Chapter 48: Breakthrough
"Spirit stones! I have to earn more spirit stones! How do I get more of them?"
Sitting inside his hut, Han Xuhan could simply not enter the deep, meditative phase described by Mu Ran. However, sensing qi without being in that phase was not possible for a beginner.
In each of his hands were a spirit stone, the cheapest type that resembled a coin. Mu Ran taught him that the minuscule qi trapped in the center of these coins was far easier to sense than the qi spread across the natural elements like air, earth, wood, water, and fire.
The only drawback of using such qi to kickstart his cultivation journey was its highly polluted state, unlike the free unrefined qi around him.
But Mu Ran assured him that as long as he switched his method after mastering how to sense and control qi, the Zeroth Layer foundation would easily mitigate any damage caused from absorbing the qi from spirit stones.
Getting up from the meditation mat, he brought a small booklet under the lamplight. This was the rulebook Xuanyuan Zhou had advised him to read this morning. He had almost forgotten about it.
"Maybe there will be something in the rules about earning spirit stones as a disciple. After all, few can sustain their cultivation solely relying on their families..."
As it turned out, his guess was correct. He found several methods to earn spirit stones through the sect’s activities. Unfortunately, he wasn’t qualified to take on any of those tasks. It wasn’t entirely because of his servant status, though.
Deliver 400 kg of shredded logs to the sect’s kitchen every morning.
Go deep into the mountain range to search for the herbs listed by the Medicine Pavilion.
Mine the mountain soil for precious crafting materials listed by the Weaponry Pavilion.