Step by Step Ascend to Immortality - Chapter 121 - 111: True Spiritual Grass is always needed

Chapter 121: Chapter 111: True Spiritual Grass is always needed

Shen Yaqin’s expression softened: “Go ahead! Talk to your mistress properly. Even if you’re wrong, your mistress won’t spank your palm…”

As soon as the topic of spanking the palm came up, Liu Suiyun immediately felt a lingering fear and said promptly: “Disciple feels that when you, mistress, teach the disciple the art of spiritual plants, you are extremely dedicated and what you teach is also excellent. It’s just that the disciple’s foundation is too poor to comprehend what you have taught…”

She felt that listening to Shen Yaqin lecture on the art of cultivating spiritual tea was really a rather painful affair. The reason it was so painful was that the realms of the two were simply not on the same level.

Shen Yaqin was a great Golden Core cultivator, while Liu Suiyun was just a little Qi Refining cultivator. Moreover, Shen Yaqin’s habit of lecturing was that she never accommodated little Qi Refining cultivators like Liu Suiyun. There was never a shortage of cultivators coming to listen to the lecture in her Elegant Heart Pavilion. Even Golden Core cultivators would find ways to come and listen.

As a result, Liu Suiyun felt that it was even more painful than self-study. The result of Shen Yaqin’s attentive tutoring was that Liu Suiyun had a bunch of fancy words and paragraphs in his mind.

How big the gap was between the two in terms of cultivation levels. Liu Suiyun felt that he was just like the most ordinary youngster in the secular world, knowing nothing about cultivation, yet having to exchange cultivation insights with a Foundation Establishment cultivator there. Such a result was really deadly.

Therefore, he continued: “Mistress lectures with dedication, and the disciple is also very attentive, but just can’t comprehend. Especially the art of spiritual tea cultivation that I’m learning now. Each field has its own specialization. The disciple hasn’t even entered the door of ordinary spiritual plants, let alone being specialized in spiritual tea…”

When Liu Suiyun said this, Shen Yaqin couldn’t smile anymore. She was also an extremely intelligent person and immediately knew where the problem lay. She had asked Liu Suiyun to learn the highly professional art of spiritual tea cultivation, but Liu Suiyun hadn’t even learned the most common art of spiritual plants well. How could he learn to grow spiritual tea well: “It makes some sense. Well, I’ll give you special treatment next time. As long as you can answer three questions, I won’t spank your palm…”

“Mistress, half a month is really not enough!” Liu Suiyun told his story again: “The disciple really likes the art of spiritual plants. I once listened to a lecture by a little Immortal Master Shen in Jiazhou market. Although the little Immortal Master Shen spoke very briefly, the disciple almost danced with joy. Finally, the little Immortal Master Shen allowed everyone to ask her questions, and the disciple was lucky enough to have the opportunity to ask one…”

Liu Suiyun talked about the story back then: “The disciple asked the little Immortal Master Shen to recommend ten Dao books on the basics of spiritual plants and in what order and method these ten Dao books should be studied. As a result, the little Immortal Master Shen refused the disciple’s question and insisted that the disciple change the question!”

Even Shen Yaqin was a little curious: “Why?”

Liu Suiyun replied: “Because the little Immortal Master Shen said that it might only cost ninety spirit stones to buy these ten Dao books on the basics of spiritual plants. However, knowing the titles of these ten Dao books is worth two hundred spirit stones, and learning these ten Dao books in what order and method requires two thousand spirit stones.”

“Your mistress understands!” Shen Yaqin gently tapped the Landscape Dividing Sword: “I won’t spank your palm next time, I won’t spank your palm!”

She herself had indeed gone the wrong way in the teaching method. She had quite a lot of insights into spiritual tea cultivation. But the problem was that all this was based on the fact that she was a great Golden Core cultivator. However, Liu Suiyun was just a little Qi Refining cultivator. Asking him to learn the art of spiritual tea cultivation with such a foundation really had no operability.

Liu Suiyun continued: “That little Immortal Master asked the disciple to change a question. The disciple then asked that little Immortal Master to recommend a basic Dao book on spiritual plants to the disciple within the scope of what she could do. As a result, the little Immortal Master recommended a ‘True Essentials of Spiritual Herbs’ to the disciple.”

Shen Yaqin asked, “Shen Que’er of the Linghua Sect?”

“Mistress has a discerning eye, mistress has a discerning eye!” Liu Suiyun immediately praised: “Mistress’s knowledge of various things really reaches the level of being broad and profound.”

Liu Suiyun’s flattery made Shen Yaqin very comfortable: “The ‘True Essentials of Spiritual Herbs’ is a collection of all the spiritual herbs in the world by the Linghua Sect. However, there are also some basic insights on spiritual plant cultivation in it. There are a total of seven hundred and sixty volumes, extremely vast. I’ll ask the Scripture Repository to fetch a copy later! But as soon as you mentioned the ‘True Essentials of Spiritual Herbs’, I already knew it must be a disciple of the Linghua Sect lecturing…”

“Adding the words ‘little Immortal Master Shen’, I knew it must be Shen Que’er. I’ve heard this fellow sect member’s name so much that my ears are almost worn out. They all say that she has great talent in spiritual plant cultivation and is all the hope of the Tianhua Sect in spiritual plant cultivation in the future. Although she is still in the Qi Refining stage now, her skills in spiritual plant cultivation far exceed those of many senior Foundation Establishment cultivators.”

Liu Suiyun was greatly startled by Shen Yaqin’s words. He had listened to Shen Que’er’s lecture and naturally knew that she was not an ordinary Qi Refining cultivator. He didn’t expect her background to be so big, and the level of her spiritual plant cultivation skills even exceeded that of senior Qi Refining cultivators. Then wouldn’t he have made a profit by listening to that lecture.

“Here it is!” Shen Yaqin casually glanced outside. The protective array of the cave suddenly stopped operating, and then the gate opened wide. A dozen or so jade slips had already fallen into Shen Yaqin’s hands: “True Essentials of Spiritual Herbs.”

This “True Essentials of Spiritual Herbs”, Liu Suiyun had inquired through connections. It was only sold in the market of the Great Chu State, and the price was three hundred spirit stones. Liu Suiyun had originally thought of saving enough spirit stones to buy a set. Unexpectedly, Shen Yaqin had already obtained it without anyone noticing.

“Mistress, is this borrowed from the Scripture Repository?”

“That’s right. This is the original. Take good care of it!” Shen Yaqin told Liu Suiyun: “There is only such a copy in the entire Scripture Repository. And there are so many color pictures and the volume is so vast. It’s also very troublesome to copy. You take good care of it. If it’s lost, your mistress will also have a lot of responsibility.”

“Thank you, mistress! The disciple will definitely study hard.”

Standing on the peak of Chonghua Peak, Liu Suiyun couldn’t see the shadow of the Scripture Repository at all. He only vaguely knew that the peak where the Scripture Repository was located was near the main peak, Shenxiao Peak. But now Shen Yaqin had given another task: “This ‘True Essentials of Spiritual Herbs’ is too shallow for me. But for you, a spiritual plant lover who hasn’t even entered the door, it should be just right. You go back and study hard, well…”

The mistress thought of something again: “Originally, I was going to let you practice your skills with Shan Yunping after you made some achievements. Now it seems that it’s better to let you go to the medicine garden to gain some knowledge first. Combining work and rest is the best!”

“Thank you, mistress!”

When leaving the mistress’s cave, Liu Suiyun only felt that the sunlight outside was so bright and the prospect was so splendid.

He even kind of missed the feeling of being spanked on the palm. Because the place where he was hit was still continuously providing a faint stream of heat to the whole body, promoting the operation and progress of the “Extreme Yuan Blazing Thunder Forging God Record”. Although he didn’t know how long this stream of heat could last, Liu Suiyun estimated that it could last at least half a month.

Really made a profit! During this half month, even if he didn’t practice the “Extreme Yuan Blazing Thunder Forging God Record”, this stream of heat would also automatically promote it, allowing him to strive for the great achievement in Qi Refining. The progress seemed not slower than his own cultivation.

Liu Suiyun even looked forward to the feeling of being spanked by the mistress. If the mistress swung the sword sheath with full force, wouldn’t he have more benefits? Maybe he could even break through all the way to the twelfth layer of Qi Refining.

Therefore, Liu Suiyun slightly slowed down his progress in cultivating the “Extreme Yuan Blazing Thunder Forging God Record”, only practicing for half an hour in the morning, noon, and evening. And the rest of the time was all used to study the “True Essentials of Spiritual Herbs” recommended by Shen Que’er.

But the feeling after reading it made Liu Suiyun have a love-hate relationship with this talented spiritual plant cultivator of the Linghua Sect: “This… This… This…, no wonder she wouldn’t tell me the titles of those ten introductory Dao books and recommended such a big book to me! Well, I’m now a cultivator at the eleventh layer of Qi Refining, one layer higher than your little Que’er. Next time I catch you, I will definitely take off your pants and spank your buttocks hard!”

Wandering in this sea of books could be said to be the few days when Liu Suiyun made the fastest progress in the art of spiritual plants. And this time it was a real gain, not the half-understanding feeling when reading those few spiritual tea Dao books before. He really understood.

But Liu Suiyun didn’t find it easy to read at all. The reason was simple. What Shen Que’er recommended was a really big book. Just from the fact that Shen Yaqin brought a dozen or so jade slips, one could know how vast the scale of this book was. And when really reading it, Liu Suiyun felt a great pressure.

The two words “essentials” meant that this book was purely a pile of data, charts, and figures. It was almost impossible to find any interesting records. Unless your art of spiritual plants had reached a great achievement, you could find something funny. Otherwise, it was just some repeated records like “three leaves, four leaves, single leaf, supporting leaf”, and each kind of spiritual herb seemed almost the same.

Boredom wasn’t the only problem. The scale of this “True Essentials of Spiritual Herbs” was extremely vast. There were as many as seven hundred and sixty volumes not including the attached volumes. Each volume had at least one or two hundred pages and at most five or six hundred pages. It recorded all kinds of spiritual herbs, and only occasionally mentioned the relevant parts of spiritual plant cultivation in the records.

Liu Suiyun only wanted to read the essential part related to spiritual plant cultivation. But the other parts had to be read again. Both to prevent omissions and to deepen understanding. As a result, Liu Suiyun read extremely slowly. Even if he slowed down his efforts on the main cultivation technique, at most he could only read three volumes a day.

Two or three volumes a day. To finish reading the entire “True Essentials of Spiritual Herbs”, it would take two or three years at least. When there was a sudden understanding, Liu Suiyun had to flip back to the previous records while finding the six Dao books on spiritual plant cultivation given by Shen Yaqin and read them together. Then it would be even slower. Therefore, Liu Suiyun gritted his teeth in hatred towards that little girl Shen Que’er: “Good you little sparrow, why didn’t you recommend a simpler Dao book. In this way, the mistress won’t spank my palm next time, but she will definitely spank it the next time after that!”

He was thinking about when to catch this little sparrow and spank her buttocks when the mistress’s voice came from outside: “Suiyun, are you there? Your mistress has something to look for you. It’s about that little girl Shen Que’er.”

Could it be that the spring dream last night came true and the mistress really caught that little Immortal Master Shen?