The Science of Cultivation [Xianxia]

The trio each made strange faces as they downed their Nourishment Pill. The experienced bunch among their group mischievously smirked as they watched on.

It didn’t take long for their reaction to be seen, as it was just swallowing one pill.

From the tests Li Lang had done, he knew it was similar to the field rations back in his world, infused with Qi, so he wasn’t too surprised. It was the higher-tier pills that he wanted to research. The mortal-grade Nourishment Pill he made only sustained someone for one day. The higher quality ones may be a few days at most, but the Earth-grade ones could last someone a whole month.

The human body wasn’t designed to eat so infrequently. Even if the pill contained all the necessary nutrients for the entire month, several complications would come up. The human body could only absorb so much in a day. The body would then excrete or store the excess, but that had a limit as well.

Once the harsh aftertaste weakened, Li Lang quickly directed his thoughts elsewhere. There were other things to be worrying about.

“Guys, do any of you know where I can obtain Brushweaving materials? There’s an exchange in here, right?”

Huang Si was the first to nod.

“There is. Many things can be exchanged here, even food just around the private rooms,” he pointed off in the direction where they could attain cultivation rooms. “I wouldn’t recommend doing so unless you really needed it, though. It’s not worth spending your trial points on most things that can be easily attained outside. It is better to just bear with it.”

“I understand, but I think I’ll need it to progress further in my trials.”

“It’s the empty stores just along the way. If you enter, the lights will appear and list out what you can exchange. It’s hard to miss.”

“Perfect. Thank you.”

Li Lang shot out of his seat, ready to go right away.

Seeing this, Huang Si smiled.

“It’s about time we should part, anyway. I’m sure everyone has their own assignment to work on, so why don’t we disband? Those who are free can meet here every night.”

No one objected, and the group soon disbanded.

Many of them followed Li Lang, not to tag along, but to acquire their own private rooms to digest their rewards.

Once he finished making his purchase, he found only his two trusted friends remained with him.

“You two…I have something to talk about. Let’s go find a room first.”

Wei Ping and Long Yi nodded, as they could tell Li Lang had something sensitive to talk about. They swiftly made their way to the adjacent hall where one could reserve a room. There was a large sign labeled Closed Door Cultivation Hall at the entrance.

“The rooms are free, so let’s each get one. We can talk in my room before we separate.”

Following the instructions of the lights, the trio soon found themselves in a small room set up with a desk.

With the rooms being free, it was safe to assume over half of the cultivators were each in similar rooms, enduring bitter training.

“I want you guys to give me the manual you got from your trials.”

“Huh, why? I only have half a day left with it. I need to hurry and peruse the entire thing,” Long Yi said.

“I can’t tell you exactly how, but I can record everything within it. You’ll just have to trust me on it. I’ll need a few hours, but then you can access its contents through me whenever you want.”

“...Boss, did you forget? The pocket realm will not a-allow you to copy the texts. It’ll just d-destroy whatever you try to record it on, and I d-didn’t think y-you had an eidetic memory.”

“I don’t. Again, I can’t explain it right now. Maybe someday.”

“U-understood. I trust y-you, boss.”

“....Whatever, I trust you too. Let’s get this over with.”

Li Lang didn’t know if he should reveal the secret of Ruby anytime soon, so he could only be vague for now. Maybe later, when he had the power to defend himself, he wouldn’t have to guard his secrets so closely.

As promised, Li Lang finished recording everything inside Ruby and returned the cultivation manuals to his companions. He couldn’t make any sense of it yet as he hadn’t learned Woodsmithing or Artificing yet, but it would prove to be useful later.

Once his companions left, Li Lang excitedly took out his materials and began processing them exactly as the Qi Injection Art instructed. There may have been a few hours’ delay, but his enthusiasm was still as strong as ever.

The tool he was making wasn’t complicated, being a simple metal rod. The difficult part was the rune he had to inscribe onto it. Then the technique to control it.

It was what allowed it to feed Qi to his Moon Brush without his constant attention.

This rod allowed Li Lang to focus on controlling the elements of his Qi and its shape while he inscribed. He was excited to offload the responsibility of adjusting the quantity of Qi. Normally it varied every second, and a Brushweaver had to take it into account while they managed everything else.

Now, a steady amount of Qi would be drained from him, and he would be able to adjust the levels with how much surface area the rod contacted the brush. However, there definitely was a learning curve.

If other Brushweavers discovered the same technique, Li Lang wouldn’t be surprised for them to incorporate it into their arsenal as well. It made him appreciate this lost knowledge from the old heritage much more. After all, this was just the tip of the iceberg! Who knew what others had uncovered here and simply just kept it to themselves?

Once Li Lang finished crafting the injector rod, he immediately allowed Ruby to consume it and made another one. Then, he spent all his time practicing. Sometimes he would do it in reality, and sometimes in the artifact space. The only time he took breaks was to sleep or eat with the others in the dining hall.

Like that, a week quickly passed. Then another week.

The new technique took some time for Li Lang to adjust to it. By the time he was done, he grinned when he examined his trial card.

Reading the card, he found that he hadn’t lost any points. That meant the pocket realm had deemed his progress adequate.

Hmm, I wonder what it uses to gauge our progress. If I learn the standard it uses…but still, it’s not rare for people to stay here for years, so it can’t be that stringent.

Li Lang didn’t let this new discovery extinguish his sense of urgency. He still had to do the alchemy and combat trials. And during the in-between downtime, he also had to keep up with his cultivation.

He felt like he was on the verge of breaking through once more. It had only been a few months since Long Yi had broken through, and he was already catching up with him. It made Li Lang suspect the effect of practicing various crafts had accelerated his progress further.

Long Yi had to be monitored more closely before any conclusions could be made. He had been practicing Artificing, so it was hard to make any conclusions with so many variables at play. Li Lang thought perhaps he would have to get new test subjects to put this theory to the test.

After a few weeks of working hard at the Qi Injection technique, Li Lang finally felt comfortable utilizing it. It meant he would set off for the trial once more.

Returning to the same calligraphy scroll as before, Li Lang found himself in the same lake as the last time he took the trial. He was once again standing atop a room-sized lily pad.

The lights that formed words soon gave him the same instructions, and he repeated his performance.

Nothing amiss happened, and Li Lang was able to swiftly blow by the first two rounds. He wasn’t awarded anything this time, but he got the opportunity to redo the third round he had previously failed.

“Create any kind of talisman that makes use of two overlapping runes within an hour. Fail and you lose five trial points.”

Between the time from his first attempt to his current trial, Li Lang had been practicing the Qi Injection Art nonstop. However, while he trained in this new technique, it resulted in him practicing inscribing the same talisman over and over again.

This talisman was one of the ones Li Lang had set his eyes on ever since he picked the path of Brushweaving. He wanted to create his own kind of talisman in the future, but for the short term, it didn’t matter, as he mainly wanted to supply his own needs. As a measly Energy Gatherer with no backer, it wasn’t surprising that Li Lang relied on concealment talismans to keep himself safe.

Its short duration made it necessary to combine its use with other talismans, but that didn’t diminish the importance of having one in the first place.

He had failed to inscribe the concealment talismans many times before. It was much harder to inscribe when one had to overlap runes. He had to make sure nothing conflicted while still maintaining its function.

In comparison, the warding talisman was much easier. It had two functions that didn’t need to be activated at the same time. Simply to store Qi and emit its spiritual pressure.

As for the concealment talisman, Li Lang had to make sure the function of the rune that generated the optical illusion, and the rune that suppressed the user’s Qi, worked in unison. It was previously much harder as he had to worry about the ever-changing levels of Qi he had to maintain.

Now, with the new Qi Injection Art, he had the leeway to focus on the crux of the task at hand. He simply needed to hold up the rod against his brush to control the amount of Qi he fed into the Moon Brush.

Got to remember to alternate between the two attributes of their Qi when they overlap…