It was nearly five in the m when Baiyun got up.

  Basked in the warm light from the dawn sun peering through the window, he stood up and did a few quick stretches before heading out. A disgruntled grumble came from his sleeping brother as he shut the door.

  Baiyun's body was no longer sore like the previous night, now welling with what felt like endless energy. He didn't think a day would e where he'd be excited to train in brutish martial arts, but he felt a strahusiasm today.

  With a grain ball in hand, he munched absentmindedly as he strolled. This time, he actually remembered to eat.

  Right now, he was supposed to head to the Martial Temple. But with how fast the spirits had been dragging him bad forth, it was quite difficult for him to keep his bearings.

  "Light spirit!" he called out. "I'm a bit lost, you poio the dire of the temple?"

  He stood there for a few minutes, finishing the rest of his meagre breakfast.

  But she didn't respond. Baiyun frowned. He could still sense her field of spirit sense, so it seemed she was just ign him for whatever reason.

  Wait. Was it because she was still unhappy about him enrolling in the Martial Temple? Baiyun shook his head in frustration.

  At the very least, he khe general dire of the temple. That would have to do for now.

  Baiyun did a few stretches in preparation for a long run. He only had about an hour to get to his destination, so there was no time to dawdle.

  He lowered himself slightly a his khen took off with a sprint! Around him, the grass and trees turned into blurs of green as he cut directly through, ign any paths. He had no choice as he didn't know which road would take him there. Grass sap stained his shoes from the speed he ran.

  The pleasant breeze rushed over him. With his soul bringing out the full potential of the Rock Ginseng Pill, he felt strohan ever!

  In the past, were he to run at such speeds, he would be out of breath in just a few mihe pill had only strengthened his muscles moderately, but its true purpose was to increase his stamina.

  Baiyun ran and ran, finally ing to a stop 30 mier. He took a few deep breaths, reag into his bag for a water gourd, drinking in satisfa. This was the might of pills and elixirs! In his eyes, they were the very pilrs the cultivation world rested on.

  But just as quickly as he thought that, he let out a sigh. When would the day e when he could get his hands on a pill furnace more? Perhaps this was what lovesick couples felt after being separated for years, wishing for nothing more than to be reunited once more.

  He tinued his rufully, until a forested mountain came into view. Baiyun paused his steps and did a double take. Had he gone in the wrong dire?

  Luckily, he had learnt a simple trick to verify that. He closed his eyes and focused on the field of spirit sense around him. The WanLi left no er unsupervised, tless spirits standing guard everywhere. The same spirits were usually assigo the exact same posts each day, so Baiyun could tell them apart with their spirit sense fields.

  So all he o do was firm the same spirits were nearby! He wondered if the spirits would be insulted if they knew he was using them as bootleg passes.

  Baiyun sehe rge field of a wood spirit and immediately knew he was in the right pce. It had not shown itself to him, but he reised it as the one keeping watch of the temple. He tinued his run towards the ndmass.

  As he got closer, it became clear why he didn't realise the temple had been on a mountain. It was missing its tip, its upper third sliced off to create a rge ft ground for the temple to stand on. With such a huge cross se and a dense forest engulfing its ey, it was no wonder he didn't realise he was so far above ground level.

  Baiyun looked to the skies and tried to make some vague time estimates. It was a bit hard to glean with the clouds in the way, but it seemed he had about 20 minutes left if he wao arrive an hour early.

  Uable. He o hurry! He ran for the path up the mountain.

  But a peculiar st entered his nose. Baiyun's eyes widened slightly; he squatted down suddenly and skidded to a stop before a tree. On its bark was a brown bracket fungus covered in little white spots.

  He grabbed it and used Diviouch, immediately sensing its tents. It was a herb ri Earthsoul esse was also full of poisonous essences, but it was nothing he couldn't deal with. He hurriedly pulled out an axe and harvested it, tossing it into his bag.

  Baiyun scooted around the tree and to a pile of crumbly soil. Tall sprigs of delicate purple grass sprouted, as if peeking shyly above the shoulders of its robust green cousins that surrou. Baiyun's eyes lit up as he harvested them all.

  Golden fern shoots! Purple bamboo shoots! Some kind rant mugwort! Small blue flowers! Bck walnuts! Even a cabbage of sorts. What was a domesticated pnt doing here?

  None of these were spirit pnts, but Baiyun ran around the mountain harvesting ingredient after ingredient, giddy with joy. This mountain was a treasure trove!

  But he suddenly froze. What was he doing? He was here to train!

  To think someone his age had gotten so carried away... Baiyun coughed to himself, feeling somewhat embarrassed. Luckily, no one was watg. He put the st of his spoils into his bag and hurried up the remainder of the path, grateful that his search had taken him closer to the peak.

  Soon, the mountain's bisected peak came bato view. He had no time to take the nearby stairs, so he grabbed the edge of the mountain’s ft peak and climbed on. There was still a bit of forest left to go, so Baiyun cut through it with an awkward zigzagged ruweerees, finally arriving at the temple.

  He wiped the sweat off his fad panted as he g the skies. Just in time!

  Mohei stood alo the training grounds, swinging a spear that glinted uhe m suuro Baiyun and tossed a mace over, the on cttering to the ground beside his target's feet.

  "Baiyu's spar!" Mohei said as he swung his spear through the air.

  Baiyun stared at the boy's ear eyes speechlessly. He really wasn't in the mood for this.

  "That's your speciality on, isn't it?" Mohei asked.

  "No. I only picked it because the wolf was armoured." Baiyun said.

  "Then do you wao give you another on?"

  "No need."

  Baiyun tossed the mace baohei. Then he began to do quick stretches and pung routihe temple's warm up exercises.

  "I see... You o prepare first, to avoid injury." Mohei said thoughtfully.

  Baiyun nodded silently. Seeing that, Mohei decided to follow suit, doing the exercises as well. The two of them performed punches and kicks, this time Mohei's at a normal speed.

  The clouds above drifted far away as they trained. 30 minutes had passed; Mohei began to grow impatient.

  "Baiyun... this is taking a while. When we start fighting?" he grumbled.

  "Just a few more minutes." Baiyun shrugged.

  “Fine!"

  The two resumed training. The gentle wind swayed the trees and yellow leaves fell, sliding across the ft training grounds. Soon, another 30 minutes had passed.

  Baiyun took a quick peek at Mohei and realised the boy had gotten fully immersed iraining routine. He held back a ugh. This kid was too gullible! Ohe other kids arrived, he'd weasel out of the spar. But he frowned a moment ter.

  Weren't the disciples supposed to arrive already? They were still the only two here. He wondered if he had miscalcuted the time somehow.

  "Mohei. Where are the rest of the disciples?" Baiyun asked finally.

  "Eh?" Mohei snapped out of his trance.

  Then a smug look overtook him.

  "Hah! There's no training today, stupid!" he ughed. "But I came here anyway because I knew you didn't know!"

  "Oh."

  Baiyun stood there bnkly.

  "So, let's spar-" Mohei said. "Wait, where are you going?"

  He yelled as Baiyun suddenly took off running.

  "Later!"

  Echoes of Mohei's angry shouts came from the distance.

  Baiyun ughed as he rushed back down the mountain. Now that he koday was a day off, how could he miss out oreasures of the mountain?

  He had already collected 13 types of essences. With a little more luck, he'd find all the ingredients for Aoyang's Qi Recharge pellet!

  It ill he ied in his past life, during his younger years. Back then, he was so proud of it that he even after himself. Most pills and elixirs would only tain the qi of whatever ingredients were used. But Aoyang had a certain idea. What if cheap mortal ingredients were used, but with a position that absorbed qi?

  A pill made solely of mortal ingredients, but capable of abs qi to bee a qi pill! But it was ultimately fated to be a y; mortal ingredients couldn't hold much qi after all.

  Worse, he ter found out there was already a simir iion: Spirit Pills. They were pills made with actual spirit herbs, pced into specialised miniature formations that would form an artificial spirit within, ohat could cultivate the pill.

  Baiyun suddenly remembered his time with his disciples in his past life. Of the many life stories he'd tell them of til they grew bored, this was one of them. He missed how easily they could be coerced into listening to his past aplishments.

  A slight sadness entered his heart, but he shook it off. That was enough reminisg. Either way, while the pill might have been useless to his past self, it might prove useful to him this life.

  Only two more essences were needed for the pellet, one of water and one of fire. But the third and st ingredient he needed would be the most annoying. He needed a reagent suited to holding qi, often a property found only in qi absorbent ores deep underground. And it also o be safe for ption, narrowing the list further.

  Baiyun sighed. In his previous life, any ingredient he cked could just be casually bought from alchemy workshops at his venience.

  He paused.

  Or was that still an option? Baiyun stroked his as an idea suddenly came into mind. While servants didn't usually have access to the sect's currency, what if he asked Guan Qiang to reward with it for winning the bat trial with the wolves week?

  It might be possible for him to head to the main district of the WanLi, to buy the herbs he needed directly! Baiyun o himself, pleased by the idea.

  There was also the option of heading back down the underground caverns to search for spirit herbs and the ores he needed. Even that poisonous fungus was far more valuable than what he had gathered here, though sadly, it had beeroyed in the fight with the serpent.

  But Baiyun had no desire to reehe underground caverns now that he was wise to its dangers. He had only resorted to that previously out of desperation, not knowing how else he would cultivate. It wasn't as if he could wait several more years for his breakthrough from just herb discards from the servant teen.

  If he did return, it would only be after he had gotten far stronger, perhaps after breaking through into Elixir densation!

  In the Cssic path of cultivation, Foundatioablishment came after Qi Gathering. But Baiyun po follow the same cultivation path he followed in his past life: Elixir Stream. It had notable fws when pared to the Cssic path, but it was far more suited for an alchemist.

  Baiyun resumed his search, wandering around aimlessly and poking at random pnts. Not being able to use divine sehout alerting the spirits was quite annoying. But the sound of distant flowing water made him pause. Good, he would be able to find herbs with water essehere!

  He followed his ears and weaved betweerees, sooering a clearing.

  A massive ke parted the endless forest, a thin stream flowing through it. Its waters were greenish, its depths cloaked by the sea of lily pads and duckweed that covered every inch of its surface. Several deer and rabbits drank from the water happily, a pile of discarded duckweeds at their side.

  Baiyuheir qi sense in the air; to think there would be spirit animals here! He hesitated for a moment but approached the ke, seeing that they seemed fairly docile.

  One of the rabbits raised its ears and turned over to stare at him. It was much rger than the rest and surprisingly muscur, perhaps the leader of the group. The rest of the rabbits seemed ued, some even dipping their paws into the water to wash them. As for the deer, they did not spare him a single gnce.

  Baiyun wasn't surprised by their ck of rea. The servant body rison of qi, so he appeared to be just a harmless mortal. Not that they'd have worried about a 3rd level Qi Gatherer either.

  He pulled out a pitchfork from his bag and marched over to the ke. The spirit beasts all turo look, their attention drawn to the on. But he only stabbed it towards the ke, digging out various aquatits and tossing them to the side.

  Baiyun poked at his soggy "harvest" with a finger and frowned. All of these were useless! Withier, there was little he could do to dis essence from smell alone, nor could he easily touts to identify them.

  The clump of lily pads further into the ke had flower buds that looked promising. But to retrieve them, he would o swim into the ke waters, which seemed surprisingly deep.

  But Baiyun did not want to be mauled by crocodiles, alligators, rge predatory fishes or whatever potentially lurked beh. Did they even dwell in waters like this? If Guang Qiang was responsible, he'd have removed any threats for the safety of his disciples; they had to climb the mountain to reach his temple after all.

  Still, it wasn't a risk he was willing to take. He o firm if anything was hidih.

  Baiyun stood around and thought for a moment. After gng at the rabbits, a ridiculous thought suddeered his mind, almost enough to make him ugh.

  He walked towards the rabbits and pulled out a few strands of purple grass from before, waving it at them.

  The muscur rabbit hopped over, a few of its underlings in tow. A rabbit suddenly leapt towards the grass in Baiyun's hand, but he mao pull it ba time.

  "There!"

  Baiyun suddenly tossed the grass into the water. The rabbits stared at him in fusion.

  For a moment, they all stared at each other in awkward silence.

  ...well, he wasn't sure why he thought they would jump into the water merely for some grass. It really was quite the silly idea.

  Baiyun reached for the water and prepared to take the grass back. But a few small bubbles suddenly appeared beh its surface as somethih tugged at the sprigs.

  A few small fishes showed themselves, nibbling on the grass. Even uhe slightly murky waters, their scales glimmered a familiar vibrant blue. He immediately reised it; that glimmer was caused by water essence! If only he had a .

  Baiyun knew he o be a little more creative. He pulled out a bottle gourd and drank the st of its water, then snatched the purple grass from fishes and stuffed it into the gourd.

  With his "trap" now prepared, he forced it uer and wedged it into pce with a rock, watg as bubbles rushed out, a sign of the ke water filling the gourd.

  Baiyun backed away slowly, not wanting to scare the fish away. But he did not have to wait long.

  A few moments ter, the first little fish swam in. He ughed as he stood to the side with the rabbits, watg as more of the tiny fishes flooded in. His idea worked this time!

  Baiyun snatched the gourd out of the water and stuffed the cork ba. He quickly probed the gourd with divioud firmed the fish indeed had the essences he needed.

  Too easy. He walked off in triumph, but turned around as he heard the rustle of grass behind him.

  The rabbits hopped after him; one of them even began to tug at his pants with its teeth. Baiyun's eyes twitched. What exactly were they thinking?

  He took off running with one rabbit hanging to his leg. Behind him, the swarm of rabbits gave chase!

  LunaTheGhost