"Junior Sister already knew!" Chen Jinshu had expected it, but saying it aloud was a different matter.
Voicing it could bring her closer to her senior brothers and sisters, while silence might not affect anything—but it also wouldn't deepen any bonds. After all, she had joined Master Shui Huanmeng's tutelage relatively late. One year was hardly enough to forge strong ties with her fellow disciples. Some relationships need nurturing to last.
"All right now! The few of us senior brothers have been out on countless missions. You needn't worry about us, Junior Sister!" Xie Mofeng replied with a faint smile.
"Indeed!" Bu Yuanxiang nodded in agreement.
"Junior Sister, let me take you to pick a room. You've never stayed overnight at Master's estate before!" Dai Yuzhu came over, took her hand, and began leading her into the courtyard.
"Farewell, senior brothers." Chen Jinshu casually raised her hand in parting.
"Take care, junior sisters!"
Master Shui Huanmeng's estate was expansive, modeled after a mundane eight-courtyard residence, though with many differences.
The courtyards were built around a small valley—Master's medicinal herb garden—protected by layers of formations. Chen Jinshu had only been taken there once, during the passing of the spiritual herb healer's legacy.
"The outer rooms are mostly uninhabited. Us disciples all live in cave dwellings atop the peaks surrounding the valley."
Following Senior Sister Dai's explanation, Chen Jinshu finally noticed the many pavilions and arched gateways constructed on the surrounding mountain ridges, each bearing a unique name inscribed with restrictive wards.
"Why is that?" she asked.
"You silly! The outer rooms are beyond the spiritual vein's influence. The valley is the vein's core. That's where cultivation is most effective!" Dai Yuzhu said, puffing up with pride.
"This little mountain peak's spiritual vein is one of the strongest branches of the main one on Medicine King Peak. Only masters like our teacher are permitted to build here!"
"Also, each cave dwelling has its own name! Mine is Crossing Moon Pavilion, symbolizing a calm and reserved nature…"
"Senior Sister's is Cloud Ascent Hall, implying the pursuit of lofty heights! First Senior Brother's is Frost Glow Cavern, Second Senior Brother's is Stone Wash Garden, Fourth Senior Brother's is Stellar Track Cave, Fifth's is Ash Snow Lodge, and Sixth Senior Brother lives in Pine Rest Grotto!"
Dai Yuzhu's explanations led Chen Jinshu to naturally associate each name with their personalities and the hopes Master had placed in them.
"Your cave dwelling was arranged long ago—Azure Luan Courtyard!"
"Azure Luan Courtyard!?" Chen Jinshu was stunned. She hadn't expected Master to already know about her spirit beast, Xiao Yin's Azure Luan bloodline, and to prepare a residence accordingly.
A wave of emotion surged through her heart, overwhelming her thoughts.
"Come, Junior Sister, I'll take you there!"
With that, Dai Yuzhu flew her up toward a stone pavilion with the characters Azure Luan Courtyard inscribed in bold golden script.
Once inside, the grandeur of the cave dwelling unfolded before her eyes. The space was massive, encompassing nearly the entire layer of the peak. There was an alchemy chamber and a teal misting hot spring pool. The main bedroom featured a bed and complete furnishings. Luminous white stones inlaid in the ceiling bathed the cave in daylight-like brilliance.
"I didn't expect Master to prepare so much for Junior Sister!"
Dai Yuzhu picked up a booklet from a nearby bookshelf to browse.
"Secrets of Alchemy—my own cave dwelling has one, too. I guess all disciples are given a copy."
After a while, Dai Yuzhu left behind some spirit pastries she'd purchased from the Spirit Food Hall, then returned to her own cave.
Chen Jinshu began thoroughly inspecting her new dwelling.
"A high-grade third-tier barrier formation for defense and isolation? Master really put thought into this." She murmured softly. The formation here was far superior to her old residence, Ink Plum Courtyard.
After activating the formation, she headed to the teal mist pool for a bath.
An hour later – in the Spirit Plant Space
"So many spirit plants from the cave realm… time to tend them properly."
Though she'd preserved the plants in pots after transplanting them from the cave realm, pots were ultimately a form of constraint—not ideal for long-term growth.
"I'll plant them all together in a spirit field."
She now had one mu of untouched spirit land—recently acquired, this snowy-white field was formed from the essence of moonlight.
"Blood Vermilion Fruit stalks, Jade Lantern Fruit saplings, and a segment of Violet Thunder Bamboo rhizome—all extremely rare!"
She removed the potted plants and began transplanting them into the field one by one.
"Blood Vermilion Fruit isn't picky about soil, but rich spiritual energy greatly enhances its yield."
She had six stalks in total, though they weren't in the best condition. Since transplanting them into pots, she'd only given them one dose of nurturing spirit liquid and otherwise neglected them. Newly transplanted Blood Vermilion stalks were fragile and prone to dying.
Luckily, she'd learned spirit plant recovery techniques from Gu Zhēnrén. As long as there was at least a 50% chance of survival, she could save them.
She buried all six stalks in a corner of the white spirit field, then watered them with a mixture of recovery elixir and cold spring water. The chilly spring water—far richer in spiritual energy than that from Longyan Pool—would quickly help the plants regain vitality.
"The Jade Lantern Fruit is in the worst shape…"
This exceptional wood-type fruit required a swamp environment with both water and wood elements to grow properly.
The potted soil alone wasn't enough.
"There's only one! If it dies, the two fruits I have will be all I can use to cultivate new plants."
She sighed, adding powdered water-element spirit stones and shredded spirit wood into the hole before gently planting the sapling. Then she covered it with dual-element soil and watered it with cold spring water.
"I mustn't be careless. The Jade Lantern Fruit is essential to my future cultivation!"
As a wood-element cultivator, this fruit was especially beneficial to her.
Just one fruit would let her break through to the eighth layer of Qi Refining. Three would carry her to the ninth—with no risk of unstable cultivation, only a temporary imbalance that could be corrected with a short retreat.
Unfortunately, she had only two fruits—not enough for an immediate breakthrough to the ninth layer.
"Next is the Violet Thunder Bamboo rhizome."
This was the hardest and most troublesome of all. If cultivation failed or anything went wrong, the rhizome would rot away.
As Senior Brother Du Yi had said, the Violet Thunder Bamboo grew only in the core of spiritual veins for a reason—it absorbed enormous amounts of energy and lightning essence from the air as it grew.