6 Dragon Breath Moonflower Tea (1/2)

Shin Sumi woke up to an unknown combination of smells in her nostrils.

It was like nothing she had ever smelled before; it was somewhat strong but also gentle. This flowery waft was nice but moderately unsettling.

Without knowing what woke her up, the first thing Shin Sumi thought about when she regained consciousness was the spirit stone.

Having slept a whole night in the refreshing waters of the pond, she felt rejuvenated. Fumbling around for a while, she finally fished out the high grade spirit stone.

The little thumb sized stone had lost a bit of its golden luster, dissipating in the waters overnight.

Shin Sumi looked at her hands for a few seconds, testing her body to see if she was feeling different, having soaked in spirit spring water for a whole night.

Unfortunately nothing was feeling out of the norm, and it was with a dejected face that Shin Sumi got out of the pond.

Her skin was as white as ever, shining like a pale moon with the glistening droplets of water.

The water flowing in the Dark Sky Starry sect was somewhat special as Shin Sumi's skin was nowhere near as wrinkled as it would have been after a whole night in normal water.

She once more donned her red robes before her gaze ventured behind the stone bench.

Because of the bench and the poor light, as the sun wasn't brightening the heavy clouds yet, she hadn't seen the source of the flowery smell yet.

Her beautiful eyes couldn't help but widen in an exaggerated manner when the caught sight of the pile of spirit plants.

A few minutes before going to the pond to soak the evening before, she had put all the seeds in her possession in a small pile on a stone tile.

She hadn't even planted them and yet, laying before her was a strange assortiment of spirit plants and flowers.

Shin Sumi didn't know the name of the Immortal plants, but she remembered more or less what she had picked up in the fields.

She also remembered quite well what the plants looked like since she had spent some time looking at all the Honorary Disciples in the middle of nurturing the fields.

And yet none of the plants in her courtyard looked exactly like them !

”This one seems similar to the yellow flower in the southern field. But this one has more petals... And this plant ! It's almost identical to the strangely shaped red vegetable, but it has orange dots !”

As she went on to inspect the plants and flowers a bit closer, Shin Sumi quickly found that all of them shared a strong resemblance to the plants she remembered.

”Can it be because of the little nut ? The seeds had changed after it swallowed them and then spit them out. Is that what the nut does ?” she pondered absent-mindedly while observing the plants. ”It takes things and changes them to something better... Just like the spirit stones, the seeds have been upgraded ! Is that also why they have grown so fast ?”

The plants in the fields were at all sorts of growth stages, from tiny sprouts to more than a few meters tall plants.

Those right before her though were not fully grown, but it was still nothing short of a miracle to have seen them change from a seed to what they now were.

A sudden realization hit Shin Sumi as she was thinking about the matter. Taking out the used spirit stone, she wondered.

”Or maybe this high grade spirit stone's power didn't just dissolve in the spring water ! The entire courtyard was probably affected. After all it has a really strong Shinsoo concentration, perhaps it's possible.”

Shin Sumi made a quick mental note to find more seeds and test them in the future, with and without having the nut refine them.

Despite having slept in Shinsoo filled Immortal spring water, Shin Sumi hadn't shown any signs of change and her body was still that of a mortal.

Her stomach growled to remind her of that. Her energy had been replenished by the waters but she still needed to eat.

Thinking about what she had learned recently from the newcomer's guide, Shin Sumi carefully selected a few plants.

In the book it was mentioned that as long as Honorary Disciples worked for it, they could take a certain amount of certain plants for them to eat.

The plants weren't something mortals could find in the mortal world, and they were grown in an Immortal sect, making them perfectly suitable nutrition for cultivation.

In fact due to the low spirit stone income that Honorary Disciples usually earned, most of them relied mainly on the spirit plants to cultivate.

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The spirit flowers were grown for the purpose of serving as medicinal ingredients, and nourishment for some beasts from the farms.

Following one of the recipes from the guide, Shin Sumi cooked the indicated parts of the plants in a big metal pot of boiling spirit sprint water.

Having been in the Immortal world only for a few days, Shin Sumi didn't know of it but anyone in the sect would have started to pull their hair from their heads in frustration by seeing how she used all these precious materials.

Obviously cooking spirit plants was fine, and no one would bat an eye. But using water and plants refined by a high grade spirit stone to cook such normal food was definitely an oddity.

Considering the price of these things on the sect's market, Shin Sumi was living a life nobody could afford without even knowing it.

But at least she knew all these items were precious enough, considering how strange the grey nut was and the part that it had in their production.

Over the course of the next few days, Shin Sumi would carefully hide all her treasures in her room every morning before leaving her courtyard.

The sect was big and she hadn't even explored all of the lower valley and the adjacent fields and training grounds.

When the sky started darkening, she would then go back to her quiet private courtyard to sleep, alternating between the waters of the pond and the more comfortable but less refreshing bed.

Everyday she would come across hundreds of disciples. Sometimes she would try to get to know some of them and sometimes avoid them. Based on her previous encounters, Shin Sumi tended to judge people easily based on their appearances.

All of the aspiring Immortals had a certain ego about them that made them think less of any people beneath them on the cultivation hierarchy. It was especially true with Honorary Disciples wearing a color different than red, and with disciples that had already reached a certain point of Shinsoo gathering.

Shin Sumi usually did her best to avoid these people as much as she could, preferring the company of red robes disciples who hadn't condensed any Shinsoo like herself.

As their presence in the sect alone indicated, all of the disciples Shin Sumi saw had at least a tiny bit of Shinsoo affinity and basic talent. After all, all of them succeeded the three entry tests.

Maybe some of them had cheated their way in by means of strange treasures like she did, or by having relations with someone already in the sect, but it definitely wasn't the norm, and these people could actually be counted on one hand.

Shin Sumi was different. After all even after using a whole high grade spirit stone and a good portion of quality materials, she still hadn't made even the smallest advancement in her cultivation.

”Maybe I'm destined to stay a mortal forever. I will still try for a few more months, maybe I just need more spirit stones !”

Soon enough, a week had passed since her arrival, and on the morning of the seventh day, a red robed clerk showed up at the gates of Shin Sumi's courtyard.

”Sister Shin, I have a message for you from Elder Zhu from the Affairs Pavilion. May you open the gates ?”

Shin Sumi was trying to cultivate on the stone bench, breathing in and out while holding a spirit stone.

When she heard the voice of the clerk, a warm smile lit up her face and she opened her eyes.

To make sure the Shinsoo from the spirit stone wouldn't dissipate too much, she put it into her bag of holding. The bags were made of a special refined material that concealed what was inside. It was all described in the newcomer's guide.

Shin Sumi then proceeded to open the gates after adjusting her robes on her shoulders.