Reaching for the Stars

Chapter Twenty-Six

I could choose to cultivate slowly in order to allow my inner foundation to heal, or I could take another Qi Block pill, enduring the pain it gives me, and begin cultivating again. To me who had been unable to cultivate for so long, the choice was obvious, I would much rather bear the pain than delay in cultivating.

Not when I was already so far behind the other students here, I was by far the weakest cultivator here, if you didn't count the weak scholars, who trained their mind instead of their spirit. Herbalism was interesting in that aspect, a study of both the mind and the spirit, whereas a Qi Warrior had to train their body and their spirit, rarely was there someone who could successfully train all three, it didn't mean that Qi Warriors were stupid at all, in fact many of them were very smart and cunning, but they didn't have the mental strength to learn herbalism.

So many things relied on one's mind in herbalism, it wasn't enough to look at a book and just follow the recipe, monitoring had to be constant, and you had to have the potion mostly memorized before one even began brewing it, because the moment you started, timing was everything, taking the time to read the recipe would likely result in a failed potion every single time.

Though naturally strengthening one's spirit, also strengthened the body, it wasn't the same as strengthening muscles and learning fighting maneuver's as Qi Warrior's did, but a Martial Lord was much stronger than a Spirit Apprentice just because of how much spirit energy they had. After having cultivated so much the day before, and having chose to just sleep normally instead of messing around in the spatial world, I was ready to begin the day, with it being the last day before the two day break, I wasn't in a rush to take the Qi Block pill right away.

While mostly used to overcome cultivation blockages, it could also stabilize one's inner foundation, resulting in it being a very useful thing for me right now, when I wanted to cultivate as quickly as I could. Ascending three levels of the same rank in a single day was astonishing, most would not believe it to be even possible, but then again most are not as weak in cultivation as I am. As children we do not absorb as much spiritual energy so it takes longer for us to have a breakthrough, but because I am an adult, I was able to harness and process spiritual energy a lot better than a child could, so while I child may have only ascend a single rank, I could almost do two in single day.

There were three levels in each rank, Low being the weakest, Intermediate being the middle level, and Peak being the highest one could reach before ascending another rank. The fact that I had gone from a third level common qi cultivator to a Peak Spirit Apprentice would astonish many, though again the Spirit Apprentice levels didn't require a large amount of energy to breakthrough, as I ascended the ranks it would become harder and harder to have a breakthrough.

When I get to class today, Professor Takeshi allows the students who finished on the Aura Concealment potion to work on the Speed potion I had finished days ago, already four potions ahead of them I wasn't sure what to do with myself. But when Professor Takeshi comes over to speak to me, it unfortunately isn't about doing another potion, instead he decides to give me menial work. "Because the rest days are beginning tomorrow, even though you have a tendency to finish potions the day you are assigned them, I instead thought you might enjoy going to the greenhouse and collecting some of the herbs I am running low on? I've prepared a list for you, as a reward you may take a cutting from one of the plants in there?" I had been disappointed first to find out he was assigning me to stock up the herb stores, but the idea of taking a cutting from one of the plants in there was tempting.

Nero and Marcellus had given me a great deal of live plants, many of them rare, but they hadn't given me a life plant of all herbs in the world, that was too vast, or at least for now, I intended to add to my collection slowly. Which made me wonder if I could make changes to the house in the spatial world or if it was stuck as it is, like would expanding the greenhouse be too much?