Nearly one week had passed and tomorrow Lu Qingyun will be required to go to the Martial Hall for his official first day as a core protégé.
For the past several days, he had been sipping the Heavenly Lotus Tea and it had an amazing effect upon him; his cultivation level was raised from the intermediate stage to the upper stage of the first realm practitioner level now.
He was surprised and was feeling pleased.
Maybe he would even have a breakthrough to the second realm in as short as in a month time at this rate he was going. The Heavenly Lotus Tea had played a huge part. No wonder it was so precious and was extremely expensive.
Lie Xingyuan was startled that he had a breakthrough, "S-Senior brother, I feel so happy for you."
Lu Qingyun curiously asked her, "Xingyuan, did the Heavenly Lotus Tea manage to help you as well?"
Lie Xingyuan nodded as her eyes beamed excitingly. She chuckled, "I can feel that I am on the brink of reaching the middle stage of the master practitioner level."
She looked at him with great appreciation, "Senior brother, do you really think that it is alright that I can continue to take the Heavenly Lotus Tea with you?"
"Huh?" he said.
"I mean, sect leader has never said that I can partake together with you. This can be considered part of the valuable clan resources. Moreover it may be limited as well. Also, you're a core disciple while I am just a lowly…ordinary protégé." Her eyes had lowered down in shame even as she muttered out her thoughts.
Lu Qingyun smiled, "Don't worry. There are more than enough for the two of us. Moreover, there is something about herbs that you should know. The very first time it will have the greatest impact but there is a diminishing return. It doesn't matter if I consume it for a week or a month or a few days. The returns are actually very little. So I may as well benefit you."
Lie Xingyuan sighed softly, "Senior brother, you are really a nice person. I…"
Lu Qingyun laughed as he waved his hand, "There's no need to thank me really. Just treat me as your friend."
Lie Xingyuan quietly turned her head away from him as she said silently, "Senior Brother Qingyun, thank you. If one day, you know that I've been lying to you, will you still forgive me? I won't blame you even you do not…"
Lu Qingyun inhaled a soft sigh, "Actually cultivation is a waste of time. So much time on meditation and yet the returns are so little. I can really spend more time on reading medicine books and alchemy."
Lie Xingyuan smiled, "It seems that you are really knowledgeable in these areas."
Lu Qingyun smiled, "I am able to identify at least 10 000 rare herbs and is able to concoct spirit pills to the fourth realm."
This time round, Lie Xingyuan was truly astonished. "S-Senior brother, you are a fourth realm alchemist?"
A fourth realm alchemist was a freaking high attainment. Most of the brilliant alchemists were only at the third realm while master alchemists who were already acknowledged as masters of their trade were actually at the second realm. Like the seven realms of the celestial practice, there were also seven realms to alchemy.
He smiled with some pride, "My old master had taught me well. In fact, he is a fifth realm alchemist. I am still far from my old master."
Lie Xingyuan was dizzy. She had never expected that Lu Qingyun would have such an astonishing talent in alchemy. If he had spent so much of his time on alchemy, it was no wonder that his cultivation base would progress little.
Out of goodwill however, she said politely, "Senior brother, I feel that it is best that you focus on your cultivation instead. When you have some achievements in your celestial practice then it will be alright to be distracted by your side interests."
Lu Qingyun sighed softly, "You are actually right…" It was because he was now thinking of the big gap that was between Qin Keqin and him. She was a fifth realm cultivator while he was just a lowly first realm cultivator. Unless he cultivated hard, he would never be able to have the courage to even ask her out.
Suddenly he had a thought as he called out, "Yan'Er, I need you."
There was a flash of light from his inner cultivation core and Yan'Er had appeared, hovering between Lie Xingyuan and Lu Qingyun.
Lie Xingyuan was smiling, "Hello Yan'Er, how are you?" Then she looked at Lu Qingyun, "Why did senior brother summons Yan'Er for? Don't tell me you are too lazy to boil the tea?"
Yan'Er smiled cutely as she hovered around her happily, "Big Sister Xingyuan, Yan'Er misses you. Shall we play together?"
Lu Qingyun laughed softly, "Yan'Er, your master is here. Don't get distracted. I need you to do something from today onward."
Yan'Er had a perplexed expression as she looked at him, "Master, you look so scary now." It was because they were soul linked together and she got a bad and ominous feeling that came from his heart.
Lu Qingyun immediately showed her a cultivation slip and said, "From today onward, you have to cultivate like us."
Yan'Er: ???
Lie Xingyuan: …
Yan'Er said lazily, "Why should I need to cultivate? When master is strong then Yan'Er is strong too."
Lu Qingyun explained with all seriousness, "That is so. But what if your master is lazy and weak, then won't Yan'Er be weak as well?"
Just as Yan'Er was left pondering, Lu Qingyun said. "Therefore Yan'Er has to be stronger or master won't like you anymore."
Yan'Er was startled and her tears began to flow down her cheeks, "Master…I am your Yan'Er! You must like me or Yan'Er will be terribly sad…"
Lu Qingyun laughed softly, "Of course I like my Yan'Er but you got to cultivate, alright?"
Yan'Er sobbed as she looked at the cultivation slip, "Alright then. I will cultivate."
Lu Qingyun clapped his hands and pat Yan'Er on her head, "Good! Now go back to my inner sea and cultivate on your own. Since we are soul –linked together, you won't have any issue trying to figure out the first realm practitioner level."
Yan'Er nodded and with a brilliant flash, she had disappeared into her master's inner core again.
Lie Xingyuan was totally speechless as she looked at him, "Did I just hear wrongly? You've actually asked Yan'Er to cultivate?"
Lu Qingyun rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "Nope, you have heard correctly. This should works. Since spirit entities depend on the cultivators for strength by drawing upon their elixir spiritual seas in their inner core then it should work both ways too. If Yan'Er is able to raise her cultivation level and becomes a second realm cultivator expert then my cultivation level will also be raised to the second realm as well. After all, our spiritual sea is shared."
When Lie Xingyuan had heard Lu Qingyun, she was totally speechless as she thought. "Is this even workable? No one has ever tried this before. Tonight I am going to ask my master if this is even possible…"
The reason why no one had ever thought of that was because sentient spirit entity was too rare. Even a seventh realm expert may not have a chance to have a sentient spirit entity. Even if a cultivator did have a sentient spirit entity, they would usually be at the sixth realm golden supremacy level and the cultivator was already a high level celestial realm expert.
Of course, the most important reason was that no one was as low level as Lu Qingyun in the first place.