Another Way

Qin Xiaosheng: “Actually, the idea of posting those debunking messages was mainly suggested by Gu Ningyun, Wen Xuan, and Ling Hanbai.”

“I just compiled their ideas and posted them.”

Qin Xiaosheng: “For buying and selling information, look for Qin Xiaosheng. Xiaosheng is at your service at the earliest moment. My token friend slot is always open for everyone.”

Xi Caixuan: “So it was Senior Sister Gu and the others! I knew it—as expected of the top three of our class, they have a sense of the big picture and foresight.”

Zhan Pei: “Yeah, if not for their debunking threads, I wouldn't even know how to continue being a Pavilion Master.”

Qiu Hongxin: “As an Abode Master, it's even worse for us. Our direct superiors are the veteran Pavilion Masters.”

Fu Zian: “Didn't Senior Sister Gu say Xiaoyao was different and didn't have these complications?”

Qiu Hongxin: “Are you stupid, Senior Brother Fu? We were the ones who offended them first!”

“No matter how good the sect is, there still need to be basic rules of interaction between people.”

“Besides, there's competition between pavilions.”

Kong Qi: “Senior Sister Ling and the others did debunk the rumors, but they acted like mantises and snatched the missions that originally belonged to us.”

“My logic makes me grateful, but my emotions make me sad!”

Xi Caixuan: “Hahaha, we actually got one too.”

Xing Sichen: “...I know. That one originally belonged to our Qingfeng Pavilion.”

Zhu Zhengqing: “In my opinion, it's better for us new Pavilion Masters to take over than for the veteran Pavilion Masters to cooperate with each other.”

Fu Zian: “Why?”

Zhu Zhengqing: “The veteran Pavilion Masters on the twenty outer peaks don't rotate as frequently as we do. In terms of overall strength, they might even be stronger than us.”

Qin Xiaosheng: “Exactly. Instead of letting them get stronger and making the Outer Pavilion Competition five years from now even harder, it's better to strengthen our side.”

Qin Xiaosheng: “For buying and selling information, look for Qin Xiaosheng. Xiaosheng is at your service at the earliest moment. My token friend slot is always open for everyone.”

Zhan Pei: “Senior Brother Qin, why do you follow every sentence with a pitch for customers...?”

Qin Xiaosheng: “Oh, this? I specifically paid spirit stones to have Spirit-Attuning Peak set this up. What do you think? It's clear at a glance and very convenient.”

Qin Xiaosheng: “For buying and selling information, look for Qin Xiaosheng. Xiaosheng is at your service at the earliest moment. My token friend slot is always open for everyone.”

Gu Ningyun: “Spirit-Attuning Peak has this service?”

Qin Xiaosheng: “They didn't originally, but I said I'd pay, so they added it for me.”

Qin Xiaosheng: “For buying and selling information, look for Qin Xiaosheng. Xiaosheng is at your service at the earliest moment. My token friend slot is always open for everyone.”

Gu Ningyun: “...”

Zhan Pei: “I won't say whether it's convenient or not, but if I chat with you privately and every line has this... it's a bit intrusive and makes it hard to read your messages.”

Zhu Zhengqing: “It is a bit intrusive.”

Fu Zian: “Once is fine, but seeing it a lot is annoying.”

Qin Xiaosheng: “Is that so? Then I'll ask Spirit-Attuning Peak to change it to only appear once per chat session.”

“Hey, isn't Senior Sister Gu here? Senior Sister Gu, I'll just ask you. Help me change it now, and I'll pay.”

Qin Xiaosheng: “For buying and selling information, look for Qin Xiaosheng. Xiaosheng is at your service at the earliest moment. My token friend slot is always open for everyone.”

Gu Ningyun: “I'm still a small fry who knows nothing. You need to find the relevant person in charge on the peak for this.”

Qin Xiaosheng: “Ah, alright then.”

Qin Xiaosheng: “For buying and selling information, look for Qin Xiaosheng. Xiaosheng is at your service at the earliest moment. My token friend slot is always open for everyone.”

Zhu Zhengqing: “...Senior Brother Qin, maybe stop sending messages until you change it.”

Zhan Pei: “...Agreed.”

Qiu Hongxin: “Completely agreed.”

...

After finishing the forum and group chat messages, Wen Xuan grabbed Gu Ningyun’s shoulders with both hands.

“Ningyun, thanks to your foresight, our Songyue Pavilion didn't suffer!”

Mu Chenze also sent a message to their five-person group chat. “Luckily we have our little strategist Ningyun to come up with such a brilliant idea. It really killed three birds with one stone!”

Gu Ningyun almost bit her tongue when Wen Xuan shook her. She quickly pressed down on Wen Xuan's hands to signal her to calm down.

After advising Wen Xuan last time, Gu Ningyun had been pondering if there was another way.

One day, while browsing the forum, she happened to see Qin Xiaosheng’s advertisement. In that moment, a spark of inspiration flashed before her eyes, and she snatched it up immediately.

In the Xiaoyao Internal Sect, the largest proportion of disciples were actually in the Foundation Establishment stage.

Among them, seventy percent of the Foundation Establishment disciples had been promoted step by step from handyman disciples.

In other words, their search for early to mid-stage Foundation Establishment multi-spirit root disciples for sparring didn't necessarily have to be limited to the outer peak Pavilion Masters.

Looking at the Xiaoyao inner peaks, there was a vast sea of multi-spirit root disciples.

After realizing this, she bought a list of early and mid-stage Foundation Establishment multi-spirit root disciples in the Internal Sect from Qin Xiaosheng.

The list included the names of these disciples and their corresponding cultivation levels.

With this list, whenever she and Wen Xuan wanted to find someone to spar with, they only had to search on the Fighting Peak platform.

On the Fighting Peak platform’s arena reservation interface, one could see the names of the people who made the reservations unless they intentionally hid them.

Disciples who reserved an arena on Fighting Peak usually fell into two categories.

First, those who had already made an appointment with someone to spar and exchange pointers.

Second, those who wanted to engage in combat and invited anyone with similar intentions to find them at the arena.

Gu Ningyun and Wen Xuan would search the fighting platforms to see if any names from their list appeared.

As the largest demographic among the Internal Sect disciples, there were always some multi-spirit root Foundation Establishment disciples going to Fighting Peak every day.

Therefore, Gu Ningyun and Wen Xuan achieved their goal in such a low-key manner, without any negative repercussions.

After trying it a few times and confirming it was feasible, they even shared this idea in their five-person group chat.

As a result, Mu Chenze and the others, including Si Puyu, who was in the same group as Jun Luo, also began using this method.

Jiang Yao even sent a message specifically for it: “Ningyun's specialized tips: everyone who uses them says they're great!”

Over the past six months of frequent sparring on Fighting Peak, Gu Ningyun’s strength had also improved significantly.

First was her movement technique, Wind Walk.

She had already mastered all forty-eight minor wind-attribute spells, gaining a deeper understanding of wind.

While sparring with her senior brothers and sisters, she deliberately practiced her movement technique.

Before long, Wind Walk successfully broke through to the Small Success stage.

After the breakthrough, whenever Gu Ningyun activated the movement technique, wind would support her with every step she took.

Whether she was moving to dodge or pursuing an advantage, her movement was twice as fast as before.

At that moment, the person sparring with her was a senior sister who had been at the early Foundation Establishment stage for nine years and possessed Water, Wood, and Earth three-spirit roots.

The senior sister had laid out numerous vines on the fighting platform, and marshes of water and earth would occasionally appear in the gaps between them. Whether on the ground or in the air, there wasn't a single place to land on the entire platform.

Facing a senior sister who had been in the Foundation Establishment stage longer than her, possessed more spirit energy, and had an endless array of tricks, Gu Ningyun was practically suppressed the entire time.

Let alone counterattacking, she could barely even maintain her position to avoid being knocked off the arena.