The Disciple Tournament

Out of the thirty-six stances, she had currently mastered the first six. With every stance she mastered, she discovered the unique qualities of the Star River Swordplay.

It could actually accommodate other sword techniques.

In the cultivation world, different sword techniques typically repelled one another, yet the Star River Swordplay could use its unique stances to either fuse them together or disperse them.

She could now easily switch between it and the ordinary sword techniques she had previously learned.

Jiang Lu exited her space and placed Mengbao beside Chi Li and Cang Chen. With a couple of soft whimpers, the little creature woke up. Jiang Lu placed the elixir in front of it.

“Mengbao, this is a Speech-Granting Elixir. Once you take it, you'll be able to speak human tongue, and it won't harm your body at all. Do you want to take it?”

Mengbao blinked in surprise. It looked at Jiang Lu with its round, wide eyes, tilting its head slightly in confusion.

“Squeak, squeak, squeak—”

“Squeak, squeak, squeak—”

Jiang Lu looked completely bewildered, but she could roughly guess what it meant.

“Mengbao, since I can't understand you and have to rely on Chi Li and the others to translate every time, I thought we could communicate better if you took this elixir.”

“Squeak?”

Communicate?

A flash of confusion crossed Mengbao's mind. Why would they need to take an elixir just to communicate?

It recalled the inheritance in its mind. Shouldn't its master be able to hear it speak?

Those elixirs that allowed beasts to speak were useless to its kind; they were meant for ordinary spirit beasts.

As the darlings of the Heavenly Dao, the Treasure-Hunting Mouse clan naturally had their own unique traits.

It gestured for Jiang Lu to open her hand, then climbed onto her palm.

It pointed at Jiang Lu's brow. Though slightly puzzled, she still brought the little creature closer to her face.

An ancient totem suddenly surfaced on Mengbao's body, carrying a gentle power. It was a blessing from the Heavenly Dao!

It was Jiang Lu's first time seeing a blessing from the Heavenly Dao, and she couldn't help but feel astonished. It truly was a darling of heaven!

The totem gradually lit up, wrapping around its entire body, and a droplet of red blood appeared on its forehead.

The blood droplet floated into the air, slowly approaching Jiang Lu's forehead before flashing and entering it.

The totem on Jiang Lu's brow flickered. Seeming to recognize that the droplet of blood was harmless, it did not obstruct it.

The blood droplet merged into Jiang Lu's divine sense, transforming into a tiny link. Feeling that cautious, delicate thread, Jiang Lu was taken aback. Could this be that droplet of blood from just now?

The thread continued to make its way toward Jiang Lu's divine sense. Once it made contact, it wrapped itself tightly around her divine sense.

Jiang Lu felt an extra connection form, and then she heard Mengbao's voice.

“Master, Master~”

“Can you hear Mengbao speaking?”

A tender, childish voice rang out. Jiang Lu looked at Mengbao. She didn't feel any contract between them, so why?

“Mengbao? How can you speak to me?”

“Master, our Treasure-Hunting Mouse clan cannot speak human tongue. It's a restriction of the Heavenly Dao.”

“But I can recognize a master! Once I willingly recognize you as my master, you can hear me speak.”

“But I don't detect any trace of a contract between us.”

Jiang Lu pinched its ears.

“Master, because we Treasure-Hunting Mice can only recognize a master and cannot be contracted. This is the Heavenly Dao's restriction on our talent, ensuring that only cultivators who have earned our approval are qualified to become our masters.”

“But each mouse can only recognize a master once in its lifetime, and we can never betray them afterward. If the bond is severed, we will lose our lives. That's why Treasure-Hunting Mice rarely recognize a master.”

Hearing this, Jiang Lu nodded. So that was how it worked.

No wonder there were rarely any records of contracting Treasure-Hunting Mice in the various miscellaneous texts of the cultivation world. This was the reason.

Her identity token flickered a few times. Jiang Lu opened it to take a look.

It turned out that the disciples in the Liuyun Sect's forum were discussing the upcoming Disciple Tournament, which was set to begin in a few days.

The registration period for the Disciple Tournament had already passed; it had taken place while she was in closed-door cultivation breaking through.

Although her closed-door cultivation had felt like just a few short days, five months had actually passed in the outside world.

As such, it was naturally impossible for her to register, but she could still go watch to gain some experience.

“Breaking! Senior Sister Liu has broken through to Foundation Establishment. This tournament...”

“Breaking! A body-tempering senior brother actually knelt before a sword cultivator senior sister! What is the reason behind this?”

“Place your bets! Who do you favor more?”

“...”

Jiang Lu scrolled down. The threads in the forum already had hundreds of replies.

She had to admit, these disciples really knew how to write clickbait titles; they were incredibly eye-catching.

After confirming the schedule of the tournament, she informed her master that she had successfully broken through to Foundation Establishment. She then set Mengbao down, picked up her sword, and went to the courtyard to practice her swordplay.

Time was tight, and she wanted to learn everything, so she naturally couldn't waste her time scrolling through the forum.

Only when she felt a thin layer of sweat on her back and a slight ache in her hands did she finally halt her movements.

As a Heaven-grade cultivation technique, the Star River Swordplay was naturally much more difficult to practice than ordinary ones.

Having mastered the first six stances with only her Qi Condensation strength, she could already be considered highly talented.

Now that her strength had reached the Foundation Establishment realm, mastering the first sixteen stances would be more than manageable.

At the same time, she needed to start learning talismans, arrays, and spells in addition to alchemy.

If she could master the six major arts among the hundred cultivation arts, then even if she wasn't completely invincible when traveling, she would be able to handle over eighty percent of the dangers she encountered.

As a disciple of Yuhua Peak, her primary focus was alchemy and spells. The Liuyun Sect didn't offer specialized classes for other arts, only basic spells, all of which she had already mastered.

As for other arts, one had to join the respective peak to learn them. If she wanted to study anything else, she would have to figure it out on her own or seek guidance from disciples of other peaks.

People referred to this as “exchange.”

There were two modes: barter and payment. Many disciples used this to earn spirit stones.

After drafting her plan, Jiang Lu set off to watch the Disciple Tournament.

The inner and outer plazas of the sect were packed with people, and various matches were being held simultaneously. She couldn't help but feel secretly relieved that the different tournaments were separated; otherwise, she wouldn't even know which one to choose.

The Jiangwu Domain was home to countless immortal herbs, where poison arts and alchemy reigned supreme. Naturally, the competition kicked off with these two events.

She had some interest in poison arts, but since that competition was scheduled after the alchemy one, she headed toward the alchemy venue first.

The spectator stands all around were densely packed with cultivators. Many disciples hovered in the air on their magic tools. After much effort, Jiang Lu squeezed through the crowd, found a secluded corner, and quickly sat down.

Fortunately, as cultivators, they possessed extraordinary vision, and spiritual mirrors were positioned at a full 360-degree angle around the venue to magnify and display the scenes on the stage to the disciples.

This ensured they wouldn't have any trouble seeing.

On the stage, four long tables surrounded the platform, displaying tens of thousands of spiritual plants.

As the elder finished speaking, the participating disciples stepped onto the stage and began selecting their spiritual plants.

Jiang Lu swept her gaze across the spiritual plants one by one, recalling their properties and habits. As she watched the participants pick up various plants, information about the elixirs that could be refined from them automatically popped into her head.