Su Qingyue lifted her feet gracefully, stepping one by one across the wooden bridge that connected the lake pavilion to the neat paving stones of the front yard.
Mu Chen swallowed quietly. Her eyes never left him, and with every step she took, a small pulse of energy thumped softly against the ground beneath her.
"How are you feeling, Mu Chen?"
He pressed his hands together and lowered his head. "Better. Thank you for taking care of me, Master Su."
"Actually, I didn't do anything other than bring you here."
"Where is here?" Mu Chen asked.
"My residence. The only house on Jiuxiao Mountain."
Mu Chen narrowed his eyes, curious, recalling what Bai Han had told him before. "I heard Jiuxiao Mountain is where the ancestors live. If this is the only house, where do they stay?"
"They form their own cultivation caves and seal themselves away from all activity through closed-door cultivation."
He turned and looked toward the hills, unable to make out any sign of where the sect ancestors might actually be.
But since Su Qingyue had said so, it was safe to assume they were somewhere on this mountain.
Su Qingyue raised two fingers, activated her qi energy, and pressed on several meridian points along Mu Chen's body. Mu Chen flinched slightly, but he felt no pain at all when she did it.
"I suppose I should thank Wang Wei. His whipping indirectly forced your meridians to channel spiritual qi in order to heal you," Su Qingyue said.
"Is that right?"
"Yes. You are fully ready to cultivate," Su Qingyue added.
Mu Chen's heart picked up speed. This was an important moment, the core purpose of power in the cultivation world, meditation and cultivation.
There was a small knot of nervousness in him about whether he could do it right. But Su Qingyue reassured him once more that she would be there to help him along.
She tapped her bag of holding, and a white technique scroll appeared, floating above her palm.
"This is a cultivation technique. The Early Qi Condensation Cultivation Art."
Mu Chen received the scroll and opened it with both hands. Strangely, his eyes and mind could read the writing inside as if it were his native language.
Simply put, the technique Su Qingyue gave him was designed to absorb spiritual qi from the heavens and the earth.
The first step was to sit in meditation, clear the mind, calm the heart, and let nature make contact with the body.
The explanation was abstract rather than technical. But Su Qingyue told Mu Chen that he would be able to feel the technique working. The basics were clear enough to him. He looked over at Su Qingyue, scroll still in hand.
"I'm ready."
"Good," Su Qingyue said, sweeping her hand to wrap Mu Chen in her qi.
The two of them left the Jiuxiao Lotus Residence and headed to a spot located directly below the hill the residence sat on. There, Mu Chen saw a beautiful waterfall.
They landed softly at the base. "You will cultivate there. Stay focused and keep your mind calm."
Mu Chen looked ahead. A pavilion stood in the waterfall's pool, right at the center of it. Su Qingyue remained beside him, both arms folded across her chest.
"Alright."
He knew what he had to do. He stepped along the river stone path until he was fully inside the pavilion. He sat cross-legged and rested his hands in front of his navel, both palms facing upward.
Following what the technique had described, Mu Chen began to quiet his mind and regulate his breathing, keeping it steady, not too weak, not too rushed.
Su Qingyue's dark violet eyes lit up gold, without using any technique at all. Through her cultivation sight, she watched the abundant flow of spiritual qi from the area begin to pour into Mu Chen's body.
"He succeeded on the first try. Impressive," Su Qingyue murmured.
Not wanting to stand by and do nothing, Su Qingyue pulled out a high-level spirit stone and tossed it onto the peak of the pavilion's roof.
On its own, the spiritual qi energy within the spirit stone was drawn into Mu Chen as well, increasing the amount of qi he could take in.
"I can only add to the supply of spiritual qi. Not to how much Mu Chen himself can absorb."
Su Qingyue began counting the days, something she had never once cared about before. What day it was, which week of the month, she had sometimes even forgotten what year it was.
But time was precious for Mu Chen, and Su Qingyue was forced to start keeping track of the days until he could break through to the next stage.
Five hours passed since Mu Chen had begun cultivating. Su Qingyue looked up at the sky turning orange above her. Night was not far off.
I haven't cooked for a mortal in a long time. What am I even supposed to do?
THUMP!
Just as Su Qingyue turned to head back to the residence, her steps stopped. A golden qi pulse burst from Mu Chen's body.
The color of that qi was different from the spiritual qi he had been absorbing. Her eyes lit up gold again, and her cultivation sight focused on the man's condition.
His twelve meridians were still working well, drawing in spiritual qi. But the pulse had caught her off guard. Eight extra meridians had opened up and were also beginning to absorb spiritual qi.
Twenty meridian points... all of them active? But how?
Su Qingyue was stunned. Twelve meridians were the standard for any cultivator. Even she herself had only ever activated twelve.
But in rare cases, once in a thousand years or so, certain cultivators could open all twenty meridians fully at once.
"This is genuinely surprising. Opening twenty meridian channels at once on a first cultivation attempt. That alone is more than enough to prove Mu Chen is no ordinary cultivator."
She wasn't afraid, and she wasn't confused. If anything, she was growing more drawn to Mu Chen with every new thing she discovered about him, the mysterious man in strange clothes who had stepped out of the ancient ruins.
Maybe... there is something much bigger tied to Mu Chen.
Su Qingyue's interest kept climbing, and the obsession she had quietly nursed in her heart toward Mu Chen grew to a point where the very idea of anyone else taking him from her became something she would not allow.
"To fully develop this potential, the Early Qi Condensation Art is clearly not the right fit for him."
THUMP!
Another qi pulse hit. A dense golden qi aura began wrapping around Mu Chen's body in thick, heavy waves.
Mu Chen cried out, not in pain, but in relief, as if a weight had been lifted from his entire body.
Golden qi fluctuations spread across the area, rippling through the pool, rustling the leaves, sending dust swirling into the air. Su Qingyue was startled again, her eyes still wide and fixed on Mu Chen.
"Breaking straight through to the 2nd Layer of Qi Condensation?" Su Qingyue breathed.
Mu Chen's eyes opened and looked down at his body, especially his hands. He could faintly make out the golden qi aura radiating from him, different from what it had been before.
He glanced over, a little taken aback by the look on Su Qingyue's face. Her expression was different from usual, as if she had just witnessed something beyond what she could have imagined.
He stood and stepped out of the pavilion at the center of the pool, stopping right in front of Su Qingyue.
The woman tried to compose herself. The excitement and pleasure building inside her were not something she could let show too openly in front of Mu Chen.
She had to maintain her image as his teacher.
"Congratulations. You are officially a cultivator. Your current cultivation level is 2nd Layer Qi Condensation," Su Qingyue said.
"Thank you, Master Su."
I've already been cultivating, and for more than an hour. So why hasn't the Heavenly Refinement mission been completed?
"May I ask you something, Mu Chen?" Su Qingyue said, narrowing her eyes.
Her attitude just shifted. Did she see something strange about me just now?
Mu Chen went still and said nothing, then looked straight at the woman in front of him. "What is it?"
"Is there something you are hiding from me?"