7: Chapter 7 Taking Small Steps

That morning, with the help of the Herb-Seeking Mouse, Lin Xuan found two more well-hidden clusters of dew-condensing grass, harvesting a total of five mature leaves.

Each time, he only picked the mature parts, never harming the plant's roots or the immature ones.

As the sun dipped west, Lin Xuan decisively finished his work.

He returned the Herb-Seeking Mouse to the Spirit-Taming Tower Space, carefully erased his tracks, and quietly returned to his courtyard.

In the evening, inside the Quiet Room.

Lin Xuan took out a leaf of dew-condensing grass and chewed it.

The leaf was slightly astringent, but when the drop of "dew" at the tip dissolved, a cool, faintly vital energy flowed into his throat and dispersed throughout his limbs and bones.

He immediately circulated the Qi Guiding Art to guide this weak, external Spiritual Qi.

Sure enough, compared to absorbing the hard-to-capture Thunder Spiritual Energy directly from the thin ambient air, the Spiritual Qi provided by the dew-condensing grass, while not perfectly matched in attribute, was much gentler and easier to guide, meeting less resistance when merging with his own trace of Thunder Spiritual Energy.

After cultivating for an hour, he clearly felt that the first trace of Thunder Spiritual Energy in his Dantian had become significantly more solid!

At this rate, perhaps after a few more leaves of dew-condensing grass, he could attempt to condense the second trace of spiritual energy!

"It works!" Lin Xuan opened his eyes, a flash of excitement in them.

Although this improvement might be insignificant to the likes of Chen Hao and the others, for him, it was like rain after a long drought—it was real, tangible hope!

From then on, Lin Xuan's life settled into a new, busier rhythm.

Every day, without fail, he diligently cultivated the Qi Guiding Art, never stopping, no matter how slow the progress.

Whenever he had free time, he would go to the Library to read various basic classics, especially borrowing a copy of the introduction to hundreds of herbs, beginning to systematically study the morphology, habits, medicinal properties, harvesting, and initial processing methods of common Spiritual Plants.

He knew that with the Herb-Seeking Mouse, he would likely deal with more Spiritual Plants in the future, and this knowledge was crucial.

Every three to five days, ensuring it was safe, he would take the Herb-Seeking Mouse to that "treasure land" behind the mountain to patrol once.

He always had a harvest, but he was never greedy, strictly following the principle of "harvesting the mature and leaving the young".

The harvested dew-condensing grass leaves became important resources to assist his cultivation.

His cultivation speed finally improved from the near-stagnant turtle pace to a slow but steady "ox cart" speed.

Nearly two months after joining, he successfully condensed his second trace of Thunder Spiritual Energy.

By the third month, the third and fourth traces also took shape.

During this period, Chen Hao's cultivation was advancing by leaps and bounds.

More than three months after joining, he had accumulated over twenty traces of fire spiritual energy in his Dantian, his vitality was surging, and his every move carried a scorching aura; he had successfully performed the most Elementary "Fire-Starting Technique", and although he could only light a piece of paper, it still excited him for several days.

He still visited Lin Xuan frequently, but the topics shifted from pure cultivation insights to anecdotes about the outer sect and interpersonal interactions.

"Lin Xuan, that guy Chen Yufei, a few days ago, gathered thirty-six traces of spiritual energy and officially made a Breakthrough to Level 1 Qi Refining!

I heard that the Elder of Houtu Peak personally summoned and encouraged him, even rewarding him with a bottle of better 'peiyuan pill'!"

Chen Hao sat cross-legged on the stone stool in Lin Xuan's courtyard, gnawing on a spiritual fruit while speaking, his tone tinged with envy, but more so with unconvinced defiance, "Hmph, so what if he has an Earthly Spiritual Root? When I reach Level 1 Qi Refining, I won't necessarily be worse than him!"

Lin Xuan was processing some dried common herbs with a small chopper (these were Materials he used to practice identifying and processing from the introduction to hundreds of herbs), and upon hearing this, he looked up and smiled: "That is indeed impressive. You're almost there, right?"

"I'm still about ten traces away!" Chen Hao scratched his head, then looked at Lin Xuan, hesitated, and lowered his voice, "Lin Xuan, your... your progress, isn't it too slow? I still have a few Spirit Stones; why don't you take them? Or, I can go beg a Senior Brother from Flame Peak to see if there's any common method to speed up spiritual energy accumulation..."

Lin Xuan stopped what he was doing, looking at Chen Hao's sincere and concerned eyes, feeling warm inside, but shook his head firmly: "Chen Hao, I appreciate your kindness. But you need the Spirit Stones for your own cultivation, you can't keep subsidizing me. As for other methods, my Foundation is not yet stable; rashly seeking external forces might not be a good thing."

He paused, placing a processed 'soul-calming flower' into a stone mortar, his tone calm and firm: "I have my own plan and rhythm. The path to immortality is long; the speed at the start doesn't determine the height of the finish line.

Look, haven't I gathered four or five traces of spiritual energy now? Although slow, every step is taken steadily.

You don't need to worry about me; just focus on walking your own path."

Chen Hao looked at his friend's calm face and those eyes that showed no impatience, only steady persistence, opened his mouth, and finally swallowed his persuasion, forcefully patting Lin Xuan's shoulder: "Alright! As long as you know what you're doing! Anyway, if you have any difficulties, you must tell me! We are brothers who came out of the Yun Kingdom together!"

"Of course." Lin Xuan nodded with a smile.

Time passed like a white horse galloping past a crevice; the emerald bamboo in the mountains turned green and then yellow, yellow and then green.

In the blink of an eye, Lin Xuan had been in the sect for over half a year.

His life was monotonous and fulfilling. Cultivating, reading, caring for the Herb-Seeking Mouse, and periodically going to the back mountain to "collect" dew-condensing grass.

With the continuous, meager assistance of the dew-condensing grass, his spiritual energy accumulation finally broke through ten traces.

This speed, among his peers, was undoubtedly the bottom of the barrel.

Lin Xuan became a nondescript presence in Zone C of Emerald Bamboo Peak, even slightly serving as a "negative example"— "Look, that's the Lightning Spiritual Root, attribute only thirty, has been in the sect for over half a year, and only has ten traces of spiritual energy; I'm afraid he'll never reach the Late Stage of Qi Refining in this lifetime." Similar discussions, he had heard them, but his heart was calm, without ripples.

Most of his thoughts were focused on that copy of the introduction to hundreds of herbs, which had become somewhat frayed from being flipped through.

Now, he could identify and simply process over fifty common Low Grade Spiritual Plants, and he had a preliminary understanding of their growth environments and symbiotic relationships.

He even began to try using the excess leaves of the dew-condensing grass he had collected, combined with several other completely non-graded common herbs, following the simplest recipe in the book, trying to refine a more easily absorbed 'grass-dew essence', and although he failed repeatedly, he accumulated valuable experience.

The Herb-Seeking Mouse, under his "feeding" and the occasional treatment using the cheapest medicinal dregs after getting hurt, not only healed from its injuries but, perhaps due to staying in the Spirit-Taming Tower Space for a long time and occasionally coming into contact with the aura of Spiritual Plants, seemed more agile than its usual peers, and that "faint Spiritual Qi sense" seemed to have strengthened a bit.