Chapter 21: You Must Stick With It for Six Years

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

She had no visualization object, only a companion entity.

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

“Su Jin, you’ve already finished cultivating?” Su Yunhu, nearby, paused his own 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 array plate.

“Aren’t you going to cultivate a bit longer?” Su Jin looked at him in surprise. She practiced two 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 as quickly as she had.

So this guy had 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 array plate, stood, and walked over to Su Jin’s side.

Su Jin sealed all the array plates into her bag, then took them and walked with Su Yunhu to the back wall of the spare classroom.

Two rows of small lockers were mounted on the wall. Liu Shi 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 an array lock—only a dedicated token could open it.

She placed the array plate inside and locked it.

Su Yunhu did the same.

Neither of them planned to take the array plates home.

“You really won’t take the array 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. “It’s not worth it. I already reach my meridian limit every day in the academy. At night, I need rest—my meridians must rest a full night to fully recover.”

If I cultivate at home too, my meridians won’t recover by the next day in the academy. It would ruin my cultivation quality during class.”

Unnecessary. Completely unnecessary.”

I’m not competing for the top ten in my year.”

Su Yunhu thought this made perfect sense.

“Then what do you do with the rest of your time?”

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

“Aren’t you reading Common Cultivation Knowledge?” Su Yunhu asked, surprised.

“I’ve already finished it.”

“What do you mean, ‘finished’?” Su Yunhu didn’t understand.

“It means I’ve finished. I don’t need to read it again for the next few days.”

“Huh? You reviewed the upcoming lessons ahead of time? That’s impressive.” Su Yunhu said casually, thinking he could also review his textbooks at home.

Su Jin opened her mouth. She had wanted to say she had already mastered all the Common Cultivation Knowledge in the textbook.

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

But there was no need to say it outright. Instead, she 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 only a moment, he pulled out a miniature abacus and began calculating.

Su Jin: “…”

She thought, is his family in business?

Another quarter-hour passed.

Su Cheng and Su Wuji finished their cultivation.

They rushed 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.” Su Wuji began complaining. “I didn’t expect I couldn’t even control the effect of a low-grade one-stage Spirit Gathering Array.”

Su Cheng gave him a silent, exasperated look.

“Spirit Gathering Arrays aren’t given out for free. If they didn’t work well, who’d bother crafting them?”

Su Jin nodded in agreement.

“Even a low-grade one-stage Spirit Gathering Array 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 Spirit Gathering Array costs?” Su Wuji stared at him in astonishment.

“My family’s general store sells Spirit Gathering Arrays.” Su Yunhu replied.

Su Jin: Confirmed—he’s from a merchant family.

“How much does a mid-grade one-stage Spirit Gathering Array sell for?” Su Wuji asked.

“Eight hundred spirit stones. The high-grade one-stage Spirit Gathering Arrays the clan academy gives us? Outside, they sell for at least fifteen hundred spirit stones each.” Su Yunhu said.

“So expensive?” Su Wuji was stunned.

“Yeah, ridiculously expensive.”

“The clan academy treats us too well.” Su Wuji said in awe.

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

“That’s why my aunt keeps yelling at me every day: you must stick with the academy for six years. You 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 elixirs or spiritual fruits to speed up their progress, they’re considered heaven’s darlings.” Su Yunhu sighed. “We, meanwhile, get daily medicinal baths from the academy, plus these top-tier Spirit Gathering Arrays to aid 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 Wuji said.

“Not necessarily. If their treatment were truly that good, why would they travel thousands of miles to join a sect as a menial or outer disciple?” Su Yunhu couldn’t resist asking.

“Because the sect’s treatment is better.” Su Wuji looked down condescendingly. “Even we are aiming to join a sect. If the sect’s treatment were poor, do you think our elders would push us so hard to enter?”

Su Yunhu was stunned. “The sect’s treatment is really that good?”

“Let me put it this way: even as a menial disciple in the sect, you get twenty spirit stones a month and a hundred spirit stones’ worth of elixir subsidies. Would you want that?”

Besides, as a menial disciple, besides your assigned duties, you can take on side jobs to earn extra income.

Like crafting talismans, making equipment parts, or processing raw materials for elixir refinement—all can be taken as sect missions, done at home, then sold back to the sect.” Su Wuji continued.