Chapter 26: A New Method of Cultivation

Shen Qinghe pulled a hoe from her storage pouch—something she had originally prepared for self-defense, but now it proved unexpectedly useful. Swinging the hoe, she quickly dug a three-foot-deep pit in a nearby grove.

Suppressing her nausea, she lifted the desiccated corpse and severed head, preparing to lay them to rest. At that moment, there was a soft thud; a storage pouch slipped from the corpse.

“Hm?” Only then did Shen Qinghe remember how the four people earlier had rushed off after getting the Foundation Establishment Pill, never bothering to search the corpse—this storage pouch must have been overlooked.

She stared at the blood-stained pouch on the ground, torn between guilt and practicality. “Well, it would be a waste not to take it…” Gritting her teeth, she pulled out a piece of cloth from her own pouch, quickly wrapped the bloody pouch, and tucked it into her bosom.

With swift hands and feet, she dragged the dried corpse and head into the pit, hastily shoveled the earth back in, and fled the scene without so much as a gravestone.

As Shen Qinghe hurried away, a flash of blue light in the grass caught her eye. She stopped, parted the weeds, and found the small bronze shield that had been flung aside earlier.

“So it landed here…” she murmured, picking up the shield. On closer inspection, though it bore a few cracks, it was largely intact. Shen Qinghe stuffed the shield into her storage pouch and continued on her way.

She walked in constant fear, clutching a Fire Tongue Talisman tightly, not daring to blink. Along the way, broken trees and scorched earth marked the aftermath of fierce magical battles, and corpses were scattered every few paces—some sprawled across the path, others hanging from trees, all in wretched and tragic states.

“All this for a single Foundation Establishment Pill… so many lives lost…” She gasped, a chill running down her spine. The carnage before her drove home the cruel reality of the cultivation world.

Passing the corpses, the Bloodvine in her storage pouch pulsed with longing, craving the blood of the dead. Out of principle and unease, Shen Qinghe kept the pouch firmly closed, refusing to let it out.

Not until she saw the mountain gate of Azure Cloud Sect did she finally breathe a sigh of relief, her whole body relaxing at last. After verifying her identity with her sect token, Shen Qinghe made her way to the nearby ferry, rented a simple flying boat, and flew toward her small courtyard.

The flying boat landed steadily at her gate. Shen Qinghe leapt down lightly, thanked the senior sister piloting the boat, then turned to push open the courtyard door.

Stepping inside, she immediately sensed spiritual energy fluctuations from Liu Qingqing’s room—clearly, her roommate was cultivating. Moving quietly, Shen Qinghe fetched a basin of clean water, washed away the scent of blood from herself, and carefully scrubbed the bloodstained storage pouch.

Once everything was tidied up, she returned to her room. Lying on her bed for a while, Shen Qinghe replayed the day’s events in her mind, feeling a mix of disbelief and lingering dread.

After a brief rest, she sat up and examined the storage pouch. She quickly discovered that it was far more advanced than her own—the interior space was a full thirty feet square, as spacious as a small room.

Unfortunately, there was little left inside. Aside from a few spirit stones, only some bottles of pills and miscellaneous odds and ends remained. Most of the contents, she figured, had been used up by the one-armed man during the struggle for the Foundation Establishment Pill.

Shen Qinghe emptied the pouch and began sorting through its contents. To her delight, she counted over three hundred lower-grade spirit stones—a windfall. Next, she examined the pills: five bottles of Qi Gathering Pills, neatly arranged. Though not rare, they were exactly what she needed right now.

With the pouch sorted, she took out the small bronze shield for a closer look. When her fingers touched its surface, coldness seeped into her skin. She focused, trying to infuse spiritual energy into the shield. A flash of blue light flickered and vanished instantly. She felt her spiritual power stall and had to withdraw it, sighing, “With my current cultivation, I still can’t activate this shield.”

She put the shield away and finally took out the Bloodvine. After feasting on human blood, the vine now glowed with a sinister, dark red hue.

Shen Qinghe summoned her ancient book and checked the information on the Bloodvine once more.

Name: Bloodvine (recorded)
State: Bloodthirsty
Growth: 547/1000
Cultivation: Inexperienced (0/100)
Mutational Trait: Foundation Pill Trait (fuse/remove)
Note: The Bloodvine is tenacious, extremely aggressive, and craves fresh blood. As long as it is fed blood, it will grow endlessly.

Noticing the Bloodvine’s growth, Shen Qinghe was only mildly surprised. But when her eyes landed on the mutational trait—the Foundation Pill Trait—she was stunned.

“Wait.” Shen Qinghe’s eyes widened. “Where did this Foundation Pill Trait come from?”

Suddenly, she remembered the scene of the one-armed cultivator swallowing the Foundation Establishment Pill before he died. Realization dawned.

“So, because that one-armed man swallowed the Foundation Establishment Pill and absorbed some of its power before dying, the Bloodvine, after sucking his blood, gained this Foundation Pill trait.”

Understanding its origin, Shen Qinghe was still puzzled. “With the Foundation Pill Trait… could it be that, after fusing with it, the Bloodvine could actually produce Foundation Establishment Pills?”

The thought made her heart race.

“It’s entirely possible!” Excitement flickered in her eyes, conviction settling in. “If it’s recorded in the ancient book, it can’t be wrong!”

Forcing herself to calm down, Shen Qinghe intended to try fusing the Foundation Pill Trait right away. But then she froze, struck by a sudden realization.

“When I fused the Spirit-Draining Grass trait, it nearly exhausted all my spiritual power…” She stared at the Bloodvine in her hand, her voice trembling. “And this Foundation Pill Trait is far superior. If I try to fuse it recklessly at my current level, won’t I end up as a dried corpse!”

The image of the headless body drained by the Bloodvine flashed involuntarily through her mind.

She sucked in a sharp breath, shuddered, and hurriedly stuffed the vine back into her pouch. “It’s far too risky to fuse the Foundation Pill Trait now. I don’t want to end up like that!”

A new thought struck her. “If it’s possible to give spiritual plants the Foundation Pill Trait this way, what about other pills?”

Her heart began to race with excitement. A novel approach to cultivating spirit plants was already taking shape in her mind.

Shen Qinghe put the Bloodvine away, then retrieved a jade bottle from her waist pouch. With a soft pop, she uncorked it, and a round Consolidation Pill rolled into her palm.

Without hesitation, she tipped back her head and swallowed it. Warmth flooded her meridians, and she immediately sat cross-legged to meditate and circulate her energy.

All through the night, spiritual energy fluctuated in her room. When the power of the fifth pill was completely absorbed, Shen Qinghe’s once-turbulent spiritual energy finally flowed at her command, her foundation in the second layer of Qi Refining now solid as stone.

Dawn broke, the first golden rays slanting through the window and casting dappled light across the floor. Shen Qinghe’s long lashes quivered; she opened her eyes, a glimmer of brilliance flickering in their depths.

Her chest rose and fell gently. She parted her lips, exhaling a stream of white breath three feet long, which slowly dissipated in the morning light.

“It’s time to tend the spirit fields!”

Shen Qinghe straightened her clothes, washed up briefly, swallowed a Fasting Pill, and stepped out of her small courtyard to greet the new day.