Ch 20 - The Second Year

"Tendon tempering has been completed.", Xu Ming whispered to himself under the frosty chill of the setting dusk.

A year passed since Elder Qin had left the sect, and he did not return yet.

Xu Ming was 10 years old now, and stood at a height of 1.45m tall. His body was chiseled, and would not look out of place on a veteran of martial arts. Xu Ming followed his routine since he had no reason to change, and for the most part, did not leave the longevity peak.

His cultivation was steady. He was at the 7th level of Qi Refining, and had just finished the tendon tempering stage of Body Cultivation. He was still considered above average in the outer sect, but was getting closer to becoming an inner sect disciple.

With free reign over an entire storage of alchemy materials and powerful alchemical tools, his alchemy skills improved rapidly. He luckily also had a lot of texts he could refer to, and therefore, his skills were just a tier under a junior alchemist. Even the people of other peaks would frequently request Xu Ming to make some pills for them, and Xu Ming's pockets were indirectly richened by that.

In the entirety of the sect, there were only 15 alchemists, Xu Ming included. 7 were under junior alchemist, 5 were junior alchemists, and 3 were senior alchemists. Elder Qin fell under the final category, and was responsible for about 25% of all pills created within the sect. Xu Ming understood that after a senior alchemist was a Master Alchemist, but it was incredibly difficult to achieve. A Master Alchemist would be valued even by the leaders of tier 1 sects, and even supreme sects would invite them to be Elders.

As for the levels after that? Xu Ming did not know, and he did not care to know. It was all too far away from him.

Siwi propped itself up by its roots, and came up to Xu Ming. It was only a few months back that he realised that Siwi was actually at the 6th level of Qi Refining. She was a novel demon created by Elder Qin after rapid experiments with the Treant Seeds he got from an ancient realm.

Unlike cultivators, demons would derive their power from all manners of cultivation. Siwi, in particular, grew more after absorbing the nutrients and Qi in the fertilizers.

Speaking of, there wasn't any trouble with rearing demons or being friends with them, as they'd coexisted with humans for as long as humans existed. There were wars with different species and races, and humans were also allies with many different demon races. Of course, one would rather trust their own race in a crucial moment, but generally it was accepted that the status of demons were about the same as humans.

But devils, on the other hand, were much more dangerous, and were the enemies of all life forms. Every devil was powerful, and were incredibly insidious. An average devil would be born at the level of foundation establishment, and could grow stronger by devouring other organisms. For this reason, all life would label them as their enemies.

There weren't many devils on this continent, as far as Xu Ming knew. The more potent threat were Evil Cultivators, who operated in essence similiar to the devils, but were comparatively more tame. However, they were still rampant, and many evil sects had sprung up around the continent, and even the Imperial Palace could not deal with all of them.

Xu Ming patted Siwi on her head and left to go to the Peak Hall.

Senior Sister Xia was still working the counter. She greeted Xu Ming with a smile and asked, "Where are you headed, Old Ming?"

Xu Ming chuckled and replied, "I'm going to see the Peak Leader. Another round of Pills to drop off."

Senior Sister Xia said, "You're doing so much work and cultivating so hard at the same time. How do you even find time for all that?"

Xu Ming shrugged and said, "Time is all I have, I guess. You're working hard at the Peak too, aren't you?"

Senior Sister Xia spoke, "Yeah, but not for long. I'm going to start preparing for the upcoming Allsect Tournament."

Xu Ming raised his eyebrows and said, "I guess everyone is getting ready for it."

Senior Sister Xia smiled and said, "I'm almost 20 now, I'm not like you young kids who have all the time in the world. I won't be there for the next tournament, so I have to strive for a good rank."

Xu Ming replied, "I think I'll skip this tournament. I still have more time to go, and I won't be able to do anything by joining."

Senior Sister Xia replied, "That's the right decision. Everyone who won't be able to catch the next tournament is joining the tournament now. I even heard that the Imperial Family are doubling all the rewards, and the first place gets something incredible. It definitely won't be easy."

She followed it up by saying, "There's usually not much danger in the Allsect Tournament, but deaths do occur. It's best for your safety if you try it ten years later."

Xu Ming nodded, and bid farewell to Senior Sister Xia as he made his way to the top of the Peak, where he greeted Mei Jing.

Handing her a bundle of pills wrapped in paper, he said, "This month's quota. I produced a little bit more over the quota, but you can keep the excess if you want."

Mei Jing let out a sweet smile as she thanked Xu Ming.

Mei Jing said, "The Peak Leader wants you to amp up the pill production for the coming years. The Allsect Tournament is coming soon, and everybody needs more pills. Don't worry, you'll be given enough sect credits to last a lifetime too."

Xu Ming nodded and said, "No worries, I'll try to increase my production by 50%, but no guarantees. I also need the materials delivered to the Abode by morning."

Mei Jing replied, "Of course! We'll have everything prepared for you."

Xu Ming headed back to his abode, and started cultivating.

Visualising a giant black tortoise using his Eternal Script, he drew in Qi from the surroundings and condensed it into his Dantian, increasing his reserves.

At first, his Dantian was quite small, and could only accommodate a few hundred strands. Due to this, Xu Ming was puzzled as to how to cultivate after it was filled up.

However, Xu Ming later found out that every cultivator had to strengthen their Dantian and increase its size after breaking through to the next level. This was known as consolidating the foundation, and it generally took time, even for geniuses. Of course, there were herbs to speed up the process, but using too many herbs also had a negative effect on their foundations.

Therefore, the biggest obstacle to geniuses was to consolidate their foundation. They could gather Qi like a whale, but they'd have to spend an equal amount of time strengthening their foundation.

Xu Ming's Dantian at this point could accomodate around 2000 strands of Qi, and could withstand a couple straight blows to it from a flesh tempered body cultivator. The main way to deal with Qi Cultivators for the body cultivators was to get close to them and break their Dantian, leaking their Qi. Of course, this was easier said than done.

1151...1156..1168.

Xu Ming paused for the day at 1168 strands of Qi. With this much strength, he could easily defeat five entire bandit camps without really being hurt.

At least, he wouldn't have to be passive.

Using Qi was quite limited in the Qi Refining stages of cultivation. The Dantian before undergoing foundation establishment could not withstand elemental transformation, and therefore most cultivators at Qi Refining could not create fire, water, wind, or earth with their Qi.

It was only after establishing their foundation that cultivators could truly get powerful, and use their Qi in various ways. Of course, this didn't apply to everyone. People born with elemental spirit roots could innately adapt to using those elements even at the Qi Refining level.

For example, Huo Ning could use her Qi to create small fires because she had an inferior fire spirit root. It didn't mean that she couldn't transform her Qi into other elements after foundation establishment, but it would be much easier to transform into fire elements and control them adeptly.

Therefore, cultivators with spirit roots bad an innate advantage over other cultivators that didn't have spirit roots. Often, they'd also be able to go further in their journey of cultivation because of their innate closeness to their elements.

Xu Ming had heard of a prodigy cultivator in the West known as Lang Mu, who was only turning 18 by this point. He was born with a Superior Five Elements Root, and had supreme talent in cultivating. Apart from the other Five Heavenly Masters, he was considered one of the cultivators with the most prospects. With his spirit root, he could easily control and manipulate fire, water, earth, wind, and wood.

Xu Ming didn't have such prospects, but he didn't mind. He was already much stronger than he'd ever expected to be, and he was content with slowly improving until he could be strong enough to do what he wanted.

Xu Ming glanced at the snow outside, and then looked at Siwi, who was also staring out the window.

"Missing Elder Qin, huh? I miss him too. Don't worry, he'll be back soon.", Xu Ming consoled it as he patted it.

Siwi cheered up and got back to her cultivation. Xu Ming, seeing this, patted her again and said, "Don't stay up too late. Being well rested is as important as cultivation."