CHAPTER 12: A REWARD

Yu Tian sat at the cave entrance, watching the sun set.

Suddenly, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned around slightly to look.

"Thanks for keeping watch. You can rest now - I’ll keep watch instead," Xueling said.

Yu Tian thought to himself that she seemed much brighter now. "Looks like she’s completely recovered," he thought, and the number showed a hundred percent.

"I don’t feel all that tired. We can keep watch together," Yu Tian said.

Xueling looked at him, wondering if he was worried about her. She supposed it was okay to tell him.

"No need to worry about me. I’m actually a peak Foundation Establishment cultivator," she said. "And with my spiritual sense already unlocked, there’s nothing that can get past me."

She began to float as she spoke. She thought to herself that only Foundation Establishment cultivators and above could fly, so he should know that she wasn’t trying to act tough.

As she thought of this, she noticed his nonchalant expression.

"You don’t seem surprised," she said as she came down.

"Well, I figured you must have had something up your sleeve to come here alone," Yu Tian said.

She looked at him.

"Is that so?"

She thought to herself that she hadn’t expected this. He was really different from a normal person.

"I just remembered something," Yu Tian spoke. "When I was out gathering herbs, I noticed a Starfall Blossom, but there seemed to be a monster guarding it so I didn’t get close. Since you’re a peak Foundation Establishment cultivator, why don’t we go there tomorrow and pick it? If you manage to break through to the Core Formation realm, we will have a much higher chance of leaving the forest."

"You really saw a Starfall Blossom?" she asked in surprise.

Yu Tian nodded. "Yes, I’ve worked in the herb garden before. Although I haven’t seen one in person before, from what I’ve seen in books, I can confirm with certainty that what I saw was indeed the Starfall Blossom."

She held her chin in thought, thinking to herself that this was really unexpected. To think that he would find what she was unable to. Well, she was already injured when she was looking for it, so maybe the comparison was a little unfair.

"Good, we’ll go check it out tomorrow. If it is indeed the Starfall Blossom, I’ll definitely give you a reward when we get back," she said.

She thought to herself that the ones who attacked her wouldn’t give up that easily. They were probably already waiting to ambush her on her way back. If she could really get her hands on the flower and break through to the Core Formation realm, then she wouldn’t have to worry about them anymore.

"Only if it’s a Starfall Blossom?" Yu Tian asked with a smile.

"Umm... well... you also took care of me, so I’ll definitely reward you even if it’s not," she said, shaking her hands placatingly.

"So two rewards then?" he said.

"Can I have my first reward now?" he asked.

His gaze then drifted to her waist.

"Wha... what do you want?" she asked nervously, seeing his gaze.

It’s not that sort of reward right? She thought.

He stretched out his hand. "Wait a second. We can’t..." Before she could finish, he grabbed her sword hanging on her waist.

"This is a high-tier magical weapon, right?" he asked.

"That’s right..." she responded in confusion.

"Can you let me study it?" he asked.

"Umm... what now?"

...

"So you want to study how the sword works?" she asked.

"That’s right. Although the alchemy furnace is also a high-tier magical treasure, the way it functions is different from a weapon, so I can’t use it to test out something I want," he said.

She sighed, covering her face with her palm. "So it’s not that kind of reward," she thought.

"Is something wrong?" he asked, noticing her reaction.

"Nothing," she said, taking out her sword and handing it over. "It’s just seeing a sword, so it doesn’t count as a reward. I still owe you two rewards"

"Okay, thanks," he said as he walked into the cave.

She looked at him, wondering if just like with alchemy, he was also a genius in weapon refining. "No way, right?"

Inside the cave, Yu Tian took Xueling’s weapon in one hand and the one he had collected before in the other hand. He then began injecting internal energy into the two, following the Path to Heaven method.

He thought to himself that when he had used the alchemy furnace, he had noticed something interesting about how it conducted energy. Looking at Xueling’s weapon, it seemed it was the same. When he used the Path to Heaven method on it, he could draw out the power of a low-tier spiritual weapon from it - if he had enough energy, that is.

He then looked at the common sword he was holding. For this, he could reach about low-tier magical.

He sighed as he stopped injecting energy into both. He had thought that if he could study the structure of the high-tier magical weapon, then maybe he could imitate the complex circulation pattern in his common weapon.

But it seemed he was mistaken. Although the pattern was there, it wasn’t something he could imitate as it was engraved onto the material during forging.

After studying it for some time, he gave it back to Xueling and returned to the cave.

He thought to himself that surprisingly, even though he hadn’t slept for a while now, his mind still felt extremely clear. He assumed this was because of the mind realm, and the numbers confirmed this.

Speaking of, he reached into the spatial ring he had taken from the alchemist senior and retrieved the mind cultivation manual Xueling had given him.

He thought to himself that he hadn’t had the time to look at it before. Maybe he should practice it now since he didn’t feel like sleeping.

He opened up the manual and began reading it. He wasn’t planning to practice it though. In fact, he had no plan on doing so from the start. He just wanted to read and understand how mind progression worked. When he did that, he could then practice using his Path to Heaven method instead.

After all, could this scripture beat his Path to Heaven method?