Sages fourth year in the Holy Fla Sect he turned twenty six years old in this second life as Lang Sheng. These four years combined with those on the road had pointed out the importance of Spirit Insect quality. They were just like the Spirit Plants in that no matter what he did to try and modify and mutate them the Spirit Plants power was highly reliant on the quality of their parents and the conditions of their growth. Weak Spirit Insects raised rely with Qi Feeding over a short tispan were of lowest level and quality. Even with the most impressive of modifications and aging they were still much weaker than the most powerful Spirit Insects after it just hatched.
Simply combining Spirit Insects with interesting physical features created useful helpers but their power was imnsely limited in comparison to the powerful Spirit Insect breeds that exist in the wilds. With lots of breeding and experintation, Sage realized the first real weakness of the Insect Immortal Index. Each ti he made a major modification to a Spirit Insect using the Mutate technique, they would nearly drop a level in strength. He would then have to mature pairs of them to higher ranks and then breed them together to gradually improve their bloodlines.
As such, he focused on raising the basic age and bloodlines of his Silverbees. He had three separate hives going, one in his body, one in his Beast Bag, and one in the Insect Shed. In addition he was raising a variety of spider, starting with the Green Spiders from the Erald Holly and then adding in any others he could find at the Central Plaza.
As the usual assistant of Alchemist Tang, Sage didnt have to work nearly as much anymore. He only had to work whenever Alchemist Tang wanted to make pills. He would gather all the materials and assist during the construction process. Alchemist Tang would usually work for a week or two non-stop forging pills and then go into seclusion to work on his cultivation for the span of a few months.
During one of these resting tis, Sage was purchasing Insect Rearing and taming manuals from the Million Skill Library. At this ti he was noticed by a large man wearing leather and furs instead of the Holy Fla Sect Disciple robes. The big male glanced down at the manuals in his hand and questioned gruffly, Whos that book for, Kid? You arent interested in Bug Taming are you?
Sage looked up at the hulking beast of a man who did not look like he belonged in the Holy Fla Sect, Its for , Senior. I know it is not popular among the Sect, but it is not outlawed, is it?
Laughing the big man suddenly smiled and clapped him on the back, Ahha, good kid! This one is Elder Wan Yuhan, a Beast Tar! Theres only a few Bug Tars over at the Taming Hall, but they could use a good assistant, co on over!
The big man left him soon after and Sage followed up on the offer. Not wanting to betray Alchemist Tang, Sage told them about being an Alchemists assistant already but the two current Bug Tars didnt mind. As Sage learned about the tasks assigned to him, he was pleased to find it was just like his current activities. The bugs could go for long periods with no supervision whatsoever and they would also benefit from intensive training and care. The sa applied to the many other Tars, Sage was free to work as much as he wanted helping to muck out monster stalls, carting around large amounts of food, and endless amounts of observation.
With no confidence in his own cultivation, Sage focused on his efforts on assisting Alchemist Tang and the many Tars of the Tar Hall. Beast Taming was quite interesting but he was far better with Bugs. Beast and Beast Taming Techniques relied largely upon the aura of the Tar. Many responded differently to killing intent, dominating gazes, or gentle deanors. Different arts could cultivate and strengthen these auras and drastically change a Tars talent. On the other hand, Bugs were less intelligent and cared more about pheromones and other sorts of ingrained behaviours that created a sort of hivemind. Sage had a far easier ti understanding these different sorts of patterns and responses than he did transforming his personality.
After a couple years as an Assistant Alchemist, Sage finally took the exam to beco an Apprentice. The exam was basically a test of knowledge on Spirit Plants and other materials used in alchemy. He had to show in-depth knowledge on hundreds of different materials along with showing skill with a number of basic refining processes. The many herbs, minerals and animal parts had to have juices extracted, dried and powdered, skinned and tanned, ground into powder or paste there was easily dozens of different ways to prepare the ingredients even without starting to use refining flas or qi techniques or formations to form pills.
As an Apprentice Alchemist, Sage no longer had to serve as an assistant to Alchemist Tang and could instead make contribution points using his processing skills. With the points he earned he would attempt to craft the most simple pills and it was then that he learned array formations were very important for not just Alchemists but every production occupation. Cursing his lack of general knowledge, Sage started to spend ti in a third hall.
Sage soon took the exam to beco an Apprentice Tar, focusing on Insects, and had a far easier ti passing the exam than he did for the Alchemist Exam. At the sa ti he had nearly given up on basic cultivation and beco an Assistant Formation Master. Wondering why hed even bothered to learn Alchemy, Sage realized he had imnse skill with formations. The more he studied, the more he realized the similarities to his old life. Array Formations were created using a library of special symbols that could manipulate energy in different ways. It was like a language of power, and when combined in specific ways an array would be ford. The tricky part was that arrays drew on the power of the world around them and so the specific conditions of a location were very influential on the power and effectiveness of an array.
The temperature, humidity, wind speed, ti of day, season of the year, closeness to different land features there was dozens of different things that a Formation Master had to keep track of to form the most powerful array. All these factors ca into play in designing a formation but from Sages point of view it reminded him of advanced mathematics. As he researched the many formation manuals he found that a single formation would take up a whole book simply listing the many permutations of the formation required for so many different situations.
It seems nobody has developed or applied high level algebra to formations in this world.
The years flew by, Sage beca an Apprentice Formation Master as well as an Apprentice Farr, Weaver and Blacksmith. Among the teachers that grew to know him, he beca sowhat of a sad story. Sage was known for his intelligence and spirit power, but it was truly a sha that his talent for cultivation seed to only go down over ti. As his cultivation seed to stall out, Sage was not strong enough to pass the tests and beco a regular mber of any profession. Most of the professions had rank 1 assistants, rank 2 apprentices, and at rank 3 a cultivator could take the test and beco a ranked mber of the profession.
Sage continued to practice his skills in the professions hed learned but he was limited by his cultivation rank. He had turned thirty this year and yet hed actually only rose two more stages. Rank 2, Stage 8. Even after he gained nearly 2 full stages hed have to accumulate power and break through to rank 3. Breaking through ranks was the most difficult part of cultivation and with the talent he had hed need to accumulate resources for quite so ti in order to help him to breakthrough.
With such dismal prospects, Sage simply learned new professions. He would spend two to three years becoming an Apprentice and then mastering the Apprentice skills of a profession before moving on the next. Surprisingly, he found that with foundational knowledge in formations and different materials each profession was faster to learn than the last. Each profession had a handful of basic techniques he had to learn but much of the basic knowledge and practice materials were actually already contained within his storage ring and was the main reason he could accomplish so much. Others had to work for years to afford the materials to experint and learn their professions.
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