Chapter 8: About Heavenly Lightning Essence

Chapter 8: Chapter 8: About Heavenly Lightning Essence

Ye Xuan tapped his bag of holding and took out his pouch. Just as he was about to show it, the woman named Li turned her face away without so much as a glance at him.

"I’ve gotten what I wanted," the woman said, putting the scroll back on its shelf.

"I’m leaving. I’ll consider the matter between us settled. So don’t bother me again!"

"B-But..."

Before Ye Xuan could call out to her, she had already strolled away, leaving him alone in the room.

He let out a short breath and planted his hands on his hips, realizing just how annoying her personality was.

But there was a bright side. Thanks to her, Ye Xuan finally understood what lightning essence was used for.

Otherwise, he might never have known.

So lightning essence can only be used in pill refining. I’m not skilled at that. Maybe I should just sell these items?

His curiosity surged. He wanted to know more about lightning essence. He was in a city library packed with information, and he might find a record of it if he searched.

Ye Xuan put the history scroll away and walked along the shelves, section by section. His steps stopped at the very last section, the widest one, with the most record scrolls in it.

It was the cultivation items section.

Lightning is part of the elements. Or it could be a gem or stone, since it looks like a spirit stone, only a different color.

Ye Xuan focused on two parts: elemental items and gem items. His hand shot up and took down a good number of record scrolls at once.

Using his qi threads, he floated the scrolls into the air and spread them all open at the same time.

His eyes moved from left to right and top to bottom, searching for lightning essence.

"I found it!"

His eyes landed on a record about elemental essence. According to the record, elemental essence was a pure seed of an element that could be used for many things, such as aiding in battle, cultivating, refining pills, and even creating a new natural element within a person’s body.

Its grades varied, with Mortal Stage the lowest and Heavenly the highest ever recorded. The item Ye Xuan owned was Heavenly Lightning Essence.

"I never expected this item to hold a seed of pure natural element. As far as I know, a person can only get an element when they’re born."

"I was born with a Basic Spirit Root of the fire element. If I use this item, could my spirit root change and my command of the elements grow?"

Ye Xuan turned and looked at Qingyu. The white snake had a special connection to the lightning element, since it had received a fragment from its ancestor, a Seven-Colored Lightning Python.

Asking Qingyu’s opinion about the Heavenly Lightning Essence might help him decide.

"I know what the Heavenly Lightning Essence does now. Do you think I should use it right away?" Ye Xuan asked.

Qingyu shook its head, looked straight ahead, and leaped. Ye Xuan gasped as he watched the white snake slither up the wall shelves and stop at the cultivation section.

Before long, Qingyu bit down on a record scroll with information about the Foundation Establishment Stage.

It jumped down and gave the scroll to Ye Xuan. Even though neither of them spoke, he could tell Qingyu was giving him advice through the scroll.

Ye Xuan crouched, took the scroll, and held it up to Qingyu. "So you mean I have to reach Foundation Establishment first before I can use that item?"

The white snake on the floor nodded briefly, then crawled back up Ye Xuan’s body and returned to his neck.

Something felt a little off to Ye Xuan. Elder Ming had once told him that a cultivator’s journey begins once their cultivation foundation has formed, and that happens when someone steps into the Foundation Establishment stage.

But the Lightning Essence he owned was Heavenly stage, which meant the pure lightning power in a single seed was strong enough to destroy his body from the inside, even if his cultivation base was Foundation Establishment.

Still, it was Qingyu who had told him. The item had also come from Qingyu, thanks to Ye Xuan’s Infinite Return System.

Qingyu had absorbed a fragment of power from a Seven-Colored Lightning Stone. She might know more about lightning than anyone Ye Xuan had met so far.

In the end, Ye Xuan reached his conclusion. For now, he couldn’t use the item because his cultivation base wasn’t strong enough.

But he would try using it later, once he had the chance to break through to Foundation Establishment.

"I think that’s enough information for today. It’s getting late, we should head back."

***

The next day.

A wave of spiritual qi spread out from his room. Ye Xuan opened his eyes and felt his understanding of the Qi Palm fighting technique sink fully into his soul.

With that, he had now learned at least three fighting techniques that would be useful later. That was more than enough.

Too many fighting techniques without a matching rise in cultivation base wasn’t effective.

"We don’t have much time at this inn. I don’t plan to go back to the sect any sooner. I need to go out and see the world."

"There are still three months before the sect elders’ evaluation," Ye Xuan said. "I’ll probably go back when the evaluation happens."

"What do you think, Qingyu?"

Ye Xuan turned and looked at Qingyu, who lay coiled on top of the wooden nightstand. The white snake raised its head, looked ahead, and nodded briefly.

Ye Xuan held out his hand, inviting Qingyu to climb back onto his neck.

He planned to leave Yanlong City for somewhere else, to see the world and understand things that were new to him.

Qingyu didn’t refuse. It seemed eager and happy, showing no sign of aggression.

Before leaving, Ye Xuan went to a shop and bought a sword.

His old sword had been taken by the woman surnamed Li, and he had no idea where she was, since her room was quiet and looked empty.

Ye Xuan chose a sword with a black blade. As he was about to pay, his attention was drawn to a bucket full of scrolls.

"What are those?" Ye Xuan asked.

"Ah, those are maps of the whole Xiao Empire, complete with cities, sect territories, and certain forests."

I’m about to start my journey. Without a map, it would be like walking with no direction.

"I’ll take one."

"The total is 31 spirit stones, Fellow Daoist."

After paying, Ye Xuan put his sword in his bag of holding and unrolled the map. When the scroll spread open, the territory of the Xiao Empire lay clearly before him.

Qingyu suddenly hissed loudly, then climbed onto the map and pointed at a forest area near Guyang City and the Mist Forest Sect’s territory.

"Scarlet Moon Forest? What kind of place is that?"

The shop owner stood up from his seat and looked toward the spot. His face showed a little shock, and then he looked ahead.

"Scarlet Moon Forest is a dangerous region. Very few cultivators dare to enter it."

"Why?"

"Because the deeper you go, the more snakes you’ll find," said the shop owner, "And they’re not ordinary snakes."

It was quite far from Yanlong City, so why had Qingyu pointed straight at that place without hesitation?

Is there something there connected to it?

Ye Xuan looked to the side at Qingyu. The white snake’s eyes stayed fixed on him, as if waiting for his approval.

He didn’t know what the place was like, but if the shop owner was right, it was a very dangerous place for someone who was still a Qi Gathering cultivator.

"I hear it’s a dangerous place. The monsters there could kill us both," Ye Xuan murmured.

Without warning, Qingyu opened its mouth and bit Ye Xuan for no reason, making him wince in pain.

"Aagh!"

"Fine, fine. We’ll go!"

This snake... sometimes I can’t tell what it’s thinking.

Ye Xuan looked at the map again, it said Scarlet Moon Forest on it.

For some reason he felt a strange feeling.

There was no hesitation in the white snake as it pointed to the spot, as if it was remembering where it had been.