Tale of an Ordinary Cultivator

Zhao Yunxiao leapt out of the ground when he finally arrived at the entrance of the Sect Library. With a snap of his fingers, he dispelled his clone that had been walking on the surface above him.

This was Zhao Yunxiao’s way of maximising his practice – by using both the Earthen Clone Technique and the Earth Burrowing Technique whenever he had some time alone.

As for coming to the Sect Library instead of visiting the Sect Market, that was due to Zhao Yunxiao having come to a decision.

Before looking for a good weapon at the Sect Market, he would first try to look up possible ways to create a suitable weapon for himself.

Should he be unable to come up with a feasible idea even after doing his research, that would be when he gave up and fell back to looking for a ready-made one.

Zhao Yunxiao already knew the basics of forging, so creating the fundamental structure of a weapon was nothing difficult.

However, what he wanted was not just some generic weapon.

Otherwise, the halberd that he possessed would have more than sufficed.

What he wanted was something special – something that would fit nicely into his combat habits, thereby allowing him to display far greater combat capabilities.

But how could he create something like that?

Or rather, what kind of weapon would be able to do just that?

As he slowly walked through the aisles between shelves, Zhao Yunxiao could not help but think of Nie Hanchang’s Grand Annihilator and Wei Yuandi’s World Reformer.

Since young, Nie Hanchang had always been pursuing the path of the bow and arrow. Because of that, he had a clear idea of the weapon he wanted, down to the tiniest of details. This obsession even allowed him to come up with a blueprint for his ideal weapon despite knowing next to nothing about smithing.

But honestly, apart from its physical properties and the fact that it was a mythical tier bow, Zhao Yunxiao knew little about what the Grand Annihilator was truly capable of.

As for Wei Yuandi, Zhao Yunxiao knew close to nothing about him except for the fact that he was a swordsman. Because of that, it was not surprising that his life-bound treasure was a sword. The World Reformer looked amazing in his hands, coming off as the perfect addition to Wei Yuandi as one combined entity.

Unfortunately, all this information was essentially useless to him in this situation.

In the end, he neither had an obsession for a particular weapon, nor was he at the ideal stage to create a life-bound treasure.

What he needed was just something that he could comfortably wield, one that could complement his combat path.

Zhao Yunxiao slowly browsed through the scrolls and books on the shelves.

If there was one thing in common between Nie Hanchang and Wei Yuandi, it would be that they had stayed true to their weapon of choice all these years.

For Zhao Yunxiao, he was still the most comfortable with the halberd, having gotten used to it as his main weapon of choice for many years.

Since that was the case, he would trust his instincts and stick with it again this time around.

But how should he make his halberd?

Weight, material, construct, shape, design, engravings... there were plenty of different things to consider.

Some of these might seem like insignificant details, but even the tiniest of details could end up having a huge impact on the resulting product.

Therefore, all of them had to be considered and reconciled in a holistic manner before even starting on the project.

Otherwise, the weapon could end up being extremely awkward to wield, or perhaps even fall apart entirely if there was a conflicting structure!

Zhao Yunxiao started looking into the different ways of creating halberds, as well as their corresponding advantages and disadvantages.

As time passed, various ideas began to appear in his mind, which he promptly noted down to the smallest detail.

He then went on to look up the various materials that were needed for each individual idea, wanting to find out their rarities and costs.

In the end, what he wanted might not be the same as what he could afford.

This was especially so since he could not guarantee success in a single seating, and thus might have to prepare multiple sets of the required materials.

It was a tedious research process, but Zhao Yunxiao was no stranger to hard work.

After noting down a long list of items that he would have to assess, the satisfied Zhao Yunxiao finally left the Sect Library to head over to the Sect Market.

But rather than the weapons available, he chose to look up the prices of the items on his list, thereby weighing the value of buying the items against the difficulty of actually acquiring the items himself.

For those that were out of his reach either way, Zhao Yunxiao did not hesitate to give up on the idea immediately.

Getting a good personal weapon was a want, not a need.

There was no reason to covet things that were not within his means.

At most, he could just look for a ready-made weapon if creating a suitable weapon did not look too feasible.

And if even buying a suitable ready-made weapon was too expensive, Zhao Yunxiao was fully ready to just give up on getting one altogether!

After combing the Sect Market, Zhao Yunxiao walked away with a list of prices for all the materials that he needed.

Some were affordable, others were not.

But thankfully, things did not seem too impossible.

Through the process of elimination, Zhao Yunxiao was finally left with two possible plans.

One aimed to create a heavy halberd that focused on absolute sturdiness and weight, a symbol of pure physical might.

The other aimed to create a halberd that sacrificed a little of that physical prowess in exchange for elemental and energy affiliation.

In short, the former would be able to fully exhibit the strength of the weapon, while the latter would be able to better exhibit the strength of the user.

It was not a difficult choice.

As an outer disciple, Zhao Yunxiao could not afford to just keep buying new weapons as he progressed.

Therefore, getting one that could scale in strength was definitely much more enticing, since it meant that he would be able to use the weapon for as long as possible.

While it might not be as useful as the former right now, that should change when he eventually advances in cultivation levels in the future!

With that, Zhao Yunxiao started to draw up a blueprint in his head to confirm the final materials, most of which were rather affordable.

There was only one particular material that was too expensive – essence of the grimoire fruit.

The grimoire plant was named as such because of its magical characteristic – each part of the plant possessed a different elemental property.

And among the different parts, the grimoire fruit possessed both earth and metal elemental properties, making its essence ideal as a catalyst for Zhao Yunxiao’s halberd.

Unfortunately, due to how useful the grimoire plant was, it was also an item that was in huge demand.

What made it worse was that most parts of the plant lose their elemental properties soon after the death of the plant, so the rest of it could not be kept and sold after use, either.

This resulted in the price of the plant being a little too high for Zhao Yunxiao’s comfort.

Fortunately for him, there was a natural habitat for grimoire plants not too far away from Purple Plum Mountain.

Ghost Fog Valley – a mysterious valley that was known for being constantly shrouded in a naturally occurring fog.

Armed with that information, it did not take much for Zhao Yunxiao to decide to personally go and harvest the grimoire plants he needed.

Yes, the presence of the fog served as a form of deterrent initially. However, Zhao Yunxiao felt much more comfortable about it after seeing records that the fog comprised mere mist and was not harmful in nature.

As long as it was not something sinister, then there was no reason to be too worried.

After all, cultivators still had their spiritual senses to rely on even when their visions were obscured by something like fog.

Zhao Yunxiao nodded to himself in determination.

There was still quite some time until the opening of the Four Symbols Mystic Realm, so now was the perfect opportunity to take some time off to do this!

And thinking about the grimoire plant, Zhao Yunxiao could not help but be reminded of his darkpetal lily.

It had been a while since he had planted it at his garden plot, so perhaps it was time to go check in on it.

But prior to doing so, Zhao Yunxiao first headed for the Outer Disciples Hall.

Now that he had decided to visit Ghost Fog Valley for the grimoire plant, Zhao Yunxiao was intending to look for a simple mission that he could complete while he was at it.

This time, there was nothing as simple as the lumber contract renewal mission that he had found last time.

Instead, Zhao Yunxiao took on a mission that was slightly more complicated, albeit just as danger-free as the last.

On the way to Ghost Fog Valley, there was a small village named Kindness that had been suffering from a drought for nine months. With their crops failing and their livelihood threatened, they had sent a desperate request for help to the Black Tortoise Sect, hoping that they could send someone to help perform a rain dance.

With Zhao Yunxiao’s current mastery of arrays, this was not a difficult matter.

Satisfied with what he found, Zhao Yunxiao finally left the Outer Disciples Hall for his garden plot.

It had been a few weeks since he last visited his garden plot, but Zhao Yunxiao was not too worried.

After all, he had his trusted senior martial brothers, Lei Wenzhang and Qing Bian, taking care of things for him there.

“You are here, Junior Martial Brother Zhao?” Lei Wenzhang exclaimed in surprise upon seeing him. “What brought you here all of a sudden?”

“Of course, I’m here because I missed you,” Zhao Yunxiao laughed.

“Last I checked, I am not wearing a dress today?” Lei Wenzhang shrugged.

“Is Senior Martial Brother Qing around?” Zhao Yunxiao casually.

“Junior Martial Brother Qing is not around today,” Lei Wenzhang shook his head. “Why? Are you here to look for him?”

“No, that’s fine. I’m really just here to check in on my experiments,” Zhao Yunxiao answered frankly.

“Ah, it’s about time you did!” Lei Wenzhang exclaimed, seemingly having recalled something. “You will probably be surprised to see what happened!”

“What happened?” Zhao Yunxiao raised an eyebrow in surprise.

“Come and see for yourself,” Lei Wenzhang led the way deeper into the garden plot.

The duo walked past the regular crops that had been planted to meet the sect’s monthly quota, and quickly arrived at Zhao Yunxiao’s experimental area.

It was where Zhao Yunxiao’s two carnivorous frozen spiders were located, as well as the poisonous darkpetal lily that he had transplanted later.

And just as Lei Wenzhang had predicted, Zhao Yunxiao was indeed surprised when he arrived.

Then again, perhaps it was more accurate to call it shocked than surprised.

After all, out of the two frozen spiders, only one remained!

“The weaker one is gone?” Zhao Yunxiao frowned.

“After it wilted to a certain extent, the other one suddenly ate it,” Lei Wenzhang said. “I still remember seeing it from afar. That scared the shit out of me!”

“It eats plants too?!” Zhao Yunxiao gasped. “And from that distance?”

“Apparently so,” Lei Wenzhang answered uncomfortably. “I hope that marks the end of your experiment?”

“I never thought that frozen spiders are cannibals too,” Zhao Yunxiao rubbed his chin in contemplation. “But you are right. Now that there’s no longer a pair of control and test subjects, there’s naturally no reason to keep this going.”

With that, he pulled out a scroll to note down what happened, before proceeding to skilfully remove the remaining frozen spider from the ground.

While it could be considered a dangerous spiritual plant, that only applied to the uninformed.

Zhao Yunxiao had been studying the frozen spiders for a while, and knew exactly how to handle them without putting himself in danger.

After removing it, Zhao Yunxiao promptly stored it away in his spatial pouch.

While its value as an experimental subject was gone, most spiritual plants had some sort of medicinal use to them, and the frozen spider was no exception.

Ever since he began his experiment, Zhao Yunxiao had planned what he wanted to do with the plant once he was done with the experiments – to grind the frozen spider into ingredients that would eventually be made into a pill.

Next, it was just a matter of putting it into practice.

“I feel much better with that carnivorous thing gone,” Lei Wenzhang admitted before noticing something from the corner of his eye. “Wait, what’s happening to that one over there?”

“Hmm?” Zhao Yunxiao turned to follow Lei Wenzhang’s gaze, and immediately narrowed his eyes in realisation. “It looks like visiting today was truly the right decision.”

Not far away from them, in the huge net that he had set up previously, Zhao Yunxiao could see that the darkpetal lily was just about to bloom!