Chapter 25: Mission

“Congratulations.”

“Heheh, I’ve broken through to the seventh layer of Qi Refining too, and Master even praised me for being talented.” Bian Chunzhou cupped his face and grinned, his joy completely undisguised. “This way, I won’t fall behind. Plus, I found a way to temporarily balance water and fire! Aren’t I amazing?”

“You are, very much so.” At least, if it were him, Wen Xu doubted he could have found a practical and effective solution as quickly as Bian Chunzhou. “But temporarily?”

Bian Chunzhou gesticulated excitedly. “It’s a, well, dynamic balance between water and fire. Since I still need to cultivate and advance, the sea of Qi in my dantian has to keep expanding, and my Water-Fire Spiritual Root naturally has to progress with it. That means I have to constantly maintain this dynamic balance. By ‘temporary,’ I mean I still have to actively control it myself right now. But I think once I reach a certain point and my body and spiritual root adapt to this state of dynamic balance, it will start maintaining itself automatically and spontaneously.”

“Do you know what muscle memory is?”

Wen Xu shook his head.

“It’s like, if you swing a sword once or ten times, you still have to rely on your brain to swing the spiritual sword the next time you practice. But if you do it ten thousand, a hundred thousand, or a million times; when an action is repeated continuously, your body will remember it. The next time you use it, your body will act faster than your brain. That’s muscle memory.”

Bian Chunzhou continued to ramble on. “The circulation of spiritual energy and the cultivation of spiritual roots are all parts of the body. So, when this dynamic balance is maintained countless times, my body will remember it and start operating it spontaneously. But for now, I still have to control it myself.”

“Huh? What’s wrong, Wen Xuxu? Did I say something wrong?”

Wen Xu immediately shook his head. “No, you explained it perfectly. I should thank you. Now I know how I should practice my swordplay.” He had fallen into a misconception.

“Huh?”

I’ve really been overthinking it, Wen Xu thought. Every time he practiced his swordplay, he would think about how to channel the wind, how to make the wind coordinate with his sword, and how to make the sword exert greater power under the wind’s enhancement. He couldn’t stop himself from thinking about it every single time.

By thinking too much, he naturally couldn’t fully immerse himself in his sword practice. He had even felt that the sword didn’t suit him and went to try all kinds of other weapons. But in reality, if one’s mind wasn’t pure, practicing anything was useless.

Just as Chunzhou said, the first thing he needed to do was let his muscles build memory, not his brain.

This was what Body Tempering truly meant!

“Chunzhou, you’re right. You really are a genius.”

Bian Chunzhou grew even happier. He tried to press down the corners of his mouth, but he couldn’t manage it at all, so he just let them curl up. “Really? Wen Xuxu, you’re just looking at me through rose-colored glasses. I’m actually only so-so. Where’s Chen Zuizui? Why isn’t he here yet?”

“He should be…”

“Should be what?”

“He should still be practicing his saber.”

Well, that’s normal, Bian Chunzhou thought. If this grind king^[1] didn’t practice his saber for even a single day, it would rain red from the heavens.

“Actually, ever since you entered meditation, he has been practicing his saber without stopping once.” When Wen Xu found out a few days ago, he had specifically gone to Saber Peak to check. Saber Peak was filled with saber cultivators practicing their blades. When he asked around, they all said it was a good thing for Chen Zui to practice like this and that there was no need to interrupt him.

“What? Is his body made of iron?” Bian Chunzhou was astonished.

Wen Xu fell silent for a moment. “…In a way, his body might actually be harder than iron.”

Holy cow! Bian Chunzhou thought. Put that way, he’s not wrong at all.

The two of them arrived at Saber Peak. Sure enough, Bian Chunzhou saw Chen Zuizui, who was still swinging his saber. According to a senior brother nearby, this guy’s swings had been getting faster and faster over the past two days, and he was clearly on the verge of an epiphany.

“I didn’t expect his cultivation to be this grueling,” Bian Chunzhou couldn’t help but sigh.

Wen Xu couldn’t see Chen Zui swinging his saber, but the wind in the air around Saber Peak was seventy percent harsher than elsewhere. Especially where Chen Zui was practicing, the wind had changed from its previous chaotic state to a controlled chaos.

The senior brother from Saber Peak was right; Chen Zui was indeed on the verge of an epiphany.

The cultivation world is truly wondrous, Wen Xu thought. No matter what kind of aptitude a cultivator has, they can always find the path that suits them best. He silently reminded himself never to look down on any cultivator who worked hard at their training.

The two of them stood and watched for a while before returning to their respective peaks to cultivate.

Wen Xu went back to practice his swordplay and Body Tempering. This time, he began trying to empty his mind. Attain utmost emptiness, maintain steadfast stillness. All things arise together, and I watch their return^[2]. He should have realized this long ago – only when the state of mind was at its most tranquil could one catch a glimpse of the most fundamental essence of cultivation.

In practice, however, emptying his mind was a very difficult task for Wen Xu.

If a person never thought, they would end up like Chen Zui, unable to grasp complex concepts. But if one was constantly thinking, an overactive brain would refuse to stop working.

Wen Xu was the latter. But once he truly realized this, he began trying to change.

His long-stagnant Body Tempering progress finally began to slowly move forward. The wind inside the casting furnace also finally began to drift out on its own, without him having to deliberately channel it.

As for Bian Chunzhou, once his cultivation finally stabilized, the first thing he did was report the good news to his master. Afterward… the petty Bian Chunzhou made a special trip to find a certain senior brother surnamed Lin. He paced back and forth in front of him three times, and only returned to his peak to consolidate his cultivation after seeing the man’s stiff expression.

Just as Wen Xuxu needed Body Tempering, he needed it badly too.

However, his master seemed to have a rather unique training method in mind. While Wen Xuxu practiced his sword, he was… forced by his master to test talismans. Granted, conducting experiments was his personal comfort zone, but there was really no need to be soaked in the laboratory all day long!

“Master, please, spare me. The pile of ruined talismans here is enough to keep the fires of the Refining Peak burning for a whole day.”

Venerable Ruoshui frowned. “You are a boy.”

“Master?”

“You ought to be sturdier than a girl. Since I, your master, have not complained, you should persevere a little longer.”

So Bian Chunzhou held out for another three days. When he really couldn’t take it anymore, he finally cried, “Master, I can’t do this anymore. I really can’t. Actually, I can just be a girl instead.”

Venerable Ruoshui smiled. Her little disciple was quite cute. “Alright, I’ll let you rest for a few days.”

Hearing this, Bian Chunzhou scrambled to his feet and dashed out of Talisman Peak like the wind. But just as he left the peak, he ran headfirst into someone.

“Huh? Chen Zuizui, aren’t you practicing your saber? Why do you look so disheveled again?”

Chen Zui held his saber. “I took a bath. Don’t slander me.”

“Then what’s with the wild beard and eyebrows growing all over your face? You’re eighteen this year, not eighty! Come, come, come, I have a Blazing Prairie Talisman here. Let me singe them all off for you!”

Bian Chunzhou was very good at using talismans now, casting them quickly and skillfully. He couldn’t resist wanting to show off in front of his buddy, and then,

“You broke through again?”

Chen Zui nodded happily. “I was just practicing, and suddenly I was at the ninth layer of Qi Refining. You two still aren’t as good as me.”

Bian Chunzhou: “…”

“I wanted to keep practicing my saber, but my master said something about too much being as bad as too little. I didn’t really get it, so can you help me ask Wen Xu?”

Bian Chunzhou pulled out a transmission talisman. “You can’t get in touch with him?”

“I don’t know how to contact him.”

Classic Chen Zuizui. Bian Chunzhou shoved a transmission talisman directly into his friend’s hand. “Let me teach you. It’s very simple. First, you do this…”

Wen Xu had just finished his sword practice for the day and was about to take a bath and change his clothes when he received a transmission talisman from Chen Zui.

Wen Xu instinctively looked up at the sky. The sun hadn’t risen from the west today, so how was Chen Zui actually sending him a transmission talisman?

Once he opened it, he realized Chunzhou had forced him to send it. That explained it.

The three of them quickly met up. With their current cultivation, they were already far ahead of their peers. However, growing too fast was not entirely a good thing. Before Foundation Establishment, one needed Qi Refining, and Qi Refining was meant to build a solid foundation. Growing too fast was like swallowing a date whole^[3]; you might have swallowed it, but you barely tasted it.

Later on, if anyone asked what the date tasted like, none of them would be able to give a proper answer.

Therefore, what the three of them needed most right now was to temper their state of mind and train their physical bodies to match their skyrocketing cultivation.

Originally, Wen Xu had wondered if reaching Foundation Establishment by age twenty-five was really that difficult in the cultivation world. At his current pace, he could achieve it by next year. But now, he no longer thought that way.

Reaching the seventh layer of Qi Refining was only because his sudden enlightenment had expanded his Qi sea, allowing his body to hold more spiritual energy. It did not mean his state of mind and physical body had reached that level yet.

“Maybe we should go to Kaiyuan Peak and take on a few missions.”

Bian Chunzhou was the first to speak. “Yonglu Mountain does have a rule that disciples cannot travel far before reaching Foundation Establishment, but we can still take on minor missions in the surrounding cities. Many outer sect disciples are only in the Qi Refining Stage. Since their monthly allowance is small, they do missions to exchange for cultivation resources.”

Although inner sect disciples had the support of their masters, many still chose to go down the mountain to do short-term missions to consolidate their cultivation.

Wen Xu thought for a moment. “I think that works. What about you, Chen Zui?”

“Sure,” Chen Zui agreed, nodding. “But I prefer missions where I can just fight.” Thinking was too much of a hassle.

The three of them quickly reached an agreement. Since Wen Xu’s status was too high-profile, Bian Chunzhou and Chen Zui went to Kaiyuan Peak to accept the missions. Honestly, there were plenty of missions geared toward the Qi Refining Stage, but most were highly tedious. They were mostly time-consuming tasks like feeding spiritual beasts, tilling spiritual fields, harvesting low-grade spiritual plants, or simply running errands.

They weren’t difficult, so the sect contribution points they rewarded were also very low.

After browsing for a long time, Bian Chunzhou selected three missions. The first was to go to Yueyu Forest in the east to harvest second-grade Moonlight Grass. Moonlight Grass wasn’t hard to harvest, but it only matured at midnight, meaning they had to race against time. The mission required ten Jin [approx. 5 kg] of it, so it was barely doable if the three of them worked together.

The second mission was to help an elder from Alchemy Peak deliver medicinal pills to Tinghe Villa. Tinghe Villa was located southeast of Langyuan City, so they could deliver the pills first and then go harvest the grass. It was right on the way.

As for the final mission, it was reported that women in a certain village were unexpectedly falling pregnant one after another. Qi Refining Stage disciples were needed to investigate the situation first. If anything unusual was found, they had to report back to the sect immediately.

None of the missions were difficult, so Bian Chunzhou accepted them under their three names.