When Mu Yanxi first returned to Yuzhen City and encountered the Lin family Immortal Vessel, she had ascended directly to the golden core stage without pausing to cultivate at any previous level.
Such a cultivator was likely what one would call a standard golden core stage cultivator.
She had once heard three golden core stage cultivators mention that they would undergo extra cultivation to find work faster, which likely referred to things like infinite qi refining and opening the Life Spring, methods that could grant additional strength.
These practices did not increase one’s lifespan, but they certainly made the path of immortality cultivation much smoother.
A small claw waved in front of Mu Yanxi’s eyes. “Yanxi, Yanxi! What are you thinking about,å—·?” Lei Mulan’s small paw pulled Mu Yanxi back from her thoughts.
Mu Yanxi smiled, not daring to tell anyone about her access privileges. She asked Lei Mulan, “Do you want to join the horticulture department? Nothing special, I was just thinking about some spiritual herb planting matters.”
“I don’t want to, ouch. I’m only interested in clubs that can directly increase combat power. Flowers and plants like this don’t suit a demon cultivator like me, ouch,” Lei Mulan said.
“I see.” Mu Yanxi looked at the stage. Actually, spiritual plants were not just for use as materials; some were truly capable of enhancing one’s strength.
For example, the silver leaf iron vine was a spiritual plant used strictly for combat.
It could form a vine armor to wrap around its owner, extend out like a whip to lash at others, or bind a target, functioning exactly like a powerful, automatically controlled wood-attribute divine treasure.
It was not a divine artifact, but a divine treasure. A silver leaf iron vine over 1,000 years old had power comparable to a golden core stage cultivator, so it could be directly treated as a divine treasure.
As it aged, the power of the silver leaf iron vine would further increase, making it deeply beloved by cultivators who frequently engaged in real-life combat.
Of course, that was in Mu Yanxi’s previous life. In this world, the grades and power of divine artifacts had been greatly enhanced; a high-grade divine artifact’s power was completely inferior to no divine treasure from her past life.
For instance, Ruo Xuan’s plasma gun and Mu Yanxi’s undying blade were cases in point. Therefore, what grade of divine artifact a 3,000-year-old silver leaf iron vine would be equivalent to remained to be seen.
“What about you, Yanxi? Do you want to join the horticulture department? It seems this club is quite popular among human cultivators, and there are some from other races as well,” Lei Mulan inquired, already able to address Mu Yanxi by her name quite naturally.
“That, well, forget it. I don’t have much interest,” Mu Yanxi shook her head. The time and energy spent cultivating spiritual plants were vastly different from the rewards, and she could grow them herself anyway.
Most importantly, it sounded like the planting and medicinal care techniques mastered by the horticulture department were far inferior to those recorded in the Heavenly Tome Library, so why would she join them? Besides, for her right now, planting spiritual herbs was still too early.
“Me neither~ then let’s go, let’s go check out the next club.”
Lei Mulan pulled Mu Yanxi toward the next booth. The strength of a demon cultivator was truly great; Mu Yanxi felt she had no chance of resisting at all before she was dragged away.
“Spiritual Moon High Sect, Idol Enthusiast Club?” Mu Yanxi looked at this booth, decked out with decorations, display stands, and flower baskets.
The senior sisters on stage held color-changing fluorescent stick divine artifacts, collectively shouting “Hi! Hi! Hi!” at a celestial female cultivator on the crystal wall screen; it looked like a scene from a Heretical Cult.
“What, is this, doing?” Even Lei Mulan couldn’t understand it this time.
She had only gained her intelligence a month or two ago, and even with the demon cultivator senior sisters tutoring her, her knowledge base was quite skewed; what she didn’t know, she didn’t know.
Just then, Mu Yanxi saw an acquaintance passing by—Wei Ling. She had intended to bypass the Idol Enthusiast Club, but Mu Yanxi called out to her, “Wei Ling, come over here for a second.”
Hearing Mu Yanxi’s voice, Wei Ling’s face twitched. She turned and walked over, bowing to Mu Yanxi, “Mu… Master, is there something you need?”
“There is no need to be so polite. Do you know what this Idol Enthusiast Club does?” Mu Yanxi asked. Judging by her attempt to take a detour, she certainly knew the situation with this club.
“Master, these are cultivators of the incense path. The person on the screen is a Spiritual Moon Palace female cultivator who practices the incense path and graduated from the Spiritual Moon High Sect,” Wei Ling answered obediently.
“This is the incense path?” Mu Yanxi was baffled. In her impression, the incense path involved building a temple, placing a statue in the middle, and having a group of mortals worship it to collect the incense wish-power of the masses for cultivation.
What was the deal with this Spiritual Moon Palace female cultivator jumping around on stage? And what about the piles of flower baskets and colored lights below?
And wasn’t the incense path only supposed to attract the worship of mortals? What was this group of Spiritual Moon High Sect disciples doing here shouting slogans while holding fluorescent stick divine artifacts?
In the previous clubs, although the names had become things like model play club, dance club, and horticulture department, the content at least remained unchanged.
Mu Yanxi could tell at a glance that they studied marionettes, celestial dance, and spiritual plants; these were proper pursuits. Only this Idol Enthusiast Club seemed to have absolutely no correlation to the incense path.
“Indeed, this is the incense path. The female disciples give their wish-power to the seniors of the Spiritual Moon Palace, and the seniors feedback the benefits to them.”
“Of course, there are also fans off-campus, as well as activities involving live streams and concerts. I don’t know much about it; I keep my distance from idols and such.”
At this moment, Mu Yanxi realized that the Spiritual Moon Palace senior was also performing a celestial dance.
Her dance steps matched the rhythm perfectly, and the songs she sang were celestial tunes. As these two merged, Mu Yanxi felt the speed of her mana circulation accelerate once more.
This feeling was the same as watching the senior sisters perform celestial dance on the dance club stage, except that when immersed in the celestial dance, the mana circulation speed was faster, completing a small heaven cycle in just under 1 minute. But with this, it took about 3 minutes.
However, Mu Yanxi understood the reason: it was because she hadn’t gone up on the stage to shout along with the senior sisters holding the fluorescent stick divine artifacts.
Their slogans were timed to the music coming from the crystal wall screen, and as they waved the fluorescent sticks, these divine artifacts were also amplifying the aura.
In this atmosphere of collective mania and the amplification of the divine artifacts, everyone’s cultivation speed was overlaid and magnified.
The final cultivation effect was definitely better than just watching the crystal wall screen, almost comparable to watching a concert in person.
Mu Yanxi began to understand. This was indeed the incense path, but the form of belief had undergone a massive change.
The seniors were no longer sitting solemnly in temples, but stepping onto stages; the followers were no longer kneeling, but turning into fans.
At the same time, Mu Yanxi felt the wish-power of the senior sisters gathering in the aura, flowing away through some invisible connection—presumably flowing to that senior in the Spiritual Moon Palace. With that, she understood everything completely.
“The members of the Idol Enthusiast Club were, for the vast majority, boys in the past,” Wei Ling suddenly said, her tone carrying clear disdain.
“People should be in the Sword Dao Department or the Track and Field Department tempering themselves. I am ashamed to be associated with these shut-ins.”