Four days after his transmigration, Han De reviewed what had happened so far.
The quest was over. Ning Bi had a cultivation scripture. Even his comprehension of his own cultivation method was improved!
'So far so good!' He thought, while lazily laying on his bed. After nonstop action for the past four days, Han De believed he deserved a much-needed break!
Therefore, he spent the next week cooped up in his abode!
In the beginning, he was worried that this sudden change might look suspicious, since the cultivation idiot was both an arrogant young master, and an elder of the sect.
Upon discovering this issue, Han De seriously thought about going out and bullying random people! But when he took an in-depth look at the cultivation freak's memories, he became instantly relaxed.
That guy could stay in closed-door seclusion for a year! Why would anyone suspect Han De for not going out for a month?
The first few days, he divided his time between experimenting with Qi control, and trying to learn one of the techniques he got from the archives.
Surprisingly, the creators of these cultivation methods had unique insights regarding natural phenomena. But their secretive, and almost jealous nature, became their Achilles' heel. His family's Starfall Scripture, and the two light element scriptures he learned, described the same natural reaction in three different ways. Three different, nonsensically flowery ways!
The duplication of effort between these scriptures was simply astounding!
But Han De found out one silver lining to this! Learning similar cultivation methods seemed to substantially reduce the Profound Point cost! Luminous Clouds, one of the methods he got from the archives, was extremely cheap compared to the Light Through a Single Thought, despite how similar both methods were.
'This is a blessing, but not exactly a good thing in my case. If the methods I choose for the Derive Cultivation Method Token are similar, wouldn't the new cultivation method be similar to them as well?
I need cultivation methods with little to no overlap! But I can't figure out if they overlap without using the system because all of them are obnoxiously cryptic! Using so many Profound Points with no obvious gain is just a waste…'
In the end, Han De decided not to waste his points any further. He was already down to 3!
The results of his Qi training though, were well worth the time spent!
Rather than repeating another sword flight incident, Han De treated his training seriously, and took the necessary precautions first!
For the location, he selected one of the far-away lakes inside his estate. Then, he strictly instructed his servants not to disturb him. Finally, he took a few defensive treasures from one of the armories. Not extra strong ones of course, because that would certainly arouse some suspicion. All thanks to the cultivation idiot's tendencies.
These precautions turned out to be very appropriate! Because although Han De learned how to summon a small fire, cool down a cup of water, and cause a small breeze out of nowhere (mainly for posing), the collateral damage was rather disproportionate.
An entire lake was frozen, a grove was nearly all burnt down, and another grove was completely uprooted by hurricane-like winds!
At the Core Formation level, even basic spells could be dangerous!
And these basic spells didn't even use elemental Qi! And Han De's roots were of the Light element!
To a small degree, all cultivators could manipulate all elements. Their roots only determined how effective they were. Han De couldn't use Fire element cultivation methods to cultivate Fire Qi, nor could he cast spells that required Wood Qi. But, given enough practice, he could summon a small fire for alchemy, or cause a seed to grow and bloom into a flower. He just couldn't use that flower seed to strangle dozens of people in an instant!
Though his Qi practice was successful, Han De decided not to practice the Heaven Defying Tyrannical Sword. He didn't want to add yet another chapter to his dark history so soon!
If he were to practice that method, it had to be done far, far away from the sect!
'Looks like a Core Formation cultivator really has a tremendous amount of Qi. The cause of violent reactions during simple spells should be because I ended up using far more power than necessary! With no expertise in Qi control, if I tried that sword art now, it would definitely cause a commotion.'
* * *
[Congratulations]
[Host's disciple Ning Bi successfully reached Qi Condensation Level 3]
[Issuing 25 Profound Points as a reward.]
…
…
[Congratulations]
[Host's disciple Ning Bi successfully reached Qi Condensation Level 4]
[Issuing 35 Profound Points as a reward.]
2 days later, Ning Bi reached the 3rd stage. 4 days after that, she reached the 4th.
Han De thought the girl would make a report, just like before. But Ning Bi kept cultivating nonstop! She didn't leave her room for a second, and chose to consume pills like a bottomless pit!
By that world's standards, reaching the 4th stage in 7 days was unheard of. In fact, among the disciples accepted this year, she already had the highest cultivation!
Han De was baffled by her speed, but still felt happy, since he got a decent amount of points out of it!
Ning Bi cultivating nonstop also meant that Han De wouldn't have to worry about getting caught in the open! Han De decided this was an excellent opportunity to scout for Xianxia flour, and other spiritual ingredients he could use!
Aside from Ning Bi's dumplings, he hadn't eaten anything since his arrival! And that was simply unacceptable!
Unfortunately, he did not know that Ning Bi explicitly chose to use normal ingredients when she made those dumplings. Thanks to her father's stories, she knew not to use spiritual ingredients!
[White Wheat Flour]
[White flour made by only refining the wheat endosperm. Refining processed removed all of the spiritual Qi inside it.]
[Safe for consumption.]
'Wow, even a Xianxia world is biased toward whole-wheat bread huh…'
After assembling the flour, Fire-Chicken eggs, and some questionable milk, Han De wanted to make some pancakes. But lacking baking powder or baking soda, ended up settling on French crepes instead.
Together with some strawberry-looking fruits that totally weren't strawberries according to the system, and some expensive-sounding spirit honey, he was finally able to have a relaxing and familiar meal!
* * *
"What is that smell?"
"What sme- WHAT?! How could a demon infiltrate our sect?!"
"Elder brother? What demon?!"
"Hey, stop exagge- !!!!"
The four servants on duty were waiting on Elder De's instructions as per usual. The peculiar smell produced a variety of reactions! The older pair had a stern look on their faces, while the younger ones only displayed curiosity and disgust.
"Heavens, I can't take this anymore, I need to get away."
"Hey, it isn't that bad, it kinda reminds me of the tofu that old man Chen used to make."
"Shut it! The two of you have no idea, but I have been on many excursions before. This ever-changing but foul scent is a telltale of the plague-devouring demon."
The younger ones looked at each other. Was there such a thing?
"Listen to your elder brother." The oldest spoke with a low voice. "Before anything, we need to make sure. We especially need to make sure that Elder De's cultivation isn't interrupted, otherwise we'll be the ones to pay!"
Nodding to each other, the four servants alerted the sect guards. This was beyond their pay grade, their elder brother had decided. The Core Formation stage guards quickly arrived; with only a whiff they could tell the gravity of the situation. They quickly patrolled the area with stiff faces, and it didn't take long to discover the smell's origin.
The demon, was inside the mansion!
"So it is the young master, I see."
The guard captain was a prudent man. When he first heard of the situation, he had scoffed inside. 'Do you expect me to believe a nether demon with a formed core could slip into the sect unnoticed?' He thought. After seeing that reporting servants belonged to the young master, however, he decided to take the safe approach and investigate personally!
"Nothing to worry about." The guard captain spoke confidently. "Your master is probably experimenting. If he was in trouble, the sect would've known. Carry on with your work."
As he left, the guard captain decided to report the issue to a Han faction elder, just in case. There was no room for error when it came to the Han family's young master!
The four servants were left alone.
"Uuhh, should- should we contact Elder De?"
"Contact who, you want a beating? You heard the captain, Elder De is just experimenting..."
"With a plague devouring demon?" The young boy asked unsurely.
The elder brother of the servants, the one that participated in many demon hunts was silent for a while.
"I might not look like it now, but years ago, before I got crippled and became a servant, I went to a few demon hunts with Elder Yu, and heard him explain many things.
Although the scent is foul to the extreme, it doesn't contain demonic Qi. The captain probably noticed immediately it. Removing demonic Qi from a Core Formation demon is extremely difficult. And removing Nether Qi from the nether core, even more so! This noxious smell rapidly disappears quickly if the core was damaged in any way. In case of a plague-devouring demon, which melts as you cut it, the difficulty is even worse!
Stench without the Nether Qi is the sign of a perfect removal.
So keep your mouths shut if you know what's good for you. And make sure not to become the source of a rumor!"
* * *
Since it was just some crepes, Han De wasn't concerned about other people finding out. Crepes were crepes after all, they were an easy affair to hide. However, he didn't realize the difference between normal ingredients that a mortal would use, and spiritual ingredients that a cultivator would use.
All spiritual ingredients had spiritual energy inside them. An immortal chef wasn't someone that just removed monster Qi and cooked a meal from random ingredients. They would use their impressive Qi control to contain, harmonize, and combine Qi from different forms of Qi. It was not unlike Alchemy in a sense.
Through meticulous efforts, they would create dishes that had a divine taste and fragrance. Dishes made by proficient chefs would retain their taste and stay at the optimum temperature for a long time. If the chef didn't have enough experience though, the stability of the fragrance, and the taste, would soon collapse.
Han De didn't know any of this. He didn't have precise measurements, in fact, he didn't have any measurements at all. 'Eeeh this feels right, but maybe a little more flour to make it thicker' was his approach. As he cooked and ate, everything was alright, he was the eye of the storm so to speak.
Just as he was finishing the cleanup operation, he finally noticed the stench. Along with the realization of how crepes after taste seemed to keep changing. A mild panic came at first, but Han De realized the changed flavor was quite familiar. He used to go to Chinatown every so often and had already developed a taste for fried stinky tofu.
Still, he find it odd that the aftertaste was still evolving.
In any case, he didn't want the kitchen to stink, so he used his small breeze spell to ventilate the area. Truly, his time to master these Xianxia life skills was well spent!
Spiritual ingredients were extremely fragrant by nature. The scent, the stench, permeated through the entire valley as Han De ventilated the kitchen.
Soon, Han De's servants and lackeys got the whiff of the ever-changing stench.
"Where is this foul stench coming from?!"
"Who dares to release such stench? If I don't beat you to death after finding you, I'll be your mother!"
Meanwhile, Ning Bi exited her first closed-door seclusion. After not eating anything but pills for a week, she was oddly hungry.
* * *
"A Plague-Devouring Demon?"
The man that listed to the report frowned. He deliberately pronounced every single word.
Although the person that was giving the report was a Nascent Soul cultivation elder, standing in front of this man, he was still susceptible to changes in the man's mood.
"Yes, Sect Master."
Sect master, who was now thinking with a blank face, looked rather similar to Han De. Or rather, Han De looked rather similar to him, being his son.
'What is this rascal doing with a plague-devouring demon? Any other demon is fine but to contain a plague-devouring demon is just an exercise in frustration, even for the experts. Did he find some fortuitous encounter and only now thought of displaying it?'
"How is it that there was no breach in containment?"
It would be impossible to hide a breach, especially of this size.
"After I received the report, I went there myself with a few trusted Core Formation elders. Nether Qi was expertly removed. I suspect the demon itself was kept alive for about an hour after core extraction. There were also some peculiarities within its trace. I cannot be sure, but it might have been a mutant or a variant."
Han Wei, the sect master, creased his brows.
"That brat was always focused on his sword. He didn't have any side interests, not in spells, not in formations, and certainly not in alchemy. Why."
"As my duty, I have to remind the sect master that he reached mid-stage Core Formation rather quickly as well"
Han Wei didn't want to hear this old argument, normally he would rebuke him, but today he didn't feel like it.
"What of his disciple?"
"No one has seen the girl since they visited the archives. I had the archive records looked at again. Although the girl didn't take a cultivation method, I found that Elder De had taken five Light element methods and one Fire element scripture. The scripture itself was stored on the 7th floor, and it is called Blazing Fury."
Hearing the scripture's name, the sect master frowned again. Being a cultivator, he remembered the reason this scripture was shelved on the 7th floor, and how dangerous it was.
"Why haven't I heard of this before?"
"The person that had taken the scripture was Elder De himself. At first, we thought he didn't allow the girl to take a cultivation method due to her still being in the Qi sensing stage. And Elder De's thoughts about the archive are well known. Only after we heard a rumor about Elder De taking out techniques, did we checked his records"
"What do you make of this?"
Elder Yu thought for a while before answering.
"Someone is influencing him, and the matter with Blazing Fury is serious. However, the disciple is still someone at the Qi sensing stage, so no action is necessary until she condenses the first Qi strand. Which might take a while considering her low talent."
Han Wei first faintly nodded, but then shook his head. "The girl's background is too clean. She shouldn't have made it into the sect, even as the last place. She shouldn't have been able to withstand Heaven Defying Tyrannical Sword's aura, she shouldn't have been selected by little De. Too many coincidences.
De himself shouldn't have gone to the archives in the first place. Five Light element methods seem like a smokescreen for Blazing Sun, but the scripture itself seems to be a smokescreen for something else."
Elder Yu thought the sect master spoke the wrong name, but on second thought, perhaps it was him that didn't know the technique's true name in the first place.
"And now the plague-devouring demon…" Han Wei felt uncomfortable. Han De was their only child. The entire family doted on him endlessly. This made the boy a bit presumptuous, but Han Wei didn't think that was a flaw in his character. Although Han De liked to attract attention to himself once in a while, he was always consistent.
"Invite him and his disciple to the reception tomorrow, keep it under wraps, and handle it well. Go."
Elder Yu didn't show the surprise on his face and immediately started carrying out the sect master's orders.
Sect Master Han Wei always had a 'don't interfere' policy when it came to his son. He wanted him to concentrate and increase his cultivation. And that was exactly what Han De was doing. In fact, perhaps he was doing it a bit much, but that was fine too. On the occasions that he didn't cultivate, he would stir up trouble, but even then, Han Wei wouldn't interfere with him.
Han Wei never, not once, called his son to an official sect event. If he wanted to come by himself, that was fine, if not, that was also fine.
Elder Yu knew Han Wei was a doting parent. He wasn't surprised when Han Wei put importance on the events surrounding his son. But he was surprised to see Han Wei becoming so concerned enough to actually changed his plans.
'His approach was bound to change when his son became an elder, I guess.'