Chương 98: Chapter 97: Jade Spirit Tea

Back in the cave, Yang decided to try the tea before doing anything else. He remembered Senior Brother Lin Yi telling him to brew it using water from a technique rather than drawing from a stream. The Qi Dew technique he had learned from Senior Brother Xu Wei when he was given the plant watering task, the same one that had earned him his first contribution points, would do. It condensed moisture from the air directly rather than using any external source.

He went to the deeper part of the cave where he had found a few items tucked into a shelf during his first weeks of residence. Whoever had lived here before had left behind ordinary mortal things, presumably considering them not worth taking. A clay teakettle, a single clay cup, and a small charcoal brazier. He had not touched them since finding them.

He had not needed to heat the cave because of his prior beast core munching habit and his years living in the forest had not inclined him toward refined activities like tea drinking. But Senior Brother Lin Yi had mentioned it helped with meditation, and anything that helped even a little was worth a try given his chosen cultivation technique. He brought everything to the table, settled on the floor cushion, and opened the pouch of tea leaves. He had expected dry leaves.

What he found instead were small living leaves, thick and rounded, each one a deep bright green. He held a few close. They really did look like tiny beads of jade, the colour full of vitality unlike the dried tea he was used to seeing. He brought them to his nose. A fresh, clean scent, minty rather than what he associated with tea. If he had not known it as tea leaves he would have guessed it as some kind of mint plant. He placed the leaves back in the pouch and turned to the brazier.

He arranged the charcoal, struck his flint beside a folded piece of paper until a spark caught, and fed the small flame to the brazier until the charcoal took hold. Then he set the kettle beside it while he performed the Qi Dew technique, moving through the short sequence of hand seals until he reached the final one. He held it and extended his palms downward over the open kettle mouth, and waited while the moisture condensed and dripped down into the kettle.

When it was filled he settled the kettle onto the brazier and added a handful of tea leaves. The minty smell intensified as the water heated, rising steadily until the cave was filled with the scent. He waited until it came to a boil, removed the kettle from the heat, and let the leaves sit a little longer. He had no particular idea whether he was doing it correctly. But its was just tea. How complicated could it be. Once he deemed it long enough he extinguished the brazier and poured a cup from the kettle.

The tea was almost colourless, just clear water at first glance, but when he tilted the cup there was a sheen across the surface, a faint wash of green that moved with the liquid and settled again whenever the cup was still. He swirled it and watched the sheen return to the top. He sniffed it. Still that same clean mint smell. He took a small sip. It tasted like mint water. He sat with it for a moment, waiting to see if there was anything more to it. There was not. Plain hot mint water.

He looked at the kettle and then at the cup and decided that since he had already made a full kettle he would finish it rather than waste it, but the leaves could be saved for guests. If Senior Brothers Lin Yi and others at the banquet all drank this regularly there was presumably something to it beyond the taste. Perhaps the meditative effect required actually sitting in meditation to notice. He would give it a proper trial some other time.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. He set the cup down and pulled out the lecture schedule Senior Sister Wei Wei had given him. Elder Fu Ming had no classes for the next two weeks. The timing made more sense now that he thought about it. The inner sect competition was likely the reason, the elder occupied with whatever his role in it required.

Which meant that if Yang wanted to participate in the talisman portion he needed to show Elder Fu Ming his work soon, or get the attention of some other elder before the competition drew any closer. Truth be told as he had interacted with all those senior brothers and sisters at senior brother Jiang Zhen Hao's banquet he had realised how much he is missing out when it comes to general knowledge that is apparent to all cultivators by keeping to himself.

He had learned more sitting at Senior Brother Zhang Linghe's friends table at the banquet than he had in half a dozen library visits combined. Not that the library had been useless, but there was a difference between reading about advanced principles and sitting with cultivators who had lived through the stages he was approaching and could tell him what actually mattered at his current level.

At the second stage of Qi Condensation he could read all he wanted about advanced techniques but they were as useful for him to know as a sword in a monkey's hands. His seniors and peers on the other hand could tell him what was relevant now. If he wanted to improve he needed to stop relying entirely on himself and start taking advantage of being in a sect. He needed all the help he could get. His chosen cultivation technique was already pulling him down in terms of speed.

He could not afford to also be slow in every other area because he was too isolated or proud to learn from the people around him. He went through the list carefully. Two caught his attention. The first was a class on defensive talismans taught by Elder Bai Jing Ting. The second was a series of classes just beginning on utility and support talismans, taught by someone named Song Yi. There was no elder before the name, which suggested an inner sect disciple rather than an elder.

A few others on the list interested him as well but two was enough to start with. He still had to consider cultivaton above everything else no matter how tempting other things were. The Heavenly Diversion was still ending every session with an excruciating headache. The channels were widening, and the headaches were coming later and later each time, but it was still slow. He had to keep cultivation as his primary focus regardless of how much more immediately rewarding the talisman work felt.

Talisman making was quick results, visible progress, and the satisfaction of a completed stack of sellable work in exchange for points. Cultivation on the other hand was a long and largely uncomfortable process with the rewards far off and the daily experience either boring and now painful as well, it was no surprise that he hasn't been enjoying the current process since it always ends in a painful headache these days. But he had made his choice of classes and he would attend them.

Hopefully they will be helpful to him in tying in his cardwright and talisman knowledge. But for now, points… or rather talismans. The deflection talismans had earned him thirty points each, more than anything else he had made so if he wanted to maximize his points it would be best to sell the talismans that pay the best. He would make a few deflection talismans before trying his hand at new inscriptions.

He pulled out his talisman supplies, cleared the table of everything except the kettle and the cup, and dipped his brush in cinnabar ink, and began. The first stroke went down clean. Then the second. He had done this enough times that his hand knew the sequence before his mind completed the thought, the brush moving through each stroke with the ease of something thoroughly absorbed. He finished the first deflection talisman, set it aside, and started the next.

Outside the cave the mountain settled into late afternoon quiet. He kept going.