Eternal Tale
chapter-30

"Senior, on that stormy night, I went through countless hardships to pick this spiritual herb at the top of a cliff." Chen Xun was about to collapse again, tears welling up in his eyes. "To ensure its medicinal properties remained intact, I suffered severe injuries just to deliver it to Senior as quickly as possible."

Hearing Chen Xun’s heart wrenching words, the sect elder was once again uncertain, but after a moment of hesitation, he still added ten more spiritual stones to Chen Xun's payment.

"Senior sure is experienced. Nothing good can escape your eyes!" Chen Xun exclaimed excitedly as if he had never seen spiritual stones in his life.

When the sect elder pried Chen Xun’s cultivation base, he was astonished. _ It turned out that this man was at the seventh level of Qi Refining. He’s so young!_

As the elder was immersed in his amazement, Chen Xun went ahead and bought thirty more medicine boxes and left.

"Is that guy really a seventh-level Qi Refiner?"

The sect elder was stunned for a long time. This person's behavior and demeanor didn’t match his cultivation at all. He seemed more like a mortal.

With a hunched back, Chen Xun slowly walked around the valley, haggling with vendors near their stalls for a long time. He bought three bags of medical herb seeds, but this time, he carefully examined the contents before handing over the spiritual stones.

He didn’t attract much attention, especially with that torn snakeskin bag he carried around. The empty medicine boxes shuffled around in his bag and appeared through the torn hole every now and then. His appearance left the experienced cultivators feeling unlucky that day.

Chen Xun wandered around before entering another sect pavilion. He narrated a different version of his story this time.

He didn’t seem embarrassed when he wept and cried to the pavilion elders, but the same couldn’t be said about the latter.

Chen Xun’s waist seemed to bend from the increasing weight of the snakeskin bag. He carried a mournful face that would make you think he had lost his ox friend.

He would stop at stalls and haggle the vendors for lower prices. He would even go over great lengths for a single spirit stone.

Later, he went to the alchemy pavilion and purchased a better alchemy furnace for fifty lower-grade spiritual stones.

As Chen Xun left the alchemy pavilion and went back to the street, it suddenly dawned on him that the alchemy furnace needed to be nourished with spiritual energy. He had neglected to do that with his old furnace….

He then went on to visit multiple different pavilions and sold the hundred-year old spiritual herbs that he had. He made sure to wait an hour in between each transaction, however.

There were already more than ten bags of spiritual seeds in his snakeskin bag. They were all Qi Condensation spiritual seeds. He couldn’t find better ones anywhere.

He continued "scavenging." When vagabond cultivators saw his cultivation at the seventh level of Qi Condensation, they turned very polite and dared not deceive him.

Having gained a lot today, Chen Xun carried a slight smile and picked up his pace, leaving the valley. He soon returned back to the cave’s entrance without encountering any trouble.

"Old ox, I'm back!" He greeted and pushed the boulder to the side with one hand, and a black shadow darted out.

The black ox pounced on him instantly, mooing continuously.

"_Haha._ let's go inside to talk." Chen Xun held the ox's head and looked around before sealing the cave entrance again and walking inside.

"Moo, moo!" The big black ox kept circling Chen Xun with its eyes full of joy, and it kept tugging at him with its mouth.

"Alright, I won't leave you again in the future. It was just this once." Chen Xun said happily, looking at the snakeskin bag. "Quick, take a look at all these treasures inside!"

"Moo!"

The big black ox's eyes lit up and it smelled the scent of many spiritual herb seeds. It rushed to check and was immediately dumbfounded!

"Moo~"

The ox looked at Chen Xun in shock. There were actually more than twenty bags. This was incredible.

"Haha, old ox, they're all yours. There are also many ingredients for Qi Enhancing pills inside." Chen Xun turned his attention to the alchemy furnace before continuing, "Take good care of them with your spiritual energy. Don't let any bugs nibble on them."

"Moo, moo!"

"Old ox, remember to categorize the spiritual herbs. Don't be careless in your work. If we don’t develop good habits now, what will we do in the future?"

"Moo~~Moo!!"

...

In a certain cave on the outskirts of the Ningyun Mountain Range, two immortals were toiling away and using their time efficiently.

This year, the Qian Nation seemed to be even more turbulent, and cultivators started getting involved, messing with mortals.

The ten major sects dispatched a large number of disciples to stabilize the mortal world's order. After all, mortals were potential prospects and could not be allowed to die out at any cost.

The presence of cultivators in the mortal world caused great excitement among the common people. They prayed to them and worshiped them fervently for blessings.

With the intervention of the ten great sects, the Qian Nation seemed to have fallen into more chaos, and the appearance of demons and monsters has increased in recent days.

More and more ordinary people came to the Ningyun Mountain Range seeking immortality, which greatly excited the beasts deep in the mountains. More and more corpses piled up with every passing day and even the Ascension Conference turned a little restless.

[Ding, you can now add points.]

The voice of the Immortal System sounded in Chen Xun's mind, causing his eyes to glitter with excitement, and he said, "Old ox, this year we can try adding a point to Spiritual Energy." He continued, shouting, “Maybe we’ll experience a breakthrough in our cultivation if our spiritual energy increases accordingly!”

"Moo."

Th black ox, with its pitch black body resembling a large piece of coal, rushed over with wide open eyes.

"I’m ready. Let’s start!"

"Moo~~!"

With excitement in their eyes, Chen Xun and the black ox sat cross-legged on the ground and began adding points.

_Strength: 21, Speed: 21, Defense: 0, Spiritual Energy: 1, Essense of all Things: 20_

With the point added, a surge of heat flowed through their bodies. Chen Xun and the black ox became increasingly tense. Their eyes were slightly closed as they focused on sensing the spiritual energy in their bodies.

Half an hour passed and…

"What? Nothing happened?!"

"Moo?"

Chen Xun was bewildered, and so was the big black ox. They didn't feel any different at all and were still at the seventh level of Qi Condensation.

The cave was mostly dark, lit only by a faint candlelight that swayed gently with the breeze that seeped through the tiny crack in the boulder.

"Maybe one point is not enough to feel anything?"

"Moo."

The big black ox nodded, indicating that this might be the case. The more points assigned, the better the effect must be.

"Then let's try again next year. Let's get back to work for now," Chen Xun said indifferently, and the big black ox also nodded, running off to the herb field, seemingly unconcerned.

Two months later, Chen Xun and the big black ox were using a Fireball to dry their clothes when suddenly, a raging fire erupted in the cave, and thick smoke billowed.

"Oh my god…! Quick, put it out!"

"Moo!!"

Chen Xun and the big black ox roared in shock, and quickly cut the spiritual energy away from the Fireball Technique, causing it to snuff out. Their clothes were already burnt to a still, however….

The black ox hastily pushed the boulder away and both it and Chen Xun rushed outside. He only had underwear on and looked quite miserable.

"What... what just happened?" Chen Xun mumbled in shock, looking at the black ox. "I only used the Fireball Technique like usual."

"Moo?"

The big black ox shook its head, its eyes wide with suspicion as it looked at Chen Xun. _Did you secretly learn some new kind of spell? How was this the Fireball Technique? _It thought.

"Moo."

The big black ox pushed Chen Xun away and stood up, as if it wanted to demonstrate what the Fireball Technique really was.

Chen Xun stared at the big black ox in a daze, still confused.

"Moo!"

With a loud shout, the black ox focused its gaze in the distance, and its physical and spiritual energy powers surged to its hooves, forming an enormous fireball.

**_Boom! _**

A bright light illuminated the area with the sound of crackling. A huge fireball soared to the sky, burning countless branches and leaves to ashes, and causing thick smoke to rise up in the air.

"Old ox, stop it quickly! Put out the fire!" Chen Xun shouted in panic

Starting a wildfire would be a disaster! They didn’t know any spell to conjure water yet!