Wei Ren's entire body was completely filled with grey Elemental Qi. Earth Law was working on its own and prevented the qi from leaking out. He slowly started to regain consciousness. First thing he did after waking up was to cough up blood. This scared him to death. By the time he fully opened his eyes, his body stopped absorbing Qi. Green Python Peak became peaceful again. The qi of the entire mountain stabilised.
All the disciples were left with doubt and questions. Elder Qian, had come out to inspect the situation. He was standing in the air on a flying sword. He gazed at the mountain to find out what was wrong. After examining everything for about an hour he went back to the Elders' Garden without any clues.
Mei Rong also returned to her cave.
Wei Ren rubbed his eyes and looked around. He wiped the blood off with his sleeve
His head was pounding with a headache. He corrected his posture to sit in a cross legged position. He knew only one way to calm his mind. It was to practice his breathing exercises.
He closed his eyes. When he observed his insides, a shiver went down his spine. He got up on his feet.
"What is this? How?" His entire body was filled with grey elemental qi.
"Did I lose control over the meridians? I fell unconscious because I spent too much time using the Plant Genesis. Maybe that is what happened. I need to find a way to get rid of this qi. But how?"
Wei Ren started to panic. There was no one he could ask for help. Even if someone were there to help him, he would still not be able to tell him about the problem because then he would have to disclose the truth about Starmist Law.
"I should make meridians using this qi. But using impure qi to make meridians might not be very good."
A dilemma appeared before him.
"I have enough qi to make the rest of the seven meridians at once. I will finish the first stage of Earth Law. But these meridians might be weaker than the other meridians. I can't wait any longer. Keeping this grey qi inside my body will surely deteriorate my navel meridians. I coughed up blood just like the first time I tried to absorb qi with my meridians. I can't lose focus of my meridians for even a second."
He made up his mind and sat down cross legged. Earth Law initiated. The pressure his body exuded even startled him. This was the first time he let his meridians churn at maximum speed. The three meridians resonated with each other. It was like they were talking with each other. It was like two warhammers colliding with each other. A loud song reverberated in his ears.
"Good. Talent is still the same. Earth Law only has one magical spell, Devour. Use it wisely because there is a strong side effect. Your aura will become corrupted and hostile and controlling your Qi will become harder because using this spell makes your Qi demonic. I am waiting for you to master the Earth Law so that I can give you the rest of the spells. This is just a sliver of my will. I left it to impart the magical spells of Starmist Law when the time came. I know you are confused. But don't worry. Focus on your cultivation and stay out of trouble."Emperor Starmist's voice sounded in his heart. He laughed and spoke in a carefree manner.
"He is in my head?" Wei Ren said with a frozen face. A part of the Starmist Law opened. It was previously sealed by Emperor Starmist's spell.
Devour. It was a simple magical spell. It would be more to call it an innate ability that only users of Starmist Law can use. As the name suggested it is a devouring technique. A user can devour Elemental Qi around him. Beginners can only suck air in a hundred meter radius. But at the highest level, you can even suck the Elemental Qi of an entire kingdom!
Wei Ren was unknowingly using the Devour Spell when he began training. This is why his aura becomes hostile when he uses his qi meridians to absorb qi and he coughed up blood each time he used it. Now he can control it much better without any injury to his body.
Most importantly, he can now purify the qi because he can now cast the spell correctly. Devour Spell was easy to use, there was only one downside. It made his Qi develop a will of its own. This will was demonic. If he continued to use it repeatedly his Qi would not listen to him properly and could even cause further problems like backlashing at critical junctures during his cultivation. If he could devour Elemental Qi everyday, he would reach the River Formation stage in a month but that would not be wise.
"I must have awakened Emperor Starmist's will by devouring this huge amount of qi." He finally breathed a sigh of relief.
A spell symbol appeared in his mind. He used his finger to draw this symbol in the air. The symbol floated in front of him for a few seconds and then landed on his chest.
The grey impure Qi travelled through the three meridians. A putrid smoke leaked out of his mouth and nose. There are impurities in his Qi.
"Time to make meridians. I have so much qi. I better not fail." He laughed and closed his eyes.
Left arm meridian. Right leg meridian. Left leg meridian. Two lung meridians. One Pulmonary meridian for heart. Finally, one Pulmonary meridian for his liver.
First stage of Earth Law complete!
There was still some leftover Qi in his body. He packed it into a fist sized sphere. All his meridians were connected to this Qi Sphere.
Strange changes started to happen in his body. His senses sharpened. Every breath he took revitalized him.
"I have finished the first stage of Earth Law. Hahaha..." He laughed loudly and jumped in the air.
"I should be able to use an Attraction Spell." His mother had taught him some common spells that every immortal cultivator used. Like the Levitation Spell, Attraction Spell, Sound Sealing formation etc.
He looked around. His eyes fell on the huge pile of jade slips. He pointed one finger toward a jade slip and used his other hand to form a spell symbol. Elemental Qi poured into the spell symbol. The jade slip he was pointing at flew toward him at high speed. He used both his hands to catch the jade slip.
Success!
This was his first time casting a useful spell.
For the next two hours, he kept using Attraction and Levitation Spell. He stopped only when his qi was almost completely depleted.
"Oh, I forgot. I need more jade slips."
While studying the Plant Genesis, he used up all the jade slips he received from Elder Qian.
He left his immortal cave to find Mei Rong. Maybe she could help. He called her out by touching the rock that guarded her cave.
"Junior brother Li, are you alright? About what happened earlier in the sect. Did you notice something weird?" She asked him with concern.
"What happened in the sect? I didn't notice anything."
"The whole Green Python Peak was sent into chaos. The Elemental Qi of our mountain started churning without control and then it stopped all of a sudden." She asked with even more amazement.
"It was me. I unconsciously sucked all that qi. Judging from her words, it seems nobody in the sect can understand what happened. Well it's good for me." He sighed with relief in his heart.
"My cultivation is too low right now. Maybe that's why I didn't notice anything." He came up with an excuse.
"Umm." Mei Rong nodded in agreement.
"So,why are you here? How can I help my dear Junior brother Li." She said in her sweet voice.
"Huh...I need jade slips. I used up all of mine while studying the Plant Genesis." He maintained his composure and answered.
"Already! Elder Qian gave you a thousand jade slips. That is enough for studying at least fifty medicinal plants." She asked with shock.
"Fifty medicinal plants? I have only studied one." He wondered in his heart.
"I studied non-stop. Plant Genesis is more interesting than I thought." He came up with an answer that explained everything.
"Still. It is very impressive. Here you can have mine." She waved her hand and two thousand jade slips appeared out of nowhere.
Seeing that Wei Ren was hesitant to take all these jade slips, she forced him to collect them into his void ring.
"Thank you Elder Sister Rong. I will definitely pay you back." Wei Ren finally accepted the jade slips and bowed.
"No worries. These are just jade slips. You can get as many as you want from Elder Qian." She waved her hand with a carefree smile.
"I noticed that you didn't come out of your cave for three whole days. Maybe that is why you used up all the jade slips. Elder brother Li was right. You have huge potential alchemy. Why don't you come with me? I plan to show you something. I would've taken you to this place before but you stayed inside your cave for so long." She didn't wait for his anwer and grabbed his hand and started walking.
Wei Ren was taken aback. A girl was touching his hand.
"Where are we going, Elder Sister Rong?"
"A better place for learning alchemy." She didn't fully explain.
Twenty minutes later they reached a bustling part of the mountain. This was the first time he had seen so many disciples at once.
Green Python Peak was very secluded because it was the peak specially arranged for the disciples of Grand Healer Lu Sheng.
They reached a wide square. Many buildings and wooden houses were crafted here. A tall green building was the most eye-catching thing here.
"This is the Serpent Alchemy Tower. All disciples aspiring to become alchemists come here to train." Mei Rong looked at the tower with her shining as if she revered this building.
"What's so special about this tower?" Wei Ren couldn't help but ask.
"This tower is the main reason our Serpent Valley Sect has produced people like our master and other Grand Alchemists. Legends say that this was brought here by the previous Emperor of Blue Rose Kingdom, Emperor Wei Shan. You must have heard about his stories. People say that he got this tower after defeating a very powerful cultivator and brought it here. All alchemists are allowed to study in this tower."
"Grandfather brought it here?" He looked at the tower shining with a strange look. He kept hearing things about his grandfather. But he has never met him. Wei Ren felt an indescribable feeling when he thought about his grandfather.
"You will understand better when we go inside." She dragged him into the Serpent Alchemy Tower.
An old man was sleeping on a chair at the entrance. When they passed him he kept snoring. Mei Rong didn't disturb him and just strode into the tower without any hesitation. When they passed him, the old man opened one eye to look at Wei Ren to inspect him and then closed his eyes again.