Giving Gifts

When Shen Ge arrived at the sect's mission building, he glanced over the missions posted there. Aside from a few demon-slaying missions, most involved planting spirit medicines and spirit herbs, while some involved searching for artifact-refining materials.

Most offered fewer than ten contribution points, and none paid particularly well.

"Huh, here's a mission exclusively for someone with a Metal Spirit Root. You just have to go study at the Artifact Refining Hall, and you even get a hundred contribution points. That's a bit too..."

Shen Ge reconsidered before he could finish and decided it made perfect sense. After all, once the student mastered the craft, the sect would have gained another artifact refiner. Compared to that, a reward of a hundred contribution points was nothing much.

After a little thought, Shen Ge decided to start learning artifact refining sooner than planned. He had originally intended to wait until the Foundation Establishment Middle Stage, but starting now didn't seem likely to take up much of his cultivation time.

Having made up his mind, Shen Ge went to the counter and accepted the mission. It had a rather long time limit and was divided into stages, from first to fifth grade. The points awarded doubled with each promotion, which wasn't bad.

After accepting the mission, Shen Ge didn't go straight to the Artifact Refining Hall. Instead, he went to a trading building on another mountain peak, intending to stock up on spirit fruit, spirit wine, and the like.

After all, it was rather embarrassing to have nothing to offer visitors who came to his door.

Inside the building, Shen Ge looked around before heading straight to the spirit medicine section on the right. There were quite a few spirit medicines several hundred years old or more. Although most had been grown to maturity with Spirit Gathering Formations, their medicinal properties were no worse than those of naturally grown ones.

Shen Ge found a place selling spirit fruit, and after he had looked for a short while, the person tending it said, "Senior brother, we sell five kinds of spirit fruit here: deliciously sweet snow peaches, purple jade grapes with richly textured flesh, fresh and juicy green fruits, wine fruits that are like drinking strong liquor, and passion fruits with a peculiar flavor. The wine fruits cost one Spirit Stone each; the other four kinds are five for one Spirit Stone. How many would you like, senior brother?"

Shen Ge glanced at the spirit fruits. They all looked fairly tender and juicy, so he took out two hundred Spirit Stones. "Give me a hundred of each, and split each kind evenly between two containers."

"Right away, senior brother. Please wait a moment." The disciple tending the stall put away the Spirit Stones and quickly set to work. Before long, several filled fruit baskets stood before Shen Ge.

"Senior brother, these can be left out for ten years, but when you're not using them, it's better to keep them in a Storage Bag. That way, they'll still be fresh and luscious even after several decades."

After leaving the stall, Shen Ge went to another counter nearby and bought some spirit wine, a little of both the good and the cheap varieties. He spent nearly three hundred Spirit Stones.

Spirit wine was many times more expensive than spirit fruit. Apart from Law Artifacts and pills, it was the most expensive thing around, even pricier than talismans.

Passing an exotic flower shop, Shen Ge picked out a white flower that looked cold and elegant yet gave off a delicate fragrance. He bought it for twenty Spirit Stones.

According to the shopkeeper, it was called a moonlight flower, and its fragrance could calm the mind. Placed in a cave abode, it could make a person feel less restless while cultivating.

Shen Ge didn't go straight home after leaving the trading building. Instead, he rode his flying sword to Su Liuyue's mountain peak. Only after confirming that she wasn't in seclusion did he call out from outside her cave, "Big sister, open the door! Your junior brother has something he'd like to ask you."

"Come in."

A cool voice answered, and the restriction at the cave entrance dissipated.

As soon as Shen Ge entered, he took out the things he had bought and began arranging them. "Big sister, the last time I came to see you, I noticed something was missing here. This table was so bare, it didn't look nice, so I took the liberty of buying some spirit flowers and fruit to set out for you. Oh, and this bottle of hundred-flower wine is for you too, big sister. It's sweet and carries the fragrance of a hundred flowers. You can try it when you have some spare time."

Shen Ge had started fussing with things the moment he entered. Su Liuyue couldn't help frowning, and her voice turned slightly cold. "Junior brother, have you lately been feeling that you have nothing to do now that you've broken through to Foundation Establishment?"

Shen Ge coughed a few times. "Big sister, it's not that I have nothing to do. Cultivation is a gradual process. No matter how impatient I am, I can't just leap to Golden Core and then to Nascent Soul all at once, can I? These things take time."

"Besides, I didn't get these things just because I had nothing better to do. A few senior brothers came to visit me a few days ago, and I didn't even have anything to offer them. It felt a little discourteous, so I went to get some things ready, to avoid being discourteous again next time."

"While I was buying them, I thought about how bare your place was, big sister, so I picked up a few things to brighten it up while I was at it. The road of cultivation is long, after all. Sometimes a change of mood is nice too."

"Are you finished?" Su Liuyue picked a purple jade grape from the fruit plate and put it in her mouth. "How many Spirit Stones did these things cost? I'll count them out for you."

Shen Ge hurriedly waved his hands. "There's no need. It was only a hundred and fifty-three Spirit Stones in all, not even enough to buy a decent Law Artifact. Besides, how could I ask you for Spirit Stones when I'm the one buying my senior sister a few little things? Anyone who didn't know better would think your junior brother couldn't even come up with that many Spirit Stones."

Su Liuyue rolled her eyes at him. "Yes, that many Spirit Stones. A hundred-odd Spirit Stones are merely 'that many' in your eyes, junior brother. It seems leaving you so many Spirit Stones before did you harm, to the point that you no longer know how hard they are to come by."

Shen Ge scratched his head awkwardly, his voice growing a little weaker. "Big sister, that's not the case. I'm not wealthy enough for that yet. But Spirit Stones are meant to be spent. Once they're gone, I can just earn more. I can't very well hoard them all like treasures, can I?"

"Besides, this wasn't wasteful spending. These things can't directly improve my cultivation, but they can help indirectly, so the Spirit Stones were well spent."

"All right, I won't pursue the matter." Su Liuyue flicked a finger, and a streak of light appeared before Shen Ge. "These are five Burst Talismans and three Golden Body Talismans. Take them and use them."

"When you have time, visit the training ground and the scripture repository more often, and do more sect missions too. Your cultivation won't increase in the short term, but you need to gain more combat experience and learn more Law Techniques. Otherwise, when you go out in the future, you'll only be able to overpower people with your realm."

Shen Ge nodded. "You're right, big sister. I was planning to do that anyway, but there's one more thing I'd like to ask you. Of the four arts of cultivation, which should I learn?"

"The four arts of cultivation? Don't even consider pill refining. Without a Wood Spirit Root, you can't refine pills. Once your cultivation is high enough, though, you can forcibly refine some basic pills with powerful cultivation."

"Your supreme-grade Metal Spirit Root is best suited to artifact refining. You can start by learning some basics, but it mustn't hold back your cultivation."

"As for formations and talismans, I wouldn't recommend studying formations now. The art of formations is far too complicated and would consume a great deal of your time and effort. At your current stage, the loss would outweigh the gain. You can learn the basics, though; there's no need to study it in depth for now."

"You can learn talismans. Of these arts, that's the simplest. Later on, you can either ask me about it or go study at the sect's Talisman Hall."

"All in all, artifact refining and talismans suit you best. But for now, there's no need to study either in depth. You should focus on cultivation first."