Chapter 44: Strengthening Spirit Stones

“This is a Hundred Treasures Bag; I’m giving it to you!”

“For your daily use!”

“Go now!” Yu Ning waved her dust whisk, saying: “I’m entering seclusion for the next few months!”

“If you have any questions about your cultivation, first go ask Zhao Linger!”

“You should also ask her about the taboos of Xiuzhu Peak and Grand Void Gate—otherwise, dying needlessly wouldn’t be worth it!”

The Hundred Treasures Bag is simply a pouch that can hold items.

Similar to ordinary cloth bags from the mortal world.

But it is forged from special materials, capable of blocking even a Foundation Establishment cultivator’s spiritual sense.

So others cannot see what’s inside.

“Yes!”

He Pingsheng took the Hundred Treasures Bag, then bowed respectfully and left Yu Ning Palace.

In the afternoon, He Pingsheng visited each of his senior brothers and sisters to make their acquaintance.

Senior Brother Hou Muxian.

Second Senior Brother Xiao Xuejian!

Third Senior Sister Cheng Siyu!

Fourth Senior Brother Yang Qingyun!

Fifth Senior Brother Wu Zhengyang!

Sixth Senior Sister is Zhao Linger—the female cultivator who brought He Pingsheng from the Outer Sect.

Seventh Senior Sister is also a woman, named Tian Xiaoqing, rumored to be a junior disciple of Master Yu Ning.

Eighth Senior Brother is a fat man named Xu Kunlun.

Ninth Senior Brother is He Pingsheng himself.

Although He Pingsheng had bowed to each senior brother and sister, he dared not use his spiritual sense to scan their cultivation bases.

After paying his respects, He Pingsheng returned to his small courtyard and hung a sign reading 【In Seclusion】 on the courtyard gate.

This way, those who came to disturb him would naturally not knock.

Night fell.

Only then did He Pingsheng take out the items Master Yu Ning had given him that day.

A book!

It was a fire-affinity cultivation method called: Flame Refining Qi Art.

This thing still needed to be cultivated.

Why?

Because he needed to understand some of it.

Otherwise, if his master asked him later and he knew nothing, wouldn’t that be inviting trouble upon himself?

Even if he had to pretend he knew it!

After reading through the entire cultivation method, He Pingsheng’s gaze turned to the spirit stones.

That day, Yu Ning had given him twenty spirit stones as a greeting gift.

He Pingsheng originally had about five hundred and fifty.

Now with another twenty, he had five hundred and seven.

Long ago, He Pingsheng had considered putting spirit stones into the Treasure Basin to strengthen them.

But he had never done it.

The reason was simple.

Based on his two years of experiments and observations, putting over five hundred spirit stones into it would double them the next day—becoming over a thousand.

That wasn’t the key point.

The key was that while the Treasure Basin doubled items placed inside, it also strengthened them.

Spirit stones were divided into low-grade, mid-grade, high-grade, and supreme-grade.

Based on past experience, if he put in five hundred low-grade spirit stones, tomorrow he’d get a thousand supreme-grade ones.

What were supreme-grade spirit stones?

What use did they have?

Would they cause a sensation?

He Pingsheng knew nothing about these things, so he dared not rashly put the spirit stones in.

The problem was, if they came out as nothing but supreme-grade spirit stones, how could he spend them?

A Qi Refining fifth-layer cultivator walking around Mount Matou Market with a sack of supreme-grade spirit stones—do you think they’d chop him into eight pieces or sixteen?

But now, looking at these spirit stones, He Pingsheng couldn’t suppress the thought: What if I put just one in first, to see what comes out?

“Dingling!” A small spirit stone was tossed by He Pingsheng into the Treasure Basin.

Then He Pingsheng picked up the 【Flame Refining Qi Art】 again and memorized it, even practicing a bit.

This method was vastly inferior to his own 【True Law of Departing Fire】.

Forget it—I won’t cultivate it.

Just understand it enough.

It’s only to appease my master—can’t let him ask me something and I know nothing, right?

……

The next morning!

As dawn barely broke, He Pingsheng leapt out of bed.

Huh…

He Pingsheng took a deep breath: “Such dense spiritual power!”

He hurriedly climbed down and pulled the Treasure Basin from beneath his bed.

Inside the Treasure Basin lay two spirit stones.

Ordinary low-grade spirit stones in the cultivation world were about the size of jujubes; these two were clearly not—they were larger, roughly the size of eggs.

“This is…”

He Pingsheng picked up the two spirit stones.

He had never seen higher-grade spirit stones, so he couldn’t confirm whether these were supreme-grade.

But the overwhelming spiritual energy filling the room—undeniably—came from these two stones.

“Store!”

He Pingsheng dared not let the two spirit stones remain exposed; he quickly stored them, along with the Treasure Basin, into his dantian.

After washing up, he waited inside for a long time until the dense spiritual energy slowly faded.

When the morning sun rose, He Pingsheng opened the courtyard gate and stepped out.

“Senior Sister Zhao!” He Pingsheng found Zhao Linger.

Zhao Linger smiled: “What is it, little brother?”

He Pingsheng said: “Master said if I have any questions, I should come ask you!”

“Of course!” Zhao Linger’s smile deepened: “Little brother, what do you want to know?”

“Oh!” He Pingsheng said: “Actually, I’m very unfamiliar with many common cultivation world facts, but I can’t ask you about every single one—so I was wondering if there’s any book compiling these common cultivation world facts!”

“I’d like to get one and read it.”

Zhao Linger said: “Heh… you’ve come to the right person…”

“Our Grand Void Gate has a Scripture Hall, and it contains exactly the kind of book you mean—I borrowed one myself back then… what was it called…”

“Let me think…”

“Ah yes—【Miscellaneous Records of Cultivation】—it records many common cultivation world facts!”

“You can borrow it, or buy a copy—it’s not expensive!”

“Yes!” He Pingsheng said: “Thank you, Senior Sister—where is this Scripture Hall?”

“Hehehe…” Zhao Linger smiled: “The Scripture Hall is right here in Grand Void Gate—on the back mountain, Jade Dragon Peak!”

“Go to the front square, take the teleportation array to Grand Void Hall, then take another teleportation array from there to Jade Dragon Peak!”

“Remember—it’s Jade Dragon Peak!”

“Once you’re there, just ask and you’ll find it!”

“Yes!” He Pingsheng bowed in thanks, then walked to the square on Xiuzhu Peak.

There were two teleportation arrays here.

Several years ago, He Pingsheng had come here before.

Back then, Linglong, a disciple of Jade Virtue Sect, had been punished here for killing someone.

So when He Pingsheng stepped onto this square, he couldn’t help but recall Senior Brother Hao Yun.

That familiar face seemed to still dance before his eyes.

“Senior Brother!” The Outer Sect disciple guarding the teleportation array bowed deeply to He Pingsheng, his head nearly touching the ground.

In the past, when He Pingsheng was still a menial servant, this Outer Sect disciple had shouted at him.

Status was different—treatment was worlds apart.

“No need for such formality!” He Pingsheng regarded the man calmly.

If I’m not mistaken, this guy is the same one from three years ago.

“I need to go to Grand Void Gate—help me activate the teleportation array!”

“Yes!” The outer disciple immediately beamed and said, “Brother, please… I’ll activate the array right away!”