Chapter 41: Breakthrough
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
It was dawn.
Fang Yuan came to a newly reclaimed farmland. Vermillion Jade Rice was grown on that farm, and he planted the seeds of the Emerald Grass there as well.
"The Emerald Grass does not require a good environment to grow in. It is able to gather earthly energy and make the soil fertile. The Emerald Grass complements the Vermillion Jade Rice when planted next to them!"
Planting a spiritual plant was a complicated process. Fang Yuan was very focused on it and only took a short break half an hour later to wipe his sweat.
"Phew….The newly reclaimed farmland has already reached its maximum capacity. There is not much land left in the secluded valley to expand the farm. Furthermore, the expanded farm will be exposed!"
He was helpless. "I may have to move the spiritual plant to another place in the future!"
What place would that be? It would be the spiritual land in Green Peak.
As that place was very secluded, a Wu Zong would never be able to realise that a farm did exist in that location and would only be troubled by the presence of the Red-eyed White Birds.
Fang Yuan had decided to relocate the secrets of the secluded valley to the new location after he had solved the current problem.
After all, he was different from Master Wenxin.
He had been attracting a lot of attention lately and this would increase the chances of others spying on him.
"However, the amount of Vermillion Jade Rice I have now is sufficient enough for the Flower Fox Ferret and myself to consume for quite a long period of time!"
Fang Yuan touched the Flower Fox Ferret's head and smiled.
The Spirit Returning Sect Head Shi Yutong could not make decisions regarding the spiritual land by herself. There was still a need to accommodate the needs of every faction as well as the export of spiritual plants. Even if the main disciples were allocated with some spiritual plants, it was not a large amount.
Fang Yuan estimated that they could either eat the Vermillion Jade Rice once a week or treat it preciously like a spiritual pill and only consume it when he was ready to break gates. After all, they were not as luxurious as him!
In fact, the previous amount of his consumption of the Vermillion Jade Rice could be 10 times more than Lin Leiyue's!
The Spirit Returning Sect was not luxurious enough to allocate such a large amount of Vermillion Jade Rice to just one person.
Shi Yutong had no idea about Fang Yuan's diet and thought that he must have been lucky to consume some natural spiritual treasure.
Even spiritual pills were not natural. They were scarce and could not fulfil the requirement of a daily supply of staple like the spiritual rice could.
This was the reason why Fang Yuan's foundations in martial arts were so scarily strong, as his Essence, Spirit and Magic increased tremendously like a rocket.
"Other normal human beings would benefit lesser after breaking through another gate as compared to me….."
Fang Yuan realised that the quantitative numbers in his stats window could be way higher than any other martial artist who was of the same level as him.
"Of course, after breaking through the 6th Gate, my inner power will be fused and become inner force. Then, things will be different. Unless I can increase the supply of the Vermillion Jade Rice further and maintain my head start, the others will eventually catch up in future!"
This was a bad news as it meant that Fang Yuan's advantage would be diminished. However, as he looked at his farm, he smiled brightly.
It was not difficult to eat the Vermillion Jade Rice every day, was it?
He not only had the Vermillion Jade Rice but also had the spiritual tea. He could drink it whenever he wanted to.
"Essence, spirit and magic could be considered as the three most important factors to one's cultivation. Of the three, Essence possesses a physical form, Spirit is dependent on Essence and possesses a form too. Only Magic is formless!"
"A rise in magical energy will result in stark improvements in many other aspects!"
Through the previous trip and a few fights, Fang Yuan realised the effect of magical energy.
Although he could not convert it to combat power directly, he could sense the enemy's moves and eventually predict the outcome of the fight even before it began, making it extremely useful.
This was also why he valued the Questioning Heart Tea even more.
After a hard day's work, Fang Yuan went to clean himself and changed into a new set of clothes. Then, he started to make some tea.
With his past experiences, he felt more natural when making the tea as he was much more familiar with the process, and there was much improvement this time.
First of all, the water used was different.
According to an old saying, the most preferred type of water when making tea would be to use mountain spring water, followed by water from a river and the least preferred would be water from a well.
Previously, Fang Yuan used the spring water originated from the secluded valley when making tea. The water was pure and sweet, and therefore could be considered to be of high quality. However, even since he had been to the spiritual land in Green Peak, he found a water source of even higher quality.
The water used this time was the spiritual spring water which he had gotten on the way when he collected the spiritual fertiliser.
Since the water originated from a spiritual land, the quality of it would naturally be higher than other normal mountain spring water.
Good water would have to be matched with a good tea set for making good tea.
Fang Yuan was using Master Wenxin's precious tea set, which was also considered a good set.
The spiritual tea made was already extraordinary on its own, and now paired with Fang Yuan's meditative tea ceremony…..
The Flower Fox Ferret was staring at the spiritual tea as the last step of the ceremony was completed.
"Try it!"
Fang Yuan served the spiritual tea to the Flower Fox Ferret.
"Keke!"
The Flower Fox Ferret brought its paws together, crossed it knees and sat down to enjoy its tea. It carefully licked the tea with its small tongue and was contented.
Even though Fang Yuan had already known the effects of the spiritual tea, he was still surprised after seeing the Flower Fox Ferret's expression.
"Achieving a pure and sincere heart was the key to meditation, only then can one purify one's mind and live without worries or anger, beyond life and death…..."
He recited a few scriptures in his heart and his eyes glittered. This was the effect of spiritual tea clearing one's mind.
At that moment, he took another sip.
"Oooo…."
As the spiritual tea entered his stomach, a great sensation rushed in like waves in a storm.
Fang Yuan gazed; he did not know where he was.
A long time had passed and he finished the whole pot of tea unknowingly. Tears flowed down his cheeks.
"I had thought that it was bullshit when others said that a flower could represent the world and a blade of grass could represent the heavens. But now…. A cup of tea just changed my perspective on my life?"
Fang Yuan wiped his tears and remained silent for a while.
He felt as though he was reborn once more after drinking the spiritual tea.
It was easy to be reborn physically. However, how difficult would it be to be reborn mentally?
He could do it with the spiritual tea!
After a long while, he looked at his stats window:
"Name: Fang Yuan
Essence: 2.7
Spirit: 2.6
Magic: 2.0
Age: 18
Cultivation: [Martial Artist (5th Gate)]
Technique: [Black Sand Palm (Grade 5)], [Eagle Claw Iron Skin Technique (Grade 5)]
Skill: [Medicine (Level 2)], [Botany (Level 3)]"
"Ssss…."
Fang Yuan breathed in. "My magic has increased by 30%. Could it be due to the effect of the spiritual tea? No….or could it be due to my previous epiphany?"
Right after he consumed the spiritual tea from the meditative tea ceremony, he entered a strange but magical state, which made him felt as if he relived his whole life again.
Such a state was considered rare and precious. One such opportunity allowed his magic to increase by 0.5!
"I'm afraid that no other heavenly treasures can have the same benefits, right?"
Fang Yuan inhaled a long breath.He could feel the inner power bubbling vigorously in his lower abdomen. The inner power from the Grade 5 Eagle Claw Iron Skin Technique surged forth violently on its own and reached the bottleneck of the 6th Grade!
"Is this….what many martial artists have been wishing for….to attain a new grade naturally?"
Fang Yuan was surprised and immediately sat down. He ordered the Flower Fox Ferret to watch over him and then closed his eyes.
When a martial artist attempts to break through his current grade to attain new grade, it would most of the time be consciously using his inner power to break through, which was arduous.
However, there was another way to break through. One would be able to break through his current grade naturally if his inner power was strong enough. His inner power would automatically be adjusted to work in his new grade, allowing him to execute his techniques naturally.
The success rate was nearly 100%!
...….
At the same time, back in the Spirit Returning Sect.
"Sister Leiyue, please have some spiritual porridge!"
A female disciple carefully brought a wooden tray into the room. There was a bowl of Vermillion Jade Porridge on the tray.
She could not resist the aroma from the bowl of porridge.
"The Sect Head knows that you are about to break through to a new gate and she specially left a portion of hers for you! The portion is enough for 7 days and every meal will be spiritual rice."
The disciple swallowed her saliva and added. She was envious of Leiyue.
"Please help me to thank the Sect Head. You may leave now. I will be undergoing closed door cultivation. You will not have to come and attend to me other than when it's meal time from now onwards!"
Lin Leiyue stroked her hair.
Everyone in the sect had their own amount of spiritual rice and even Shi Yutong did not dare to change her portion.
However, since Shi Yutong knew that Lin Leiyue was about to break through the Gate, she gave her a portion of her spiritual rice as a form of support.
If Fang Yuan, nope, if the Flower Fox Ferret was here, it would not resist its temptations and would start consuming the spiritual porridge.
There was too much water, and too little spiritual rice when cooking the porridge. Of course, most importantly, the grain size of this spiritual rice was way smaller as compared to Fang Yuan's homegrown Vermillion Jade Rice grains.
However, in Lin Leiyue's opinion, isn't this how spiritual rice should be?
She could feel a warm sensation after consuming the spiritual porridge and her inner power started to surge.
"Let's start!"
Lin Leiyue closed all 4 doors and began the process of breaking through.
Every gate would become increasingly difficult! The 6th gate was the first of the 3 Perilous Gates. Once she had broken through those gates, her inner power would be fused into inner force!
Of course, if she failed, she would get injured badly.
This gate marked the difference between a real expert in martial arts and a normal martial artist. In the Spirit Returning Sect, a [Martial Artist (6th Gate)] would be capable enough to hold a senior position and repress anyone!
"I possess the Spiritual Moon Body and consumed the Frozen Moon Pill. I am quite confident since I fought against Song Zhong previously!"
Lin Leiyue clenched her fists and said, "With the help of the spiritual rice, I will be successful in breaking through!"
She crossed her knees and sat down. She regulated her vigorous inner power and began the process of breaking through.
"Bang!"
She sent her first wave of her inner power but was unable to break through the gate.
Lin Leiyue expected this to happen as breaking through the 3 Perilous Gates was not an easy task. She would consider herself to have failed only when she had exhausted her inner power.
Time passed quickly.
Lin Leiyue seemed to have forgotten how much time had passed.
In her body, her vigorous inner power was about to be exhausted and she was very close to breaking through the 6th gate.
There was only a straw left that could break the balance between the two.
"I cannot lose. I still want to see the outside world…..I want to surpass….Fang Yuan!"
While she was still conscious, a figure of a young man appeared in front of her. The figure was gigantic and shrouded her.
"Puff!"
She fiercely opened her eyes and spat a mouthful of blood.
She suffered a backlash after failing to break through the Pain Gate!
Translator's Thoughts
JTJTY97 JTJTY97
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