Chapter 19 “Refining the Spirit Jade”
Not looking good at all, Ye Huang Yu returns to her room without a single word and left Ling Yue to herself.
“Mother, is she angry at me?” Ling Yue tugs at Granny Liu’s arm, inquiring for answers.
“Little Miss, Third Miss isn’t angry with you, she’s worried about you. Ever since you entered the mountain she’s been unable to eat or drink for the entire month.” Sensing the anxiousness in Ling Yue’s voice, Liu Granny comforts her.
Hearing this, warmth flowed into her heart. Ling Yue may not be the same little retarded girl from back then, but ever since she regained her sanity, every moment she’s here has been basked with warmth from her mother.
Like this time. The reasoning behind Ye Huang Yu’s action of standing up to her brother was also because of her motherly instinct to protect her daughter, Ling Yue.
Then suddenly, a series of intermittent coughs echoed out from within her mother’s room. Ling Yue understands. Because of her, mother had to use her Yuan energy again, meaning another period of discomfort from the chronic injury.
If only she can get her hands on a fifth rank medicinal pill. But just one would cost thousands of gold coins. Where in the world was she going to get that kind of money? Ling Yue frowns just at the thought.
After handing the wild animals she caught from the mountain over to Liu Granny, she went back into her room and began looking over the jade piece in her hand.
The thing wasn’t big with decent carvings, about the size of a child’s palm. When placed under the light, aside from the emerald green color, there’s also a tinge of gray mixed inside.
“It doesn’t look all that special.” Ling Yue pinches her mouth to one corner and complains.
Xuan Yuan Jade can accelerate the absorption rate of a martialists Yuan energy from the heavens and earth, but she already has the Vitality Condensing Liquid which gives her the same effect.
Just as Ling Yue wanted to toss the Jade away to the side, the cauldron mark on her right hand suddenly began vibrating.
(Face Palm. I’m sorry guys, but I can’t get the image of a vibrator out of my mind)
While she’s still wondering why, the cauldron abruptly spat out a thin strand of hair like white smoke into the air.
“This is the cauldron’s smoke?” Recalling back to Mr. Red Mist’s codex, the book mentioned the cauldron was conscious. After many years of refining countless spirit herbs and medicines, the cauldron had given birth to a special form of gas called “spirit smoke”. The white smoke in front of Ling Yue right now was the cauldron’s spirit smoke mentioned in the records.
Like a silk string, once that cauldron smoke saw the Xuan Yuan Jade, it pounced at the thing like an animal seeing something delicious.
Once the smoke made its way into the jade, a strange image abruptly appeared inside Ling Yue’s mind.
No longer just a piece of jade, the entire thing expanded inside her consciousness and became a big area of emerald green, revealing the contents within the pendant!
But unlike before, there are dozens of black spots scattered across the field. These black spots are the impurities inside the jade and the reason why its quality became so low.
Becoming unusually active around the black spots, the smoke began squirming about and devouring every dot in sight.
In no time at all, the impurities had all disappeared and the emerald green inside the jade became even more pure and translucent.
On contrast, the white smoke had taken on a cloudier shade compared to earlier. Satisfied as if it’s full, the smoke was sucked back into the cauldron without any more movements from inside.
Taking this all in, Ling Yue became dumbfounded by the scene.
Having another look at the Xuan Yuan Jade, she found that the jade had become crystal clear, as if someone just carved a set of drawings into a lake. Moreover, the carvings itself also became more exquisite.
That’s not all though. The most peculiar part of this was the fact that the jade felt mildly cool while she held it in her hand.
If at this time Ye Qing and his father saw the jade again, there’s no way the pair would be able to recognize it was the very same Xuan Yuan Jade they had lost today.
Blind to the treasure, Ling Yue took the jade pendant to her mother for appraisal.
Sure enough, Ye Huang Yu became startled when her eyes fell upon the thing.
“Where did you get this piece of Xuan Yin Jade?”
“It’s the same Xuan Yuan Jade from Ye Qing.” Ling Yue became confused by the question.
“That piece is clearly just a Xuan Yuan Jade, how can it suddenly become a Xuan Yin Jade?” Ye Huang Yu’s eyesight was much keener than Ling Yue’s so how can she not tell.
Xuan Yuan Jade was a kind of inferior spirit jade that martialists used to gather the Yuan energy from the heavens and earth, but this Xuan Yin Jade here was a kind of mid class item that can help aid an upper celestial martialist in breaking through to the next rank by gathering the dark Yin energy in the environment.
Although there’s only just a word of difference, the price was vastly different. A nail sized Xuan Yuan Jade would cost around five hundred silver and this Xuan Yin Jade in Ling Yue’s hand would cost over a thousand silver easy!
If only Ye Huang Cheng knew the jade he lost was in fact a Xuan Yin Jade, there’s no way he would’ve relented so easily.
A thousand silver, even Ling Yue’s hand was brimming with sweat. This may be, but even with a thousand silver it’s still not enough to buy mother’s much needed fifth rank pill.
As for how the Xuan Yuan Jade managed to turn into a Xuan Yin Jade, Ye Huang Yu doesn’t have a clue either. The only thing she can do was give her daughter a reminder.
“Sweetie, you must take good care of this jade and not let any outsider find out. After you break through to the fifth rank, you can use this jade to separate the Yin energy hidden within the Yuan energy in the air and strengthen your muscles and bones. Doing so will help prepare for the day when you attempt to break into the upper celestial domain.”
Starting from the fifth stage of the constitutional domain, one can infuse a portion of dark Yin energy into their body, the earlier the better for their future training.
To her knowledge, Ye Huang Yu only knows her daughter can utilize the strength of someone of the fourth rank but doesn’t truly understand Ling Yue had in fact broken through to the fifth rank already.
“Child understands. By the way mother, when I was training in the mountains I coincidentally stumbled across a type of wine by mistake. It was through this wine that I managed to make a breakthrough. Have some mother, maybe it will be good for your injury too.” Ling Yue pulls a small bottle of hundred fruit wine from under her dress. She prepared this ahead of time for this moment.