Chapter 140 — Revisiting an Old Haunt, Returning to Star-Plucking Tower

The next morning, when Lian Mu found Feng Tianche, his soul form was sprawled awkwardly on the couch, sound asleep, entirely lacking any semblance of a grand master.

The door was wide open. She knocked on the doorframe.

Feng Tianche cracked open one eye, saw it was her, pointed his toe at the table, but had no intention of getting up. “Your dark circles are worse than mine. How late did you stay up last night?”

Lian Mu walked over and sat by the window, noticing a written pill formula on the table.

“Not too bad. Didn’t stay up very late.”

Last night she’d actually slept for two hours — she’d nodded off halfway through refining pills, which caused the final batch to turn out as half-finished products.

Feng Tianche yawned, remaining slumped and motionless. Clearly, he hadn’t rested all night either.

Lian Mu asked, “Master Feng, can a soul body get tired too?”

“Of course it can, what a question.” Feng Tianche replied with half-closed eyes. “I’m not as energetic as you young ones. A dead man ought to be lying still asleep anyway.”

Lian Mu glanced at the pill formula. It listed the spiritual plants she had used to make the spirit replenishing pill, and several ingredients were circled.

To be able to discern them so precisely even after they’d fused — he truly was a master.

She herself couldn’t even recall exactly what she’d thrown in, since she often added random spiritual plants on instinct during refinement, then forgot about it afterward.

“This pill turned out well. Little girl, you’ve got talent. The plants circled here — those were your own additions?”

“Probably. Mixing in a demonic beast inner core with a standard formula makes it unstable — the cauldron is prone to exploding near the end, so I added a few spiritual plants to balance it.”

“I never wrote out the full formula for using a demonic beast inner core in pills. I just mentioned it briefly in that book. Didn’t think you’d figure it out yourself. Took me all night to unravel your additions.”

“I think you’d have better prospects switching to become an alchemy cultivator. I’d give you my top-grade alchemy furnace — it’s far better than that sword you’re holding.”

Feng Tianche turned over, about to say more, when his peripheral vision caught her sword. He paused.

Squinting at it from a distance, he realized this sword looked different from yesterday.

“You switched swords? This one… the color is hideous. Not nearly as nice as the old one.”

Lian Mu finished reading the formula in silence. She had no retort — she also thought Wealth Bringer looked awful now, a glaring, shiny green that hurt the eyes.

“It’s the same sword as before, just… modified a bit.” She didn’t want to look at Wealth Bringer’s current form; she hadn’t dared a proper glance at it since leaving home that morning.

She could only keep telling herself: as long as it works well, nothing else matters.

“Who turned it into that eyesore? You should make that artifact refiner pay compensation.” Feng Tianche said. “Still, that color’s pretty rare — probably means the sword’s spirit armor was refined to the limit. That refiner has poor taste but decent craftsmanship.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a green demonic beast.” Feng Tianche mused. “Could it be a jade-type caterpillar?”

“It’s toad hide. I picked it myself.”

Her sword contained two spirit armors — one from the scrap sword in the Sword Pavilion, and mostly the green clawed toad’s spirit armor she’d used from the start.

Feng Tianche fell silent for a moment. “…Not bad. Quite unique. But this sword of yours is advancing in grade too quickly. Be careful when using it, or you’ll drain a huge amount of spiritual energy.”

After speaking, he gave the glowing green blade a quick glance. Yesterday it was still seventh grade, and today it had shot up to fourth grade.

Fourth grade required at least a dual spiritual root to wield safely. Come to think of it, he didn’t even know what spiritual roots she had.

“Little girl, how many spiritual roots do you have? What kind of root determines what pills you should take. If you’re above a single spiritual root, the formula might need adjustments.”

Lian Mu thought about it. It was a hard question to answer. After pondering a bit, she finally said,

“Three spiritual roots, I guess. But I’ve been taking medicine to rebuild a Heavenly Spiritual Root. Everyone says I have the strength of someone with a Heavenly Spiritual Root.”

As soon as she said this, Feng Tianche froze. “?”

“It sounds absurd, but it’s exactly what you’re thinking.”

Feng Tianche didn’t speak for a long while. His eyes grew clearer by the second. “…No wonder Yi Zifei sent you to me.”

“Hold out your hand.”

Lian Mu did as told. Feng Tianche’s fingertip released a wisp of blue-green light, which landed in her palm and then sank into her body.

“This is a trace of spiritual power left in my soul form. It will keep you stable for now.” Feng Tianche sighed. “It’s my fault you ended up like this — I died too early, didn’t get to clean up properly, and left you in this mess.”

“I’ll do everything I can to help you. Since you have three Heavenly Spiritual Roots inside you, my spiritual power alone won’t hold them down for long. A Heavenly Spiritual Root is only meant to exist one at a time — if yours aren’t suppressed, no amount of spiritual energy will help.”

Lian Mu suddenly remembered what Xuan Che had said and asked, “Someone told me before that I was replenishing my spiritual energy in the wrong place — that it fused into my blood instead. Why is that?”

“An acquired spirit-blood fusion? In your case, it’s a bit complicated.” Feng Tianche said. “Probably you replenished too much spiritual energy, but with three Heavenly Spiritual Roots inside, you couldn’t balance it, so most of it merged with your blood.”

“I see.”

No wonder she’d felt her spiritual energy depleting faster and faster. Before, a single mixed inner core pill would last her two months — now it barely lasted a couple of weeks.

“This formula needs a few extra ingredients. But Returning Immortal Sect’s herb garden doesn’t have them. These plants only grow in the Land of Seven Domains, where demonic beasts run rampant.”

“I’m good at fighting demonic beasts.”

Feng Tianche walked over to the book wall, took down a book, and fished a token out of a hidden compartment. He tossed it to her. “No need for you to fight. In the Seven Domains, some areas are privately managed — just find the landowner.”

Lian Mu caught the token and saw it bore an engraved pattern of stars and moon — it looked familiar.

“At the foot of Returning Immortal Sect, in Xi City, there’s the demon-hunting Star-Plucking Tower. Heard of it?”

“I’ve heard of it.”

Wasn’t that where she used to earn money?

“Take this token and go find the Star-Plucking Tower’s master. Tell him you need these things.” Feng Tianche flicked his finger, and another book flew from the wall and opened itself in midair, pages flipping until it stopped at one.

Lian Mu read the text and committed it to memory.

However, given her reputation at Star-Plucking Tower, things probably wouldn’t go smoothly…

Feng Tianche seemed to read her mind. “Doesn’t matter if you don’t know anyone there. Just hold up the token and walk straight to the top floor — no one will dare stop you.”

“Alright. I’ll give it a try.”

Come to think of it, she hadn’t been to Star-Plucking Tower in ages. This time, she definitely planned to make a good haul.