The moment those words were spoken, Liu Ruyin could no longer sit still.
“Senior Sister~”
She pushed herself up from her stone chair, the wide sleeves of her deep purple palace dress brushing against the armrests, her peach-blossom eyes filled with accusation.
“Are you going to snatch her from me again?”
“A hundred years ago, you snatched Chi Yuan, and now you're doing it again...”
Before she could finish, Jinglian had already raised her hand.
A palm-sized jade box flew out from her sleeve and landed steadily on Liu Ruyin's lap. The lid of the box was translucent, revealing a faint pink paste inside. Its spiritual light was restrained, and a thread of sweet, fresh osmanthus fragrance drifted out from the seams of the box.
Liu Ruyin's voice faltered. She lowered her head to take a couple of glances, and the accusation stuck in her throat took a sharp, sudden turn. “Senior Sister, what is this...”
“Jade-Face Skin-Growing Salve, Mystic-grade Mid-rank.” Jinglian picked up her teacup and took a sip. “Refined by mixing eight-hundred-year-old jade marrow with osmanthus essence. Applying it once can preserve one's youthful appearance for fifty years without aging.”
“The entire box is enough for you to use twice.”
Liu Ruyin's fingers were already resting on the lid, tracing the edge of the jade box twice. Still, she stubbornly insisted, “Senior Sister, who do you take me for? Trying to brush me off with just a tiny bit of Jade-Face Salve...”
“If you don't want it, give it back.”
With a swift flick of her wrist, Liu Ruyin slipped the jade box into her pocket dimension. The movement was so fast it left only an afterimage.
Lu Yuanzhou sat upright in his chair, his expression normal, but his lips twitched violently as he raised his teacup.
Jinglian set down her teacup and stood up, her plain white sword robe flowing down like water. She walked over to Shen Qingci and looked her up and down from her superior height.
Then, she grabbed Shen Qingci by the back of her collar and lifted her up.
Before Shen Qingci could even react, the scenery before her eyes blurred.
A flash of sword light swept the two of them out of Lanyun Hall, piercing through layers of cloud seas and carving a bright, snowy arc across the sky above Wanjian Peak.
The other four Peak Masters inside the hall only saw a flash of white light, and the two were already gone without a trace.
Shi Pojun slapped his thigh and cursed something, only to be struck on the back of his head by He Qianshan's fly-whisk.
Liu Ruyin patted the jade box in her sleeve, ultimately reluctant to give chase.
...
Shen Qingci was carried by the back of her collar for a long time.
The wind howled in her ears, the sea of clouds churned beneath her feet, and the towering cliffs of Wanjian Peak rapidly approached. Having lived for over twenty years, she had flown on planes and ridden roller coasters, but she had never been carried by the collar while flying on a sword.
Fortunately, she had the foundation of the fifth level of Qi Refining, coupled with the refined upbringing of the "eldest miss of the Shen family" to sustain her, so she didn't end up screaming.
Jinglian brought her down in front of a precipitous cliff.
The cliffside was sheer like a knife-cut, with ancient pines hanging upside down. A waterfall cascaded down from a height of several hundred feet on the right, creating a misty spray that refracted into a partial rainbow in the sunlight.
A flat stone platform of about half an acre had been cleared in front of the cave entrance. Carved into the stone surface were three slender, powerful characters: “Sword-Falling Terrace”.
The interior of the cave dwelling was spacious. Several night-luminescent pearls as large as bowls were embedded in the ceiling. Vines hung down from the four walls, blooming with clusters of translucent white flowers.
The air was filled with a mixed scent of pine resin and sword-tempering stone, a trace left by years of grinding and tempering swords.
Jinglian set her down and walked over to sit on the stone bed in the center of the cave dwelling.
“Speak.”
Shen Qingci steadied herself and first smoothed her collar, which had been creased from being grabbed. Her gaze was clear and upright.
“Disciple Shen Qingci performs the formal master-acknowledgment ceremony today. I humbly request Master to accept me into your lineage.”
She retrieved a jade bottle from her storage ring.
The bottle was carved with dense spirit-sealing runes, instantly marking it as a vessel specifically used to preserve high-grade pills. Holding the jade bottle in both hands, she took two steps forward, her posture as elegant and proper as if she had rehearsed it countless times.
“This is the apprentice-acknowledgment gift my mother prepared for me. Please accept it, Master.”
Jinglian's brow twitched slightly.
She had lived for a thousand years and accepted two personal disciples, but both of them had simply knelt and kowtowed, and that was the end of the ceremony.
【An apprentice-acknowledgment gift? This is a first in my life.】
She reached out to take the jade bottle and uncorked it.
The fragrance, carrying a rich and long-lasting spiritual charm, drifted into her nose. In that instant, even her skin, which had long been tranquil and unbothered, felt a tingling warmth.
The blood and qi beneath her skin felt as if they were gently brushed by something, becoming comfortable and vibrant.
Jinglian poured the pill out of the bottle.
The pill was perfectly round and glossy, its entire body as translucent white as jade. A layer of gold runes, thin as a cicada's wing, slowly flowed across its surface.
The moment the pill left the bottle, the surrounding spiritual energy suddenly gathered, and even the translucent white flowers on the wall vines bloomed a bit more.
“Everlasting Youth-Retaining Pill,” Jinglian murmured.
Earth-grade Low-rank. This was a pill recipe that had long been lost in the Southern Region. She had only seen its description in ancient texts: taking it would freeze one's appearance forever at the moment of consumption. The effect was permanent and irreversible.
There were countless youth-preserving treasures in the world, but those that could maintain one's appearance for three to five hundred years were already priceless treasures, enough to make Soul Transformation powerhouses cast aside their dignity to fight over them.
Yet this Everlasting Youth-Retaining Pill locked one's appearance at the moment of consumption in the river of time, unchanging for thousands or tens of thousands of years.
Jinglian's fingers tightened around the jade bottle. She looked up at Shen Qingci, a hint of hard-to-fathom meaning appearing in her eyes.
“Is this the apprentice-acknowledgment gift your mother prepared?”
“Yes. My mother once said that Master is the number one sword cultivator in the Southern Region, and a woman at that, so other gifts would be too vulgar.”
“This Everlasting Youth-Retaining Pill was refined by an alchemist in our clan. It is not particularly precious, but it represents our sincerity.”
Not particularly precious?
An Earth-grade pill was not particularly precious???
Jinglian stared at her for three breaths of time, then suddenly smiled, the coldness surrounding her completely dispersing.
“Little Friend's apprentice-acknowledgment gift is indeed quite substantial!”
“However, this master shall accept it.”
With those words, their relationship as master and disciple was officially established.
Shen Qingci immediately knelt and performed the formal ceremony, her forehead touching the ground in three kowtows. The entire sequence of movements was neat and proper, without the slightest hesitation.
“Disciple Shen Qingci pays respects to Master.”
Jinglian accepted her grand salute and raised her hand to signal her to rise, her tone becoming much more casual. “Under this master's lineage, including you, there are three personal disciples in total.”
“Your Eldest Senior Sister is Ji Lanyi, at the peak of the Golden Core realm. Her personality is the most similar to mine; she speaks very little on normal days, and the sword techniques she practices rarely find rivals among those of the same rank.”
“If you wish to seek guidance in the Dao of the sword, you may find her.”
Shen Qingci listened quietly, noting down the name “Ji Lanyi” in her heart.
Jinglian continued, “Your Second Senior Sister is Chi Yuan, at the late stage of the Golden Core realm. She possesses a natural Ice Spiritual Root and has an excellent spiritual perception of the Dao of the sword.” Saying this, she retrieved a jade pendant from her sleeve. It was ocean-blue, with the words “Wanjian” carved on the front and three sharp sword-mark patterns on the back.
The material seemed like jade yet was not, warming to the touch.
“This is the identity jade token of my Wanjian Peak's personal disciples.” Jinglian looked up at her. “A drop of blood from your fingertip.”
Shen Qingci extended her finger. Jinglian flicked her finger, and a wisp of sword qi brushed across her fingertip.
A bead of blood welled up.
Jinglian guided the drop of blood onto the jade pendant. The bead of blood melted upon contact with the jade, and a faint blood-red ripple spread across the ocean-blue pendant before returning to normal.
She tied the jade pendant to Shen Qingci's waist and tapped her finger lightly against it.
The jade pendant lit up with a faint glow, which then faded away.
From this moment on, Shen Qingci was the third personal disciple under Sword Venerable Jinglian of Wanjian Peak. Looking across the entire Azure Cloud Sect, those who could obtain such a status on their very first day of entry were few and far between.
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