Chapter 97: Strength Growth
The next three days Meng Lin was fully immersed in her training. She spent every morning practicing her blacksmithing and every afternoon at the Pagoda of Five Elements.
She was determined to make the most out of her two hours every day and train herself to new heights.
She continued to practice the Black Tortoise Essence Art and focused on improving her Qi control.
She also experimented with her variant elemental Qi, Mud and Erosion, trying to find ways to incorporate them into her cultivation practices.
By the end of the third day, she had made significant progress and felt more confident in her abilities, more so in the mud elemental Qi.
She also used her newly acquired spirit stones to purchase better quality materials for her blacksmithing, creating weapons and items that significantly improved the percentage on her blacksmith panel.
She was fully focused on her cultivation and wasn’t particularly interested with anything else.
The fourth day was a little different as the first thing she did after waking up was to go to the sect market and to buy some materials that she could use for a low grade item.
Yet as she walked through the market, she noticed a commotion near one of the stalls.
She approached to see what was going on and saw a group of cultivators arguing with the stall owner.
"What's going on?" Meng Lin asked one of the bystanders.
The bystander, a man with shrewd face said “ little baby, this stall owner cheated them of their money."
Meng Lin frowned, not liking the way the cultivator spoke to her. She approached another one before asking the same question.
This cultivator, a flustered young man explained that the cultivators had bought some materials from the stall owner but were now claiming that they were of low quality and demanding a refund.
Meng Lin walked forward to inspect the materials and saw that they were of decent quality, she instantly knew that the cultivators were trying to scam the stall owner.
She didn’t know weather to lauge or cry because this was a sect market, not some common place in the cultivation world for a main character to shine.
She was about to walk away when she suddenly heard someone yell. "These materials are of good quality. You have no right to demand a refund."
It was the stall owner, who had grown tired of the cultivators’ complaints.
The cultivators grew angry at the stall owner’s words and began to argue loudly. Meng Lin watched from the sidelines, curious but not wanting to get involved.
Suddenly, a young man appeared, his face contorted in anger. He pushed his way through the group of cultivators and confronted them.
"You guys are trying to scam this poor stall owner, aren’t you?" he said, his voice ringing loud and clear in the crowded market, getting more attention from the bustling market.
The angry cultivators turned to face him, their expressions hostile. "Mind your own business," one of them snarled.
The young man didn’t back down. "This is my business," he said firmly. "I won't stand by and watch as you try to cheat someone out of their hard-earned money."
Meng Lin watched with a raised eyebrow as the young man stood his ground, his eyes blazing with determination. She was actually quite suprised because she knew the young man.
The argument continued, with the young man and the cultivators shouting at each other. Meng Lin listened to the heated exchange, her arm under her chin, interest piqued.
Finally, the cultivators gave up and stormed off, cursing under their breath. The young man turned to the stall owner and smiled.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
The stall owner nodded, a look of gratitude on his face. "Thank you, young man," he said. "You saved me from a lot of trouble."
The young man shrugged, looking a little embarrassed. "It was nothing," he said. "I just can't stand bullies."
Meng Lin watched as the young man walked away, feeling a little weary of the situation.
She knew that it had only been a few days since she had last seen him but he seemed to have gone through a big change.
She suddenly couldn’t help but jokingly wonder if he was a main character in this cultivation world, not only had the young man’s attitude change but his realm, aura and personality seemed to be different as well.
The young man was Ruan Lee, the blacksmith with dark circles around the eyes, this time he didn’t speak with nervousness but rather with confidence and his realm had increased to the early stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm.
Meng Lin couldn't help but be curious about what had happened to him in such a short amount of time.
Regardless she didn’t think too much about it, she bought some new materials and headed back home, more interested in her own cultivation.
As she entered into her courtyard she heard a big splash coming from the pond and a large head emerged from underneath the surface.
Hiss
The snake splashed in the water, radiating aura equal to a middle stage rank 2 spirit beast, it was Purple who had been constantly growing in size and strength as Meng Lin continued to feed it beast forage everyday.
Meng Lin only now realized how much bigger Purple had grown since she first acquired it. Its body was almost 12 meters long as it’s shimmering gray scales contrasted well with the faint purple hue in its eyes.
Meng Lin was in awe of the spirit beast's growth, and she couldn't help but feel jealous of it.
She approached the pond and reached out to stroke Purple's head. The spirit beast hissed contentedly, enjoying the attention.
Meng Lin smiled, feeling grateful for having such a loyal companion on her cultivation journey.
She quickly fed Purple one more beast forage, hoping to further improve its strength.
As she watched Purple devour the beast forage, Meng Lin headed towards the blacksmith room which currently has various weapons piled around with no care about them.
“System”
[Meng Lin]
[special physique: Brute Qi physique]
[Foundation Establishment Stage(Late)]
[Experience points: 32%]
System coin:570
Taoist Gacha wheel: available
Spiritual Roots: [Water>Fire>Gold>Wood>Earth]
Variant Elemental Qi : [Mud] [ Erosion]
Main Cultivation Method: [Black Tortoise Essence Art, 1st Layer]
Techniques: [Focused Qi control] [Waterfall slash] [Refine Yin Qi] [Surge] [Thunderbolt Flash]
Side Cultivation Methods: : [Basic Qi Gathering] [Formless Cultivation method]
[Market] [Blacksmith] [Alchemy]
Focusing onto the blacksmith option Meng Lin was quickly greeted with the main panel for her blacksmith.
[Blacksmith (beginning) 100%]
Weapon slot: none
Ingredients: none
Chance of success: none
Meng Lin smiled, feeling proud of her progress. She had improved from 0% to 100% after just 4 days of refining swords, spears and other items.
And she hoped that after today that all her efforts in the past four days would bloom some significant results.