"What about the other sects" Wu Zhi asked.
"The other sects are largely unimportant besides the other two mid level sects. The calm wind sect, which is our direct competitor and the serenity lake sect. The clam wind sect is a sect located in the plains north of here while the serenity lake sect is located to the south. There are lots of other smaller sects that fill in the gaps some of the mid sized sects leave behind. Overall you shouldn't be worried about most of them just keep an eye on the great earth sect. They shouldn't try anything as they are a pretty calm sect all things considered. But It does help to be careful".
"What about large level sects, surely with how great the palace of eternal love is, will we not see some large level sects"?
"Of course we will, but we're just going to ignore them. We don't have any ties to large level sects so its best to just leave them be. They will be the vast majority due to their size but this size also makes them prone to in-fighting. It's just best not to get involved with them" she replied back.
After that the rest of the week passed by in a breeze. It was quite fun but as soon as it was over Wu Zhi knew that he had some resources waiting for him. It was time he went further into his cultivation.
"Here are the resources you received from the clan, please enjoy" Tu Ruo said as she handed him multiple boxes.
Inside the boxes he found an assortment of items: 1000 year old ginseng, bone nectar, and two vials filled with honey from royal honey bees. 'What an absolute score' Wu Zhi thought to himself. With items like these he would be able to super charge his cultivation, it was even possible that if this road of resources kept coming he might even be able to reach flawless bones before going to the palace of eternal love. 'However on second thought that might just be day dreaming' even with resources such as these it should still take him 10 - 20 years before he is able to reach flawless bones. Never the less, that is only theory, he would have no idea how long it would take without trying to do it first.
The first thing he did was he went to his fiancé to ask what bone nectar was.
"Bone nectar, is the nectar of a bone broth flower. It's called the bone broth flower because it's one of a very few known flowers that can digest bones. Bones of dead animals if buried under this flower get slowly digested down into liquid form and then used as nutrients for the flower. This gives it its name as the bone broth flower because it makes a type of "broth" from bones. The flower takes on a very white color and is completely harmless. It does require a steady stream of bones though to continue living. This means that the places were this flower are most prevalent are graveyards, battlefields, areas in the forest where animals die a lot and so on and so forth."
"Right... I didn't ask for the specifics of the bone broth flower though I asked about the nectar's usage to further my cultivation" he replied.
"Oh that, sorry I got carried away, bone nectar is used as a common food supplement for strengthening bones. Given the fact that bone broth flowers are not to rare you can expect a steady stream of it coming from the sect".
"Thanks for the information, can I ask you to hand this then to the chef and tell him to put it in my meals."
"Sure thing" she responded.
After that Wu Zhi went back to the guest room to try out some of the other materials. 'Royal honey, or 1000 year old ginseng' he thought to himself. Which one was he going to try first, it has to be mentioned that if the jade root gave him so much trouble he doubted the others would be any better. It was most likely the case that they would be worse. 'Eh, momma didn't raise no pussy' he thought to himself as he opened a bottle of royal honey and downed it in one gulp. 'HOT' he thought to himself. His body immediately reacted with a sense of warmth that grew hotter and hotter in his body. Soon his body was beet red and he felt his blood boiling. He felt like a living furnace and his bones felt like the crucible. They felt like they were being tempered in flames. Crushed by the heat only for a soothing cool to barley appear before the heat rose again to temper the bones. Over and over again it didn't stop as before long steam rose out of his body. 'I could die from this' he thought to himself. As soon as he realized the risks he entered a trance. Refusing to focus on anything else out of sheer focus and desperation. He had no choice but to completely trust himself and do everything he can to temper his bones in this crucible. If any of the energy went to anywhere else he risked severe injury or more likely death. It was another long night but unlike the one before this time he wasn't moaning groaning or had weird bursts of spasms. He had no room to allow himself that kind of luxury. The bursts of cool pleasure seemed to grow harder and harder to get. Yet with each time they also grew bigger and bigger. A race against his own body begin were he tried to temper his bones faster then the heat built up. As the days passed in complete silence the maids started to get worried. Still the young lady's orders were absolute, they were not to disturb the guest until he came out of his room of his own volition. Until two days later when a haggard Wu Zhi went straight to the bathhouse.