The sect was bustling with disciples walking around the large and spacious mountain peak. Dozens of buildings could be seen in every direction, serpent-like stairs going up and down were present everywhere. This scene was present on multiple mountains, each with there own flattened areas for the buildings.
Many people in blue-tinged white robes were flying between the mountains, some used swords and others manifested clouds beneath their feet.
Down the mountains, following any one of the numerous stairs down there were colorful valleys between the mountains that were littered with flowers and herbs. More importantly, many people were scattered throughout.
One man in particular was 1.7 meters tall, currently kneeling on the ground, carefully removing the roots of a cerculean blue flower. His robes were almost tinted with a layer of translucent green and blue. Silk black hair long enough to reach the ground while he knelt was tied into a bun.
As his right hand maneuvered the roots, his left hovered over the flower, releasing waves of wood-green light. When the flower was nearly fully extracted, the man released a final pulse of light that covered the herb causing the roots to gently pluck themselves out of the ground.
As the flower was gently placed into the overfilled basket with other herbs, the man was startled by a loud sound… or more aptly a boisterous individual.
"Wu Songye!" Another young man who had just finished the same task some meters away called out, getting the attention of the previous man, Wu Songye.
He replied as the surprise quickly faded, "What do you want?" An almost annoyed tone came from him, but listening closely would reveal the nature of true friendship.
The loud man responded with a tone as if he had been wronged, "What? Want something? I just wanted to say great job…" His voice trailed off before picking back up, "Do you want to help me pick some Blooming Cherry Lilies?"
An exasperated sigh came from Wu Songye as he gestured to the other man, "Come on." The two began to walk, about 60 meters away there was a sea of red, all of it was flowers.
As they walked they talked, "So, Gao Keqiang, are you stilling trying to concoct the Flame Qi pill?" Wu Songye asked while stepping around folliage adorned in purple berries.
The boisterous man, Gao Keqiang replied with pride, "Of course, but I already succeeded a few days ago, you know? Now I need more lilies to practice with." A smug expression was glued onto his face, it was always there.
"Oh. And you haven't given me a single one?" Wu Songye said with indignation, lightly punching the arm of his friend before continuing, "I'm just kidding, let's get this flower though."
The duo had just reached the field of red flowers. Wu Songye knelt down, placing both hands on the ground as he began to focus, "After I release my qi you have about fifteen seconds to pluck out as many as you can."
Gao Keqiang nodded and Wu Songye shut his eyes. Visualizing the idea of surrounding an object, in this blank imagination, a gray cube was covered in dark-green light.
Simeultaneously, a wave of dark-green light spread from his hands, gliding over dozens of flowers like a translucent slime. It sank into the ground between the gap of the soil and the stems of the flowers. Beneath the surface of the soil, the roots were covered in this translucent slime.
As soon as the light had seeped into the ground, Gao Keqiang began to move. His qi circulated through his lower body, and his steps felt like they covered a longer distance, becoming reminiscent of a crane taking a stride. Each second he was quickly moving and reached to pluck out the flowers. Within a few seconds a dozen more flowers were in his basket, and when fifteen seconds passed, there were at least four dozen flowers in his basket.
Gao Keqiang ripped another flower from the ground when the green light had already faded, luckily the roots remained intact. The roots must had not lumped together underground. The flower was tossed in the basket.
Some others in the field looked in the direction of the two, confused about how that actually worked. It was two juniors at the 3rd and 4th level of the Qi Condensation realm outperforming seniors of the same realm in the art of removing herbs. It was always like this though.
Having used plenty of his energy today, Wu Songye let out a yawn before speaking, "Hey, Gao Keqiang, you mind if I take this herb? It felt… different." His hand reached into Gao Keqiang's basket and pulled out a regular flower, no different from the rest.
"Of course, just let me know what it does later." Gao Keqiang replied waving his hand signaling the go ahead. To which Wu Songye carefully put it into his basket before picking it up.
"Alright then, I'm going to head to the Alchemical Pagoda. Exchange out some points for a new cauldron…" his voice trailed off as he began to walk away, hoping his friend would not speak about the matter.
Gao Keqiang yelled out to him a little too loudly for others to hear, "Don't blow up this one too!" Laughing at said person who was walking away and refused to turn around. His laughing died out as Wu Songye walked further and further away.
"Of course he had to say it." He muttered under his breath. The seniors around him with better hearing gave him odd looks. Though, it mattered not since they didn't hear the context.
From the valley to the mountain, Wu Songye ascended using the stairs meandering up onto Twin Earth Peak, home to the outer sect. The hour long walk was time consuming but tempered the body, by the time it lost effectiveness he would be flying instead of walking anyways.
As he walked through the sect and passed other disciples, Wu Songye eventually made it to a large, six story pagoda. Large metal signs on all four sides said Alchemical Pagoda. He walked towards the doors, opening them. The door pulled wind with it causing strong medicinal and herbal scents assaulted his senses. It took a moment but it quickly became pleasant after he readjusted.
He grabbed his sect token hanging on his side and infused his qi into. The sect token took a moment before relaying information to his mind, telling him the amount of contribution points he had.
2217. That was the number he had before trading in any herbs. He walked around the room, avoiding all the pedestals with herbs in glass classes denoting the price per set in contribution points. Signs hung from the ceiling of the large building using descriptors like flowers, ginseng, beets, and more to make traversing the building easier.
At the far end was a reception counter. A female elder with long white hair, was seated in a chair behind the counter. Her eyes were shut, head leaned and propped up by her hand, and a relatively happy expression on her face.
Wu Songye confidently strolled over, no one paying any mind to the large number of herbs he had, seemingly used to this. As he approached the elder she opened her eyes and sat up, "Junior Wu, you really need to buy a spatial ring soon and not so many cauldrons." The elder immediately judged him.
"I will keep Elder An's advice in mind…" He said with the tone of someone being told to repeat a sentence back.
Elder An nodded, "So you have the 3000 contribution points for it? Well you might need a larger ring…" She asked, probing him of his purpose here.
He shook his head, "Not exactly, remember the Flame Heart Cauldron I was looking at? I should have the points for it after trading in some herbs."
Elder An's face froze for a moment with her mouth open from shock. Her voice trembling for the first few words, "You- you are the ONLY disciple in the sect to have blown up THAT many cauldrons..! I'm nearly five hundred… I've been an elder over two hundred… sigh."
She waved her hand, pulling the exact cauldron they discussed out from seemly no where. Deciding it was easier to pretend this was his first time buying a cauldron. "It is 2225 contribution points."
Wu Songye smiled and placed his basket on the counter, filtering out the herbs he wanted, which was only 61 out of the 230-odd herbs. He also went ahead and placed his sect token on the counter. Elder An began writing a talisman for the cauldron and placing the talisman on it, the cauldron shrunk in size. The herbs remaining all vanished from the counter and the token vibrated slightly.
"You have 27 Contribution points left, three of your herbs will be returned since we don't do partial contribution points. I know you don't want those extras so I already added it to the treasury." Elder An used her professional voice as a dignified elder and placed the cauldron on the table, "You have twelve hours to place the cauldron before it returns to its full weight and size. Rip off the talisman to end it early. Now shoo, I'm tired of exchanging cauldrons."
The recipient nodded and smiled, "Thank you Elder An!" Before beginning to shoo away, he could leave he heard another disciple ask to buy a cauldron. Daggers were being stared into his back until he got out of the pagoda. Thus began the walk home.