In the end, thanks to everyone’s “help,” Li Yunxian finished packing up even earlier than she’d expected.
Looking at the hefty sum of 3023 coins in her account, Li Yunxian felt as if her whole world had brightened.
After putting away all her materials, the people lingering at Li Yunxian’s stall finally left, albeit reluctantly. Before they left, however, they did pass along a message to her.
Changguang Guild was looking for her.
“The one leading them seemed to be called Sheng Yu. When we asked what they wanted, they wouldn’t say. But when they were looking for you, their expressions didn’t look too friendly.”
The meaning was clear: someone was looking to cause her trouble.
Li Yunxian only listened with half an ear and didn’t care much.
In real life, even knowing Liu Chen was trouble, Li Yunxian dared to confront him directly. Let alone in this game, where even if she died, it would just mean being unable to log in for three days.
She thanked them and leisurely returned to her small room.
In the exchange shop, Li Yunxian once again chose Bloodbone, then glanced at the Tiannan Liquid beside it, her eyes falling on it as she saw she still had over a thousand coins left.
The name was different from the Cultivation World, but the appearance was exactly the same.
This was a spiritual herb juice infused with Qi.
Its medicinal properties were gentle and could be mixed with a medicinal bath to increase the Qi she could absorb.
One liter cost 1000 game coins.
She bought it.
Li Yunxian didn’t mind her account balance dropping to zero again. In a great mood, she logged off.
The day passed smoothly. Only a few teachers and students who’d heard the news tried to gently persuade Li Yunxian to transfer schools.
Seeing how determined she was, they didn’t insist. In fact, they even tried to find her a way out.
“If that wicked uncle of yours won’t let you take the entrance exam, worst case, just come back and take the college entrance exam with us!”
Li Yunxian:
Perfect. That was more effective than any miracle elixir.
The pressure was on.
Wiping away imaginary sweat, Li Yunxian hurried home and quickly prepared the materials for her second medicinal bath.
She submerged herself in the medicinal bath once more.
Perhaps because her body had already undergone one round of cleansing and marrow washing, the pain this time was much less intense.
Ignoring the pain, Li Yunxian focused her mind and began absorbing the Qi from the medicinal bath.
One Channel filled, then two Channels filled…
Qi flowed through each Channel, advancing deeper and deeper into her body… until it reached the first Aperture.
The surging spiritual power continuously battered the Aperture. With a hum, the sealed Aperture burst open.
The water of the medicinal bath surged with it.
Qi Refinement Layer One.
Li Yunxian thought calmly to herself.
Qi Refinement had a total of ten layers, determined by the number of Apertures opened in the body. There were 361 Apertures in the human body; every 36 opened counted as one layer.
Someone who had opened 360 Apertures was called Great Completion of Qi Refinement.
At that point, opening the final Aperture meant the body had formed the foundation of an immortal, which was known as Foundation Establishment.
Having already experienced all this, Li Yunxian remained calm and continued to absorb Qi.
The second Aperture, the third Aperture…
Another four hours passed. This time, when Li Yunxian got up, only a thin shell had formed on her body.
This was the last of the impurities in her body.
After washing them off, Li Yunxian felt her whole body was incredibly clear and unobstructed.
She had even managed to open 28 Apertures.
Thinking back to how difficult it was to open Apertures in the early days of the Cultivation World, Li Yunxian almost wanted to shed bitter tears for her past self.
The pay-to-win experience was just too good!
Li Yunxian exhaled again, and this time she felt as if she’d drained all the Qi within a 25-meter radius.
The smoothness with which Qi entered her body now was incomparable to before.
After thoroughly purging the impurities from her body, her innate talent had improved even more than she’d imagined.
Li Yunxian felt a bit regretful that, back in the Cultivation World, she’d only ever had one medicinal bath.
Scattered Cultivators with poor finances truly suffered.
It was a shame that, after one’s cultivation reached a certain level, medicinal baths became useless.
Now, Li Yunxian really wanted to go to the Testing Center and get checked again.
But that was just a passing thought.
If she got tested now, she’d be handing her current state directly to the Liu Family.
She wasn’t that foolish.
Li Yunxian figured that, judging by her current condition, she had at least an eighty to ninety percent chance of getting into the Four Great Academies.
As far as she knew, the last time a student from Jincheng made it to the Four Great Academies was ten years ago.
Li Yunxian didn’t believe Liu Wu had the power to suppress a student capable of making it into the Four Great Academies!
Of course… even if he did, it wouldn’t matter.
Li Yunxian flicked the small sword in her hand.
If they tried to suppress her, she’d tear the sky apart.
A Sword Cultivator always believed in the sword in their hand.
***
That day, Li Yunxian chose to conserve her energy and didn’t log into the game.
In the game, after finishing the guild war and successfully avoiding relegation, the members of Changguang Guild were almost in shock.
Why did the person they’d spent two days desperately searching for finally show up now?!
Could it be she’d been deliberately avoiding them?
The members of Changguang Guild exchanged looks, but Sheng Yu was unwilling to give up.
“Since the boss is still coming out to sell things and hasn’t completely gone into hiding, she’s bound to appear again.”
Sheng Yu analyzed calmly, “And she doesn’t care if others use her ink or learn her painting style, so she clearly doesn’t mind people using the things she’s put out.”
“She must be open to negotiation!” Sheng Yu concluded, and once again appeared in the trading market.
They waited and waited, through the times Li Yunxian had previously shown up, and into a new day.
Still, Sheng Yu saw no sign of her:
Doesn’t matter!
She! Absolutely! Refuses! To! Believe! This!
Waaah QAQ!
With a blink, another new day arrived—the day before the official start of the Cultivator Entrance Exam.
Li Yunxian thought if the Liu Family wanted to do anything reckless, this would be their last chance.
But nothing happened.
Another peaceful day passed. Li Yunxian scratched her head.
She began to wonder if she was wrong to assume that just because Liu Chen was a scumbag, the whole Liu Family must be too.
***
As night fell, Li Yunxian didn’t log into the game.
She had already achieved her desired goal.
Although leveling up by spending money was exhilarating, restraining one’s desires was also part of cultivation.
Li Yunxian chose to settle herself.
Placing the Spirit Sword in front of her, Li Yunxian closed her eyes and nurtured her sword Qi.
She didn’t know how much time had passed when the clear, ancient sound of a bird’s cry drifted into her ears.
Li Yunxian opened her eyes, and the Spirit Sword before her was faintly gleaming with a sharp light.
With a thought, the Spirit Sword returned to its small form, and Li Yunxian put it away before stepping out of her room.
Jincheng No.1 High School.
On weekends, the campus was usually a bit empty, but because the Cultivator Entrance Exam was being held here, today was especially lively.
In fact, it was a little too lively.
Looking at the sea of people, Li Yunxian, who had stretched her body before coming, was a bit bewildered.
She wasn’t that late, was she?
Besides…
Were there really this many young cultivators in Jincheng who needed to take the entrance exam?
Li Yunxian looked closer and realized that all these young people were actually her classmates from the regular class.
“Are you all here to take the entrance exam too?” Li Yunxian asked in confusion.
Her classmates happily raised their hands: “We’re here to cheer you on!”
“With us here, if anyone tries to bully you, we’ll boo them!”
“We can help you protest!”
The school leaders and teachers had their ways of helping Li Yunxian, and as her classmates, they had their own.
They couldn’t stand to see someone who did good deeds get bullied by the bad guys!
Li Yunxian couldn’t help but laugh.
She had refused the teachers’ kindness, but she didn’t reject her classmates’ enthusiasm.
“Alright, I’ll leave justice in your hands then!” Li Yunxian said with a smile.
Her classmates:
“That sounds kind of gross,” they couldn’t help but grumble.
Li Yunxian smiled, her eyes curved, and patted her classmates on the head: “Don’t be shy~”
Her classmates:
“Now we really want to hit you.” They suddenly felt their fists itch and wanted to use all the moves Li Yunxian had taught them a few days ago—on her.
Looking at the lively scene at the entrance, the person sitting in the middle of the examiners’ table turned his head with a smile and said warmly to Liu Wu, “These kids are pretty interesting. Director Liu, you were like this back in the day too—fearless of heaven or earth.”
Liu Wu kept a cold face and didn’t respond, only replying flatly, “Director Chen, you must be joking.”
Director Chen didn’t mind Liu Wu’s attitude and continued chatting casually:
“In recent years, few from Jincheng have gone to regular academies; most can only get into city-level schools. If this keeps up, I’m afraid the Jincheng Academy Bureau will be shut down.”
Liu Wu could tell Director Chen was hinting at something, and his face grew even colder:
“Yes, originally Chenchen could have gotten into a regular academy this year.”
Hearing this, Director Chen put on a regretful expression:
“It’s just bad timing—the inspection team has been too strict.”
Liu Wu snorted, glancing at Li Yunxian:
“Strict is good. For anything related to Hunters, there must be zero tolerance.” Then he turned back to Director Chen, “Wouldn’t you agree, Director?”
Director Chen just chuckled, didn’t respond, and poured Liu Wu a cup of tea:
“Ah, we’ve been chatting so much—let’s have some tea.”
As they spoke, Li Yunxian, being pulled along by the crowd, entered the public channel to register for the exam.
Jincheng wasn’t very big, and there were only so many cultivators. What happened at the Testing Center had already spread everywhere in the past two days.
But not many people actually knew what Li Yunxian looked like.
Now, after such a lively commotion at the entrance, anyone with ears knew who she was.
When Li Yunxian entered the testing area, the people in front of her even stepped aside, motioning for her to go ahead.
Li Yunxian didn’t stand on ceremony and walked straight to the spot for testing spiritual power.
It was a box-shaped device.
Li Yunxian had used it before at the Testing Center, so she didn’t need instructions. She simply put both hands in and grasped the testing core inside.
“Alright, you can slowly input your spiritual power. Don’t resist the feedback from the spiritual power resonance,” the testing staff reminded her mechanically.
All eyes turned to watch.
Those with higher cultivation could tell that Li Yunxian had already reached Qi Refinement Layer One.
This was different from her previous test report.
Everyone was curious—just how much spiritual power did Li Yunxian have now?
The box emitted a steady silvery-white light.
Several of the examiners sitting at the table exchanged glances.
Such a stable glow was rare even among cultivators at the Qi Refining Stage. Many at the Foundation Establishment Stage would struggle to achieve this.
It meant the person being tested had absolute control over their spiritual power.
“No wonder…” one examiner couldn’t help but start to praise her, but caught himself mid-sentence—he’d almost blurted out.
“No wonder she could take down someone at Qi Refinement Fifth Layer with one strike.” He quickly swallowed the rest of his words.
He sneaked a glance at Liu Wu, whose face had grown even darker, and quietly shut his mouth.
A dozen seconds later, the white light faded, and a number appeared on the display.
“Spiritual power: 287. Score: 132.”
The score stunned everyone.
The testing staff reported the results.
Everyone knew that three days ago, Li Yunxian’s spiritual power test result was only 2.
In the Qi Refining Stage, each Aperture opened increases spiritual power by about 10 points. A value of 287 meant that, in just three days, Li Yunxian had opened 28 Apertures.
How was that possible!
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