Chương 69: Chapter 68 – A Hero’s Return

Ren readjusted the snoozing tortoise concealed within his sleeve as he shifted. He had finished studying about new herbs and spirit plants as well as some records on forging and alchemy. It was rather late, and he knew he should put in more effort in studying about spirit beasts as well, but seeking a change in pace, he began to peruse a catalogue of unusual skills. The list of skills was not categorized or sorted in any way.

Techniques for warding against extreme weather were grouped with techniques to keep robes clean. Even their cost varied hugely. The one commonality they shared was that they all filled very specific niches. It was while reading through those that Ren encountered a very interesting manual. It was an offensive technique using a folding hand fan, of all things. But that wasn't the only thing to catch his attention.

Most of the technique was about divination, about calculating and predicting trajectories and cornering the enemy. Ren didn't really understand why it was tied to a fan weapon, but it intrigued him regardless. He reread the introduction carefully. Divination was about modeling the natural world using numbers and principles. That model would allow them to approximately predict the future! It was a little-known skill, especially since it was very exact and demanding.

Practitioners could make their opponents feel like a fish caught in a net with no way out by sealing their every possible move. But if they made mistakes, which was very likely, then they invited disaster. Interested, Ren sought out more accounts about divination. According to some, divination used a lot of esoteric higher order daos such as astrology, karma, fate, and destiny. Others said it was about reducing variables in a system.

One record even claimed divination was about understanding the spiritual connections of an object with its surroundings. The language was sometimes archaic and hard for Ren to understand, but even what he could understand only left him more confused. For the most part, the authors of all those entries were scholars and only cultivated to understand the world. It was a noble undertaking, but Ren found himself unable to accept their philosophy entirely.

When he tried to understand his own feelings, Ren realized that while he enjoyed studying and learning about things, there were many differences in their attitudes. He liked learning but not just for learning's sake. He also didn't know much about the world around him, instead choosing to focus on practical things. He enjoyed stories and history but not in the methodical and rigorous way of a court scholar. Ren wondered if he possessed the necessary aptitude to study divination.

He couldn't deny just how enticing the idea was. He could picture himself, a master who used formations to seal movements and predicted the enemy's every move, his sword array a mesmerizing maze of weapons, leaving them no way out. A gust ruffled his sleeve, and a moment later, the little pale-shelled tortoise poked its head out. Stopping his daydreaming, Ren looked around and then brought the little tortoise out, nuzzling it. He returned to the manual that had sent him down this path.

The " Heavenly Trajectories" claimed a very high difficulty to learn, but its price was relatively low compared to the quality of the manual, only a 1000 merit points. Ren had already purchased the Heavenly Fire Body Refining Manual he had come for and still had enough points to buy the divination manual. He idly stroked the cool shell as he thought. Tempting though it was, he ultimately decided to wait. It wouldn't be right to hastily invest in an expensive manual on a whim.

The new body cultivation method would already be occupying his attention, so there was no rush for the new technique. He would learn more before committing. But before he left, Ren copied a few jade slips about astronomy and astrology to read about later. The Heavenly Fire body cultivation involved stars, and apparently so did divination. It couldn't hurt to try and understand them better. With that, Ren flew home.

The well-rested tortoise claimed its throne on his head and enjoyed the cool night breeze on the blistering flight back. In the days following his breakthrough to the Marrow Cleansing Realm of body cultivation, Ren had taken the time to catch up on a number of things that had fallen to the wayside under the intensity of his cultivation. Manipulating the yin flame with such precision through his body had greatly increased his control. So Ren was eager to apply his new prowess with the flame to forging.

He no longer used metal for his formation flags, but he made a few spare sets anyway. It was remarkably easy, and the resulting flags were of excellent quality. He also used the flame to temper and further improve all his swords. The mutating bamboo blades were all quite receptive to the properties imparted by the Ossiferous Yin Flame. The swords grew more dense and durable once refined by the flame. Ren considered looking into a sword array scabbard.

It was a spatial tool meant to hold and nurture all the swords that were placed within. But now that he knew just how difficult spatial treasures were to create, he thought it was quite unlikely he would find one. He thought it easier to save up for a better spatial ring to replace his pouch. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. Another big part of Ren's hobbies was experimenting with growing spiritual herbs.

His business had stabilized, and he was flooded with requests to grow one herb or another. But Ren prioritized his repeat customers, especially those he had built karmic strands to connect with. Occasionally he would accept an order if the customer offered seeds of plants that interested him. On one occasion, he had accepted a request made on behalf of an elder by his disciple. Ren gave equal attention and care to all, but even he had to admit the elder's request had received additional favor.

It had worked for the most part. His income leapt with each successfully grown spirit herb or plant. So did his private collection that he kept to study or propagate into more seeds to grow for his own use. Some of the plants he even kept to use as array nodes on his mountain formation. That was mainly because the lightning strike had shown him the gap in his defenses.

The chaotic qi storm surrounding his mountain had continued to recede, but he predicted it would erupt with great force one last time in a couple of months. Now that he was aware of the blind spot, Ren had been working to fix his arrays. Despite his skill, not all his attempts at growing spirit plants were successful. Foundation realm spirit herbs were challenging to raise with stringent growing conditions and particular energy requirements.

Ren would study extensively for each herb and try to use supportive plants to complement them, though it didn't always work. The Nurturing Rain Sutra and the Enriching Soil Sutra acted as a safety net, but they weren't infallible. Despite his losses, Ren maintained his reputation as a talented herb grower. Ren wasn't content with relying on the sutra and worked hard to increase his knowledge.

One of his recent successes was the small experimental field where he managed to grow 8 different spirit plants of different qi attributes. It was an attempt at creating a balanced environment of more than just the 5 main elemental qi attributes. He used only qi gathering realm herbs and went through numerous batches before he managed to make a grouping flourish.

He had put effort into every stage of their growth, ensured the fertility of the soil, and even staggered their planting so they matured at the appropriate moments. It was the culmination of a lot of effort, and it gave him great pride and joy to be on the same path as that one unknown cultivator whose accounts had inspired him. The problem was this small garden wouldn't survive on its own for very long. The balance was too precarious.

Very soon, one of the plants would develop fruit and throw off the delicate system. Although it saddened Ren, he accepted it. The qi gathering herbs were common and cheap, so it was no big loss. Furthermore, it only highlighted the potential of such a complex garden because before the balance failed, the 8 plants had pushed each other's quality to great heights.

It still wouldn't be enough to prove the theory's creator right and complete her dream so until Ren could manage the same with foundation realm plants, he wouldn't be satisfied. All that careful monitoring also had another benefit. He had made great strides in his divine sense manual, the Sky Piercing Divine Sense. He was approaching the peak of the 2nd level, or the 2nd Heaven as the manual called it.

He had made decent progress even without a field of killing intent to push him by diligently practicing the exercises given by the manual. If he broke through to the 3rd level, then he would soon have to make preparations to obtain the manual for the 4th heaven and above, which the sect restricted. Ren even found time to visit his friends and seniors in the inner sect. Going without communication for months at a time was quite common, so nobody was offended by his long silence.

He even introduced Yu Ran to Mei Ling. After cooing over its beautiful scales and its venom for several moments, she finally got around to mixing an antidote. In return, Ren offered some of various snake venoms he had harvested through his hunts, much to her delight. Life in the inner sect was slow and steady, and his gains were incremental but constant. Ren's path was straight and true, and he was keeping good pace.

He estimated he could advance his cultivation in time for the selection trials the sect would announce in half a year. He just needed to keep working hard. A few days later, Ren was sitting beside his cook fire, inscribing his thoughts onto the jade slip containing his almost completed books. Next time he visited the outer sect, he would submit them to the Hall of Learning. When he finished, he lightly scratched Xiao Yu's scales, who was curled up in his lap.

Later that evening, Ren was going to attempt his new body cultivation manual, which needed him to wait till the sun set and the stars emerged. He had studied the Heavenly Fire Body Refining Manual until he felt confident he could move the yin flame precisely along the new path through his meridians. His dinner was almost done, and the delectable aroma was drifting over to him. Even Xiao Yu, who usually preferred raw meat of spirit beasts, would occasionally try his cooking.

Those occasions always made his chest swell with pride from how far he had come on his culinary path. Ren had no doubt he could crush the best efforts of his family's prized chefs. A worthy achievement. He was just about to dig into his meal when a twinge from an array informed him that someone was seeking entrance to visit him. His smile was wide when he checked to see who it was. He granted permission and prepared another plate.

Just as he was done, with perfect timing, a tall figure took the plate from his hands and took a bite.

"Brother Ren, how I've missed your cooking!" Bao Hua managed to say between bites. Ren chuckled warmly and said, "Eat up, brother. You're looking thin!"