He could immediately sense the spiritual energy surging through him, carrying with it a strong life force. He felt more agile, and when he looked down, he saw black filth caked all over his body. That would be the impurities within his body that had just been forced out.
His body flickered as he floated out of the log cabin. After tidying up the courtyard a bit, he stood there feeling very energized. He quickly performed an incantation gesture and waved his finger, causing his wooden sword to fly out of his bag of holding in a streak of light.
He sent it flying back and forth, eyes gleaming with satisfaction. The wooden sword was already extraordinary, but now that it was combined with the cultivation base of the fourth level of Qi Condensation, it possessed an even more striking air.
“Spirit enhancement is pretty awesome. It would be great if I could use a three-colored flame, though. A medicinal pill like that would be incredible!” The more he thought about it, the more miraculous spirit medicine seemed to be. Regardless of whether it was in pill form or incense form, it was definitely an absolute necessity for practicing cultivation.
“I’m definitely going to become an amazing apothecary! I’ll concoct a Live-Forever Never-Die Pill! Then I’ll enhance it tenfold–no, wait, I’ll enhance it a hundredfold!” Bai Xiaochun’s desire to become an apothecary was growing stronger. Suddenly, he slapped his bag of holding to produce a jade slip.
It was none other than the jade slip given him by Hou Yunfei when they had gone to the 10,000 Medicines Pavilion together. Inside were images of 10,000 types of plants and vegetation. Only Fragrant Cloud Peak had ancient records of this type, and they were something that all apprentice apothecaries had to master.
Of course, a mere 10,000 types of plants and vegetation was only the beginning. According to Hou Yunfei, after memorizing those, you could acquire another volume.
With a look of resolve, he circulated his spiritual energy, and images of various types of plants and vegetation rose up in his mind. He was filled with a strange feeling, as if a whole new page of life had opened up in front of him. There were even descriptions of the medicinal plants needed to trade for an Age-Prolonging Longevity-Enhancing Pill.
After examining the contents of the jade slip, he realized that memorizing each of the 10,000 items wouldn’t really be that difficult. However, he wasn’t just any old person. His goal was to become a great apothecary who could concoct a Live-Forever Never-Die Pill.
The vicious determination concealed in his personality once again exploded out. This was not just memorizing a simple list; he had to carefully observe all of the details of each type of medicinal plant. Only after understanding a plant fully could he move on to the next one.
Back when he had been under such pressure because of Xu Baocai, he had practiced cultivation like mad for the better part of half a year. Now, with even grander aspirations, a similar thing was occurring.
He studied the medicinal plants down to the tiniest detail, until he could close his eyes and recall an image of each and every one.
However, he still felt as if that wasn’t enough, and wished he could study the actual items to make his research complete. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do about that. All he could do was carefully research what he had at his disposal, which included the shapes of the leaves and the patterns of the veins.
Even that wasn’t enough for Bai Xiaochun though. He also studied the roots and the fruits. It was almost as if the plants themselves were right in front of him, several times their normal size and dug up out of the ground for him to study.
After that, he still didn’t feel confident enough. Next, he studied the tiny hairs growing on the plants, and even the tiny pore-like openings beneath them.
Time passed. Soon, a month had gone by. During that time, he spent time every day practicing the fourth level of the Violet Qi Cauldron Control Art, and was getting much more comfortable with his cultivation base. At the same time, he hadn’t forgotten about the Undying Live Forever Technique. Every day, he endured the pain as he ran around his courtyard practicing it, simultaneously memorizing the plants and vegetation from the jade slip. Unfortunately, the jade slip had no table of contents, so he wasn’t sure exactly how many he had memorized so far.
In addition to exercising in his courtyard, he would often stop by the spirit field in the corner, where he was growing ten medicinal plants.
These ten plants were Spiritwinter Bamboo. He had gone to Fragrant Cloud Peak’s Outer Sect disciple Mission Stele half a month before and selected a simple, non-dangerous mission to get them.
Bai Xiaochun didn’t dare to forget what Li Qinghou had told him. Sect disciples needed to complete at least one mission every half year; it was a sect rule that Bai Xiaochun had kept firmly planted in mind.
The merit point reward for this mission was significant, and could actually be even higher depending on how many goods were turned in at the end. It was a simple mission, but required quite a bit of time wastage; he had to care for the plants for three months before he could hand the mission in.
Of course, the Spiritwinter Bamboo could be catalyzed by a cultivator’s spiritual energy, which would make it grow faster. Unfortunately, Bai Xiaochun had no time to test that method, and had simply planted the seeds in his spirit field as soon as he had gotten back.
“You grow so slowly,” he said, looking down at the spirit field. From the description in the jade slip, he knew that Spiritwinter Bamboo required a lot of spiritual energy to grow properly. If the soil it was growing in didn’t have strong spiritual energy, then the cultivator would need to add spiritual energy personally.
He squatted down and picked up a handful of soil from the spirit field. After a moment, he muttered, “I bet this spirit field doesn’t have enough spiritual energy, and that’s why the Spiritwinter Bamboo is growing so slowly.
“What can I do to get the spirit field’s spiritual energy to be a bit stronger…?” After a moment of thought, his expression lit up, and he extended his right hand, within which materialized the turtle-wok.
He looked at the wok, and then back at the spirit field, and his eyes began to shine.
“If this wok can enhance anything, then… I should be able to perform a spirit enhancement on the spirit soil, right?” Feeling very curious all of a sudden, he quickly dug up the Spiritwinter Bamboo seeds, then filled the turtle-wok with spirit soil and produced a piece of one-colored firewood to perform a test.
Soon, silver light flashed, and the spirit soil in the turtle-wok glowed with the design of a basic spirit enhancement. The light quickly faded, but the spirit soil clearly emanated a much stronger spiritual energy than before.
Bai Xiaochun was delighted. Not feeling the slightest bit inconvenienced whatsoever, he quickly began to enhance one wokful of spirit soil after another. After more than an hour had passed, when he was just about out of one-colored firewood, the entire spirit field had benefited from a basic spirit enhancement.
Of course, that was only the top level of soil. He didn’t have enough firewood to go any lower. Therefore, because there was no foundation for the spirit soil, after enough time passed, it would gradually return to normal.
Even so, the current spiritual energy in the spirit field had undergone a Heaven-shaking, Earth-toppling transformation, and was so strong that it caused a fragrant aroma to swirl about.
Bai Xiaochun immediately planted the Spiritwinter Bamboo seeds again, then stood off to the side watching. It didn’t take long before some tiny buds popped up and began to grow rapidly.