After You Yu left the medicine garden, she asked curiously, "Eldest Senior Sister, why did Master weed the garden himself? Couldn't he just tell any disciple to do it?"
"Because in our sect, there are only a few of us left."
"Huh?"
Chapter 9: Using a Saint Artifact as a Courtyard
Ji Qing explained, "Your Second Senior Brother went out for experiential training, Fourth Senior Brother went back to the mortal world to handle some matters, your Seventh and Eighth Senior Brothers should both be in secluded cultivation, and Elder Qing has to manage the entire sect's affairs. So right now, out of the whole sect, only Master has the time!"
You Yu widened her eyes, completely stunned by the current state of the Taiyi Sect.
The entire sect really only had a few people in it?!
She had previously thought the novel's descriptions were exaggerations, but it turned out they were all true!
Even a dignified sect master had to till the land and pull weeds; this sect was in a truly miserable state!
Ji Qing took out a paper crane and channeled spiritual energy into it, causing the crane to grow larger. She led You Yu onto it and began slowly flying toward the other peaks.
"This is my peak, this is your Second Senior Brother's..." Ji Qing flew past eight mountain peaks one by one, then hovered in the air and asked her, "Which peak do you want?"
You Yu had thought those courtyards earlier were where everyone lived, but she hadn't expected everyone to have an entire mountain peak to themselves here. Thinking of the descriptions in novels where hundreds or thousands of people shared a single peak in other sects, the Taiyi Sect was truly... lavish!
She casually picked the one closest to them so it would be convenient for her to visit neighbors later—cough, cough, ask for guidance.
Ji Qing led her down and then sent out a communication talisman.
Before long, Third Senior Brother, Fifth Senior Brother, and Sixth Senior Brother all arrived.
"This place is nice. I wanted this peak before, but Master wouldn't give it to me," Fifth Senior Brother He Fan said with envy.
You Yu asked curiously, "Why?"
"Master said I'm not suited for the middle position."
"Huh?"
"Didn't you notice? This is the very middle peak."
You Yu recalled it and realized it indeed occupied the absolute center.
Moreover, the layout of this peak was very square; southeast, northwest, northeast, and southwest were all perfectly aligned.
"Since Master wouldn't let you choose this peak, can I even live here?"
"Master didn't say no, so that means you can," Ji Qing said. "Take a look and see where you want to set up your courtyard."
Since Ji Qing said it was fine, You Yu didn't worry about it any further. She carved out an open space halfway up the mountain where there was a cliff, a pool of water, and a bamboo grove.
Right here it was.
"Then right here it is?" Ji Qing asked.
"Mhm. Even though the weeds are a bit tall, but..."
Before You Yu could finish speaking, Ji Qing swept a wave of fire across the area, leaving it completely barren without even ashes remaining.
You Yu: "..." Apologies; reading about it in a book and experiencing it firsthand were still two different things.
Then she grew excited again—this world was truly magical!
After clearing away the weeds, Ji Qing looked at the little one with her mouth wide open and smiled gently, "The storage bag Master gave you should have a courtyard inside. Take it out, bind it with your blood, and place it down."
Huh? It was that convenient?
You Yu swept her divine sense into the storage bag and sure enough, she saw a miniature model of a courtyard. She took it out, bound it with a drop of her blood, and feeling the connection form between herself and the model, she controlled it to grow larger before placing it onto the open space ahead.
"Is this a Saint Artifact?" You Yu asked.
Spirit artifacts didn't have the ability to expand and shrink like this.
"Yes. Every entering disciple gets two sets of courtyards—one to place in the sect, and one for traveling."
You Yu checked her storage bag again and sure enough, there was another identical courtyard inside.
"Eldest Senior Sister, didn't they say our sect is very poor?"
Could a poor sect casually use Saint Artifacts?
Besides, in other sects, Saint Artifacts were treated as supreme treasures, yet here in the Taiyi Sect, they were only fit to be used as courtyards?
"Master gave it to us. It seems he can only forge this kind of courtyard. This is Master's sore spot, so don't bring it up in front of him."
"A sore spot?"
"Master seems to only be able to forge these; he can't forge any other Saint Artifacts," He Fan explained.
"Oh, I understand." You Yu understood. If she were clearly capable of forging Saint Artifacts, but could only forge courtyards, she wouldn't like others bringing it up in front of her either.
"The courtyards all come with defensive arrays. If you don't want to be disturbed normally, just turn the array on."
"Got it."
"This is a welcoming gift from Eldest Senior Sister." Ji Qing took out a storage bag. "Eldest Senior Sister doesn't know how to do much else, I only know alchemy. Don't look down on it."
You Yu received the storage bag with both hands: "I won't, I won't at all. Thank you, Eldest Senior Sister."
"This is mine." Liao Xing tossed over a storage bag.
He was a sword cultivator and usually didn't carry many possessions, so he gave her a whole bag of spiritual stones.
Five thousand low-grade spiritual stones—that was already half his net worth.
"This is mine." He Fan could be considered the wealthiest among them, and he gifted a set of defensive jewelry, including a hair ornament, a pair of earrings, a bracelet, and a necklace.
Each piece of jewelry could block three attacks below the Golden Core stage.
That was equivalent to being able to block fifteen attacks from the early Golden Core stage!
This was a top-tier life-saving treasure!
Rong Xuan gifted her two array disks, one focused on defense and the other on offense.
Rong Xuan looked slightly embarrassed: "Sixth Senior Brother's are a bit inferior, they can only handle opponents below the Foundation Establishment Great Circle."
"They're already very good, thank you Sixth Senior Brother." They were all wonderful items, and You Yu liked every single one of them.
Seeing that You Yu's expression was sincere, Rong Xuan smiled faintly.
"Alright, you've traveled for two or three months, so get some good rest. If anything comes up, just use our talismans to contact us."
"Understood. Eldest Senior Sister, Third Senior Brother, Fifth Senior Brother, Sixth Senior Brother, take care."
You Yu watched them leave before finally stepping into her own courtyard.
The courtyard was very simple, consisting of a perimeter wall, a bare courtyard, and several rooms. There was a living room, a bedroom, a cultivation room, a washroom, and a kitchen.
Seeing the kitchen made her very happy. Whenever she had high academic stress in the past, she always relied on cooking to relieve it.
After touring the courtyard, she went to the bedroom. The bedroom was very simple, containing only a carved wooden bed, a table, and two stools. However, the bed was made up with brand-new bedding, allowing her to rest immediately.
You Yu fumbled around for a bit, activated the courtyard's defensive array, heated some water for a bath, and then threw herself onto the new bed.
Out like a light.
Although cultivation could also eliminate human fatigue, she, a modern transmigrator, still wanted to get a proper sleep.
Ever since arriving in this world and learning the original owner's fate, she hadn't dared to rest properly, fearing she might carelessly follow in the original owner's footsteps.
Now that she had arrived at the Taiyi Sect—even though it had few people, was poor, and possessed low overall strength—at least she had a Deity Transformation stage master, and her senior brothers and sisters seemed quite easy to get along with.
The string in her mind that had been taut all this time finally loosened a little, making her want to take a short nap.
This sleep lasted for three hours—or rather, one and a half double-hours. When she woke up, she was starving.
She rummaged through her storage bag and discovered not a single Inedia Pill was left.
There was no edible food either.
She walked out of the courtyard to take a turn around, but found nothing edible, so she had no choice but to contact Ji Qing.
Ji Qing flew over and saw You Yu squatting at the entrance, drawing circles on the ground with a small wooden stick. Her small figure looked lonely and pitiful in the hazy evening light.
Chapter 10: Raising a Master is Very Expensive
Ji Qing's heart softened instantly.
Seeing someone approaching out of the corner of her eye, You Yu immediately looked up, her large eyes shining brightly.
"Eldest Senior Sister!"
The smile on her face was so radiant that it instantly pierced straight into Ji Qing's heart.
Even many years later, when the Junior Sister had grown to a height unattainable by ordinary mortals, in her heart she was still that little girl squatting on the ground drawing circles.
"I'm sorry, Junior Sister. Everyone has already attained Inedia and stopped eating, so we all overlooked the fact that you still need to eat and didn't prepare any food for you," Ji Qing apologized to her.
Once they reached the Foundation Establishment stage, cultivators could use spiritual energy to convert into the energy needed by the body. Generally, people no longer ate food to avoid increasing impurities within their bodies.
Everyone in the Taiyi Sect had already entered the Foundation Establishment stage, so the sect no longer prepared food, nor did they keep Inedia Pills around.
Earlier on the flying ship, she had eaten her own Inedia Pills and hadn't asked them for food, so they had subconsciously forgotten that she still needed to eat normal meals.
"Eldest Senior Sister, is there anything to eat in the sect?"
"No..."
"Are there things to eat down the mountain?" She remembered that in novels, there were usually market towns beneath sects where food was sold.
"No... There is no market town down our mountain."
Ah, right. The Taiyi Sect only had this handful of people; how could they possibly support a market town?
"Then what should I do? My stomach is so empty." You Yu never expected that the first difficulty she would face upon arriving in this world would actually be starvation.
Ji Qing thought for a moment. "I know where there might be food. Come on, I'll take you."
She produced a paper crane, enlarged it, brought You Yu aboard, and flew directly toward the back mountains. Before they even landed, the sounds of battle reached their ears. Only after the commotion below subsided did she let the paper crane descend.
"Third Junior Brother."
"Third Senior Brother."
Liao Xing looked at the two of them. "Why are you here?"
"I guessed you'd come here for training, so I brought Junior Sister over. Junior Sister is hungry, and there's no food in the sect. We came to see if any of the Monster Beasts you killed are edible without needing purification," Ji Qing explained.
Liao Xing went over to slice off a piece of meat and looked at You Yu.
You Yu looked down at the thigh-thick, ten-meter-long giant snake on the ground.
Such a huge snake had been taken down by Third Senior Brother; he was simply amazing!
"Junior Sister, do you think this can be eaten?"
"Yes, yes. Pan-fried, deep-fried, braised, or stewed—what flavor do you guys want?"
Two quarter-hours later, a blazing campfire had been ignited, and skewers of snake meat sizzled on the rack above it.
Too bad there were no seasonings at all; the taste was bland and a bit fishy.
"Tomorrow when we go to the city, I'm going to buy plenty of seasonings!" She never wanted to eat unseasoned roasted meat ever again!
"I'll accompany you tomorrow." Ji Qing felt deeply apologetic. As the Eldest Senior Sister, she hadn't considered the fact that her Junior Sister needed to eat, so she wanted to make it up to her.
"Didn't you say you wanted to enter seclusion tomorrow to refine fourth-tier pills? I happen to be going to sell Monster Beasts tomorrow anyway, so I'll take Junior Sister," Liao Xing said.
You Yu was shocked: "Eldest Senior Sister is a fourth-tier alchemist?"
"I'm still a third-tier one. Tomorrow I just want to try and see if I can refine fourth-tier ones."
You Yu had a pretty good grasp of Ji Qing's personality—steady, not rash, and never eager for quick success. Since she said she wanted to try refining fourth-tier pills, she probably had a solid chance of success.
"Eldest Senior Sister, who did you learn alchemy from?"
"Master, of course."
"Master knows alchemy too? Isn't he a weapon refiner?"
"Whether he knows how or not, my alchemy was all taught by him. Aside from me, Second Senior Brother's talisman techniques, Fourth Senior Brother's weapon refining, Sixth Senior Brother's formations, Seventh Senior Brother's beast taming, and Eighth Senior Brother's spiritual tracking were all taught by Master."
You Yu was shocked: Was Master really this omnipotent?
As it turned out, she had overthought it.
Aside from weapon refining, they had never actually seen Jiang Wenji perform any of those other skills; his teaching had merely consisted of verbal guidance.
Still, You Yu figured that even if he couldn't practice them, his theory was at least rich—otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to guide these disciples.
"Eldest Senior Sister, since our sect has alchemists, weapon refiners, and so on, why is the Taiyi Sect still so poor? I heard these professions are very lucrative."
"Because our expenses are high and our income is low!" Ji Qing sighed. "Master is in the Deity Transformation stage; just supporting him alone is very expensive."
You Yu: "..." Wasn't this the wrong way around?
Shouldn't the master be supporting the disciples?
How did it end up with the disciples supporting the master in the Taiyi Sect?
"Where does Master spend all his money?"
Ji Qing shrugged. "We don't know either. Anyway, the sect has to spend a huge sum of money every year, but Master never tells us where it goes."
If not for the fact that everyone had to pitch in to support the sect, why else would the Taiyi Sect have so few people?
You Yu took a bite of the snake meat, secretly muttering to herself whether she had jumped into a massive trap.
Was it too late to regret it now?
After she ate her fill, Ji Qing flew You Yu back. You Yu didn't want to sleep; she planned to cultivate and consolidate her newly advanced cultivation realm.
As usual, she absorbed the green and red light motes, while the white light motes automatically drifted into her on their own.
What she didn't know was that once she began cultivating, a faint silver glow began to emanate from one of the back mountains of the sect, drawing Jiang Wenji over to investigate the commotion.
"How many years has it been? Finally, there's some movement... The future..."
...
Early the next morning, Liao Xing arrived at You Yu's peak. You Yu had long since stopped cultivating and was waiting, stepping out the moment he arrived.
"Third Senior Brother."
Liao Xing nodded, summoned his sword, threw it into the air where it grew larger, and pulled her onto it.
You Yu was thrilled—flying on a sword! She had only ever seen this on television, and never expected she would get to do it herself one day.
Only, the wind was a bit strong, blowing her face out of shape.
Liao Xing had been controlling the flying sword up front and only noticed her condition when they were close to the nearest city, hastily throwing up a protective barrier for her with an apologetic expression.
"Sorry, this is my first time taking a newcomer, I forgot you haven't learned how to cast a protective barrier yet."
You Yu rubbed her numbed face and forced out a smile: "It's fine."
Seeing that You Yu wasn't angry and was even smiling at her, Liao Xing decided this Junior Sister wasn't hard to manage at all.
The two flew for half an hour before reaching a city. Landing outside the city gates, they paid two low-grade spiritual stones to enter, and Liao Xing led her straight to the shop where he usually sold Monster Beast corpses.
The transaction was completed quickly, and he noticed You Yu staring curiously at the shop.
"Is there anything you like? Senior Brother will buy it for you."
You Yu shook her head. "I'm just looking around casually. I don't lack anything right now."
She had just entered the sect, so she didn't need many items, and her focus was entirely on cultivation—she wasn't very invested in these external things.
Besides, what her master, senior sister, and senior brothers had given her was more than enough for her to use, so she didn't want to buy anything.
Liao Xing looked at her with some surprise.
He hadn't had a Junior Sister before, but he had seen others bringing theirs along; usually, when they reached a shop, they wanted to buy this and that. How come his Junior Sister was different?
You Yu returned a big, bright smile to him, causing even the usually cold-looking him to lift the corners of his mouth in response.
Later on, he would come to realize that his Junior Sister was indeed different from other people's. While other people's Junior Sisters begged their senior brothers to play with them every day, his Junior Sister dragged all her senior brothers and sisters along to relentlessly grind and cultivate.
As long as you didn't grind yourself to death, grind away for all you were worth!
...
Chapter 11: Eldest Senior Sister Said Third Senior Brother is the Poorest
After selling Liao Xing's items, they headed to a nearby shop. Specialized shops catering to cultivators didn't stock things like seasonings.
Fortunately, Liao Xing came here often and was quite familiar with the place. After walking through several streets, they ducked into an inconspicuous shop.
Most of the people in this shop were uncultivated mortals, and the goods sold were things ordinary people needed, but You Yu loved it. She zipped around and bought a whole pile of items, spending ten low-grade spiritual stones in total.
This immortal cultivation world was simply fantastic; the variety of seasonings was even greater than in her past life, and there were many she had never even seen before, which she planned to study carefully when she got back.
Liao Xing readily paid those ten low-grade spiritual stones for her, feeling a subtle sense of satisfaction.
He had finally paid for something for his Junior Sister.
Yet compared to other people's Junior Sisters, this money didn't even amount to a fraction of a fraction of the spare change.
Having swept away almost all the shop's inventory, You Yu felt much more at ease.
Liao Xing paid the bill and asked her, "Is there anything else you want to buy?"
You Yu nodded. "I've got the seasonings, but we still need to buy some ingredients, otherwise there's nothing to cook with!"
The shopkeeper wanted to recommend some other items in the store, but Liao Xing led her away directly. "The things here aren't suitable for you."
"Why?"
"The ingredients sold here are what ordinary people eat. If cultivators eat them, it will increase the impurities in their bodies and affect their cultivation."
"Then what do cultivators eat?"
"Spiritual food."
"Spiritual stones? You can chew on rocks?" The books hadn't mentioned this!
Liao Xing twitched the corner of his mouth. "It's spiritual food—food containing spiritual energy, such as spiritual rice, spiritual vegetables, and Monster Beast meat."
You Yu remembered the books indeed mentioning this: "Where do you buy these?"
"You can only buy them at restaurants that specialize in spiritual food," Liao Xing said. "There is such a restaurant in Hanyue City, I'll take you there."
"Great!" She happened to be hungry anyway.
Liao Xing brought her to Wangyue Pavilion. When she saw the name of the restaurant, You Yu was somewhat shocked.
It was actually the largest restaurant chain in the entire Eastern Region, Wangyue Pavilion!
Don't let the name fool you into thinking Wangyue Pavilion was just a restaurant; behind it stood Wangyue Pavilion's overarching influence, and beneath Wangyue Pavilion were various shops, auction houses, and more, making it the largest commercial syndicate in the Eastern Region.
She remembered that the young master of Wangyue Pavilion had also fallen into You Xueer's fishpond, showing her deep affection and silently gifting her many wonderful things.
And You Xueer? On the one hand she declined, yet on the other hand she accepted them—though of course, each time it looked as if he was forcing them upon her.
In short, she took full advantage while acting innocent.
Thinking of that affectionate male supporting character who had given away countless good items only to be stripped of his position as young master because he handed over his family's supreme treasure to You Xueer, she couldn't help sighing for him.
This male supporting character was one of the few she still quite liked; although deeply affectionate, he hadn't lost his reason. It was only in the end, unable to bear seeing You Xueer reduced to a cripple due to her shattered Dantian, that he had brought out his family's supreme treasure.
Liao Xing didn't know what she was shocked about, figuring she was probably just seeing such a grand restaurant for the first time.
"Let's go, let's go inside and get something to eat first, then we can buy the spiritual food you want afterwards."
"Okay, okay!"
The two walked in, and a waiter hurried forward. Learning there were only two of them, the waiter said, "All our private rooms upstairs are full, there are only two tables left in the main hall downstairs."
Seeing the remaining table in the corner, Liao Xing glanced at You Yu. You Yu wasn't picky either and walked straight over.
"Here is our menu, what would the two of you like to order?"
You Yu looked at the completely unfamiliar dishes on the menu and pushed it over to Liao Xing.
It was also Liao Xing's first time eating here, but looking at the names, he could roughly tell what they were made of. Thinking of the money that had entered his pouch today, he ordered five signature dishes.
Although there were quite a few people dining at the moment, it didn't affect the speed at which dishes were served. You Yu guessed that these had been prepared beforehand and stored in some sort of fresh-keeping spatial storage.