Four days after his transmigration, Han De reviewed what had happened so far.
The quest was over. Ning Bi had a cultivation scripture. Even his comprehension of his own cultivation thod was improved!
So far so good! He thought, while lazily laying on his bed. After nonstop action for the past four days, Han De believed he deserved a much-needed break!
Therefore, he spent the next week cooped up in his abode!
In the beginning, he was worried that this sudden change might look suspicious, since the cultivation idiot was both an arrogant young master, and an elder of the sect.
Upon discovering this issue, Han De seriously thought about going out and bullying random people! But when he took an in-depth look at the cultivation freaks mories, he beca instantly relaxed.
That guy could stay in closed-door seclusion for a year! Why would anyone suspect Han De for not going out for a month?
The first few days, he divided his ti between experinting with Qi control, and trying to learn one of the techniques he got from the archives.
Surprisingly, the creators of these cultivation thods had unique insights regarding natural phenona. But their secretive, and almost jealous nature, beca their Achilles heel. His familys Starfall Scripture, and the two light elent scriptures he learned, described the sa natural reaction in three different ways. Three different, nonsensically flowery ways!
The duplication of effort between these scriptures was simply astounding!
But Han De found out one silver lining to this! Learning similar cultivation thods seed to substantially reduce the Profound Point cost! Luminous Clouds, one of the thods he got from the archives, was extrely cheap compared to the Light Through a Single Thought, despite how similar both thods were.
'This is a blessing, but not exactly a good thing in my case. If the thods I choose for the Derive Cultivation thod Token are similar, wouldnt the new cultivation thod be similar to them as well?
I need cultivation thods with little to no overlap! But I cant figure out if they overlap without using the system because all of them are obnoxiously cryptic! Using so many Profound Points with no obvious gain is just a waste
In the end, Han De decided not to waste his points any further. He was already down to 3!
The results of his Qi training though, were well worth the ti spent!
Rather than repeating another sword flight incident, Han De treated his training seriously, and took the necessary precautions first!
For the location, he selected one of the far-away lakes inside his estate. Then, he strictly instructed his servants not to disturb him. Finally, he took a few defensive treasures from one of the armories. Not extra strong ones of course, because that would certainly arouse so suspicion. All thanks to the cultivation idiots tendencies.
These precautions turned out to be very appropriate! Because although Han De learned how to summon a small fire, cool down a cup of water, and cause a small breeze out of nowhere (mainly for posing), the collateral damage was rather disproportionate.
An entire lake was frozen, a grove was nearly all burnt down, and another grove was completely uprooted by hurricane-like winds!
At the Core Formation level, even basic spells could be dangerous!
And these basic spells didnt even use elental Qi! And Han Des roots were of the Light elent!
To a small degree, all cultivators could manipulate all elents. Their roots only determined how effective they were. Han De couldnt use Fire elent cultivation thods to cultivate Fire Qi, nor could he cast spells that required Wood Qi. But, given enough practice, he could summon a small fire for alchemy, or cause a seed to grow and bloom into a flower. He just couldnt use that flower seed to strangle dozens of people in an instant!
Though his Qi practice was successful, Han De decided not to practice the Heaven Defying Tyrannical Sword. He didnt want to add yet another chapter to his dark history so soon!
If he were to practice that thod, it had to be done far, far away from the sect!
Looks like a Core Formation cultivator really has a trendous amount of Qi. The cause of violent reactions during simple spells should be because I ended up using far more power than necessary! With no expertise in Qi control, if I tried that sword art now, it would definitely cause a commotion.
* * *
[Congratulations]
[Host's disciple Ning Bi successfully reached Qi Condensation Level 3]
[Issuing 25 Profound Points as a reward.]
[Congratulations]
[Host's disciple Ning Bi successfully reached Qi Condensation Level 4]
[Issuing 35 Profound Points as a reward.]
2 days later, Ning Bi reached the 3rd stage. 4 days after that, she reached the 4th.
Han De thought the girl would make a report, just like before. But Ning Bi kept cultivating nonstop! She didnt leave her room for a second, and chose to consu pills like a bottomless pit!
By that worlds standards, reaching the 4th stage in 7 days was unheard of. In fact, among the disciples accepted this year, she already had the highest cultivation!
Han De was baffled by her speed, but still felt happy, since he got a decent amount of points out of it!
Ning Bi cultivating nonstop also ant that Han De wouldnt have to worry about getting caught in the open! Han De decided this was an excellent opportunity to scout for Xianxia flour, and other spiritual ingredients he could use!
Aside from Ning Bis dumplings, he hadnt eaten anything since his arrival! And that was simply unacceptable!
Unfortunately, he did not know that Ning Bi explicitly chose to use normal ingredients when she made those dumplings. Thanks to her fathers stories, she knew not to use spiritual ingredients!
[White Wheat Flour]
[White flour made by only refining the wheat endosperm. Refining processed removed all of the spiritual Qi inside it.]
[Safe for consumption.]
'Wow, even a Xianxia world is biased toward whole-wheat bread huh'
After assembling the flour, Fire-Chicken eggs, and so questionable milk, Han De wanted to make so pancakes. But lacking baking powder or baking soda, ended up settling on French crepes instead.
Together with so strawberry-looking fruits that totally weren't strawberries according to the system, and so expensive-sounding spirit honey, he was finally able to have a relaxing and familiar al!
* * *
"What is that sll?"
"What s- WHAT?! How could a demon infiltrate our sect?!"
"Elder brother? What demon?!"
"Hey, stop exagge- !!!!"
The four servants on duty were waiting on Elder De's instructions as per usual. The peculiar sll produced a variety of reactions! The older pair had a stern look on their faces, while the younger ones only displayed curiosity and disgust.
"Heavens, I can't take this anymore, I need to get away."
"Hey, it isn't that bad, it kinda reminds of the tofu that old man Chen used to make."
"Shut it! The two of you have no idea, but I have been on many excursions before. This ever-changing but foul scent is a telltale of the plague-devouring demon."
The younger ones looked at each other. Was there such a thing?
"Listen to your elder brother. The oldest spoke with a low voice. Before anything, we need to make sure. We especially need to make sure that Elder De's cultivation isn't interrupted, otherwise we'll be the ones to pay!"
Nodding to each other, the four servants alerted the sect guards. This was beyond their pay grade, their elder brother had decided. The Core Formation stage guards quickly arrived; with only a whiff they could tell the gravity of the situation. They quickly patrolled the area with stiff faces, and it didnt take long to discover the slls origin.
The demon, was inside the mansion!
"So it is the young master, I see."
The guard captain was a prudent man. When he first heard of the situation, he had scoffed inside. 'Do you expect to believe a nether demon with a ford core could slip into the sect unnoticed?' He thought. After seeing that reporting servants belonged to the young master, however, he decided to take the safe approach and investigate personally!
"Nothing to worry about. The guard captain spoke confidently. Your master is probably experinting. If he was in trouble, the sect would've known. Carry on with your work."
As he left, the guard captain decided to report the issue to a Han faction elder, just in case. There was no room for error when it ca to the Han family's young master!
The four servants were left alone.
"Uuhh, should- should we contact Elder De?"
"Contact who, you want a beating? You heard the captain, Elder De is just experinting..."
"With a plague devouring demon?" The young boy asked unsurely.
The elder brother of the servants, the one that participated in many demon hunts was silent for a while.
"I might not look like it now, but years ago, before I got crippled and beca a servant, I went to a few demon hunts with Elder Yu, and heard him explain many things.
Although the scent is foul to the extre, it doesn't contain demonic Qi. The captain probably noticed imdiately it. Removing demonic Qi from a Core Formation demon is extrely difficult. And removing Nether Qi from the nether core, even more so! This noxious sll rapidly disappears quickly if the core was damaged in any way. In case of a plague-devouring demon, which lts as you cut it, the difficulty is even worse!
Stench without the Nether Qi is the sign of a perfect removal.
So keep your mouths shut if you know what's good for you. And make sure not to beco the source of a rumor!"
* * *
Since it was just so crepes, Han De wasn't concerned about other people finding out. Crepes were crepes after all, they were an easy affair to hide. However, he didn't realize the difference between normal ingredients that a mortal would use, and spiritual ingredients that a cultivator would use.
All spiritual ingredients had spiritual energy inside them. An immortal chef wasn't soone that just removed monster Qi and cooked a al from random ingredients. They would use their impressive Qi control to contain, harmonize, and combine Qi from different forms of Qi. It was not unlike Alchemy in a sense.
Through ticulous efforts, they would create dishes that had a divine taste and fragrance. Dishes made by proficient chefs would retain their taste and stay at the optimum temperature for a long ti. If the chef didn't have enough experience though, the stability of the fragrance, and the taste, would soon collapse.
Han De didn't know any of this. He didn't have precise asurents, in fact, he didn't have any asurents at all. 'Eeeh this feels right, but maybe a little more flour to make it thicker' was his approach. As he cooked and ate, everything was alright, he was the eye of the storm so to speak.
Just as he was finishing the cleanup operation, he finally noticed the stench. Along with the realization of how crepes after taste seed to keep changing. A mild panic ca at first, but Han De realized the changed flavor was quite familiar. He used to go to Chinatown every so often and had already developed a taste for fried stinky tofu.
Still, he find it odd that the aftertaste was still evolving.
In any case, he didnt want the kitchen to stink, so he used his small breeze spell to ventilate the area. Truly, his ti to master these Xianxia life skills was well spent!
Spiritual ingredients were extrely fragrant by nature. The scent, the stench, perated through the entire valley as Han De ventilated the kitchen.
Soon, Han Des servants and lackeys got the whiff of the ever-changing stench.
"Where is this foul stench coming from?!"
"Who dares to release such stench? If I don't beat you to death after finding you, I'll be your mother!"
anwhile, Ning Bi exited her first closed-door seclusion. After not eating anything but pills for a week, she was oddly hungry.
* * *
"A Plague-Devouring Demon?"
The man that listed to the report frowned. He deliberately pronounced every single word.
Although the person that was giving the report was a Nascent Soul cultivation elder, standing in front of this man, he was still susceptible to changes in the mans mood.
"Yes, Sect Master."
Sect master, who was now thinking with a blank face, looked rather similar to Han De. Or rather, Han De looked rather similar to him, being his son.
'What is this rascal doing with a plague-devouring demon? Any other demon is fine but to contain a plague-devouring demon is just an exercise in frustration, even for the experts. Did he find so fortuitous encounter and only now thought of displaying it?'
"How is it that there was no breach in containnt?"
It would be impossible to hide a breach, especially of this size.
"After I received the report, I went there myself with a few trusted Core Formation elders. Nether Qi was expertly removed. I suspect the demon itself was kept alive for about an hour after core extraction. There were also so peculiarities within its trace. I cannot be sure, but it might have been a mutant or a variant."
Han Wei, the sect master, creased his brows.
"That brat was always focused on his sword. He didn't have any side interests, not in spells, not in formations, and certainly not in alchemy. Why."
"As my duty, I have to remind the sect master that he reached mid-stage Core Formation rather quickly as well"
Han Wei didn't want to hear this old argunt, normally he would rebuke him, but today he didn't feel like it.
"What of his disciple?"
"No one has seen the girl since they visited the archives. I had the archive records looked at again. Although the girl didn't take a cultivation thod, I found that Elder De had taken five Light elent thods and one Fire elent scripture. The scripture itself was stored on the 7th floor, and it is called Blazing Fury."
Hearing the scripture's na, the sect master frowned again. Being a cultivator, he rembered the reason this scripture was shelved on the 7th floor, and how dangerous it was.
"Why haven't I heard of this before?"
"The person that had taken the scripture was Elder De himself. At first, we thought he didn't allow the girl to take a cultivation thod due to her still being in the Qi sensing stage. And Elder De's thoughts about the archive are well known. Only after we heard a rumor about Elder De taking out techniques, did we checked his records"
"What do you make of this?"
Elder Yu thought for a while before answering.
"Soone is influencing him, and the matter with Blazing Fury is serious. However, the disciple is still soone at the Qi sensing stage, so no action is necessary until she condenses the first Qi strand. Which might take a while considering her low talent."
Han Wei first faintly nodded, but then shook his head. "The girl's background is too clean. She shouldn't have made it into the sect, even as the last place. She shouldn't have been able to withstand Heaven Defying Tyrannical Sword's aura, she shouldn't have been selected by little De. Too many coincidences.
De himself shouldn't have gone to the archives in the first place. Five Light elent thods seem like a smokescreen for Blazing Sun, but the scripture itself seems to be a smokescreen for sothing else."
Elder Yu thought the sect master spoke the wrong na, but on second thought, perhaps it was him that didnt know the techniques true na in the first place.
"And now the plague-devouring demon" Han Wei felt uncomfortable. Han De was their only child. The entire family doted on him endlessly. This made the boy a bit presumptuous, but Han Wei didnt think that was a flaw in his character. Although Han De liked to attract attention to himself once in a while, he was always consistent.
"Invite him and his disciple to the reception tomorrow, keep it under wraps, and handle it well. Go."
Elder Yu didnt show the surprise on his face and imdiately started carrying out the sect masters orders.
Sect Master Han Wei always had a 'don't interfere' policy when it ca to his son. He wanted him to concentrate and increase his cultivation. And that was exactly what Han De was doing. In fact, perhaps he was doing it a bit much, but that was fine too. On the occasions that he didn't cultivate, he would stir up trouble, but even then, Han Wei wouldn't interfere with him.
Han Wei never, not once, called his son to an official sect event. If he wanted to co by himself, that was fine, if not, that was also fine.
Elder Yu knew Han Wei was a doting parent. He wasn't surprised when Han Wei put importance on the events surrounding his son. But he was surprised to see Han Wei becoming so concerned enough to actually changed his plans.
'His approach was bound to change when his son beca an elder, I guess.'
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