Chapter 99

Chapter 99: Preparing to break through

Orchid Hall

In the dark of night, Gu Qing Shan returned.

He silently took a small bottle in hand, dropped a pill in it on his hand and swallowed it whole.

This is a top-grade healing pill, capable of curing all wounds except fatigue.

After two double hours, Gu Qing Shan woke up from deep meditation, as he viewed himself with inner sight, he found himself returned to peak conditions.

Tapping his Inventory Bag, he took out the large suitcase with the miniature freezing apparatus attached.

Opening it, he took out the piece of space monster heart.

“Go in” Gu Qing Shan ordered.

Immediately, the heart was sucked into his War God UI, into the last remaining empty slot.

The slot disappeared.

All the slots on the wheel has been filled in, turning into 5 spheres of light.

The light gradually spread out to the entire wheel.

A flashing light of text appeared on the UI.

“Conditions has been meet ahead of time”

“Quest: War God Thaumaturgy has been completed”

“Thaumaturgy gacha has been prepared, the user can begin breakthrough at any time”

It’s done!

Gu Qing Shan breathed out in relief.

Thaumaturgies can only be obtained when breaking through a realm when cultivators and the essence of the world are resonating. Even the System has no way to give him a Thaumaturgy prematurely.

Right now, all he has to do is break through qi training realm and reach Foundation Establishment realm!

Once he becomes a Foundation Establishment realm, his strength will be increased exponentially

That way, during the world calamities, he would at least have enough strength to protect himself.

Gu Qing Shan was itching to do it right away, but stopped himself.

Breaking through a realm is always a dangerous task. If you aren’t careful you can easily lose your mind, all your hard work poured down the drain as you become crippled forever.

Qi training to Foundation Establishment is the very first large step of a cultivator. Even with the experience from his previous life, Gu Qing Shan doesn’t dare to underestimate it.

In the past life, so many players, even with the help of the System, faced immense hardship when breaking through from qi training to Foundation Establishment.

Countless people didn’t die in the belly of monsters, but instead threw away their lives in the process of breaking through a realm.

When your cultivation is higher, moving up from a high realm to a higher realm, you’ll eventually have to face the Lightning Trial, a frightening obstacle to many. (1)

But right now, he’s a disciple of Bai Hua sect, a disciple of the Saint. What rush could he possibly be in that he can’t wait until dawn to ask for help from Bai Hua Fairy?

This is the surest way to do things.

Not to mention, with the insight and experience of the Saint, he might be able to gain some knowledge that he didn’t have while breaking through during the past life.

As Gu Qing Shan decided, he sat still on the cushion and continued to meditate.

Dawn comes.

White goose flew into Orchid Hall.

“Junior brother. Ah? You’re preparing to break through?”

White goose scanned Gu Qing Shan and found that his spirit energy has already reached its peak. His state also the best it could be, almost like a bow that’s already pulled but haven’t been released.

“Very well then, I knew you were at qi training stage 7, so originally I was about to give you the method to break through today” white goose nodded his head.

“Thank you senior brother” Gu Qing Shan said.

“No need to be so formal, let’s go, first we’ll have breakfast, your second brother and I will give you guidance” white goose said, then turned around and flew away.

Gu Qing Shan also stood up and followed him.

Breakfast is eaten in the main hall of Bai Hua Palace.

This is the place where Bai Hua Fairy deal with all matters big and small, but it’s also where the entire Bai Hua sect go to have their breakfast.

“We’ll eat right here?” Gu Qing Shan asked.

“No worries, Shifu likes things to be just a bit rowdy” white goose answered.

Their breakfast today is Snow Spirit Flowers.

This type of flower has a mild sweet flavor, very beneficial to a cultivator’s soul vessel.

You can use these flowers to make pills, or made into spirit cooking. Eating them for an extended period of time will help nurture a cultivator’s soul vessel’s flexibility.

A soul vessel that’s more flexible is harder to be charmed, and isn’t easily wounded.

One Snow Spirit Flower is worth 10,000 low-grade spirit stones.

What can you do with 10,000 spirit stones?

You can rent a shop front of a busy business district for a month; you can buy yourself a position in the military that’s mostly odd jobs and doesn’t require you to kill demons; it’s enough for a single cultivator to use from qi training realm all the way to Foundation Establishment realm.

Yet the bowl in front of Gu Qing Shan had a total of 5 Snow Spirit Flowers in it.

This breakfast of his cost 50,000 low-grade spirit stones.

He breathed in, looking at the bowls of others.

Both white goose and Qin Xiao Lou had the same thing him does, 5 Snow Spirit Flowers, while Xiuxiu’s bowl had 9 instead.

Xiuxiu’s wound on her soul still hasn’t fully healed, and she’s also the youngest, so that’s understandable.

But you can see, breakfast for the 4 of them cost a total of 240,000 low-grade spirit stones.

Gu Qing Shan is so used to spending sparingly in both the previous life and this one, that when suddenly met with such luxury, he couldn’t help but silently sighed.

Then he suddenly remembered a line from an old poem.

Painted gates have the stink of meat and wine. (2)

Hmm, but flowers are vegetables, so it doesn’t count, yeah it doesn’t count.

“Where’s Shifu?” Qin Xiao Lou asked.

“There’s some important business at the frontline, so Tianzun and Great Monk are both there, Shifu also left just this morning” Xiuxiu said.

“A! So Shifu isn’t here!” Qin Xiao Lou’s eyes glowed.

“That’s great, I’ve eaten so much of this kind of stupid flower that my mouth is bland”

As Qin Xiao Lou said that, he put all the flowers in his bowl into Xiuxiu’s.

Then he tapped his Inventory Bag, taking out a long metal skewer.

Then some firewood.

And then spices.

And finally a skinned and washed two-horned spirit goat.

“Eating this in the morning, wouldn’t it be a bit hard to digest?” Gu Qing Shan asked

“If you won’t eat, you’re free to not help me” Qin Xiao Lou looked back down as he rubbed spices onto the goat.

Gu Qing Shan thought for a bit, then decided to help.

“Eating this in the morning isn’t good for your stomach” white goose said.

“If you won’t eat, you’re free to not help me” Qin Xiao Lou looked back down, rubbed more spices onto the goat.

White goose thought for a bit, then swung his wings, arranging the firewood neatly for grilling, even the fire was already lit.

Xiuxiu chewed on her flower and muttered: “I want a goat’s thigh, second brother”

Qin Xiao Lou is known for being an expert at all the 6 arts, but if you had to pick one as his best, it would have to be his cooking skills.

Each and every one of his dishes leave lasting impression, enough that as long as people know he’ll be cooking, no one would miss it for anything.

A bit later

Three people and a goose laid flat on the Bai Hua Palace floor, unmoving.

They all ate too much.

“Xiao Lou, Qing Shan is about to breakthrough” white goose suddenly mentioned.

“Hm, that’s a good thing, but I can’t move right now, I think he’s also like that” Qin Xiao Lou said as he picked his teeth with a toothpick.

Hah, I still had to breakthrough today, I shouldn’t have eaten so much, Gu Qing Shan remonstrated himself.

“We’ll discuss it first” white goose said

“Ok, let me think for a bit” Qin Xiao Lou answered.

As they heard that, everyone left him alone and waited for his answer.

After a few moments, they heard a snoring sound.

White goose jumped up, kicking Qin Xiao Lou right on his face.

“Aaaa———“

A cry of agony.

A while later, three people and a goose was sitting in a circle.

“Breaking through a realm really is dangerous indeed, I think we’ll need to use some formation, plus first brother has to be there ready to protect you to ensure safety”

Qin Xiao Lou seriously spoke with a face swollen like a meat bun.

“What about the method of breaking through?” Gu Qing Shan asked.

“You don’t need to worry about that, I’ll go prepare it” white goose said as he flapped his wings and flew away.

“I’ll be here to cheer for you” Xiuxiu shook her little fists and said.

“Thank you, junior sister” Gu Qing Shan smiled to Xiuxiu.

Breaking through a realm is very serious business, enough to mobilize the entire Bai Hua sect.

——–although they only had 4 people in total.

Note:

(1) Lightning Trial: a very common thing in cultivation novels, also called Lightning Tribulation. Here’s an excerpt from another novel that I think explains it very well: “Legends say that the act of cultivation itself is going against the heaven, as humans take in the essence of the world, they gain karma, and when their karma reaches a certain breaking point, they have to face it in the form of lightning strikes from the sky. Those that survive this Trial is rewarded by the karma they faced, until one day, when enough karma builds up again”.

(2) Painted doors has the stench of meat and wine: this is part of an old poem. The poem is meant to say that people who can afford paint their doors are so rich that they’d frequently have enough meat and wine lined up to leave a stench on the door. I think. It might have some other meanings.