20 Experience is Knowledge and Opening Doors (1/2)

Shin Sumi had always been weary of Elder Zhu.

During four months she had never stayed in the sect's lower valley for too long, wondering patiently what the next move of the Elder would be.

She would leave by the western gates to go directly to the chasm. Then she would cultivate while waiting for her plants to grow. As soon as they were ready to be harvested, Shin Sumi would dig them out and replace them.

From all the batches she sold, about one quarter of the high grade spirit stones the nut would refine would be used to speed up the process of growing plants.

Sometimes she would come back to the sect as Shin Sumi, sometimes as Yan Yan, never allowing too many coincidences to occur.

Her line of reasoning was ”if people always see me leave and Yan Yan only return, it won't be long before my secret is discovered”.

The only person that possibly knew about her secret was Fen Wudao. Shin Sumi still didn't know if the Liquid Realm cultivator actually knew or not.

She always kept an extra Yin type spirit plant for him. Most of the time he would come by himself, allowing Shin Sumi as Yan Yan to spare her Shinsoo instead of having to send him a message.

Fen Wudao always acted the same way around her, being the smiling and gentle youth he always seemed to be. He never mentioned anything about Shin Sumi, and his interest seemed to be strictly centered on the spirit plants.

Because of the frequent visits of the Liquid Realm prodigy, Yan Yan's little shop had seen its reputation grow exponentially.

By now everybody in the lower valley had heard of Yan Yan, her alluring beauty and her miraculous plants. Even the Pill Concoction Pavilion sometimes sent a disciple to retrieve plants from her.

The Pill Concoction Pavilion usually was more interested in the resources that resulted from the quests, but the mysterious Yan Yan had simply made too big of an impression for them to ignore.

Nobody really knew who she was and how she found the plants. It made no doubt that she was an Honorary Disciple from the lower valley. There would have been no point for a higher disciple to go to that market to sell plants.

Something else that everybody knew was that the person behind Yan Yan used a Confusion Pill.

The disciple that actually uncovered that act was one of Shin Sumi's most frequent clients as well as her close friend, Lan Hui.

By working at the Affairs Pavilion it was easy for him to search the records and Yan Yan's name was nowhere to be seen.

When word started to get around, Shin Sumi had hesitated to tell Lan Hui who she really was but had decided against it. She trusted the boy with her life at this point, but it was important to keep some secrets.

Besides, most of the highest sellers of the market hid their real identity just as a safety measure.

Even Xiao Yue came by a few times to buy Yin type spirit plants.

The first time it happened, Shin Sumi nearly called her 'Yue' as she would have normally. She only refrained from doing so at the last moment, earning a strange stare from her friend.

Shin Sumi hadn't seen Xiao Yue for weeks after she had left for her quests.

The same night the girls had reunited in Shin Sumi's courtyard.

”Thankfully I finished assimilating all the excess Shinsoo yesterday” thought Sumi the night Xiao Yue came knocking at her gates.

”Sumi, are you there?” giggled an excited voice behind the Shinsoo formations.

Shin Sumi opened the gates to be completely overwhelmed by an orange colored blur.

Before she even had time to realize, Xiao Yue was embracing her, her head resting on Shin Sumi's shoulder.

”Why were you gone so long, Yue?!” asked Shin Sumi in an excited voice.

The absence of the girl had been intensely felt by Shin Sumi and she seemed to realize just now how much heavier her heart felt in her chest.

Xiao Yue looked into her eyes, smiling and not willing to let go of her friend.

”I was trying to complete a quest that would have put me directly to the first twenty spots of the ranking!”

Shin Sumi opened her eyes wide, her 'O' shaped mouth and high brows waiting for an explanation.

”A Storm Tiger had been spotted near the eastern training grounds just before you arrived in the sect. It's a rare species around here. It's about as strong as a four vortexes Liquid Realm cultivator but I couldn't let the opportunity go.”

She continued, finally letting go of Shin Sumi and walking around her while emphasizing her words with her arms.

”I had prepared a long time for this, and when scouts reported another sighting I simply had to go. The tail of the Storm Tiger as well as its heart are worth a lot of spirit stones! And about nine thousand status points. But there is something even better about hunting.”

”What is it?” asked Shin Sumi, baffled by the amount of status point that had just been announced.

”Experience!!” bursted Xiao Yue. ”It was about time I did something really exciting. Don't you find life in the sect really boring? I mean except for the quests, us Honorary Disciples can't go out much. I was tired of the same routine, cultivating all day everyday.”

Shin Sumi looked at her with a weird expression that she quickly hid. Her life couldn't really be called boring. She had almost been killed a few times, be it the by snakes or the jungle, and of course through Elder Zhu's attempt with the plant trap.

Xiao Yue didn't know yet, she reminded herself. Besides, who else in the lower valley had to maintain two different appearances and had founded the most profitable store in the whole market?

Shin Sumi thought about it for a second. ”It is true that besides that I haven't really done anything exciting. I always tell myself that everything will be different when I breakthrough to the Liquid Realm, but I don't want to spend all my time pursuing cultivation.”

”I have my own dream of becoming a librarian. I want to have more knowledge” she thought.

Xiao Yue had let her reflect on her previous words, but now she turned to Shin Sumi again.

”You know, experience is not just about doing something thrilling. It is knowledge.”

Shin Sumi froze for a second. That was exactly what she was thinking about. The eyes of Xiao Yue were fixed onto hers, as if she was reading her innermost thoughts. The feeling vanished quickly, ”surely it is just a coincidence” thought Shin Sumi.

”Anyway, I guess it is better to wait until we officially become cultivators. Honorary Disciples is just another way of saying 'mortals' after all. The Immortal world is so big and dangerous, without having enough Shinsoo there is only so much we can do...”

Shin Sumi was looking at Xiao Yue from the side. For some reason the last words of her sworn sister were strange. It contrasted a lot with the rest of her speech. They seemed almost... desperate.

Xiao Yue brought Shin Sumi back from her deep thoughts, her head disappearing in the collar of her robes.

”Sumi, can you help me disrobe? For weeks I have dreamed about taking a bath here again.”

Shin Sumi laughed and helped her friend, not paying too much attention to the fact that she had even asked for help in the first place.

The laughter froze on her red lips, her fair skin paling to an abnormal degree when the tanned skin of the petite orange robed girl appeared in front of her.

”Yue, what happened?!!”

The left side of Xiao Yue's body that had been hidden until now was not in good shape. Her arm was fine but the entire area between her smooth breast and her thigh was red. The skin seemed to have been torn off here and there and scabs the size of her fist could be seen.

Shin Sumi had seen her friend naked before. But now all the excitement and pleasant feeling about taking a bath with Xiao Yue had disappeared.

Xiao Yue sighed.

”The truth is, I wanted to convince you that experience is important for a cultivator before you saw that. I guess if there is another life lesson to be learned, it is that no great reward comes without risk.”

Xiao Yue, supported by Shin Sumi, stepped into the fresh spring water, her skin shivering slightly.

”Locating the Storm Tiger was easy. I had everything ready to kill it and bring back what I needed. But I underestimated it. I had laid traps all around the area and prepared follow-up attacks. I still can't use magical Shinsoo techniques so it was pretty basic but strong enough. I simply didn't expect the Storm Tiger so close to death to attack with a renewed might. He bit me a few times and threw me against a rock. When I woke up a few hours later he was dead, but I had lost a lot of blood.”

Shin Sumi was silent. She listened to Xiao Yue with a tear in her eye, but she was thinking about something else.