Chapter 52: line with translation of chapter title, then ===GLOSSARY=== with list

The Pill Hall refuses to let me raise moon weasels, but the Spirit Beast Hall, wanting to reward me for the moon weasel spirit insects I caught last time, is willing to provide a plot of land on Spirit Beast Peak under the guise of cultivating spirit beasts. Wei Yuning now trusts Hong Zhi deeply, and he also disclosed this relatively secret matter.

He also didn't expect the moon weasel insects' appeal to be so great; in fact, he still hadn't mentioned that the Spirit Beast Hall wasn't the sole promoter of this matter—some mid-to-high ranking sect members also contributed.

The cause of the matter is as follows. Recently he has become increasingly lazy, feeling impatient with catching insects daily, and unintentionally suggested to Hong Le the idea of raising moon weasel insects. Although Hong Le disagreed, he still reported the matter to the Pill Hall's steward elder Xu Chen. However, this absurd idea was immediately opposed by Xu Chen. Actually, Wei Yuning himself didn't think this had any chance of passing; he was just speaking casually.

However, the speaker had no intention, but the listener took it to heart. Everyone in the Herb Garden, and even throughout the sect, knows that the Herb Garden's Qing Mo is the true expert on moon weasel insects. If others talk about raising moon weasel insects, they mostly laugh it off, but the words of Qing Mo, who supplies the vast majority of moon weasel insects for the entire sect, cannot be taken lightly.

Just one day later, that is, the day before yesterday, a senior apprentice named Qing Ye from the Spirit Beast Hall came to the door and told Wei Yuning the Spirit Beast Hall's conditions: they would provide the site and renovation costs, one-third of the profits and one-third of the market-price sales rights, while Wei Yuning would receive two-thirds of the profits and one-third of autonomous distribution rights, meaning only one-third of the moon weasel insect share remains for free external sale.

Wei Yuning naturally agreed to this favorable arrangement; the Spirit Beast Hall is currently selecting a suitable site, and once chosen, they will make appropriate modifications according to his requirements.

"Not bad, not bad, you're becoming increasingly important to the sect!" Hong Zhi stroked his beard and smiled, looking rather like a parent seeing their child succeed. Regarding moon weasel insects, which are purely for satisfying one's appetite, he actually harbored no prejudice. This gave Wei Yuning a strange feeling.

Hong Zhi's efficiency was swift; the next morning, while Wei Yuning was studying the details of spirit butterflies in his cave abode, he received a flying bird message from Hong Zhi: there is an independent residence in Wind Lotus Court that suits his requirements, though the price is a bit high—one hundred middle-grade spirit stones.

Wei Yuning immediately replied in writing, indicating his agreement.

Today he continued to improve the map of the Cloud Hidden Sect. Besides giving some landmarks special coloring, he uniformly marked most areas in green, and he also needed to add the road and village-town maps that Hong Zhi gave him to the new map. At first glance the workload seems substantial, but it actually isn't, because human settlements in this world are few, and only a few routes qualify as roads, with most of the land being wilderness dominated by beasts.

He worked busily until midnight, when the first map was finally completed. Wei Yuning stretched comfortably, and suddenly felt his spirit sense twitch; upon inner inspection, he saw that all the spiritual energy in his body had shifted from a loose gaseous state to an extremely viscous cloud-like condition, and without realizing it, he had actually crossed another minor stage, entering the peak of Foundation Establishment.

Having reached the peak of Foundation Establishment, he was only one step away from the Heartbeat stage.

At the initial sprouting, when the heart follows movement, that is the Heartbeat stage. At this stage, a spirit-sense Foundation Establishment disciple's spiritual energy turns into spiritual liquid; a wisp of thought arises in their contemplated object, gathering the scattered spiritual liquid into one place, ultimately forming a heart spring.

However, the spiritual liquid in a body-training Foundation Establishment disciple does not contract even a bit to become a heart spring; instead, it is distributed throughout the body, treating the whole body as something akin to a heart spring. We call it akin to a heart spring rather than a true heart spring because, at this point, the body-training cultivator has embarked on a completely different path: the contemplated object formed from spirit sense is no longer necessary, and the physical body has become the foundation of cultivation.

Of course, cultivators who focus solely on the physical body and neglect spirit sense may have weakened spirit-sense abilities, but because they specialize in the flesh, their defense against spirit sense actually becomes stronger, and a strong blood qi throughout the body can almost completely block any spirit-sense intrusion.

Advancing in cultivation should be a joyous matter, but Wei Yuning is not happy. His new contemplated object, the spirit butterfly, has not yet begun to take shape, because the problem of its structural details is still being resolved.

"From tomorrow on, I won't participate in the routine cultivation either!" Wei Yuning made the decision.

He now finally understands why demonic cultivators covet his body; over this period, even if he doesn't actively seek out places where heaven and earth spiritual energy gathers, as soon as he communicates with the surrounding spiritual energy, external spiritual energy rushes in like a swarm, with terrifyingly high efficiency. His sudden promotion today is related to his frequent use of techniques over the past two days to absorb the surrounding spiritual energy.

Of course, if he weren't aiming for dual Foundation Establishment, he wouldn't be so torn.

On the second day, after handing over the Cloud Hidden Sect map to Hong Zhi in exchange for sect contribution points, he began work on drawing the Spirit Beast World Map and the Star Chart Record; however, this time he did not use techniques, relying entirely on his modest drawing skills and the essence of making maps based on Earth's geography, slowly filling the gathered data into the new map.

Another day passed, and at midnight Qiu Hu sent another flying bird message; accompanying her was another person, Junior Apprentice Sister Thus line: Ye Ying, who hoped Wei Yuning could arrange for Thus line: Ye Ying to live together with them.

"What's the situation? Why did the big light bulb also come?" Wei Yuning thought. He clearly remembered that Thus line: Ye Ying had not formed a daoist partnership with any cultivator of the Cloud Hidden Sect.