Chapter 12- Growth, Broadly Defined

Tian lay curled up on the side of the pond, twitching. The grass had a faintly blue central vane running up the middle of the long, pointed leaves. The leaves grew directly from a stiff central stem, a lighter green to the leaves darker green. It smelled like grass, with no distinctive odor. When the leaves were picked or damaged, they released a sweet and slightly spicy scent. The taste was bitter and vegetal.

The bastard thing was also at the peak of the Earthly Realm and went down like a burning ember, leaving a trail of what felt like acid behind it. When the ember landed in his stomach, it sent tendrils of burrowing heat into the stomach lining. Like the grass was trying to set down roots. It wasn’t, he could tell it was all quite destroyed. It was just that the spread of the corrosive juices made a root pattern. One of those funny little coincidences you can appreciate as you desperately use your vital energy to corral the evil stuff and keep it from spreading until you can break it down.

The Demon Pulling Art was quickly put to work. Tiny tendrils of vital energy reached out and wrapped around the invading poison. The elemental makeup was simpler than some poisons he had seen. Wood, overwhelmingly, with a minor strain of yang water. Not too bad, but the subtle variations it went through as it sloshed around inside of him meant constant, equally subtle, changes to the energy he was manipulating it with.

It hurt. He had been hurt before, and worse than this. It took a bit of effort to collect himself, but he managed to sit himself up properly and tear the energy apart. He didn’t know if the senior could detect the statue at the core of the Hell Suppressing Body Refining Art, and the old instinct not to display his treasures firmly returned. The Holy Land had strict rules about violence, but what about when he left the Holy Land?

Just use it. He knows you have something, and there is no plausible way to keep it hidden forever.

“You don’t think he would…?”

Nah. It’s not that there is nothing there to interest him, it’s that the cost would WILDLY outweigh the benefits. Assuming he wanted to use it at all, which at this stage of his cultivation, he probably doesn’t.

Tian started cultivating, Advent of Spring gulping down the thick chaotic qi of the Holy Land while greedily consuming the wood and water qi brought by the grass. The Hell Suppressing Art started running, and Tian immediately felt a stab of loneliness. It really didn’t feel right without Liren’s hands in his. The benefit from the art was less than a third of what he would expect from a regular cultivation session with her.

“Mmm? You need yin qi for your body cultivation? Or… not just yin qi. Curse energy? Oh hoh! Poison gets ground up too! Quite a convenient thing, if a bit annoying. You must usually dual cultivate with that girl you came with. Or is it someone else?”

“Just her, Teacher, and not…”

“Eh?”

“It’s not important, Teacher, never mind.”

“My poor disciple always traveled with a few jade beauties for just such a situation. Each was a proud daughter of heaven, with kingdom toppling allure, and all helplessly in love with him. Ah, his kind heart loved too easily and too well. I can’t expect you to measure up. Not with how ugly you are.” Voidcatcher sighed.

“When you eat the next blade of grass, stick your hand or foot or something in the pond before you start refining it. It’s a bit too strong for your level, but I expect you will manage somehow. Oh, and grab another of the same sort of grass. We’ll go through the cycle of ingestion and deconstruction three times per plant species. There are, perhaps, gentler ways to learn, but we might as well use that tough mouth of yours for something productive.”

Voidcatcher seemed content to crouch on the ground with his eyes closed. Tian didn’t know if he was cultivating, meditating, or just daydreaming.

The next blade of grass was no better than the first, but more easily tolerated due to prior experience. Tian managed to get a hand into the pond before the seizures took hold of his muscles, and almost immediately regretted it. Yin. Powerfully, deeply yin. It was assuredly at the Heavenly Realm or even higher, but he could feel a gentle membrane covering his hand, limiting his contact with the water. A cool, soothing sensation, without the edge of freezing death or coma-like sleep he might be risking otherwise.

“Thank you for limiting the power of the pond, Teacher.” Tian gasped, when he had more or less recovered himself.

“That’s not me. It’s the Holy Land. You lack the qualifications to even attempt to acquire the water from that pond, so your ability to contact it has likewise been limited. Your faith in me is appreciated, but in the future, don’t blindly touch things you aren’t sure you can survive. And you shouldn’t be so sure you could survive such a… high level… pond.”

“Is… is he going to just ignore the fact that he told me to stick my hand in this Beyond Heavenly Level pond?”

Yup. You can’t see it, but the pond, along with a whole lot of other things in here, are all carrying some comparatively sensible protections. It seems that when they said you can take whatever you are strong enough to take, there was a rather large asterisk on that.

“What’s an asterix, Grandpa?”

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Something not worth worrying about at the moment. Take advantage of the opportunity to get a feel for the waters’ qi. It’s coming through a filter, as it were, but this is still good stuff.

Grandpa was right about the pond water, whatever an asterix was. The pond felt like water, but also like putting his hand into the concept of a good nap, or a cold drink on a hot day. There was a sense of content contemplation, and a gathering strength. Tian was reminded of the Six Turns Cavern, where you didn’t just struggle with what an element was physically, you had to grapple with what it meant emotionally and philosophically.

In his case, it meant nourishing yin qi seeped in through his hands and was dragged along his meridians. It wasn’t a particularly effective way to do it, but the quality of the water overwhelmed whatever objections his body might have had. The Hell Suppressing Sutra grabbed the yin qi with enthusiasm, dragging it through his meridians and down into his lower dantian. The vital energy flowed through his body, all the damage caused by the grass suppressed and repaired in bare minutes.

“Excellent. I was worried healing time would limit the number of plants you could eat, but it seems you are well prepared. Now, just get the next one down you, and we will review what it is you are eating.”