"Useless? Don't say that. Take it, I'm sure you'll be able to break through," Alex said.
Fan Yanshi gave a sad smile and pushed it back. "Trust me, brother Yu. It's useless. Just take it back and use it on yourself when it's time," he said.
"Brother Fan, you may think like it's useless, but it's not. Even with the worst talents, with this pill you can breakthrough," Alex said.
"Brother YU," Fan Yanshi said with a louder, stern voice. "Please, I'm not being pessimistic here when I say it's useless. I'm being realistic. I can never breakthrough to the Meridian Tempering realm."
"What? Why not?"
Even as Alex asked the question, he knew the answer. There really was only one reason. However, he didn't want to believe it.
"No…" he looked at Fan Yanshi for an answer.
Fan Yanshi gave the same incredibly sad smile and said, "I see you've realized. Yes, I do not have any spirit roots. In fact, I have remained in the Organ Tempering 9th realm for 10 years now and will for the rest of my life."
Alex was stunned. This was perhaps the very first time that he had actually met someone that didn't have a spiritual root at all.
"That means you can never breakthrough to…"
"The Meridian Tempering realm, yes," Fan Yanshi finished the statement. "I'm thankful for your thought, brother Yu. But these pills truly are useless."
Alex felt sympathetic for Fan Yanshi. Such a good man was failed by life to be born without Spiritual roots.
"I'm sorry, brother Fan. I didn't know," Alex said. "Still, take it. You can give it to the others then."
Fan Yanshi stayed his hands and instead gave the same sad look to Alex while shaking his head.
Alex felt his heart sink when he understood that expression.
"Everyone?" he asked.
Fan Yanshi nodded. "That is why we are no longer in the sect, but living here. Since we can no longer improve, the sect doesn't want us there," he said. "Still, we are good labor, so they let us stay around and grow resources for them."
"I see," Alex thought to himself. He couldn't help but feel sad about it.
"No need to get depressed over us, brother Yu," Fan Yanshi said. "We're already used to it. In fact, most of us have also stopped cultivating altogether since there is no longer any point."
"You, on the other hand, probably have good spiritual roots. Take these and use them when you reach the peak of the Organ Tempering realm," Fan Yanshi said.
Alex still wanted him to take it, but there really was no point anymore. "I will try and make other pills then. Surely you won't reject healing pills or antidotes to poisons and such," he said.
"Haha, no, I will happily accept it," Fan Yanshi said.
Alex smiled and nodded.
Fan Yanshi then left for his own task, and Alex left for his garden as well.
He looked at the many people as he walked by. Some wore fresh new clothes, ones they had just delivered from Snow Road City.
Some worked on talismans in new papers that were just bought as well.
Other people were cooking food that smelled great thanks to the new spices that were just brought it.
Here and there, the people of this small village, filled with ones that could not cultivate as he could, went about their daily life.
Alex felt sad for them, for they would never hope to see immortality. However, given how happy these people were just as they were right now, maybe that wasn't necessary.
Maybe, just maybe, he should feel happy for them for they were happy themselves.
Alex smiled once his mood brightened and went to the garden to help out.
Between cultivating, training, teaching, and gardening, Alex didn't even realize when 3 months passed by.
He had broken through to the 5th True Emperor realm not long ago. A few months more and he would break through to the 6th True Emperor realm.
Pearl had broken through to the 5th True Emperor realm as well. While he had started earlier than Alex had, they were now equal in cultivation base.
Whisker was the one that had the most improvement of all. He was now at Bone Tempering 8th realm. A little more and he would enter the Organ tempering realm, becoming as strong as most of the individuals in this village. &n
bsp;
Alex's harvest from his garden had also been quite good. While the important ingredients had yet to grow, it was only a matter of time.
At most, in just 3 months he would be able to harvest ingredients that would improve the little Whisker's mental prowess.
Given how he was already able to speak in broken words using his spiritual sense, if his mind was improved even more, he would surely be able to fully speak normally.
'How is he faster than Pearl?' Alex wondered. But then Pearl was less than a year old when he had started learning words, so maybe it didn't matter.
Alex was in the garden early in the morning where there were quite a few more people than usual.
Given that this was the day of the harvest, they were there to reap everything they had sowed for that quarter.
Alex tried to help, but as always, they told him to tend to his own garden. After finding out that he was aiding them with pills and pastes, they didn't want to impose more on him than necessary.
Besides, he had already taught them almost everything there was to learn about these plants for them to grow normally.
Alex sighed and moved on to his own garden after Fan Li's insistence. As soon as he arrived, Whisker jumped out of his robe and got to work.
Throughout the last 3 months, Whisker had really grown as a gardener. Of course, he couldn't plant trees or anything, but he could clear weeds and check for any bugs that would come to eat the plants.
He was really good at killing those bugs and insects too.
Alex looked at him almost professionally clear the weeds, and he thought, 'Should I teach him more? Maybe go into how gardening works and how you can plant something? Maybe even how you can harvest them?'
Alex would be more than happy if Whisker obtained such a skill from him. Given that he had fire spiritual roots, Alex even thought of teaching him Alchemy itself.
A small mouse, that wasn't even supposed to be able to cultivate, making pill sure would be a sight to see.
'Maybe I should teach Pearl too,' he thought. Pearl didn't have Fire spiritual roots, but it wasn't very necessary. He just wouldn't be able to learn the Flame Mastery Scripture was all.
After Whisker was done clearing the weeds, Alex harvested what was ripe and ready to be picked. He then brought some ice and watered the plants as well. Then once he sowed some seeds onto the empty land, he was done for the day.
Alex was excited to teach Pearl and Whisker some things about gardening, so he quickly returned to his room and taught them a few things about gardening.
Alex started off with the easy plants and slowly moved on to the harder ones. He also taught concepts that were taught to him by Wei Ruoran in the royal palace back in the Radiant city.
Pearl was incredibly bored with what he was being taught but still stuck up with it. However, Whisker showed no sign of boredom. He simply stayed there, consuming every single piece of information that came his way.
Seeing how well he was learning —and Alex knew that Whisker was learning since there was no way he could forget this information— Alex only got more motivated to teach them.
It was about 3 hours into the teaching when there was suddenly a knock on the door. Alex stopped the Noise Canceling formation and shouted, "Who?"
"Brother Yu, can you open the door please?" Fan Yanshi asked from the other side.
"Wait a bit," Alex said and walked out, while Whisker quickly ran into his robe to help him see. Of course, Alex didn't need Whisker as he was looking around with his spiritual sense now, but it was still necessary for the mouse to be there just for the sake of appearance.
Alex opened the door and saw both Fan Yanshi and Fan Li standing on the other side. Fan Yanshi was all smiles, but Fan Li had slight anger on her face that was hard to hide.
"Is something wrong, brother Fan?" he asked.
"Oh no, nothing's wrong. It's just that today was harvest day and we got paid, so we were thinking of going to the city, and wondered if you would help us in that," Fan Yanshi said.
"Ah, right. I forgot completely," Alex said. He was so into teaching the beasts that he forgot to be there to watch the transaction.
"Right, right, you must want my boat. Sure, we can go," Alex said. "Also, how much did we earn this time around?" &n
bsp;
"290," Fan Yanshi said.
Alex paused for a bit. "290?" he asked. "But the harvest this time around was even better than last time."
"Yes, but apparently the price of ingredients has lowered again, so we didn't get much," Fan Yanshi said.
Alex frowned a bit. "Price decreased? No way that can happen twice in such a short amount of time, right?" he asked.
He knew for a fact that the price wasn't low because there was an increase in supply. That was almost impossible this far out north unless every other village gained someone like him all of a sudden.
There was definitely foul play here.
