Chapter 48

After becoming a Foundation Establishment disciple, Wei Yuning's life became much more comfortable.

The sole responsibility of the Sun Yang herb garden has been handed over to a new menial disciple, and Steward Hong Le has not assigned any new work, leaving him with nothing to do.

Most of the work in the herb garden consists of small, tedious, time‑consuming tasks that place few demands on the cultivators; except for the large‑scale germination of seeds, which requires a Foundation Establishment disciple to oversee, the vast majority of the work can be done by any menial who can manipulate spiritual energy.

Of course, there is still one task that Wei Yuning must participate in: the capture of the Moon‑bug worms. This is not only a requirement of the herb‑garden fellows, but he also has no intention of giving up this income.

By comparison, the ox—now called Qing Niu—is much more diligent.

The Loosening Soil Technique, one of the earth‑spirit‑root innate arts, has wide applications: it not only turns compacted hard soil loose, but after one's cultivation rises, it can also crush spirit‑stone ore or rock into granules, performing excellently in fields, mines, and construction alike.

Before establishing his foundation, the ox was completely a nobody; now the ox has become one of the most popular people in the herb garden. Besides being asked for help in many places inside the garden, people from the outer hall and even the outer quarters often invite him to meals. Since everyone is a cultivator, help is naturally not free—spirit stones, pills, artifacts, and so on are certainly indispensable—and in just over ten days the ox's purse has grown considerably, and his voice is twenty decibels louder than before.

When idle, Wei Feather‑Ning spent his time playing, aside from catching insects each morning and his daily cultivation.

Except for the Lotus Peak and Hidden Valley Peak on Nine Clouds Peak, which were restricted, he had traversed all seven remaining peaks. Thanks to this marriage‑alliance gathering, he made many acquaintances within the sect and was no longer limited to just Bull as a friend.

Regarding cultivation, with the aid of the gathering points of heaven and earth's spiritual energy, he was confident he could progress faster than others. Within the same major realm, resources are the main factor determining cultivation speed. On the day he grasped a new body technique, his cultivation had already surged to the late Foundation Establishment stage; he feared it wouldn't be long before he reached the peak of Foundation Establishment and charged into the Heartbeat stage.

At this point, his internal spiritual energy had become very viscous, beginning to show a tendency to liquefy. Unlike disciples who cultivate via spiritual‑sense foundation, a body‑refining cultivator, even upon reaching the Heartbeat stage, does not convert his internal spiritual liquid into a heart spring; instead, it is evenly distributed throughout the body. This method certainly greatly enhances bodily strength, but correspondingly slows cultivation speed considerably.

However, he had no intention of rushing to the Heartbeat stage in the short term, because he had another idea: dual foundation establishment. After the incident of being expelled from the sect, Tai Chong went into closed‑door seclusion again, unseen, so Wei Feather‑Ning had to turn to Xu Ye to learn about dual foundation establishment.

The matter. Xu Ye treated Wei Feather‑Ning quite well, almost taking on the role of a master, and detailed the knowledge of dual foundation establishment to him.

With Xu Ye's help, Wei Feather‑Ning formally began attempting dual foundation establishment. However, this time he consciously slowed his cultivation speed.

Now, rather than saying he is consolidating his realm, it's more accurate to say he is keeping a low profile; he does not want to attract too much attention. More importantly, because the Giant Pine visualization object remains uncontrollable, this time he intends to seriously experience the process of spiritual‑sense foundation establishment, especially the stage of shaping the visualization object.

Although his daily cultivation time is short, he spends a large amount of time detailing the Spirit Butterfly.

However, to outsiders unaware of the situation, it appears he has completely given up cultivation, with his daily practice merely a pretense to fulfill sect duties. Normally, no Foundation Establishment disciple would fail to seize every opportunity and moment to improve their cultivation.

Regarding Wei Feather‑Ning's passive behavior, Hong Zhi, Hong Le, and many senior sect members observed it, and many felt a different sentiment.

Had it not been for the timely appearance of Elder Dao Min, they would have almost expelled an innocent disciple who had rendered service; although there were reasons, the sect's apology to Qing Mo is certain.

For unknown reasons, Tai Chong chose to go into closed‑door seclusion, and the sect leader Tai Yu also disappeared from sight; however, aside from a few individuals, no one paid attention to this news.

Although no one said it outright, after Elder Dao Min took notice, Qing Mo became a special existence throughout the Yun Yin Sect; not to mention the herb‑garden steward Hong Le, even the medicine‑hall steward Elder Xu Chen neither wanted nor dared to restrict him. However, regarding Qing Mo's requests, they basically tried to fulfill them as much as possible.

Besides idly wandering and chatting with sect friends, Qing Mo also greatly enjoys going to the library pavilion.

The sect has two library pavilions: one is the public library on Guest Arrival Peak, the other is the secret treasury on Lotus Peak; Wei Feather‑Ning naturally goes to the one on Guest Arrival Peak.

The public library contains a wide variety of books; besides the limitedly open various Daoist arts and secret techniques, there are also many other books. The Daoist arts books mainly come from the sect's collection of thousands of years of external orthodox classics; besides that, the remaining book types encompass everything—astronomy, geography, mathematics, medicine, art, and so on.

In the Spirit Beast world, books are rare commodities, because the material for making books mainly comes from various animal hides; rubbings are at most three to five copies, many being unique solitary copies. Therefore, viewing any book requires paying a certain price. As for Daoist arts books, besides hide‑bound volumes, most also have jade‑slip versions, intended for cultivators at the Heartbeat stage and above. Since Foundation Establishment stage and lower cultivators lack sufficient spiritual‑energy consumption, perhaps just reading a page exhausts their spiritual energy.

Within the sect, the most common currency for payment is naturally spirit stones, but some books require completing a certain amount of sect contribution points or meeting specific conditions before they can be viewed.

However, Qing Mo does not like reading Daoist arts books, but is extremely interested in various strange tales, mountain‑and‑river monster records, star charts, etc. Upon hearing this, the acting sect leader Elder Tai Heng quietly informed the library pavilion steward Hong Xin to compile a list of the books Qing Mo has viewed, and, aside from those that cannot be transmitted outside, the rest can be lent to Qing Mo.

Such leisurely days passed for about twenty more days, and the date arrived at the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the third‑month calendar of the year 7969 on Bi Li Island; from this day, Bi Li Island entered the cold season. In fact, since October, the calendar's extreme cold had already arrived. However, due to the one‑month transition between hot and cold seasons, the weather was not yet cold, coinciding with the harvest season for crops; people customarily call this month the "Abundant Month," while the month of hot‑cold transition is called the "Plowing Month."

The weather on Nine Clouds Peak, situated above the cloud layer, has not changed much; it remains mainly sunny, but the temperature has indeed dropped considerably.

That morning, Wei Feather‑Ning brought his newly made bark‑fiber paper and charcoal pencil, preparing to go to the library pavilion to draw a high‑definition map of the Spirit Beast World, when a paper bird flew from afar and landed precisely on his shoulder.

A letter arrived from the Autumn Crane.