Jin Haochen recalled how He Fan and the others had mentioned that she had never eaten anything good before and didn't even recognize those spiritual vegetables. He felt a pang of sympathy, realizing that such a young girl had endured so much hardship.
He produced a thick book and said, "This book is an illustrated manual of spiritual vegetables, covering the vast majority of them."
You Yu took it and opened it, only to find that it was a fully illustrated guide complete with descriptions, detailing not only the various spiritual vegetables but also their growth habits.
Wasn't this precisely what she needed right now?!
Her eyes sparkling, she looked up at him. "May I borrow this book to read?"
"No need to borrow it. It's yours," Jin Haochen said generously.
"Then thank you so much."
Jin Haochen felt a deep sympathy for the little girl. He figured You Yu's family must have treated her terribly, since she was only ever thinking of borrowing even a valueless book like this, which showed just how bitterly she must have lived in the past.
His impression of the You family dropped even further.
Because she needed to finalize the dishes, You Yu spent very little time on her cultivation over the next few days. Aside from her daily trip to the medicinal garden to infuse Wood Spiritual Energy into the herbs, she spent all her time studying recipes.
Jin Haochen stayed here every day as well, watching her study those spiritual vegetables and tinker with recipes.
Seeing how You Yu would ponder over ingredients she was seeing for the first time and then whip up delicious dishes, he truly admired her.
Chapter 17: I Am a Immortal Artifact! An Immortal Artifact!
If he hadn't watched her flip through the manual every time she took out a new spiritual vegetable and known for a fact that she was touching these ingredients for the very first time, he would have thought she was already intimately familiar with them.
The two of them grew closer through these dishes, to the point where You Yu started calling Jin Haochen "Brother Jin," and Jin Haochen called her "Little Sister You."
You Yu felt a bit bewildered. How had this casual banter led to her suddenly gaining an older brother out of nowhere?
Half a month later, Jin Haochen's people arrived at the Taiyi Sect, and You Yu spent another half-month teaching those individuals all the dishes she had recently developed.
The people Jin Haochen selected all possessed a talent for cooking, and within half a month they had mastered eight or nine tenths of all the recipes.
"Little Sister, Big Brother is going back first to get the restaurant up and running, and I'll come look for you later."
"Off you go, then. Brother Jin will have to shoulder the hard work for everything that follows."
Jin Haochen handed her a token. "With this token, you can get a twenty percent discount on all businesses under Wangyue Pavilion, valid for personal use only."
"How do they check if it's personal use?"
"Drop a single drop of your blood onto it, and it will bind with your vital energy. If someone else gets hold of it, their vital energy won't match, and Wangyue Pavilion won't recognize it."
You Yu accepted the token. "Thank you, Brother Jin."
"Don't be so formal with your big brother. All right, no need to see me off, Big Brother is heading out."
Jin Haochen ruffled You Yu's hair, chuckling inwardly at how great it felt!
He only had older and younger brothers and no sisters; having a younger sister for the very first time felt pretty good.
Watching him leave with his people, You Yu let out a heavy sigh of relief.
This had delayed her cultivation time by nearly two months!
Even though she still practiced at night, she had lost her days for a month or two. Just thinking about the lost time made her heart ache.
She hoped this restaurant would make money and bring her loads of spiritual stones so she wouldn't run at a loss!
...
After seeing Jin Haochen off, You Yu went to her two mu of vegetable plots.
Every day, she went to the medicinal garden to infuse her Wood Spiritual Energy once, and then at night, after Jin Haochen and the chefs left, she would come back to infuse her own land with spiritual energy.
Although it had only been a little over a month, the vegetables in her plot were already ready for harvest.
One had to know that the vegetables she planted normally took nearly three months to mature; now, the process had been sped up by half.
Thinking about how these vegetables wouldn't stay fresh once harvested, she suddenly remembered her completely neglected spatial ring.
On the day of the testing, it had swallowed a significant amount of her blood, causing her to faint, and after that, it had remained completely dormant—it wasn't craving her blood like last time, nor had the space opened up.
She had been busy for the past four or five months and hadn't thought of it, but today it finally crossed her mind.
She returned to her courtyard, activated her defensive array, and pricked the tip of her finger. As fresh blood welled out, she immediately felt a sense of longing, as if something were calling out, *Give it to me, give it to me.*
"You've been quiet for so long, I thought you didn't want to drink anymore," You Yu teased the spatial ring.
*I want to drink, I want to drink.*
"Then why have you been so quiet these past few months?"
*You were frightened, I was afraid you wouldn't want me anymore.*
You Yu understood. The last time it drank her blood, it made her pass out directly and miss the test, so it was afraid she would blame it and had pretended to be dead.
Understanding its intent, You Yu actually laughed. Then she felt a wave of confusion: the clear consciousness she felt in her mind—could it be the artifact spirit of this spatial ring?
She had read in novels that anything above a Divine Artifact might produce an artifact spirit. Could this spatial ring possibly be a Divine Artifact?
*Divine Artifacts are nothing! I am an Immortal Artifact, an Immortal Artifact!*
You Yu froze for a moment.
Spirit Artifacts, Saint Artifacts, Divine Artifacts, and above those were Immortal Artifacts. The grades of Immortal Artifacts were rated directly from the first to the ninth grade.
In novels, Spirit Artifacts and Saint Artifacts appeared most frequently, while Divine Artifacts rarely showed up at all. The Eastern Region where they were located only had two, serving as the town-guarding treasures of two major sects; ordinary people didn't possess them.
Only You Xueer and the male protagonist carried the protagonist halo, obtaining a pair of Divine Artifacts in an ancient Secret Realm.
Now, the spatial ring in her hand claimed to be an Immortal Artifact, which genuinely shocked You Yu.
*Let me drink, let me drink!*
Coming back to her senses, You Yu pressed her fingertip against the spatial ring and muttered, "Take it easy, won't you? Don't go knocking me out again..." *Pass out...*
Before she could finish the last two words, she collapsed again.
Damn it...
When You Yu woke up, it was already pitch dark. She rubbed her brow, recalling why she had ended up lying on the ground.
She poked the ring on her middle finger. "I told you to take it easy! You just don't listen!"
"It was too delicious! I couldn't control myself!"
"What? Who's that?"
The voice appearing in her mind made You Yu jump straight up, looking around warily.
"It's me, it's me, I'm Gungun."
"Gun... Gun?"
"Here I am, here I am!" The cheerful childish voice grew clearer and clearer in her head.
Certain that there was no one around, You Yu asked with some confusion, "Are you the artifact spirit of the spatial ring?"
"That's right, that's right! Master, the spatial ring is open, do you want to take a look?" Gungun's voice sounded a bit guilty, as if it knew it had gone too far this time.
True to form, You Yu's attention shifted away from it and onto the spatial ring. She sent her consciousness inside to take a look, and was thoroughly shocked.
What on earth was this boundless space?
The largest spatial rings in novels were only tens of thousands of cubic meters. This space, whose edges she couldn't see, was far beyond her ability to calculate in volume.
However, only the very center was clear; the surrounding areas appeared somewhat turbid and were not very distinct.
"In the clear area in the center, time is frozen. Whatever you bring in will stay exactly the same when you take it out. Things can't be kept fresh in those blurry areas around it," Gungun explained.
Recovering her voice, You Yu asked in astonishment, "Gungun, why is this place so huge?"
"I'm an Immortal Artifact, after all; I'm nothing like those ordinary spatial rings," Gungun said proudly. "I must have been even more formidable in the past, but I got hurt and forgot a lot of things. But I remember that people used to be able to come inside me!"
"A spatial ring people can enter?"
"That's right! Once I recover, they can!"
"Then how are you going to recover? Do you need some heavenly treasures?"
"I need air bubbles."
"What are air bubbles?"
"It's a kind of bubble water that can release air. Once you have it and release air inside the spatial ring, you'll be able to come in future," Gungun said. "And if you can find Ruins Soil, this place can even become a world of its own."
"Ruins Soil?"
"Ah, it's the embryonic soil from which this continent was formed," Gungun explained. "When every continent was first formed, it was derived bit by bit from embryonic soil, and that embryonic soil is called Ruins Soil. Master, work hard and try to find both! Then I can become a top-grade Immortal Artifact!"
First to third grades were called lower-grade Immortal Artifacts, fourth to sixth grades were middle-grade Immortal Artifacts, and seventh to ninth grades were top-grade Immortal Artifacts.
You Yu twitched the corner of her mouth. "What gave you the illusion that I could find these two legendary things?"
"My intuition told me so," Gungun said, sounding somewhat embarrassed. "However, before that, Master still needs to feed me blood."
"More blood? Are you a vampire?"
Chapter 18: Starlight Power
Of course not! But Master, your blood has energy that I'm familiar with; it can heal my wounds," Gungun said.
"Huh?"
Could it be that her flesh and blood were not only useful to people, but to Immortal Artifacts as well?
"It's... it's a kind of energy inside your body. Um, what was it called again? It's... it's... it's the power of the stars!" Gungun's voice suddenly turned excited at the end. "Right, it's Starlight Power!"
"Starlight Power?" You Yu thought for a moment, then suddenly recalled those white spots of light, gathering a few at her fingertip. "Is this what you mean?"
"Ahhh—yes, that's it!"
"This is Starlight Power?"
"Yes, yes, that's it." If Gungun had a physical body, it would have grabbed her fingertip and screamed in a frenzy by now. "Master's Starlight Power is very pure and smells wonderful! It can fix the spatial instability in my space."
"So when you drink my blood, you're actually drinking Starlight Power?"
"Yes, yes, yes."
"Then wouldn't it be fine if I just fed you Starlight Power directly?"
"Uh... I suppose that's true! But can it be channeled in?"
"Let's try it." With that, You Yu poured all the Starlight Power within her body straight into the spatial ring.
At first, she thought it might be useless, but the moment the Starlight Power touched the spatial ring, it was sucked right in.
Since she was actively outputting the Starlight Power this time, she could control its release. Once the Starlight Power in her body was exhausted, she stopped.
She then poked her consciousness inside and found that nothing seemed to have changed.
"There is a change, the frozen area is bigger by dozens of cubic meters!" Gungun said.
You Yu felt slightly awkward; the frozen area was already massive to begin with, so an increase of a few dozen cubic meters was really nothing she could notice.
"I'll feed you more whenever I have Starlight Power again in the future."
"Yay, yay! Master, I love you so much!"
Gungun's milky, childish voice was a comfort to hear. In a pleasant mood, You Yu coaxed it with a couple of words before withdrawing her divine sense.
She closed her eyes and began to cultivate, but as she watched those white points of light, her mind was filled with a flurry of thoughts.
In the middle of the night, she quietly slipped over to Jiang Wenji's peak. As she was lingering outside, the heavy gates suddenly swung open.
"Come in." Jiang Wenji's voice was calm; there was no telling how long he had known she was there.
You Yu entered and bowed to him as he sat upon his meditation mat. "Master."
Jiang Wenji waved a hand. "In the middle of the night, instead of cultivating or sleeping, you come wandering around my place?"
"Master, this disciple has something she wishes to consult you about."
"What matter could bring you over in the middle of the night?"
Hesitating for a moment, You Yu asked, "Master, do you know about Starlight Power?"
Instead of answering immediately, Jiang Wenji flicked a meditation mat across the floor, and You Yu sat down opposite him.
"Starlight Power is a type of power that can connect heaven and earth. With it, elemental spiritual energy can unleash even greater might. But nowadays, no one can absorb Starlight Power anymore."
"Why?"
"It is said that hundreds of thousands of years ago, heaven and earth underwent earth-shattering changes. Ever since then, human bodies have changed, and the meridians can no longer bear the energy of Starlight Power. If anyone senses Starlight Power and forcibly absorbs it into their body, they will burst apart and die, without a single survivor."
You Yu broke out in a cold sweat and asked timidly, "What if the Starlight Power squeezes into the body on its own?"
Jiang Wenji looked at her. "You have absorbed Starlight Power?"
"When I first started cultivating, I could see white spots of light. I didn't absorb them at all; they just burrowed into my body on their own," You Yu said.
"Let me examine the condition inside your body. There is no need to be afraid."
Jiang Wenji channeled a strand of spiritual energy toward her. Wrapped in that spiritual energy, You Yu felt as though she were being probed from the inside out.
Almost immediately, the power withdrew.
"Your constitution is somewhat special; you can actually absorb Starlight Power," Jiang Wenji stated.
"Master, I won't explode and die, will I?"
"The Starlight Power inside you is very docile; such a situation will not occur."
You Yu let out a sigh of relief.
"Follow me."
Jiang Wenji led her to the back mountain. This place was different from the other ranges; the entire mountain was shrouded in dense fog, making it impossible to see what was happening inside from the outside.
You Yu knew this place—it was the forbidden ground of the sect that Eldest Senior Sister had mentioned.
"Walk forward."
Obediently, You Yu walked forward until she ran into a barrier.
"Focus your Starlight Power on your hands."
Trying it out, You Yu found that the barrier actually took on a visible shape, shimmering with a faint flowing light.
"Master?"
"This is an array set up by the founding ancestors, which requires Starlight Power to break," Jiang Wenji explained. "Your Starlight Power is not yet sufficient, so you can only make it manifest its form. Once you advance in rank, you can try going inside."
"Does Master know what it looks like inside?" You Yu asked.
Jiang Wenji shook his head. "I only know that what lies within is the inheritance left behind by the Taiyi Sect, the very foundation of the sect. The things in the Scripture Pavilion right now do not even amount to a tenth of what is inside. Moreover, many of the copies circulating outside are mere replicas."
"Master, you said people couldn't absorb Starlight Power hundreds of thousands of years ago; how could this place be unlocked with Starlight Power? Could the Taiyi Sect..."
"That's right. The Taiyi Sect was once the supreme sect of this continent, and the one with the longest history. It's just that as time has passed down to the present day, many people no longer know the glory of the Taiyi Sect," Jiang Wenji sighed.
In its most difficult times, the entire Taiyi Sect had been down to a single person. Compared to its worst days, the current state was still considered relatively good.
Feeling the power of the flowing light beneath her palms, You Yu felt a surge of emotion in her chest.
For the Taiyi Sect to have a history so profound, one could only imagine how glorious its past must have been.
Jiang Wenji looked at the flowing light. "Let's go. Come back here once your Starlight Power advances."
At that time would be when the Taiyi Sect would rise again.
Returning to Jiang Wenji's dwelling, You Yu wanted to head back, but Jiang Wenji produced a box for her instead. "I examined your spirit roots just now; you possess the All-Spirit Roots, extremely rare in ten thousand years. Currently, apart from the Fire and Wood Heavenly Spirit Roots, all your other spirit roots are hidden and require a stimulus to manifest. This is a crystal I obtained by chance in the past. Take it here and see if you can awaken your Water Spirit Root."
You Yu hadn't expected her Fire and Wood roots to actually be Heavenly Spirit Roots, and she mentally marveled at how truly formidable her master was—he could figure out her condition with just a brief scan.
She didn't stand on ceremony with the crystal, since her master was giving it to her.
Opening the box, a dense wave of Water Spiritual Energy rushed into her face the very next instant. Pity that without a Water Spirit Root, none of this spiritual energy could be absorbed.
"Swallow this directly, and I will guard your law for you," Jiang Wenji prompted.
Seeing the tiny, droplet-shaped crystal inside, You Yu didn't hesitate; she picked it up and swallowed it whole.
Chapter 19: Water Spirit Root
The moment the Water Spiritual Energy entered her body, the dense energy began to thrash around wildly within her. Feeling as though her body was being torn apart, a gentle force suddenly wrapped around that spiritual energy, guiding it all the way down into the spirit platform within her Dantian.
Her spirit platform was different from anyone else's. While others had a single spirit platform—some shaped like flowers, some like leaves, regardless of form, possessing only a single color—her spirit platform resembled a lotus flower. The white Starlight Power formed the pistil in the center, while two petals blossomed on the outside: one red, one green.
The overwhelming force of the Water Spiritual Energy continuously battered her spirit platform. Though the pain was excruciating and she had to rely entirely on willpower to keep from passing out, she had no spare attention to check on the condition of the spirit platform.
Gradually, all the Water Spiritual Energy was absorbed by the spirit platform, and that agonizing, bone-deep sensation slowly dissipated.
By this time, You Yu was soaked in sweat. Her bangs plastered to her cheeks and her clothes clinging to her frame, she looked as though she had just been fished out of the water.
Jiang Wenji withdrew his hand. "All right, feel it for yourself."
You Yu sank her divine sense into her body, arriving at the spirit platform to see a blue dot the size of a grain of rice resting right beside her Wood Spirit Root.
This was her Water Spirit Root!
Looking at that adorable little sprout, You Yu was filled with joy, yet she also felt a trace of confusion. "Master, everyone says the fewer spirit roots one has, the better. Why did you want to awaken my other spirit roots?"
"For others, fewer is better because the cultivation methods they practice allow them to absorb only one type of spiritual energy at a time and convert it into spiritual power. The more spirit roots one has, the longer the time required to cultivate. But your cultivation method is different. You can absorb all kinds of spiritual energy simultaneously, and they will automatically convert into spiritual power and settle into their respective positions. Therefore, no matter how many spirit roots you have, your cultivation time remains the same as someone with a single spirit root."
You Yu admired Jiang Wenji's brilliance; without even looking at her manual, he knew exactly how she cultivated.
"Master, is this because of the Starlight Power?"
"That's right. In ancient times, everyone could absorb Starlight Power, and thus they could also simultaneously absorb the spiritual energy of their respective spirit roots. Therefore, in the past, the more spirit roots one had, the better. It was only later that human constitutions changed, losing the ability to absorb Starlight Power, and consequently losing the ability to absorb elemental spiritual energy simultaneously. That is why having a single spirit root gradually became superior."
You Yu understood. Being able to absorb all kinds of spiritual energy at once meant that given the same amount of cultivation time, cultivating one type of spiritual power versus cultivating five types—anyone could tell which was more formidable.
"Of course, because the density of each type of spiritual energy varies, it causes the levels of various spiritual powers to differ. Moreover, you can freely adjust the level of cultivation you display."
You Yu's eyes lit up; she loved this feature!
Her Fire and Wood spirit roots had both reached the Second-Layer Perfection, and she would advance to the 3rd Layer of Qi Condensation in the next couple of days. However, her Water Spirit Root hadn't even reached the first level yet. When that time came, she could conceal her Fire and Wood spiritual power and display only her Water Spirit Root, making others think she was nothing more than an uninitiated rookie.
If her Fire and Wood advanced to Foundation Establishment while her Water Spirit Root remained at Qi Condensation, people would assume she was merely at the Qi Condensation stage.
This was a sharp weapon for playing the pig to eat the tiger!
"Very well, if there is nothing else, you may return."