Yan caught every detail of Alexei's performance. His acting skills were decent enough to fool Qingxue, who had a soft spot for him, but she had been around the cultivation world long enough to recognize manipulation when she saw it.
"This is already the simplest primer I know. Any simpler and we'd be teaching prenatal education."
She shifted slightly in her seat, and Alexei quickly averted his eyes. The mature cultivator had a tendency to make certain anatomically gifted movements when she laughed, and he'd learned after the first few days that looking was a recipe for getting smacked by Qingxue for being disrespectful.
What puzzled Yan was Alexei's learning speed. She'd never taught secular students before, but surely memorizing fewer than twenty thousand words shouldn't take more than a month, right? At his current pace of roughly a hundred words every three days, and that was being generous, fifty was more realistic, he'd be at this until he was middle-aged.
When she'd taught Qingxue to read, she'd used a considerably more difficult text, a genealogical history that covered prominent cultivator families across multiple regions. Qingxue had mastered it in less than half a month.
Qingxue herself was covering her face with one hand, letting out a long sigh. "This is the worst student I've ever taught."
"I'm the only student you've ever taught," Alexei pointed out without looking up from his practice sheet.
"Which is why I know you're the worst."
Alexei continued frowning at his work, trying to write words that looked like the examples.
Yan observed both of them and thought that maybe this wasn't such a bad development. Qingxue had changed over the past days. The icy, unapproachable aura she'd carried for decades had thawed considerably. She seemed more human.
Looking out across the courtyard, she noted the sunset painting the sky in shades of orange and gold.
"Alright, that's enough for today," she announced. "The Essence-Gathering Grass in my herb garden will mature tomorrow, so I need to go into seclusion for pill refinement. I'll be unavailable for the next few days."
Alexei's head snapped up, hope blazing in his eyes.
Yan smiled sweetly. "I've already arranged for Zhi to take over your lessons. He'll be here tomorrow morning, so don't worry about falling behind."
The hope died instantly. Alexei's expression went through several stages of grief in rapid succession.
"See you in a few days," Yan said cheerfully, and departed before he could lodge any protests.
Once she was gone, Qingxue looked at Alexei's disappointment and relented. "Fine. We're done for today."
Teaching him for even a single day was more exhausting than half a month of continuous cultivation. How he managed to make writing practice so mentally draining, she'd never understand.
Alexei didn't need to be told twice. He swept the brush and ink stone into his inventory and bolted for his two-story building before she could change her mind.
"I'm going to check on the fruit tree!" he called over his shoulder.
Qingxue watched him flee and couldn't help but smile slightly. He was referring to the Brightglow Fruit, of course, planted next to the farmland beside his building.
She didn't follow. There were other matters to attend to.
Alexei had been at the sect for a full week now, and she still hadn't gotten proper sect robes for him. Instead, she handed him the outfit she'd worn as a child which... technically fit, but was definitely made for a girl. He politely declined and kept wearing his old clothes.
---
Alexei rounded the corner of his building and surveyed his domain with satisfaction.
The wheat field looked fantastic. Golden stalks swayed in the mountain breeze, covering a 7x9 meter plot that ran parallel to the building's width. The grain was fully mature, ready for harvest, and the smell was exactly like wheat fields back on Earth, dry, slightly sweet.
The Brightglow Fruit seed, planted on MC-ified grass blocks next to the farm, had just begun to sprout. He hadn't used bone meal on it yet; he'd been too busy with construction and mandatory education to focus on agriculture.
His schedule this past week had been brutally regimented:
Morning: 1.5 hours of meditation and qi-sensing with Qingxue, followed by 1.5 hours of "cultivation world basic knowledge" lessons that were essentially history and geography.
Afternoon: Around 5 PM, literacy practice until his eyes crossed.
Evening: The brief window of free time he might've had was eliminated by Qingxue's insistence that "cultivators must maintain full mental energy" which apparently meant going to bed at a reasonable hour.
Where was he supposed to find time for bone farming? Or mob grinding?
Not that he could mob farm here anyway. When he'd built the infinite water source, he'd deliberately surrounded it with farmland blocks to prevent hostile spawns. Qingxue's courtyard was not the place for a zombie apocalypse.
His level had dropped back to zero after assimilating the Brightglow Fruit seed, that alone had cost him 21 levels. He'd recouped some through fishing, then spent it all MC-ifying dirt and cobblestone blocks. Resource management in this world was turning out to be as grindy as any survival server.
He pulled out a composter and set it down next to the wheat field. Then he started harvesting.
The wheat broke into golden grain and seeds, stacking neatly in his inventory. Once he had everything collected, he started feeding it into the composter.
Green particles rose from the barrel as organic matter broke down into useful fertilizer. The level indicator on the side slowly filled until finally it topped off and the composter emptied in a burst of white powder that absorbed directly into his inventory.
[Bone Meal ×1]
Eleven wheat for one bone meal, very Minecraft.
He continued the process, dumping in all forty-something wheat from his harvest.
[Bone Meal ×1]
[Bone Meal ×1]
[Bone Meal ×1]
Four bone meal total. Less than he'd hoped for.
"Could be worse," he muttered.
He wasn't particularly disappointed. This was exactly how composters worked in Minecraft, RNG-based output with an average ratio that kept things from being too exploitable.
The Brightglow Fruit, though... that was interesting. After a week of early mornings and rote memorization, he'd almost forgotten why he'd been excited about cultivation in the first place. Farming was way more relaxing than academic torture.
He pulled out the bone meal and approached the sprouted seed.
"Let's see what this does."
Standing about two meters away, he waved his hand toward the grass block where the Brightglow Fruit was planted.
A burst of green pixels erupted from the ground. The sprout exploded into accelerated growth. The stem thickened, more leaves emerged, and within a minute it had reached mid-calf height on him. The foliage wasn't the typical green of normal plants. Everything was that same pale yellow as new growth, with leaves that were slightly translucent at the tips, golden veins clearly visible through the delicate tissue.
It looked unnatural in the best possible way, like something that belonged in a fantasy game, which it technically was.
He applied bone meal again. And again. And again.
Each application triggered another burst of accelerated growth. The plant shot upward, before the vertical growth began to slow. But it didn't stop developing. The leaves broadened, becoming more robust. The stem grew thick enough to support the increasing foliage weight. The entire structure became more mature and stable, approaching what was clearly its final form.
It took about four minutes for the accelerated growth to completely stop.
The result was definitely not a tree. It looked more like an oversized berry bush, exactly the kind of thing you'd find in Minecraft.
The plant stood roughly eighty centimeters tall, with thick, healthy stems and lush pale-yellow foliage that seemed to glow faintly in the evening light. And beneath all those leaves, dozens of crystal-clear, transparent flower buds had appeared, each one about the size of his thumb. Some of the buds emitted a subtle golden light, pulsing gently like they had their own internal luminescence.
It looked mystical.
With the last of his bone meal used up, he circled the Brightglow Fruit bush a few more times, examining it from different angles. But beyond looking pretty, he couldn't detect any other special properties.
"Guess that's it for now," he muttered, and turned his attention back to more practical matters.
He still had free time before Qingxue inevitably found some new torture to subject him to, and he wasn't about to waste it standing around admiring plants.
His current objective was clear: catch more water bottles.
Three empty bottles could be broken down into three glass blocks. If he could fish up six total bottles, he'd have enough glass to install proper windows in his building instead of the wooden shutters currently blocking out most of the light.
He was still four bottles short of his goal.
Back to the fishing spot, then.
[Raw Cod ×1]
[Raw Cod ×1]
[Raw Salmon ×1]
He settled into the familiar rhythm of fishing, watching his bobber float on the surface of the infinite water source while his mind wandered.
---
Meanwhile, Qingxue was having significantly less peaceful time.
Her flight to the sect's so-called "Treasure Pavilion," which was really just a glorified storage shed, took about ten minutes of leisurely sword-flight. The distance wasn't far; she was just traveling at a speed appropriate for someone who wasn't in a hurry.
The high-speed sword-flight that cultivators used for travel sounded like a jet engine mixed with a hurricane, all shrieking wind and sonic booms. Which was why they flew at high altitude when covering serious distance, nobody wanted to explain to civilians why their windows had all shattered.
She landed outside the storage building and immediately noticed the state of disrepair.
The wooden door was... well, it had seen better centuries. The wood was grey with age, soft with rot in places, and the hinges looked like they'd give up at any moment.
She placed her hand on it and pushed gently.
Creeeaaak.
The door made a sound like it was dying.
CRASH.
Half the door hinges gave up entirely, sending that section of the door crashing to the ground in a cloud of dust and splinters.
She stared at the destruction she'd accidentally wrought.
"...right. That happened."
The last time she'd opened this place was over a decade ago. And the door had already been ancient when she'd first joined the sect as a child. Honestly, it deserved credit for lasting this long.
She waved her hand, using a small wind technique to clear the dust cloud from the entrance.
The interior of the storage building came into view.
It was exactly as depressing as she remembered. A row of faded red cabinets with peeling paint. Several dark wooden crates that were probably older than she was. Broken furniture and piles of miscellaneous junk that nobody had bothered to organize in living memory.
The Aureate Summit Sect's "Treasure Pavilion," ladies and gentlemen.
She navigated the obstacle course of forgotten belongings, stopping before the cabinet she remembered visiting with her master as a child. This was where the sect stored clothing for disciples. She opened it and was pleasantly surprised... no dust inside, and the garments were neatly folded and organized. Male and female robes separated by wooden dividers.
The fabric quality was actually excellent, she noted, running her fingers over one of the robes. According to her senior disciples, when their master founded the Aureate Summit Sect, he'd been optimistic about recruitment numbers. Worried that too many disciples might sign up and some wouldn't receive proper clothing, he'd commissioned two hundred sets of high-quality robes in all sizes.
As it turned out, the old sect master had vastly overestimated his sect's appeal.
Since its founding, the Aureate Summit Sect had recruited fewer than fifty disciples total, with far more men than women. The female cultivators numbered only nine across the sect's entire history, with five currently active, including her.
She selected a set in Alexei's size, then moved to the adjacent cabinet and retrieved two wooden practice swords.
They were light, well-balanced training weapons. Perfect for teaching proper technique without risking serious injury. Once Alexei formed his foundation and could use spiritual energy, he could practice sword-flight with these.
Assuming he ever managed to form a foundation. At his current rate of progress, that might take several years.
She gathered everything and prepared to head back.
---
Back in the courtyard, Alexei felt his right eyelid twitch.
"That's... that's not a good sign."
Then he shook his head. "No. Stop it. Superstitions are bullshit. It's just a muscle spasm. Focus on fishing."
The bobber dipped.
[Water Bottle ×1]
"Yes! Three more to go."
---
By the time Qingxue returned, full night had fallen. She'd spent extra time crafting a new door for the storage building and had even cleaned out some of the dust while she was at it.
Flying back toward the courtyard on her sword, she slowed as she approached, then came to a complete stop in midair.
The spiritual energy in the courtyard was denser than before, noticeably so. And the closer she got, the more refined and pure it felt.
"What in the..."
She descended carefully, landing in the courtyard near the source of the disturbance.
The Brightglow Fruit bush that had barely been sprouting this morning now stood nearly waist-high, covered in lush pale-yellow foliage and dozens of glowing crystal flower buds. And the spiritual energy radiating from it was... Her hand trembled slightly as she extended her spiritual sense.
"Earth tier spiritual plant?!"
And high-quality Earth tier at that.
For the impoverished Aureate Summit Sect, the highest-ranking plant she'd ever personally seen was Profound tier. Earth tier was an entire tier above that. She crouched down, peering through the pale leaves at the glowing flower buds, trying to understand what she was seeing.
"Qingxue?"
She looked up to find Alexei standing beside her, fishing rod in one hand, looking vaguely concerned.
"Where did this come from?" she asked.
She'd been there when he planted it. She knew it was the Brightglow Fruit seed. But this didn't make sense. The growth rate was impossible.
"Uh... it's the Brightglow Fruit tree I planted two days ago?" Alexei said, like he was explaining something obvious. "Remember? You and Yan were both there."
"Brightglow... Fruit?"
Qingxue felt her brain stall out completely.
Two days ago.
She remembered Yan explaining that Brightglow Trees took a minimum of 233 years to mature from seed to first bloom. That was how spiritual plants worked. And this morning when she'd walked past this spot, there hadn't even been a sprout.
"How?"
Alexei shrugged. "Bone meal."
As if to demonstrate, he walked over to the wheat field and harvested it quickly. He pulled out a composter, fed the wheat in, and collected the resulting bone meal.
Then he turned back to the Brightglow Fruit and waved his hand at it?
Green particles erupted from the ground around the plant. The effect looked like fireflies or bioluminescent plankton, swirling up from the soil. In the soft evening light with the glow of the flower buds, it was stunning.
And then the plant grew.
The flower buds swelled like balloons filling with water, then burst open into fully bloomed flowers. The spiritual energy in the courtyard immediately intensified, she didn't need spiritual sense to feel it. The spiritual energy density had increased by over thirty percent compared to when she'd left.
"That's..." She couldn't finish the sentence.
Even legendary divine abilities couldn't do this. The cultivation world's most powerful experts all agreed that instantly accelerating a spiritual plant's growth by decades was impossible. Because it violated fundamental laws. And because the Heavenly Dao was supposed to be fair and balanced.
And yet.
She was watching it happen.
Her gaze dropped to Alexei, who was looking at her with mild concern, wondering if she'd broken.
This was what he'd meant by "planting things."
If this was really a mature Brightglow Fruit, and all evidence suggested it was, then it was high-grade Earth tier at minimum. Not quite on par with Heaven tier spiritual plants, but valuable enough.
"I'm going inside," she said faintly.
"Uh... okay? You alright?"
"Fine."
She walked into the building on autopilot, went to her room, and sat on the edge of her bed.
Then she just sat there, staring at nothing. After a long moment, she lay back on the bed, still in her outer robes, and stared at the ceiling.
---
Qingxue woke to morning light streaming through her window and the sensation that something was wrong. She lay there for a moment, still half-asleep, trying to figure out what had changed. Then it hit her: the spiritual energy.
The ambient qi in her room was denser than it had been in... years? Decades? It was flowing into her meridians automatically, without her even circulating her cultivation technique. Just passively absorbing through her skin like she was sitting in a high-grade spirit-gathering array. Except she wasn't. She was in her bedroom.
Memory crashed back.
The Brightglow Fruit.
"That actually happened," she muttered, sitting up and running a hand through her hair. "I didn't hallucinate it."
She'd half-convinced herself last night that exhaustion had made her see things. That stress from teaching had finally broken her brain and she'd imagined the whole impossible sequence.
But the spiritual energy didn't lie.
She dressed quickly and stepped outside. The cool mountain morning hit her face, carrying with it a breeze so thick with spiritual essence it almost felt liquid. Like breathing in concentrated life force.
From her doorway, she could see the Brightglow Fruit bush standing at the edge of the wheat field, glowing faintly in the dawn light. The spiritual energy density in the courtyard was higher than the sect's cultivation room. And that room had a spirit-gathering array, even if it was barely functional.
Well... the cultivation room's array didn't have any spirit stones powering its core, so it could only gather stray ambient qi. One spirit stone per hour was far beyond what she could afford. She only used them when attempting breakthrough.
Still. The comparison was damning.
She stood there for a long moment, just breathing in the qi-rich air. Then she heard movement from Alexei's building.
Right. Lessons. She had a student who still couldn't sense qi, and now she had a plant that might help with that problem.
Time to see if proximity to a spiritual treasure could overcome that.
---
Twenty minutes later, after dragging a very sleepy Alexei out of bed and through morning ablutions, they stood in front of the Brightglow Fruit together. Two identical meditation cushions were already laid out on the ground.
"Really?" Alexei looked at the cushions with deep suspicion. "It's barely past dawn."
"Qi-sensing is best performed in the early morning when yin and yang energies are balanced," Qingxue said primly. "This is basic cultivation knowledge."
"This is basic torture."
"Sit."
Alexei sat, grumbling in Russian under his breath. Qingxue didn't ask for translation. She'd learned early that when he started muttering in that language, it was usually profanity.
She helped adjust his posture, then settled onto her own cushion.
"Listen carefully," she said. "Qi-sensing is about perception, not memorization. You need to feel, not think."
"That's not helpful advice."
She ignored him. "Close your eyes. Clear your mind. Follow my breathing."
Alexei closed his eyes with reluctance.
Qingxue began the traditional guidance meditation:
"Feel the energy in all things. Let your awareness expand beyond your body. Listen to the world around you... wind through leaves, insects in the grass, the flow of water underground."
She continued, walking him through the mental exercises designed to open a cultivator's perception to spiritual energy. Breathing techniques. Visualization methods. The subtle internal adjustments that would let him sense his own meridians.
"Internal and external in harmony. Yin and yang in balance. Let the pathways open. Let your intent guide the flow."
Her own cultivation cycled automatically as she spoke, drawing in the rich spiritual energy from the Brightglow Fruit and refining it through her meridians. This was excellent cultivation time for her, teaching and personal practice combined.
"Feel heaven and earth. Gradually merge with all creation. Clear your heart, quiet your intent, contemplate the..."
ZZZZZZ…
A soft snoring sound interrupted her guidance.
Qingxue's eye twitched.
She opened one eye and looked over at her student.
Alexei was listing slightly to one side, head drooping, breathing slow and even in the rhythm of someone who was deeply, peacefully asleep.
For a moment, she just stared at him. Then she closed her eye again and continued her own cultivation, trying to ignore the spike of irritation working its way up her spine.
One full cycle of cultivation took roughly half an hour. When she finished and opened her eyes, Alexei was swaying like a drunk, still technically sitting upright but clearly unconscious.
"Alexei."
No response.
"Alexei."
Still nothing.
"ALEXEI!"
He jerked upright so fast he nearly fell off his cushion, eyes snapping open with the wild look of someone who'd been caught doing something they definitely shouldn't be doing.
"I'm awake! I'm sensing! Very much sensing the qi right now!"
Qingxue pressed her fingers to her forehead, feeling a headache building behind her eyes.
"You fell asleep."
"I was meditating deeply."
"You were snoring."
"That's just advanced breathing technique. Probably beyond you… but feel free to prove me wrong."
She grabbed his face and squeezed his cheeks together, making his words come out muffled. "Do not test me this early in the morning."
"Mmph mmph mmph..."
She released him and stood up, trying to channel the patience her master had shown when teaching her. Except her master had never needed patience, because she'd been a talented student who'd completed qi-sensing in the time it took to drink a cup of tea.
This was... what was the word? Pedagogical warfare.
"You will sit here," she said with forced calm, "and continue practicing for one full hour while I observe. And if I catch you sleeping again, I will dump ice water on your head."
"You wouldn't..."
The look she gave him suggested she would.
"...yes, Qingxue."
What followed was possibly the longest hour of Qingxue's life.
She sat on her cushion, eyes open, watching Alexei attempt to meditate with the enthusiasm of someone waiting for their execution. He fidgeted, shifted positions, scratched his nose, and opened one eye to peek at her, then quickly closed it when he saw she was watching.
Several times she could tell he was starting to drift off again, and she'd clear her throat meaningfully. He'd jerk back to alertness, overcorrect, and end up sitting so rigidly straight he looked like he'd swallowed a board.
It was painful to watch.
When the hour finally ended, they both exhaled in relief at exactly the same moment.
They froze, staring at each other.
A laugh bubbled up in Qingxue's chest before she could stop it. "We're both suffering equally here, aren't we?"
"I'm suffering more," Alexei said flatly. "You at least understand what's supposed to be happening."
She reached over and ruffled his hair, which he tolerated with a put-upon sigh. "Alright. We're done for now. Go... do whatever it is you do during free time."
She watched him sprint back to his building to grab his fishing rod. She'd assumed teaching would be straightforward. Alexei was clever in his own way. But qi-sensing seemed to completely elude him.
Was it really a matter of talent? Spiritual root quality?
She'd never thought about it before. Her master had never mentioned it. She'd just been able to do it naturally, so she'd never questioned the process. But if talent was the barrier, and Alexei couldn't sense qi... then what? He'd be stuck at the very first step of cultivation forever. Unable to even begin Body Tempering, much less reach Qi Refining or Foundation Establishment.
All the potential benefits of staying at the sect would be meaningless if he couldn't cultivate.
She needed answers. And she only knew one person who might have them.
---
Qingxue found Zhengxing in his courtyard as usual, sitting at a stone table and reading through old sect records with the air of a man who had nothing better to do. Which, to be fair, he probably didn't. The sect barely had enough disciples to fill a classroom. Administration wasn't exactly time-consuming.
"Qingxue?" He looked up as she approached. "What brings you here?"
She sat down across from him. "How long did it take you to sense qi when you first started cultivating?"
He blinked at the non-sequitur. "Two days, I believe. Why?"
"And did the master explain the theory behind it? The factors that affect success?"
"The... theory?" He set down the scroll he'd been reading, giving her his full attention now. "I don't think it was ever explained as having a theory. You sit, you meditate, and you sense the energy. That's how it works."
"But what if someone can't? What if they meditate properly, follow all the guidance, have abundant spiritual energy available, and still can't sense anything?"
Zhengxing's expression shifted. "Is this about your new student?"
"Yes. He's been trying for over a week now with no results."
"Hmm." The sect leader stroked his beard thoughtfully. "I suppose it could be related to spiritual root quality?"
Qingxue leaned forward. "You're not sure?"
"Well... no? I've never encountered this problem before. Every disciple I've taught managed qi-sensing within a few days at most. I assumed that was normal."
"But you don't know why it's normal."
"No," he admitted. "The fundamentals were taught to me as... well, fundamentals. Things you don't question because they simply are. Like asking why water flows downhill."
They stared at each other across the stone table, both cultivators gradually realizing they had no idea how the most basic stage of cultivation worked.
"So," Qingxue said slowly, "qi-sensing is considered the foundation of all cultivation. The essential first step that every single cultivator must complete. And neither of us knows what determines success or failure."
"That appears to be the case."
"This is embarrassing."
"Extremely."
Zhengxing cleared his throat. "In my defense, this has never come up before. The sect has always had more problems with recruiting disciples than teaching them."
"That's not reassuring."
"No, I suppose it isn't." He was quiet for a moment, then added, "If it helps, spiritual root quality probably does play a role. At least, that would make sense theoretically. Better roots, easier connection to spiritual energy."
"Probably," Qingxue repeated flatly.
"Most likely?"
"You're guessing."
Qingxue stood up, feeling more troubled than when she'd arrived. "I need to figure this out. If Alexei can't sense qi, he can't cultivate. And if he can't cultivate, then..."
She trailed off, not wanting to finish that thought.
Then what was the point of him staying at the sect?
"I'll research the sect archives," Zhengxing offered. "And see if there are any records about disciples who struggled with qi-sensing. There must be something."
"Thank you." She bowed slightly and left.
---
The flight back to her courtyard was short but felt longer. Qingxue's mind churned through possibilities, none of them good.
Maybe the Brightglow Fruit would help. Its spiritual energy output was unprecedented. If anything could force a connection to qi, it should be that.
But what if it didn't? What if Alexei's roots were so poor that even an Earth tier spiritual plant couldn't compensate?
She landed in the courtyard and found him exactly where she expected: sitting by his water source with his fishing rod, looking perfectly content to avoid all things cultivation-related forever.
She sat down beside him without a word.
"How'd it go?" he asked without looking away from his bobber.
Silence.
"That bad, huh?"
"The sect leader knows approximately nothing about why qi-sensing works or doesn't work."
"Sounds about right for this place."
She glanced at him. He didn't seem particularly bothered by this news. Just kept watching his fishing line.
"Doesn't it worry you? That you might not be able to cultivate at all?"
He shrugged. "If cultivation doesn't work out, I'll figure something else out."
His casual acceptance of potential failure should have been frustrating. Instead, she found it oddly calming?
She reached over and ruffled his hair again, earning an annoyed grunt.
"Don't worry about it," she said, echoing his own attitude back at him. "Keep fishing. We'll figure something out."