I breathed in the fresh air, smiling as Flee ran through the fields of grass, jumping around happily. I let her roam freely in the plains as she nibbled on spirit grass and the occasional herbs she found. My herb basket sat nearby, as Flee brought the spirit herbs, collecting them in the basket, one at a time. There was no real need for me to have Flee collect low-grade spirit grass and herbs anymore with my own spirit garden around, but she seemed to be enjoying the task, and I didn’t want to ruin the fun for her. “Alright, I guess it’s time we tested our hot and fiery explosives,” I said out loud to myself, taking the pouch I had filled with what I’d dubbed, Grenade pills. I’d been wondering over Molotov pills, and grenade pills, but the grenade ended up winning, considering the pill didn’t need to be lit on fire. Well, the name was under review for now. I’d made a few more batches of my exploding pills, before returning to attempting to make the Poison Flame Pill. My attempts ha

I had been sent a letter with the details of the Quest involved with Yi Liuxiang. I still had a day left, and I decided to use my time to sort through my notes.Sect Task: Gather the twelve essence spirit lotuses near village Taizhou and look into the rumblings and rousing spirit beasts near the village, scouting the area for the presence of abnormal activities. Two or more third realm cultivators are required.Disciples will be rewarded with six sect tokens upon completion of the task.I needed to prepare my batch of pills for my next trade with Su Lin as well. With my own spirit herb garden, I had a lower need to rely on Su Lin, allowing me more freedom in how many spirit herbs I could use up for experiments.I opened my notes, a bundle of over three stacks of parchment filled with messy writing in the jumble of theories and ideas that I’d collected, with one solely dedicated simply towards the many questions that I wanted to eventually answer.I definitely needed a decade or two al

I set out before dawn, right before the sun had begun to rise above the horizon. Purple hues splashed across the sky mixed in with red and blue as the morning sun made its presence known. Flee sat on my shoulders, her nose sniffing the smell of the grass carried by the early morning breeze. The Qi was gentler this early, less turbulent, and I could still sense the hints of Lunar Qi from the night present in the air. I’d packed my pills for the day, letting an old man know I may be out for a while. I’d wondered if leaving Flee behind would be the better choice, but with her excitable nature and how she loved to stick by me, I ended up deciding to take her with me. “Flee can take care of herself!” She protested with a squeak, and I laughed in reply as she thumped her feet in protest. Light sparks of lightning crackled around and I pet her head gently. “Should I leave you back home then? You can take care of yourself after all, so there’s no need to bring you along with me, is there

I walked through the dirt path that led into the village. Various homes dotted the area, with few people within them, mostly women and children, from what I could sense. From what I could tell from Yuan’s memories, Taizhou was a fairly big village compared to his own village. Being near the sect, and within the seven celestial peaks, probably helped the village there as well.My gaze went to a group of kids playing nearby, their clothes dusty as they wrestled with each other and laughed, without care.It felt strange to watch them play. I could sense the Qi present in their bodies, some with more of it than the others. None had the needed amount to become a cultivator, if they could even learn to control the Qi.Yet, despite their small presence, and sluggish movements, and slower responses, I felt a bit envious of their carefree lives.I'd somehow never noticed just how different cultivators were from non cultivators in certain ways. The conversations I had could happen at a distance

“Flee can sense a lot of Qi!” Flee exclaimed happily, as we arrived near the location of the Qi vein.We’d made our way to the forest near Taizhou village, heading straight towards our objective. There really wasn’t any point in waiting, and the faster we moved, the better chances we had of saving those people.I stepped through the forest, noticing the various natural flows of Qi. Each moment spent in this world brought me more questions about the myriad of things that no one had answered before, sitting right in front of our eyes.I let the thoughts go. I’d have time to ponder over the mysteries of the chittering in my room peacefully, but for now, I needed to focus.“Zhi Zhu thinks the vein is just beyond this thicket,” Liuxiang’s spirit spoke, chiterring.“L-Flee could sense that too! She sensed the Qi first!” Flee exclaimed back at the spider, crackling with lightning. My little fluff ball of a rat shrank back the moment Zhi Zhu turned around to have her eyes be towards Flee, and