The Constant Changes

In a Spirit Master's road to cultivation, a Spirit and cultivation are the key to strength.

At the end of class, the excited teenagers rushed towards the Spirit room.

"Form a line, enter one by one," some voices suddenly yelled; it was natural that there were guards outside the Spirit room. The youths went in one at a time and came out. Finally it was Di Lan's turn to enter the Spirit room.

This room has a mysterious feeling in it. The five walls all had holes; in each one of these embedded diamond-shaped holes were another round hole. Each of the holes have the same in size as big as a soccer ball.

In the many holes were five kinds of design – earthly, leafy, fiery, watery and metallic. These containers kept in all kinds of heavenly Spirit according to their nature or elements.

Some heavenly Spirit were silent, while some made a lot of noises, creating chirping, clucking, rustling sounds and so on. All these noises combined together to create a sort of life symphony.

"Spirits are also divided into 9 ranks. All the heavenly Spirit in this room are Rank one Magical Spirit." Di Lan glanced around, immediately aware of this.

Generally speaking, Rank one Spirit Masters can only use Rank one Spirit. If they used higher level magical Spirit, these masters would need to fed with one's own spiritual essence more than usual constantly. Feeding higher level Spirit was often not something lower ranked Spirit Masters' spiritual essence could afford. Thus to Spirit Masters who were newcomers, they would always pick a Rank one Spirit as their first refined magical Spirit unless under a special situation.

There is great significance to the first Spirit that a Spirit Master refines – It will become their vital Spirit, interconnecting their lives together. If it dies, the Spirit master will suffer a huge blow.

"Alas, my original wish was to get my hands on the Demon Monk's Butterfree -- the growth-type magical Spirit which has a form of a demonic butterfly and refine it as my vital Spirit. But right now there are still no leads on my search for the Demon Monk's remains. I don't even know when will I be able to find it, or if it still really exists. Just to be safe, I'll pick a Moonfang Spirit first." Di Lan sighed inwardly as he walked straight along the wall on his left.

One of the top layers of the holes in this wall had a row of white plates. In every plate was a heavenly Spirit.

These heavenly Spirits were crystalline and shaped like a broken crescent moon which made it look like a fang of a wolf; it was like a piece of sapphire. Against the backdrop of the silver dish, the Spirit gave off a quiet and beautiful feeling.

Known as the Moonfang Spirit, this variety of heavenly Spirit was the local Spirit of the Mu clan and many of the clansmen would choose the Moonfang Spirit as their vital Spirit. The Moonfang Spirit was not a Spirit of five elements; it was a breed that was cultivated with a secret method by the Mu clan. The Moonfang Spirit could not be found anywhere else; it could be said that this was a symbol of the Mu clan.

Since it was all Rank one Moonfang Spirit, there was very little difference among one another. Di Lan casually chose one and took it. The Moonfang Spirit was very thin, yet comparable to the weight of a piece of an ore. The Spirit occupied the whole area of his palm; it was roughly the size of a sapphire blade. As Di Lan put it on his hand, he could almost see through it and gaze at the lines on his palm.

With one last look and finding nothing wrong with it, Di Lan put the Moonfang Spirit into unadorned box and walked out of the Spirit room. Outside the Spirit room, the queue was still quite long. As soon as the next person in line saw Di Lan leave, he went into the room hurriedly with excitement.

If it were others, when they got their heavenly Spirit the first thing they would do, would be to take it home and quickly refine it. But, Di Lan was not in a hurry to do so, for his mind was still thinking about the Butterfree.

The Shacklefly was more precious compared to the Moonfang Spirit, although the Moonfang Spirit was a specialty of the Mu Yue village, it did not help a Spirit Master as much as a Butterfree.

After he left the Spirit room, Di Lan headed straight for the tavern.

"Shopkeeper, two bottles of aged wine!" Di Lan fished around his pockets and drew out the remaining spirituall stone pieces, putting them onto the counter.

These few days, he would come here and buy wine, then go around the village border and scout, intending to find tracks of the Butterfree. The shopkeeper was a short and scrawny middle-aged man, his face wrinkled. After these few days, he had already remembered Di Lan.

"Sir, you've come." While he greeted Di Lan, he stretched out a thin and short hand and skillfully swiped away the spiritual stone pieces. As he put them onto his palm, he shifted his hand up and down and felt that the weight was correct. With this the shopkeeper's smile deepened.

Spiritual stones were the currency used in this world, used to measure the value of all commodities. At the same time it was also a condensed matter of the Heaven and earth's essence, usable on oneself, and is important in helping a Spirit Master in his cultivation.

As it has monetary attributes as well as usable properties, it was similar to the gold on Earth. Earth has a gold currency standard system, and in this world it was replaced with spirit stones. Compared to gold, the purchasing power of spirit stones is even more astonishing. However, with Di Lan's continued spending like this, no matter how many spirit stones he had it would not be enough.

"Two bottles of wine everyday, and it has been 9 full days already. The initial savings I had are already almost all spent," Di Lan frowned slightly as he walked out of the tavern with two jars of wine.

Once someone becomes a Spirit Master, he would be able to extract spiritual essence straight from a spirit stone to replenish the spiritual sea in his core. Thus to Spirit Masters, spirit stones were not just a form of currency, but also a supplement in their cultivation. With sufficient spiritual stones, the rate of cultivation will increase greatly; this can make up for the disadvantages of those with lower talent grade.

"I won't have spirit stones to buy wine anymore tomorrow, yet, I still can't find any tracks of this damned monk. Do I really have to take the Moonfang Spirit and refine it as my vital Spirit?" Di Lan felt rather unsatisfied.

As he walked with the two bottles of wine in his hand, he started to wonder. "Academy elder said, the first person who manages to refine his vital Spirit will get a reward of 30 spiritual stones. Right now, I guess a lot of them are at home trying their best to refine their magical Spirit and compete for the first position. A pity, refining the vital Spirit is more of a test of one's talent. Those with better spiritual talent will have better advantage. With my mortal grade talent, without any special means I have totally no chance of winning."

It was at this moment, the voice of Mu Di Lang called out to him from behind. "Big brother, you really did go to the tavern and buy alcohol! Follow me, aunt and uncle want to see you."

Di Lan stopped in his tracks and turned around. He found his younger sister was no longer like before, always lowering her head as she spoke. Right now, the twins gazed to each other's faces.

A gust of wind blew, lifting up the older brother's messy long hair, the lower hem of the younger brother's robes swishing around.

Just a short period of one month has gone by, yet humans change.

A week after the Awakening Ceremony, a huge change came upon the older brother and the younger sister. The older brother Di Lan fell from the sky, the title of genius mercilessly destroyed. And the younger sister began to bloom with radiance, slowly rising up like a new star.

To the younger sister Di Lang, this sort of change was earthshaking to her world. She finally tasted the feelings that her older brother used to have – the feelings of people pinning their hopes on him, the feelings when people use envious and jealous looks to gaze at him. She felt like she was suddenly dragged out from a dark shadow of her older brother and placed into a heaven filled with light. Everyday when she woke up, she felt like he was having a very sweet dream. The difference of how she was being treated from before and now was like day and night, making her somewhat unable to believe her reality even until now, but at the same time also strongly unaccustomed to it.

It was hard to adapt.

In a short while from being unknown to someone who was closely watched, people pointing at her all the time. Sometimes when Di Lang walked on the road, he would hear people around her talking about herself, voices praising her as the first ever Matriarch of the Mu Clan. Her face would heat up and he would feel completely at a loss of what to do, her eyes trying to avoid gazes, she even almost forgot how to walk properly!

The first nine days or so, Mu Di Lang became thinner yet her energy became more vigorous. From the inner depths of her heart, something called 'self-confidence' began to manifest.

"This is what big brother had always been feeling before, how beautiful this feeling is!"

She could not stop thinking about her older brother Mu Di Lan; facing such attention and discussion, how did her older brother deal with it?

She subconsciously started to imitate Di Lan, pretending to look friendly yet distant all the time, but quickly found that he was not fit for this kind of style. Sometimes during class, a girl's shout could easily send him red-faced. On the roads, all the flirting from the older teens even caused her to flee in a hurry many times.

She was like a toddler learning how to walk, stumbling and falling as she tried to get used to her new life. During this entire process, she was unable to avoid hearing about her older brother – falling into depression, becoming a drunkard, not going home at night, staring blankly in class.

She felt very shocked at this. Her own older brother, once a strong entity and hailed as a being of great genius, suddenly becoming like this?!

But slowly she started to sort of understand. Her big brother was also a normal man after all. Encountering this kind of setback and huge blow would send anyone into depression. Along with this understanding, Di Lang secretly felt an indescribable mixed feeling of worry and happiness inside. This feeling was something she was terribly unwilling to admit, but yet it definitely existed.

Her older brother who was hailed as a genius and always covering her in shadow, acting so depressed and dispirited right now. From a reverse angle, it was a testimony to his own growth, wasn't it?

She was the outstanding one, this was the real truth!

But, as someone who once lived in a shadow, she can't help but empathize.

Hence, when he saw Di Lan holding the wine bottles, his hair messy and clothes untidy, Mu Di Lang felt concerned, yet, her breathing also becoming a lot easier. With concern, she said, "Big brother, you have to stop drinking, you cannot go on like this! You have no idea how worried the people who care about you are, you need to wake up!"

Di Lan still smiled adoringly to her little sister but he did not say anything. The twins gazed at each other.

Younger brother Mu Di Lang's eyes were shining, giving off a sharp and keen feel. And the older brother Mu Di Lan's two orbs were a deep blue, faintly resembling a deep calm ocean. These eyes could not help but make Di Lang still feel the strange suffocating feeling that she used to. Not long after she subconsciously turned away her gaze and looked somewhere else.

But when she realized it, she felt a sudden rise of anger. It was an anger that was directed at herself.

What's wrong with you? Can't even muster the courage to look directly at your big brother?

I've changed, I've completely changed!

With these thoughts, her eyes shifted back their sharpness and she shot her gaze at her brother again. But Di Lan was already not looking at her. Holding a jar of wine in each hand, she walked past Di Lan and let out a soft chuckle, "My dear little sister, what else are you gawking at? Let's go."

Di Lang's breathing became disoriented, the strength that had accumulated inside her heart no longer able to be released. This made her experience a depression that was hard to describe.

Seeing that her older brother had walked far ahead, she could only quicken her pace to catch up. But this time, her head was no longer lowered, but rose to meet the sun. Her gaze was fixed on her own feet that was stepping on her older brother Di Lan's shadow.