Flipping the book open to the first page, I start reading and marking the errors. As I keep reading, my excitement dies out and gets replaced by confusion. Soon, I finish the last page and start writing down notes while flipping back to the book's previous pages. While writing, I think about the reason behind my confusion. For some reason, this technique follows the same cores as the Earth-ranked techniques and not the heaven-ranked ones. The only reason why I think that this one is marked as an immortal-ranked technique is because of the lower number of errors combined with the fact that this technique is made to use all five elements, and that would explain why.
When closing the book, I was about to set it aside when someone snatched it out of my hands. Looking up, I saw Lou Xia standing there with her parents standing by the door.
"How long did you plan to be deaf to the world for?" she asked with a hint of anger in her tone.
"Sorry, I found some higher-level techniques. Anyway, how long have you been standing there?" I asked while rubbing the back of my neck.
"We have only been here for about 20 minutes or so, but what ranking of technique made you so focused on making notes?" she said, the small amount of anger she had fading away.
"It was actually the comparison with the previous technique that I was so interested in. By the way, what is the highest level of technique manual you have seen?" I explained and asked her.
"Oh, that would be my family's Transcendent Immortal technique. You also have not said what the level of the technique you were reading," she replied.
"Sorry again. I was reading an Immortal-ranked technique with a few key points, but it does not compare to the heaven-ranked technique I read previously." I started while watching her expression change into confusion.
"Why would an Immortal technique not compare to a heaven-ranked technique?"
"That would be because the immortal-ranked technique follows the same core components as all of the earth-ranked ones and the ones below that I have gone through. Only its secondary components differ, whereas the heaven-ranked technique has an additional core component. I theorize that the only reason why the heaven-ranked technique is at that level is because of all the errors that it has, which is the most in any of the techniques that I have seen so far." I explain the reasoning behind my previous statement.
"Huh. That makes me wonder if my family's technique has the same core components as the heaven-ranked technique you're talking about," she said while thinking out loud.
"The only way to know would be to let me see it," I replied to her question, which she had not asked me.
"We would have to ask my parents about that. Though we did not come here for that, we came to get you so you could make the modifications to the garden that you wanted." She said while reminding me about the agreement earlier.
"Oh, all right then. Lead the way," I said while getting up, dusting off my dress, and waiting for Lou Xia to show me where I would be making the modifications.
"By the way, my parents invited a fung shui master to divine a good location for you." She remarked while she began to lead the way.
"I would not need that, but thank you regardless." I thanked her and her parents, who we were now in front of. Though the old man that was with them seemed offended by my comment.
"I will let you know that Fung Shui helps you with a lot of things, such as your attunement to the environment around you!" He said with a little more than a trace of anger appearing on his face.
"Is that not what humans do regardless of where they settle down? Changing the environment around them to suit their needs and preferences?" I asked again, putting on an innocent expression. Off to my side, I could hear Lou Xia stifle a laugh, probably because of seeing my expression and knowing what I was doing from what happened yesterday in front of the library. And indeed, it was just like I thought as he was walking behind us, floundering about like a fish out of water. This lasted until we walked through a set of doors that put us out onto the back patio of the mansion.
Looking around, I spotted a circular cleared area surrounded by flowers and a few trees. Tugging on Lou Xia's sleeve, I pointed over there, and Lou Xia led us. This clearing was around the perfect size for what I wanted, and I asked if I could use it, to which she just looked at her parents. They, in turn, looked to the old man, who stopped his floundering and stepped forward to look at the area. He then started to do some weird things that I did not know anything about. Soon, he put away some instruments and turned to me, saying, "It would not be wise to create some sort of building here or use it as a testing round."
Hearing what he said, I just looked at Lou Xia with a blank expression on my face, to which she responded, "You heard him. If you want to modify this area, it is up to you."
Hearing what she said I nodded to her to signal that I was starting. pulling from my inventory some square archways made of red stained wood with a lattice carved into the top of it depicting a mix of flowers, vines, and foxes; I start to place them around the edge of the circle. From here, I set up a second one halfway to the center, this time with some polls going from the top of each pillar falling into the center, creating a peak in the middle. These gates connected together, forming two enclosed circles in the garden. going from the peak formed from the polls, I run ribbons of cloth to each pillar on the outer circle. Moving back to the center, I placed down a statue that shared the same likeness as Elinaria, with her name inscribed on a metal plate at the bottom, reading 'The goddess Elinaria'.
When I finished placing everything, I felt as if there was a rush of some mysterious energy filling the place. A few results of this were that all the colors in the area seemed brighter, the flowers grew a little higher, and the body felt more refreshed and relaxed. Turning to look at the old man, I see his face go slack with a shocked and stunned expression as he just looks off into space. Feeling vindicated, I walk in front of the statue and kneel on the ground to begin praying, as I have not done that in a while. This lasted for a few minutes as I was focusing on prayer before standing again. There was one last thing to do, and that was to check the system menu.
[Statue of the goddess Elinaria]
{Level: 1}
{Description: A shrine to the goddess Elinaria made by her first-ever Champion in a new world.}
{Ablity: Serves as a link to the goddess through which she becomes anchored to the world and can give her blessing while her influence is still weak.}
{Modifier: Well-made shrine (Natural Qi gathering formation), Open dragon vain (Qi gathering efficiency increased by 300%), Made by the first (Gives Aura of Tempering), Aura of Tempering (Removes the requirement of needing any tempering supplies for the body tempering stage)}
Looking at the screen, I am slightly taken aback because I have never seen something like this window before. Checking the version, I see that it has not changed, but there is now a message there saying that the shrine interface is a preview of the system version 1. Taking that for what it was, I looked over to Lou Xia, only to see her looking around in wonder.
"What has got you so captivated all of a sudden?" I ask teasingly, watching as she and, by extension, everyone else comes back to the world again.
"Did this thing just increase the Qi density to a level higher than the Qi gathering formations in my Immortal cave on the mountain?" she shouted in shock, not seeing how my face darkened at what she said.
"Do not spout such blasphemous things! This is a shrine to the goddess Elenaria." I said while looking her down. At this moment, it apparently clicked for everyone as I saw the faces go pale at the realization of what just the shrine of the goddess did and that they had just insulted her in the presence of her shrine.
"It is fine, as I have roughly guessed what your view on the gods and goddesses is, but now that you know, don't make this mistake again."