71 To Cultivate, One Should... 5 (1/2)
To cultivate until she completed the so-called stage of Divine Ascension, An Fei was to absorb spiritual essence from within the Sanctum.
In the girl's respectable perspective, it was rather similar to the process Wei Xuan had described. In fact, An Fei fully expected that without the caveat of the spiritual essence and artefacts within the mortal world was toxic for her, cultivating in the Sanctum would be no different than in the study of the Flowing Wind Residence.
…she would only know much later on, just how much of a cheat the realm of sky-blue crystal had provided. Although, until then, the girl never learned otherwise.
And what was An Fei doing right now?
-
”Two eggplants, a small cluster of string beans, a few cloves of garlic, one piece of ginger,” the girl muttered to herself, repeating the list in her head several times until she felt confident to explore.
”Some crystallized salt, one green pepper, and… one Violet Spring Herb…?”
An Fei found herself in one of the medicine gardens, unable to control the pangs of hunger. She had clawed at the first gateway and stumbled around until she had chanced on a door that sported a collection of plants and medicines.
A leather bag slung around her waist, An Fei entered the sea of medicinal herbs and plants, her hands grabbing at various plants and herbs as she made her way forth. Whenever a plant that matched the description as per the list appeared, the girl would gently pluck the fruit without damaging the flowering stem, or uproot the plant before sowing additional seeds onto the displaced ground.
Truth told, An Fei was not feeling so comfortable as she searched throughout the medicine garden.
Each plant exuded a bright, vibrant colored light that was impossibly difficult not to notice, and surrounded on all sides by an overwhelming sea of plants, the girl was having a hard time recovering from the disorientation.
”Violet Spring Herb… Violet Spring Herb…”
When the girl parted two clusters of green onion emitting a brilliant scarlet light, a small, sponge-like plant was revealed before her eyes. Startled by the unusual appearance, An Fei took several moments to realize that the plant before her was the final ingredient the list required, prompting the girl to carefully but excitedly extract it and attend to the displaced soil, before quickly rushing out of the medicine garden towards the soft grass fringe on its edge.
There, placed on the lush, trimmed grass, was a fully prepared black iron wok and bowl, a cheery fire sparkling away underneath, and a wooden table with several knives resting on top. The was placed near the table on the ground, the book opened to reveal the list of plants the girl was searching for.
”Remove the fresh seeds from the Violet Spring Herb and preserve a few for drying,” the girl peered at the book, placing the leather bag onto the grass.
”Extract the juice of the Violet Spring Herb and heat, then shallow-fry the beans.”
Staring at the pristine pages for a brief moment as she sorted her thoughts, the An Fei opened the leather bag to reveal the Violet Spring Herb, of which she clenched in her hand. Though she attempted her best not to look at it, especially the top of the herb, the girl couldn't exactly ignore the dense black light emanating from its bulb.
The Violet Spring Herb adopted the appearance as a violet sponge-like, rectangular plant with numerous holes dotting the top of the plant. Unsure how to extract the seeds, the girl frowned for a moment before grabbing the herb by a corner and slapping it against the table's surface.
Immediately after, An Fei released a groan of discomfort, a queer expression on her beautiful countenance.
The Violet Spring Herb resembled a warm, wet sponge when touched, what could only be called a rather disgusting sensation. Repeatedly slapping it against the wooden surface of the table, the girl could see numerous dots scattering all over table from the impact.
Realizing that the tiny black dots were the seeds of the Violet Spring Herb, An Fei quickly dropped the disgusting herb onto the table, before scooping up as many of the seeds as she could.
Though an equally many amount of the seeds fell into the grass and were impossible to find, she had salvaged several dozen seeds, a considerable amount considering that the Violet Spring Herb was smaller than her palm.
Only, she now had to juice the disgusting sponge-like herb and pour it into the wok. Pursing her lips together, the girl pinched the Violet Spring Herb, and pressed it against the heated wok's black iron surface.