Ch 19 - Elder Qin leaves

In the midst of winter, a youth banged his fists repeatedly against a tree, marking it with a flurry of blows. The youth was barechested, and had just finished his training.

"Phew..", Xu Ming exhaled.

He cleaned himself up, and trudged through the thick snow to get back to the cave.

It had been about a year since the time he'd gone out on an errand for the leader of the Combat Peak. Xu Ming concurrently had about 1150 strands of Qi in his Dantian, and could beat up even ten of his previous self by himself. It would have been more, but his attention was divided between body cultivation and learning alchemy at the same time.

Speaking of, Xu Ming had recently achieved completion of flesh tempering. That was part of the reason why he could stay out in the freezing cold without wearing clothes, and his skin was now thick as leather. The next logical step was to cultivate his tendons, which included a lot of tempering himself against hard objects.

His progress in alchemy wasn't too far behind. He was awarded an alchemy trainer's badge just last month from the official alchemist's union, and Elder Qin personally congratulated Xu Ming on the event. After an alchemy trainee, he was told to work hard to become a junior alchemist. Xu Ming took it slowly, day by day.

He was now 1.3m tall, and 9 years old. Despite his age, he had a composed aura about him and he seemed beyond his years. Senior Sister Xia would tease him and call him Old Man Ming. Elder Qin even told him once to have the demeanor of a child and to enjoy while he was young. But Xu Ming wasn't exactly a child, so he couldn't heed this advice.

Xu Ming was somewhat famous in the outer sect by this point.

Not only was he acquainted with the combat peak disciples, he was under the tutelage of an elder. He was also an alchemist, and his personal skills weren't bad. Nobody knew his background, but he was able to get into the Longevity Peak. Rumours had already spread that he had a connection with the sect leader.

This, combined with his demeanor, meant nobody would provoke him for no reason. Most outer sect disciples respected him, and would even call him Brother Ming. It had to be known that all outer sect disciples weren't kids. Children were only a part of the minority in the sect, and the majority were above the age of 20, eking out a simple survival in the sect.

Xu Ming's 5th Qi Refining cultivation level wasn't special by any means though. He could only be considered above average in his talents. But he would work hard, without a doubt. This was the only reason he was able to reach the 5th level of Qi Refining while maintaining his other prospects.

Xu Ming stopped reminiscing and hurried to get to Elder Qin's place. He was never late for his appointments, and he was not planning to start today. Hurrying through the snow, he greeted several senior brothers and made his way to Elder Qin's abode.

Strangely, it was not affected by the snow. Elder Qin, upon being asked, answered that his spiritual pet, Siwi, and his spirit beast, Princess, weren't fond of snow and rather even disdained it. Therefore, he hired an array master to set up a basic heat array around his Abode, keeping it warm from the inside.

Elder Qin smiled at Xu Ming with his usual kindly demeanor and spoke, "Xu Ming, I have to make a trip somewhere for some time. It might take a couple months, or it might be years before I come. I've already put in the rewards for your sect mission, so don't worry about it."

"I want you to keep Siwi company and feed her until I'm gone. I'll take Princess with me since she won't be comfortable without me. You're free to practice alchemy here while I'm gone. I trust you, kid."

Elder Qin seemed to be somewhat in a hurry and gave Xu Ming some more instructions before he went to the back of the Abode to fetch Princess. Speaking of princess, Xu Ming only saw her once. She was a big crocodile that has a red coat on her scales, and a breath that seemed to emit fire when she took a breath. Elder Qin didn't let Xu Ming meet her since he told Xu Ming that she was incredibly shy and was aggressive to people.

Elder Qin had already gone from the Abode, but Xu Ming still remained. Xu Ming fed Siwi with some fresh alchemical fertilizer, and some water.

"Stay here, Siwi. I'll go and practice my alchemy."

Siwi wasn't averse to Xu Ming anymore and even hummed in agreement, happily eating its fertilizers.

Xu Ming went to the huge alchemy lab, and cleaned up the stations, readying himself to make some pills. He whistled and said, "Pill 110. Three sets, counter 0."

The alchemical arms sprung to life with a strange rhythm and sound, as they fetched some ingredients from the tall shelves and put them in front of Xu Ming. Xu Ming followed the standard procedure, first starting the base spirit flames. After imbuing the Nine Li Cauldron with the essense of the flames, he poured a green liquid into the Cauldron.

"The base foundation liquid. Next, for this pill, we have the Qi Herb."

Xu Ming crushed a blue herb with his pestle and mortar, and put it into the cauldron. He took some alchemy essense, and gently poured a drop of it into the cauldron. Then, he took a black powder labelled, "Groundroot powder.", and sprinkled it over the mix.

It wasn't over yet though. The directions called for an intense flame, so Xu Ming turned up the heat by a lot, to the point of heating up the entire lab. After 3 minutes, he mixed in some Bluegills, and condensed it using the patterns in the Nine Li cauldron.

Xu Ming did not have his own alchemy method. This was not because Elder Qin was cheap, but because before becoming at least a junior alchemist, it was discouraged to practice alchemy methods. It was more important to spend time understanding the basics and the ingredients before delving into the world of alchemy methods. The patterns on the Cauldron were enough for basic tier 1 pill, and the Nine Li Cauldron could even condense a Tier 2 pill without any alchemy methods.

The patterns glowed, and smoke rises from the cauldron. Finally, after some time, Xu Ming pulled out the pills.

There were 21 small identical pills on the table, with one horizontal mark across the pills. It was a "Good" quality pill, and could even be considered a treasure in the entire outer sect. At least, even the inner sects could not recieve supplements like this. Xu Ming was among the few alchemist in the sect, as they were rare in general.

The pill was a familiar one. The Qi Condensation Pill. At this point, Xu Ming already had hundreds of good quality pills in his space ring. He did not indulge in them since it would lead to a false foundation, but he made effective use of it to gain a lead over the other outer sect disciples.

Xu Ming finished up his work and decided to go and resume his cultivation. He was about to go when he noticed Siwi looking listless into the distance, so he spoke, "Elder Qin won't be coming soon. Why don't you come with me to my abode and play around there? It'll be better than staying here alone."

Siwi hummed and let out a voice of approval, and climbed up to Xu Ming's shoulders using her tiny tendrils. Xu Ming chuckled and headed back to his cave abode. He rushed through the snow, and made his way into his cave, closing the door.

"It seems like a snowstorm tonight.", Xu Ming murmured to himself.

Soon, he shut off all of his thoughts. He did not know if it was a special talent of his, but he had the advantage of being able to zone out and focus completely on his cultivation. To achieve this effect, cultivators would often spend dozens of spirit stones on incenses and other means to calm their spirit down, but Xu Ming could head directly into cultivation without the need of that.

He popped a pill into his mouth, and started cultivating.

The Eternal Script aimed at one thing, enhancing the spirit and body. Through this act, it was able to enable the cultivator to live longer and have an edge over everyone else in terms of longevity and health. As expected of a great purple cultivation method, it wasn't simple at all. Purple Cultivation Methods only existed in Second Tier Sects and above, so this method was incredibly potent.

The only reason why the sect wasn't invaded for the art is because the first sect master personally used his merits to exchange it from the imperial palace. Nobody would provoke the Great Yan Empire by poaching this cultivation method. Besides, it may help the cultivator to live longer, but it wasn't of much help in combat, so it wasn't as important as other combat based purple cultivation methods that could give a gigantic edge over the other methods.

Siwi watched Xu Ming indulge himself in his cultivation and was shocked by his sincerity.

No wonder the Master was fond of this boy. This encouraged Siwi to consume the fertilizers with greater efficiency. And so, one man and one plant, together, in that cave, in the midst of a snowstorm, cultivated sincerely without distractions.