That night, Zhao Yunxiao took a little longer to calm his heart before finally diving into meditation.
It could not be helped. After all, this would be his very first time cultivating with the help of a rare quality Winterwarmth Pill!
Rare quality!
This was something that even inner disciples would fight each other over. And yet here he was, an outer disciple ready to begin his first of many nights of cultivation with these rare pills!
Zhao Yunxiao regulated his breathing under the calming scent of the incense, and solemnly placed the Winterwarmth Pill in his mouth.
His consciousness slowly faded away, then reappeared in a world of light. A familiar dark silhouette sat there with a posture identical to his own, facing ahead at a second dark silhouette with short hair.
This second silhouette held a long bow without strings, which he slowly raised and pointed straight at the first.
The first silhouette did not move out of the way.
Instead, his muscles tightened and his blood boiled. A burst of physical energy erupted from within, causing his body to emit an overwhelming physical pressure born purely from his flesh and blood.
The second silhouette loosed his drawing arm, and a black arrow shot out like lightning. The aura of the arrow could not be understated, creating sonic booms as it passed and emitting shockwaves in all directions.
But just as the black arrow was about to strike the first silhouette's forehead, the latter's arm shot up to catch the arrow by the shaft.
[Zodiac Scripture – Ox Aspect: Strength]
[Zodiac Scripture – Boar Aspect: Toughness]
At this point, the Zodiac General Long Shiqian's signature technique flared to life, further elevating the physical prowess packed within the dark silhouette's body.
Boom-!
The moment his grip tightened around the arrow, the shockwaves exploded in intensity, even causing the world of light to tremble a little. Nevertheless, this proved insufficient in stopping the momentum behind the arrow, which continued to forge forward regardless.
Even then, the first silhouette did not break his cross-legged stance. Gripping the arrow and pushing back with all of his strength to prevent it from hitting him, the silhouette was continuously pushed back as the black arrow continued its advance.
It was not until the first silhouette had been pushed back a good twenty metres before he raised his other hand and chopped down on the black arrow. With its energy largely drained by now, the black arrow did not stand a chance as it shattered into countless motes of dark light.
With his physique alone, the dark silhouette had successfully fended off this fearsome arrow of energy!
But that was just the beginning.
Another black arrow was released from the second silhouette, yet again aimed precisely at his forehead.
This time, essence energy burst forth from within him. This burst of energy did not flood into the surroundings, instead remaining securely contained within the boundaries of his flesh and blood before converging within his fist. Bolstering his physical prowess with his cultivation base, the dark silhouette punched out to clash with the arrow head-on!
Not a centimetre of unnecessary movement.
Not a bit of essence energy lost to the environment.
It was a very basic punch that was devoid of any special techniques. Though perhaps one could argue that the pure mastery of energy incorporated within could be considered a technique in and of itself.
It was a punch that could only be achieved through innumerable practice, allowing it to unleash the greatest possible level of destructive power.
This was a stage of perfection that all cultivators aspired for when it came to their combat techniques – a stage of perfection that Zhao Yunxiao had personally experienced before through the memories of the Untethered Sage Jiang Taiming.
Combined with his sheer physical prowess, the resulting punch screamed forward like a devil from hell.
Bang-!
Bare first collided with the black arrow, yet it was the black arrow that had ended up being smashed to smithereens.
The second silhouette was unfazed, firing arrow after arrow. In response, the first silhouette continued to destroy each arrow as they came.
Bit by bit, this movement became more and more natural.
Bit by bit, these punches became engraved in the muscle memory of the first silhouette, allowing the dark silhouette to unleash them with greater ease.
***
When Zhao Yunxiao slowly opened his eyes, he could already see the rays of sunlight sneaking past the closed window to enter the room.
His meditation had lasted the entire night, and the sun had already risen.
The first thing he did was to inspect his dantian – an act that gave him more than just a pleasant surprise.
The Essence Gathering realm was about opening the dantian and connecting it to the spiritual meridians, creating a complete energy system. As for the boundaries within this realm, they were determined by the percentage of connected spiritual meridians.
Over the span of just one night of cultivation, Zhao Yunxiao could actually see a visible improvement in the percentage of spiritual meridians.
He was currently still a fair distance away from the 75% mark, which demarcated the next boundary of Peak Essence Gathering. However, as long as he could repeatedly achieve the same amount of improvement as last night, then perhaps it would not be long before he reached that next boundary!
There was a good reason why everyone sought after higher quality cultivation pills. With such a clear difference in efficacy, who would not want to cultivate with higher quality pills?
If he had been able to cultivate with these pills from the start, surely his cultivation level would have already far surpassed his current state!
Zhao Yunxiao could not help but send his spiritual sense into his spatial pouch to admire the remaining nine rare quality Winterwarmth Pills.
As expected of the Untethered Sage. The Divine Tether that he had come up with was truly an amazingly useful technique!
Suppressing his joy, he completed his daily practice routine before heading for the Lightwind Pavilion. That was when he bumped into Jun Chuan, who had clearly been waiting nearby for him to appear.
"Did something go wrong, Senior Martial Brother Jun?" Zhao Yunxiao's heart skipped a beat.
He had just passed Jun Chuan the rare quality Winterwarmth Pills yesterday, and the latter immediately came looking for him today. It was not difficult to connect the dots and deduce that this was regarding the sale of the pills.
"Relax, Junior Martial Brother Zhao," Jun Chuan smirked. "I am not here to bring you bad news."
"Are you not? What's the matter then?" Zhao Yunxiao eased up a little upon hearing that.
"The stuff you passed me..." Jun Chuan leaned in close to whisper in his ear. "They are already sold."
Zhao Yunxiao's eyes widened in surprise.
Already?
How long had it been? A day?
No, even less than that!
Subtracting the time that Jun Chuan would have taken to bring the pills to his lead for negotiation, and then for his lead to put them up at the Sect Market for sale, just how quickly had the pills been snapped up?
But that was when he recalled the sheer efficacy of the rare quality pill that he had experienced firsthand last night.
Understandable.
Absolutely understandable.
If he had the sect points to spare, he, too, would not hesitate to snap up all high quality cultivation pills available at the Sect Market!
"...And the sale price?"
"As agreed."
A faint smile appeared on Zhao Yunxiao's face.
"The question now is... does your supplier have more?"
Zhao Yunxiao hesitated for a moment before answering. "No hurry. I will let you know again if there is a new batch."
"Make sure you do," Jun Chuan grinned. "I had a really hard time fending off the questions from my lead, so I should at least deserve some credit for that!"
"For sure. I will try not to let your efforts go to waste."
The key word here was try. After all, he was still not fully confident of replicating the same feat.
After the two parted, Zhao Yunxiao headed to the Lightwind Pavilion, where Gu Qiansi and Lu Zhiying were currently tending to the spiritual plants there.
"Senior Martial Brother Zhao!" Lu Zhiying waved energetically upon seeing him.
"Good to see you too, Junior Martial Sister Lu," Zhao Yunxiao smiled. The young lady was always a sight for sore eyes.
"In a good mood today?" Gu Qiansi asked without looking up.
"I'm surprised you can still tell the mood of people after spending half your life around plants," Zhao Yunxiao shrugged before turning to Lu Zhiying. "That said, did your Senior Martial Sister Gu tell you about the upcoming annual assessment, Junior Martial Sister Lu?"
"Yes!" Lu Zhiying's eyes lit up immediately. "And I will be going to take a look!"
"You should do more than just take a look. I suggest that you give it a try," Zhao Yunxiao urged. "It's good to experience the process at least once. In fact, I think you even have a chance of getting noticed on your first try!"
The Black Tortoise Sect's annual assessment was, as its name suggested, an annual event that was open to any disciple who wished to participate. This was a platform for disciples to show off their accomplishments for a chance to be noticed by the elders.
For outer disciples, it was essentially an opportunity to enter the inner sect.
Of course, that was easier said than done.
Peak Essence Gathering realm by twenty, or Peak Essence Physique realm by twenty-five – these were the basic requirements for any outer disciple to join the inner sect. Without fulfilling those requirements, one would have to show extremely outstanding talents to be even considered as a potential candidate.
That was the reason why, despite it being open to all outer disciples, the actual number of disciples who actually chose to participate was usually relatively small.
What was the point of going there and putting in all that effort, when it was clear that they would just end up failing anyway?
But since this was Lu Zhiying's first year in the sect, Zhao Yunxiao believed that it would be best for her to give it a shot.
As he said, even if she did not make it through, it would still be a good experience for her.
After all, he believed that it was only a matter of time before Lu Zhiying entered the inner sect. So, it was best to familiarise with the process in preparation for that.
Who knows?
Bolstered by the amount of attention that Lu Zhiying had been receiving, her talents might just be enough to carry her through the assessment on her very first attempt!
"I will show you!" Lu Zhiying patted her chest.
"I said give it a try, but don't push yourself too much. As long as you show your usual capabilities, that should be good," Zhao Yunxiao advised. "Anyway, I will be heading to the Outer Disciples Hall to look through available missions later."
"Another mission!" Lu Zhiying's eyes lit up again. "I want to go too!"
"Haha, sure. But only if there is a suitable mission that can be completed before the annual assessment," Zhao Yunxiao said. "Otherwise, preparing for the annual assessment is more important for you."
"You are going on a mission again? But we just came back two days ago," Gu Qiansi raised an eyebrow.
"If we want to keep Senior Martial Brother Nie's mind off of his troubles, we need to keep him busy. One mission isn't nearly enough for that," Zhao Yunxiao shrugged.
"That's true..." Gu Qiansi nodded in understanding. "But isn't Senior Martial Sister Mu's wedding tomorrow?"
"It's especially because her wedding is tomorrow," Zhao Yunxiao explained. "We don't have to leave tomorrow. But it would be good to have that option just in case."
Gu Qiansi let out a bitter smile.
Indeed. If Nie Hanchang decided not to attend Mu Manyu's wedding in the end, it would be ideal to have another option ready and waiting for him.
However...
"Is that the only reason?" Gu Qiansi narrowed her eyes at Zhao Yunxiao.
"What other reasons could there be?" Zhao Yunxiao tilted his head innocently.
Of course, there was another reason.
Now that he had gotten the Winterwarmth Pills sales profits from Jun Chuan, he could not wait to go acquire more pill ingredients to attempt his next round of pill refinement.
As for purchasing the pill ingredients he needed from the Sect Market, Zhao Yunxiao decided against doing so despite the convenience.
Zhao Yunxiao knew that despite Jun Chuan's refusal to speak, there would likely still be others who would try to find out the source of the rare quality Winterwarmth Pills.
In that light, an outer disciple like Zhao Yunxiao would definitely not rank highly on the list of suspects, and that was already putting it mildly.
However, even that alone was not enough.
To further reduce suspicions and avoid drawing attention to himself, Zhao Yunxiao decided to purchase the pill ingredients from outside of the sect instead. And this upcoming mission would be none other than his cover.
Not just that, but he would even have to create an alias when purchasing the pill ingredients in case someone traced him all the way out of the sect grounds.
With all that, he refused to believe that anyone would still be able to connect the rare quality Winterwarmth Pills back to him!