Li Nanzhu stepped out of the courtyard carefully. To her surprise, although she had felt the ground vibrating just a moment ago, the items in the courtyard remained completely undisturbed.
At that moment, she saw Mu Wenyan hurrying toward her.
"Eldest Senior Brother, what happened just now?"
Mu Wenyan wore an expression that was difficult to describe. "You probably heard a particularly... strange sound just now, didn't you?"
Li Nanzhu nodded. The offensive power of that sound was comparable to an air raid siren—no, it was a hundred times more ear-piercing than that. It wasn't even in the right key.
"That was the second senior brother practicing. The master should have told you that he is a music cultivator, but the music he plays..."
Li Nanzhu understood, but... wasn't this a bit too unpleasant to the ears?
"Normal music cultivators don't produce sounds like that. Usually, it's quite pleasant to hear. Only the second senior brother is different; not only is his melody non-existent, but it's also deathly hideous. The other senior brothers and sisters who aren't here right now only fled down the mountain because they couldn't stand the noise. Later, the master had the sixth senior brother set up a soundproofing formation around his courtyard, which finally blocked the noise."
As he spoke, Mu Wenyan rubbed his ears, clearly having been tormented by the sound quite heavily in the past.
Li Nanzhu looked at her eldest senior brother with a touch of sympathy. It turned out that even the seemingly omnipotent eldest senior brother had things that gave him a headache.
"But there's a problem with the formation the sixth senior brother made; it has to be activated manually. Otherwise, the sound leaks out like it did today. The master has talked to him several times about remembering to turn on the formation."
"How did they talk?" Li Nanzhu suddenly had a bad feeling.
"Just like today."
Mu Wenyan gestured toward the direction of Zhu Yinxi's courtyard.
"...The master's way of talking is certainly... unique," Li Nanzhu managed to squeeze out after a long pause. "Is the second senior brother still alive?"
"He's alive. But judging by the distance he was blasted away this time, it'll probably take him half a month to fly back."
Mu Wenyan didn't seem to care much. After all, this wasn't the first or second time this had happened. However, the little junior sister had just joined the sect and looked thin and weak. He had feared she might be frightened out of her wits, so he had interrupted his own cultivation to rush over. Seeing that she was fine, he felt relieved.
Li Nanzhu was still curious about one more thing. "Is the master's attack range that large? Can he really blast the second senior brother away instantly every single time?"
"The master is at the Soul Transformation stage. If he wishes, the entire sect can be covered under his divine sense. Besides, the second senior brother is a subject of his special attention. Anyone who is woken up from a good sleep by a noise like that would be in a foul mood."
Li Nanzhu understood; the master had a severe case of morning grumpiness.
Mu Wenyan took another book from his storage bag. Although Li Nanzhu had already achieved drawing qi into the body, she still needed a basic cultivation method to begin her formal practice.
After accompanying Li Nanzhu through the entire manual and answering a few points she found confusing, Li Nanzhu asked another question.
"Eldest Senior Brother, why do I feel like the qi in the sect is different from the outside world?"
"Our Five Elements Dao Sect specializes in how to utilize the power of the five elements. Therefore, all the spiritual energy is first circulated through the sect's formation to balance the concentrations of various types of qi. This makes the qi here different from the outside—it's much gentler and easier for us to absorb."
Li Nanzhu felt immense admiration for the sect's predecessors. To be able to research such a formation was truly a godsend for those with mixed spiritual roots.
After seeing her senior brother off, Li Nanzhu began to absorb spiritual energy according to the manual. Each courtyard was equipped with a Spirit Gathering Array, and it wasn't long before Li Nanzhu fell into a state of cultivation.
Unknowingly, more than half a month passed. Li Nanzhu finally opened her eyes as a knock sounded at her door.
Moving her body, she felt her bones crackling. A foul stench filled her nose, her body felt exceptionally weak, and her stomach growled loudly.
She had originally thought about just letting herself rot like this. If she did, wouldn't she die quite quickly?
But then she thought that her eldest senior brother might be outside the door. If she just died like this, he would probably feel extremely guilty.
She sighed deeply in her heart but still found a fasting pill and popped it into her mouth. As a sense of fullness washed over her, the feeling of weakness subsided significantly.
Rhythmic knocking sounded outside the courtyard again. Fearing he would worry, she didn't care about the filth covering her body and ran to open the door.
Zhu Yinxi had finally made it back to the mountain gate half a month after being blasted away by the master. After taking a short rest, he prepared to visit the new little junior sister and gift her a 'Clearing the Heart' melody as a greeting gift.
However, the moment the door opened, all he saw was a humanoid creature that looked like a sludge spirit, emitting a foul stench as it walked toward him.
The next second, a sharp, explosive scream erupted from Zhu Yinxi's mouth. "Stay three yards away from me! No! Five yards!"
Before he even finished speaking, a pillar of water washed over Li Nanzhu with frantic force. The culprit didn't intend to stop there, as another thick stream of water poured down over her head. Li Nanzhu shuddered and quickly slammed the courtyard door shut, blocking the flow.
Listening to the commotion outside, Li Nanzhu felt that if she were washed any longer, she might turn into a human washing machine. She looked down and sniffed the scent on herself.
Perhaps due to her cultivation, her body had expelled foul-smelling impurities. Li Nanzhu didn't feel much about it; after all, she had experienced far filthier things on the battlefield in her previous life.
However, the person outside seemed to have a very strong reaction. While she understood, being treated like a piece of garbage and blasted with water wasn't exactly pleasant. But considering she really was filthy right now, she decided to forgive him after a second of thought.
"Senior Brother, could you wait a moment for me to wash up?"
The noise outside ceased. It was unclear if he had agreed or simply left.
Li Nanzhu hurriedly cleaned herself, took out a set of disciple robes from her storage bag, and opened the door again.
The man she thought had left was standing under a tree not far away. His face was deathly pale, looking as if he had received a tremendous shock.
"This... Senior Brother?" Li Nanzhu said tentatively.
"Are you... are you sure you've washed yourself clean?"
His voice was cold and clear, but the tremor in his words could not be ignored.
"I'm really clean, Senior Brother." Li Nanzhu spun around helplessly to show that she was indeed spotless.
Hearing this, Zhu Yinxi relaxed slightly. He moved a few steps toward Li Nanzhu but still maintained a certain distance while offering a smile.
"Little Junior Sister, I am your second senior brother, Zhu Yinxi. I didn't have the chance to meet you when you joined the sect because I had temporarily left. Seeing you today, you really are... cute."
Li Nanzhu smiled back, not minding his previous reaction, and bowed respectfully. "Greetings, Second Senior Brother!"
Seeing his junior sister's well-behaved appearance, Zhu Yinxi felt that the sludge-monster from before must have been a hallucination. The girl before him was the little junior sister of his dreams. He happily pulled out a jade flute, preparing to play a tune.
Li Nanzhu's pupils shrank as she remembered the ear-piercing sound she had heard on her first day. She opened her mouth to stop him, but it was already too late.
The moment the first note left the flute, another earth-shattering explosion occurred. Zhu Yinxi vanished once more, leaving only a smoking crater in front of Li Nanzhu. Fortunately, she had stood far enough away, or she would have been covered in dust.
Looking at the crater, Li Nanzhu felt a bit of schadenfreude. Who told him to douse her in water the moment they met? She sent a silent thanks to the master for avenging her, bowing toward the direction of the Main Peak.
The master said nothing, simply content to blast Zhu Yinxi away.
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