In the blink of an eye, they were almost a meter tall. In fact, if disciples in the sect who were adept at growing medicinal plants saw what was happening, they would certainly gasp. Even if a cultivator skillfully nourished the plants with spiritual energy, they wouldn’t grow so fast.
After all… no one in the cultivation world had ever been so extravagant as to perform spirit enhancement on soil, all for the purpose of growing ten stalks of Spiritwinter Bamboo….
Not even the famous grandmasters of spirit enhancement would ever think to do such a thing; it was simply far too much of a waste.
Seeing that the Spiritwinter Bamboo was now growing well, Bai Xiaochun felt very pleased. He turned back and continued to jog around the courtyard, simultaneously studying the plants and vegetation in the jade slip.
The sun was setting, and the sky grew dark. Considering that the stalks of Spiritwinter Bamboo had already grown higher than a meter, and had apparently still not reached its full height, it was hard to say… exactly how tall they would be in three months….
That night, Bai Xiaochun finally put the jade slip down. After vicious hard work, he had finally thoroughly memorized all 10,000 types of plants and vegetation. He had even found some areas in the descriptions of the medicinal plants that revealed how they conflicted with other medicinal plants.
“Tomorrow morning, I’m going to go get the second volume about plants and vegetation. I wonder what the test at the 10,000 Medicines Pavilion will be like. Can I really pass it?”
Bai Xiaochun set his chin and flicked his sleeve. He had just been planning on uttering some bold and audacious words, but then, just couldn’t help but feel a bit anxious. Clearing his throat, he picked up the jade slip again and began to study some more. He just couldn’t shake the fear that some problem would come up in the test.
Please go to
install our App to read the latest chapters for free
Chapter
17: Little Turtle
The next morning at dawn, Bai Xiaochun woke up early. As soon as he walked out of his log cabin, he looked over at the Spiritwinter Bamboo and saw that it was already taller than half the height of an average person. He nodded his head in satisfaction, then left the courtyard and headed in the direction of the 10,000 Medicines Pavilion.
The sun rose up over the horizon, sending scintillating beams of light out in all directions. The multi-colored sunlight dancing among the mists like golden carps was a truly spectacular sight. Bai Xiaochun was currently hurrying along a path along with numerous other Outer Sect disciples. He didn’t recognize any of them, which caused him to suddenly miss his Elder Brothers from the Ovens.
“I wonder how Eldest Brother is doing, and Third Fatty Hei….” Sighing inwardly, he walked along for about an hour, until the sun was high in the sky. Finally, he saw the 10,000 Medicines Pavilion off in the distance, and the ten shocking stone steles set up outside of it.
Those stone steles were the identifying feature of the 10,000 Medicines Pavilion. Green light emanated off of them, rising a hundred or more meters up into the air. It was an amazing sight, like ten giants standing there, completely intimidating.
Visible on the surface of the stones steles were lines of text, a ranking system that went from one to a hundred.
Toward the top, there were no names, only various images, which were in fact the insignias of various Outer Sect Chosen who had become famous apothecaries in the 10,000 Medicines Pavilion.
Every apothecary had a unique insignia which they would use to mark the satisfactory spirit medicines they had concocted. It was a tradition that went back throughout the ages, and therefore, it was an important honor to all apothecaries.
The last time he had come here, Hou Yunfei had explained all of these things briefly. But now that Bai Xiaochun was coming here alone, he couldn’t help but stare at the ten stone steles.
The first thing that caught his attention was the eye-catching insignia on the first place position of the foremost stone stele.
It was a magic bottle! 1
According to Hou Yunfei, that magic bottle was the insignia of… Zhou Xinqi!
The name was not unfamiliar to Bai Xiaochun. Back when he was a servant, he remembered sitting under the moonlight as Big Fatty Zhang munched on a ginseng rootlet and sighed about Zhou Xinqi.
She came from a clan of mortals, and several years ago had been discovered by one of the Senior members of the sect, who sensed that she had unusual latent talent. When she arrived in the sect and was formally tested, her latent talent caused a huge commotion in the Spirit Stream Sect.
She had a rare plant and vegetations spirit meridian, which not only made her speed of cultivation many times greater than the average person, but also gave her astonishing potential when it came to synthesizing medicine. After joining Fragrant Cloud Peak, she became Li Qinghou’s only apprentice, and was actually viewed as the most important apothecary in the sect next to Li Qinghou, and a future pillar!
According to the rules of the Spirit Stream Sect, it didn’t matter how high a person’s latent talent was, they couldn’t automatically become an Inner Sect disciple. Therefore, Zhou Xingqi was just like all the other Chosen from the other mountain peaks on the south bank. They all started out as disciples in the Outer Sect, where they trained hard to improve. However, the cultivation resources they had access to were actually provided by the Inner Sect.
Everyone knew that it wouldn’t be long before Zhou Xinqi would prove herself and become an Inner Sect disciple.
On top of all that, she was astonishingly beautiful, which earned her the wide admiration of countless male disciples.
Because of all of these reasons, she was very famous on Fragrant Cloud Peak. In fact, the Inner Sect disciples didn’t view her as belonging to the Outer Sect. Even the conservative Inner Sect as a whole feared her.
As Bai Xiaochun considered all these matters, he suddenly felt very curious about Zhou Xinqi. Then he made his way from one stone stele to the next, closely looking at all ten. Soon, he was virtually struck speechless.
“Zhou Xinqi is amazing. Of these ten stone steles, her name is in first place on eight! I don’t see her name at all on the other two; presumably she hasn’t competed for those yet!” Bai Xiaochun’s eyes were as wide as saucers as he looked at all the stone steles.
By now, the crowd of disciples that had gathered around the 10,000 Medicines Pavilion had swelled to quite a number. Bai Xiaochun looked away from the stone steles and found the location where he could exchange his jade slip for the second volume of plants and vegetation. As he looked around, he realized that there really were a lot of people present, almost as if they were gathering in advance for some reason. Suddenly, he heard people talking excitedly.
“Elder Sister Zhou is coming!”
“Hahaha! So the rumors were true! Elder Sister Zhou is coming today. We didn’t come in vain!”
“Elder Sister Zhou has already taken first place in the five volumes of plants and vegetation and three volumes of spirit creatures. This time she’ll definitely challenge the fourth volume of spirit creatures!”
The buzz of conversation rose and fell, and the crowd grew more packed. Bai Xiaochun was stuck in the very middle, but thankfully he wasn’t as fat as he had been before. After jostling around a bit, he managed to get out in front. Just as he did, he looked up and saw a bright beam of light flying through the air.
It was blue flying silk, standing atop which was a young woman wearing the clothing of the Outer Sect. Long black hair flew behind her in the wind; she had narrow, phoenix-like eyebrows and eyes that shone as cold as the moon. Her complexion was lovely, her frame thin and lithe.