Chapter 40: Experimenting
Experimenting
"Alright, how are we going to test my strength?" Xue Bai asked while doing some stretches.
"By fighting, of course. How else would you?" Xue Feng said with a smile, "But don't worry. You won't be fighting me. Instead, you'll be sparring with your lovely maid, Xiao'er."
Stunned, Xue Bai asked precautiously, "But Xiao'er is a mortal. Wouldn't that be overkill?"
Xue Bai loved Xiao'er personality and wouldn't even play rough with her, let alone use her to test his new-found strength. He wouldn't be able to live with himself if he injured her.
"Young Master, I am not a mortal. Look!" Xiao'er on the side spoke out.
As she finished speaking, she removed the cultivation-concealing artifact she always wore, letting her aura unleash to the fullest.
Xue Bai was stunned. He didn't know that Xiao'er could cultivate.
Most of the maids in the dukedom were also mortals, and while Xue Bai did think that Xiao'er was special in some way, he didn't know that she could cultivate.
He also thought Li Rou made her his maid because she had a friendly face and personality.
"You're 16 this year, so are you in the Muscle Nourishing realm?" Xue Bai asked.
Usually, children on the Southern Continent would take about a year or two for the Vein Transformation realm if they didn't have treasures like the Vein Transformation fruit.
After the Vein Transformation realm was the Blood Exchange realm, and for that realm, people took anywhere from two to 3 years to complete it.
So since Xiao'er was 16 years old this year, as long as she didn't have a low Yellow-grade Martial Vein she should be in the Muscle Nourishing realm.
If she did, she would likely still be in the middle or later stages of the Blood Exchange realm.
"Yes, I am in the fourth stage, to be exact," Xiao'er announced as she let her aura subside. "So I am perfect for you to test your strength."
"Why are you my maid then? Wouldn't you be a prodigy in our dukedom?" Xue Bai asked suspiciously.
Cultivators were rather rare, especially ones with middle or high Yellow–grade Martial Veins. So if Xiao'er had taken the standard path, she could've made herself a good life with her talents.
It was odd for someone of her potential to become a servant.
Xiao'er pouted a bit at the question.
"Why can't a prodigy be your maid? I wanted this job, and I fought hard for it too." Xiao'er complained, aggrieved.
There were other much more beautiful and seductive-looking girls her age who had tried out to become his maid. She had only won because she had a high Yellow-grade Martial Vein.
Xue Bai didn't know how to respond to that.
'Yes, you can be a maid, but you'll be a maid. Don't all prodigies have arrogant hearts? Not bowing down to even the heavens. So why would you want to be a maid?' Xue Bai thought, but he kept it to himself, fearing the possibility of offending the girl.
"I can tell what you're thinking, Young Master. Why would I want to be a maid as a genius? It's simple. I don't like fighting. So as your maid, not only do I get as many resources as if I join one of the Three Great Sects. I also don't have to partake in infighting, plotting, fights, or even bootlicking. And I even get to be myself and serve a cute Young Master like you. What more could I ask for!" Xiao'er spoke proudly.
Xue Bai was somewhat impressed with her thinking. Xiao'er didn't like any of the aspects of joining a Sect, so she found a cushy job that fit all of her demands but allowed her to get the same amount of resources if she joined a Sect.
"You're smarter than you look, Xiao'er. You have my praise." Xue Bai complimented.
Proud of herself, Xiao'er was about to respond, but Xue Feng interrupted her and decided to stop the conversation the two were having.
They were wasting too much time.
"Alright, enough of that, you two. Bai'er, you need to find out how your powers work. We are also curious about how your space element works." Xue Feng spoke.
Li Rou and Xiao'er nodded at this.
The different affinities worked simply. For example, Xue Feng had an ice element Martial Vein, and when he was in the lower realms of the Houtian Great Realm, he could only do simple things like creating icicles and lowering the temperature.
But when he reached the Law Manifestation realm, he could create blizzards on command. And now that he was in the Domain Lord realm, Xue Feng could plunge a city into an ice age with just a thought.
So now that Xue Bai had the elusive and mystical space element, none of them could suppress their curiosity.
After all, together with time, space was the most profound, powerful, and legendary element of them all.
How could they not be excited?
Seeing their anticipation, Xue Bai was calm, and instead of rushing to fight his maid, he did something odd first.
"I don't know where my limits lie, but I can do this." Xue Bai said.
Then to their surprise, he coated his hand in a purple-colored Spiritual Qi. Following the odd spectacle, Xue Bai slashed his hand into the empty air.
And to the disbelief of everyone in the courtyard, he created a tear in the fabric of reality.
It was quickly healed by the Plane, but it still gave no small amount of shock to the three.
"How was that?" Xue Bai asked as he looked up at their wide-open jaws.
"Bai'er, that spatial tear, does it lead to the void?" Xue Feng asked after he composed himself.
"I assume so. I don't know where else it could go. The reason I even discovered it was rather sad too. Earlier, I had wanted to crush the mints, but I found it too hard, so I used some Spiritual Qi to help me out, but instead of crushing them, I had banished them to void." Xue Bai explained awkwardly.
"This is going to take longer than we thought." Xue Feng sighed.
Xue Bai, in the game, had a fire element Martial Vein as he wanted to be an alchemist. So he knew nothing about the space element, much less did the three people with him.
So they decided to spend the rest of the day testing various ideas with the space element. And then have Xue Bai spar with Xiao'er on the second.
The first thing they tested was where did his spatial tear lead to. But since they were terrified of the void, they tested it with a rock.
Slashing open space once again, Xue Bai opened a tear in the air. And behind him, Xue Feng stood ready with a small rock and threw it into the void before the tear healed itself. However, the rock never appeared again, to their confusion.
They were thinking of various places it could have gone to until Xiao'er said, "Young Master, do it again. Maybe it also needs an exit point, and the first tear is only an entrance!"
Since it seemed like a reasonable idea and they had nothing to lose, Xue Bai did it again. And Xiao'er was right. As soon as Xue Bai made an exit, the rock exited. However, it came out in a powdery state. The stone couldn't handle the void of space.
"So I can't transport anything unless they are strong enough to withstand the void. But how strong is the void, and what is the minimum amount of durability something needs to survive in there?" Xue Bai thought aloud.
"We have a few mIddle Yellow-grade Swords you can use to test it. But that's the highest you can use. Unfortunately, high Yellow-grade Weapons are hard to come by for us." Xue Feng offered.
Nodding, Xue Bai took the sword from Xue Feng's hand and proceeded to do the experiment again. And the same as last time, the sword came out in a powder.
"So, middle Yellow-grade is still too weak, huh?" Xue Bai spoke.
"It probably needs a minimum of the Black-grade to survive in the void." Li Rou imputed.
Everyone there agreed with Li Rou said,
And after that, the group of four continued to test his element throughout the night, only leaving when Xue Bai had completely run out of Spiritual Qi.
Thinking it was a good spot to finish, Li Rou and Xue Feng made their leave.
But before they left, Xue Feng reminded, "Bai'er, you can cultivate now, so you should probably get used to cutting out sleep. So tonight, I want you to cultivate throughout it instead of sleeping."
Then going into his spatial ring, Xue Feng pulled out 3 Spirit Stones.
Even though they were the main currency in the Baishen Plane, Spirit Stones also assisted cultivators in cultivating.
Within the stone was an ample amount of decently pure Spiritual Qi. Moreover, it was extremely easy and convenient to use as even if one was in an area barren of Spiritual Qi, they could still use Spirit Stones to cultivate a normal speed.
"Bai'er, one Spirit Stone is enough for a day of cultivation for people at your cultivation. But I'll give you three since we don't know how strong your Martial Veins are. So use these to cultivate tonight.
And after giving his son a few instructions on how to use them, Xue Feng left.
Though Xue Bai loved to sleep, he knew the best time to cultivate was during the night. So he agreed and went to his room and followed the instructions.
Closing his eyes and sitting in a lotus position on his bed, Xue Bai held one of the Spirit Stones in his hands and, per Xue Feng's instructions, started to absorb the Spiritual Qi within.
And instantly, Xue Bai could feel that his Martial Veins were vacuuming the entire Spiritual Qi in the Spirit Stone at a breakneck pace.
It was so fast that Xue Bai could visibly see the already gray apple-sized stone lose its luster and grow even dimmer.
'So this is why protagonists cultivate so fast. You'd have to be brain-dead not to cultivate fast with talent like this!' Xue Bai was enlightened.
However, he didn't let his concentration slip and continued cultivating throughout the night.
==
Soon a night passed, but since the enjoyment of getting stronger was so fulfilling, Xue Bai didn't even feel the passage of time. And he only realized that it was sunrise when he heard Xiao'er knock on his door.
"Young Master, your parents are waiting for you. I have prepared you some breakfast and things to help you freshen up." Xiao'er announced before she entered the room.
Reluctantly, Xue Bai opened his eyes. From one night of cultivating, he had already almost pathed out half the way to his sixth vein, the kidney. So it assumed it would only take him around 3 or 4 more days to reach the sixth stage.
This cultivation speed already showed the heaven-defying potential of a Low Heaven Grade Martial Vein. Not only could he reach higher heights, but he also gathered Spiritual Qi like a black hole.
For someone with a high Yellow-grade Martial Vein like Xiao'er, it would take her at least three months to do each vein. Yet he could do them in 3 days.
Even without obtaining any treasures to speed up his cultivation, Xue Bai could easily reach the Blood Exchange realm by the end of the month, while someone with the talent of Xiao'er would take almost 18.
Shaking away his thoughts of invincibility, Xue Bai got off his bed and quickly ate breakfast.
The usual breakfast of Xue Bai consisted of meat buns along with some fruit juice. There were more flavorful options, but Xue Bai was lazy and didn't like using chopsticks much, so the finger food meat buns were his choice for breakfast.
After eating breakfast, Xue Bai quickly downed the juice before freshening up.
That also didn't take very long, and now that he was done with his morning routine, he quickly washed his face and walked into his closet to change.
And after he simply grabbed one of his many practice wears, he left the room, where he saw his parents talking while waiting for him.
However, their conversation stopped as soon as he exited the room.
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