Chapter 4

When Shan Heyuan returned, Shen Duheng had somehow sliced a huge chunk off the mountain beside the hot spring, burying the entire spring and the patch of land in front of it.

When Shen Duheng saw him return, he said, "Let's go."

Shan Heyuan nodded and followed him back, trudging over the mountain ridge, through the woods, and across the grass.

They were not as far from home as Shan Heyuan had imagined. The two of them arrived home the next morning.

After walking all night, Shan Heyuan did not feel particularly tired. He even had enough strength to make breakfast.

While they were eating, Shan Heyuan said to Shen Duheng, "I tried, but I still can't get the broken sword out of my Dantian."

Shen Duheng said, "We'll talk about it once you've reached Qi Refining Third Stage or higher."

Shan Heyuan said, "I was just worried you'd be anxious."

Shen Duheng said, "The broken sword is being nourished by Spiritual Qi. It won't absorb our vital Qi anymore."

Shan Heyuan was about to say something else when another knock came from outside the courtyard gate.

He stood up and was about to answer it when someone pushed the gate open and rushed in. "Junior Brother Shan, I heard from the villagers that you were back. Are you all right? Didn't we say before that you shouldn't rush things? Why did you go into the mountains anyway?"

It was Ma Rupei.

Before Shan Heyuan could speak, Ma Rupei had pushed open the living room door and walked in. He came face-to-face with Shen Duheng at the dining table, and his expression instantly turned strange. "And this is?"

Shen Duheng also looked quietly at Shan Heyuan.

"This, this is-" Shan Heyuan looked from one to the other and got stuck.

Chapter 4

Shan Heyuan invited Ma Rupei to sit down and brewed some tea.

By the time the tea was ready, he still had not figured out how to explain Shen Duheng's presence.

In some respects, he still lacked common knowledge about the cultivation world. He did not know how much he could say about Shen Duheng being a sword spirit without causing them trouble.

Shan Heyuan hesitated for a moment, then said to Ma Rupei, "This is Brother Shen, Shen Duheng."

He then said to Shen Duheng, "This is my senior brother, Senior Brother Ma Rupei, a disciple of the Supreme Harmony Sect."

Ma Rupei greeted Shen Duheng, who nodded in return. Neither pressed the other for details.

After the brief introduction, Shan Heyuan was about to ask Ma Rupei to stay for a meal.

Ma Rupei's attention suddenly settled on him. "Junior Brother Shan, you've gained cultivation?!"

Shan Heyuan said, "I've only just reached Qi Refining First Stage."

Ma Rupei said, "Qi Refining First Stage is still good! Congratulations, Junior Brother, your long-cherished wish has come true!"

Shan Heyuan said, "It's all thanks to Brother Shen's help."

Ma Rupei said, "Now that you have cultivation, remember to update your status when you register Fellow Daoist Shen in a couple of days."

Shan Heyuan quickly agreed.

Ma Rupei did not stay long. Once he had made sure Shan Heyuan was all right, he left.

Shan Heyuan wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand and felt that his back was a little damp with sweat too.

He returned to the dining table and sat down wearily.

Shen Duheng handed him a cup of water.

Shan Heyuan took it but did not drink. "I thought you'd give me a hint," he said.

Shen Duheng said, "Nothing could have gone wrong."

Shan Heyuan sighed. "That's not necessarily true. Forget it, let's get our stories straight. The next time someone asks, should I say you're the sword spirit of a broken sword I picked up in the wild?"

Shen Duheng said, "Yes."

Shan Heyuan said, "Then that's what I'll put down when I register you. Shall we go to the disciple center together tomorrow?"

Shen Duheng nodded.

Early the next morning, Shan Heyuan took Shen Duheng to the identity registration office at the disciple center to register him first.

After the disciple handling registration used a Spirit Artifact to confirm that Shen Duheng really was a sword spirit, he registered him.

Shen Duheng filled in his name, cultivation level, birthplace, and other details himself. The disciple did not ask any further questions.

Shan Heyuan watched from the side, wiping the sweat from his forehead.

If he had known it would be this simple, he would not have spent so long agonizing over it.

Having finished the registration, the disciple looked up and smiled at Shan Heyuan. "This fellow Daoist is registered now. Fellow Daoist Shan, do you need to update your status too?"

Shan Heyuan hurried forward and handed over his identity talisman. "Yes, I'm a cultivator now."

The disciple read his identity talisman. "Congratulations, Fellow Daoist Shan. Sorry for the trouble, but please come with me for a test."

With that, the disciple led Shan Heyuan toward the testing room.

Shen Duheng walked behind Shan Heyuan, intending to go with them.

But the disciple nodded to him and gestured for him to wait there.

Shen Duheng stopped and watched Shan Heyuan go to the testing room.

Noticing that Shan Heyuan was a little nervous, the disciple smiled and said, "Relax, Fellow Daoist Shan. Transmigrators generally have pretty good Spirit Root aptitude."

Shan Heyuan replied casually, "That may be, but my meridians were so badly blocked before. I don't know what my situation is like."

The disciple pushed open the door to the testing room, brought Shan Heyuan inside, and closed it behind them. He smiled and said, "No matter how serious it was before, you can cultivate now, can't you? Here we are. Fellow Daoist Shan, just put your hand on the testing Spirit Artifact."

Shan Heyuan placed his hand on it as instructed.

The white jade plate on the testing Spirit Artifact immediately lit up and changed color.

Shan Heyuan and the disciple looked at the white jade plate at the same time, and the disciple let out a soft "Huh?"

The white jade plate seemed to turn into a painter's palette. Red, purple, green, yellow, brown, and all sorts of other colors appeared on it, then mixed together into a dull, grayish jumble of color. Finally, they settled into a dirty grayish black, and the light was dim too, like soil.

Shan Heyuan had never taken a test before and did not know what the color meant, but it did not look promising.

His heart sank, and he looked up at the disciple.

The disciple said decisively, "Fellow Daoist Shan, take your hand off for now and we'll test it again. I'll ask the deacon martial uncle to come over."

The disciple hurriedly sent a message talisman, and soon a middle-aged-looking cultivator arrived with several disciples.

The moment the middle-aged cultivator saw Shan Heyuan, he said, "You're the fellow Daoist who fell through a rift in spacetime. You can cultivate now?"

Shan Heyuan nodded.

The disciple said, "Martial Uncle, there's something a little strange about Fellow Daoist Shan's Spirit Root test result. Please take a look."

Then the disciple turned to Shan Heyuan and said, "Fellow Daoist Shan, sorry for the trouble, but please take the test again."

Shan Heyuan placed his hand on the testing Spirit Artifact as requested and took the test again.

This time, everyone stared at the dull, grayish colors, letting out exclamations of surprise.

The middle-aged cultivator looked thoughtful. "This should be five Spirit Roots-"

The disciple could not help asking, "Martial Uncle, doesn't a test for five Spirit Roots show an image of five pillars?"

The middle-aged cultivator glanced at the disciple. "I haven't finished. These are five Spirit Roots, but they're special five Spirit Roots. All five have undergone slight mutations, so they contain every kind of Spirit Root, such as an ice Spirit Root and a lightning Spirit Root. They're exceptionally mixed and complex. For that reason, the records also call this type of five Spirit Roots a chaos Spirit Root."

Shan Heyuan said, "A chaos Spirit Root?"

The middle-aged cultivator said, "Exactly. A chaos Spirit Root is one in a hundred million. If the Spirit Root is of high quality, the Spiritual Qi used in the test will burst into a brilliant, multicolored radiance."

Shan Heyuan could not help glancing at the testing Spirit Artifact. Its dull, grayish appearance looked just like a rag that had been used for half a year; it had nothing whatsoever to do with radiance.

The middle-aged cultivator guessed what he was thinking and sighed. "What a pity. Fellow Daoist, although yours is a chaos Spirit Root, its quality is low-grade. I'm afraid cultivation will be rather difficult."

After determining Shan Heyuan's Spirit Root, the middle-aged cultivator did not stay long. He soon left with the disciples under him.

Once Shan Heyuan had updated his identity talisman, his expression was wooden. He had yet to recover.

The disciple who had helped with the procedures comforted him. "With your constitution, Fellow Daoist Shan, being able to cultivate at all is already remarkable. Perhaps a great fortuitous opportunity is still waiting for you down the road. There's no need to be discouraged."

Shan Heyuan nodded. "Thank you, fellow Daoist."

The disciple said, "You're welcome. Here, your identity talisman. Now that you can cultivate, Fellow Daoist Shan, your monthly allowance will increase by fifteen hundred spirit beads starting this month. Please count them."