Simply Trading 84 Reaching Foundation 4

Qin Feng climbed out of the well-pond after night had fallen, and glumly made his way back to his little house. There was still a hole in the roof - that had been barely covered with the boards that Chen Xing had managed to scrounge from some other building somewhere. But even with its defects, the place still made a more comfortable place than where he had been working on his Foundation training earlier.

Well, it had been more than four hours since he crept into the well to cultivate. So it was no surprise that Chen Xing had made some simple repairs. That old fellow was a responsible sort, and he didn't treat any of his juniors too badly. Although Qin Feng was probably one of his favorites, since he had always made sure to pass some of his 'extra' herbs to Chen Xing. That would have certainly made the old man inclined towards him.

Which seemed to have gone a little better than he had expected, given the attention that Elder Ming and some of his peers were paying to him now!

Then he sighed, and shook his head.

He didn't have the leisure to worry about silly things like that. Not when he still had to deal with the problems he was facing in his own advancement, and how he was going to sell the delay that he was experiencing to the Medicine Hall.

Especially when his progress past the Foundation Realm was not going to happen for close to a year or more! That would be roughly how long it would take, to accumulate up to sixteen strands of Foundation qi!

And that was barely for what Old Man Snow Mountain had called a four-storey pagoda! If he really wanted to build a proper seven-level one, he would need twenty-eight strands! At least!

Qin Feng sighed again, and moved to the simple bench that he had set at the door in front of his cottage. It overlooked the fields in front of it, so he had more or less gotten into the habit of sitting there, so that he could survey all that he controlled, every night after dinner.

It made for a good place to think. And to revise his plans.

And he certainly needed to adjust his, to include what he had just found out about the Foundation Realm, and the Qi Accumulation Realm above it.

He was more than familiar with the Jade Tree Sixteen Breathing Exercises by now, and he had to say that it had not let him down. He took a little longer than most, to finally set his first step down on his path of cultivation, but that was only to be expected. After all, hadn't everyone been telling him that he had nothing more than a rather ordinary talent?

But he had just been told that he would have to concentrate on those same exercises for another year or so, before he was ready to finally step into the Qi Accumulation Realm. Given his hopes of making a bit of a name for himself in the School, that was certainly a bit of a disappointment, to say the least.

Nor was that the only piece of bad news:

The memories that the old man had released to him were more concerned with imparting him with the second method of cultivation, rather than the first. The White Jade Orchid Flower Law. That was its name.

And once he had understood the basis of that particular technique, the reason that Old Man Snow Mountain had sent him half-way across the Known Territories to get his hands on the Jade Tree Sixteen Breathing Exercises became clear.

The White Jade Orchid Flower Law was not something that could be trained from the ground up. It was formulated using a strong Foundation as a basis, but it did not provide the method for cultivating that same Foundation. Hence, one had to find something that would match it, in order to get the best results.

And since the Jade Tree Technique and the White Jade Orchid Flower Law were both drawn from the idea of Jade, these two methods were certainly more suited to one another than expected. That was probably why Old Man Snow Mountain had bothered to insist on this particular combination!

Not to mention, from what he knew of medicinal herbs, and the way that they were cultivated, an epiphyte like an orchid usually flourished if they were grown on the bark of a tree. That was how they grew in nature, and he had seen other orchid plants doing the same, there in the medicine fields.

So basically, his secondary method was supposed to leverage on his first technique. And the fact that both of them were supposed to be related to Jade, they should gel together with greater efficiency.

At least, that was what he hoped.

Besides, he didn't think that Old Man Snow Mountain would seriously make trouble for him, his only official disciple. Not to mention, the only one who has any idea that he was dead!

But that was not the problem that he saw in this particular combination. So long as he had a sturdy tree to grow his orchid on, he should be able to bring this method, and his cultivation, to greater heights. And the Tree that made up the core of his inner strength would grow on, and become a towering giant, the longer that he continued to work on it!

The only issue, therefore, was the quality of his Jade Tree!

A simple Foundation was certainly not going to be able to give him the sort of Jade Tree that he required to make his White Jade Orchid shine!

Qin Feng's brows knitted together as soon as he considered that. There would be no point in being satisfied with a simple satisfactory grade for his Foundation, if it was going to affect the rest of his cultivation journey like this.

This was clearly something that most of the Outer School disciples there at the Heaven Sword School had missed. But it was not that much of a surprise, now that he thought about it. This sort of thing was probably only spoken about if one became an Inner School disciple. Too bad that one's best period for building up a Foundation would be over by the time that one made it past the qualifying examinations!

Well, that was certainly something that he was not going to rush into.

But ... twenty-eight strands! How long was that going to take?

Qin Feng took a deep breath, and blew it out again, as he gazed at his now-damaged fields. And made his plans anew.

He was going to have to spend a lot more time working on his Foundation, and strengthening it. Which meant that he certainly should not show off his abilities in the next Tournament in Summer.

Fortunately for him, getting his fields back into order was clearly a priority. And he could also use the very reasonable excuse of being preoccupied with the Hunting in the Southern Forest!

The only thing that he needed to do was to find a way to get Elder Ming to extend his special permission slip past those first three missions!

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Chapter end

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