"No thanks, I've already practiced Inanition."
"Oh. Then I'll eat it myself." You Yu still had confidence in her barbecued meat skills. Although seasonings were lacking, the taste was still quite good.
She had found this chicken while collecting firewood, and it had literally flown right in front of her and crashed straight into a tree, knocking itself dead.
Should she pick it up or not?
Given meat delivered right to her doorstep like this, if she hesitated for even a single second, it would be a desecration of the chicken's self-sacrificing spirit!
She had only eaten some fruit today and was already starving. She didn't stop until she had eaten half the chicken all by herself.
Huangfu Yuan watched her eat, a concealed look of puzzlement lingering deep within his eyes.
"I am Huangfu Yuan. What is your name?"
"My name is You Yu."
Squid?
The kind you can eat?
"It's You Yu, You as in Chiyou, Yu as in rainy day."
You Yu felt helpless. Who could blame her orphanage director and this author for having the exact same aesthetic sense?
Huangfu Yuan lowered his gaze. That didn't matter.
"What are you doing deep in the mountains? As an ordinary mortal, aren't you afraid of the beasts in the mountains?"
"I'm heading to Mocheng to take the spirit root test for the major sects."
"I recall the testing takes place in Jingzhou today. It's quite close from here to Jingzhou."
"Didn't I miss it? I have no choice but to attend the next batch. I heard there's another one in Mocheng in ten days."
"There is indeed, but for a mortal to get from here to Mocheng takes at least half a month. If you plan to cross the mountains on foot, the testing will probably be over before you even arrive."
You Yu was stunned. "It's that far?"
"Mn."
"Then won't I miss it?" You Yu let out a cry, feeling that the roast chicken in her hand suddenly didn't taste as good anymore.
"I can take you there, as remuneration for saving my life."
"Really? Thank you so much!"
"You're welcome."
Huangfu Yuan was badly injured. After saying this, he closed his eyes and said nothing more.
You Yu didn't disturb him either. After finishing her roast duck, she went over to the edge of the pool to soak her feet.
Anyway, this water had been polluted by him and couldn't be drunk either.
She had blisters on her feet from walking, and the water in the pool was icy and cool—soaking in it felt just right.
While soaking her feet, she recalled the contents of the book, confirming that neither the male protagonist nor the male supporting characters were named Huangfu Yuan. Therefore, he probably wasn't one of the female protagonist's fish in her pond.
Good thing he wasn't, or such a handsome face would have been utterly wasted.
Besides, the name was never mentioned in the entire novel. He probably wasn't from any major sect; he should be a rogue cultivator.
She had heard that rogue cultivators didn't have very high cultivation levels because they lacked resources and advancing was difficult.
Such a handsome rogue cultivator—it really was a bit of a pity.
Chapter 4: When a handsome man extends an invitation, how can one hesitate?
She carried Huangfu Yuan on her back, failing to notice him opening his eyes to watch her.
His senses weren't playing tricks on him; there truly was a sense of attraction. Yet when he saw her under the tree a few days ago, there had clearly been no such feeling at all.
How strange.
After You Yu finished soaking her feet and came back ready to sleep, Huangfu Yuan suddenly spoke up: "Come here."
You Yu didn't understand the reason, but when a handsome man extended an invitation, how could she hesitate?
She walked over, and Huangfu Yuan caught her hand.
You Yu was immensely surprised, hesitating whether she should pretend to resist if he wanted to do this and that with her, or just give up resistance directly.
Before she could wrangle an answer out of herself, Huangfu Yuan let her go.
"What's wrong?" You Yu asked him.
"Do you want to cultivate?" Huangfu Yuan asked her.
You Yu blinked. "Don't I need to be tested first?"
"I just checked for you. You have dual fire and wood spirit roots; you can cultivate."
Oh, so he had just been testing her spirit roots.
"I haven't gone to a sect yet. Can I still cultivate?"
"Testing only happens after entering mortal cities for those in secular towns, but many people in the cultivation world are already able to cultivate before joining a sect."
Huangfu Yuan flipped his hand and produced an old book. "If you are willing, you can cultivate this."
Upon seeing the name on the book, You Yu's pupils involuntarily constricted.
*Five Spirits Star Technique*!
This mental cultivation method had appeared in the text, and it was extremely important.
This was a mental cultivation method without any grade.
The setup for mental and martial techniques in this novel generally followed the four grades of Heaven, Earth, Xuan, and Huang. Yet this one was even more formidable than the Heaven grade, which was why no grade had been assigned to it.
You Xueer's master had brought this mental cultivation method back two years after the female protagonist entered the sect, telling her to abandon the method she had previously cultivated, destroy her own cultivation base, and restart her cultivation with this one.
You Xueer hadn't understood it very well, seeing as she was already at the Qi Condensation Great Circle at that time and was just about to reach Foundation Establishment. Even so, she had been obedient, casting aside her previous cultivation achievements and switching to this method.
Only when she began cultivating this method did she realize how powerful it was.
Her Dantian could store more spiritual energy, and her meridians were wider and tougher than before. As her cultivation grew higher later on, this became even more apparent. Furthermore, in less than a year, she had cultivated to the Qi Condensation Great Circle, at a speed much faster than ordinary mental cultivation methods.
Once she reached Foundation Establishment, her Dantian held even more spiritual energy, and the higher her level, the more obvious her advantage became. This allowed You Xueer to easily crush peers of the same rank in future battles and earn a stellar reputation.
Now, this mental cultivation method had landed right in front of her.
This made her doubt Huangfu Yuan's identity as a rogue cultivator.
Could a rogue cultivator pull out a mental cultivation method this good?
You Yu was inwardly shaken. Huangfu Yuan noticed her astonishment, but assumed she was simply shocked by the sudden appearance of the manual.
"You're giving me this mental cultivation method to cultivate?" You Yu looked at him uncertainly, scratching her head with a bit of embarrassment. "You've already given me spiritual stones as a reward."
"This mental cultivation method can only be cultivated by women; it's useless to me anyway. Consider it repaying the favor for saving my life," Huangfu Yuan said.
"Since you put it that way, I won't stand on ceremony." You Yu accepted the mental cultivation method with a grin. Looking at the character for "Star" on the cover, her slight obsessive-compulsive tendencies made her habitually spit out a remark: "There's a typo here!"
This author really wasn't putting in any effort.
You couldn't blame her for thinking this way, because everyone else's techniques were named "[So-and-so] Mental Method"—what else could this *Five Spirits Star Technique* be if not a typo?
Huangfu Yuan hadn't expected her focus to be on the name. He said, "I obtained this in a secret realm in my early years, and I'm not sure if it's a typo. However, I have looked through the mental techniques inside, and there are no problems with them."
"I know." You Yu wouldn't doubt that point.
If there were problems, You Xueer wouldn't have succeeded in cultivating it.
She thought of something: if she hadn't run into him today, he would have died, and then his spatial ring would have become masterless, only to be found two years later by You Xueer's master, Daoist Wuhen.
Then the question arose: how on earth did Daoist Wuhen manage to find this place and even go down into the water to search?
Could it be that the female protagonist's halo was truly that overpowered?
Tsk tsk, simply formidable.
"Young Master Huangfu, thank you. You should rest well; I'm going to go study this." She shook the book in front of her eyes and walked over to the campfire, wanting to use the firelight to read.
Although the handsome man under the moonlight was extremely pleasing to the eye, she still felt her life was more important. To survive in this cultivation world, having her own strength was best.
This mental cultivation method wasn't short, but during the Qi Condensation and Foundation Establishment stages, only the first layer needed to be learned, so it wasn't too long either. You Yu, being a straight-A student, read it twice and memorized it.
She found a large rock, sat down cross-legged, closed her eyes, and silently recited the mental cultivation method inside her mind, trying to sense the specks of light mentioned in the manual.
Soon, she sensed specks of light of various colors—red, yellow, blue, green, gray, white, purple, and so on. Multicolored and dazzling, they were rather pretty.
However, each variety was relatively sparse.
She had heard that wood spirit roots corresponded to green specks of light, and fire spirit roots to red specks of light. She tried to communicate with these two types of light specks.
The specks of light in these two colors also seemed to like her, leaping around her continuously and looking rather joyful.
After she played with those specks of light for a little while, they burrowed into her body on their own. Slipping in right along with them were also some white specks of light.
You Yu was dumbfounded. What were these white specks of light? The book didn't seem to mention them at all!
If she absorbed this kind of light speck, wouldn't she explode and die?
When You Xueer cultivated, the book didn't seem to describe the appearance of these white specks of light, did it?
She wanted to reject the white specks of light from entering her body, but it seemed that as long as her body began absorbing light specks, these white ones would tag along and squeeze right in.
Unless she stopped absorbing any light specks whatsoever.
She hesitated for a moment. It seemed that after the white light entered, there was no discomfort either. Should she... continue?
When these three colored specks of light were completely gone, she looked at the floating specks of other colors which showed no reaction at all, guessing it was because she lacked spirit roots for those attributes that they didn't respond. With that, she opened her eyes and woke up.
By this time, the sun had already risen high into the sky, casting warm rays of sunlight down upon her.
She had actually been meditating through the entire night without realizing it!
She glanced at Huangfu Yuan's spot; he was no longer there.
"How does it feel?"
The voice came from beside the pool. You Yu turned her head and saw Huangfu Yuan standing by the water's edge.
He had changed into a new set of clothes, still white; if not for the different patterns on the cuffs, she wouldn't have been able to tell them apart.
He wasn't looking back at her, just staring at the surface of the water, deep in thought. The sunlight spilling over him draped him in a layer of golden light, leaving You Yu staring in a daze.
Talk about an absolute feast for the eyes!
If he were placed in the modern era, he'd have to be a top-tier superstar, right?
Her gaze was far too intense. When Huangfu Yuan turned his head, what he saw was You Yu propping her chin in both hands, staring right at him with wide, dark, glossy eyes.
He had seen plenty of gazes like that, but her kind of complex smile—that, he had never seen before.
You Yu: *You wouldn't understand this kind of "maternal fan" smile.*
Chapter 5: This guy definitely has mysophobia
Fortunately, she still knew her boundaries. Seeing him turn around, she stopped staring so flagrantly.
"You've drawn Qi into your body; how does it feel?" Huangfu Yuan asked.
"Refreshed. Even though I didn't sleep all night, I don't feel tired at all." She stood up, jumped down from the large rock, walked over, tilted her head upward, and asked him, "Huangfu Yuan, may I ask you a couple of questions?"
"What is it?"
"I was able to absorb the green and red specks of light, but I also absorbed a kind of white speck of light. What are these white specks? Am I going to explode and die?"
"White specks of light?" A puzzled look crossed Huangfu Yuan's eyes. "Let me check your body. Give me your hand."
You Yu reached out her hand. He frowned, but instead of holding it, he began to probe her condition through a layer of spiritual energy.
After a short moment, he let go of her hand: "There is nothing wrong inside your body. No signs of exploding and dying."
You Yu let out a sigh of relief and asked, "What kind of spirit root corresponds to the white specks of light?"
Huangfu Yuan shook his head. "I've never heard of it. Once I head back, I can look into it for you."
You Yu didn't feel too disappointed; he was just a rogue cultivator, so limited knowledge was only normal.
"I saw specks of light in many colors. The others had no reaction at all, but this white speck—as long as I absorbed the red and green light specks, it would just tag along and squeeze its way in."
Surprise flashed in Huangfu Yuan's eyes. "You could see specks of light in many colors?"
Seeing him frown, You Yu's heart skipped a beat. Uncertainly, she said, "I saw red, yellow, brown, green, purple, white, and so on—all sorts of colors. Am—am I abnormal?"
"Indeed, it is abnormal," Huangfu Yuan said. "When ordinary people cultivate, they can only see the spiritual energy corresponding to their own spirit roots—meaning those specks of light. You only possess fire and wood spirit roots, so you should only be able to see red and green."
Right? She remembered the book being written that way, and had even thought her own memory was playing tricks on her.
"Then why can I see so many colors of light specks?" You Yu was baffled. "They're all around me, but they don't seem to have any intention of coming into my body."
Huangfu Yuan fell silent for a moment before saying, "There have been such cases in the past, but they were merely rumors; no one has ever actually witnessed it."
"What kind of case?"
"I've heard that in the past, some people possessed hidden spirit roots in addition to their manifested spirit roots."
"Hidden spirit roots?"
"Those are spirit roots present within the body, but which haven't been activated yet."
"Can hidden spirit roots be cultivated?"
"No. Only once they are activated and become manifest spirit roots can they be cultivated."
So it was just like recessive and dominant genes. She understood now.
"Then what should be done about this? Will it affect my cultivation?" she asked.
"I've heard it won't. I've never heard of hidden spirit roots having any effect," Huangfu Yuan said. "However, people's understanding of hidden spirit roots is extremely scarce, and hidden spirit roots in this world are rare. As for someone like you who possesses so many spirit roots, how it will turn out is something I cannot be certain of."
"As long as it doesn't affect my cultivation, it doesn't matter." You Yu finally set her mind at ease, and then she felt hungry. Her stomach even cooperated with a rumble.
She rubbed her belly and said, "Huangfu Yuan, when are we setting off for Mocheng?"
"If you're in a hurry, we can set off right now."
"Ah, no rush, no rush. Let me eat breakfast first before we leave." You Yu remembered she still had half a chicken left from yesterday; warming it up to eat would be fine.
Huangfu Yuan wasn't in a hurry. Saying a simple "as you wish," he went off to the side and sat cross-legged with his eyes closed.
You Yu moved quickly, wrapping things up in about fifteen minutes. After finishing her roast chicken, she even fished a piece of fruit she had picked yesterday out of her bamboo basket to munch on.
When she finished packing up, Huangfu Yuan opened his eyes as well. Seeing the bamboo basket on her back with mud still clinging to it, he frowned again: "Leave the basket behind."
"But it still has some medicinal herbs I dug up inside."
"Where is the Storage Bag I gave you yesterday?"
You Yu took the Storage Bag out of the basket; a bit of medicinal herb soil had stained it.
Huangfu Yuan cast a cleansing spell upon it before taking it. With a gentle wave of his hand, all the items from the basket were transferred into the Storage Bag, which he then handed back to You Yu.
You Yu happily accepted it. Looking at the spotless Storage Bag, she thought to herself that this guy definitely had mysophobia.
Huangfu Yuan produced a sword, channeling spiritual energy into it until it grew longer and wider. With a flick of his sleeve, a force swept You Yu right up onto the blade, while he stepped onto the front of it himself.
"Ah—"
Taken completely by unawares as she flew into the air, You Yu was startled and instinctively grabbed onto the edge of Huangfu Yuan's sleeve.
When Huangfu Yuan saw the small hand clutching his sleeve, his brow furrowed once more.
"I—I washed my hands," You Yu didn't see his expression, but understanding people with mysophobia, she immediately offered an explanation.
Ultimately, Huangfu Yuan didn't say anything further, and carried her away in flight.
Half a day later, they arrived in Mocheng.
You Yu was overjoyed; this was vastly better than walking on her own.
Huangfu Yuan took her to an inn, produced a piece of silver, and booked two rooms—one for each of them.
"Huangfu Yuan, you even have ordinary mortal silver!" You Yu exclaimed in wonder. "Don't cultivators all use spiritual stones?"
"I exchanged for it when I went out in the past," Huangfu Yuan said. "I am going into seclusion for a few days. For the days following, please feel free to look after yourself."
"Got it, got it," You Yu replied with a beaming smile.
Not only had he brought her all the way to Mocheng, but he had also paid for her room. Simply wonderful! Given how severely injured he was previously, he undoubtedly needed to heal; she mustn't go disturbing him and interfering with his recovery.
"This bottle contains some Inanition Pills. A single pill can keep a person from hunger for three days."
You Yu had read the book, so naturally, she knew what Inanition Pills were. But having already accepted his expression of gratitude, she felt it inappropriate to accept another gift from him. Reaching for the Storage Bag at her waist, she asked, "How much for this?"
"It's just a bottle of Inanition Pills."
Huangfu Yuan directly tossed the bottle to her and headed into his own room.
You Yu held the bottle and waved at his retreating back. "Then thank you very much!"
The two of them returned to their respective rooms. Huangfu Yuan indeed needed to heal his injuries. After setting up a formation around himself, he changed into a fresh set of clothes and then began meditating to repair his damaged meridians.
He had originally recovered somewhat by last night, but because she had grabbed his sleeve, and he had wanted to arrive earlier, he had been forced to speed up. That required greater spiritual energy output, which had damaged his meridians once more.
You Yu went to her own room, first opening the window to look at the street outside for a moment. Having no desire to go out shopping, she shut the window with a *clack*, swallowed an Inanition Pill, sat cross-legged on the bed, and began to cultivate.
The cultivation world was cruel. Without a cultivation base, she was nothing more than a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.
What good was shopping? It was far better to spend the time cultivating!
She once again immersed herself in cultivation, and once more saw the multicolored specks of light. The other light specks remained rather aloof, floating idly in the air without the slightest fluctuation.
She didn't mind either, simply absorbing the more active red and green light specks, along with those white light specks of unknown origin.
Chapter 6: Your constitution... is somewhat troublesome
Huangfu Yuan's seclusion this time lasted for nine days. He merely managed to recover a large portion of his injuries; the residual demonic energy lingering within his body would have to wait for another opportunity to be cleared out.
However, he was interrupted this time by the commotion next door—or to be precise, the commotion next door had triggered the reaction emitted by the ring resting against his chest.
He removed the ring, and the originally unadorned artifact was shimmering with a faint glow.
"Is she the master you have been searching for all this time?" he said flatly.
The ring could not speak, but the fluorescent light circulating across its surface took the place of an answer.
After a moment, the commotion of the breakthrough next door came to an end.
You Yu opened her eyes, her gaze filled to the brim with delight.
She had reached the 1st Layer of Qi Condensation with her fire spirit root!
She had officially stepped onto the path of cultivation!
Once she walked this path, she was no longer the defenseless little lamb that the original body had been!
*Knock, knock, knock—*
A knocking sound rang out. She went to open the door and saw Huangfu Yuan standing outside.
Upon seeing him, she couldn't help wanting to share the joy in her heart, and said with a smile, "Huangfu Yuan, I've broken through! I'm now at the 1st Layer of Qi Condensation!"
"Mn, I felt it," Huangfu Yuan said. "Congratulations on officially stepping onto the path of cultivation."
"Thank you."
"I have some things to tell you."
"Come in and talk."
You Yu stepped aside to let him enter, then closed the door and sat down beside Huangfu Yuan.
"You still absorbed those white light specks?" Huangfu Yuan asked.
"Yes."
"Let me check your condition."
"Alright."
You Yu held out her hand. After probing her condition, Huangfu Yuan said, "Your spirit pool is normal, and your meridians are fine as well. For now, I can't detect any adverse effects on your body."
"Thank you."
Huangfu Yuan produced a bracelet and a ring. "These are congratulatory gifts for you, to celebrate your breakthrough."