The next morning, Zemirah started her day by circulating her spiritual energy according to her cultivation technique three times, pushing her imminent breakthrough closer.
And then she went to her newly bought courtyard and saw that the work had already started.
She sent some more mortal-grade fruits to the master and apprentice and got more varieties of Grade 1 spiritual fruits.
Zemirah was wondering if she should visit her friend Riya and give her some spiritual fruit, maybe she can be rewarded with a precious spiritual fruit from Sia.
With this idea, she went to knock on Riya's courtyard, which is just beside hers.
Riya, who was busy thinking about what pill she should concoct today, was disturbed by this newly made friend of hers.
The alchemist still had her mask on her face as she opened the door and saw the veiled lady's smiling brown fox eyes, "Good day, Fellow Daoist Riya."
Riya sighed in her heart, "Come in, Fellow Daoist Mirah."
As she led Mirah to the living room, Mirah curiously examined the alchemist's house. It was quite large, with many jars and bottles of unknown contents, and she seemed to smell alchemy in the air. It was a mixture of various spiritual herbs and plants.
'It was quite fragrant, actually.' Zemirah thought to herself.
"A little gift," Zemirah excitedly handed a fruit basket she had been holding in her hand since she came in. The basket has many Low-stage Spiritual Fruits she just bought.
Sia, her system, said that the system would not trigger any reward if she gifted the reward she got from the system. So she went to buy Spiritual Fruits in an official's shop in Teal District that came with the basket.
Riya saw her happily giving away such precious resources and was speechless. This woman is really a prodigal.
Knowing the refusal would not bear any fruit, she just accepted it, but she remembered this favor.
"Many thanks," Riya said and took out a tea set.
"Oh, I just bought some tea leaves. Here." Mirah handed her a bag of fragrant fried [Teal Leaf Tea]. Riya recognized it and didn't more.
She figured out the character of this new friend of hers. Generous and prodigal but not naive.
Mirah smiled as she listened to Sia's mechanical voice in her mind.
[Ding! Congratulations to the Host for gifting a spiritual fruit to an acquaintance and being rewarded with an Outstanding-Quality Grade 1 [Moon Shine Fruit]*8.
[Ding! Congratulations to the Host for gifting a spiritual fruit to an acquaintance and being rewarded with an Uncommon-Quality Grade 1 [Crimson Heart Fruit]*10.
[Ding! Congratulations to the Host for gifting a spiritual fruit to an acquaintance and being rewarded with an Outstanding-Quality Grade 1 [White Dew Fruit]*6.
[Ding! Congratulations to the Host for gifting a spiritual tea to an acquaintance and being rewarded with an Outstanding-Quality Grade 1 [Teal Leaf Tea]*9.
Sia seemed to notice her longing for higher grade resources as it commented in her mind, [Ding! The Host should accept a disciple to get better rewards.]
Zemirah agreed, 'I know Sia, I will find one soon.'
After being given gifts, Riyah started telling news she heard, "Did you remember the Old Lady who exchanged with you the embroidered space pouch?"
Mirah nodded, "Yeah, I even wore it on me. Why do you ask?" She watches Riya smoothly brew the tea, and after that, she pushes a cup of tea towards her.
She said her thanks and took a sip.
Riya looked at her drinking the freshly brewed tea, and said, "That Old Lady was stared at by some greedy cultivators that day. But those greedy cultivators died from severe poisoning last night."
Mirah paused, "Huh?"
Riya smiled, "That Old Lady is a Mid-stage Energy Refining Realm cultivator and a Late-stage Grade 1 Poison Master."
"Pfft," Mirah almost spat out the hot tea in her mouth after hearing her words.
That weak-looking Old Lady is actually a niche poison master. She even exchanged an embroidered space pouch with her. Thinking of her embroidered pouch, she looked at it and wondered if she was poisoned.
The kind of slow-acting and invisible poison.
She started panicking deep inside her heart.
She actually let her vigilance drop this much! Totally forgetting that this is a cultivation world of Azar, not Modern Earth anymore.
Riya saw her thoughts and smiled under her mask, "Don't worry, the space pouch is clean. That old lady also has principles. Otherwise, no one will trade with her next time."
Zemirah believed her, especially since she is an Alchemist. Zemirah breathed a sigh of relief at that.
"You're scaring me." She glared at the obviously smiling Riya.
Riya didn't speak at her accusation and silently sipped on her tea.
"It's also good that those greedy people died, karma got them," Zemirah said.
Riya agreed with a hum.
"Oh, by the way. My courtyard is being renovated, and I will probably move in a week."
Riya nodded, "Congratulations, I will bring a gift."
Zemirah was surprised before smiling, "No need for a gift, just come at that time."
Riya smiled and changed the subject, "Did you see the survivors from the two destroyed villages?"
"Two destroyed villages?" Zemirah whispered before remembering, "The ones those Demonic Cultivators massacred with the Demonic Beasts?"
"The Demonic Beasts part is not confirmed, but yeah, those two villages." Riya corrected her and nodded.
"Where are they now?" Zemirah was quite concerned about the people who survived from those Demonic Cultivators.
She felt some sympathy towards them as they all suffered at the hands of the same kind of people.
"The Town Lord has made arrangements, though it is surely not enough."
"How many survived?" Zemirah asked, maybe she can help.
"Less than a hundred." Riya sighed sadly as she said the number.
"Two villages yet-" Zemirah also sighed, not finishing her words.
Zemirah and Riya chatted the whole morning before Zemirah finally decided to go back. She still has to make more talismans to raise her success rate in making Rare-quality talismans and practice to have some insights into Supreme-quality talismans. She also has to study the new talismans from the book she got in the auction yesterday.
Her schedule is quite busy.
Riya finally sent this prodigal woman away. She then went to clean up and paused after seeing the leftover tea leaves from the expensive Teal Leaf Tea.
Sighing, she then remembered this in her heart and went to start her alchemy. This time, she has a clear goal.
On the way to her inn, Zemirah saw those survivors on the street. They are placed by the Town Lord to temporarily stay in a makeshift house near the River District, they were not even allowed inside the town.
Zemirah stared as she thought about how she could help when a scene attracted her attention.
A little girl holding a branch as she kept swinging it in the air like she was practicing sword moves with her little branch. The little girl looks dirty, with her hair unwashed for days and her clothes dark from the dirt and grime.
She looks around 10 years old. Not too young but not too old to be independent. Zemirah quietly watched for half an hour before seeing the girl stop to gasp for air, then went back to the tent and asked for water.
After satisfying her thirst, she went back to the corner and started swinging again.
Looking at her, Zemirah seemed to feel something. The mysterious thing is called Fate.
This little girl… will be her first disciple.
Upon deciding, Zemirah took one last glance at her future little disciple and then went to prepare.
First, she'll sell some of her talismans. Then send some help to the survivors, maybe food or clothing. Then, get close to the little girl before asking her to be her disciple.
In the middle, she'll prepare a meeting gift. Preferably, a sword artifact weapon that she can use to start her cultivation journey. Zemirah felt the little girl's love for swordsmanship.
The crimson fur and golden silk also need to find a Spiritual Weaver so she can give her disciple a good set of clothing.
Thinking of this, Zemirah busied herself.
That afternoon, she went to find Lorna, the Spiritual Weaver, to make a fur coat and silk dress for her disciple. She also handed a spiritual stone as a payment, it was very expensive, but Zemirah was reassured that the entrusted spiritual weaver would not be perfunctory.
"Fellow Daoist, the spiritual stone is too much," Lorna said and tried to give it back to her.
"Then you can use the rest to buy the materials you'll need for making the coat and dress." Only then did Lorna dare to accept.
Then she went to the Teal Treasure House, a shop opened by the Town Lord, to pick a sword for her disciple. If there are no satisfactory ones, she'll just go collect materials and entrust them to a Artifact Forger to make a custom artifact.
Seeing theTeal Treasure House, Zemirah entered.
A staff member welcomed her, "Good day, my lady. What can I do for you?"
Zemirah said her purpose, "I'm looking for a sword artifact. Take me to see what you have here."
The staff smiled and led her to the second, "These are the artifacts being sold by our Teal Treasure House, my lady."
Zemirah scanned the whole room.
There were many cabinets that encased the artifacts, and she saw the engraved array on the cabinet that protected the artifacts inside. Only the staff can take out the artifacts from the cabinet.
Forcefully taking one will trigger the arrays. She can see that those exposed arrays are Grade 1, but who knows if there are hidden ones.
"Tell me the names and functions of the low-stage and mid-stage grade 1 swords."
The staff led her to the sword artifacts based on her requirements.
The staff pointed to a normal-length sword that had a red tassel and a hilt engraved with the symbol of the sun. "This is the [Bright Red Sun Sword], a Grade 1 Mid-stage Uncommon-quality Sword Artifact. Perfect for a fire spiritual root cultivator."
Zemirah felt that the little girl wasn't a fire spiritual root, so she just glanced at it.
The staff led her to the next sword. "This is the [Light Cicada Wood Sword], a Grade 1 Low-stage Uncommon quality Sword Artifact, made from the [White Light Wood] from Bright Light Forest, and as thin as the cicada wings."
The sword is indeed very thin, if turned sideways, one wouldn't even see it. It has a faint green tint on the blade with an emerald tassel on the hilt. Besides, anything from Bright Light Forest is a precious material only available to the Bright Light Dynasty's officials.
Zemirah is quite satisfied with the sword.
The staff then pointed at the last sword, "This is the [Heavensent Butterfly Sword], a Mortal-grade Outstanding-quality Sword Artifact. Made by a Grade 2 Spiritual Forger from Grame City when she was just a Grade 1 forger."
"It has a beautiful appearance that will create some illusions to distract the enemy." The staff added.
Zemirah knew that the last sentence was just an embellishment, this sword was just to look good. It was even useless, but it was on the verge of being an artifact weapon, which made it somewhat valuable.
A sword suitable for mortals yet near cultivators.
Zemirah pointed at the two swords.
"Give me these two," She pointed at the [Light Cicada Wood Sword] and [Heavensent Butterfly Sword. The two swords caught her eye.
The staff smiled brightly at the big business, "Yes, that will be 6,500 Gold Coins, my lady."
Zemirah didn't blink as she gave the payment. For her, Gold Coins are easy money. However, she lamented how artifacts are the second most expensive items for cultivators.
Finding a suitable artifact is not easy and buying one is harder for most common cultivators.
She knew that Gold Coins could only buy Grade 1 items, and for Grade 2 items, they would need spiritual stones. Being in the Foundation Building Realm means you have already built a foothold in the Azar Continent, they are the cultivators who have considerable power already.
Unlike Energy Refinement Realm cultivators, who just manage to glimpse the road to immortality.
Zemirah then kept the two sword artifacts in her storage bag. She's contemplating where to find a Grade 1 space ring. A space ring offered more space and blood refining, more secure than spiritual energy refining.
She felt that she would keep having more and more belongings and that a Grade 1 storage bag she inherited from the original owner was not enough.
But space rings are rare and expensive items, no one even sold them in the auction.
Zemirah sighed and said in her heart, 'Oh my Disciple, your Future Master needs you.'
She can only rely on her future disciple both for her space ring and the spiritual stones for buying it.
'Whatever, I'll just give her spiritual stones as allowance. Sia said giving a gift to a close person, like a disciple, will trigger a more generous reward.' Zemirah grinned while imagining a mountain pile of Spiritual Stones in her heart.
The day of having spiritual stone freedom is not far.
Back in her room at the inn, Zemirah started her routine of making talismans and cultivating. She planned to advance to the late stage of the Energy Refinement Realm after accepting her disciple.
With a last swing of her talisman pen, a Rare-quality Late-stage Grade 1 talisman is formed. It was one level higher than her current cultivation, though she was near a small breakthrough.
"Speaking of which, my little disciple loves swordsmanship. My own swordsmanship is unsatisfactory, will she despise her beautiful master?"
Zemirah thought of a problem.