Sunrise and moonset, day and night rotation—three days passed in a flash.
Everyone waited and waited, until all fifty-eight people had passed the trial, until all fifty-eight had touched the Ling Stone and tested their Linggen and Linggen Potential.
They waited until the best seedlings among the top ranks caught the eyes of several Peak Masters and Elders, and a verbal Master-Disciple Relationship was established, just waiting for the formal ceremony at the Disciple Recruitment Grand Ceremony.
They waited until over a thousand images blinked out one after another, leaving only the scene of the Qingyi Maiden on the Fugui Mirror, yet she never answered.
Most of the fifty-eight new disciples chose to follow the Steward Hall disciples to rest, but a few, like Huaxin and Tan Xiaobai, chose to remain in the hall, sitting cross-legged on the meditation mats, staring intently at the Fugui Mirror.
Yun Miao had sat for three days, so they, too, sat for a full three days!
The image belonging to Yun Miao filled the several-zhang-tall bronze mirror, her figure magnified several times, every detail clear as day.
She was unchanged from before, her gaze still unfocused and empty, staring at the figure before her, lost in her own world, with no intention of replying.
The figure made no move either. Ever since she’d asked another question yesterday and received not the slightest response from the Qingyi Maiden, she hadn’t spoken again.
High above the clouds, the two of them sat facing each other, silent, as if they’d become two immovable stone statues.
Ge Yan glanced at the night outside the hall: “It’ll be dawn soon.”
The Xuantian Sect allotted only three days and three nights for the trial, and now it was deep into the third night.
Although Yun Miao was the first to reach the ‘top’ of the Dengtianti, since she hadn’t emerged from the Dengtianti, she was not considered to have passed the trial, and without passing, she could not join the Xuantian Sect.
This was the rule of the Sect since ancient times, and disciple selection was the foundation of the Sect’s development—such rules could never be changed lightly. If the rules of the trial could be altered at will, there would be no fairness left in the test.
In other words… if Yun Miao still hadn’t emerged from the Dengtianti by sunrise, she would be eliminated!
Huaxin and the others clearly understood this as well, which was why Guan Dahai and Gao Zhu’s eyes were filled with worry, Tan Xiaobai had long since picked holes through his meditation mat, and Huaxin’s brows were furrowed so tightly they could crush a fly.
Time paid no heed to human will, continuing its relentless flow. The starlight in the night sky began to fade, and dawn was truly approaching…
Suddenly, Huaxin stood up and bowed respectfully toward the Sect Master on the high platform: “Sect Master…”
Tan Xiaobai couldn’t hold back any longer. Seeing Huaxin rise, he immediately jumped up as if his seat was on fire, not waiting for her to finish before speaking up.
“Sect Master, the trial Yun Miao faces is completely different from ours. I think this is unfair!”
Guan Dahai and Gao Zhu also stood up at this, and the other new disciples who’d stayed behind in the hall turned to look at the four standing, their eyes filled with confusion, surprise, and even admiration.
After all, not everyone in this world is willing to speak up for others, and to have the courage to question the Sect Master for someone else’s sake before even formally joining the sect—such “foolishness” is even rarer.
Sect Master Chang raised his hand, signaling for Huaxin and the others to stop.
“No need to say more. This is trouble she brought upon herself by not following the ordinary path—it’s not us making things difficult for her. The path she chose, she must walk to the end herself.
***
The rules passed down by Xuantian Sect for ten thousand years cannot be changed. As Sect Master, I must set an example and cannot interfere at will. However—”
The white-bearded old man’s tone shifted as he looked down at Elder Gu of Baiwei Hall.
“I heard Baiwei Hall is still short a Burning Girl. If she’s willing, she can give it a try.”
Elder Gu looked back in confusion: “Ah? But Baiwei Hall uses the Fire Art, since when…”
Sitting at the side, Tian Laokou quickly twisted Elder Gu’s thigh, then sent a Transmission via Spiritual Sense: 【Enough nonsense, if the Sect Master says there is, then there is!】
Elder Gu winced in pain, immediately nodding.
“Yes, yes, yes! Zhu Fatty recently ate too much soybean powder and caught a wicked wind in his body—air going up and down, left and right, east and west, south and north, north and south.”
“Though wind helps fire burn, if there’s too much wind inside, it snuffs out the fire. So Zhu Fatty can’t use the Fire Art lately, and he’s in urgent need of a Burning Girl to help!”
As soon as Elder Gu finished, aside from Huaxin and the others breathing a sigh of relief, everyone else fell silent.
The new disciples: …They knew eating too many beans caused gas, and “wind helps fire, wind snuffs fire” made sense, but what on earth did “air up and down, east and west” mean? Was it what they thought?
The people on the high platform twitched at the corners of their eyes.
Sect Master Chang glared wordlessly at Elder Gu and sent a Transmission via Spiritual Sense: 【I just wanted you to play along with the Burning Girl title—what nonsense are you spouting?】
【And what do you take Zhu Fatty for? With all that gas running wild inside, how’s he supposed to let it out? Wouldn’t his rear end explode?】
Transmission via Spiritual Sense is a technique only Foundation Establishment Cultivators and above can use.
The ‘speaker’ doesn’t move their mouth, but directly condenses a sound with their Spiritual Sense and transmits it into another’s ear or even mind.
Mundane folk can’t hear it, and the stronger the Spiritual Sense, the higher the encryption of the voice, making it harder for others to crack or eavesdrop.
But for Tian Laokou and Sect Master Chang, these were just casual words, a drop in the ocean compared to their vast Spiritual Sense.
So the disciples below heard nothing, while the Peak Masters and Elders above heard every word loud and clear.
Ge Yan: 【Senior Brother, you’re the Sect Master after all—couldn’t you be a bit more refined when you speak?】
Sect Master Chang: 【Yan’er, you’re mistaken. Using refined words doesn’t make a person live more elegantly. As long as you stand tall and live upright, even cursing crudely can be done with dignity.】
Tian Laokou: 【Well said, Sect Master! Such a realm is truly beyond ordinary people! Yan’er, following the Sect Master, you have much to learn.】
Qian Duoduo: 【Tch, bootlicker.】
Ge Yan sneered: 【I curse your ancestors for eight generations!】
Shui Yaoguang: 【Applying what we learn—wonderful.】
Sect Master Chang and the rest:
Sect Master Chang stroked his beard, silently changing the subject. 【…Speaking of which, Windchant Patriarch’s Remnant Soul really is too much. Dead for so many years, where does all that curiosity come from, don’t you think?】
Elder Gu: 【Yes, yes.】
Tian Laokou: 【Yes, yes.】
Qian Duoduo: 【Yes, yes.】
Just then, the figure in the mirror spoke again.
“Dawn is almost here. If you can’t figure it out, there won’t be any time left.”
Everyone turned their heads, and the Qingyi Maiden in the Fugui Mirror seemed to sense the crowd’s urging, finally opening her mouth slowly.
“I’m not sure. If I have to say… I just want to explore and understand this world.”
***
Yun Miao felt as if she’d returned to her high school classroom, the lazy spring sunlight making her drowsy.
Though her eyes were open and fixed on the blackboard, her consciousness had long since sunk into a half-dreaming, half-awake state.
The teacher’s voice seemed to drift from the horizon, indistinct, until the teacher repeated the question and she finally heard it clearly.
“Tell me, what do you seek in cultivating immortality? Longevity? Power? Or to become an immortal?”
Cultivation? Wasn’t she in class?
No, she seemed to be playing a game—a cultivation game…
Drowsy, Yun Miao thought for a long time before mumbling,
“None of those. I have no interest in longevity, power, or becoming immortal.”
Whether in reality or in a game, she never cared for immortality.
As someone who enjoyed immersive exploration and management in single-player games, she didn’t crave power much either.
Besides, “Wen Dao Three Thousand” didn’t even have an Immortal Realm map.
The highest level in the game was the Tribulation Crossing Stage, and when a player survived the Heavenly Lightning Tribulation, the Golden Light of Reception would descend from the sky.
If the player chose to follow the Golden Light of Reception and ascend to the Immortal Realm, the system would congratulate them for reaching the ending, then send them back to the login screen.
She was here to experience the game’s content, not to speedrun to the end in a minute. So she had no interest in Immortal Ascension either.
A distant voice sounded again:
“None of those? Don’t tell me you joined the Xuantian Sect just for a mere Storage Pouch? We both know that’s impossible. Be honest, child—think carefully about what you truly want… figure it out.”
Yun Miao forgot to argue, just mumbling along with the “teacher”: “Think carefully… think carefully…”
Her sense of time had grown blurry, like a sleepy student who thinks they just closed their eyes for a moment, only to find class already over when they open them again.
Yet even in her dream, she kept thinking: what did she really want?
The “teacher’s” voice urged her: “Dawn is almost here. If you can’t figure it out, there won’t be any time left.”
Yun Miao said in confusion, “I’m not sure. If I have to say… I just want to explore and understand this world.”
She was here to play a game, not to truly cultivate.
The “teacher” pressed, “What do you want to explore? What do you want to understand?”
Yun Miao: “I want… I want to know how spiritual energy is produced. How does the main peak of Xuantian Sect float in the air?”
“Why did I see a white deer flying atop a crane, and not a crane standing on a white deer flying in the sky?”
“Cultivators can scan everything with their Spiritual Sense—does that mean they can see through people’s clothes? Wouldn’t that make them voyeurs?”
It was as if Yun Miao suddenly found the key to answering, her hesitant tone growing firm, her words coming faster and faster.
“Do Golden Spirit Root cultivators get struck by lightning more easily when it rains? Are Lei Linggen cultivators more resistant to lightning?”
“When I undergo Heavenly Lightning Tribulation in the future, if I put my little brother—well, a Lei Linggen cultivator I know—on top of my head, would it lessen the tribulation’s damage to me?”
“Do Linggen affect a cultivator’s personality or quirks? Are Ice Spirit Root cultivators always cold and aloof? Since Water Spirit Root cultivators have abundant water spiritual power, do they cry more than others?”
“If a Wood Spirit Root cultivator uses their spiritual power to create a bunch of leafy greens and then cooks and eats them, does that count as eating themselves?”
“They say Earth Spirit Root cultivators are the most honest and simple. If I borrow money from them and never pay it back, would they agree?”
“Do plant-type demons sneak around eating manure behind other demons’ backs?”
“Would a low-level Bloodsucking Bat get blisters in its mouth from drinking the blood of a high-level Fire Spirit Root cultivator?”
“If a Poisonous Snake Demon cultivates an extremely rare poison and also becomes immune to all poisons, would it be killed by its own venom?”
“When demon cultivators turn into humans, they wear clothes, but when they revert to their original forms, they’re usually naked. What are they thinking?”
“Is it because their brain structures are different in human and demon forms, so their thinking and sense of shame changes? Or do they just see clothes as decoration?”
“After taking Fasting Pills, cultivators don’t need to poop. But do they still fart? If not, then what’s the point of… uh… that hole back there?”
“Is it just for decoration? Would cultivators with cleanliness fetishes want to get rid of it altogether?”