Well, Mingwei didn’t get much chance to cultivate, as apparently, the Elders called all the junior disciples out to do massive cleaning of the entire Sect. "We are having visitors. An Elder from the Heaven Sword Sect is visiting."

Heaven Sword Sect! One of the pillars of the Kingdom!

Cleaning took three days, and the elders inspected every nook and cranny of the Sect’s compound. Mingwei had not done that much cleaning in years, but that was life as a Sect Disciple, sometimes, stupid errands like this were all tasks the junior disciples had to do. The inner and core disciples prepared for their arrival, the main hall cleaned and repainted in sections.

All the elders, and even the rarely seen Sect Master Hujian himself were present in the main hall, as the outer disciples and junior disciples were all forced into formation.

The door opened, and three stepped through. An elder with long flowing white robes, his presence was unmistakable. The floor cracked when he stepped through, and next to him were two much younger ladies. They looked like they were in their twenties.

Mingwei was hidden among the crowd, and the elder’s Qi was overwhelming. He felt nauseous, and so did many others. An oppressive aura.

One of the outer disciples fainted. The group just waltzed their way through and into the main hall. And that was it for Mingwei.

“Well, that’s our part. Go back to your rooms. Don’t step out until you are told to. The elders will make an announcement when it’s fine to leave.”

Well, the junior disciples are pretty much on house arrest. Only the outer disciples and inner disciples were allowed to walk around the compounds during this time, because, well, they didn’t want a junior disciple to accidentally offend one of the Heaven Sect’s visitors.

So, Mingwei spent that time cultivating. It was fine, anyway. But he first used his new Beastbone Brush to alter the Qi-gathering formation given to him.

It was a small task.

A Qi-gathering formation like this only had a single rune. If it was made from scratch, he may be able to squeeze a total of 3 medium runes in, but because this was an alteration, he can only put one extra small rune.

A slow, careful process, where he used his new brush to gently write the runes on the formation. And now, his Qi-gathering formation gathered 200 Qi per day! A 50 Qi increase!

Good.

He looked at it again. His cultivation method gathered 45 Qi, his formation 200 Qi, and his Qi Brush gathered 30 Qi. All together, that’s a total of 275 Qi. It would take a little more than a year to gather the 100,000 Qi needed to break through to 3-stars.

-

“Alright, our visitors left.” A core disciple announced about a week later. There was an official tournament organised by the Emperor, and the Heaven Sword Sect and the Skysword Imperial City is the official host. The tournament will happen 3 years from now, and is open to all Core and Inner disciples. The tournament itself was separated into leagues, and Longbow Sect was classified as a 3rd circle Sect. The 1st Circle Sect consisted of those with an 8-star patriarch. Northern Star Sect and Green Insect Blade Sect were classified as 2nd circle Sects.

“Still, to think an 8-star elder came to visit us. That’s still something.” The disciples talked amongst themselves. 8-star. Those are still lofty heights, and for Mingwei’s new life, still far away.

Mingwei, once again, approached Elder Qing to discuss cultivation to the 3rd-star, or building the 2nd layer.

“Ah. Mingwei. I need you to run some tasks for me.”

“Oh?”

“Now that a tournament is starting, our Sect master and us, the elders, want our core disciples and inner disciples to do well. 3 years is plenty of time, and if we can get our core disciples to at least pinnacle 4-star or early 5-star, that would greatly improve our standing.”

“I see.” Mingwei’s memories flashed before him, and he understood what happened. The alchemy elder’s task is to find ways to help their contestants! That meant cultivation pills, healing pills, formations!

“So, I’ll be teaching you how to control and write basic runes, and then help me with the pills.” Mingwei just nodded. Looks like his breakthrough to the 3rd star will have to wait.

Elder Qing unfurled a small scroll and passed it to Mingwei.

“Study it. You have two weeks.” In the scroll were descriptions of the types of runes. At first, it was the same few things. Cultivation Qi gathering Runes, Power Runes, Toughness Runes and Elemental Runes. But then, there were other kinds of runes that were unique to this world. Monster-hunting runes, monster-warding runes, explosion runes and extraction runes.

He was amazed.

This world had a monster problem, and in a way, the people of this world had a history of reclaiming wildlands from monsters, so much so that they had to invent monster-specific runes! The extraction runes were interesting too, they were used to ‘extract’ the effects of materials more efficiently. Had he used this, he could’ve made the Beastbone Brush a lot easier, since it’s like using a precision scalpel instead of a blunt knife!

He was so excited that he went back to see Elder Qing after two days. “Elder Qing, you must teach me these runes!”

Elder Qing laughed, “Don’t be hasty. Writing runes is only for 3-star cultivators.”

Mingwei paused. What was that? 3-star? “Uh... may I ask why?”

“Oh, it’s common knowledge. Runes wrongly written will backfire and cause core-damage. Can be dangerous for cultivators, since your core toughness is still low.”

“Eh.” Mingwei paused and thought about it. A badly written rune certainly can cause core damage, but it hasn’t killed anyone. In fact, 2-star was exactly when one’s education in runes began. Was this a side effect of the pillars, that the damage extended to the core?

“So for now, you will learn how to manipulate the rune formations that I’ve sent up.”

Elder Qing had prepared materials, and she soon started making pills. These were at least 4-5 star pills, and Mingwei’s task was simple, mainly to hand her the materials while she maintained the cauldron. It was a good learning experience for Mingwei, to see how mid-tier cultivators made pills in this world.

Because of how each material needed to be prepared beforehand and used at the right situation, the rune formations were used to ‘suspend’ the materials, such that they don’t decay. The effects on the pill would be less than satisfactory.

The rune formations still needed to be operated, such that Mingwei could take things out of them when instructed. He watched her cut up the marrow of 4 or 5-star beasts, and store the contents in glass containers.

Already, he had places where he could give pointers. Her understanding was decent, but still, so many flaws. The fire was a little too hot. The extraction rune improved the outcomes, but wasted so much!

He watched the Elder’s Cauldron glow. It was made with Darkbeast Steel, a good material that improves the material extraction. Decently well made, too. He had hoped to at least stumble on something of a similar grade, like a Darkwood Iron, when he was in Northstar City, but sadly, no one sold it.

He didn’t understand why, though. As a 2-star cultivator, he could have at least 2 soul-bound items, 3 in his old world..

Elder Qing’s first batch was done after a long four hour roasting process. She inspected the first batch and frowned.

“No good.”

Mingwei nodded. The cauldron wasn’t hot enough in the first hour. She should’ve preheated it a bit. But the next batch will be fine. Elder Qing scooped out the things and threw it into a basket. Mingwei frowned. “Elder Qing, may I have them?”

“Oh... go ahead. Those are failures.” Failures they may be, he could probably still salvage them! Corrective alchemy was something their world specialised in! When you don’t have much, you have to figure out how to repurpose what you have!

In fact, over the course of two months, Elder Qing would have numerous failures, and occasionally Mingwei would make a casual passing comment. Like, “hmm... maybe it’s not hot enough.”

Still Elder Qing didn’t take in Mingwei’s comments, so she continued to make some of those little mistakes. He didn’t mind, though. Everytime she failed, he could keep the scraps!

“Speaking of which, have you gotten your soul-bound item?”

“Uh...” At this point, he wasn’t sure whether he should admit it. He realised that his beastbone brush may be an item that the world had rarely seen, so showing it to her would only create trouble.

“I just remembered that I may have an old cauldron somewhere.”

“Oh?” Mingwei nodded.

“Come.” Mingwei followed Elder Qing to her quarters for the first time. She closed her eyes, used some kind of skill, and then she opened a cabinet. “Ah, here it is. Here, take it.”

Mingwei’s eyes almost popped out. It was a Darkbeast Steel cauldron too! The same one as she is using! “Uh... Elder, is it fine to give me this?” This was easily a 5-star cauldron!

“It’s an old one, and the inner parts are damaged so I can’t use it for high tier alchemy anymore!” Mingwei instantly knew those were not the truth. Cauldrons can be fixed! They can be recast if it’s really bad!

He looked at it. Isn’t it overkill if he gets this when the rest of the disciples get just regular 2-3 star swords? That would mean he’d stand out.

“Trust me, no one cares.” Elder Qing said. “I can offer this to any of the disciples and none would take it.”

“Is the view of alchemy really that bad?”

“I really wonder which little village you come from, young Mingwei. I don’t imagine Green Snow being such a backwater...”

“Ah... no.” Mingwei blushed. Had he accidentally humiliated his family and his home city?

“Then take it.”

It was heavy. Extremely heavy.

“Oh. you don’t have a strengthening skill!” Elder Qing realised. “Then you must wait. Once you reach 3-stars I will teach you a strengthening skill and then you can have it.”

Mingwei felt sad. It’s like someone gave him a toy, and then took it away. He didn’t like it, but then, it was too big and heavy for him!

So, he went back to his room.