Qi Yan raised his sword, pointed the tip toward the ground, and turned it slightly, speaking as if in passing. “The last time Chu Zhixun went down the mountain for training, he brought back a three-hundred-year-old fire lingzhi. The last time Cen Xi'er went down, she brought back an incomplete manual for an Earth Grade, mid-tier sword technique. The last time Xiao Yuan went down, he found the skeleton of an ancient spirit beast in an abandoned cave dwelling outside the city and used it to refine a set of armor.”
Lin Zhiyue blinked slowly.
“Master,” she asked tentatively, “are you saying that because I went down the mountain to play for two days and didn't bring anything back, so—”
“I didn't say that,” Qi Yan interrupted her, his tone flat. But a second later, he added, “I was just asking.”
Looking at his flawless, unreadable face, Lin Zhiyue suddenly understood everything.
When Qi Yan saw the paper messenger crane at his door, he had probably only frowned.
But after two days, that loudmouth Chu Zhixun must have shouted all over the mountain about how much meat they had eaten and how many things they had bought with their little junior sister. Once those words reached Qi Yan's ears, he likely realized that his eldest, second, and third disciples had taken his newly accepted youngest disciple down the mountain purely to eat, drink, and have fun.
His question today about what she had “experienced during training” was entirely intentional.
Lin Zhiyue looked up at Qi Yan. He still wore his usual cold and taciturn expression, not even sparing her a second glance, but she inexplicably felt that the corners of his mouth were pressed slightly flatter today than usual, as if he were holding something back.
“Master,” she said, “the next time I go down the mountain, I will definitely bring back something proper.”
Qi Yan finally glanced at her. There was no anger or blame in his eyes.
“An extra two hours of practice today.” He withdrew his gaze, lifted his sword, and took three steps forward to stand before her. As if suddenly remembering something, he added, “Do not learn those habits from your senior brothers and sister.”
Lin Zhiyue naturally knew what Qi Yan meant. Suppressing a laugh, she drew her Azure Scale Sword, the silver dragon patterns on the blade catching a gleam of the morning light.
She gripped her sword and assumed her starting stance. Her mind had been filled with her seniors' love triangle cycle over the past two days, but now that she had finally completed the system quest, she could at last return to the proper business of practicing her swordplay.
As for her seniors' affairs—well, as their junior sister, she would just pretend she didn't know for now. She would worry about it later if the situation changed.
Qi Yan's sword was already raised. The morning breeze swept in from the edge of the cliff, fluttering the stray hairs on his forehead and the hem of his red robe. The sunlight bathed his entire figure in a thin layer of gold.
Lin Zhiyue focused her mind, locking her gaze onto the direction his sword tip was pointing, and said in a serious voice, “Master, I am ready.”
The news of her seclusion came entirely out of the blue.
Lin Zhiyue had just finished her morning lessons and returned to her courtyard when a golden, glittering quest banner popped up on the system screen:
【Limited-Time Quest Issued: Breakthrough to the Foundation Establishment Stage within one month. Quest Reward: Premium Draw Ticket ×10, unlock qualification for the limited-time card pool “Forest Spirit's Verses”. Current Cultivation: Fourth level of Qi Refining. Countdown: 30 days.】
She stared at the line of text for three seconds, her mind racing with calculations. Moving from the fourth level of Qi Refining to Foundation Establishment meant crossing five minor realms—the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth levels. For a normal cultivator, this would take anywhere from six months to several years.
But she possessed a mutated ice and wind dual Heavenly Spiritual Root, had the ice affinity from the Ode to the Frozen Frost, and had already read through more than half of the Wind and Frost Void-Returning Formula. In theory... if she gave it her all, it might not be impossible.
She did not hesitate for long. Standing up, she first swept all the books and notes on her desk into her Azure Dragon Jade Pendant. Then, she stuffed several bottles of Fasting Pills and the meridian-nourishing spiritual liquid Cen Xi'er had given her into her system space. Spreading out a sheet of paper, she didn't even bother folding a paper crane this time; she simply used her spiritual energy to write a line of words directly on the paper: “Master, your disciple is going into seclusion to break through to Foundation Establishment. I will make up for all missed swordplay lessons after I emerge.”
The handwriting was sloppy and written in a rush. Rolling the paper into a scroll, she sent it flying toward the main peak with a flick of her hand. Then, she turned around, sat down on her meditation cushion, calmed her mind, and began to circulate the Wind and Frost Void-Returning Formula.
In the inner hall of the main peak, when the scroll of spiritual energy transmission flew through the palace doors, Qi Yan was standing beside the desk of Palace Master Xiao Sheng.
Sitting behind his desk, Xiao Sheng was flipping through a volume of old archives. Seeing the paper scroll fly in, he tactfully remained silent, simply putting down the booklet in his hand with great interest and leaning back against his chair to watch Qi Yan's reaction.
Qi Yan reached out to catch the scroll, unfurled it, and swept his eyes over it. His brow furrowed ever so slightly before relaxing. He rolled the paper back up and slipped it into his sleeve with an expressionless face.
Xiao Sheng let out a laugh as he watched him pocket the paper.
“Yanchen,” Xiao Sheng spoke unhurriedly, his tone carrying the distinct amusement of an older brother watching a spectacle, “last time, you said your newly accepted little disciple was exceptionally talented, possessed extraordinary skeletal structure, worked diligently, and had a photographic memory—yet it's only been a few days. First, she flaked on you for two days to go wandering down the mountain, and now she's going into seclusion?”
Qi Yan turned to look at his senior brother, his expression completely unchanging. “She said she would make up for it after she emerges.”
“Oh?” Xiao Sheng nodded, the curve of his lips widening a bit more. “So your little disciple has flaked on you, her master, twice in a row, and after she says she'll ‘make up for it after she emerges,’ you actually believe her?”
Qi Yan did not reply, but Xiao Sheng clearly saw his junior brother's fingers gently pinch the edge of the paper scroll in his sleeve.
This subtle movement caught Xiao Sheng's eye, making him almost burst into laughter. His junior brother had maintained a cold-faced and cold-hearted image for his entire life. He had practically forced the first three disciples onto Qi Yan, who had washed his hands of them after teaching them for three years.
Now, he had finally taken the initiative to accept one himself, only for this little disciple to go off-script more than the first three combined.
“Yanchen,” Xiao Sheng smoothed his sleeves, his tone carrying a rare teasing edge. “Of your first three disciples, Chu Zhixun may be reckless, but he has never missed a single swordplay lesson. Cen Xi'er is so diligent that even the outer sect elders praise her. Although Xiao Yuan is a man of few words, he is always there every time you go to the martial arts field. When have you ever been stood up by a disciple? And now, it's twice in a row in just a few days?”
Qi Yan fell silent for two breaths before finally speaking, his voice half a tone lower than usual. “She said she would make up for it after she emerges.”
“You already said that,” Xiao Sheng said, barely able to hold back his laughter. “So you plan to just sit and wait like this?”
Qi Yan looked up at his senior brother with a cool gaze, but that single look clearly conveyed the message: If you laugh again, I am leaving.
Xiao Sheng tactfully pulled back the corners of his mouth, suppressing most of his amusement, though the corners of his eyes remained curved.
“Fine, fine, I won't laugh.” He reopened the volume of old archives, looked down to read a line, and then looked up again as if suddenly remembering something. “By the way, Elder Wan came to me this afternoon and said that a disciple over on the side peak had such massive fluctuations of spiritual energy during seclusion that they almost collapsed the wall of the neighboring courtyard. You had better go check which of your disciples it is—”
Qi Yan had already turned and was walking out. His red and black silhouette paused briefly at the palace entrance, his voice drifting back: “It is not mine.”
“How do you know?”
“Chu Zhixun is in the dining hall, while Cen Xi'er and Xiao Yuan are at the martial arts field.”
Watching his junior brother's figure disappear outside the door, Xiao Sheng finally couldn't hold it in any longer and burst into laughter. The sound of his laughter echoed through the inner hall for a good while before subsiding.
He shook his head, flipped open the old archives in his hand, and murmured to himself, “The tables have turned; Yanchen, even you have a day like this.”
In her courtyard halfway up the side peak, Lin Zhiyue sat cross-legged on her meditation cushion with her eyes closed. An endless stream of ice and wind dual spiritual energy gushed from her dantian, coursing back and forth along her meridians. The air within a three-yard radius around her was frozen with a layer of fine white frost.
On the branches of the old pine tree, which had been infused with wind-attribute spiritual energy by Xiao Yuan, a thin layer of ice crystals clung to every single needle, refracting a fragmented rainbow in the afternoon sunlight.
She was completely unaware of what was happening in the inner hall of the main peak.
She only knew that the barrier leading to Foundation Establishment within her body was thinning at a visible rate under the scouring spiritual energy of the third layer of the Wind and Frost Void-Returning Formula.
The ice and wind vortex inside her dantian had expanded by more than half its size compared to before her seclusion. With every completed cycle, a thread of even purer spiritual energy was injected into the center of the vortex.
One month. She had to smash open that gate within a single month.
Qi Yan stood ten paces away from her courtyard, glancing through the half-closed gate. The old pine inside was covered in white frost, and the figure sitting cross-legged with closed eyes on the meditation cushion was enveloped in a thin halo of light. Ice blue and silver-white intertwined and flowed, and her spiritual energy fluctuations were stable and solid.
He stood there for a moment, neither pushing open the gate to enter nor making a sound.
After a moment, he turned and walked down the stone steps. The paper scroll in his sleeve pressed against the inner fabric of his robe, its edges creased with a few shallow folds from where he had pinched it.
Reaching Foundation Establishment in a single month—with an ice and wind dual Heavenly Spiritual Root pushing with all its might, and with the foundation of the Wind and Frost Void-Returning Formula, it might not be impossible.
If she really did break through to Foundation Establishment within a month, then he would accept being stood up this time.
Rate on N.U.
