Chapter 94 - The Elemental Quest
A low sound rumbled in her chest. Wisps of grey and purple Qi seeped through her white fur, but the golden light of the Samsara Resin instantly suppressed them. As the conflicting forces churned, Yunxiao turned, her steps slightly heavy but stable. She walked slowly to the shade of the herb garden at the back of the peak and lay down to rest.
Su Ming watched her close her eyes. He exhaled slowly and leaned back against the stone bench.
"Now," he said. "It is time to focus on my own path."
***
Su Ming walked past the open plots. Under Elder Bai Zhen’s care, the ordinary herb garden was fully operational. Row after row of common spiritual herbs grew in neat lines, bringing in steady contribution points. Yet, Su Ming was still not as wealthy as he wanted.
Managing a Peak was expensive. He allocated monthly spirit stones and contribution points to Elder Bai and Bai Qingxian. It was a necessary cost, but it was worth it. The Bais were finally integrating into White Lotus Peak, bringing a sense of peace and belonging to their daily life.
At the edge of the plots stood two enclosed greenhouse chambers, which Elder Bai Zhen had guided him to set up. These structures were designed to be regulated by specialised formations designed to nurture delicate plants. Su Ming opened the door to the first chamber and stepped inside.
As he entered the Yin garden chamber, the air felt still and stagnant, giving rise to a deep, natural cold. Silver frost clung to the edges of the soil beds. Beside the silver-leaved Moon-Bloom Flowers and frost-rimed Nether Frost Lilies grew. Ghost-Lace Peonies with translucent petals that only bloomed in extreme cold, while Frost-Braid Orchids hung from the plants, freezing morning dew into thin icy threads.
At the center of the artificial Yin formation, the purified Yin seed rested in a bed of frozen earth. The dark seed, formerly the death seed from the Withered Valley, slowly absorbed the cold energy. Su Ming looked at it for a moment. He wanted to study it, but it needed time to recover its vitality.
Leaving the cold room, he walked to the adjacent Yang garden chamber. In contrast, the space had a dry, prickling heat like a blazing midsummer afternoon. Heat waves shimmered over the soil. Beside the Crimson Sun Ginseng, he grew Solar Marigolds, their golden-crimson petals releasing a dry warmth that rustled in the drafts. Nearby, Cinder-Bloom Lilies released glowing, warm pollen into the air as they absorbed the dry heat.
The spiritual herbs in both chambers served a single purpose. They were high-grade, rare materials for pill-refining. Once matured, Su Ming could refine them into high-value pills or trade them directly for spirit stones. He closed the door and returned to the stone path.
’I’ll need to examine the Yang seed in my soul sea soon,’ he thought, his divine sense looking inward to the suppressed Yang seed. ’With my new Nascent Soul cultivation base and my Essence Sight, I should be strong enough to probe its mysteries even more.’
Cultivating these rare spiritual herbs was the most reliable path to accumulate resources. Due to Bai Qingxian’s guidance and his own Essence Sight, Su Ming had already attained the rank of a Junior Physician. He was also close to reaching Senior status in both alchemy and formations, having identified the specific gaps in his knowledge. The small batches of basic pills he had quietly placed in the market had already yielded a steady income of spirit stones.
Yet, his progress was reaching a bottleneck. His Yin-Yang Origin Flame was well suited for Alchemy. By balancing heat and cold to preserve the spiritual nature of the ingredients, he could guide the delicate transformations of the medicinal essences with absolute precision. But the lack of advanced pill formulas held him back.
’Why can’t I just get some alchemy inheritance magically?’ Su Ming thought, a dry smile touching his lips. ’The protagonists in the stories always stumble upon a hidden master’s legacy or find an ancient ring containing supreme formulas in some dusty cave. Instead, I have to rely on publicly available resources.’
With the pill recipes available in the public archives of the Heavenly Cloud Sect, reaching the Master Ranked Alchemist level was almost impossible. He needed to find a way to secure rare and high-grade alchemy formulas. Although he could easily request some formulas from Bai Qingxian, he chose not to. Medicine Valley’s inheritances were closely guarded, and placing her in a position where she would have to choose between her sect’s rules and her gratitude to him was a compromise he refused to impose.
For now, he had to focus on his immediate cultivation goal. Su Ming left the peak and flew toward the central mountains.
He recalled checking the sect records two months ago when he first started looking into the five elemental essences needed to complete his organ refinement. All five were available within the sect, but most of them required performing tedious tasks for the peak masters and elders. He could not simply buy them with contribution points. The sole exception was the Earth element essence, which only cost a reasonable amount of points.
To avoid those tedious tasks, he had decided to request the Wang Clan to secure the remaining four. He planned to buy that Earth essence today.
A few minutes later, Su Ming landed in front of the grand, stone gates of the Sect Vault. The building was carved into the side of the main peak, guarded by heavy defensive arrays. Inside, the air was quiet, smelling of old parchment and metallic arrays. Su Ming approached the counter, where an elderly deacon sat reading a ledger.
Su Ming approached the counter and handed over his identity token, requesting the Earth element essence. The deacon took the token and checked the records, his eyebrows rising in surprise at the staggering amount of contribution points stored inside. The elder nodded, went into the back room, and returned carrying a polished wooden box.
Su Ming took the box and opened the lid. Inside sat the Golden Amber Heart.
It was a chunk of warm, translucent amber. True to its earthy appearance, it was incredibly dense and heavy, and he felt like holding a block of mountain within his palm. Deep within its core, a slow pulse of golden light rippled through its crystalline veins, radiating a dense, grounding pressure that influenced the surrounding Qi.
’This is it,’ Su Ming thought, his fingers closing around the warm stone, and with this, the earth essence was secured.
Su Ming closed the box and placed it in his storage ring. He bowed slightly to the deacon and walked out of the vault, his steps steady as he planned his next move.