Chapter 102 – A Busy Schedule

  It took Jun De nearly a full week to mend from his injuries.

  The first few days passed in silence within the seclusion of his new Immortals Cave, where there was only a faint hum from the protective array that surrounded it and the sound of the wind rustling the leaves of the trees.

  He cycled his Qi slowly while the medicinal pills knitted his torn flesh and repaired his strained meridians. The Dawnheart Flame inside his Dantian smouldered steadily, seemingly content with its new surroundings and the strong ambient spiritual energy.

  By the fifth day, the stabbing pain in his ribs had been replaced by a dull, lingering ache that was completely removed by the seventh morning.

  Outside, the world had changed while he recovered. A gentle but unrelenting snowfall had cloaked the Tranquil Mountain in white, obscuring the peak and turning the forests into frozen groves with shoveled paths that wound their way through them.

  An icy wind blew constantly across the Sect, and icicles hung from eaves and cliffs while the waterfall that misted the air had ceased. Oddly, the rainbow in the sky was as vibrant as ever, seemingly disconnected from the world below.

  Yet, despite the chill, Jun De’s courtyard was untouched by the frost. The protective array woven into the Immortal Cave kept the grounds warm and bright, the flagstone free of ice, and the herb garden lush and verdant like a greenhouse. A faint golden shimmer occasionally rippled through the air as the array drove back the winter chill.

  Jun De emerged from his room and took a deep breath of the spring-like air of his courtyard as he marveled at the changes that had occurred on the mountain. He hadn’t been able to enjoy the summer or the fall because of his time in the Array, but he supposed that winter had a certain sort of charm as well.

  His Qi flowed without obstruction through his meridians, and the bruising on his chest and sides had completely faded as he walked out of his residence and approached his new favourite chair and the stone table in front of it.

  But, as his gaze fell onto the table, his heart sank slightly. He reluctantly pulled out the piece of parchment that Mu Yanyu had given him and unfolded it.

  “She went through all that trouble, I suppose I can do one or two things on it just so that she doesn’t feel bad.” Jun De muttered to himself. He had avoided looking at the list during his recovery, repeatedly telling himself that he needed more rest before engaging in any sort of activity.

  Yet now that he was completely recuperated, guilt tugged at him.

  “Besides, the last thing I want is for the Sect to get antsy and start thinking they can send me on missions outside. If I say that I’m too busy doing what’s on this list, maybe they’ll leave me alone.” Jun De justified, and he suddenly felt a bit better about it.

  He unfolded the sheet and brushed his fingers across the neatly inked lines in Mu Yanyu’s flowing script. Task after task filled the page, and Jun De looked for some of the easier ones that didn’t seem to be too dangerous or time-consuming.

  Jun De exhaled as he read line after line.

  “She truly went to great effort creating this for me, but I wish she had chosen something easier!” Jun De grumbled.

  The first section she had written involved his cultivation. Mu Yanyu expected him to dedicate twelve hours every day to circulating his Qi in meditation using the Tranquil Cultivation Method until he reached the next bottleneck at the peak of the 8th Level of Qi Condensation.

  Once he hit that barrier, he was to supplement his cultivation with long sessions of meditation in the Spirit Spring Pavilion that would help strengthen his body and spirit, loosening the bottleneck and easing his breakthrough.

  “I guess I can do that.” Jun De said. Cultivation was easy, and he could do it in his courtyard. The only thing he didn’t like about it was that it was pretty boring. He normally spent a few hours in the morning cultivating, but he could try to extend it.

  “But twelve hours is ridiculous.” Jun De said, shaking his head.

  Below that, Mu Yanyu had written a section regarding body tempering. A cultivator's body was just as important as their cultivation, and she warned him not to neglect it in the slightest or risk injury.

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  She recommended doing one hundred repetitions of the ‘Stonebreaking Fist’ to refine his bones and muscles. Conveniently, she had included the details of the technique, along with an easy to follow routine.

  Then there were weekly soaks in the Herbal Tempering Pool that he now had access to since he was a ranked Disciple.

  The pool would purge any lingering, hidden impurities in his body, and when combined with morning runs around the Inner Sect, it would help him become more accustomed to the Inner Sect’s Spiritual Pressure and temper his body in preparation for Foundation Establishment.

  “Half the day cultivating, and then more time body tempering. Did she forget that people need to sleep?!” Jun De exclaimed.

  If that wasn’t enough, she had also carved out time for his martial training. A Disciple couldn’t just cultivate and temper their body; they also needed to practice their techniques. She wanted him to continue his training in the Heaven-Piercing Starfall Sword Art, including spars against wooden sword puppets that could be found in some of the Training Halls, and visit the Martial Courtyard to study several carved Sword Comprehension Steles that had been left behind by generations of Sect Elders that contained their insights.

  His defensive training wasn’t neglected either. There were specific notes regarding his Heavenly Deflection Art, and a strange exercise that could be completed in the ‘Hall of Falling Needles.’ Sharp, weighted pins would rain down at random, forcing the Disciples to hone both their evasion and defence.

  “Apparently, there are forty or more hours in a day on Jade Lotus Peak.” Jun De mumbled, shaking his head in exasperation at the extensive schedule.

  From his training, the parchment discussed his need to engage in real battles as well. Once a week, he would be expected to spar against other Inner Sect Disciples in order to test himself in true combat. She had also taken the liberty of signing him up to Beast Suppression Patrols that would occur every three months on the outskirts of the Sect, where demonic beasts prowled.

  There were lectures he would need to attend in the Azure Lotus Hall, and Mu Yanyu expected him to keep a journal of the insights he gained there so that they could discuss them together every month.

  Jun De was also expected to have more knowledge than just combat and cultivation, she wanted him to learn alchemy and herbology, alongside the study of formation arrays.

  Mu Yanyu had spoken with the other Elders in the Alchemy Hall, and they had agreed to tutor him. While the Array Pavilion had set aside a number of diagrams for him to study, he only needed to visit and pick them up.

  Once he could copy them instinctively, she recommended he move on to more complicated formations by assisting the Disciples who repaired the wards and arrays around the Sect. Similarly, once he could identify a number of herbs, she had already found him an apprenticeship to begin pill refining.

  The final sections discussed tempering his Dao heart, rather than his body. Mu Yanyu stressed the importance of training his willpower and clarity by sitting within the Sect’s Thousand Illusion Hall to protect his senses from lies and falsehoods.

  Qi Deviation and Inner Demons were deadly to cultivators, and the stronger one became, the more susceptible to them they became. There was nothing more important in cultivation than having a sturdy Dao Heart.

  Mu Yanyu carved out time for Jun De to undergo three days a month of silent seclusion that was meant to still his heart and guard against these internal threats.

  Finally, the parchment ended with something that seemed almost trivial, but Jun De understood as important as all the rest. He should memorize the Sect’s rules and histories, while learning the proper etiquette that was expected of an Inner Sect Disciple at gatherings and exchanges.

  Overall, the parchment wasn’t a list of orders or meant to be a punishment. It was Mu Yanyu’s vision to give Jun De a balanced foundation in every art that he would need to succeed in the Inner Sect. Many of the things listed were common to all the Inner Sect Disciples, not specifically Jun De.

  But, unlike the others, Jun De currently didn’t have a master and could only rely on Elder Mu’s guidance.

  Seeing it all laid out in front of him, Jun De could see the care Mu Yanyu had put into every line and stroke of her brush. The sense of guilt Jun De felt prevented him from closing the parchment and tucking it back into his storage bag.

  “Still, I may be grateful, but I’m not insane enough to follow this schedule to the letter!” Jun De declared as his fingers traced the lines in search of the more efficient use of his time.

  His eyes lingered on certain entries, weighing their importance. The Spiritual Herbology lectures seemed necessary, but twice a week was excessive.

  Formation studies were something he didn’t want to skip, since he had zero understanding of them but could appreciate how important they were. Everything in the Sect seemed to revolve around arrays, formations and wards.

  But Jun De also understood his limitations.

  “If the cultivation manuals were poorly written and confusing, how terrible are the array schematics?” Jun De wondered. He would pick them up from the Array Pavilion and give them a quick once over before committing.

  Combat sparring was an activity he had zero interest in. It was his hope that he would never have to fight again, but Jun De knew enough now to know that it was na?ve to believe no one would come looking for a fight again.

  Jun De exhaled softly, shaking his head at the sheer breadth of the schedule. It felt less like a training plan and more like the design for an entire lifetime.

  “Elder Mu is too meticulous. I got through university with less of a schedule than this.” Jun De muttered, but his voice lacked any real heat. She was only doing this for his benefit.

  “I can probably prune away some of the unnecessary bits until I get a firm grasp on the basics and go from there. But there’s no way I’m giving up my afternoon tea time, naps and a solid eight hours every night!” Jun De pledged.

  The parchment fluttered in his hand as if mocking his optimism.

  Little did Jun De know that the next year of his life would be the busiest he had ever been. And when it came time for fate to once again play a role in his future, he would look back at that schedule wistfully.