The courtyard is filled with so many spiritual herbs, they always need watering.
Bao Gu has a lot of chores, and often loses track of time while practicing, so she can’t water the herb fields on schedule every day.
After surveying the surrounding terrain, she came up with an idea—digging a channel to divert water.
The courtyard she shares with her senior sister was likely chosen by her Grandmaster with special intent when it was built.
Their courtyards are adjacent, and about eighty zhang away is a mountain wall, roughly two or three zhang high, with a large crack from which water flows, forming a waterfall.
Below the waterfall is a pool, now enclosed within a newly built courtyard.
This courtyard is independent, larger than the combined area of her and her senior sister’s courtyards, and she can’t see the details inside, but the size and the waterfall pool indicate it was built by her Grandmaster for Little Martial Aunt.
Logically, their courtyards are at the neck of the mountain, at the highest peak of the Two Realms Mountain range, making it difficult for a water source to form a waterfall.
However, the water flowing from this waterfall contains spiritual energy and a coolness that seeps from the earth’s veins.
Bao Gu suspects her Grandmaster used significant means to divert it specifically for Little Martial Aunt.
Her and her senior sister’s courtyards are not far from Little Martial Aunt’s, but are quite distant from the courtyards where other Golden Core stage disciples live, the nearest being three li away.
Other Golden Core stage disciples don’t have such privileges; their courtyards are grouped into clusters of a dozen or so.
Bao Gu couldn’t help but think, “Grandmaster seems so serious, but turns out to be biased.”
However, since the bias is in their favor, she has no complaints.
The formation in Little Martial Aunt’s courtyard covers the waterfall as well.
If Bao Gu wants to dig a channel to divert water, she must either use the water flowing from Little Martial Aunt’s courtyard or work above the waterfall.
Since Little Martial Aunt’s courtyard is currently unoccupied, the water is clean and clear.
Once someone moves in, who knows if the water will contain foot wash, bathwater, or dishwater?
If she uses that to water the spiritual herbs, her herb field would be ruined.
Bao Gu flew on her sword to the waterfall, boldly dug a channel from the mountain to divert water to her courtyard, and then dug a channel to lead it into a newly built pool in her courtyard.
The pool isn’t large, with a rockery in the middle.
Duobao Spirit Monkey set up a formation to guide the water onto the rockery.
The water cascades down, creating a mist that spreads throughout the courtyard, while the excess water joyfully flows out along a winding channel.
Her courtyard is divided into front and back sections, both with herb fields.
Bao Gu planted the sun-loving, dry-loving spiritual herbs in the front yard, and the water-loving, shade-loving ones in the back yard with the rockery mist.
She also built a pavilion near the rockery pool in the back yard, close to the wall.
In the hot summer, she would cool off and cultivate in the pavilion.
She spent over a month arranging the courtyard, busy with its upkeep except for two hours of cultivation every morning.
In mid-June, Feng Yi came by, bringing the spirit stones and spiritual herbs exchanged for monkey wine to Bao Gu.
Feng Yi said, “Yesterday, Sun Dilong sent a message to the mountain gate saying the house in Angry Demon Market is finished.
I heard you plan to open a shop there.
Are you going to let Sun Dilong handle it?
Isn’t that inappropriate?”
Bao Gu replied, “Our Xuantian Sect doesn’t have anyone suitable to manage a shop, so we’ll use Sun Dilong for now.
I’ll have Duobao Spirit Monkey check in daily, so nothing should go wrong.”
Feng Yi nodded, not saying much.
He added, “The Sect Master and Nanshan Yijian went to the Demon Alliance to meet the Jade Stone Qilin and talked for a long time.
After returning, the Sect Master declared Qilin Peak a forbidden area and added it to the sect rules.
The Demon Alliance announced that the Jade Stone Qilin has left the alliance and returned to Qilin Peak.”
This was within Bao Gu’s expectations.
She asked, “What’s the Demon Alliance’s reaction now?”
Feng Yi said, “It’s scattered!
In chaos!
No one dares to be the leader.
Various factions are forming alliances, clamoring to attack Xuantian Sect, but none are making a move.
However, there’s news that some demon cultivators plan to invite a great demon from the demon domain to intervene.”
Bao Gu asked, “What does Grandmaster say?”
Feng Yi replied, “The Sect Master’s stance is to watch and wait.”
Bao Gu said, “The Two Realms Mountain isn’t big or small.
Though it’s on the edge of the demon domain, it doesn’t interfere with demon domain matters, posing no real threat, nor is there anything worth a great demon’s intervention, at least not that they know of.
If the demon cultivators of Two Realms Mountain can connect with a Void Tearing stage demon cultivator and have a deep enough relationship to invite them to fight Nanshan Senior, they wouldn’t need to return to Two Realms Mountain.
They could join them in the demon domain, where spiritual energy is denser and cultivation resources are more abundant.
Those below the Void Tearing stage can’t affect Xuantian Sect, so there’s no need to worry.”
She frowned, thinking, “Our disciples must keep their mouths shut, and the ancient relics of the flood dragon might be coveted.”
Feng Yi said, “It seems that people from Two Realms Mountain and even the Ten Thousand Demons Cave don’t know the flood dragon has ancient relics.”
He gave Bao Gu a meaningful look, implying: Who else but you would be so conspicuous, unable to hide anything good and showing it all off?
Bao Gu understood what Feng Yi’s look meant but said nothing.
Feng Yi noticed Bao Gu seemed a bit down, not as lively as usual, and not smiling as she used to, knowing it was related to Yu Mi’s departure.
He said, “Bao Gu, being troubled by emotions at a young age is not beneficial for cultivation.
Emotional barriers are hard to overcome; you need to see things more clearly.”
Bao Gu replied, “Thank you, Martial Uncle.”
Feng Yi said, “Cultivate well!
There’s a long road ahead.”
He gave her his communication token and a token from Sun Dilong, along with a pile of Foundation Establishment Pills and Marrow Cleansing Pills, then left.
Bao Gu accepted the communication tokens and took out the storage bag Feng Yi had given her.
Inside were the spirit stones and spiritual herbs exchanged for monkey wine.
She selected some rare herbs to plant in her courtyard’s herb field and gave the rest to Duobao Spirit Monkey.
Duobao Spirit Monkey was overjoyed to receive so many spiritual herbs from Bao Gu and happily gave her a large batch of monkey wine in return.
Bao Gu stored the monkey wine in her large storage bag, moved the spirit stones into it as well, then sat in the back yard pavilion, drinking monkey wine and holding spirit stones to cultivate.
She spent three days and nights consuming a bottle of Foundation Establishment Pills, drinking half a gourd of second-tier monkey wine, and using over a thousand low-grade spirit stones to break through the acupoint she had been aiming for.
Her senior brothers could easily break through such acupoints with a simple meditation, and two Foundation Establishment Pills or Marrow Cleansing Pills could open a meridian.
This progress was almost negligible for her senior brothers and sisters, but for her, it was a significant step forward on her cultivation path.
At least her strength was visibly increasing, even if the growth was minimal, it was progress rather than stagnation!
Seeing her progress, Bao Gu felt more motivated to cultivate.
She went into seclusion for about ten days, breaking through two more acupoints before finishing her cultivation.
After resting for a night, she headed straight to Xuantian Square at dawn.
She thought she was early enough to catch the morning class, but when she arrived, Grandmaster was already teaching, and her senior brothers were all seated.
Bao Gu had no choice but to sit cross-legged at the back and listen.
This time, Grandmaster was teaching alchemy, and each senior brother was holding a furnace to refine pills.
She couldn’t remember if she had a pill furnace, so she rummaged through her large storage bag, searching for a long time before finding a furnace among a pile of miscellaneous items. She was familiar with the properties of herbs but not with pill recipes or refining processes, so her furnace exploded.
Fortunately, she reacted quickly and ran in time, but the two senior brothers sitting closest to her weren’t so lucky, getting their backs blown open.
Bao Gu kept apologizing profusely.
She didn’t have clothes to compensate them, so she gave each a hundred low-grade spirit stones to buy a new set of true disciple robes.
Although the two weren’t injured thanks to the protective treasures bestowed by the Sect Master, their clothes were blown off, exposing their backsides.
Even if they quickly put on a new set of clothes, they couldn’t escape the sharp senses of their fellow disciples, who had already seen everything.
They were practicing alchemy peacefully when this small disaster struck, and seeing that the culprit was Bao Gu, they couldn’t get angry.
Now, seeing Bao Gu apologizing and compensating with spirit stones, they felt embarrassed instead.
Zi Tianjun got up and walked over to Bao Gu, scrutinizing her.
The two disciples affected by Bao Gu’s furnace explosion quickly accepted the spirit stones and saluted Zi Tianjun.
Zi Tianjun instructed the two disciples to focus on their alchemy and then turned his gaze to Bao Gu.
Others might not know, but he was aware that Bao Gu had received permission from the demon saint to learn alchemy.
With the demon saint’s alchemy skills far surpassing his own, did Bao Gu really need to learn alchemy from him?
Bao Gu wasn’t lacking in pills, and learning alchemy now would just be a waste of time.
She could wait for the demon saint to return and learn better alchemy techniques.
Bao Gu felt uneasy under Zi Tianjun’s penetrating gaze and muttered softly, “I’m not really interested in the wine, Grandmaster, please don’t mind me.”
She shrank back and continued to huddle at the back, pulling out another furnace to throw herbs into for refining.
Zi Tianjun gave Bao Gu a deep look, shook his head, sighed heavily, and said, “Don’t waste the materials!”
He then wandered around the room, guiding the Xuantian Sect disciples in their alchemy.
Bao Gu looked at the brand-new furnace in front of her, then at the herbs she had thrown in, noticing her senior brothers and sisters were all watching her with their spiritual senses.
She was in a dilemma, unsure whether to continue or not.
If she continued and the furnace exploded again, she’d lose face; if she didn’t, the herbs were already inside, and taking them out would make her a laughingstock among her peers.
In that moment, Bao Gu felt utterly miserable.
Finally, she gritted her teeth and pushed the furnace towards the senior brother who had been affected by the explosion earlier, saying, “Senior brother, Grandmaster won’t let me refine pills, so this is for you!”
She felt like running around Xuantian Square crying for thirty laps.
She regretted it so much, crying inside: Why did I come so early?
I should have waited until they were about to finish the class before coming!
But if she had come when they were about to finish, Grandmaster’s gaze would have killed her!
Not attending the morning class and only showing up at the end, was she asking for trouble?
Bao Gu had no choice but to sit on the side, watching her senior brothers and sisters refine pills, waiting for them.
But even after the morning class time had passed, they were still refining pills.
She then remembered that alchemy usually takes a long time, and the time varies depending on one’s mastery of alchemy and cultivation level.
She thought for a moment and decided to take advantage of the gathering to say what she needed to say!
She got up and walked over to Zi Tianjun, saying, “Grandmaster, I have something to say.”
Zi Tianjun glanced at Bao Gu and asked, “What is it?”
Bao Gu said, “It’s about purchasing pills and magical treasures from the senior brothers.”
Zi Tianjun gave Bao Gu a long look, then pointed to a bulletin board about two zhang long and half a zhang high on the left, saying, “Bao Gu, do you see that bulletin board?
If you have something to announce to your fellow disciples, write it on paper or silk and post it on the bulletin board.”
Bao Gu: “…”
She internally wailed, “I waited two hours for nothing and embarrassed myself!”
She was almost crying from her own stupidity!
