When Luo Qingci broke through to Foundation Establishment, she had been sitting alone in that run-down wooden hut.
She did nothing, and the spiritual energy inside her condensed on its own.
That moment was very quiet.
There were no heavenly phenomena, no spiritual energy turmoil, not even any particular sensation.
It was just that shallow layer of liquid spiritual power in her Dantian suddenly became full and stable, like a cup of water finally filled to the brim—not too much, not too little, just right.
She opened her eyes, felt the spiritual energy flowing through her body and the faint, almost imperceptible thread in her chest, and let out a soft “Oh.”
‘So this is what Foundation Establishment feels like.’
Nothing earth-shattering.
It was just a simple case of water channels naturally forming.
She had originally wanted to tell her master, but Xiao Yan was away for a few days.
When he came back, seeing him looking so bored and idle, she felt that such a small matter as Foundation Establishment wasn’t worth mentioning specifically.
After all, to a Golden Core cultivator, there wasn’t much difference between the Peak of Qi Refining and early Foundation Establishment—both could be dealt with in a single slap.
It had been a few months, and her cultivation resources relied entirely on her master, her senior brothers, and her monthly allowance.
As for the three senior brothers, they genuinely had zero interest in her appearance—which was a good thing.
Senior Brother Gu Changqing had been here for nearly thirty years.
He had an upright bearing and could do all sorts of chores: sweeping, cooking, knitting sweaters.
He worked several part-time jobs every day to support his junior brothers and junior sister.
As a greeting gift, he gave her a jade pendant that contained her master’s Sword Intent.
He said it could cut down anything below Nascent Soul with a single strike, and he had no use for it.
Second Senior Brother Chen Mo was a man of few words.
Master said his Sword Heart was Clear and Bright, but in reality, he was just straightforward and had no schemes.
Whenever he met someone he thought was strong, he wanted to fight them.
He had sparred with Luo Qingci no less than a few dozen times.
Since he tended to cause trouble outside, he was rarely allowed off the peak.
His greeting gift was two Low-Grade Spirit Stones.
Third Senior Brother Yun Jinzhou was an eighteen-year-old at late Foundation Establishment.
His talent was astonishing: he started Body Tempering at three, Qi Refining at eight, and Foundation Establishment at fifteen, never encountering a bottleneck along the way.
He was someone with the potential to become an immortal.
Master and the other senior brothers were afraid he would get into trouble, so they kept him on the peak all the time.
It must have been suffocating for him; he seemed a bit neurotic.
His greeting gift was a dish he stir-fried called “Gathering of Heroes Dish,” which he claimed was the top of the must-eat list for sword cultivators.
She was curious, only to find Yun Jinzhou mixing petals with fried tree leaves…
Each of them had their own unique skills.
As for Master Xiao Yan, he was the most mysterious existence on Lingyun Peak.
In the months since Luo Qingci had joined the sect, she could count on one hand the number of times she had seen her master.
Xiao Yan was always in a hurry when he came back—sometimes late at night, sometimes just after dawn.
He never stayed on the peak long before leaving again, but he always brought things for everyone.
Pills, spirit stones, sword manuals, occasionally a few new robes.
He even brought her a Seventh-rank Flying Sword (with Ninth-rank being the lowest and First-rank the highest) to serve as her personal sword from then on.
Once, Xiao Yan even carved a few sword marks into a stone and had them sit cross-legged in front of it to sense the sword qi.
The Sword Intent contained in those marks was vast and fierce.
Just looking at them made Luo Qingci’s brow ache, as if an invisible sword were pressed against her forehead.
Chen Mo sat in front of that stone for a whole day and night.
When he got up, without a word, he drew his sword and began training.
Luo Qingci asked her master what he had been doing all these days.
Xiao Yan leaned back in a chair, crossed his legs, and had a blade of grass in his mouth.
He smiled.
“Found a job. Good pay in spirit stones.”
“What kind of job?”
“A decent job.”
“What exactly do you do?”
“Disciple, don’t pry into your master’s affairs. Focus on your sword practice.”
Today, Xiao Yan came back again.
When Luo Qingci heard the commotion and came out of her wooden hut, she saw her master standing in the middle of the clearing holding a cloth bag and dumping its contents onto the ground.
Spirit stones cascaded with a clatter, gleaming with a soft luster in the sunlight.
At a rough glance, there were at least a hundred.
Yun Jinzhou was already crouching on the ground picking them up, his eyes shining.
He muttered,
“So many spirit stones… Master, did you rob someone?”
“I found a job with lots of spirit stones.”
Xiao Yan lay back in his chair.
“I am a Golden Core True Person, after all. No way I’d go robbing. Jinzhou, take these spirit stones and deliver them to your two senior brothers.”
“Got it!”
Yun Jinzhou put the spirit stones into his Storage Ring and quickly ran off.
“Master,” she walked over and put on a sweet smile.
“There’s something I’d like to discuss with you.”
“Speak.”
“I want to break off my engagement.”
Xiao Yan’s expression didn’t change much; he just raised an eyebrow.
“Break off an engagement? You have a betrothal?”
“It was arranged by the elders in my family,” Luo Qingci said, trying to keep her tone calm.
“It was set before I was born. The other party is the legitimate son of a family from Qinghe City. I’ve never met him, and I don’t want to.”
“Then just break it off,” Xiao Yan said matter-of-factly.
“Given your current status as a Direct Disciple of the Azure Cloud Sect, breaking off a family engagement shouldn’t cause you any trouble. At most, you’ll have to pay some spirit stones as compensation.”
Luo Qingci was a little surprised by Xiao Yan’s reaction.
She had expected her master to ask questions like “Who is it?”
“What’s the family situation?”
“Why do you want to break it off?”
She had even prepared herself for a lecture.
But Xiao Yan just finished dumping the bag of spirit stones, brushed the dust off his hands, walked over to the stone table, sat down, popped a spirit fruit from who knows where into his mouth, and crunched it loudly.
“Pay some spirit stones?”
Luo Qingci followed and sat down across from him.
“Master, does Lingyun Peak have that kind of money?”
Xiao Yan paused in his chewing.
“What kind of talk is that?”
He spat out the pit and flicked it into the distant bushes.
“Why doesn’t Lingyun Peak have money? Don’t worry, Disciple. With your master working hard, we won’t be short on spirit stones.”
“Master,” she couldn’t help asking,
“what exactly is the job you’re doing out there?”
“Your master here is a Golden Core True Person. Isn’t it normal for me to find a job that pays well in spirit stones?”
“Then the compensation for breaking my engagement…”
“Your master will cover it.”
Xiao Yan waved his hand grandly.
“It’s no big deal. Breaking off an engagement isn’t impossible, is it?”
Luo Qingci opened her mouth, about to say she didn’t need him to pay, but the words died in her throat.
The Seventh-rank Flying Sword her master had given her—just the maintenance and repairs ate up almost her entire monthly allowance.
Combined with the spirit stones she used for daily cultivation, she could barely afford to eat.
Besides, sword cultivators were generally straightforward.
Lingyun Peak was poor and bare.
Her Storage Pouch contained less than twenty Low-Grade Spirit Stones and a few bottles of pills.
If she unilaterally broke off the engagement, compensation was a must.
Given her current situation, taking out these meager things would look truly shabby.
If she said that out loud, her master might take her seriously…
“Thank you, Master,” she said.
“For what?”
Xiao Yan pulled another spirit fruit out of his sleeve.
“You’re my disciple. If I don’t take care of you, who will?”
Luo Qingci was silent for a moment.
She hadn’t heard words like that in a long time.
Back in the Luo Family, what her father said to her was “what you should do,” what her stepmother said was “what you ought to do.”
No one ever asked her “what do you want to do?”
Later, when she came to the Azure Cloud Sect, the Outer Disciples came and went, and no one really cared about her thoughts.
“What’s the other party’s name?”
Xiao Yan asked.
“I don’t know,” she said.
“But his surname is Xiao, same as yours. I heard he’s a waste who has been stuck at Qi Refining Layer 1 for ten years.”
Xiao Yan paused in the middle of biting his spirit fruit.
“The Xiao Family of Qinghe City?”
“Mm. Master, do you know them?”
“Uh… yes, I know them.”
“I heard his Bone Foundation is extremely poor and his Spiritual Roots are mixed. The family has almost given up on him.”
Xiao Yan slowly took the spirit fruit away from his mouth, twirled it in his hand a couple of times, and his expression turned a bit subtle.
He glanced at Luo Qingci, his lips moving as if he wanted to say something, but he swallowed it back.
“Then go ahead. I’ll prepare the compensation. If he really is a waste, breaking this engagement will be easy. Write him a letter, and he might even be relieved.”
Luo Qingci thought so too.
A waste at Qi Refining Layer 1 marrying a Direct Disciple of the Azure Cloud Sect must be under a lot of pressure.
Even if she didn’t disdain him, the other party would probably feel he wasn’t good enough for her.
“What if he isn’t a waste?”
Xiao Yan suddenly asked.
“Then I’d still break it off. Whether he’s a genius or a good-for-nothing doesn’t affect my determination to dissolve the engagement. I only want to focus on cultivation, not romance.”
Luo Qingci pressed her palms together and looked at him with sincere eyes.
“Help me, Master…”
Xiao Yan held the half-eaten spirit fruit in his hand and looked at the young disciple before him, who had her hands clasped and eyes sparkling.
The corner of his mouth twitched.
‘Help me, Master—’
‘If Yun Jinzhou had said that, I’d have kicked him without a second thought.’
‘If it came from Gu Changqing, I’d turn and walk away.’
‘If it came from Chen Mo—forget it, Chen Mo would never say something like that in his life.’
‘But coming from this little disciple… uh…’
‘What do I do if my disciple wants to break off her engagement with my nephew?’
‘It’s urgent. Is there any way out?’
‘If I agree, what about my nephew? What about my dear brother? And what about that old man at home?’