Qi was miserably busy after with the coming harvest.His father got him to help him with harvesting after his time spent at the smithy. Then got him to help with planting the next seasons crops. This gave him little time for active rest, but did push him to improve fast. As with this work load he needed more available spirit qi to keep up.
Qi worked hard to maximize his cultivation time pushing his proficiency up quickly.
With the harvest done and the next crops planted, Quan started taking on task for the Red Dawn kingdom once again. Many of these task were related to culling infestations and dungeon delving. This would keep Quan out for weeks at a time working on task.
Only to return briefly to check on the farm and help get the crops looked after.
Constantly urging Qi to be more diligent and get better at looking after the farm during his absence upon every return.
Quan needed Qi to be fully capable of looking after the farm so he could take more profitable task further away from the county capital. After all the task near the capital were relatively safer and thus granted less rewards. After all the true frontier was a month or more away from the capital were real threats and opportunities appeared.
These demands from his fathers expectations caused Qi to practice his cultivation till his meridians ached. By the time the next harvest came around Qi had already had a intermediate understanding of the green qi strengthens roots cultivation. Along with a intermediate understanding in his green qi feeds fire technique and spirit rain techniques.
Even with these improvements Quan felt rushed to prepare Qi for the coming year and increased his intake of soul spitting peas from one large bowl with supper each day to two bowls each day. Quan Hopped it would increase Qis' Devine sense further faster; and improve his comprehension ability further.
With most cultivators only bringing themselves to eat small bowls with a meal or two a week due to the unpleasantness of the effects this was a substantial amount to make Qi eat. However with Qi being forced to eat the soul splitting peas since his birth his divine soul was quite resilient.
This didn't make this increase pleasant however.
Qi found himself having to use part of his thoughts to separate the pain in his divine soul from his concentration on other task to preform properly. This only possible due to his Tallent of parallel processing which finally improved past the entry stage thanks to this added addition to his practice of multitasking.
Even with this ability Qi was starting to feel like he was on auto pilot most of his day just doing his best to get everything done.
This caused him to more and more work on multiple task at the same time like listening to his fathers insites on techniques while tending the farm, and cultivating to allow him to recast a rain spell sooner.
The following year as the cold season ended Qi's father planted a full acre of soul spitting peas as his son's new intake was dwindling the houses usual surplus.
With Qi seemingly robust Qi for a first stage cultivator Quan was starting to take jobs with higher rewards more often even taking a month to complete one task before harvest .
This would become an increasing trend as Qis' abilities grew. Not long after Qi turned 7 he found him self with a advanced skills, in spirit rain technique and wood qi feeds fire technique. These break throughs came around year after Qi became a first stage qi refining cultivator. A week before the third harvest he would participate in with his father.
This made his fathers immensely happy as this would be enough for Qi to successfully look after the fields to the minimum he felt would be acceptable while he was away.
Dong Juan was also pleased to find he could now get the young Bao Qi to start working on refining ore into ignites with his now steady fire manipulation. As most ores needed to be properly refined to make them usable. Many artifact refiners would give this task to their apprentices to do so they could concentrate on actual crafting.
Course not all good things came at this time with Qi successfully looking after his task and the crops being re planted Quan took a frontier job and wouldn't be back till the crops were ready to be harvested for the second time of this year.
A couple weeks after Quan left on his mission Qi arrived home as usual and went to tending the field before dark. But as the sun light dimmed he noticed the house had no lights on inside. Qi realized not once did he see cooking smoke rise from their chimney.
Qi ran inside to look for his mother Bao Hua but found no trace of her.
Qi knew she wasn't happy with his father after all he had been the cause of death for a couple children with his desire to give his children strong divine sense.
Though a stronger divine sense would aid in many things when traveling the cultivation path. Quan truly did go the wrong way about helping his children.
Because of this Qi wasn't surprised that the first chance his mother got to leave she took it.
Meaning the only reason she stayed so long was because Qi couldn't give his father the chance of heading to the frontier sooner.
Either way his mother ran away without leaving even a note for him.
Without much time left in the day even though Qi was sad to not even receive a note or farewell. Qi had to persevere and cook something before his night time cultivation as spirit foods help improve cultivation practice. So he started a fire and cooked some soul splitting peas, spirit rice and rat meat to stop his stomach from growling. Even if he was to cultivate with less efficiency going without food was impossible for low level cultivators. Not to mention the fact if his father found out he stopped eating his peas he would definitely be displeased.
With the added task of cooking Qi was sure to find out where the market was and found the Lou Family grocery for future reference.
Now all Qi needed was money to purchase meat to add to his meals. The farm had plenty of rice from the last harvest and a silo of soul splitting peas. As the last harvest had produced over 1300 jin in peas with a full acre planted. So there were still nearly 700 jin left after sales and consumption.
With the little free time Qi could find he finally found his fathers stash spot in his cultivation room.
But to Qis' dismay it was empty.
Initially Qi thought it may be a dummy stash to fool robbers. However after a full month of searching the farm he only found the empty spot in his fathers cultivation room. Along with another empty one behind the pantry.
Either his father took all his wealth with him to the frontier or his mother took it when she left.
By this time Qi ran out of rat meat and sides to go with his meals only being left with the grains from the harvest. So his meals were filled up with increased intake of spirit rice.
His other option being more soul spitting peas.
But...
Qi figured his father should be happy that he simply continued his current consumption.
Qi still kept up with the farm and was doing well at the smithy. As he was starting to outpace others with his mastery over fire manipulation.
He didn't need to stop his practice due to lack of spirit qi as often as others as he would slowly recover as he worked. This of course caught Li Yongs' attention, which in turn he passed on to master Dong.
This got Dong Juan thinking he might actually have to accept that crazy Bao Quans' request of taking on Bao Qi as a Apprentice.
Not long after one morning Qi was waiting for his master to take a pause from work with the other unofficial apprentices. As every morning they would wait to be issued tasks.
When Dong Juan stopped he quickly issued all unofficial apprentices their task except Qi.
Juan: You all have your task get too them
With this all the other unofficial apprentices went to work leaving Qi standing by.
Juan: little Qi do you know all the duties that unofficial apprentices are required to preform?
Qi: Yes master Dong.
Juan: And what are they?
Qi: The first task is to be able to create 6 refined metal Igniots a week. Along with sometimes aiding official apprentices with crafting task. These are the the initial duties of a unofficial apprentice.
Juan: Yes when an unofficial apprentice can refine an ignot a day, and no official apprentices need help they can earn a day off.
This day off can be used for home affairs or if the apprentice has the spirit stones they can rent a forge for the day and buy ignots at cost for practice.
We sell some basic artifact recipes that one can save up to purchase or one can attempt to make their own recipe for a new artifact based on their knowledge of runes and spirit Qi manipulation.
When an Unofficial apprentice doesn't have the spirit stones they can also keep refining ore and we will pay them one spirit stone per 10 refined ignites.
How many ignites can you now refine in a week?
Qi: I can now refine 3 a week Master Dong.
Juan: thats pretty fast in the next year you should be able to get 6 a week. Your father will no doubt pay to have you practice forging as soon as you obtain a free day.
However most forging techniques are easier to preform with fire Qi affinity. This means you will need to start cultivating with a fire cultivation technique as soon as possible. Does your father have a suitable fire cultivation technique for you to use?
Qi: My father has a 18 cycle fire cultivation technique i can learn.
Juan: Well I suppose that will have to do if your father has the spirit stones you should get him to come speak to me for a better technique. In the mean time take this artifact.
Dong Juan pulled out a large board two feet wide and four feet long. With lots of runes on the back and a diagram of meridians on the front.
Qi: What kind of artifact is this?
Juan: this is a lower tier one meridian guide artifact. It is used by young cultivators to help practice their cultivation techniques or to practice new ones when their body needs a break.
I want you to use this to practice your fire cultivation technique so that you can master it quickly and add fire spirit qi to your cultivation sooner.
These artifacts typically go for 100 spirit stones due to the difficulty of the runes. Ill give you this one in hopes to see your skills sooner.
Qi: Shouldn't these be worth more if they allow you to practice cultivation skills?
Juan: due to the sensitivity of these artifact designs they tracks for the qi cycles wear down with time.
This causes the user to no longer able to see their mistakes when creating the cycles.
To avoid this if you can practice 2 hours a day with it you will probably need to replace it in half a year. This will allow most people to get through the entry stage of their practice.
Qi: Thank you master Dong.
Juan: You better work hard to impress me but don't start practicing right away talk to your father first. He and I may be able to come to an agreement for a better cultivation technique.
Qi: Master Dong my father is at the frontier and wont be back for another couple months. Would it be ok with master Dong if I used this to get better with my current cultivation technique?
Juan: That will be fine after all I assume you still need to get to the advanced stage of proficiency.
Now get to refining ore you won't need to worry about fire qi cultivation if you cant earn a free day.
Qi: Thank you master Dong!
with this Qi Quickly went back to work
Qi: (With this I should be able to fill the hours I miss practicing my cultivation due to meridian pain and advance to the advanced stage of proficiency before my dad returns.)
With this thought in mind Qi got busy improving his skills.