8 6- 11

Story 8 - Tribulation Trepidations (6 ?)

Did he seriously just kick the damn pan?! Unnecessary and risky! If he couldn't catch everything... Fuck, we'd have to store the first dish in the new time-freezing pantry of the space, then search for the ingredients for the tofu and vegetables.

I should yell at the brat. But I had to keep silent — cooking was one of the few subjects I knew shit about. For all I knew this was necessary.

While I kept a stiff face, I watched the little shit use an immortal chef technique to spin the bowls under the falling vegetables, catching each of them before they could fall all over the place.

When the dishes landed softly on the countertop next to the Scorching Garlic Chili Noodles, they appeared to be full of energy, but also a tiny bit lackluster. It was like the dish wasn't complete and was duller for it.

That was when he grabbed his pre-made sauce. With a twist of a spoon, he drizzled it over the rice, vegetables and tofu. That was when both dishes started to sparkle. Waves of intense mouthwatering scent wafted through the kitchen.

When he added a few julienned sprigs of Split Yang Carrots as a garnish, I visibly saw the meal increase in quality. If this were in a manhua, it would have gone from having a few sparkles to filling the panel with them. Possibly even a rainbow effect just to add that extra bit of special.

Actually, if I squinted hard enough, I could see a hint of an illusory Taiji symbol.

A Qi Condensation level meal producing such an image was beyond impressive.

This kid had some big protagonist energy.

When Little Spring placed my portion in front of me, I took out my chopsticks and picked up a bite of the Soothing Yin Tofu and Vegetables.

The flavor subtly overwhelmed my tongue while the spiritual energy sent a wave of soft chilling Qi deep into my bones.

His eyes glittered impatiently.

Since these two dishes were designed to be consumed in tandem, I next ate a bit of the Garlic Noodles.

The sharp flavor of garlic combined with the spicy Qi warred with the cold energy. These two energies fought in a way that gently strengthened the body instead of destroying it.

I set down my chopsticks.

The rest would have to wait. This kid had worked his ass off making this, and he deserved all of my attention.

"Before I talk about the taste and spirituality, I want you to know that you still have a long way to go before you're a true immortal chef."

His eyes didn't waver.

Guess I wasn't fooling the brat.

I cleared my throat. "That said, the chef techniques you showed me were impressive. You are mastering each one at an incredible speed. Don't think that I didn't see you combining 'Any Blade is my Sword' and the immortal chef skill, 'Slice and Dice.'"

He blushed, but his eyes turned into half circles from how big he was grinning. "I named it after that concept you taught me."

What?! He remembered me talking about math, cubes and the power of three? I hadn't touched on those concepts in months.

"We're the type of cultivators that learn multiple disciplines. Because of this, we may never master every one of them as well as someone who devotes their whole existence to the subject. But, if we work intelligently, and combine the things we can do in unexpected ways like you've just shown, then it's possible to be just as strong or even stronger than the individual who does."

Essentially, 'A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.'

He nodded, then looked at the food that was slowly cooling and impatiently shuffled from foot to foot.

Right. He was desperately holding back the urge to tell me that it won't taste as good if it goes cold.

There was one last point I had to make. "Your execution on your final-chance to prepare this meal was the best one yet. Not only did the flavor spread through my mouth evenly, but the softness of the tofu we made together was even more tender while being firm in the right places. The garlic was very noticeable, but it wasn't overwhelming in the noodles this time."

He winced. "It was only that one time when I used too much."

"You're dealing with spiritual ingredients here. Even using a slightly larger garlic clove than necessary might cause the flavors to vary." At least, that was what I'd heard master chefs comment on before. "Fortunately, immortal cooking is more forgiving than alchemy at low levels."

He grimaced. "I doubt that Chef Garlic would agree with that."

She'd be wrong.

"You worked hard and succeeded to an incredible degree." That seemed to perk him up. "Now, let's eat!"

We both wasted no time and dug into our meal. Each noodle and grain of rice vanished into our stomachs at an alarming rate.

Vanishing in the literal sense.

Immortal cuisine was interesting because it looked like food, we ate it like food, but it did not digest like food. It digested like a slow-acting dan.

Even as I ate the last bite, the meal dissipated from my stomach and energy slowly entered each part of my body in a cycle similar to my cultivation technique.

The energy painlessly increased the density of my bones, strengthened my muscles, empowered my blood and hardened my skin while keeping it malleable and soft.

The great thing about this was that I could finish my preparations without waiting for the energy to finish its work.

Muahahaha!

I still couldn't believe how easy this all was.

For a thousand fucking years, I believed the author had a 'no pain, no gain,' policy when it came to body cultivation. But these meals worked without that.

This felt like cheating. Finally, it was me that was cheating!

Of course, considering the Xianxia genre, it made sense that the original author would set it up so the goddamn protagonist could breeze through body cultivation. The fucker even gave him an immortal chef wife so he didn't have to learn cooking himself or expose his secrets to a hired chef.

Just thinking about the set of blackout-painful baths I went through over a year ago when I could have...

It didn't matter. Even if I knew about these meals, I wouldn't have had the spirit stones for it. All the ingredients to bring just the two of us up to the peak of Qi Condensation cost Peerless Resolve the equivalent of a Nascent Soul's yearly wages.

The kid cycled his cultivation since he'd used a lot of internal Qi. Actually, he was almost ready to transcend his own tribulation. I'd have to lecture him about creating a foundation soon. But not now. There would be plenty of months before he was ready.

Once Little Spring recovered his energy, I grinned. "Want to help me forge my new spiritual armor?"

The kid's eyes sparkled. "Yes!"

***

After we moved into the smithy, I set out the components I'd need to make the first part of what would become my new outfit.

"What kind are you making this time?" Little Spring picked up an ingot of the Spiritual Iron that a family gave me during the plague. They couldn't afford their child's medicine so they paid for it in iron.

Little Spring poked his finger into a bowl of Salty Magnificent Black Carbon Sand. I swatted his hand away. That sand took me days to collect during the crab mission.

With a flick of my sleeve I pulled out the red sword shard and beamed at the kid. "I finally managed to find a piece of Three Star Red Titanium!"

"It's not like the sect didn't have any... we just couldn't afford it without going on several more missions."

One reason I used the black market.

I cleared my throat. "The issue is that this piece here isn't pure Red Titanium."

"Does that mean that you have to make a tool that isn't as good?"

"Of course not! Who am I?!"

"Sister Lin!"

"That's right. And I'm going to teach you how to extract and purify this metal. Muahahahaha!"

The kid's eyes grew wide.

"But I thought that, once a metal was mixed with something, you couldn't un-mix it."

I grinned. "That's not always the case. There are ways to separate some metals. It's just not always cost-effective."

"So, this one is cost-effective?"

"That's right... Because I know how to cheaply extract Three Star Red Titanium from an alloy."

"Then how do we make it?"

I teleported a big barrel of Verdant Spiraling Limes from the space's time-freezing pantry. Well, I called it a pantry but it was a small room where anything living would die immediately but where spiritual food would never get old and never get cold.

"We start by juicing these in a way that extracts the spiritual essence into the juice."

"Oh! I can do that really fast." As an immortal chef in training, I expected as much.

"Good. While you do that, I'll take care of the hard part."

"And that is?"

"Cutting up this shard into manageable pieces so it doesn't take a week to dissolve."

He nodded, then disappeared with the limes.

The first thing I did was fire up the furnace. This upgraded version warmed up within a minute.

Once it was the highest temperature I could make it, I threw the sword shard inside.

Because of how hard the fragment was, it couldn't melt at all.

But that was expected. This was the type of metal that would need a strange flame to fully liquify. But that didn't mean that I had no other methods of working with it.

I placed the heated shard in the center of the secret crafter's formation I'd set up earlier. After activating it, I started using my forging tools to chisel the hot shard like I was carving marble.

My increasing strength from finishing the body cultivation helped speed things up.

Unfortunately, I couldn't use sword Qi here since this was a type of material that was added to blades and armor specifically to block sharp types of energy.

Just as I finished the last break, Little Spring carried in a pot filled with Spiraling Lime juice.

"Here's the juice. What should I do with the peels?"

"When you have a free moment, slice them up and throw them in the garden later." I gestured for him to bring the pan to the worktable and pulled out a glass jar I'd made just for situations like this.

Actually, to make it, I'd taken a different special sand that I'd collected on the crab mission, fired it up in the furnace and blew a few jars from it. They didn't look pretty but they'd work for my needs.

Fuck, I missed my old tools. A good craftsman was worthless without quality ones.

While I'd made do with those I cobbled together myself, I'd have to make progressively better tools by myself. There had been a lot of progress in item forging in the past thousand years.

I placed the metal fragments into the jar, grabbed a ladle and poured some juice over it until it completely covered the small pieces.

The kid looked into the glass. When nothing happened, he turned to me. His narrowed eyes as if asked me if I had him juice all those limes for nothing.

I grinned and pulled out another item I picked up for cheap during the mission we did not speak about. A special black stone.

"Ah!" The kid pointed to it. "Isn't that the ugly pearl someone conned you into buying?"

Brat. "You mean that I conned someone out of."

He looked skeptical.

I coughed. "This is a Black Dreams Sea Pearl, and while it looks like an eldritch lemon with the surface of a black pearl, it is actually a stone found in the ocean."

He studied it skeptically. "Are you just going to drop it in there or something?"

"That would be wasteful. Pull out that zester I forged."

He reluctantly grabbed the small grating tool. Technically, I'd originally made it for this purpose. He'd just commandeered it for his cooking.

I ran the stone along the blades to shave some pearl filings. Once they gathered into a small pile, I dropped a single shaving into the glass jar. It disappeared on contact with the lime juice.

I added the pieces one at a time until the solution started boiling where it touched the metal. Bubbles rose to the surface.

The metal visibly started to disappear and the juice darkened.

Wonder filled the kid's eyes. "Is this considered alchemy or forging?"

"It's both."

He poked the jar. "This is genius. How did you learn this?"

I grinned. "As a genius, of course, I was the one who developed this method!" Coming up with things like this rather than squabbling with petty people was what I tried to spend my last 1000 years doing.

Imagine all the time I wasted and the experiments I could have done if it wasn't for Bloodsword's fucking harem!

Those bitches were always bringing me into drama I wanted nothing to do with. Waste of my goddamn time!

Whatever.

"Remember, our Dao embraces multiple professions. But time is still a limited resource. The best thing you can do is choose to focus on things that work well together."

"Like Alchemy and Immortal Cooking?"

"Exactly. But even if you begin a profession where you can't see a way to combine it with your others, you may discover connections later on that will allow you to take your profession in a unique and powerful direction."

He nodded, then pointed to the glass jar. "How long is this going to take?"

I grimaced. "Longer than I'd like. And we'll have to keep adding in lime juice and stone shavings until the liquid has turned red and there's no metal left."

His eyes grew wide. "Wait! No metal left?!"

Story 8 - Tribulation Trepidations (7 ?)

"Can't you just say, 'spiritual acid?'"

"That's not… fine, whatever."

I pointed to one of the smallest chunks of metal as it visibly vanished.

"It's so strong that it destroys metals used in forging medium-quality, sky-rank weapons and below."

Then I gestured to the now reddish liquid in the glass. "However, it only dissolves the Red Titanium. Essentially, our acid turns that metal into a liquid without melting it."

Okay, technically, it was closer to breaking it into the smallest pieces possible, while still keeping the spiritual signature intact.

This was actually a method I deduced based on my experiences in my past-past life purifying gold. Of course, since the materials in this universe were very different, it took significant trial and error to get it right.

I often watched my contemporaries weep with jealousy and complain about the amount of materials I used up. But my results spoke for themselves.

Just thinking about their slapped faces... Muahahaha!

Little Spring looked like he wanted to say something but held himself back.

I bet he was finally realizing how amazing my decision to buy that ugly pearl was.

He stared at the bubbling liquid and poked the glass. He jerked his finger back and blew on it.

"It's warm now!"

No shit!

I pulled his wrist toward me and looked at his completely unharmed hand. His body cultivation once again saved his ass from getting a nasty burn.

"Don't touch anything in the forge unless you know it isn't hot!"

"Ah, how long will it take to finish?"

I shrugged. "A few hours."

"So, are we just going to... wait here for this to dissolve?"

I narrowed my eyes. I knew he was changing the topic to avoid another lecture on safety, but I had to introduce the next section of our project. "Metal is just one part of armor. What do you think makes up a majority of it?"

He shook his head.

"The answer is fabric!"

The brat scowled.

"Even if you're wearing leather, you're going to need something underneath it."

"Isn't that… obvious?"

"But what if what you wore under your armor was also armor?"

"Like spiritual robes?"

I nodded. "The armor we use is essentially a set of wearable defensive spiritual items. And at our level, the best types are made from alloys."

After clasping my arms behind my back like the little master I was, I continued. "Unfortunately, while metal is great for blocking sharp blows, it's heavy and affects movement. And at this stage in our cultivation, we can't just stand still and throw spells at our opponents while we fly around using divine sense. We have to move our bodies."

"But fabric isn't as strong as metal," he pointed out.

No shit.

"However, there are special silks made from Magnificent Silver Silkworm Cocoons that can be even stronger." Better than Kevlar. "And if you process Cloud Puff Cotton, it will become a very powerful cloth."

"Do we have any of those?"

"With what spirit stones could we afford either one?!" I cleared my throat. "Though I did sow a small field of cotton seeds behind the palace."

"Those spiritual chickens you borrowed from Chef Garlic really messed up that area. Will any of those plants actually grow?"

I cleared my throat. "Anyway. The seedlings that survived the chicken catastrophe should be ready to turn into good spiritual armor by the time we're in Golden Core."

"It could be sooner since the upgrade increased plant growth."

"I already included that."

"Does that mean you think we'll reach Golden Core in a few years?" He scowled up at me with an adorable, confused face.

"Since you still have a lot to learn, there is no telling how soon you'll be able to reach it, but as long as I have enough spirit stones and defensive measures, I should make it in under a decade."

If I didn't first die from my goddamn Heavenly Tribulation.

The kid scowled at me. "You think I can't match your cultivation speed?"

Brat. "While you learn fast, I still have a thousand years on you."

With his arms crossed the brat looked determined. "I bet I can be as fast as you."

I raised both eyebrows and smirked. "Oh, we're betting now?"

He nodded.

"Bets require stakes. A stake needs to be something that the other party finds worth their effort. So, do you have anything that I need?"

He looked at me like I was stupid and gestured to the room.

Wait! Was he talking about the space?

I scowled at him. "Never make a bet with an item you aren't willing to part with."

He rolled his eyes.

"Besides, the stakes need to be of similar value. What could I possibly put up that is as priceless as your space?"

Besides, if he ever used it for a bet, I'd beat him up until he learned not to.

Then again, this brat was still the fucking protagonist of this universe. There was no way the original author would ever allow the kid to part with it over a wager.

"What if we keep it friendly?" He suggested. "Each time we reach a new stage, if you win — I'll prepare whatever meal you want. And if I win, you can forge whatever spiritual tool I need."

I scowled. "Don't we already craft what we each need?"

"Well, whatever you want me to cook doesn't have to be for you."

Huh. Actually, it was possible that I may ask the kid to make something for someone else. For instance, if I wanted to help a junior who had consumed too many pills and needed a meridian-cleansing spiritual meal.

I grinned. "One more condition — the food and the tool need to be under thirty mid-tier spirit stones."

He hesitated. "Anything above that can be paid for by the other party."

"Fine."

And since it was a friendly match, it wouldn't violate rule number four of the Transmigrated into a Novel Club — always stay on the main character's side, even if the odds seem bad.

Besides, I had such an enormous advantage that I might actually win!

"Since spiritual silk and cotton are out of our price range, what are we going to use to create your armored robes?"

"Our robes. While I don't currently have sufficient funds to make the metal parts, we should be able to produce enough fabric to prepare two sets of clothes."

"How are we going to do that?"

I set out over twenty piles of items, cluttering up the stone worktable.

"When you don't have quality materials, you make your own!"

I patted the pile of crystals and it moved a few inches away from the edge of the table. "To do this, we'll use a process similar to alchemy. The difference is that we're forging it. And the procedure I'm about to show you will create a type of fabric that has never appeared in this world before. Muahahaha!"

Little Spring looked at me like I was crazy, then poked at one of the beetle shells. It slid across the stone.

The kid picked up a trash-can-sized silvery honeycomb and examined its empty hexagons. "I remember this! I thought you were taking it to make special candles or nail polish."

I scowled. "You can't use the wax from the Giant Three Striped Bees for makeup. And considering its high melting point, it would become a shitty candle."

He looked up at me with his brows scrunched.

I slowly went over each of the items. There were piles of insect shells, bunches of roots from strong weed-like spiritual plants, and various crystalline ingredients. It actually came out to be a lot of individually cheap materials. Some were even considered literal trash.

With a gesture, I increased the flames of the forge up to its highest point.

From the top shelf, I used spiritual energy to pull down the largest crucible I had and tossed it into the furnace.

The harder substances were more difficult to melt, so I sent the crystals in first.

Little Spring tugged at my sleeve. "You aren't counting."

"While timing for this is important, it's not as exact as alchemy. Instead of paying attention to the time, you need to be aware of when the substance melts."

He nodded. "Are you sure those shiny rocks will melt?"

I scowled. "Of course I am. But it will take some time. While we wait, why don't you add some more lime juice to the jar and a few shavings of pearl until it bubbles again?"

His eyes sparkled, and he immediately ran to do as I asked.

Well, alchemical-forging was super fun.

In the meantime...

I pulled out a thick metal stand and trough I'd made a few days ago. Many thread-sized holes were punched out of the bottom where I'd used several dozen 'Thousand Cuts.'

Honestly, this was makeshift as fuck, but it would get the job done. And it wasn't like my punctures weren't more exact than a computer.

Once I sensed that the crystals had finished melting, I used my spiritual energy to grab an enormous pile of insect shells and scatter them around the cherry-red liquid. They burst into flames on contact as the undesirable parts burned away.

Next, I tossed in the spiritual plants. These would not take long to mix in since most of each plant would get refined before they even touched the molten mixture. Of course, the parts I desired would make it through, even with the high temperatures.

Using a series of complicated hand seals, I sent the liquid inside the crucible churning. It started to glow green.

"How is that going to turn into fabric?"

"Very carefully."

I sent the beeswax over the kid's head and into the forge.

The scent coming out of the furnace was almost indescribable. Like ash and honey with the sting of alcohol.

At this point, the liquid contracted by three-quarters of its original size and turned bright white.

But I wasn't done yet. I used another series of hand seals to shuffle everything in a way that would strengthen it and even out the ingredients. Next, I twisted it to increase the protective properties while still keeping it soft and malleable.

This was the most I could do with this substance. There were other things I could have added to it to strengthen it, but they weren't cost-effective in this era.

"It's time!" I pulled the stand and trough over to the forge.

Little Spring poked at it. "Are you sure about this? It doesn't look very stable."

I grinned. "That's why we always wear protective talismans whenever we craft."

"But this seems… more dangerous than usual."

I very seriously ignored that statement and said, "When I tell you to, use your spiritual energy to grab the threads and pull."

His eyes widened.

I laughed.

He scowled at me like I was crazy.

Whatever. It was fine. Even if he didn't take care of the threads, I'd do it. It wasn't like this was my first time.

With a scooping gesture, I sent the crucible floating out of the furnace. Once I had it hovering above the trough, I quickly poured it in.

Initially, due to surface tension and the smallness of the cuts, nothing happened. Then I made a special hand seal and used a square of spiritual energy to push the molten liquid down, compressing it until it had no choice but to go through the tiny holes.

Thin strands exited out the other end. Little Spring grabbed them with a hand-shaped energy attack and pulled them across the room at the same rate they were being created.

Quickly, the liquid finished turning into malleable strings.

The alabaster threads shimmered on the stone floor in the same way I imagined qillin fur would.

The kid pressed his hand to his heart and breathed swiftly, as if I had scared him. "I thought you were going to get that molten stuff everywhere and get injured."

Muahahaha! "This stuff cools fast. You did well."

He stepped up to the long line of threads and poked a steaming strand. Then, when he realized his finger didn't burn, he ran it over the thread.

"Are you serious?!" I jerked his hand back and flicked his glabella.

"I already told you not to poke something if you don't know if it's cool or not! Even with your body cultivation, you can still get hurt. That's a waste of a healing pill!"

I had said that it cooled fast, not that it cooled immediately! And it wasn't like the talismans I had protected us from our own stupid actions.

He rolled his eyes at me.

Fuckin' brat. This was the second goddamn time today! Was he asking for an hour-long lecture on how to be safe in the lab… er forge?

"It feels soft. Not like silk, and not like cotton either. What is it?"

Story 8 - Tribulation Trepidations (8 ?)

"I created this method based on a type of synthetic fiber that existed in my past life."

Except this material wouldn't contaminate the oceans with micro-plastics.

Regardless, I had no plans to share the recipe for mass production unless there was a war. While the ingredients I used were currently considered inexpensive or trash, as soon as other blacksmiths learned my recipe, they would become overpriced.

Unlike the Alchemists' Guild, the Blacksmiths didn't have a good patent system. Or an organization. At least, not in this era.

That was why they were all secretive assholes. Getting anything out of them was like pulling a tooth from an Immortal Ascension body cultivation expert.

Little Spring pulled a long thread out of the line. "How do we turn these into fabric?"

"Oh, that's the easy part. We weave them one strand after another."

"Isn't there an easier way to do it? Or a technique?" He looked hopeful.

I decided to mess with the kid. "We could use a loom."

He looked horrified. "Won't that take forever?"

"Unfortunately, there are some things in this world that are like grinding ink. This step can't be skipped."

The kid's eyes briefly darted to the door behind me like he wanted to run.

"Are... are you going to build one?"

Building an industrial sized loom for two outfits? I had no time for that!

"Fortunately for you, there actually is a technique that shortens the weaving process." It was something I looked into when I first realized that I'd need to turn my strings into fabric.

Little Spring relaxed.

"But before I get into that, I need to replenish my energy."

***

When I finished cycling my cultivation technique, I glanced back to see the Little Spring scraping a few pearl shavings into the lime juice.

I motioned for him to come over and he hurriedly sat in front of me.

Right as I opened my mouth to go into an explanation about the new technique, a fierce spiritual energy stretched through the space.

That was Ghosty's energy.

Had he just used a technique at the Nascent Soul level? But I couldn't think of a reason he'd use the precious energy he'd been accumulating for so long.

A chill ran down my spine. Could someone have broken in? That sounded impossible. But… was it? If someone came down from the immortal realm, could they sense the space?

"Spirit?"

No response.

The kid and I both looked at each other before using our access to the space to teleport right outside the palace.

There, I caught sight of Ghosty McGhostFace, looking opaque and hovering in midair. A young man dressed in gold stood in front of him with a mischievous smile. They looked like they were about to throw down in an epic manhua-worthy fight.

Wait a second. Ghosty shouldn't be able to stand the yang energy of the light for long. And there was no way that dragon would let anyone barge in here.

That young man was obviously the spirit in human form.

I pointed to the ground. "Come down here immediately!"

Ghosty vanished and reappeared in front of me.

The dragon remained floating in place, looking like a cat ignoring its owner.

Little Spring said, "Do as my sister says."

The human-form dragon huffed and did the same. He pouted at me like I'd ruined his fun.

"You can't do this right now. We're in the middle of crafting."

"Fairy Lin, could that wait? I need to practice Nascent Soul Level techniques so I can use them when I get my new body."

"But you don't have to do it right now."

He blushed. "The little spirit here told me that he could change the light in the space to not affect me. I just want to try it!" He must have been so excited that he couldn't resist, probably because he hadn't been able to before.

Frankly, it would have been better if this would have happened a few months ago when I wasn't in the middle of something important. Why had they only figured this out now? Whatever.

I scowled at them.

"Do you think you'll even be able to get your new body if I don't increase my realm high enough?"

He grimaced.

"When I said that I'm in the middle of crafting, I meant that I'm forging the armor I'll use during my tribulation. It's important."

I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Do you want me to push my tribulation back further? Maybe a year or two?"

That didn't sound so bad, actually.

Before I could throw my hands up and decide to continue crafting another day, he tugged on my sleeve.

"No! Please keep crafting. I can hold off on this for a day or two."

Fine. I'd keep going.

I pointed to the dragon, who winced. "And you. You should know better than to fight so close to my spiritual plants. How will you pay for it when your reckless spar destroys them?"

They both looked chastised.

"If you're going to exchange notes, do it tomorrow and over the ocean."

"Yes, Fairy Lin!"

The spirit, on the other hand, ignored me, poofed into smoke, and flew off in dragon form. That was expected.

I pointed to Ghosty. "And you. Why didn't you come to me to discuss your techniques? You think I can't help you because I'm a weak Qi Condensation cultivator?"

His cheeks turned red.

"Did you forget who I am?"

"I'll show them to you next time," he muttered.

I nodded and waved him away. He vanished into his necklace, which he'd cleverly hidden inside of his soul form. I sent it back into Little Spring's room.

"Sister Lin?"

"What?"

The kid cleared his throat and pointed to his head. "Ah, your loops came out. Want me to help you with them before we return?"

"..."

So, the whole fucking time I was berating those two, my hair looked like a goddamn mess?

Whatever. They wouldn't have noticed, anyway.

I cleared my throat. "That sounds good."

***

"This technique requires you to move things with spiritual energy — which is a baseline you've already mastered." I picked up a thread and rubbed its silky texture between my thumb and forefinger. Then, I floated the string back into place.

"There are several techniques that can weave threads into fabric. The method we'll be using is a simple one that takes very little energy."

"Is there one that can increase the durability of the fabric?"

"Of course there is. But we have nowhere near enough time or energy to practice it, since it requires infusing energy into each and every strand. Maybe once we're at peak Foundation Establishment, I'll show you it."

"Will this material still be useful at that point?"

"It will be useful enough for a kid who keeps having sudden growth spurts."

He looked sheepish. "I didn't know that body cultivation would make me grow out of the new clothes you purchased."

I waved him off. It was true that we'd both grown taller because of his meals. Actually, the thought of physically towering over those bitches who looked down on me in my past life had me grinning.

Little Spring squinted at me.

I coughed.

"Getting new clothes isn't difficult. I knew you'd grow out of those eventually. I just thought they would last a year — not three months."

I sighed. "Anyway, it will go faster if we both work on it."

"What do I need to do?"

"First, understand that the concept of weaving is profound."

The kid crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"It can be an art form. Or a soulless industry. Regardless, in both cases, it starts with the simple process of crossing threads."

"This technique is... profound?"

I grinned. He probably thought I was making this shit up. "Think about it. Everyone has worn something made of fabric at least once. You could say that weaving has touched the lives of everyone, from mortals to gods."

He blinked, and leaned forward slightly.

Finally, this brat was getting interested.

"Regardless of what materials make up your fabric, the very basic pattern remains the same throughout time, culture, and even the universe."

"That's beautiful." His eyes sparkled.

"And this is how you do it."

I quickly showed him the seals that he'd have to use repeatedly. A simple hand grasp used to collect every other thread.

Two fingers up to change the positions of where he grabbed the threads. And those same fingers flicked forward to push the strings back, making them appear like piano wires.

Then, slightly bend the wrist to pull them forward.

If we weren't cultivators, I would worry about carpal tunnel.

After a few tries and one knotted string, he sufficiently mastered it enough to help me. That protagonist halo of his could be very useful sometimes.

I brought out a thick wooden rod I had cut in two, and arranged one end of the threads on one half. Then I placed the other part on top and sealed them together. This would make it easy to roll up the fabric for storage as we completed the bolt.

I did a last check through of each thread, moving the ones that were too close together and adjusting those with too much room.

Actually, the crafters I learned the original technique from called it the Immortal Loom. I'd named my edited version, Lin's Textile Technique.

"You ready?" I sat next to the brat. "Because we're going to go fast."

He nodded, but I could see that he was nervous, and maybe a little bored.

That was no good.

"Don't stress. Just think of this as practice for getting our timing right when we fight side-by side."

He tilted his head.

I grinned. "We'll be moving together, covering for each of our weak points while functioning at speeds impossible for mortals. What is this except for another battle? A battle in the form of creation? Muahahaha!"

What I said must have struck a chord of truth in his heart, because he sucked in a breath of realization.

He turned to the threads, a determined glint in his eyes, and he made a grasping motion to gather every other thread. I did the same for the opposite ones. We pulled them apart, making a gap.

Plucking with my other hand, I collected a loose thread from a pile set aside for this purpose. With a slice, I shot it into the hole we made.

He pushed his vertical strings while I pulled mine. Then I moved my horizontal thread through the new divide.

But there was an issue. We weren't as quick as we should be. "Faster!"

"Yes!"

He sped up. The time it took to create a line in the fabric decreased two-fold. It still wasn't enough.

"More."

The kid grit his teeth, his wrist speed increasing slightly.

"Again!"

"I can't go any faster!"

"Yes, you can! Stop relying on just your body cultivation. Strengthen your muscles with your inner Qi."

"Oh!"

Suddenly, there was a burst of speed on his side. Since I already knew how fast I could go, I quickly matched pace.

Finally, we were as fast as an industrial loom... Probably. It had been over a thousand years since I'd seen a video of one. It was possible that we were going even faster.

***

It took us fifteen minutes, but we completed weaving a full bolt of cloth.

Even though it had just been my hands and spiritual energy moving, my whole body seemed to ache like I'd just worked out. That was the price of speed.

The kid gently touched the rolled up fabric that shimmered like some otherworldly material.

"Why is it so..."

"Shiny?"

He nodded.

"The threads are made up from a type of crystalline structure, which I like to call a spiritual polymer." Which was better than calling it Spiritual Polyester.

"What is that word?"

I pulled out a few spirit stones. "Imagine it being like silk or crystal, but different?" I really couldn't think of how to best describe it.

"Is that the reason it has this rainbow shine to it?"

"Actually, that's a visual effect from the heavens, approving our quality fabric."

He glanced at me suspiciously.

I laughed then started replenishing my energy. Little Spring did the same.

By the time we finished, it was time to check the Red Titanium!

I added more juice and pearl pieces. No more bubbles!

My Red Titanium had finished dissolving!

Strangely, some trace metals floated at the bottom of the glass. That meant that those were of a grade higher than sky rank. I didn't know what metal it was, but I couldn't haphazardly throw it into my armor. Besides, it wasn't like I could work with a metal above sky rank at my current realm.

Maybe this sword shard really had been once owned by someone who reached Immortal Ascension.

Or maybe these were just remnants of higher tier trash metals that couldn't be reused.

I'd figure it out later when I could work with something above sky rank.

With a flick of my finger, the powdery metals flew out of the jar and into one of the failed glasses I had made. It looked half melted, but it could be used for storage. Then I threw it into my ring.

The kid stared at the red liquid. "Will it become titanium again?"

"After several days, the acid will stop working and the titanium will return to its solid state."

He scowled. "That's too long."

"Agreed."

"Is there a way to speed it up?"

I shrugged. "There is something we could try, but I don't know if it will work."

His eyes widened. "Even you don't know?"

"Just because I'm a genius doesn't mean I perceive everything. But…" I pulled out another glass jar. "There is something we can do. Hypothesize! Test things we suspect to prove they're true. And explore reactions we don't understand!"

Because this was a volatile juice, I controlled the space to bring a few drops of the red liquid into the new jar then placed a single drop of spiritual spring water on top of it.

I grinned as the juice turned clear. Particles of red dust formed on the bottom of the glass.

His eyes sparkled. "Does this mean that we can just add the lake water to it to make it go faster?"

I gently flicked Little Spring on his glabella. He rubbed it.

"We have proof of concept, but we don't know how the water affects the metal."

He scowled. "Isn't it obvious?"

I grinned. It was time to really give this kid a love for the scientific method.

Story 8 - Tribulation Trepidations (9 ?)

I pulled out several more homemade jars and placed two drops of Red Titanium Lime Juice in each one. Next I slid pieces of paper under each, labeled Control, Water, and Fire. I also specified the glass I'd recently experimented on as Spiritual Spring Water.

Obviously, the control would be left alone. Since it was just two drops in a hot forge, it shouldn't take too long to evaporate. In the jar labeled water, I placed a bit of mundane water. Next, I took out my alchemy pedestal and waved the fire glass over the earthen flame until the liquid evaporated. A sticky substance remained at the bottom.

The kid stared at the fake beaker as I returned it. Then he looked at each one.

"The regular water did nothing."

I tapped the glass, causing the liquid to ripple. "It diluted it more, so these two drops will take far longer to sublimate than just leaving it alone would have, and make the particles harder to find."

"That one kind of makes sense. But why did the fire turn it into that? With the extra heat, shouldn't it take less time to separate instead of turn into a paste?"

I shrugged. "Since I had to move onto a more important project, I didn't look into it for long, but I did discover…"

Once again, I grabbed another pseudo-beaker, added two drops, and roasted them over the fire to make the paste. Then I poured in a couple drops of regular water and let it sit there for a minute.

After the water reconstituted the lime juice, metal powder was left at the bottom of the jar. I labeled this one Fire + Water.

"So this was what you did before having my lake's water?"

I grinned. "No! I did not use this method. Examine the color of the dust!" I pointed to the Fire + Water jar.

"It's black?" He frowned.

"And the color of this dust?" I tapped on the Spiritual Spring Water glass.

The Kid stared at the dark crimson particles.

"Red."

"And why do you think they're different?"

"When you heat the liquid with fire, it pulls the energy out of the titanium and into the lime juice? It's kinda similar to when we use flames in alchemy to pull the energy out of a plant and into the solution, then burn away the unnecessary parts of the plant."

Fuck. How did he come up with the right answer so fast? It took me a quarter hour to figure that one out after testing it multiple times in frustration. Goddamn protagonist halo.

"Yes," I said, a bit strained.

In the jar labeled Control, the juice finished evaporating, leaving a few flakes of Red Titanium.

I held up both the Control and the Spiritual Spring Water.

After a quick scan of the experiments, I smiled. "Which liquid has more titanium?"

The kid scowled. "I don't have divine sense yet."

"Think about that question and make a hypothesis."

He pointed to the Spring Water label. "It has to be this one. It will purify the solution more than waiting."

I glanced down at him and smirked evilly. "Actually, it's the control."

His dumbfounded look was priceless.

"It has ten percent more titanium."

He gripped my sleeve. "Does that mean that the spiritual spring water ate some of the titanium?!"

I shrugged. "We'd have to do this experiment a few more times to check. It could just be that the drops of liquid I snagged the first time around had less metal."

The kid stared into the depths of the solution. His jaw clenched. "Then let's do it!"

***

"And the final result is?"

"Anywhere from 12 to 8 percent more in the control," Little Spring said while staring at a jar like he couldn't accept reality.

"It's a very disturbing conclusion, isn't it?"

"I thought for sure that…" As he trailed off, he looked into the distance.

"This is why we test things."

He nodded seriously.

"So, we know that there is less Red Titanium when we use spiritual spring water. Does that mean it's the worse of the two options and that we should wait a couple days for it to settle?"

He scowled. "Obviously."

"Then, what if I asked you which jar had the highest quality?"

His eyes slowly grew wide. "You mean, the spring water decreases the amount, but increases the quality?!"

"And it's faster." It also sounded like magic, but I'd seen weirder, more over-powered things in this Xianxia universe. "Let's use it to purify a larger portion. Not the whole thing, though."

"Wait! Why not?"

"Have you considered that the reactions might be different with a greater volume?"

"I… didn't."

"And since we're here, we could do a few more tests. Muahahaha!" My mind burned with all the various possibilities.

He scowled at me and pulled on my sleeve.

I blinked.

"Sister Lin, you can't! We need to go to sleep soon. And it seems like this isn't a good way to use the precious metal that you require for your armor."

Damn it. The kid was right. I rubbed the back of my neck.

There would be time to experiment later.

I took out a jade slip and quickly recorded my conclusions along with the experiments I planned to do in the future and the hypothesis that I had.

Once finished, I needed to test our findings on larger amounts.

I wasn't entirely positive that adding a metric fuck ton of spiritual spring water wouldn't clean away the titanium altogether so, after moving a quarter of the juice into the last of my fresh jars, I sent spoonfuls of the spiritual spring water into it, until the liquid cleared, leaving the bottom of the glass filled with red dust.

Little Spring looked at me like I was crazy. Whatever. I was used to it by now.

Knowing about what percentage of Spiritual Spring water to Lime solution was safe, I added that much to the large jar.

The kid poked at the glass. "How do we get the titanium out of there and into metal form?"

I rolled my eyes. "We want the powder."

After sending a majority of the now purified juice to my Stone Hole for Dangerous Forge Trash, I washed the powder a few times with regular water and used my alchemy flame to dry it out. Since the spring water purified the lime extract, I no longer had to worry about it removing its precious spiritual properties.

Now, it was time to make some metal… alloy! Which was a sentence that called for a guitar solo. Too bad those didn't exist in this era.

Wait... didn't I invent those in my last life?! Oops. I needed to remember to not do that. The Four Arts Cultivator seniors never forgave me.

***

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Little Spring looked at me like I was insane.

"Did you practice those hand seals I gave you?"

The kid scowled. "Of course I did!"

"And did you perfect them?"

"Have I ever not perfected anything you've given me?"

I ignored that snark and pointed to the pile of dark, silvery-gray metal balls that I'd measured out earlier. "This is Spiritual Iron."

"You made my kitchen tools out of it."

"That's right." I rested my hand against the large pile. "It was a good idea to pick up so much for cheap back when we were in Verdant Hidden Cavern City."

The kid didn't look like he appreciated it as much as I did. "It's one of the lower ranked spiritual metals."

I nodded. "True, but it is the easiest to manipulate at our current realm. And we can add things to it to improve its rank."

"Like the Red Titanium?"

"That's one."

I pulled out a bowl of black sand and another of the golden flakes.

The kid pointed to the sand. "Ah!"

I almost jumped. "What?!"

"During the Crab Mission you were bent over at the beach cackling and going on and on about this sand being 'free for the taking.'"

I cleared my throat. "Well, it was just laying there, you know? And don't talk about the Crab Mission!"

He gave me a look that told me he'd already judged me, then gestured to the gold-like powder. "What's that?"

I winced. "This is something I used most of my contribution points on." And why I was so desperate to find Red Titanium in another way. It wasn't like I knew off the top of my head where all the mines were so I could go collect it myself. "It's a strengthening metal that works to increase the effectiveness of enchantments."

My mind was filled with techniques, research, and cultivation, not places.

"Normally, you'd want to use as few metals as possible when creating armor. There are a few options. I could create two alloys and braid them together to make a unique armor — which is annoying and takes too much time. Or I could produce one very strong alloy using a special technique and—"

"I thought you couldn't melt the Red Titanium?"

I coughed. "Normally, I wouldn't be able to. Fortunately, we have it in powder form, so it's easier."

"Oh! So, even if you were given a brick of Red Titanium, you still would have had to turn it into powder."

Yeah, no shit.

I continued, "Forge work is as much about timing as it is about art and enchantments. And making armor is a complex task that requires a lot of my spiritual energy, so I'll need you to help me with the furnace."

He nodded seriously.

Having him support me was also a gamble. Every time the brat and I worked together, the things we created came out better than they should have. I didn't know if this was the power of being the universe's favorite or our inverted cultivation techniques. Regardless, I was betting on it!

Of course, it was always possible that my gamble could completely fail. Then I'd have to take another year or so to search for the materials again. But pushing back my tribulation wasn't the worst thing in the world. It wasn't like I didn't have the time. My body was only 11.

"Alright, let's do this."

I pulled out the second largest crucible from the shelf.

"While our techniques make things easier, we have to conserve our limited energy. This means working smarter and doing what we can physically."

He nodded.

"So, we're going to layer in each ingredient to make it easier. This way, we'll spend less of our power mixing it all together. We'll also only melt a small amount at a time."

It wasn't like I had a strange flame that could easily melt things to the perfect temperature while adding its unique spiritual signature into the metal to strengthen it.

Shit. Now I missed Bob. Bob was the very last strange flame that I had collected. It was a good flame for forging.

I starting setting the crucible up into layers by adding twenty percent of the iron balls. Then I filled in the gaps with twenty percent of the spiritual black carbon powder. Lastly, I threw in five percent of the Red Titanium and Gold flakes.

Then I sent the whole thing into the furnace.

The first hand seal I flicked out increased the temperature to its maximum. Then I twisted my fingers into another. This one used a significant amount of spiritual energy and fed a formation inside the furnace that made metals melt at a lower temperature.

After a few minutes, the iron balls liquified around the powder and other ores. Sweat beaded on my forehead as I waited for it all to liquify. I was practically drained by the time I said…

"Now!"

Little Spring created the hand seal that would help the metal and energies mix evenly.

While he took over, I drank down several cups of spiritual spring water and used a handful of spirit stones to recover.

"Sister!"

When I looked over, sweat also beaded on the kid's brow. He struggled to hold the hand seal.

I used my spiritual energy to grab another portion of the materials and set them into the furnace to land on top of the others.

"Move!"

He dropped his hands and stepped aside, and I immediately took over.

While he recovered, I utilized the same seal as earlier to melt the new portion. By the time I'd practically emptied again, he took back over and started mixing them together.

We repeated this process several times until all the metal I'd measured had finished melting, aside from about forty percent of the gold flakes and red powder. Those would be used in the next part.

Because of the lack of titanium and the further purification of it, I had to use less iron than I had originally planned. This meant that I did not have as much to work with as I'd wanted. However, making fewer higher quality pieces was better, since this spiritual armor didn't have to rely on coverage when there was a good enchantment. Especially when I had the Spiritual Polymer to make up the coverage.

I mean, this Xianxia universe had been a harem story. The author couldn't have the wives going around in normal looking armor. So the author must have added enchantments to it to explain all the extravagant outfits.

Now It was time to separate and form the different parts. Frankly, this was the most challenging part of creating armor. And it was going to take all of my spiritual energy and concentration. If things were going to go south, it would be somewhere in the next part.

Story 8 - Tribulation Trepidations (10 ?)

"It's time to split this up and form this part of the armor!" I said, then turned to Little Spring. "Are you ready to focus on the flames while I shape everything?"

His eyes focused on the furnace. "How hot do you need it?"

"The highest you can go for now. And when I give you the signal, use this seal." To demonstrate it, I clapped my hands then — while keeping them together — I pointed them into two sky-shooting finger guns, just before lowering my left hand.

He nodded and took over control of the earthen flames. This kid was good at a lot of things, but he was still new to forging. If any other child his age was asked to do what I demanded of him, they would utterly fail. Hopefully, I wasn't wrong about putting my trust in him.

Regardless, I'd rather risk failure by trusting a kid than expose my hard won advanced techniques to a master spiritual armorer. Just remembering all the hazing I went through and all the contribution points I spent learning techniques from those stuck up assholes... A majority of those 'amazing secrets' weren't even worth it, making me feel like I'd been scammed.

With a mere flip of my finger, I raised the molten alloy into the air. Since I'd need space inside the furnace for what I was going to do, I used my spiritual energy to pull the crucible out and back onto the shelf. It landed with a thunk that echoed around the smithy.

With a twist of my hands, I divided the heavy liquid metal into various large sections. Then I split one of those up into even smaller parts. After doing a series of complex hand seals, I stomped my foot. A wave of energy washed over the small pieces, forming them into very basic belt latches and connecting rings.

It would be nice if I'd had the energy, materials, and tools to make armor that attached itself to the body using spiritual energy, but I didn't. These would have to do.

I set aside a few small pieces of metal to be added to the boots I'd make later. They formed small bars of reddish-golden metal. Since I had good leather and the Spiritual Rubber Tree, I would do something very special for them. Something... flighty. Muahahaha!

I would have to create those when I went to finish the entire set. Unfortunately, I only had the energy and stamina to create the metal parts and fabric today.

Next, I pulled out my large hammer and sent it flying into the forge. By controlling it with spiritual energy, I knocked out simple shapes for the pauldron, creating two layers for it. Then, two more for each vambrace.

Since Little Spring couldn't increase the temperature as much as I could, the armor was already cooling a bit, allowing it to keep its shape easier. This was also part of my considerations and why I was working so swiftly.

I swung the large hammer to crash down on specific spots in an order I'd perfected over the years. My energy drained with each hit, but the basic forms turned from looking not unlike a blobfish, to smooth and relatively armor-shaped.

With a grasping gesture, I pulled the large hammer back. Then I grabbed the small one and sent it flying in. With a flick of my wrist, I smashed it against precise areas, further strengthening it while also shaping it.

Finally, I flung my chisel into the forge. With a curve of my finger I had it carve out lines then circles, careful to account for how the metal would morph later. With a speed unmatched by any smith at my level, I finished drawing the spiritual armor enchantments. But they weren't done yet!

Now that the initial carvings were in place, I sent in a bit more of the gold flakes and a dozen mid-tier spirit stones. Frankly, watching as they broke up into little pieces and vanished into the carved areas of the metal made my heart bleed. So much money, so many contribution points... But they were both needed to solidify the enchantments. Otherwise, I'd have to continuously pump my spiritual energy into the armor and nobody had the stamina to do that during a fuckin' fight.

With the enchantment finished, I covered them with the second layer. No good armorer would ever allow their enchantments to be visible. At higher levels, I could even make them vanish into the alloy altogether.

"Now!"

Little Spring formed the finger gun seal and lowered the overall temperature. It was still hot inside the furnace, but now the metal would keep its shape better. There was also something special about this hand seal — while it lowered the general temperature, it kept one area in the center extremely hot.

I used that intense, heated spot to turn the edges of the overlapped pieces cherry red. With a gesture, I quickly hammered and combined them. Then I used a hand gesture to fold the edges together several times to create a lip that both looked good and served the purpose of keeping the two halves together.

It took a while, but I did this for each large piece.

Using two layers of spiritual alloy like this might make the top layer crack easier; however, it helped the enchantment stay safe in the type of lower ranked armor we were creating. Enchantments, more than anything else, made the armor work. Without it, I'd have to rely on the base protective abilities of the metal and spiritual polymer, which was good, but not that impressive. Without the enchantment, how could those materials prevent the tribulation lightning, from turning me into a moth-cultivator flying into a heavenly bug zapper?

I set the larger pieces up so the tops were close to the intense heat. Then I signaled to Little Spring that he needed to keep it up. In quick succession, I downed several cups of spiritual spring water and used up a few dozen spirit stones.

And once I finished my short break, I grabbed about half of the leftover red dust and gold flakes and threw them into the furnace. After forming a special hand seal, the titanium and gold landed on the surface of the armor, coating and strengthening the outer surface.

Seriously, who needed electroplating when there were hand seals and spiritual energy?

I grinned. Now came the fun part.

I pulled the large hammer back in and repeatedly struck the armor in a certain strength-enhancing pattern that would further help the platting fuse into the surface. The sound I made changed from clanks to pleasing gongs, allowing me to literally hear the armor increase in quality. Beautiful! Perfect! It was all coming together so well! "Muahahaha!"

I sent in another half of the red powder and used it to create a beautiful and strengthening filigree that spread over each piece like a spiderweb of art.

Finally, the metal part of the armor was complete!

"Cool it!" I pulled it, the rings, latches, and bars from the forge and allowed them to hover in midair.

With a sweating forehead, the kid stepped forward and braided his fingers together in a technique that quickly cooled down the metal while allowing it to keep its shape. Since we would need to heat it again and quench it when the time came to complete the set, this form of cooling was perfect.

As if the heavens blessed our work, even as charred as it looked, it still glowed with a rose-gold light of potential. What would it look like when we finished the whole set? Never, have I created such a low rank armor of this quality before.

I set the pieces by the bolt of fabric. This was enough for today.

Grinning, I held out my hand for a fist bump. He reluctantly gave me one while staring at the half-finished armor.

"It doesn't exactly look pretty."

I scowled at him. "Once it's all combined and polished, it will shimmer with beauty."

Actually, part of me was shocked that we had succeeded so smoothly. There were too few bumps. I mean, I'd half-suspected we'd fail on the first try. I couldn't help but think that part of our success was due to the combination of our energies.

As much as I wanted to work on it more, I needed a break. This had taken more out of me than I originally suspected. It must be my younger, smaller body. I was still growing, though not for much longer. In my last life, my height topped out at thirteen at five feet four inches. In my original life, by the time I reached my current age, I had reached five feet exactly. I never grew any taller.

Fuck, I was so exhausted that my mind wandered too much.

Tomorrow. Everything could wait till tomorrow. There was only one thing I needed to know right now.

"How was your first official forging experience?"

Instead of answering me, he took a long drink from a cup filled with spiritual spring water, then threw it into his bag.

"I think I'd like to learn more. At least enough so I can make and mend my own tools."

"Knowing that is one of the best things you can learn. This way, even if I'm not there, you'll still—"

"I thought you agreed that you won't leave without me?"

Maybe this kid was a little too attached. To get him to think, I flicked his glabella. "Trust me, someday you will want to go off on sect missions on your own."

He rubbed his forehead and scowled up at me. "Doubtful."

That was what all the kids said… then they became grumpy hormonal teenagers.

"Let's talk about a situation that might really happen. For example, we could go to a secret realm, become separated, and have to navigate it on our own. There are plenty of other ways too. Don't overthink my words just because I've wanted to leave you here in the past."

"Yes, Sister Lin!"

I sighed. "Now, get some sleep. You have lessons in..." Oh fuck — "A few hours."

***

"You're late!" Garlic put her hands on her hips and raised a brow at us as we landed our flying swords in her kitchen's courtyard. Other students ran around doing chores. The few that looked our way quickly averted their gazes and ran for cover like we were about to throw down again. I mean, it only happened once!

I winced. Okay, so we'd overslept. Our bodies were still growing, damn it! And sometimes it was hard to wake up.

"He learned to forge and needed time to recover."

She glared at me as if she judged me and found me wanting.

Now I remember it... This was the look that made me utterly disregard her in my last life. If it weren't for her excellent teaching of my martial brother, I'd do the same thing in this life, too. For those who had no respect for me, I had zero time or energy to humor them. It was a habit I'd developed in my past life after encountering too many trolls on the internet.

"I carve out a portion of my day to teach Little Spring. The very least I ask is for him to be here in the mid-mornings and not." She pointed to the sun that was high in the air.

Still. Like fuck was I going to back down. Maybe I was a little late, but not showing up happened to cultivators all the time. It should be expected that employees and students would abruptly become absent or have to leave if they had a sudden breakthrough or injury. We were living in a Xianxia universe for fuck's sake, and not an uptight school drama. "He needed to recover and process the knowledge he gained."

"Recover from what? He's already at the peak of Qi Condensation so, unless he suddenly calls down his tribulation he's not going to have a development in his cultivation that would require being absent from my lessons. And I doubt he could have picked up that much about the forge since studying spiritual item-making takes time."

"Perhaps I wasn't clear enough. You see, Little Spring helped me forge yesterday."

Her expression that was once disdainful turned delighted, then she turned to the kid. "Are you going to get good enough to make your teacher some wonderful kitchen supplies?"

His eyes widened, then hardened. "I'll definitely sell you an excellent tool or two when I make one!"

She placed her hand on the top of his head and squashed him. Even though her smile didn't disappear, a vein ticked on her forehead. "I'm teaching you for free, you know."

"This is this, that's that."

I wanted to give the brat two thumbs up. This was exactly the type of shameless behavior I expected from a Xianxia Protagonist who wasn't a murderhobo.

Besides

"Are you trying to tell me that you want to chop up bad vegetables all day?"

I had to give it to the brat, he stood firm in his resolution.

She scowled then whispered "If you say anything other than this, she won't teach you anymore, will she? Smart idea, your little girlfriend is crazy."

I placed my hand on the hilt of my hairpin. "I am not!"

"What? His little girlfriend or crazy?"

Calm, calm. I couldn't let her get to me. This is what she wanted and if I gave in she would win. I also might develop a heart demon.

Like the adult I was, I took my hand off my sword hairpin and rolled my eyes. Not responding was the only way to win against trolls. A frustrating truth that was hard-won. I'd wasted far too many hours in my past life arguing with people who were wrong and refused to change their minds, especially when presented with evidence that countered their narrow worldviews.

Actually, in my last life, it was scientifically proven that people almost never changed their views when presented with facts that opposed their beliefs. But that just made petty revenge and face-slapping so much more satisfying. Muahahaha!

I'd have to think of something good to get back at her for this. Maybe creating an alchemical powder that I could spread over her vegetables that would turn everyone's hair lime green.

With swift movements, I flicked my sleeve, turned, and lifted off on my flying sword. I had other more important things to do. Things that would get me back on track to being fully prepared that the lightning tribulation that loomed over my head.

When I heard her laughter coming from behind me I flipped her off.

Story 8 - Tribulation Trepidations (11 ?)

As soon as I made it back to my courtyard, I entered the space where I'd placed the Spiritual Rubber Tree and pressed my hand to the bark. Because this tree was only one level up from being mundane, the way to collect its latex to turn it into rubber was similar to the normal method.

I carved out a shallow vertical tapping panel, peeling away the surface. Using a lot of body-cultivation-enhanced muscles and a curved knife, I created a spiraling track in the bark, exposing the cambium. Then I placed a spiritual iron gutter I'd made just for this purpose into the tree directly below, where the incision ended. From there I tied a jade bucket around the trunk a foot under the tap.

To prevent overfilling, I'd have to collect the spiritual latex every couple of hours. This was one of the few things that couldn't be rushed.

In a few days, after I collected enough of the white substance, I'd do the vulcanization process.

I wiped my forehead and glanced up at the space's blue artificial sky.

So many steps just to forge quality armor. That, aside from the price of the materials, was the reason it was so expensive. The best way to save my contribution points was to create it myself.

It helped that the armor I was creating would be of a far higher quality than what I could afford.

Now that I'd started the collection process vital to finishing my armor, I needed to look into the last preparations I had to do. Replace some flag sticks.

This would be the easiest thing yet. To do that. I needed to get something at the treasure pavilion — a spiritual wood. One stronger than the kind easily destroyed under sharp crustacean legs. And significantly cheaper than the next highest quality wood which was the Resplendent Charcoal Pine.

I just needed to grab a couple sets of Golden Thunder Walnut flag sticks. And how hard could that be?

***

I slapped my hand against the counter and glared at the disciple. "What do you mean, 'you're out?!'"

He sighed. "Look. It's not just our Peak's pavilion. Golden Thunder Walnut is out of stock everywhere."

"How?"

"There is a wood rot decimating these trees. Nobody can find one that isn't sick."

"And you can't use infected lumber to make flag sticks," I murmured.

Fuck. I'd forgotten that this happened during this time period. This also wasn't like the bananas from my past-past life that became extinct due to a fungus and had to be replaced with a new variant. This infection had eventually been cured.

There had been something unique about the tree disease that I couldn't remember. And since, I hadn't had a fierce rivalry with the talented cultivators who cured it — like I did with Violet Pill Fairy — I'd never looked up its solution either.

Well. If I couldn't find them here, then I had one last place to check.

***

This time I met my black market dealer in a massive crack that one of the mountain-sized boulders around Indomitable Peak had. This was an unnatural slice cut out during a fight between two Immortal Ascension monsters a thousand years back. Disciples rarely traveled here because the lingering sword energy tended to interrupt flight. But this also made it the perfect place to talk about shady business.

"Dear customer, let's make this exchange quick."

"You have the wood?"

Her cloaked head shook. "Of course not."

I turned to walk away.

She reached out her arm in desperation. "Wait! Customer!"

I glanced back. "If you don't have the lumber, then why even meet?"

She cleared her throat. "I may not have it now, but I know where to get it."

"The kind that isn't rotting from infection?"

Her hood bobbed up and down.

"If what you say is true, then why hasn't the sect collected some?"

"Because it's in a mystical forest that is currently closed off."

This girl!

I stepped away from her, ready to leave.

"Hold on! I didn't say it wouldn't be opening soon." Her cheerful voice almost echoed through the cut in the boulder, but I knew from experience that the wind that blew through this place hid her voice from traveling that far.

I turned back to see the dealer's pale hand making the money gesture. Obviously, she was implying that to get more than the basics, I'd have to pay.

The smile in her voice was clear as she said, "The opening will unblock in a week or so for several days. You should be able to enter it then."

There were too many mystical forests that had similar rules and opened around the same time. She could be mentioning any of them.

"If you know, then why don't you go yourself? You should be able to make a nice profit."

Her hood twisted one way, then the other in a no. "Dear customer. I prefer to stay in the sect as much as possible. In fact, a lot of the items I sell come from good friends like yourself who are willing to give back to this fair dealer."

I sighed. "You want me to bring you some of the walnut so you can sell it at an extreme markup?"

I could practically feel her smile hidden behind the shadows that covered her face.

"I'm glad we have an understanding."

"How much do you need?"

"Oh... enough for, say, two full sets of formation flags."

A full tree usually made three hundred sets. With the shortage we were having, I wasn't going to cut it down. If I just took a couple of large branches, then I could make more than the four sets I needed. "Fine."

"The Tiger Head Misty Forest will open in seven days," she said through secret sound transmission. "Then You'll have four days to collect wood from aGolden Thunder Walnut tree, or else you'll be trapped there for six years."

I'd been there once in my past life. What was it? Three centuries in the future? Somewhere around then. I had seen some of those trees. If I remembered correctly, there had been some closer to the entrance and middle. Those areas were moderately safe for Qi Condensation and Formation Establishment cultivators. As long as we didn't travel too deep into it, where even Nascent Souls avoided, we'd be fine.

If they ended up being that deep, then I'd cut my losses and pick up some spiritual plants the forest was known for. I could sell those for contribution points to help pay for the stupidly expensive Resplendent Charcoal Pine that was actually available.

Nobody enjoyed spending 20 times more for a material that was only slightly better. I wasn't going to do it either, even if it meant taking a quick trip to a mystical forest.

And, it would be nice to get out of the sect for the two weeks Peerless Resolve thought it would take to take care of the demonic infiltrators.

Even if some other cultivator entered that mystical forest for a Golden Thunder Walnut tree, I might not have a chance to buy any. Chances were that it would already have owners — the disciples or masters who put up the request.

If I had the contribution points, I'd hire someone to collect it for me. But I'd already spent practically all of mine on various raw materials. And by the time I'd earned more, the forest would be closed.

"Have you mentioned this information to anyone else?"

"Of course not, dear customer! You're the first person I told."

That didn't mean that she wouldn't reveal it to others later.

"How much to keep you silent about it?"

The cloaked figure moved side to side as if thinking exaggeratedly.

"Five mid-tier spirit stones to not mention this to a single other disciple."

"Then, if I don't run into any of our sect members—"

She coughed. "Dear customer. It is unreasonable to expect me to prevent all of our sect's good disciples from entering the forest. There are more reasons to go there than a simple tree, you know?"

I grinned. "Fine, as long as they're not hunting for Golden Walnut wood, I'll give you your spirit stones."

I turned to leave.

"Shouldn't you pay me now if you want me to keep my mouth shut?"

I called back, "You're a shady black market dealer. Why should I pay you upfront? That's like asking you to steal my money and sell me out."

When she huffed in frustration, I laughed.

***

The first thing I did was fly down to the job pavilion to double-check that I wasn't getting cheated. To my surprise, not one of the missions going to Tiger Head Mystical Forest asked the disciples to pick up the wood I was after.

But there were definitely more jobs than mission takers, so I grabbed a few of the medicinal herb requests that I could fulfill while I was there.

Since this world didn't have internet, it was very possible that no one thought about collecting a normally inexpensive tree within a small and dangerous forest that only opened up every 6 years.

I'd give it a shot. But I couldn't go by myself. It was time to get the band back together!

Oh shit! Did I change the genre again?

***

I waved to Clear Eyes Mad Tongue, who sparred with another Foundation Establishment cultivator. When he saw me, a slash of sword Qi almost slammed into his head. Fortunately, his name wasn't for show. He barely sidestepped it and took down his opponent in a few simple moves. Since he won, his mood looked pretty good.

"Senior Lin! What brings you over here?"

I gave him my biggest grin.

The smile on his face froze.

"How would you like to join me for a quick mission?"

"Great Martial Aunt…" he practically whined.

"It will be very easy. Into a forest and out all within 4 days. We will be gone for around two weeks."

"The last time I went with you, our mission ended so awkwardly we don't talk about it."

We spent a moment in silence as the horrors and humiliation of those days ran through our heads. I shook it off.

"Hey, what happened on the crab mission isn't going to happen this time."

He looked at me skeptically. "Then what about the Demonic Vine mission?"

I waved my hand. "See, the two missions we've been on were completely different."

"And yet, they were both disproportionately dangerous."

"Just trust your Great Martial Aunt. This won't be like either of those Missions."

He still looked wary, but he said, "Then what's in it for me?"

"I picked up a few spirit plant collection tasks. I'll give you a third of the contribution points we earn from them."

Once I showed him the slate with the mission information, his eyes widened. "These spirit plants are really worth this much?!"

"Well, they're not that rare, so… Oh." He was saying that they were expensive.

"Don't look at me like that! Just because I'm a sword cultivator doesn't mean that I'm poor. I gave you that chest full of silver teals, didn't I?"

"Are you coming or not?"

He looked at me in disbelief. "Of course, I'm going!"

I knew I could count on this guy.

***

Once again, Fairy Garlic brought Little Spring out to meet me. The kid looked exhausted but happy. He chatted with her eagerly about some immortal chef stuff I didn't pay attention to.

Once they stopped in front of me, I said, "Your student will be away on a sect mission for the next two weeks."

Her eyes narrowed and her lips pursed into a frown like she'd tasted something bad. "And why are you only telling me now?"

"I only decided on it today."

She shook her head. "You can't just take him away without asking him first. I think you should let your brother decide whether he wants to go or stay here."

I grinned down at Little Spring. "You're welcome to remain here where it's safe."

He scowled. "Why would I want to?"

Fairy Garlic coughed. Her eyes were wide as she looked down at the good kid. "You could live with your fellow apprentice chefs here. I could give you a taste of what it would be like to be my full-time student."

"You don't understand how hard it was to get to this point. My sister actually asked me to go with her. So I'm going."

Fairy Garlic shot an infuriated gaze toward me. "Your brother is still too young. He should be staying within the sect until he's at least in foundation establishment and 14 years old."

I shrugged. "I agree, but the kid doesn't. I've already lost too many arguments against him. I'm not doing it anymore. If you want him to stay, you need to convince him, not me."

Little Spring clutched my sleeve and glared defiantly at Fairy Garlic. "I'm going."

She sighed. "Do you at least have someone else to go with you?"

"Of course. Clear Eyes Mad Tongue from Majestic Sword Peak."

"Oh, him." For a second, Garlic didn't look convinced, then she nodded. "Well, he did handle the Demonic Vine Plague nicely, so I'm sure he'll be able to keep you, children, out of trouble."

She tossed Little Spring a token. "Break it if you're in danger. I'll send help as soon as I can."

He gave her a massive grin. "Thank you, chef!"