Heavy Sword - 4
Carefully this time, Yuan Yi sent his qi into the ring. The sensation was like a flash of lightning, and he found himself within an empty space. He realized that he must've entered the ring with his mind. Or soul. Or something. The bottom-line was simple, he was inside the dimensional storage.
It truly looked empty for the most part. Nothingness extended virtually forever, but he could sense that the world inside the ring was limited. It was exactly 10 cubic meters. He could barely stand in this space, as 10 cubic meters wasn't that large. The limits of the space extended half a meter above his head, and if he threw both his arms out to his side, he could almost touch both horizontal ends.
In his head, 10 cubic meters sounded a lot larger.
In the storage, he saw all the items. The spirit stones were all thrown onto a pile in the middle of the 'room', and the other items were scattered about. Surprisingly, there were no corpses, and of their swords, only the iron ore remained. But he assumed that the two strange items, the Spirit Bead and Memory of Regret were products of their processed bodies.
"Neat," Yuan Yi thought. He could dispose of corpses with this ring. That reflexive thought scared Yuan Yi. He wanted to be a hero of this age, not a villain. He didn't have to worry about disposing of corpses. A hero would proudly stand over the vanquished.
Whatever, Yuan Yi shrugged. For now, he needed this function.
Yuan Yi sent qi into the ring again, and the sudden sensation returned. He found himself in his empty field once again.
Then he howled. "No! I didn't get the seeds!"
He rushed to the array on the field and dug into the ground, but it was truly empty. There was nothing left of the spiritual plants.
Yuan Yi sighed. He was starting to enjoy farming. He always thought that if he failed to join the Inner Circle, he would go to the mortal world and live an easy life. Most would become spirit plant farmers in hopes of one day becoming Inner Disciples, but Yuan Yi hated that idea. Now, his thoughts on the matter changed.
Farming improved his cultivation and it made him rich - or so he thought. He never heard of a farmer receiving 500 spirit stones for one small field of spirit herbs, so Yuan Yi deduced that it must've been the
To begin with, the value of spirit grass comes from the qi density of the medicinal field. The grass, growing alongside the spirit herbs, would absorb the qi and crystallize. Yuan Yi's field was overflowing with qi, and it was extremely dense.
Yuan Yi glanced at the sky. It was a shame that winter was coming. He could perhaps manage one more harvest.
[Exclusive quest issued: Acquire more seeds [OR] Refine the spirit herb paste.]
Yuan Yi thought about the two options. He really didn't know why he had to pick one or the other.
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...
"Why do you even give me an option to choose when it is clear you want me to do only one of those?" Yuan Yi grumbled. "I'll refine the paste."
[CP increased by 25. Current CP: 150/250.]
Yuan Yi set off, walking towards the Sect. He had to acquire a refining manual. It was considered that refining itself had three disciplines.
Alchemy: The art of creating medicine by mixing herbs together.
Forging: The art of creating treasures and magical weapons.
Refining: The art of reducing material into a processed form.
Refining was present in every discipline of crafting. One had to refine the ore, or the paste, to bring out its qualities. The ring already refined the spirit herbs into a medicinal paste, and now the paste could be refined into a pill. Of course, there are losses in every step of the process, and it is generally more valuable, and much harder, to throw in the herb and directly refine it into a pill. It is the same thing with ore and spirit beast parts. Turning ore into ingots first, and then the ingot into a sword, for example, would introduce twice the losses in the refining process.
Paste could still be valuable, if refined to a high grade. The reason was because the paste does not lose its potency over time. Some plants, like ginseng and lingzhi mushrooms increase their potency over time, but others lose them. Especially monster parts, it is best to refine them immediately, on the spot. Cultivators who do not have an appropriate inner flame for refining the base material would buy the processed material, and refine that into a pill.
That is where Yuan Yi wanted to start. Just like farming, he had no idea how to refine anything. He didn't even have an inner flame. He wasn't sure if he could even develop one at the Qi Condensation stage. That is not to say that he couldn't do it, he'd just have to use ordinary fire.
Dawn was just coming over the horizon, shining on the mountain, when Yuan Yi made it to the Sect gates. It was the same guard as before, and this time, it seemed like the guard showed more respect to Yuan Yi.
Yuan Yi politely nodded in greeting, and inwardly wondered what a sorry mess he must've looked like the first time he came back to the sect.
Now, he looked like the old Yuan Yi. The beloved and hated Inner Court prospect. There were many geniuses in the Brilliant Sword Sect, but Yuan Yi was considered a great talent, even among them.
This year, he was sixteen years old, and he joined the Brilliant Sword Sect two years ago. Geniuses like Dan Wei, Wu Wei and Zhang Li were also Outer Court disciples for only two years, but they were expected to join the Inner Disciples this year. Earlier, last year, Zhang Yong joined the Inner Court, and he was also a heaven-defying talent. Coincidentally, he was the younger brother of Zhang Li.
Of course, there were more prospects, but when it comes to geniuses, this generation had at least those three to be proud of. The others, Yuan Yi didn't know of.
As Yuan Yi entered the sect, he saw the training squads out and about in the courtyard, running through their military drills. The Brilliant Sword Sect was a military academy after all. The Inner Disciples often went to the frontlines and fought against the evil Sects, or even the demons and monsters of the other worlds.
Yuan Yi didn't think about it too often. The battle for the Azure Continent had been going on for well over a hundred years now, and the threat of the demons and monsters had existed since the beginning of time, as far Yuan Yi knew.
Of course, one day he would go to the frontlines as well, but to get there, he'd first need to become an Inner Disciple. He was simply focused on the first step. Everything else comes later.
Yuan Yi headed towards the Acquisition Pavilion, intending to exchange some spirit stones for contributions, so that he can get the entry manual for refining.
[Urgent Quest issued: Confront your enemies.]
[Reward: 1x Entry Manual for Refining. 1x Entry Manual for Alchemy.]
...
"Fuck," Yuan Yi cursed. When did he become such a miser!?
He turned around and went towards his training courtyard, where his squad was no doubt practicing their drills.