Moments later, the two of them regrouped in the courtyard.
"Senior Sister, looks like you had a fruitful trip," Chen Jinshu teased, seeing Dai Yuzhu's radiant smile.
"A small harvest, I'd say. After Peng Qi was discovered, he was taken away immediately—didn't even get a chance to clean up his courtyard. Left quite a few things behind," Dai Yuzhu said, taking a booklet about spiritual plants from her storage bag.
"Not much of value though. This booklet's probably the most precious item—I'll gift it to you."
"You're giving me something you worked hard to find?" Chen Jinshu asked in surprise.
"You have a high affinity for spiritual plants. It'd be wasted on me. Besides, there was something else more suited for me in there, so I'm shamelessly keeping that."
"If you found it, it naturally belongs to you," Chen Jinshu replied calmly as she accepted the booklet.
Being the disciple of a Golden Core elder, Peng Qi had no shortage of treasures. Even Chen Jinshu had found several spiritual tools among his belongings. Of course, most cultivators kept their precious items in storage bag. The things left behind in the courtyard weren't likely to be of great value.
"Thanks, Junior Sister. You can handle the main areas of the next few courtyards," Dai Yuzhu suggested.
"Sure!"
Chen Jinshu nodded. Cleaning out these courtyards was quite fun—she got to practice spellwork and sometimes found unexpected treasures. When they arrived in the backyard, they found it completely barren—no spiritual herbs left behind. Not all cultivators liked planting in their backyards. Chen Jinshu, for one, didn't.
They moved on and cleaned out several neighboring courtyards. Only then did Chen Jinshu realize these vacated courtyards were all adjacent to Peng Qi's. Apparently, even the nearby disciples had feared that walking disaster, especially worried he might someday poison the area.
This round of courtyard-cleaning yielded pretty decent results. According to her Senior Sister, there was an extra contribution point bonus for completing the task—twenty points per courtyard. By the end of the day, the two had earned over a hundred contribution points—far easier than farming spiritual herbs for the same reward.
By the time Chen Jinshu returned to Ink Plum Courtyard, it was already the third quarter of the Shen hour (5:45 PM).
She fed Xiao Yin before heading back to her room. Bringing the sparrow had proven to be an excellent decision. In one courtyard, she almost missed a hidden spiritual item tucked in the corner. Thankfully, the sparrow sniffed it out just in time.
It turned out to be a red stone, hidden so thoroughly that no spiritual energy could be sensed from it. It was completely dull. But once she held it, it grew hot in her palm, faintly resonating with her fire spiritual root. She immediately realized it wasn't ordinary—why it had been casually tossed in the corner remained a mystery.
Was it forgotten… or hidden deliberately?
The remaining courtyards were mostly clean—abandoned by those demoted to labor duties due to some mistake.
At Xuanming Sect, only outer disciples and above had the right to their own courtyard—a symbol of status and a reward for progress. Though these last few were rather sparse, she still discovered a jade box full of insect eggs. Xiao Yin seemed very tempted to eat them, but she stopped it.
She could sense a faint icy chill from the eggs—they definitely weren't ordinary. Unfortunately, she wasn't an insect cultivator and didn't know much about spirit insects, so she couldn't identify them.
Afterward, she entered the spiritual plant space and planted the Young Qingning Tea Sapling in an empty spot.
Qingning Tea Trees aren't single-harvest herbs—they continuously produce spiritual leaves that can be used to make spiritual tea. After about a year in this space, she'd be able to harvest them. Drinking such tea helps temper the body, saving time that would otherwise be spent cultivating.
Five days before the Outer Sect Tournament
Chen Jinshu was in the courtyard practicing the first three movements of the Nineteen Phrases of Falling Notes. These three were her trump cards for securing a top-twenty spot.
Rumor had it that on the first floor of the Treasure Pavilion, there was something that could continuously enhance a spiritual instrument's grade—granting it a chance to develop sentience within a hundred years.
She was very comfortable with her current Lüqi Zither. Swapping it out after breaking through to Foundation Establishment would feel like a downgrade.
So she didn't plan to abandon it. At most, she would find a weapon forger to refine and upgrade it after her breakthrough.
Of course, there was an item in the Treasure Pavilion that could save her that trouble—she would definitely compete for it.
"Starlight Falls in the Shadowed Pool!"
Her fingertips plucked rapidly across the strings, striking seven harmonics in succession. An illusion of a frigid pool appeared around her, with waves gently rippling outward from beneath her feet.
'Whoosh, whoosh!'
Countless golden sword-qi shot forward like meteor showers, heading toward the ink plum tree—like a silvery cascade from the Milky Way. Then, the surface of the pool shimmered with the light of the Big Dipper constellation, and the air itself seemed to ripple.
In that instant, clarity struck her. Her zither tune shifted unexpectedly into the gentle and dreamy Hymn of the Earth Vein's Rebirth.
The frozen pool illusion transformed into a blooming springtime meadow.
Ding!
She lightly plucked a string. The soundwave morphed into a green crescent-shaped blade, slicing forward. The slender ink plum branches trembled violently—and then, new buds immediately sprouted and leafed out along the branches.
"Soundwaves Manifestation!" Chen Jinshu almost exclaimed in joy.
She had estimated she would break through this level a few days before the tournament—but she hadn't expected to do it two days early.
It was likely due to her deeper understanding of the Nineteen Phrases of Falling Notes which had elevated her musical perception and led to a natural breakthrough. She quickly suppressed her excitement and continued strumming slowly, determined to stabilize her new realm.
Soon, countless visible soundwaves filled the courtyard.
Where once the music had form without shape, now it could take physical shape through her playing. An hour passed in the blink of an eye. She played several different pieces she had learned, finally anchoring her cultivation realm in Soundwave Manifestation.
Her master, Shui Huanmeng, had likely also reached this realm. Without her master's natural talent, she could only compensate with hard work. The next day, Shui Huanmeng brought her to an Elder's residence to treat a spiritual plant—and discovered her disciple's breakthrough.
In front of a Golden Core cultivator, Chen Jinshu's cultivation couldn't be hidden. She saw pride and satisfaction in Shui Huanmeng's gaze.
"Now I have no worries about you entering the Outer Sect Tournament," Shui Huanmeng said. "Even if you don't take the top spots, you'll rank high."
"But remember—your most powerful pieces should be kept hidden. Only use them when vying for the Spirit Treasure slot. That will give you an even greater edge."
"Thank you, Master, for all your guidance. You've helped me reach this realm a year or two earlier than expected," Chen Jinshu said, bowing slightly in gratitude.
"You're my disciple, of course I'll nurture you well. But I have a request for you too—never neglect your skills as a spiritual plant healer. During the upcoming journey to the Hidden Realm, I want you to retrieve something for me."