"A rank one spirit beast. Almost anything living on this mountain is going to be one, there's so much qi in the air and water and plants. Not smart, not a spirit, just a sort of - magical animal, you can think of it like that."

She brandishes a small stone. Not like the red spirit stones, it seems... Muddier, somehow. "Beast core. Useful for tons of things, as are materials from the body, but the cores are the most important. I'm terrible at refinement so I'll probably trade them to someone in exchange for pills and things once things are more settled."

She nods. "Refinement?" That sounds like a facet of the economy as experienced by cultivators that she is still unfamiliar with. 

"They make ... Stuff. Cultivation tools, weapons, pills and medicine, talismans, formations that can extend what is possible. Like the carriages, or the lock that keeps boys out of this side of the housing. Healing pills. Beast cores are mandatory for every batch of healing pills, I know, even if some of the other ingredients can change..."

A brief pause.

"I think refining particularly is more about taking basic things and - transforming, preparing, or concentrating them. And it happens to be that most of that results in pills, but not all."

"Huh. Does the sect teach that sort of thing?" 

"There's a Refiners' Hall, I think probably you should ask there? Elder Su's lecture starts soon-ish though, and the physical training is after that, so you would have a chance to investigate it without missing those in the evening."

"I think I will have a lot to investigate. I will certainly take a look." 

She is suddenly struck with the horrible possibility of arriving late to Elder Su's lesson and starts looking around for kitchen tasks which need aiding with.