Junior Brother Pays Respect to You: Chapter 14 - Spirit of Time
Chapter 14: Spirit of Time
In the blink of an eye, half a day of cultivation passed unknowingly.
Qin Zheng was still quietly following behind Qin Su, all the way to the door of the third-tier cultivation room.
Qin Zheng knew that he was going inside to cultivate again.
Now that the senior disciples had advanced in level, they didn’t spend much time practicing spells outside. Most of their time was spent cultivating within their respective tiered rooms.
Suddenly, Qin Su, who had been walking ahead without a word, stopped.
“For the next three days, I’ll be cultivating inside the third-tier room the whole time, so don’t bother waiting for me at the door.”
With that, Qin Su walked in without looking back.
Looking at Qin Su’s small figure disappearing inside, Qin Zheng couldn’t help but smile a little.
He thought: What a kid—mouth says one thing, heart says another.
Only after Qin Su completely disappeared from sight did Qin Zheng slowly turn and leave.
His junior brother’s words gave him more confidence in restoring their relationship.
Qin Zheng remembered how dull daily life in the Tianque Sect could be. The higher one’s rank, the more time they had to spend cultivating in the tiered rooms.
If that’s the case, would it mean he might not see Qin Su for half a month out of this one-month period?
That wouldn’t do.
Their relationship was already quite distant. Qin Zheng wasn’t even confident about improving things in one month—if they lost half of that time, it would all be for nothing.
***
Qin Zheng visited the medicine hall twice in one day, which made Qin Shuang feel both flattered and uneasy.
Because right now, his senior brother was smiling at him with obvious scheming in his eyes.
Every time Senior Brother needed help with something exhausting or thankless, he wore that same expression.
Qin Shuang instinctively clutched the medicinal herbs beside him for a sense of safety and said nervously, “Senior Brother, if you need help, just say so. Don’t smile at me like that. You’re scaring me.”
Hearing that, Qin Zheng immediately dropped his smile and placed both hands on Qin Shuang’s shoulders, saying seriously, “Junior Brother, I need a certain medicine!”
Hearing it was about medicine, Qin Shuang finally relaxed. As he sorted through the herbs, he said, “Oh, it’s just medicine? Why didn’t you say so earlier? You were acting like you were up to something shady. If it’s within my ability, I’ll do everything I can to help—”
“Wait!”
Suddenly, Qin Shuang asked nervously, “Senior Brother, you’re not asking for an aphrodisiac, are you?”
“I can’t make that for you. Not only has the sect master explicitly forbidden any aphrodisiacal substances in the medicine hall, but also—Junior Brother is still a kid! Taking something like that would harm his body!”
Qin Zheng saw Qin Shuang getting more outrageous with every word and smacked him on the head.
“What the hell are you thinking?”
“You usually seem meek, but your thoughts are filthy.”
“Do I look like that kind of person?”
After saying this, Qin Zheng even tilted his chin proudly as if to prove his innocence.
Qin Shuang rubbed his sore head and said aggrievedly, “Well, you do have low cultivation, and you’re already past your coming-of-age… can’t blame me for thinking that.”
Seeing Qin Zheng about to raise his hand to hit him again, Qin Shuang quickly backed up, covering his head.
Unable to reach him, Qin Zheng put down his hand and sneered, “Aren’t you also just an untrained commoner now? Maybe it’s you who has that kind of filthy thought?”
Qin Shuang waved his hands quickly. “I’m at least a mid-second-tier semi-cultivator! My self-control is way better than yours!”
Qin Zheng glared viciously. “Still asking for a beating, huh?”
Qin Shuang quickly shut up. After a moment of silence, he timidly asked, “So what kind of medicine does Senior Brother want?”
Qin Zheng beckoned him closer with a finger, as if it was a secret.
When Qin Shuang leaned in, he whispered, “Do you have anything that can temporarily boost someone’s cultivation?”
Qin Shuang looked at him in confusion. “Why do you want to raise your cultivation?”
Qin Zheng just smiled mysteriously. “Can’t say.”
Scratching his head, Qin Shuang said awkwardly, “I’ve heard of such a medicine, but I’m still too inexperienced. I don’t have the qualifications to make it yet.”
Qin Zheng quickly coaxed him, “Can’t you just try? Who knows, maybe you’ll succeed?”
Qin Shuang looked distressed. “It’s not that I won’t try. I don’t even have the recipe!”
“Recipe?” Qin Zheng tilted his head. “Where do you get it?”
Qin Shuang frowned. “The recipe is in the Tianque Sect’s library.”
Qin Zheng grimaced. “You could’ve said that earlier. Let’s go get it now.” He grabbed Qin Shuang and made to run toward the library.
Just before being dragged out, Qin Shuang clung to the medicine room door and struggled. “Wait, Senior Brother! The recipe is in the fourth-tier section of the library—we can’t get in!”
That stopped Qin Zheng in his tracks.
In the Tianque Sect, not only was cultivation divided by tier, but access to the library was also restricted by rank.
Only the sect master and the highest elders could access the fourth-tier section. Among the disciples, third-tier was the highest, so there was no one to ask for help even if they wanted to.
After a moment of silence, Qin Zheng asked, “Can we sneak in?”
“That…” Qin Shuang hesitated, then said quietly, “That’s not a good idea, is it?”
“If the master finds out, you’ll be locked up again.”
“And what if there’s some forbidden text in there that causes someone to go crazy after reading it?”
Qin Zheng gave Qin Shuang a “Are you stupid?” look and said, “If you don’t tell, and I don’t tell, how would the master know?”
“We’ll just look for the medicinal texts and not touch anything else, right?”
“It can’t possibly be so dangerous that even reading a medicinal book could lead to qi deviation, right?”
“Besides, as an alchemist, don’t you want to see those incredible medicinal recipes?”
Qin Zheng’s words stirred a restless curiosity in Qin Shuang. He did want to go into the Fourth-Tier Library Pavilion.
Seeing Qin Shuang was tempted, Qin Zheng pretended to sigh and said, “Since you don’t want to go, I’ll look for the recipe myself and bring it back for you.” He made a show of leaving.
Qin Shuang quickly grabbed his senior brother and said, “I’ll go with you after all. You don’t understand these things, and if you pick the wrong one, you’re the one who’ll suffer when the medicine goes wrong.”
***
Late at night, Qin Zheng snuck over to the Fourth-Tier Library Pavilion and met up with Qin Shuang.
Using the cover of darkness, they quietly pushed open the pavilion door, and with a flash, their figures slipped inside.
The library was lit by luminous pearls, making it as bright as day inside, despite the darkness outside.
The structure was a spire with three levels, each lined with rows of bookshelves filled with thick volumes. Some of the books were yellowed with age, clearly quite ancient.
Qin Shuang looked up toward the top of the tower, then turned to Qin Zheng and said, “Let’s split up. If you see any books related to medicinal herbs, call for me. I’ll do the same if I find something.”
Qin Zheng nodded. “The first floor is the largest—search here. I’ll handle the second and third floors.”
With that, he dashed up to the second floor.
Qin Shuang waited until his senior brother disappeared behind the bookshelves before beginning his own search.
Qin Zheng moved between shelves, flipping through books. He quickly noticed that each shelf held books of a single category, so he began checking only one book per shelf.
As expected of the Fourth-Tier Pavilion, even though Qin Zheng could recognize all the characters, he couldn’t make sense of the meanings when they were put together.
Time passed unknowingly, and eventually Qin Zheng had finished scanning the entire second floor—but found nothing related to medicinal herbs.
By now, his eyelids were drooping. His cultivation was low, so he still needed to rest like an ordinary person.
He stumbled up to the third floor, and casually opened a book near the staircase. Instantly, he was wide awake.
Qin Zheng rubbed his eyes, afraid he was hallucinating from fatigue.
The page he opened had an illustration—one that looked just like a plant grown in the Tianque Sect’s forest. He’d heard it was a spiritual herb planted by their master.
Excited, Qin Zheng leaned over the railing and shouted, “Qin Shuang! I found it! Come to the third floor!”
Then he flipped through the book in his hand again, confirming he wasn’t mistaken.
The book contained several highly detailed plant illustrations, identical to those grown in their sect.
He plopped down on the stairs, waiting for Qin Shuang to arrive.
But even after reading the book cover to cover, there was still no sign of Qin Shuang.
Strangely, he hadn’t responded when Qin Zheng called either.
Qin Zheng looked downstairs strangely and shouted. “Qin Shuang?”
Still no response.
Maybe he got too absorbed in a book?
He returned the book to its original place and walked down to the first floor.
Looking around, he soon spotted Qin Shuang squatting by a bookshelf, engrossed in a thick book.
He hadn’t even noticed Qin Zheng approach.
“What’s got you so captivated?”
Qin Zheng asked as he peeked over his shoulder.
Startled, Qin Shuang quickly closed the book. “Oh, I was just browsing.”
“Wait a sec!” Qin Zheng snatched the book from him and flipped to the page he had been reading.
It was a book about treasures—each page had an illustration and a description.
The image on the top-left corner of the open page was clearly the Time Scroll Qin Zheng had seen in the future.
Remembering Qin Shuang was next to him, Qin Zheng feigned curiosity and said, “These descriptions sound amazing. Are they all real?”
“Of course they are,” Qin Shuang replied proudly.
Qin Zheng pointed at the image. “This Time Scroll is incredible!”
Qin Shuang scoffed at the image he was pointing to. “That one’s not even that impressive. Look at the description below.”
“It only allows the soul to travel through time, and there’s a time limit. If you accidentally change the past, the user can get trapped in a time loop.”
Then, shifting from disdain to excitement, Qin Shuang pointed to the right side of the page. “This is the original source of the Time Scroll!”
Qin Zheng followed his finger and noticed that the other treasure on the page had no accompanying image—just four bold characters as a title: Spirit of Time.
Beneath it was a brief description:
Allows complete control over time and space.
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