Su Jinjing kept Yang Qing for a few hours, with Ma Yuan joining them before she finally left. Seeing her silhouette vanish around the corner, Yang Qing couldn’t help but sigh from the emotions of parting.
With how deep and firm Su Jinjing’s accumulations were, from his conservative estimates, he was willing to bet she would take no more than three months, while her spear would likely take a much shorter period than her, maybe a month or two at most, with a great majority of the ti being spent with it digesting the harvests of surviving its tribulation.
This was where the difference between artifacts and cultivators lay when breaking through to the palace realm. The palace realm could be considered a true watershed and starting point for both cultivators and artifacts. It could be said that both achieve a true birth at the palace realm, but the differences between the sides co up in how they break through and everything in between which includes the conclusion of it.
A cultivator’s breakthrough to the palace realm is triggered when their understanding of the dao reaches a particular threshold that it draws upon the doors of the palace realm. The tribulation that is triggered, one of its purposes is to judge if the particular cultivator is worthy of walking past that door, while the other, which was the beneficial aspect of it, the tribulation would mold the cultivator’s soul and body, and their entire essence to better accommodate and delve deeper into the dao they comprehended to trigger it.
The tribulation acted like a tailor for the cultivators, but when it ca to the tribulation of artifacts it was sothing else.
Artifacts would only trigger a tribulation if they gained a spirit with enough awareness that would attract its attention. The tribulation would then either destroy that spirit or give that spirit a chance at life. If the spirit survives, the tribulation would pave its foundation by leveraging on what that spirit used to gain awareness in the first place. The spirit would be fed countless truths and understanding concerning the palace realm and its path.
When it cos to artifacts, the tribulation is the one that guides them and gives them an understanding of the paths available to them and even pours those truths into them and it is up to the aptitude of the spirit on how much truth it harvests, but when it cos to cultivators, whatever they reap from surviving the tribulation is solely based on the accumulations that they made themselves.
When Su Jinjing and her spear break through to the palace realm, the spear’s breakthrough will be instantaneous as long as it survives it. Its entire body will be reford by the tribulation and then it will be fed various understandings of the dao suited for it, which will also be instantaneous.
The ti it takes in seclusion isn’t for it to adjust to its strength or stabilize its foundation as would be the case for Su Jinjing after her last tribulation where she would spend two months stabilizing her realm and readjusting to her newfound strength to ensure her feet in the palace realm were as stable as possible.
For the spear, it is different, because in all sense of the word, when the last tribulation lightning falls, and it survives it, its entire form is transford in an instant, and it would not need ti to readjust or stabilize anything. The rewards of tribulation will do that automatically and instantaneously. The ti it spends in seclusion is for it to glean as much information as it can for whatever the tribulation has fed it and as long as its spirit is talented enough, it can contain a lot of information to go chew in bits and pieces over ti without needing to go into an imdiate seclusion.
So in at most three months, or even less, Yang Qing would be able to see Su Jinjing and her spear, but Yang Qing couldn’t help but feel emotional as though it was a long parting even if it wasn’t.
Yi Jie had already gone, Feng Xin followed him, Luo ili went later after they ca back from Deer Mountain Range, and because of the peculiarity of her physique, he had a feeling she’d take the longest ti to avoid complications, and now Su Jinjing had joined the group, leaving only Zheng Hu behind who would more than likely join them soon enough, likely in a few weeks at that.
Even though it was irrational, Yang Qing felt like his whole team had left and he was left alone. It made no sense, but them being on the tribulation mountain left him in a somber mood. The good thing though was, that they would be joining him soon enough, with Yi Jie and Feng Xin possibly making an appearance in the next month or two. He at least had that to look forward to.
Yang Qing was in no mood for cultivation or ditation, and no case waiting for him tomorrow with Xia Ting and Yu Gen handling the aftermath of the Golden Bamboo Pavilion and the Red Maple Empire case, he decided he might as well continue the night drinking, as Ma Yuan kept him company, having already concluded his ditative training.
"Mmh, with Ma Yuan as he is, maybe I need to readjust his training schedule a bit when it cos to sparring partners. With as his sparring partner, while he will still improve, with a fight he already expects to lose, no matter how determined he is, the amount of effort he will pour forth will still be limited when compared to if he sparred against soone he would not want to lose against.
Who can I use that will serve best to spur him on. It needs to be soone strong enough to take a few punches from a core formation expert, and talented enough to be a threat of his own, but weak enough that Ma Yuan will feel sha to lose or draw against him.
The students at the Institute would be a better fit, but they already have enough on their plate with the Instructors and Ma Yuan will likely subconsciously hold himself back on account of their identities.
Who will be the best fit?" thought Yang Qing as he mulled over a few ideas before his eyes suddenly lit up.
"He is the perfect fit. I can even check on his progress with the art, and when Ma Yuan leaves, at least with his character, he would be a good person to befriend," Yang Qing thought, increasingly excited with his idea which drew a curious glance from Ma Yuan who was surprised by Yang Qing’s change in emotion.
Earlier, as a somber person himself, he had detected Yang Qing’s mood shift as Su Jinjing left, but not a second later Yang Qing was highly excitable.
"It’s none of my business," thought Ma Yuan, a trait he adopted after all the strange occurrences he was exposed to after becoming a regular occupant of Yang Qing’s abode.
"Tomorrow, you will be coming with sowhere," Yang Qing suddenly said.
"Where?"Ma Yuan asked, curiosity showing on his face from his raised eyebrow.
"Soplace that will help you develop your skills as a herbologist. It will serve you well after you leave here, enormously at that. Make sure you make the most of the opportunity. Not many have the privilege," said Yang Qing with a cheeky smile.
"Opportunity?" Ma Yuan struggled to comprehend as he couldn’t fathom a place more wonderous than Yang Qing’s abode.
With its natural attributes that favored the growth of spiritual plants and animals, Yang Qing’s abode was the dream place of countless herbologists who could experint with all manner of spiritual plants and nurturing processes without fear of failure because the abode already provided an advantageous field.
Ma Yuan couldn’t imagine a better paradise for herbologists and maybe even alchemists, than Yang Qing’s abode. Its conditions suit the fulfillnt of both roles to a tee.
Yang Qing seemingly reading his thoughts, amusedly said,
"Yes when it cos to raw benefits, I won’t be pretentious and say that this place doesn’t offer its unfair advantages compared to most places, but because of it, when you leave you would be hard-pressed to find that many places with said advantage.
You will have to readjust yourself to work without those favorable conditions, and having grown used to it, it may prove more difficult than you think.
The place we are headed to will help you readjust from that advantage by helping you refine your fundantals and also expand your horizons on a few things here and there that you may never have the chance to interact with. It will be a worthwhile experience for you, trust .
Ma Yuan on seeing the honest and cheery smile on Yang Qing’s face nodded with a smile on his face as he raised his wine cup to toast Yang Qing.
"I thank you for the opportunity, and I will strive to make the most of it,"
"Good," Yang Qing gingerly answered as he raised his cup for a toast.
The night passed quickly as the duo traded tales with Ma Yuan sharing from his ti as a single rogue cultivator while Yang Qing shared a bit of his before he joined the Order, and his ti as a student and before they knew it, dawn had arrived.
With the first rays of the sunshine cascading down the green fla tree and the other plants, Yang Qing got up patting his robes which instantly transford into a light green short-sleeved coat, white shirt, green shorts, and straw sandals.
The transformation drew a curious and amazed look from Ma Yuan before his gaze fell on his clothes. He was wearing a yellow-brown coat that had been rolled to his elbows, a light yellow shirt, and coarse brown trousers.
They were worn slightly and had a few dirt and plant stains on them. This particular set of clothes was sothing he had found in the ruin he inherited his legacy from, and despite their ordinary and worn appearance, the set was made from two monarch-grade materials in earthsage cotton that gave the wearer of the robes special attunent to the flow of energy through the earth elent, and spirit veil silk that refreshed the mind and soul of the user, enabling them to do highly concentrated work for longer periods without ntal fatigue accumulating.
The passage of ti may have eaten away at the robe hence affecting the quality of its functions, but those effects though slightly degraded were still there. Those robes were among Ma Yuan’s greatest possessions, but now, especially when he looked at how worn they were, Ma Yuan couldn’t help but feel self-conscious about having them on.
"Do I need to change?" he hesitantly asked. As soone who never took much care of his appearance, he didn’t have any decent robes on him. If worst ca to worst he had steeled himself to borrow one from Yang Qing.
With the sheer amount of debt he owed Yang Qing, what would be an extra robe, especially when it potentially involved an opportunity he shouldn’t miss?
Yang Qing waved his hands dismissively as he said,
"The place we are going, the owner will actually appreciate you more with your current appearance than if you wore sothing fancy. Your current look appeals to his sensibilities and preferences."
"Don’t worry too much," Yang Qing added as he patted Ma Yuan in the back.
The duo left his abode, with Ma Yuan still feeling nervous about his robes. With how much he had been hanging with Ellie, so of her habits had started rubbing off on him, her suspicious nature in particular and always assuming Yang Qing was tricking her sohow.
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