Astral Odyssey: Dying Ember

(Edited) Legacy World 1.4

Xinyi spent the rest of the evening and night reflecting on and reading up about the use of spiritual power. She also began to read up on cultivation practices and martial arts.

What she found was that with enough skill, one would be able to cultivate all the time. However, the optimal state for cultivating was still by meditating.

The part about spiritual power was nothing she did not already know. The only noteworthy thing was how there was a caution to the reader to not be restricted in their thinking because not all uses were documented. Family secret arts existed and it was possible for people to create new uses everyday.

Suddenly a memory about a story she had read when she was still alive got refreshed in her mind. That story had spiritual people but also spiritual beasts and spiritual plants. How did I forget about this?

Xinyi closed the book and rushed back to her courtyard.

She then dug out 6 small pots from the tool shed and planted nourishing herbs.

If I manifest my spiritual power into the soil to enhance it, would it raise the nutritional value of the herbs? What about manifesting my power directly into the plant while it is growing? Would there be a difference?

Her mind reeled with possibilities.

Her thoughts were running so fast that BaoBao's eyes became swirls when he tried to keep up with her thoughts.

Is this what happens whenever she gets an inspiration? He complained after cutting off the connection between their thoughts for a break.

Xinyi re-planned her day's schedule to fit in time for experimentation.

She prioritised increasing her competency in cultivating in hopes to reach the state where she would be able to cultivate regardless of what she was doing. If she accomplished that, she would no longer feel like she was wasting time doing things like sleeping, eating, and cooking.

In contrast, martial arts dropped to the last on her priority list.

Another month passed by like that.

The only oddity was ZiYao's sudden friendliness towards her in the past week.

Zi Yao had been coming by for lunch no matter how sickly Xinyi acted. She would simply help Xinyi up, feed her, and support her to walk to the stone table in the courtyard if the day was nice.

She always held small talk and began to generously teach Xinyi the different forms of art after finding out that Xinyi had stopped being tutored since she became bedridden at 13.

Lunch was also always sumptuous, which Xinyi felt no qualms about finishing. Since it's given, I might as well just take it. Otherwise, it'd be a waste when they throw it away.

She was not afraid of being poisoned because she believed in her newfound knowledge of poisons and antidotes. She could even use her knowledge to kill people if she wanted to. She only continued cooking for herself because she was keeping up the diet tailored for her body's state and constitution.

Throughout the entire time, Xinyi's heart was steeled against her advances. She was not about to let herself be bought over when BaoBao had given her a new tip just before ZiYao first appeared, which was to prevent becoming crippled.

After a week of bonding, ZiYao finally broached the topic that Xinyi has long been waiting for her to broach. She lamented about how evil and haughty HuiShan was as a person and how she was made a victim of HuiShan's bullying.