It had been a week since the night the four disciples met, after drinking themselves silly, barring Shu He, Tai Min set off the next morning without much fanfare though he did complain about having a killer headache, as for Gang Bo he quickly received a summons from the Guild Master causing his face to turn to a grimace before he trod off while mumbling.
On the other hand, Yun Jiang was eager to get back to working on his next piece, but before he left Shu He managed to catch him and give him a request, he handed Yun Jiang the spirit heart he had retrieved from the Razor Wolf along with the Enduring Edge causing the older man to stare at them with excitement.
The reason Shu He gave him them was simple, he wanted to infuse the blade with the spirit heart, it was something he had learned about after he returned to the sect and looked up some records in the Mesmerised Tortoise's Pavilion and existed as one of the key differences between a weapon 'made of spiritual materials' and a 'spiritual weapon', a spiritual item is something that can contain Qi in itself and has unique abilities, previously Shu He had two weapons, the Dire Fang and the Enduring Edge his current weapons, these two weapons relied on the properties of what it was forged from to create special effects, but they didn't have 'abilities'.
As for how a weapon can obtain such abilities… the most common method is a forging technique called a 'Spiritual Awakening' using a spirit heart as a catalyst, it's in essence very similar to a cultivator trying to learn a technique from a spirit heart, except in this case the craftsman merges the heart with the weapon, enhancing its intrinsic qualities and inheriting its innate techniques.
The reason why Yun Jiang was drooling over them, however, was that the success rate was low, and the skill required was high along with the cost of a spirit heart being almost extortionate, so he hadn't had a chance to even try; He happily accepted them and thanked Shu He for giving him the chance, swearing on his heart that he would succeed he rushed off.
And that left Shu He and Shu Xue left alone, luckily for Shu He she seemed to be getting tired so her transformation would wear off soon, so they headed home without him fretting the idea of bottoming out his points balance for more food; He spent the next few days showing her around the sect and helping her adapt to her human form along with extra testing with Elder Bai, and that led to today when Shu He decided to finally settle and stop rushing around the sect for the first time since he returned.
Inside his newly formed home, underneath the neatly flattened earth, was the basement to his house, the formation had already been lain at record speeds which impressed Shu He so he could use this place as a training room without any qualms, currently he was sat in the middle of the room cross legged.
Shu Xue was running around upstairs as she learned to control her human body, so she wasn't here to disturb him, he told her not to come in anyway since he was about to start some testing.
In Shu He's lap was a stone that glowed with a verdant green light, it was the High-quality Wood Qi Crystal that he had been gifted by Li Liling, truthfully, he had been very conflicted on how he should use this crystal, so he had put it off, but after seeing the progress his friends were making, he decided to at least try something out.
There were two ways he could use this crystal, the first was he could use it to begin his ascension to the fifth stage of cultivation- Elemental Infusion, just having this crystal gave him a giant leap on the road to that stage- at least that's how it should be.
The second… was the Nine Heaven's Divine Body he had inherited from Long Tian that one fateful day, he hadn't been able to progress a single inch with it because it needed 7 medium grade stones, 5 natural elements and 2 of the balance elements, without those he was stuck at the starting line.
In the latter case he would have to wait until he gathered all of them to even attempt it once, he currently had 2 stones, this wood crystal and the yin crystal he had since his time early in the sect, so he needed 5 more… if he worked hard on missions and helping others around the sect, he estimates he could earn that within a couple of years, it's not often points fell in to his lap after all.
Of course, he could ask Li Liling to help him some more… in fact he will, but even her assistance has its limits as she still needs to act within the confines of the sect.
'I wonder if Tao Ru has some crystals lying around…' he pondered as the green light reflected off his golden iris 'She's a Tier 2 alchemist so she likely uses them often… I'll ask her the next time I see her'.
He then picked up the crystal from his lap and felt the refreshing energy lapping against his skin, the wood Qi within that basically begging to be absorbed. Since he was holding it right now, he had obviously intended to do so, rather he had a feeling that things wouldn't go so smoothly for him as he attempted to assail the fifth stage.
The reason for this was the events inside the Alchemy Tower where his body ended up absorbing a copious amount of Alchemic Qi, forming what he is calling an Alchemic Petal on his unique core flame, thanks to that he could produce high quality Alchemic Qi despite his actual compatibility being average.
But if the same thing were to happen when he absorbed this Wood Qi then…
He shook his head, he would only know if he tested it, right? This stone is a High-Quality crystal, the quality only dictates the concentration of Qi inside, so since the Nine Heaven's Divine Bodies' first Heaven required Medium-Quality crystals, it wouldn't be a problem for him to siphon some in testing.
He closed his eyes as he cupped the crystal in both his hands, breathing steadily to control his heart rate and feel the flow of his Qi, the process for the fifth stage was like creating a Qi gate, except it was focused on creating a wellspring that fed into his core flame for refinement.
He sensed the mass of Qi that existed in the crystal and extended his own, tugging at it until it began flowing in to him, the Wood Qi felt incredibly refreshing, as if pure spring water was flowing in to his body and purifying every inch, soon it reached his heart, his chest as he revelled in the feeling before focusing up, he steadily directed it in to his Core of Cultivation and towards his core flame that burned bright with an azure-gold flame in the shape of a budding flower.
The river of Wood Qi was slowly directed to the area just before the core flame, Shu He's focus was at his peak as sweat dripped, he made sure he didn't make a single mistake as not to waste the Qi, he steadily wove it into a loop as the two ends connected.
'…'
He waited as he kept feeding it, yet a sense of foreboding overcame him as he felt his flame begin to flicker with a brighter light.
And then suddenly.
*SHATTER*
The ring broke as the Qi was dispersed and sucked towards his core flame! Shu He grit his teeth hard enough that a high pitched grating sound echoed in the training room, his core flame began absorbing the Wood Qi like a greedy child that had been starved for days!
*Woosh!*
Shu He decisively threw the stone away from him as it rebounded against the formation that absorbed the impact, letting it drop to the floor where it rolled along; Doing this he at least stopped his flame from drinking it down like an alcoholic.
"Shit…" he swore as he flopped on to his back, unfortunately he had proven his worries true, at first one might think that his core flame absorbing the Qi would be a good thing, if he followed the logic from before that would mean he could create pure Wood Qi after it was complete.
The problem was that the amount of Qi in that crystal was nowhere near enough to complete the transformation! Shu He observed his core flame and could see only a tiny spec of a petal dyed a weak green, and he had absorbed just over 10% of the crystal in that instance.
Luckily, he stopped, it would still be considered a High-Quality crystal because of that…
At least now, Shu He understood what he needed to do now, the first thing would be to gather the 7 crystals and attempt to undergo the First Heaven transformation, that was his greatest path to power right now.
After that, he must take on the Keystone Pilgrimage! Before he was on the wall about it, it would take a lot of time and he wasn't sure if it was necessary for him, but now he knew he had to, that was the only way he would gain access to copious amounts of the 5 elements!
After all the reward for each trial was access to the leyline cave where each sect resided, each one contained the utmost purest Qi of the sect's respective element, it was the whole reason disciples underwent the trial after all.
Shu He sighed.
'I'm always going to be busy, aren't I?'