Months have passed, and Jun has been cultivating nonstop, consuming pill after pill, and two months have passed, and he finally broke through to tier 1 with only a month left before the competition; he could not afford to slow down.
"Hahahahahahaha, I am finally an official cultivator, so this is how it feels," Jun laughed inside his room.
He's been circulating spirit energy inside his body like a madman, and slowly he started to accumulate the needed amount of spirit energy to break through.
After the test, Jun's cultivation picked up the pace because he started consuming the spirit pills that Elder Lucille provided for him. Although he is not the first to break through, it is still impressive since his cultivation level is one of the lowest when the test is held.
Jun immediately left his room to report to Elder Lucille about his breakthrough.
Jun arrived at Elder Lucille's wooden shack; the elder was tending to her plants as usual when Jun greeted the elder.
"Good morning, Elder Lucille."
"Good day to you, young man, and congratulations on your breakthrough," the elder said with a smile.
"Take a seat."
"Thank you, Elder," Jun said as he took a seat.
"I believe you have something to discuss with me," Elder Lucille asked.
"Yes, Elder, it is about the Wood Body Spiritual Technique," Jun replied.
When he decided to practice the Wood Body Spiritual Technique, they made an agreement that Jun will report to Elder Lucille his experience every time he makes a breakthrough; that is why he is here now.
The two spent the whole morning discussing the cultivation technique; Jun shared his experiences with the elder, and the elder attentively listened.
"That is everything that I have to say, elder."
"From this information alone, I can already tell that there is nothing wrong with the cultivation techniques, but that is only for the initial level. We still don't know about the higher tiers, so I need you to continue working hard and achieve breakthroughs," Elder Lucille said to Jun.
Jun nodded, and as he stood up preparing to leave, Elder Lucille handed him a wooden box.
"What is this, elder?" Jun asked in confusion.
"It's for your cultivation; isn't it a part of our agreement?" Elder Lucille explained that Jun showed a knowing expression; he forgot that the elder will provide him cultivation resources until he reaches tier 2, and this is the second batch of the said resources.
"I work hard, and I wish you good luck," Elder Lucille said with his back against Jun. Jun gave the elder a deep bow before he left.
...
After Jun's meeting with elder Lucille he left the box of spirit pills in his room and he went straight to the library to get two skill manuals, it is in the rules that when a disciple makes a breakthrough they are allowed to take two skill manuals from the pavilion library.
"Woah, so many people," Jun said. It turns out he is not the only one who made a breakthrough this time. He didn't expect that he would be the only one, but this is too much; there are at least two hundred people lined up outside the library.
Jun quickly lined up as well when he saw that another group of disciples was on their way to the library.
He waited for more than an hour before he managed to get inside.
"Here, take this. When you decide what skill manual you want, write the title of the manual here and give it back to me." The elder in charge of the library gave him a piece of paper and a pen.
After receiving it, Jun quickly went on his way. He is now on the first floor of the library. There are 10 floors corresponding to the ten tiers of cultivation, and since he is only a tier 1 cultivator, he is only allowed on the first floor, which is filled.
Jun started browsing the skill manual on the first floor of the library; since he has a four-attribute spirit root with high purity in the wood and water elements, he started to look for the corresponding skill manual that suited him.
Jun arrived at the shelf containing the wood attribute skill manuals, and there is only one shelf allocated to it.
Although the Wood attribute is not rare, there are only a few skills with this attribute since most cultivators prefer an offensive skill that is not suited for the wood element. That is why when Jun started browsing, most of the skill manuals were for support skills. There were some offensive skills, but they were not noteworthy.
"Oh, root spikes." Jun saw the title of an offensive skill manual; he quickly read the contents, and he soon lost interest. Not only does the skill cost a lot of spirit energy, but the casting time is also extremely slow, so he put it down and started to look again.
Jun decided that he will train a skill with wood and spirit attributes, since he will be given his duties when he reaches tier two, and most duties given to spirit garden peak disciples are taking care of a spirit plant field. He plans to look for skills that he can use to protect himself and can be used to tend to a spirit plant field.
Although his requirements are quite strict when it comes to the skills he wants to learn, he has no choice since he doesn't have a lot of money, because disciples can buy skill manuals from the pavilion or outside if they want to; that is why rich disciples have more skills than the others.
"Tree Root Sense Skill" Jun read the title and read the contents; he didn't expect much from this skill, but to his surprise, it is extremely useful.
This skill allows one to manipulate their spirit energy and make it act like a tree root connected to their feet and sense the surrounding area; the radius of the skill depends on the person's mastery of the skill.
"With this skill I can sense an incoming attack even if it comes from my blind spot, unless the attack comes from the sky. Not only that, but I can even use this skill to observe a spirit plant's growth from under the ground." Jun decided to take the Tree Root Sense Skill; he then headed to the aisle where water attribute skill manuals are stored.
He quickly browsed the skill and quickly made a choice, although there are more water attribute skills than wood, most of them are support as well, especially healing, Jun wants to take the healing skill but what he lacks right now is an offensive skill, although he doesn't have a high hopes in the competition he still wants to try and compete seriously, so he opted for an offensive skill called Water Manipulation Skill, it is not a direct attack skill, from the name of the skill itself, it allows one to freely manipulate water with their spirit energy, with skillful control the user of this skill can create weapons or just water ball attacks, the range of the skill is thirty meters and will increase with mastery and the amount of spirit energy used, He can also use this skill to tend to a spirit garden, which suited his requirements. Jun quickly jotted down the name of the skill and proceeded to the elder managing the library.
"Tree Root Sense and Water Manipulation, truly a disciple of the spirit garden peak," the elder said.
Jun nodded towards the elder.
After a few moments, Jun receives a copy of the skill from the elder.
"Thank you, Elder," Jun said and bowed.
"No problem, you go and work hard," the elder said.
...
Back in his room, Jun quickly immersed himself to study the skills he just got.
"This tree root sense is quite difficult to learn." Jun said as he closed the book, he already had an idea of the difficulty of learning the skill, but he didn't imagine it would be harder in actual practice, so he decided to try the water manipulation skill.
He faced the wooden bucket filled with water in the corner of his room; he prepared this bucket of water when he came back from the library; he followed the instructions from the skill manual.
"Pour spirit energy into the water and make sure that the spirit energy and the water become one, then control the spirit energy inside the water," Jun mumbled as he controlled the spirit energy. He managed to lift a ball of water from the bucket, but it quickly burst after a few moments.
"Whooooo," Jun said excitedly, since he succeeded on the first try.
He continues to train the water manipulation to ride in the momentum; he made quite the progress and decided to stop when the sun set.
He quickly grabbed dinner and went back to his room to meditate; just because he reached tier 1 doesn't mean he can relax. The other disciples reached tier 1 months ahead of him, so he cannot slack off.