The Elixir is for You, The Poison is for Me

#363 - Is this your first spell?

After finishing today's lesson, Professor Xu left the classroom, leaning on his cane and looking frail.

Once he left, Xie Anshi greeted Yan Jun, then hurried off to the library with his books.

After class, Yan Jun would usually return to her residence to practice her spells for a while, then meditate to recover her mystic energy. But this time, she hesitated before turning towards Lu Jing's small courtyard.

Although Professor Xu had said in class that the results of astrological observation weren't necessarily accurate, his words about 'impending disaster' still made Yan Jun feel vaguely worried.

Because of the incident that had occurred in Wujiang City, Yan Jun hadn't contacted Lu Jing after returning to the academy. However, she hadn't expected that Lu Jing would now even be skipping classes. Coupled with the rumors circulating in the academy recently, Yan Jun felt it was necessary to pay Lu Jing a visit.

After all, during their trip to Wujiang City, she had been plotted against by Wang Wan and found herself in danger. In the end, it was Lu Jing who had come to her aid and saved her from that calamity.

She couldn't deny this debt of gratitude. Seeing that Lu Jing might need help, she naturally couldn't stand idly by.

However, when Yan Jun arrived outside Lu Jing's small courtyard, she discovered that he wasn't home.

Normally, Yan Jun would have left in this situation to attend to her own affairs, planning to return later or perhaps another day. Yet, for some reason, she felt a sudden impulse and, almost unconsciously, headed towards the back mountain.

When she reached the back mountain, she naturally climbed up the mountainside, then went around a rocky cliff face and saw Lu Jing behind it.

Lu Jing was currently busy grinding his 'Lush Growth' skill. After a week of hard practice, he could now stimulate the growth of three plants at once, and his success rate had soared to eighty percent.

However, Lu Jing then realized that although he could now stimulate the growth of two more plants than when he started, the rate at which his mystic energy was consumed hadn't increased twofold.

After pondering for a moment, he knew where the problem lay. As his spell became more and more proficient, his efficiency in using mystic energy should also be improving. Perhaps what originally required five parts of mystic energy could now be accomplished with three.

This would naturally be a good thing for others, meaning a reduction in spell consumption and the ability to cast more spells. But for Lu Jing, it wasn't so wonderful.

Fortunately, with his progress, the overall rate at which his mystic energy was consumed was still constantly increasing.

Besides this, there was more good news recently. After fifteen long days of arduous training, Lu Jing had finally successfully completed the first stage of sword nurturing—'Spirit Gathering'.

The sword image in his Niwan Palace had almost completely condensed into a solid form. Even the patterns on the hilt were identical to those of the Huguang sword in his hand.

Lu Jing could finally control the flying sword through the sword spirit in his Niwan Palace. However, all he could currently manage was to make the Huguang sword rise shakily from his palm and hover in mid-air. Beyond that, it was difficult to perform any other complex movements.

Forget about controlling the flying sword to kill people from afar, he couldn't even peel an apple.

But none of that was important. What was important was that after completing the first stage of cultivation, the speed at which the sword spirit absorbed mystic energy had actually increased by nearly forty percent!

This was definitely an unexpected surprise for Lu Jing, meaning that he now only needed to spend less than six hours a day cultivating sword control to empty the mystic energy in his Niwan Palace, greatly increasing his free time.

It even made Lu Jing feel that consuming mystic energy wasn't that difficult after all.

He couldn't help but sigh inwardly, 'Sword Control' was indeed worthy of being the most difficult and powerful spell in legend.

When ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivators practiced Sword Control, even if they did nothing else but constantly absorb mystic energy and use it to nurture the sword spirit, it would still take them at least half a year to complete the first stage of 'Spirit Gathering'.

And the second stage, 'Concealed Light', would take even longer, requiring a full six years of cultivation. Now it seemed that the reason for this was probably because the consumption of mystic energy would increase significantly at each stage.

Thinking of this, Lu Jing suddenly felt that Sword Control still had a lot of potential to be tapped.

Not to mention anything else, if he could cultivate the four stages of sword nurturing to the last stage, the rate of mystic energy consumption would definitely be very considerable.

With the improvement of both Sword Control and 'Lush Growth', Lu Jing felt a bit more confident. Just as he was thinking about what else he should do to cope with the expansion of his Niwan Palace, he suddenly noticed footsteps coming from behind him.

So Lu Jing paused his 'Lush Growth' training and turned around, seeing Yan Jun.

However, Yan Jun's current state was very strange. Her whole person seemed somewhat dazed, as if she were sleepwalking. For a top expert like her, it was almost impossible for something like daytime sleepwalking to occur unless something had gone wrong with her cultivation.

Seeing the lush plants all around, Yan Jun had already guessed the answer, but hearing Lu Jing's confirmation, her heart couldn't help but tremble violently.

"So, the rumors are true. You can cultivate now?" As she spoke, Yan Jun looked around again. "This is… 'Lush Growth'?"

"That's right," Lu Jing said, scratching his head. "I've been practicing this spell here for a while, but I haven't been able to master it well, turning this area into wasteland. Now that I've made some progress, I've come back to restore it to its original state."

It had to be said that after repeated propaganda and education in his previous life, Lu Jing's environmental awareness had indeed increased a lot. He still remembered the principle of 'whoever pollutes must clean up'.

"So, this is the first spell you've chosen to cultivate?" To be honest, Yan Jun hadn't expected Lu Jing to choose the unpopular spell 'Lush Growth' to practice.

Generally, after stepping into the door of cultivation, people would usually choose spells like 'Light Body Technique' or 'Invisibility Technique' to cultivate, because these spells could allow them to experience novel sensations they couldn't experience before.

As for 'Lush Growth', it did have its uses, but because it didn't greatly enhance one's strength and was used on plants and vegetation, it was basically only cultivated in the second year by those who had chosen alchemy.

Looking at the plants and trees nearby, Lu Jing had not only chosen 'Lush Growth', but had also cultivated it to a rather deep level.