin Sui had fainted. The medicinal bath was pale pink; it still needed a little longer.

Su Fuxi frowned slightly and pressed a finger to his forehead, sending gentle spiritual power into him to guide its circulation and refine and absorb all the medicinal power.

Once the medicinal bath had turned into clear water and Lin Sui had finished cleansing his marrow, she ruthlessly lifted the naked youth and tossed him straight into a bucket of clean water nearby.

As before, she added soothing spirit herbs to nourish his newly tempered body.

She glanced at Lin Sui's youthful face, his eyes tightly closed. His skin was gradually regaining the fine complexion he had been born with, his blood and qi were abundant, and his cheeks were rosy.

Hmph, this boy truly has the makings of a cauldron!

Looking at Lin Sui, she felt as though she were looking at her future self.

For the sake of his body, she didn't mind treating him a little better, with the affection due a beloved disciple.

She hoped that when he learned the truth one day, his Dao heart wouldn't shatter, and that he would willingly sacrifice himself for his master!

Su Fuxi wrapped a soft cloth in spiritual power and washed Lin Sui clean. She lifted him out, wrapped him in a large bath towel, and carried him back to his room.

She did everything herself without relying on anyone else. She had said she would treat him like a beloved disciple, after all, and besides, wasn't this her future body?

Rather than do it herself, Su Fuxi was even less willing to have Wang Xiaohu touch him. Wouldn't it feel as though he were touching her?

It wouldn't be long now. At Lin Sui's cultivation speed, he would surely form his core within thirty years. By then-

I'll be the number one heavenly talent in Tianshui.

With that thought, she took one last look at Lin Sui sleeping soundly on the bed, then flashed back to her pavilion.