Ling Xia took in a deep breath, and with the focused concentration of cramming for the NCEE, started to speedily flip through the pages, reading ten lines at a time in search for keywords. Fuck! This book didn’t have a table of contents!
A flip flip sound accompained every page turn, and by the time he finally found the three words Void Jade Herb, almost an hour has already passed.
Ling Xia started reading without a moment's delay. Void Jade Herb is a rarely seen wood elemental spiritual herb that had a powerful healing ability. When compound together with other healing oriented medicinal herbs, one can create the extremely precious Void Jade Pill, a pill that's considered a legendary elixir capable of bringing back the dead and reconstructing a living body from a skeleton. But at the same time, this herb was very rarely seen in the wild ans nearly impossible to grow artificially, and the book only briefly mentioned a few of its likes and preferences.
Ling Xia put the Void Jade Herb seed in his palm and meticulously scrutinized it. It resembled a very blue marble and was smooth, round, and incredibly comfortable to touch.
The air echoed with the masked man's voice as he yawned with boredom, ''Young man, hurry it up.''
Ling Xia surveyed his surroundings, then without any reservation, opened a random door and started to search around. Void Jade Herb had ‘jade’ in its name and depended on the gem to grow, so for starters, a jade artifact was absolutely necessary.
The masked man was silent for a beat, coughed once, and said, “Mmhn, you can find what you’re looking for in my storage area, but remember, you’re not allowed to touch the first door on the right.”
“Understood,” Ling Xia chuckled. Hmm, who knows, maybe that room was hiding the masked man’s diary, or a portrait of the person’s he’s secretly in love with, or some other illicit secret… In the midst of his busy rummaging, he let his mind wander and wildly fantasized a bit.
Very quickly, he found an appropriately sized suet jade bottle. He carefully tilted it and slid the seed inside before going outside to seek some suitable soil. Void Jade Herb was extremely fragile and picky, requiring only the most exquisite sandy soil that’s rich in spiritual energy. Inside this space, there was a river with moist and fertile sand dunes full of spiritual energy beside it. Ling Xia feared that the sand was still too coarse, thus he spent a long time grounding it on top of a slab of stone, and only then did he cautiously pour the soil inside the bottle.
The water quality inside this space was also quite good and abundant in spiritual energy, and Ling Xia calculated how much it would take to fully wet the soil without ruining the seed. He had originally liked flowers and plants, so right now, he used 120% of his love in taking care of, watering, and swiftly completing this task.
Except, Void Jade Herbs growing in the wild needed 10 years to germinate, another 10 years to flower, and matured only after a century. In that case, how could he make this seed sprout in just a few short hours?
He wiped the bottle’s surface clean of soil and carefully cupped it to his chest. High-level users with wood elemental abilities could rely on pouring their own wood elementals into plants to shorten the time they needed to grow, but presently, he didn’t even know how to properly utilize the pitifully limited power elementals inside his body… …
A petite, snow white figure suddenly appeared in front of Ling Xia. Needless to say, it was Ah‘Li, and after walking around him in a circle, it bit onto his pants and tugged. Ling Xia thought that it wanted to play with him like before, carefully protected the jade bottle in a hurry, and reprimanded, “Ah‘Li don’t mess around. I’ll play with you later.”
Ah‘Li squinted its eyes in discontent, gnashed and pulled even harder, and Ling Xia came to a belated realization. Was this Ah‘Li’s way of trying to bring him somewhere?
The masked man laughed, “You double-dipping, unfaithful little thing!”
His tone sounded like he was tacitly permitting Ah‘Li’s actions though, so Ling Xia reassuringly walked forward, allowing himself to be led along until they stopped in front of a particular room.
This room did not appear to be very large from the outside, but once Ling Xia opened the door, he discovered that the interior was abundantly spacious. On both sides of the room were about seven or eight tables, all filled with various kinds of odd and strange household utensils made of different materials placed at even intervals. In the center was a furnace as tall as a grown man, seemingly for the purpose of refining pills.
Ling Xia recalled the cup used during the first exam that detected what elementals his body contained. It was able to magnify the power elementals a person had by a hundredfold, so perhaps there was a similar tool here? If it’s like that, wouldn’t he be able to make use of the wood elementals inside his body for stimulating the seed to grow?
He didn't recognize any of these utensils, but there was a bookcase off to the side, and the books inside all pertained to refining tools or pills. Ling Xia drew his finger across the spines, stopping on a book called ''The Complete Fundamentals in Refining Magical Artifacts'', and quickly began to flip through it.
This book was written with an incredibly illegible and flamboyantly cursive penmanship where each word difficult to identify, thus making it quite the laborious read. But when he saw a certain row of text, his eyes immediately glimmered. That's right, all elemental energy and interdependent, each having its complementing and neutralizing pairs, and by applying this principle, he could totally construct something simple that mimics the examination device he saw that day.
Ling Xia meticulously sized up household utensils on the desks, and after performing the easy and short attribute measuring test the book described, chose one utensil from each of the five basic elementes of gold, wood, water, fire and earth. After arranging them according to the basic formation depicted, he solemnly placed the jade bottle in the middle.
Ah‘Li watched him bustle about while curled up in a corner, cute as can be.
After positioning everything in its place, Ling Xia took a deep breath, placed his hand on top of the bottle like during the exam, and imagined that the peculiar heat within his body was slowly being poured inside. Only after a long time, did he open his eyes.
He looked down, filled with anticipation and hope, but was instantly disappointed… The soil inside the bottle was still as smooth and level as before, without even a slightest bit of change.
Right at this time, the masked man appeared inside the room and while yawning, thoughtfully looked at the arrangement on top the table and proclaimed, “Time’s up, you didn’t make it.”
Ling Xia nodded somewhat dejectedly and agreed, “No, the seed didn’t sprout.”
The masked man observed his disheartened manner with a face full of smiles, touched his chin, and mused, “So the words you said before about not giving up, looks like that was all to deceive me. All that happened was that it didn’t grow, so is it necessary to be this dismayed? Back when I cultivated a Void Jade Herb, it took an entire year before I got it to germinate. You’re just a kid who fiddled around for 6 hours, and you expected it to sprout? If it did, wouldn’t that be a killer joke?”
“… …” Ling Xia had no words. After what seemed like forever, he glowered at the other and asked, “Then, was Senior doing all this just to make fun of me?”
The masked man giggled, leaned back, and a seat manifested to catch him just in time as he confirmed, “Naturally.”
“… …Haha, Senior is really funny.”
“However,” the masked man continued, crossing one leg over the other and swinging it twice, “when I entered this sect all those years ago, I was a low-level disciple who was screened as lacking in power elementals too. Spent 3 years lingering on a small hillside and sweeping floors, but now, aren’t I also being referred to as ‘Senior’ by you? I feel like you have just a tiny smidgen of aptitude in refining artifacts and growing plants, and if earnestly tutored and cultivated, in a few dozen more years, perhaps you can achieve a minor accomplishment or two.”
“… …Much thanks for Senior’s glamorous praise,” Ling Xia gritted out, unable to refrain from grinding his teeth as his tone took a turn for the worse. How infuriating! He hated being played liked this the most! As expected, it’s much more enjoyable to play other people instead.
Ah‘Li, clearly a long-time victim to this kind of suffering, rubbed up against Ling Xia’s shin in sympathy.
When Ling Xia left, he held that “The Complete Fundamentals in Refining Magical Artifacts” book in his arms. The masked man had ordered him to finish reading it in 3 days, and in addition, use the provided energy stones to refine the easiest magical artifact.
Ling Xia cried tears in his heart. Sure enough, the life of a mob character was to walk the path of support. What the protagonist received from here was guidance on body cultivation, sword cultivation, and energy cultivation you know!
Furthermore, as the masked man handed “The Complete Fundamentals in Refining Magical Artifacts” to Ling Xia, he even proudly added, “This book contains the best knowledge I collected from far and wide, and I personally wrote it all down using my many years of insight in artifact refinement. Whether in the heavens or on earth, there is only this one copy, so you must read it thoroughly! Haha, seeing how out of so many books, this was the only one you chose, it’s clear that you two were destined by fate.”
No wonder that handwriting was so ugly! Ling Xia felt that this book’s credibility needed to be lowered by 50% at the very least. He had spent 6 hours staying in the masked man’s space, but when he came out, the sky had only just turned dark. He waited until he stealthily slipped back to his residence and pushed open the door before sighing in relief at last… No matter what, it could be said that he successfully completed his first objective.
“Where did you go?”
Ling Xia had placed the book in his hands on the table, and right as he was striking the flint to light the lantern, that familiar voice suddenly sounded from behind. Startled, his hand shook, resulting in him nearly burning himself.
With some surprise, he turned around and asked, “Ah‘Jue, how come you’re here?”
Yu ZhiJue was currently leaning against the head of the bed, and hearing this, slanted him a glare and angrily growled, “You haven’t told me just where exactly you went yet?”
After dropping these words, he walked over and cast a glance at the book on the table. Ling Xia promptly smiled and answered, “I went to the library here to borrow a book, something related to refining magical artifacts.”
Yu ZhiJue impatiently countered, “Even so, was there a need to come back this late? I waited here for you for ages!” As soon as these words left his mouth, he felt a bit chagrined, and even his cheeks heated up a notch. Luckily for him, that wasn’t visible in this dim lighting.
Throwing a bag on the table, he then explained, “We received our monthly pay, and XiaoHu told me to bring this to you.“
Ahh, how the children have grown… Ling Xia was emotional to the point of tears, the very picture of a father who received a present from his kid for the very first time, and excitedly opened the bag. It’s just, when he saw the contents, he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Around ten energy coins clanked against each other inside, a mix of both level-2 and level-1 types.
Aye, Song XiaoHu was indeed a straightforward child… …He should probably save these for the boy to use in the future for finding a wife.
Ling Xia’s mood wasn’t lacking in thrashing waves of admiration, envy, and hate as he thought about the protagonist’s future harem.
He carefully put the bag away, and with a bit of mischief, teased, “Ah‘Jue didn‘t think of giving me anything?”
Yu ZhiJue gave a hmph, then hesitantly pulled out a jade hairpin from his sleeves that appeared to be carved with notable delicacy. ''You always wear that wooden one in your hair, and it's beyond ugly! I saw this by chance and thought it was at least passable to look at.''
Every time he saw that wooden hairpin fastened on Ling Xia's head, the exact same make and disign as every other low-level disciple's, his heart would throb uncomfortably. There was no way of changing one's clothes due to this place's rotten rules, but accessories were another matter.
''... ...'' So, why exactly wasn't the great sir villain a girl again?
Ling Xia received the gift, and with some clumsiness, used it to pin his hair. Grinning, he declared, ''Ilike it a lot. Hmm, next month, I'll also give Ah'Jue a present.''
In another month, he should be able to refine a few simple and basic magical tools, right?
His young, smiling face was pure and open, and in the lantern’s light, radiated the gentle kindness of a saint. Along with a pair of dark pupils that twinkled with the candle’s embers, he was an exceptionally moving sight.
Yu ZhiJue turned his head away, a little flustered, and mumbled with a huff, “As if I need you to give me anything. You don’t have that much money anyways.”
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