Story 7 - To Kill Demonic Vines (3 ?)
Since we were in a slight ti crunch, Enduring Fla quickly planned out an ingredient list with .
The great thing about working with a big sect — all the plants I specified, the Peak Master added to the list.
Well, most of them.
He caught a few that I put in there just to see if I could get away with it. The glare he sent was, hands down, hilarious.
“One of my Elders, Fairy Grass Sprout, will manage all the teams on this mission from the sect. She’s readying all the ingredients as we speak, and she’ll send a portion of them to each of the teams before you leave.”
I nodded.
Now that we took care of that, it was ti to see a young old friend of mine. Soone who may have survived this mission in my past life.
I turned to Sword Saint Three Eyes Sun Blade. The old master looked expectant.
“I’ve heard good things about a sword cultivator nad Salamander. If he’s going, I’d like to be on his team.”
He blinked. “Sword Master Salamander? He’s leading the sword cultivators for one of the teams.”
It was strange hearing him be called Sword Master again instead of Sword Saint.
Actually, the author who wrote this fucked up universe had a love for titles. Regular cultivators had ones attached to their Daoist na, like ‘Fairy’ or ‘Immortal Zhenren.’ And starting from Golden Core, Sword cultivators (and the even rarer Spear cultivators) had nas that differed from others.
Basically, Golden Cores were given the title Sword Master; Nascent Souls were Sword Grandmasters; Immortal Bone Creation practitioners had the honor of being called Sword Saint; and if a cultivator was lucky enough to reach Immortal Ascension, they were given the mouthful title of Venerable Sword Immortal.
I had a theory that they had these cooler titles because the dumbass author had a hidden obsession for sword cultivators.
Or maybe it was because, since they relied on epiphanies to improve, reaching those stages was more difficult for Sword cultivators, so they deserved a more badass sounding title. Whatever. It was the original author who ca up with this shit. I just lived here.
Seriously though, epiphanies were hard as fuck to earn. In a thousand years, across my various practices, I’d only had around twenty.
They were like lightning strikes of inspiration that struck so close to the truth of the universe that the practitioner gained approval from the heavens. This approval significantly increased the practitioner’s cultivation or gave them inhuman insight into a path to immortality.
It helped that this world was like most Xianxia, where sword cultivators were so of the strongest people within their realm. Most of them could take on a senior with a cultivation one whole stage higher and survive. A few were so good they could kill those sa seniors.
This strength was the reason the sword remained my principal weapon until the day I died — even if I wasn’t technically a sword cultivator myself.
“Sword Master Salamander has been looking after my grand disciple, Clear Eyes Mad Tongue, who is going on this mission to gain experience.”
Oh, no… That naming sense was just awful. I hoped young Mad Tongue would earn a better Daoist na when he grew up.
I smiled at the Sword Saint. “I’ll be sure to look after your grand disciple while I’m there.”
“As long as you can keep the cultivators from my peak plague-free, I’ll be more than satisfied, Martial Aunt Lin. They’re there for your protection. Not the other way around.”
This was why I loved working with sword cultivators. They were the absolute best people to watch your back. “With around, even if the plague touches them, it won’t be for long.”
Enduring Fla cut in, “When will you have a finished recipe to hand over to my disciples?”
“Once I’ve confird its efficacy and patented it at the Alchemists’ Guild. It should be finished within a day. Two at most. The guild can spread it to more alchemists in the area than we can.” And it will prevent Violet from earning money from it. Muahahaha.
I also refused to make it free. After watching a few people I knew in my past-past life almost die from the bullshit the drug companies pulled with insulin — where they turned a necessary life-saving prescription into an opportunity to squeeze people dry — I had zero expectations that anyone outside of my sect would give the pills away to those who needed it. That was why, once I patented it at the guild, I would only set a high percentage of the net profit of each pill to go into my pocket. From my experience with alchemists, this would encourage them to give it away or sell it at cost just to spite .
Of course, there would still be a few alchemists who would hike up the price anyway, but they’d do that regardless.
I also didn’t worry about having too few alchemists creating these pills. The ingredients weren’t rare, but they were still limited. If fewer alchemists fought over them, that should help keep the prices lower.
Peak Master Enduring Fla nodded sagely.
***
Once we’d settled on a few more details (and after I handed the Sect Leader his package), they gave two hours to get my shit together and et Sword Master Salamander at a specific teleportation platform on Majestic Sword Peak.
I hurried back to the courtyard I shared with Little Spring and ran to where he diligently practiced with his blade. He sheathed the new basic sword I’d made for him using so of the Spiritual Silver I’d received from the Sect Leader. Honestly, I’d wanted to make a better one for him, but my realm was too small. I could only wait until I reached Foundation Establishnt to forge him the sword he deserved.
Actually, after we’d entered the sect, I’d made it a point to return the sword that was a keepsake from his mother — the one he’d given to his first wife after marriage in my past life. The kid had refused to take it back, saying that I could return it only when I had one that was better.
The adorable child was worried for my safety. After getting his sword broken in the tournant, he must have realized that a good quality sword could save my life.
Little Spring turned to with the biggest grin on his face and his eyes glowing with excitent.
“Sister Lin?! It finally finished!”
Huh?
Without explaining any further, he vanished.
The kid’s space finally completed its upgrade!
He hadn’t used an obfuscation array, but my divine sense hadn’t picked up any strange spatial fluctuations or hidden treasures being used.
Wait! I think the kid ntioned that part of this upgrade would include better security features or sothing. It made sense that a space like this would have a way to hide itself so the owner could use it as an ergency escape. I an, if other cultivators could notice it, then it would make for a pretty fucking useless escape route.
Originally, it might have been able to perfectly hide its owner from their enemies.
Knowing what I did of Xianxia and magical spaces, it was possible that it had long ago beco old and damaged. The spirit must have shrunk the area it covered and removed unnecessary features.
After the kid fed it several special items, it had repaired itself a little.
Little Spring likely had several more special items to go until it upgraded back up to full strength.
Since the kid had given access to his space, I went inside it, choosing to land right in between Fairy Lake and the cottage. Except that the cottage looked more like a small palace now.
It had red walls, intricate gold trimming, and a beautifully curved hip-and-gable roof.
And the spiritual spring water, which had been about the size of a small pond originally, had enlarged to the size of a large lake.
In order to hold a lake of that magnitude, the land had expanded by about ten tis the previous size.
Surprisingly, all the plants we’d left in here were now at their most perfect harvestable ti.
The vines had flowers ripe for making more Lin’s Super Aweso Repair Dan.
I even spotted a couple of peach trees that had sprouted from the pit’s Little Spring must have planted.
What the actual fuck was going on?
Little Spring ran to a gazebo that had definitely not been there before and sat on a stone bench. He grinned and grabbed at sothing in midair.
The air shimred with a glittering yellow light and a small, spectral golden dragon appeared in the kid’s hand. It started to squirm until the kid released it.
“Sister Lin, this is the spirit of this place. And Spirit, be polite to my sister.”
The tiny dragon crossed its little arms and wiggled its tiny noodle body at tauntingly.
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