Cultivating the Bamboo

Chapter 418: Stirring Waters Overseas – Cultivating the Bamboo

“This is the Divine Thunder Bamboo?” Han Li’s expression flickered as he asked.

Inside the box lay nothing but a short piece of withered bamboo, barely two inches long and as thick as a little finger, with a few shrunken roots still attached. No matter how he looked at it, it seemed no different from ordinary bamboo.

Bewildered, Han Li cast an impassive glance at Fairy Zi Ling.

The young woman clearly understood his doubt. With a light laugh, she pinched the half-yellow, half-green withered bamboo between her jade-like fingers. With her other hand, she produced a gleaming, crystalline dagger.

With a clear clang, she struck the bamboo a swift, forceful blow. The moment the blade made contact, a slender arc of electricity rippled across the bamboo’s surface, immediately repelling the dagger.

Seeing this, Han Li’s doubts finally vanished. Carefully, he placed the Divine Thunder Bamboo back into the box and put it away.

After that, Fairy Zi Ling handed Han Li an identity token of a Sublime Sound Sect elder. They chatted for a while longer, and then Han Li took his leave.

Not long after Han Li left, Madam Fan and Zhuo Ruting returned to the inn together. When they heard about the matter from Fairy Zi Ling, the two women exchanged a long, dumbfounded look.

“Junior Sister, this doesn’t align with our original plan. Aren’t we losing too much? With the reputation of Divine Thunder Bamboo, we could have found other Core Formation cultivators. Why accommodate this man so much?” Madam Fan could not help complaining.

Zhuo Ruting said nothing, but her willow brows were slightly furrowed, her expression equally puzzled.

“Elder Sisters, you don’t understand. When I first proposed making him an honorary elder of our sect, his expression was quite unpleasant. And from his eyes, I could tell at once that this man has an extremely firm resolve. Even if I hadn’t offered the Divine Thunder Bamboo, he would never have agreed to the matter. Besides, Senior Sister Fan said herself that he was completely immune to our charm arts.”

“As for using the Divine Thunder Bamboo to recruit another cultivator… Elder Sisters, you overestimate the value of this chicken-rib item. Though Divine Thunder Bamboo is known as one of the three divine bamboos of the cultivation world, there are actually very few who can put it to use. Unless one is refining a top-grade wood-element magic treasure, who would use this as a material? And those who know how to refine such treasures… this scrap of Divine Thunder Bamboo we have is hardly enough to be of any use. Moreover, you know that Divine Thunder Bamboo itself is graded. This stalk is only a few thousand years old—White Thunder Bamboo. Even if refined into a treasure, it wouldn’t have much power. It’s better to use it first to build a relationship with this man. Besides, since he has agreed to become an elder of our sect, as long as we treat him with respect and send him annual tributes, when our sect truly faces a great enemy, will he have the face to refuse to help?” Fairy Zi Ling spoke calmly, without a trace of agitation.

“And even if someone else were tempted by the Divine Thunder Bamboo and willing to become our sect’s elder, given our sect’s current situation, would we dare to accept them? That would be driving off the tiger at the front door while letting the wolf in through the back. When my mother was alive, she relied on her own status as a Core Formation cultivator to employ a strategy of checks and balances, making Elders Zhao and Meng work loyally for the sect. Relying solely on charm arts and female wiles to bind high-level cultivators is a recipe for backlash.” The young woman’s smile carried a hint of bitterness.

Hearing this, Madam Fan and Zhuo Ruting fell silent.

After the recent mass defections among their disciples, their confidence in their own charm arts had taken a blow. They felt that what their junior sister said made some sense.

“For now, the sect’s affairs will be handled by the three of us together. We won’t appoint a sect leader yet. When one of us—or a female disciple—succeeds in forming a core, we can set up a sect leader then,” the young woman declared decisively.

This time, the other two did not object.

“This Elder Han… might he use his high cultivation to interfere in our sect’s affairs? Should we take precautions beforehand?” Zhuo Ruting suddenly asked coldly.

“No. I haven’t known him long, but from his speech, I can tell he seems to be a hard-working ascetic. Probably nothing except cultivation can move him. Otherwise, when I offered to gift him a female disciple as a concubine, he wouldn’t have shown no reaction at all. Perhaps that’s how he managed to reach Core Formation,” Fairy Zi Ling shook her head, a hint of envy in her voice.

“Sigh… will we sisters ever have a chance to form a core?” Madam Fan let out a deep sigh, as if she held little hope for Core Formation.

Zhuo Ruting’s face also showed a lonely expression.

It seemed these beauties also yearned deeply for Core Formation.

…

Meanwhile, Han Li had already returned to his cave residence.

He did not busy himself with other matters but immediately began searching through his collection of jade slips for cultivation techniques. After some effort, he found a jade slip containing the method for cultivating Divine Thunder Bamboo. Following the instructions in the slip, he transplanted the bamboo into his spirit herb garden.

Looking at the thin, frail Divine Thunder Bamboo now planted before him, Han Li felt a surge of excitement.

He was well aware that Divine Thunder Bamboo had grades. But he hadn’t paid it any mind.

Because the grade of Divine Thunder Bamboo was entirely determined by its spiritual age.

Divine Thunder Bamboo under two thousand years could only release ordinary white lightning; above five thousand years, the lightning turned blue and grew significantly more powerful. When it reached over ten thousand years, the lightning would transform into a pale gold. At that point, its power would reach unimaginable levels and would have a special effect on countering all kinds of evil arts and demonic techniques. Cultivators called it “Demon-Repelling Lightning.”

This was the oldest Divine Thunder Bamboo ever seen in the cultivation world—the legendary Gold Thunder Bamboo.

“Such Gold Thunder Bamboo” had appeared only once in the history of the Starfall Sea, and no one knew where it came from—a mere half section.

As a result, the Starfall Sea was drenched in blood and storms for decades. Many factions eyed it covetously, fighting openly and covertly. It passed through countless hands.

But in the end, no one managed to keep it long enough to refine it into a magic treasure. Because, just as mysteriously as it had appeared, it suddenly and inexplicably vanished. This infuriated many factions, who continued investigating for a long time before gradually calming down.

From that upheaval, one could see the value of ten-thousand-year Gold Thunder Bamboo.

Han Li had never cultivated a spirit plant to over ten thousand years before. Usually, the highest grade spirit herbs he refined into pills were at most one or two thousand years old.

This left him both eagerly anticipating and slightly anxious about successfully maturing the Divine Thunder Bamboo into Gold Thunder Bamboo.

In the days that followed, while using the Green Liquid to accelerate the bamboo’s growth, Han Li also began frequently visiting the market square of Heaven Star City.

Because the “Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords,” besides using spiritual wood as their main material, required several auxiliary rare materials before they could be finally refined with core flame.

Moreover, since these swords were a set-type magic treasure, the required materials naturally far exceeded those of ordinary treasures. Although Han Li had collected some materials previously, many still needed to be found. So he had to search far and wide.

The Starfall Sea was indeed far more abundant in resources than the Tian Nan region.

By throwing down large amounts of spirit stones until he was practically bankrupt, Han Li finally managed to gather most of the materials after two years. For this, he even had to take the risk of attracting attention by selling a few of the rare demon beast inner cores he had kept.

When Han Li looked at his now empty storage pouches, he could only sigh to the heavens.

Refining magic treasures—especially good ones—was truly a cost that ordinary rogue cultivators could hardly afford.

…

One day, Han Li walked toward the spirit herb garden with barely concealed anticipation.

A few days ago, before starting his cultivation session, he had dropped the drop of Green Liquid that should correspond to ten thousand years. Now, the Divine Thunder Bamboo in the garden should have become a ten-thousand-year spiritual object.

Thinking of the legendary immense power of Gold Thunder Bamboo, Han Li was naturally extremely excited.

The bamboo in the garden was now completely different from the two-inch-long withered stalk he had planted.

It had grown to about a foot in height, its entire body a vivid, lush green, enveloped in a faint halo of light.

Han Li studied it for a moment, then flipped his hand and produced a small flying sword magic tool. With a flick, the sword shot toward the bamboo as a beam of white light.

A pale golden arc of lightning emerged from the Divine Thunder Bamboo without warning.

With a dull puff, the white light struck by the pale golden arc turned into a wisp of visible blue smoke, disappearing without a trace.

Han Li was startled at first, but then he immediately broke into a smile—a very happy one.

Right now, he was extremely curious about what interesting expression Fairy Zi Ling would make if she knew that this White Thunder Bamboo had turned into Gold Thunder Bamboo.

This transaction was probably the biggest bargain he had gotten since entering the cultivation world.

Unfortunately, he would not have the chance to see that scene.