It took a minute before Haishi looked up and took the sandalwood case with the primal lotus dew. The primal lotus dew like its name was dew produced by the primal lotus flower. The dew is produced every 100 years. whose size and efficacy increase the older the primal lotus flower gets. The flower is a rarity around the world that would cause an upheaval if news of its location got around. Every sect from sect 1 to the lowest sect 5 would fight for a chance to own the flower.
Both the flower and the dew are of huge importance to human cultivators and spirit beasts alike especially ones that are naturally attuned to the water element like Haishi. The primal lotus flower's main use is to induce an epiphany that lasts a whole day. The older the flower the longer the duration of the epiphany. Some have been known to last even a year.
Entering a state of epiphany is something that can be chanced upon and not something deliberately sought after. Cultivators could spend their entire lifetimes without entering an epiphany state while most would enter that state once or twice in their entire lives. Those who do even if it's just once end up making qualitative strides in their cultivation. Almost all cultivation techniques have been created when one was in a state of epiphany. Some have been improved from the lowest red grade into a gold grade due to epiphany. The fruits that one can harvest from just a brief moment of epiphany far outweigh what one could get from bitter hard cultivation or pills that are used in the same.
Treasures and natural oddities that can induce that state are few and far in between and the primal lotus flower is one of the few. Feng Xin at the moment only had the dew and the stalk. The stalk had almost no use other than ensuring the long-term stability of the dew after it has been separated from the flower. If the dew is separated completely from the flower it experiences a dip in its efficacy and dissipates easily. However, if left on the stalk it can exist for a longer time in support of supplementary measures like the ink sandalwood Feng Xin stored it in.
Though the stalk is useless in some regards the same can't be said about the dew. Its degree of importance may not match the level of the flower but it's of significant importance just the same. The dew when consumed temporarily alters the sensitivity of the user's body to the spirit qi in their surroundings. Their body before may have been like a dry rock in water but after consuming the dew their body turns into a dry sponge greatly soaking in the qi. This effect lasts at a minimum of half an hour but the duration lasts longer the larger and older the dew is. The one in Feng Xin's possession was the size of a melon seed which would last for half an hour.
In the cultivation world what sets apart cultivators other than wealth and power is talent. Talent can be appraised in various numerous forms and one of those forms is someone's aptitude for sensing qi in their surroundings and their rate of absorption. The higher your sensitivity the easier it becomes to absorb qi in large quantities and the smoother your cultivation technique cycle becomes of converting the outside qi internally and filling up your dantian or completing circulation cycles. This increases the speed of cultivation.
A person with an average level aptitude will have completed a qi circulation cycle multiple times before someone with a mediocre aptitude manages to draw enough qi to start their qi cycle. The primal lotus dew can however improve albeit temporarily someone's aptitude in sensing and absorbing qi by a couple of levels. Someone with a mediocre aptitude would be increased to the average level while someone with an average level would be increased to just at the doorstep of what someone with a genius aptitude would experience. As for those with a genius-level aptitude the heavens are fair. They have already been blessed with great natural talent that most would envy so they get nothing from the dew just negligible increases in the amount of qi they can sense. Their only takeaway from consuming the dew is its sweet and refreshing taste. Feng Xin had it for that exact reason. He had traded a few years' worths of treasures and favors for that tiny dew that he intended to use for a sea soup recipe he stumbled on in an auction which he would now have to improvise on since one of the key ingredients, the dew is missing.
Haishi picked the stalk up with deep fanaticism in her eyes as she passed back the sandalwood box to Feng Xin.
"Make sure to properly refine the dew so the effects last longer as you may need to fly full speed for quite the distance. You can start any time now." Feng Xin said. Haishi nodded solemnly like a child receiving instructions before she swallowed the dew, stalk, and all.
Her large compound eyes turned into narrow saucers as she hovered up and down as if in glee. A huge change soon underwent in her body that made her pause her momentary glee of savoring the dew. Her body felt warmer with the temperature increasing drastically by the second. Just when she thought she couldn't handle the heat, a huge cool energy blanketed her. The energy refreshed her, and the overwhelming heat from before dissipated. What was left now was a level of comfort she had never felt before. Even the tensed-up emotions she felt from being around Feng Xin seemed to have been washed away by the cool refreshing energy. Haishi soon lost herself to that feeling.
"Haishi focus." Haishi was woken up from that reverie as she felt as if freezing cold air had penetrated her whole body. Her eyes opened wide in trepidation.
"Don't lose yourself to momentary satisfaction here. You still haven't even started properly refining the dew. It's not much so we don't have the luxury of wasting even a tiny amount away. Keep a calm mind and try to sense the energy around the dew and not your surroundings despite how comfortable it feels. Dive into the dew inside of you. Its nature, its rhythm, and its breath. Be led by it and ignore everything else. The more you attune yourself to it the better the effects you'll receive.' Feng Xin gently said trying to calm Haishi's excited emotions.
Haishi soon calmed down as she closed her eyes and tried to sense the dew inside her. As she immersed herself within, she saw the dew that was still as tiny but the more she drew closer to it the larger it seemed. The dew suddenly transformed into a long river and swallowed Haishi. Haishi tried to fly away the moment she was swallowed but her wings started turning into a rock it started with one wing and then quickly spread to all the other three wings. Haishi tried as she might, just couldn't escape the clutches of the river. A massive pain soon assaulted her whole body. She felt it was being forcibly transformed. Her bones and inside were all being compressed and the more she struggled the worse it felt. When she was about to give up she remembered Feng Xin's words on diving into the nature, rhythm, and breath of the dew and ignoring everything else so as to be led by it. She let herself completely go and stopped struggling against the transformation. The moment she let go, the pain disappeared and the transformation proceeded swiftly and smoothly. At the end of the transformation, she got turned into a crude-looking rock which then sunk to the bottom of the river and was dragged along with its flow.
She completely immersed herself in the flow of the river. She was dragged along for what seemed years with the river showing no signs of stopping. In those years, however, there was a great change to her now-rock body. What started off as crude and jagged had been smoothened out and the size greatly reduced. Only a few rough parts were left. Haishi had a feeling when she was completely smooth would be the time she would gain her freedom. She was right, after what seemed to be five years to her, she had turned into a small purple smooth pebble the size of a fist. The river flow became gentler and smoother as a glowing blue-purple light soon embraced Haishi.
The next time Haishi opened her eyes, she found herself in a hall full of unconscious people. She was a little bit dazed at first before she regained her bearings of where she was.
"Congratulations, it seems you got more of a harvest than I expected." A gentle voice sounded from behind her. She quickly turned and saw the owner of the voice, Feng Xin. Instead of the deep-seated fear she felt before from seeing him, she now had endless gratitude because she could feel the changes in her body. Her transformative experience in the river-like illusion didn't seem to be false. Her body felt lighter, more compact, and full of energy. She felt like she had better control of each part of her body. Her control was five times better than what she had before. What came as a surprise to her was her cultivation realm seemed to have risen by a tiny bit. Before she was at the early phase at the 4th stage of the core formation realm but currently she was at the peak of it just inches from breaking through to the 5th stage. She had a feeling within a few hours she should be able to break through.
Haishi had only broken through to the 4th stage less than a month ago. By her estimation, she expected it to take 2 years or more to break through to the 5th stage. Just a tiny dew had done what needed 2 years of cultivation. This was an impossible dream for her.
"Thank you for the opportunity you bestowed upon me, Feng Xin. Haishi will always remember it." Haishi said as she performed a solemn bow toward Feng Xin.
"Well don't worry about it, but if you do want to pay me back I need you to fly me with all your strength toward a particular direction. Looking at the changes in your body I think we may make it in good time." Feng Xin said as he inspected Haishi's wings. Her wings now had a light purple tint to them and seemed sturdier than before.
"I will," Haishi said with strong resolve.
Feng Xin finished examining Haishi as he made his way to the exit of the hall beckoning Haishi to follow him. Once outside Feng Xin remembered something as he quickly fished out a few formation flags from his storage ring. He placed the flags at a few specific positions around the hall. When the last flag was placed, Feng Xin removed a few high-quality spirit stones from his ring that he crushed into powder and sprinkled them over the flags. Haishi at the side had her eyes wide open at how wasteful Feng Xin had been but she didn't have the guts to point it out.
The formation flags lit up as they absorbed the energy from the grounded spirit stones. A white fog was produced by them which grew till it blanketed the whole hall.
"The fog of obscurity formation should be enough to stop anyone from harming them not unless a formation arrays expert at the palace stage shows up." Feng Xin said as he dusted off the spirit stones from his hands.
"Haishi let's go. We are headed in the northeast direction. Once we are out of the green fog you'll automatically know the exact location I want you to head in. You need to focus on just flying don't worry about anything else, I'll be taking care of the rest." Feng Xin said as he jumped on Haishi's back. Haishi didn't hesitate as she beat her wings in full force disappearing past Peng Zhen's peak. Within a few seconds, the sect master's peak was soon in the shadows and they were about to leave the green fog swamp sect territory.
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