Xiao Shan walked through a path decorated with marble slabs; behind him, a large gate with red pillars framed the pagodas within the property.
Xiao Shan was in a high mood. He just had his spirit element affinity revealed, which cleared some doubts he had regarding his cultivation path. Besides that, Elder Yan had given him a jade slip containing more advanced cultivation methods based on his main technique.
He couldn't be more excited to return to his cave abode. As soon as he arrived, he immediately sat in his meditation room, taking a good look at the jade slip's contents.
The jade slip described higher versions of the Fire Phoenix art. While the original technique Xiao Shan learned was depicted as a single technique, the one in the slip was described as a cultivation method; as such, it contained five levels.
The first four levels were equivalent to Qi Condensation from level 1 to 8, with the technique at level 5 being described as equivalent to the peak of Qi Condensation.
Xiao Shan thought for a while. As he practiced the technique, he realized he would need some extra cultivation resources related to fire attributes or even a spiritual fire vein to cultivate further. The Bao clan was constructed over one such vein, but it would be hard for Xiao Shan to gain access to cultivate there unless he was a core disciple or actually joined the Bao family.
Xiao Shan thought about what Da He told him and he shivered. He started to think about ways to acquire resources such as fire crystals.
The next day, he left his cave abode to go to the cultivation pavilion. During his trip, he made sure to be careful not to run into groups of people, lest he wanted to have a similar situation as the one with Chen Kang the other day.
After arriving at the cultivation pavilion, he asked around for fire crystals, but he found out that even a single crystal would cost a hundred spirit stones! He checked in his bag of holding; he had received this month's resources, but he only had ten spirit stones. Just with saving, it would take ten months to accumulate enough, and he couldn't use any in the meantime.
The shopkeeper, seeing Xiao Shan's gloomy expression, mentioned, "Brother can also acquire resources through sect credits; as such, it would only cost fifty credits to get this crystal."
"Sect credits?" Xiao Shan recalled reading about that. The sect awarded credits to disciples going out for missions. He smiled at the shopkeeper and decided to check the mission pavilion to see what he could do.
In the mission pavilion, it was busy with lines of disciples going in and out. Xiao Shan stared at a board listing missions and their credits; he also saw an elder handing out wood slips to disciples accepting missions.
Xiao Shan looked at the board for a moment: kill a level 1 black demonic viper and bring its core (10 credits), arrest felon Red Claws (25 credits), bring a stalk of Moon Teardrop flower (5 credits).
He was aghast; the high rewards all seemed fairly dangerous, but even the "easy" missions to pick spirit plants seemed to need special knowledge or required going to dangerous places to find them. Even though this was a Qi Condensation mission board, some of the missions required higher levels. Xiao Shan felt a bit helpless, but he kept looking.
"Brother Xiao Shan, what are you doing over here? Eh?..." a familiar voice called out, the words dying mid-sentence.
Xiao Shan looked back to see a stocky young man with sharp eyebrows. The young man was looking at Xiao Shan with an odd expression. "Fourth level..." His expression turned gloomy. "The heavens have no eyes! I've had to choke down a mountain of chalky Qi Gathering pills just to keep my cultivation from stagnating, and this brother just flips a few incantations and breaks through..."
The young man was Da He! He sighed for a moment before turning back depressingly.
"Senior Brother!" Xiao Shan shouted.
"What is the point? May as well go back to laze around with other new disciples."
Xiao Shan's jaw dropped. He knew his senior brother's demeanor, but this time he was hesitating. After a little thought, he replied, "How could that be? Without Senior Brother's pointers, I would never have managed the breakthrough. Just a few suggestions and I broke through the very next day!" Xiao Shan replied enthusiastically.
Da He stopped in his tracks, then he turned back with his arms crossed behind his back, chin up, looking heroically at the horizon. "You are right, brother! My cultivation is deep and my talent is high, but my teaching is extraordinary!" He then let a hearty laugh out as his mood seemed to improve.
"Come, brother, let's talk." Da He took Xiao Shan to a pagoda in front of the cultivation pavilion; this pagoda served spiritual tea and was a popular spot for gatherings.
They sat at a table and a server served tea.
"I was looking for you. I wanted to tell you that I will be going into closed-door cultivation, so I might not be around for a few months," said Da He nonchalantly as he took a sip of his tea.
"Is that so? Senior Brother, don't take my advancement too seriously; even now, I'm struggling with a bottleneck," replied Xiao Shan as he also took a sip of his tea.
"Worry not; this is unrelated. I'm undergoing some training on my family's secret cultivation method with my master. This was already planned for a bit." Da He looked at Xiao Shan with a smile.
"Ah. Well, actually, I may need some pointers. I figured out that the breakthrough from practicing is just related to my spirit root affinity; however, it is unlikely to repeat," said Xiao Shan with a gloomy expression.
"Figures. Did you get your spirit root tested?"
"Yes," replied Xiao Shan.
"And you have high affinity for fire?" Da He said while raising his eyebrows.
Xiao Shan seemed to stagger for a moment, but quickly replied, "How did you know?!"
Da He had a satisfied expression. "It only took a couple of clues to figure it out."
Xiao Shan nodded with a smile; he understood his senior brother's personality.
"What is Senior Brother's spirit root affinity?"
Da He finished his tea. "Yellow earth."
"Ah..." Xiao Shan felt yellow earth was a bit odd, isn't earth just yellow? But he felt a little bit ashamed to ask something likely trivial.
"I also got a cultivation method based on the Fire Phoenix technique I was practicing, but it seems it requires some resources I need to acquire, which is why I was in the mission pavilion." Xiao Shan also finished his tea. "The fire crystals I need are fairly expensive..." he said gloomily.
"Is that so? Have you considered..." Da He replied, lifting his eyebrows, but he was cut off by Xiao Shan mid-sentence.
"No! I'm not getting married for resources!"
Da He let out a hearty laugh. "I was actually going to say that you should ask old Bao Yan for resources; you are likely to get them."
"Hmmm... I already got the spirit root testing and a cultivation technique. I feel asking for resources on top is a bit excessive," replied Xiao Shan pensively.
"You should just ask. I'm getting the secret cultivation technique from the family and tons of resources to cultivate. Normally the old foggies are very stingy, but this time they told me they want me to reach Foundation Establishment as soon as possible. Something big is happening," Da He said with a serious expression.
Da He talked for a bit before bidding farewell. "Take care, Brother Xiao Shan." As he walked out, he looked back at Xiao Shan for a brief moment before continuing to leave.
Xiao Shan sighed; he went back to his cave abode.
On the way, he thought of ways to approach the topic of resources with Elder Bao Yan, but at the end he sighed; he felt he was not very good at this.
He arrived at his cave abode and went directly to his meditation chamber. As he sat, he looked at the jade slip for the Fire Phoenix cultivation method. After a brief moment in silence, Xiao Shan shook his head. "Not doing that!" He sighed.
Just at that moment, a low humming could be heard. The room started to vibrate slightly while suddenly a blue light penetrated into his room, stopping one foot in front of Xiao Shan. The light dimmed, revealing a floating blue jade slip.
Xiao Shan was surprised. As he looked at the slip, he noticed something that made him tremble: the jade slip had inscribed the words "Order."