16 The Spark of Progress (2/2)
Lan Hui nodded, understanding her words ”Most people tend to prefer quiet and lonely environments to cultivate. Considering your special talent, it's no wonder you don't tend to go out a lot.”
Shin Sumi smiled on the inside. Lan Hui had just voiced exactly what she had wanted him to think. High talented disciples were a strange bunch. That much she knew thanks to Xiao Yue's explanations.
Some promising individuals took pride in their talent and used it to gain followers and fame. It was the case of the number one Honorary Disciple in the Dark Sky Starry Sect, Jun Qian. Others were more quiet and enigmatic.
Shin Sumi was trying to count how many disciples wearing robes with a color different than red she had seen or met. There was supposed to be about a thousand such people in the lower valley but Shin Sumi had barely seen enough to use all her fingers.
Lan Hui brought her back from her mental calculations when he raised an eyebrow, seemingly realizing something. ”Sister Shin, did you say Xiao Yue?”
Shin Sumi leveled her gaze with Lan Hui's. Was that important? Why did he look concerned all of a sudden? She nodded when he asked her confirmation about the person, quickly describing the petite orange-robed girl.
”You became friends with Xiao Yue?!” continued Lan Hui, mouth open in disbelief. Shin Sumi frowned for a second, asking for explanations.
Shin Sumi's mouth became stuck in an 'O' shape expression while he elucidated the situation.
Xiao Yue was someone everybody knew, she was special in her own way which meant in her case that she was very particular with people. Lan Hui was surprised but relieved that they had become friends and even sworn sisters.
Indeed, the orange-robed disciple was talented and beautiful and ever since her arrival in the sect, many people had tried to befriend her and even follow her. Boys and girls, although mostly boys. Not once had they been successful.
The reason behind it was Xiao Yue's ability to judge people and read their inner thoughts like a book. But for other disciples she just seemed strange and unaccessible.
She was quite the mystery, not the best but definitely full of talent. She had placed on the top hundred of the status points ranking a few times but had always refused any compliments or friendship.
Lan Hui seemed almost jealous of Shin Sumi for being able to befriend her so easily, although he was mostly happy for her. He kept telling Shin Sumi she was lucky and that Xiao Yue was a good person.
A jade slip vibrated in his bag of holding. Lan Hui and Shin Sumi had talked for almost an hour now and he had some business to attend to on behalf of the Affairs Pavilion. Lan Hui departed but not before reminding Shin Sumi to be wary of Elder Zhu's actions.
As if she needed the reminder. Shin Sumi walked around the sect alone, wondering what the scary Elder would do next to try and steal her talent. He was one of the reasons she had worked so hard on her cultivation recently.
Chills ran along her spine at the thought of the countless disciples Elder Zhu may have tricked in the past to complete his technique for talent-stealing.
”I have to keep cultivating. Until I reach at least Liquid Realm and move out of the lower valley, I'll never be safe here.”
That was sufficient to reignite the spark of determination in Shin Sumi's eyes as she started once again to make preparations for a trip to the dark chasm.
She chose another few quests about spirit plants she remembered having seen inside the mysterious ravine. ”Easy job,” she thought ”if I continue selling plants at the market, I don't really need the quests. From now on I will keep the rewards as they are, not upgrading them with the little nut's ability.”
Shin Sumi still needed low grade spirit stones to pay for normal things like pills and food and artefacts from the market. In turn the marked will provide her with a lot of high grade spirit stones if business was as good as the first time. The quests were just an excuse to get out of the lower valley and into the training grounds.
Shin Sumi was smart and her plan was perfect but she was still naive. Not too long ago she had been the prized daughter of East Seaside village mayor. Now that she was half a step into the Immortal world, she still lacked instinct and skill. She didn't notice Chu Erlong's follower, the girl surnamed Liu spying on her from a distance.
***
”Aiiie! What is going on? Why are you so agitated today?” asked Shin Sumi out loud. If anyone was around it was seem like she was talking to an invisible ghost. She was in fact talking to her little grey ball that strangely resembled a nut.
The nut had bitten her a few times today, prompting her to turn left and right again and again in the midst of the jungle. Incomprehension and a little bit of anger could be seen in the sharp lines of Shin Sumi's brows and lips. ”Why is it acting so strange today?” Shin Sumi wondered.
The nut was sentient to a degree but incapable of speech, or anything more than biting really. Its only way of cummunicating was through harder of softer bites that would leave a tiny circular imprint on Shin Sumi's otherwise flawless white skin.
Shin Sumi was deeply annoyed but she wasn't stupid. She knew the nut had a reason to act this way. Thus she followed the directions, although she knew the way to the dark chasm pretty well by now.
What she didn't know was that Chu Erlong's follower had been tracing her steps ever since the western gates of the lower valley. Thankfully the nut's efforts were paying off and soon Shin Sumi shook off her pursuiver unknowingly. The girl named Liu that had been assigned to following Shin Sumi everywhere for the past month stomped the jungle floor angrily with her foot, scaring off a number of insects from their homes.
When she arrived at the chasm, Shin Sumi climbed down the stone face quickly and efficiently. She wanted to plant the seeds immediately but there were still a few hours left before the nut finished refining the hundreds of dried and tiny conical buds.
There was no rushing in cultivation, as Shin Sumi knew, but she still had things she could do before planting the seeds. Exploring around the chasm, she searched for Blood Lilies, one of her quests objectives.
As the name implied Blood Lilies were deep red, and the petals even looked like drops of blood about to fall from the flower. Shin Sumi wasn't aware of the spirit plant's uses but she remembered clearly the tear shaped petals from an earlier trip to the chasm.
She rapidly stuffed her bag of holding with about three times the required amount to complete the quest and went back to the waterfall.
”There is still time” she said, and decided to relax and enjoy a bath in the pool at the foot of the waterfall.
Shin Sumi was now used to the snakes and the strange lighting to the place. She didn't look twice at the source of the hissing noises while she disrobed and jumped in the water. The copper bell protected her at every moment. Had the Liu girl been able to follow her up until now and had the mysterious darkness of the chasm not dulled her senses, she would have been so shocked that she would have fallen unconscious on the spot.
Who would have thought that this red robed newcomer girl that nobody knew was peacefully enjoying a bath surrounded by thousands of snakes capable of killing a mortal in seconds, in the most dangerous and scary location in the entire Dark Sky Starry Sect.
Shin Sumi closed her eyes for a while and dozed off, her body still taking the toll from the consecutive weeks of intense cultivation.
When she woke up, she knew instantly that the time was right to plant the seeds. She acted with precision and efficiency, of course after she dried and dressed herself.
Because she had felt the spark inside her dantian right before running out of high grade spirit stones, she still had a few left that she used to make the plants grow faster.
The idea came to her when she remembered the exotic assortiment of flowers that had grown during her first bath with a high grade spirit stone. Her entire stack of seeds had been affected. The only problem she encountered though, was that in the chasm, the snakes would attack and gobble up every thing that had an ounce of Shinsoo inside.
Be it object, animal, cultivator or treasure, the snakes would burrow out of the ground and open their jaws wide in excitement. She had even seen them almost fight for a used spirit stone before. The only thing apparently capable of distracting the snakes was the copper bell. Another exception seemed to be the plants growing around the place, which they ignored, probably full of the same Yin Shinsoo as the snakes.
Shin Sumi thought deeply, her chin resting on her closed fist. She said ”It wouldn't be good to leave a spirit stone laying around. The snakes would eat it immediately. Can I protect it with something?” she continued, looking around. Her eyes soon set on a white object with a twisted shape.
”The bones! They are left untouched. Maybe I can protect a spirit stone with bones so that the snakes won't reach it.”
Shin Sumi was weighing the pros and cons of all the ideas that popped into her mind. She was sitting silently in the middle of her little field, a spirit stone shining with pale light between her knees.
She was lost in thoughts for such a long time that her body subconsciously started to breath in and out with the pattern described in the Shinsoo Gathering Manual. Shin Sumi had spent three weeks doing only that, and now her muscle memory naturally started cultivating while she was thinking.