Chapter 21

Because the Great Expansion Divine Cultivation Technique states that initial visualization objects are all ethereal; only after reaching the second stage of Divine Cultivation do they become physical, at which point the cultivation speed of the Great Expansion Divine Cultivation Technique increases dramatically.

She had no visualization object, only a companion entity.

And it had long since become physical, so her cultivation speed with the Divine Cultivation Technique was certainly faster than what the book described.

"Su Jin, you've already finished cultivating?" Su Yunhu, not far away, also stopped his practice and asked in a whisper.

"Mm, my meridians have reached their limit. If I push further, they'll swell." Su Jin replied softly.

"I'm about the same." Su Yunhu stopped cultivating without hesitation, turned, and began dismantling the formation plate.

"Aren't you going to cultivate a bit longer?" Su Jin looked at him in surprise. She practiced two cultivation techniques simultaneously, absorbing more spiritual energy and progressing faster—yet she had only just reached her meridian limit.

Su Yunhu certainly hadn't reached his meridian limit nearly as fast as she had.

So this guy never even considered pushing to his meridian limit?

"I just don't want to get injured. I heard that if you always push your meridians to their limit during cultivation, it's extremely easy to damage them—even cause cracks." Su Yunhu quickly packed up the entire plate, stood, and walked over to Su Jin's side.

Su Jin sealed all the formation plates into her bag, then carried them with Su Yunhu to the back wall of the backup classroom.

Two rows of small lockers were mounted on the wall. Master Liu had said everyone could lock their personal items inside. Su Jin pulled a small jade token, the size of a thumb's pad, from her waist and swiped it over the keyhole of the third locker on the left. The locker opened.

It was a formation lock—only a dedicated token could open it.

She placed the formation plate inside and locked it.

Su Yunhu did the same.

Neither of them planned to take the formation plates home.

"You really won't take the formation plate home?" Su Yunhu asked again. "If you took it home, you could cultivate a little at night too."

Su Jin shook her head immediately. "Not worth it. I already reach my meridian limit every day in the academy. At night, home is for rest—my meridians need a full night's rest to fully recover."

If I cultivate at home too, then the next day in the academy, my meridians won't have recovered. It would ruin the quality of my cultivation during class."

Unnecessary. Completely unnecessary."

I'm not competing for the top ten in my year."

Su Yunhu found this reasoning very sensible.

"Then what do you do with the rest of your time?"

"Reading." Su Jin waved the book in her hand—a book on cultivating rare spiritual plants.

"Aren't you reading Spiritual Cultivation Basics?" Su Yunhu asked, surprised.

"I've already finished it."

"What do you mean, 'already finished'?" Su Yunhu didn't understand.

"It means I've finished it—I won't need to read it again for the next few days."

"Huh? You've already reviewed the textbook for the next few days? That's impressive." Su Yunhu said casually, thinking he could also review his textbooks more at home.

Su Jin opened her mouth. She actually wanted to say she had already mastered all the Spiritual Cultivation Basics in the textbook.

After entering the Great Expansion Divine Cultivation Technique, her memory seemed to have become exceptionally sharp—she could glance at the textbook and remember everything.

But there was no point in saying it outright. Instead, she quietly found another desk bathed in strong afternoon sunlight, sat on the chair behind it, and began reading.

Su Yunhu, however, was oddly interesting—he had started flipping through an account book.

After reading for a moment, he pulled out a miniature abacus and began calculating.

Su Jin: "…"

She thought: Is this guy's family in business?

Another quarter hour passed.

Su Cheng and Su Wujie also finished cultivating.

They ran straight over to Su Jin and Su Yunhu, pulled up chairs, and sat down.

"I've been trying hard to absorb spiritual energy, but I still wasted a lot of it," Su Wujie complained immediately. "I didn't expect I couldn't even control the effect of a low-grade one-stage formation."

Su Cheng gave him a silent, exasperated look.

"The formation isn't free. If it didn't work well, who'd bother crafting it?"

Su Jin nodded in agreement.

"Even a low-grade one-stage formation costs four hundred spirit stones to buy. Such an expensive item—if it had no effect, who'd take it home?" Su Yunhu added.

"You know how much a low-grade one-stage formation costs?" Su Wujie stared at him in amazement.

"My family's general store sells formations," Su Yunhu replied.

Su Jin: Confirmed—this guy's family really is in business.

"How much does a mid-grade one-stage formation sell for?" Su Wujie asked next.

"Eight hundred spirit stones. The high-grade one-stage formations the clan academy gave us? Outside, they'd sell for at least fifteen hundred spirit stones each," Su Yunhu said.

"So expensive?" Su Wujie was stunned.

"Yeah, ridiculously expensive."

"The clan academy treats us way too well," Su Wujie said in awe.

It was truly too good—they were just children, yet they got to use such high-quality formations.

"That's why my aunt keeps pulling my ear every day, telling me to stick with the academy for six years. Must stick with it for six years," Su Cheng spoke up.

"I heard that outside, cultivators our age are lucky if they even have a cultivation technique. If they can get medicinal pills or spiritual fruits to speed up their progress, they're considered heaven's darlings," Su Yunhu mused. "We, on the other hand, bathe daily in the academy's medicinal baths and have these top-tier formations to assist our cultivation. Even if you offered me the throne of a mortal kingdom, I wouldn't trade it."

"The prince of a mortal kingdom might have even better treatment," Su Wujie said.

"Not necessarily—if their treatment were that good, why would they travel thousands of miles to join a sect as a menial or outer disciple?" Su Yunhu couldn't help but gossip.

"Because the sect's treatment is better," Su Wujie replied with a look of condescension. "Even we are aiming to join the sect. If the sect's treatment were poor, don't you think our elders would be desperate to get us in?"

Su Yunhu was stunned. "The sect's treatment is really that good?"

"Let me put it this way—just as a menial disciple in the sect, you get twenty spirit stones a month and a hundred spirit stones' worth of medicinal pills as subsidy. Would you want that?"

Besides, while you're doing odd jobs in the sect, apart from the work the sect assigns you, you can also take on small jobs to earn extra money.

For example, refining talismans, refining some equipment components, and helping process the raw materials for various pill refining. You can take sect missions directly, refine them at home, and then sell them back to the sect." Su Wuji continued.