Chapter 274 - 263: Spirit Stone
As dusk began to fall, Zhao Lin took out the food he had brought back at noon. He had planned to eat it cold, but then he remembered his junior sister, Bai He, was on her period and should avoid cold foods. With that, he carried everything to the woodshed.
Inside the woodshed was an earthen stove with a neat pile of firewood beside it. Everything was covered in dust and cobwebs, a clear sign it hadn’t been used in a long time.
"This will do."
Zhao Lin nodded to himself, fetched a bucket of water from the rain barrel under the eaves, and cleaned off the stovetop. He lit a fire, put a pot of water on to boil, and then set the food box and steamer basket on the pot’s rim, letting the steam warm them through.
Just then, footsteps sounded outside the woodshed. Li Sancai pushed the door open and walked in. Seeing the room filled with steam, he asked in surprise, "Senior Brother, need any help?"
"I’m almost done. Just help me carry this."
Zhao Lin didn’t need to look to know who it was. The other three boys came from well-off families and had never done this kind of work; the thought would have never crossed their minds. Only Li Sancai, the former beggar, was observant enough to know he should offer a hand.
The two of them carried the food to the front courtyard, where Zhu Cong, He Shaoqun, and Bai He hurried over to take it from them.
"The food is warm! Thanks for going to the trouble, Senior Brother!"
"Oh, we should have helped..."
The five of them sat on the ground in a circle. The atmosphere was quite cheerful as they ate and chatted.
"Senior Brother Xun, would you like to come eat with us?"
Zhao Lin gave He Shaoqun a pointed look, and He Shaoqun took the cue, calling out the invitation to Senior Brother Xun.
Senior Brother Xun shook his head gently. "You go ahead! It’s not that I’m being polite. After opening one’s meridians, one must expel the impurities from the body and strive to keep it pure and untainted."
"As the saying goes, one must be meticulous with one’s food. Mortal grains and meats all contain turbid qi. Eating them forces you to expend your own Spiritual Power to refine it away, which is a great detriment to your cultivation."
"The Spiritual Qi in this world is already sparse; I wouldn’t dare eat things like that."
Zhao Lin noticed Senior Brother Xun’s Adam’s apple bob twice while he was speaking, as if he still couldn’t forget the taste of these impurity-laden foods.
"You really can’t eat any of it at all?"
Zhu Cong asked curiously, "Then what do you eat, Senior Brother? You can’t possibly just live on wind and dew, can you?"
Senior Brother Xun smiled faintly and explained, "On the Xuanyuan Continent, cultivators mostly eat Spirit Rice. Not only does it contain no turbid qi, but it can also replenish Spiritual Qi."
"However, Spirit Rice is inconvenient to carry and not easy to store, so when traveling, most carry Fasting Pills."
As he spoke, he flicked his sleeve, and a green, longan-sized pill appeared in his palm.
"This pill is made from the refined essence of Spirit Rice and several types of Spirit Grass. Take one, and you won’t have to eat for half a month. It can also replenish a bit of Spiritual Qi."
"We garrisoned cultivators normally subsist on these."
Zhu Cong licked his lips and said naively, "Senior Brother, can you break off a piece for me to try?"
As he spoke, he reached into his clothes and fumbled for a moment before pulling out a gold ingot. As if making a great decision, he said, "I’ll trade you this for it."
Hearing this, Senior Brother Xun burst out laughing, but he quickly suppressed it. "Mortal gold and Silver are worthless in the Cultivation Realm."
"Besides, you haven’t even begun cultivating. Eating a Fasting Pill would be a complete waste. You wouldn’t be able to refine the Spiritual Qi within it, so it would do your body no good."
He finished with a light wave of his hand. "Once you get to the sect, you’ll be given Fasting Pills. I’m just afraid that by then, you’ll find them bland and tasteless, unable to satisfy your cravings."
A glint flashed in Zhao Lin’s eyes. He recalled that Huang Zhusong and Lv Qing had mentioned Spirit Stones. It was a shame they hadn’t had any on them at the time, so he never got to see one. He decided to seize this opportunity.
With this in mind, he said, "Senior Brother Xun, I heard from the garrisoned cultivators that because the Spiritual Qi in this world is so thin that cultivators can’t practice, the sect provides you with Spirit Stones. Is that true?"
Senior Brother Xun raised an eyebrow and hesitated for a moment before saying, "Oh, very well. Normally, Spirit Stones aren’t to be shown to mortals, but since you’re all about to enter the sect, there’s no harm in letting you have a look."
As he spoke, his hand blurred, and a square "jade stone" appeared in his palm.
"This is a Spirit Stone. It contains Spiritual Qi. By channeling it into your abdomen, you can absorb it into your body for cultivation."
Everyone stared curiously at the Spirit Stone in his hand. It was about three inches long and wide, and an inch thick—just about graspable in one hand.
The Spirit Stone was a pale cyan color with a streak of emerald green running through it. A misty vapor swirled within, like a swimming dragon dancing and coiling, giving it an incredibly profound appearance.
Even from several paces away, Zhao Lin could feel the dense Spiritual Qi. ’It really is over a hundred times denser than Primordial Qi,’ he thought. ’I wonder how he kept it hidden just now.’
"Senior Brother, can I... touch it?" He Shaoqun asked boldly.
Senior Brother Xun extended his palm. "Go right ahead."
He Shaoqun immediately got up, walked over, and cupped the Spirit Stone in his hands as if it were a priceless treasure, afraid he might accidentally drop it.
Senior Brother Xun laughed. "Don’t worry. This thing is as hard as rock. You couldn’t break it even if you threw it down with all your might."
He Shaoqun returned to his seat, and the other junior brothers and sister immediately crowded around to look. Zhao Lin, however, didn’t rush to join them. Instead, he asked Senior Brother Xun, "Senior Brother, how many Fasting Pills can you get for one Spirit Stone?"
Because of his experience with martial arts, Zhao Lin was very concerned about the costs of cultivation.
Senior Brother Xun’s expression shifted, a look of approval in his eyes. "Junior Brother Zhao asks the important questions!"
"Spirit Stones aren’t just for cultivation. They can also be used for healing, setting up formations, powering Magical Artifacts, Alchemy, Artifact Refining, and so on."
"Because they are abundant and have wide-ranging uses, they are also the most common currency on the Xuanyuan Continent. Many cultivation-related items are priced in Spirit Stones."
"Fasting Pills are a necessity for cultivators and are easy to carry, so they are also often used as a benchmark for prices."
"One Spirit Stone can be exchanged for a bottle of Fasting Pills, and one bottle contains twenty pills."
He Shaoqun and the others, who had been gathered around the Spirit Stone, all looked up to listen intently to Senior Brother Xun’s words.
Senior Brother Xun continued, "Besides Spirit Stones and Fasting Pills, there is also a type of Low Grade talisman in the Cultivation Realm called the Clear Heart Talisman. It has the function of calming the mind, focusing the spirit, and blocking out external noise, which is somewhat helpful for a cultivator’s practice."
"Clear Heart Talismans are easy to make and cheap to buy, so they can sometimes be used as ’money’ as well."
"Of course, of the three, Spirit Stones are definitely the most popular. The quality of Fasting Pills and Clear Heart Talismans can be inconsistent and they’re not easy to inspect, so Spirit Stones are the most reliable."
At this point, Senior Brother Xun paused and said meaningfully, "Without wealth, one cannot cultivate the Dao. Pills, talismans, Dharma Robes, magic treasures, Spirit Mansions... every single thing requires Spirit Stones."
"Talent and hard work are important, of course, but being broke is absolutely not an option!"
"’Without wealth, one cannot cultivate the Dao...’"
Zhao Lin muttered the phrase softly. ’So that’s how it is,’ he thought. ’It seems that once I get to the Xuanyuan Continent, I’ll have to find a way to accumulate more Spirit Stones to support my cultivation.’
Zhu Cong and the others took turns looking at and stroking the Spirit Stone before finally passing it to Zhao Lin.
When Zhao Lin took it, his first reaction was its weight.
He roughly estimated the Spirit Stone to weigh about four pounds, making it as heavy as an iron block of the same size with a density seven to eight times that of water.
Just as he was about to examine it more closely, he suddenly felt a palpitation in his heart. The Spirit Beast Scroll in his mind flared with a brilliant light and began to tremble violently.