Chapter 369 – Life 93, Age 16, Martial Disciple 1

Halfway through my second month as a member of the Hall of the Herb King, I visited the secluded courtyard behind the Hall’s main building for my second lesson on the use of the crescent moon spade. Before I could enter the yard with the other Disciples, however, our teacher pulled me off to the side and placed an affinity testing orb in front of me.

Not needing any explanation, I placed my hand on the orb and channeled my qi into it.

The moment I did so, a dull, black crescent moon spade appeared in the center of the orb. After a short second, it brightened a single time before vanishing.

This caused a wry smile to appear on my teacher’s face. “It appears that you were correct. Your blessing has indeed provided you with a latent talent for the moon spade. A mid nine-star affinity isn’t much, not yet, but only time will tell if you have the talent needed to become a true expert.”

After one last long look at the now-empty affinity testing orb, the teacher placed it into her storage bag and led me back outside to the training yard.

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Two hours later, when our lesson was over and our teacher dismissed the class, she asked me and one other student to stay behind. 

“Su Fang, Leung SauLaan. It is time for the two of you to learn the basics of cultivation. Follow me.”

Without any further explanation, our teacher led us out of the training yard and away from the Hall of the Herb King. She didn’t guide us down the city’s wide, open boulevards, however. Instead, she took us through a series of narrow back alleys that kept us hidden away from the majority of the city’s inhabitants.

Under normal circumstances, this might have been enough for me to suspect that our teacher was up to something nefarious, but this situation was far from normal.

While the alleys that we were walking down were cramped and narrow, they were lined with formations that kept them brightly lit throughout all hours of the day. Also, where the city’s main boulevards were covered in cracked cobblestones and surrounded by crumbling buildings, these alleys were in perfect repair. The stones under our feet fit together seamlessly and showed no signs of age. The walls to either side of us were both protected by defensive formations and had been carved with impressive scenes of men fighting demon beasts. 

Most important of all, however, was the fact that we were not alone in these alleys. We didn’t encounter many people during our journey, but those we did see were all Martial Grandmasters.

After over half an hour of walking, our teacher stopped outside the arched entrance to a hidden pavilion. The top of this arch was emblazoned with the words The Sharp Crescent Sect.

“Su Fang, Leung SauLaan, you are now subject to the laws and regulations of the Saint of Heroes. As members of the Hall of the Herb King, most of these laws will have little impact on your daily lives, but the one that you must keep in mind at all times is this: Cultivators below the Bloodline Tier are not allowed to walk around freely in any of the domain’s major cities. From now on, you are only allowed to visit the Hall, your apartments, and this sect. And when you travel between these locations, you must do so via the back alleys. You are not allowed to set foot on the city’s streets.”

I furrowed my brow at this, but didn’t comment. 

The young woman next to me, however, wasn’t quite so sanguine. “What!? After we become cultivators, we’re going to be trapped in that tiny apartment? Why?”

Our teacher placed a hand on her shoulder. “Do not worry, SauLaan. You wish to become an herbalist, so most of your time will be spent outside the city, in the Hall’s herb fields. There, you will have much more freedom to move around as you wish. You need only be mindful of your safety. These laws will only affect you when you enter the city proper.”

She looked from SauLaan to me. “As for the purpose of these laws… In the east, demon beasts roam the lands and devour anyone they come across. In the west, sects wage constant wars upon each other, leaving naught but destroyed fields and burned villages in their wake. The cities are here to shelter mortals from this chaos.”

She looked back at SauLaan. “Cultivators can sometimes have trouble controlling their impulses. If young cultivators were allowed to freely roam a city’s streets, then most of its mortals would end up dead by the end of the month. Therefore, the Saint has ordered that, aside from those who have reached the Bloodline Tier, the only cultivators who are allowed freedom within a city are its Ruler and its guards. Everyone else is encouraged to spend most of their time elsewhere.”

I cocked my head to the side, confused. If the cities in this domain had such strict rules in place, why had the Hall of the Herb King established itself in one of them? All of its employees—and nearly all of its customers—were cultivators. Wouldn’t it have made more sense to build the Hall elsewhere?

Also, while our teacher’s explanation somewhat matched up with what I had seen, most of the better-dressed ‘mortals’ in this city walked around with powerful, refined weapons at their hips. They were anything but defenseless lambs.

A few pieces of the puzzle were still missing. “After a person first starts cultivating, they’re permanently banned from openly walking the city’s streets?”

Our teacher gave me a slight smile. “Not quite… If you abolish your cultivation base, you will be allowed to roam the streets like any other mortal. As for why one might do such a thing, we will discuss this after you have reached Peak Disciple. For now, let us enter.”

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After passing under the arch of the Sharp Crescent Sect, we soon found ourselves in front of a gate protected by two Grandmaster-level guards. Without saying a word, our teacher showed the one on the right a palm-sized jade plate, and we were allowed to enter unhindered.

She then took up through a short series of corridors, past another pair of guards, and down into the building’s basement.

We found ourselves inside a spacious room with slabs of marble surrounding us in every direction. The only light came from a soft-white spirit fire in the center of the room. This fire sat within a brazier formed from the crossed staffs of five crescent moon spades, and it was powered by a Rank 3 Qi Gathering Formation that was etched into the room’s floor.

As SauLaan and I looked around in appreciation, our teacher walked to the side of the room and picked up two of the ornate crescent moon spades that were waiting in a long weapon rack.

The staffs of both weapons had been made from pure white marble and were wrapped in silvery threads of flerovium. The spades and crescent heads of these weapons were monocrystalline blocks of quartzite that had thin channels running from the edges of the blades to where the quartzite met the flerovium threads. This gave the weapons an impressive appearance, but a single attack would be enough to shatter them.

After handing a staff to both SauLaan and me, our teacher then grabbed a third for herself and guided us to sit around the fire at the center of the room.

“The essence of cultivation is simple. Pull energy from your core, use it to form a qi vortex in the palm of your right fist. Then, as qi flows into your body, direct it to the muscles in your right forearm.”

After giving us a few pointers, our teacher motioned for us to try for ourselves. The fact that she hadn’t mentioned anything about qi filters had me worried, but I was willing to play along. So, following her advice, I created a vortex in the palm of my hand and began drawing in qi.

Surprisingly, when I did so, qi did not flow into me directly. Instead, it entered the edges of the weapon that I was holding, flowed down its flerovium threads, and passed into the palm of my right hand.

While this exact form of qi was new to me, it matched the energy that I had seen in both our teacher’s dantian and the dantians of the sect’s guards, so I had to assume that it was moon spade qi. And surprisingly, it was absolutely pure.

Surrounded by the abundant qi that was radiating off the spirit fire in the center of the room, the muscles of my right hand quickly filled with energy. This caused our teacher to look at me askance, especially since Leung SauLaan had yet to even form a proper qi vortex. She didn’t question me about this, however. She just guided me through the process of opening the acupoint in my right palm and breaking through to Martial Disciple 2.

The result of this breakthrough was a bit different from what I was used to.

Usually, breaking through as a Disciple would cause both an acupoint’s qi filter and vortex to become locked in place, allowing the acupoint to continue gathering qi passively at a reduced rate. With this technique, neither of these happened. So, any qi I expended would need to be recovered through active cultivation. This was far from ideal, but since I wouldn’t have any qi filters protecting me whenever I wasn’t holding a crescent moon spade, I could see how automatic, passive cultivation could be bad.

Seeing my successful advancement, our teacher passed me three technique scrolls. “The first contains detailed information on the cultivation technique that you just used. The other two are basic Yellow-Rank martial techniques intended for low-level Martial Disciples. We still have an hour and a half in this room. Take this time to study those techniques. Do not try to make any further breakthroughs.”

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When our time in the Sharp Crescent Sect’s cultivation chamber was almost up, our teacher called Leung SauLaan and me over to the spirit fire’s brazier.

“Leung SauLaan, you have not yet been able to advance to Martial Disciple 2, but you have made solid progress. Do not worry. It is unusual for anyone to make a breakthrough during their first visit to this chamber. Just be patient and study your cultivation technique. Do not try to rush, and do not cultivate outside this room.”

Upon saying this, our teacher’s eyes shifted to me, and she gave me a meaningful look. “Su Fang, I must assume that you have previous cultivation experience, but again, I must remind you not to cultivate this technique in the outside world.”

She held up one of the marble moon spades that was wrapped in threads of flerovium. “To cleanse moon spade qi, you must channel it through an appropriate weapon. If you leave here and try to cultivate using nothing but a shoddy, mortal weapon, your body will quickly fill up with impurities. These artifacts, on the other hand, are constructed of specialized Rank 3 materials, and they can perfectly purify all qi drawn in by anyone up to the level of Peak Master. Grandmasters have to be more careful, but as long as they do not rush, their qi will remain immaculate.”

She gestured toward the brazier. “Also, this spirit fire was a gift to the Sect by the Saint of Heroes herself. It generates pure moon spade qi, and it is the only reason today’s practice was as fruitful as it was. Even if you can find an appropriate weapon to filter your qi, cultivating outside this room will take hundreds of times longer than cultivating inside it—unless, of course, you have Attunement Pills to help you.”

I nodded and took a closer look at the spirit fire using my analysis ability.

Soft Moon Fire, Yellow-Rank, Elements: Moon Spade, Consumes: Energy, Produces: Moon Spade Qi

It wasn’t exactly impressive, especially if it came from a Saint. She could have at least given the sect a Yellow-Rank seed. Still, if this spirit fire was as valuable to the sect as our teacher implied, why were we even allowed down here?

Thankfully, our teacher answered this question without us even needing to ask. “The Sharp Crescent Sect has an arrangement with the Hall of the Herb King. We provide them Moon Spade Attunement Pills, and they allow our members access to this chamber. This first visit was free, a benefit given to new members. If you want to return in the future, however, you must work hard and contribute to the Hall.”