Second Time

Chapter 15 - Reputation

With the cultivation technique manual in her hands, Mimi began to study.

"It uses the same meridians as the circulation technique, but in a different way," she observed. "This chant... seems to have some meaning, but as always, it's too esoteric. I'll just memorize it."

Now that Mimi had grasped the feeling of qi, her learning speed increased dramatically. With the esoteric parts out of the way, she was left with patterns to follow. As long as her concentration held out, she wouldn't have much issue with low grade techniques.

The chant contained traces of the Heavenly Law which would guide the qi and allow her to refine it into a certain state according to the technique, once she properly understood its meaning. Higher grade techniques would have more profound laws and be harder to grasp, but could result in stronger qi, qi with unique attributes, or simply refine qi faster.

"I wonder why she gave me an earth qi method?"

At the next meal time, Shao Yue explained, "Earth Spirits can be found everywhere in the Spirit World. I don't know where you'll enter from here, so earth is the safest option."

"Spirit World?" Mimi lived outside of the world of cultivators, so she didn't know the details.

"When someone breaks through from the Qi Refinement Realm to the Resonance Realm, their soul is transported to the Spirit World," Shao Yue explained. "The cultivator then needs to find and kill a Spirit which will become their partner for their cultivation journey. It's best if you find one that matches your element."

"How strange."

"I'll tell you more when the time comes," Shao Yue promised. "Oh, right. Stand up and stay still for a bit."

Shao Yue didn't often ask Mimi to do things, so she obeyed. Shao Yue then grabbed three pieces of parchment and started to draw some complex patterns.

The situation was very awkward for Mimi and went on for far too long in her opinion.

Shao Yue handed the parchments over. "These are the three arrays in your body. Try comprehending them when you can."

Mimi flipped through the sheets. The arrays were still far beyond her ability. She couldn't understand anything about them, but they motivated her to try harder. "Don't cry when I break them."

"I'm looking forward to it. Also, here's a list of herbs to buy, along with the money."

"Got it."

Mimi returned to her room and put away the parchments before heading to the town. She briefly considered whether to go to the same herb shop as before or not. If she went somewhere else, it might be less troublesome, but she'd have to keep going to new shops each time and that would also be a pain. The original shop, she'd chosen due to it being the closest to the mansion.

Since it would be a pain either way, Mimi went back to the same store. A man immediately recognized her and led her into a private room with comfortable chairs.

"I assume Grandmaster Zeng's apprentice requires grade two herbs?"

Mimi nodded and handed over the list.

"Wonderful. Progressing so quickly, he truly is Grandmaster Zeng's apprentice. It must be an honour to assist a man like him."

"Yes." Mimi didn't bother to correct the gender, since she wanted to spend as little time in the store as possible.

Alchemy required fire qi or yang qi. Typically, females wouldn't choose to cultivate either of those if they could avoid it. Everyone had a natural aptitude towards certain elements, with men tending towards yang and women tending towards yin. Him assuming the apprentice was a man was understandable.