Walking through the fields, Evan Yang looked at the patches of withered herbs under the faint light of the Spirit Moon and sighed, "They've come to this... How can I bring them back to life?"
Then he sat down in the dirt, gazing at the dead herb plots, lost in thought. Absentmindedly, he reached out to touch the withered herbs. When his hand brushed a shriveled leaf, he suddenly heard a faint thump-thump sound through his fingers. "What is this?"
The strange occurrence startled Evan, making him jump up from the ground. He tried touching the leaves again—thump-thump, thump-thump. "Isn't that the sound of a heartbeat?"
Unsure, he touched many different withered herbs and found they all made the same thump-thump sound. "This is really weird." Curious, Evan closed his eyes to sense it more deeply. He realized the faint pulsing from the leaves was resonating with the seed inside him, creating the sensation of a heartbeat.
After discovering this, Evan grew curious about the connection between the seed inside him and the dead herbs. As he studied it, something miraculous happened: the withered leaves he touched seemed to absorb a breath of life, and every herb he touched recovered its original appearance.
"Am I seeing things? Can this energy be recycled?" Evan was stunned, staring in disbelief at the Heaven-Cold Seed inside him. He saw it glowing faint green—not sending energy into his blood this time, but channeling it out to his fingertips, which then passed it into the herbs he touched.
After observing the whole process, Evan worried the seed might lose its medicinal essence and affect his cultivation. He immediately sat down and started cultivating the second layer of the Rising Sun Scripture. Thankfully, the seed hadn't lost its function—it could still stabilize the violent fluctuations of his third-layer Qi-Refining.
At this moment, Evan finally understood: after absorbing enough energy, the Heaven-Cold Seed could transform it into new energy, maintaining his blood so it wouldn't overheat, and restoring dead herbs to their original state.
"Heaven-Cold Seed, its effects are miraculous—just as expected." Right now, Evan couldn't describe the joy in his heart.
But then Evan worried about another problem: after reviving these herbs, if he stood among them again, would the seed absorb their essence once more? To test this, he revived a patch and deliberately stood there for a long time. He found the seed remained completely still, as if uninterested in the herbs. "Could it be that the seed has evolved after absorbing so much herbal energy?"
Seeing the seed unmoved, Evan remembered how it barely reacted after absorbing essence days ago. He slapped his forehead and laughed, "That must be it!"
Evan never expected to discover such miraculous effects from the Heaven-Cold Seed today. He couldn't wait to revive all the withered herbs, and after working most of the night, he finally brought every plant back to life. Exhausted, he collapsed in the dirt, gazed up at the sky, and exclaimed, "Haha! I wonder what other abilities this seed has."
Immersed in joy, Evan smiled with innocent delight like a child.
It was nearly midnight before Evan finally got up. Covered in mud and sweat, he smiled, then walked toward his usual water-fetching spot—a large pool, above which hung a spectacular hundred-meter waterfall.
Without a second thought, Evan stripped off his clothes and dove into the water with a splash. "Ah, this feels great!" Today, besides mastering Sparkfire, he'd uncovered a new secret of the Heaven-Cold Seed, and Evan was overjoyed.
He kept flicking tiny flames onto his fingertips, but every time they touched the water, they hissed out as steam and vanished. Evan sighed, "If only I had the mnemonics for the next layers." Now that he'd mastered the first layer, he longed to learn the second, but Elder Victor Wu had only taught the first, claiming the later layers required Foundation-Building strength. Evan didn't know if that was true, but he couldn't stop wishing for the higher formulas.
"I wonder how many layers Elder Lee knows." Evan muttered as he bathed.
He washed for nearly half an hour, thinking about cultivation problems. To push the Rising Sun Scripture to the third layer, he'd need the Heaven-Cold Seed to evolve, which now required life essence beyond what ordinary herbs could provide. He could only find better medicinal plants.
In a place like the Rising Sun Sect, Evan had already explored nearly every spot where herbs grew over the past two years. There was no way any better medicinal plants would turn up.
Feeling helpless, Evan stood naked by the fire, drying his clothes while muttering, "What should I do?"
After almost another half hour, his clothes were finally dry. Evan put them on, doused the fire, and prepared to head back and get some sleep. Days of sleepless cultivation had left him exhausted, and he looked forward to reaching Foundation-Building, the 'no-hunger' realm, so he wouldn't need rest like a mortal.
He'd barely walked a few steps when he suddenly tripped and tumbled to the ground. "Ouch, what was that?" he grumbled, getting up and heading to the spot where he'd fallen.
Under the pale glow of the Spirit Moon, he could just make out a human-shaped figure. "What's this?" Evan, bold as ever, walked over and nudged it. "Hey, wake up!"
"Hey!" Evan called out a few more times, but the person didn't react at all. Still, it wasn't a corpse—he could hear faint breathing. With no other choice, Evan turned the body over and saw a young woman, her face covered in blood and her shoulder still bleeding.
"What's going on?" Evan realized she was still alive and quickly fetched water to moisten her lips. He tore a strip of cloth to wipe away the blood, then gathered some herbs and applied them to her shoulder. She cried out once and then fell back into unconsciousness.
"Why would there be a woman in the Rising Sun Sect?" Evan muttered as he sat beside her, unsure what to do. If he brought her back, he'd definitely be stopped; if he left her here, he feared wild wolves might get her. Helpless, he built a small fire and kept watch. Having gone so long without rest, Evan soon fell sound asleep.
At dawn, Evan woke feeling as if he'd rested for ages. He stretched, only to find the young woman had vanished. "Huh?"
Curious, he looked around and finally spotted her in the pool. In daylight, Evan could clearly see her features, and she noticed him too. The woman asked, "You saved me?"
"Yeah," Evan replied.
"You live nearby?" the woman asked again, still not quite convinced.
"I live right next door, in the Rising Sun Sect," Evan said, pointing to the sect behind him.
The woman stood in the water, her hair and shoulders submerged, droplets still clinging to her pale face and bright red lips. Perhaps due to her injuries, her face was drained of color. Where her shoulder wound had been, the skin was now flawless, and near her neck was a tattoo-like pattern of a flower or plant.
She moved her lips slightly and said softly, "So that's the sect."
Evan was too far from the water to make out the pattern clearly. The woman noticed his gaze and, a bit annoyed but not arrogant, said, "Little fellow, you saved big sister. How should I reward you?"
Her voice was so magnetic that Evan gulped and replied, a bit parched, "I was just passing by." He didn't know what else to say.
"Look at you, getting all shy. I won't tease you anymore. On that rock over there, I've left three pills as your reward for saving my life," the woman said with a chuckle.
Evan snapped out of his daze and realized he'd lost his composure. "Come on, Evan Yang," he silently chided himself, still wondering why he was so easily captivated by her.
"What's wrong?" the woman asked, surprised to see Evan just standing there.
"Nothing," Evan replied, glancing at the rock ahead. Sure enough, there was a box—he couldn't tell what was inside, but the ornate patterns and exquisite lid made it clear it was valuable.
"No need to look—it's yours now," the woman said, smiling as she saw him eyeing the box. Her voice grew fainter and fainter as she spoke.
Evan looked up just in time to see the woman rise into the air, glancing back at him with a smile. "Is she an immortal?" Evan exclaimed, shocked that she could fly without even using a treasure.
The woman, of course, had no idea what Evan was thinking—she was already gone, leaving only a box resting quietly on the rock.
Evan hadn't planned to accept the gift, but with the giver gone, he could only pick up the box. The same fragrance he'd noticed while treating her lingered, mixed with a faint medicinal scent.
Curious, Evan opened the box and saw three finger-thick pills lying quietly inside. In the sunlight, they emitted a faint, pale-red glow. Holding the box in one hand, he picked up a pill and examined it. "What kind of pill is this?" It was his first time seeing a cultivation pill, and he studied it closely under the light.
Cultivation pills are aids on the path to immortality. Good pills can extend a mortal's lifespan, each with its own effect: some replenish spiritual power, some heal injuries. Elder Victor Wu had mentioned that in the Eastern Continent, there are famous pill-refining sects.
Pill sects produce pills in four grades: human, earth, heaven, and mystic. Each grade comes in four qualities: low (pale-yellow glow), middle (pale-cyan glow), high (pale-red glow), and supreme (fiery-red glow). The higher the quality, the fewer impurities and the stronger the medicinal effects.
The quality of a pill depends on the alchemist's skill and the recipe. The higher the grade, the harder it is to refine. Master alchemists can sometimes produce mystic-grade pills from special formulas, while beginners may struggle to make even human-grade pills, which contain more impurities.
Some sects study pill refining, but no matter their skills or recipes, they can't compare to true pill sects.
Looking at the pill in his hand, Evan couldn't tell what grade these three pills were, but judging by their pale-red glow, he concluded they must be high-quality.
Evan was lost in thought, but suddenly noticed the pill's pale-red glow fading. "What's happening?" He quickly brought it closer to his eyes and saw it crumbling, finally turning to powder and drifting from his palm.