It took a while for Xinyi to calm down. Yin Hu had been sweating bullets the entire time. He did something wrong somewhere, but he wasn’t exactly sure what. Did he insult her? Was Immortal peak strong or was it really weak?

He had no clue how to continue going. So in his haste and anxiousness he had pulled out a ‘Spiritual Root Strengthener’. And of course it resulted in more unexpected and quite worrying reactions.

She went through the entire spectrum in less than a couple minutes. From nearly crying a river, her eyes looked like dams ready to explode, to uncharacteristic seriousness with a touch of butterflies, to all out laughter. The kind that has you ending on the ground rolling in pain.

Even now, Xinyi vibrated as he went through the Compendium scroll. He had pulled it out and set it on the table. When he rolled it out, he had expected to need to use weights to keep it open, but it did not.

Just touching it felt sacrilegious. The golden color with the sheer details in the very design itself made him feel like this might have been the most valuable thing he carried. If he didn’t know it was a scroll, he could have been fooled to believe it was a window to another world. How they managed the depth and complexity was beyond him.

It gave off a cold freezing touch that didn’t really affect him in any way. The wood underneath did seem to ice up a bit. But that was probably a cool effect factor.

… maybe Xinyi wasn’t vibrating in joy. Was it that cold? He didn’t feel anything and he was probably the weakest person in this room cultivation wise. He could probably even the odds by drowning them with the sheer weight of his wealth, but on level footing, Yin Hu stood no chance.

Focus

Yin Hu let his eyes glide over the calligraphy painted onto what appeared to be paper of high quality. He had no clue what any of the symbols and perfectly drawn words meant in their vertical writing, but all together, he someone innately understood the meanings behind full sentences.

There seemed to be three major issues they had to tackle when using the ‘Spiritual Roots Strengthener’. The primary one being quite simple to explain, but was the most pressing if they did not intend to irrevocably destroy her roots instead of upgrading them. Hu Xinyi, not due to any fault of hers, most likely had damaged roots.

It was quite common, if the scroll is to be believed. The act of cultivating grated on her roots, pulling deeply from their font of potential and talent to infinitely fuel growth. Hence, a constant wear and tear effect.

The solution was not as simple as the problem either. But, that would have been an issue for lesser people.

Yin Hu smiled, deeply satisfied with his ability to pay to win. They needed a medium that had existed for longer than fifty thousand years to initiate the repairs, it would then be mixed with the energy of twenty-nine superior mana stones. Afterwards, they were to be grinded down into dust.

A second bowl would be prepared with thirty-three superior mana stones grinded down with the core of a Liquid Core water based beast and two Gaseous Core beasts of the earthen persuasion.

They could not be grinded together or it would be a poisonous mixture that was quite flammable. A record in the scroll indicated that a palace had been burned to the ground due to this mistake, with it went the lives of every noble, peasant, and cultivator below the Solid Core stage.

Yin Hu noticed that the Compendium did not use the same ranking system. He wondered where the Immortal Peak realm sat in all this discussion of solid and liquid cores. Or was it the weakest, he assumed, at the Gaseous Stage?

Regardless, they were to mix the two slowly and add highly dense spiritual water into it. Admix slowly for a thousand seven hundred and twelve perfect rotations. Or double if you do half rotation….

Yin Hu laughed as he stared at the long and winding directions to make the final product. It was nearly ninety-seven steps in total just to get everything prepared with the final product being two perfect ‘Spiritual Root Repairing Pills’ of the Immortal Rank.

“A-ancestor,” called Xinyi, her teeth chattering. She hugged herself trying to keep warm.

He cleared his throat, ears burning with embarrassment. Good thing his long hair and beard did its job to cover for him. He had a persona to keep up with and it was exhausting. Every moment had to be perfect or they would think something was up.

He quickly checked the end of all three problems and got the gist of what they needed to do. He needed two ‘Spiritual Root Repairing Pills’, one ‘Spiritual Root Cleanser’, and then finally a ‘Gaseous Core Purification Pill’ assuming she is in the Gaseous Core realm.

And then he noticed that each had prerequisites to use. In order to fully purify your core, you needed to cleanse your meridians, and for that to happen you had to cleanse your body of contamination of daily living.

It was only normal to accumulate contamination if you didn't eat heavenly food all your life. That would be a feat only emperors of the greatest empires could achieve. Not the last two of a supposed to be illustrious family with middling strength and wealth if they had been taken out the way they were.

“This will be a long process. But your ancestor will make sure everything is perfect.” said Yin Hu. With a wave of his hand the scroll disappeared, and another brought all the needed pills, herbs, etc. “We will begin with the very beginnings of your foundation. Your body–”

“I-is this all needed?” Xinyi asked, she gulped at all the pills, washes, and everything imaginable on the dining table. “T-the Hu Patriarch had been gifted with a ‘Spiritual Root Strengthener’ by the Heavenly Emperor before the forced seclusion of all righteous sects… He just ate the ageless pill after cleansing his body.”

Yin Hu Harrumphed. He looked away with his staple distant look that had yet to fail him. Was the scroll wrong?! Was this all a trick or jest? Who would go to such lengths to get such a special…

Xinyi slammed her head on the table. The bottles and jars clinked from the sudden tremor.

Yin Hu nearly jumped in his seat, startled.

“Again I make a fool out of myself!” She yelled at the top of her lungs. “I am a toad, just as you had so eloquently spoken. What could we have in knowledge that you have not already seen through and deciphered. Ancient and unimaginable secrets lie with you, how could the Hu Patriarch ever compare to the Progenitor of the Hu Family!”

Yin Hu stared at her, trying to hide his creeped out expression. “As long as you know.”

She slammed her head onto the table again, nearly toppling the tower of items and causing irrevocable damage. Some of these things could only touch air for moments before they lost all supernatural powers within them. That would have been a catastrophe.

While it did very little to even nick his wealth in total, it would not be wise to be so wasteful. He could already imagine himself a NFL player that made a hundred million plus but is homeless in ten years. That was a future he did not ever want.

Once you get a taste of such wealth, it's impossible to go back without going crazy. He had yet to fully delve in and it was already addicting.

“We are wasting time.” He suddenly declared, more to get her to raise her head. “Let us begin.”

He took a deep breath, rolled up his sleeves and got to work. It would take forever but Xinyi becoming a mighty figure and protecting him had to take precedence until he found others he could trick into staying around him. The more the better, but he wasn’t stupid.

Loyalty. He would somehow need to instill this into them.

“Yes, Ancestor!” she shouted, nearly popping his ear drums.

WalkingWreckingCrew