Luo Qingci crumpled the scrap of paper she had botched writing on and tossed it into the wastebasket.
‘Forget it.’
The matter of the engagement dissolution could wait.
Her top priority right now was the next month’s sect Grand Competition.
According to the sect, it was called the Outer Sect Promotion Competition, held once a year.
Outer sect disciples could be promoted to inner sect through the competition, and inner sect disciples could obtain better cultivation resources.
Her current status was merely an outer sect disciple of the Azure Cloud Sect, not even having entered the inner sect.
She had little say in this sect.
If her father received news that she had unilaterally dissolved the engagement, a single letter from home could summon her back, and she would have no room to resist.
Breaking off the engagement required capital.
And capital was earned with one’s fists.
‘One month…’
She recited it in her heart, then dragged a dusty wooden chest out from under the bed.
The chest contained the pills and spirit stones she had saved over the years.
The quality was not high, and the quantity was not large, but it should be enough to support over twenty days of cultivation.
She rummaged at the bottom of the chest and found a small porcelain bottle.
She pulled out the stopper and smelled it, confirming it was a Qi Condensing Pill for boosting cultivation, with eleven pills remaining.
Eleven pills.
One month.
Not quite enough.
She clutched the porcelain bottle in her palm, then fished out three spirit stones from a corner of the chest—one medium-grade and two low-grade.
She arranged them neatly on the table, stared at them for a few seconds, then tucked them back into her storage pouch.
She had participated in the Outer Sect Competition before.
Last year, she was very unlucky.
As a Qi Refining mid-stage disciple, she had encountered a Qi Refining peak expert in the first round and was defeated in one move by that Senior Brother.
The reason it was called ‘one move’ was because she hadn’t even seen his sword clearly before she was sent flying by the sword qi, landing below the arena platform, her back hitting the stone steps, with bruises that lasted half a month.
At that time, she had secretly vowed to enter the top thirty-two next year.
Now she was already at Qi Refining peak, and that Senior Brother had entered the inner sect last time.
She figured she should be able to enter as well.
Luo Qingci sat down at the table, spread out a clean sheet of paper, and began to write a cultivation plan.
She needed to be as close to Foundation Establishment as possible before the competition.
This was not aiming too high, but a necessary strategy.
Last year’s experience told her that most participants in the Outer Sect Competition were at Qi Refining late stage, and the seeded players at Qi Refining peak were few.
As long as she could touch the threshold of Foundation Establishment, she could avoid defeat.
One Qi Condensing Pill per day, combined with nighttime meditation.
Morning training changed to two hours, adding a set of body movement exercises.
No missions for now, all time devoted to cultivation.
After writing, she looked it over and added a line at the end: “One piece of osmanthus cake every day.”
The tip of the brush paused on the paper, leaving a small ink dot.
She drew an osmanthus flower next to the ink dot.
Very small, with five petals, crooked, like a child’s drawing.
She looked at it again, thought it was a bit childish, and thought about turning the paper over.
But after thinking it over, she kept it as it was, after all, no one would see it.
But plans were plans, and reality was reality.
With eleven Qi Condensing Pills, one per day would only last eleven days.
For the remaining half month, she could either ration them—one pill every three days, with greatly reduced effect—or she would have to find a way to get more.
Pills required spirit stones to buy.
Spirit stones needed to be earned.
‘So, I’ll go do a mission…’
Luo Qingci stood in front of the mission hall notice board for the time it takes to burn a stick of incense, scanning the various bounty notices.
The gathering-type missions paid too little, the escort-type took too long, and the elimination-type were a pretty good source of income, but she couldn’t do them alone.
Her eyes stopped on a notice in the corner.
“Cangwu Mountain North Foothills — Azure Scale Python Eradication Mission. Reward: five medium-grade spirit stones. Requirement: Qi Refining mid-stage or above. Note: This beast moves slowly, and ice-type techniques can effectively counter it. Recommended for solo acceptance.”
Ten low-grade spirit stones.
Luo Qingci stared at that number for a while.
Her monthly allowance from the sect was only five low-grade spirit stones.
If she could complete this mission, her cultivation resources for the coming period would be taken care of.
The Azure Scale Python was a first-grade beast, corresponding to a human cultivator’s Qi Refining stage.
She stood for a bit longer, then decided to go.
She needed these spirit stones.
It took most of a day on foot to reach the North Foothills of Cangwu Mountain from the Azure Cloud Sect.
The next day, before dawn, Luo Qingci set out, wearing a plain white disciple robe, carrying an ordinary iron sword on her back, and a small storage pouch tied at her waist.
The mountain path was slippery in the morning, with moss on the stone steps.
She walked quickly, almost jogging down the mountain.
She calculated the time in her heart: arriving at the North Foothills around noon, finding the Azure Scale Python’s nest would take half an hour, the battle wouldn’t take too long, and if she hurried back before sunset, she could still make it to the dining hall for dinner.
‘Perfect.’
Soon, she arrived at the shaded side of the Cangwu Mountain Range.
It hadn’t seen sunlight in years.
The trees were stunted and twisted, the ground covered with a thick layer of decaying leaves, soft underfoot, emitting a damp, moldy smell.
A faint miasma hung in the air, making it a little stuffy to breathe.
Luo Qingci slowed down, channeling spiritual power to her eyes, and scanned the surroundings.
The notice said the Azure Scale Python’s nest was in a cave on the north side of the mountain, with a crooked pine tree at the entrance that made it easy to identify.
She found the pine tree.
Luo Qingci walked back and forth between three pine trees, finally choosing the middle one.
She drew her sword and cut away the vines entangled at the cave entrance, then sidled in.
The cave was deeper than she had imagined.
The initial part was still spacious, but after walking about twenty steps, the passage became narrower.
The rock walls were very wet, sticky to the touch, with an indescribable fishy smell.
Luo Qingci frowned and continued inward.
After walking for about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the passage suddenly opened up.
She straightened up and found herself in a naturally formed stone cavern.
The cavern was about the size of two rooms.
There were several cracks in the ceiling where faint light seeped down, barely illuminating the central area.
She saw the Azure Scale Python.
But not just one.
There were three.
‘This is bad…’
Luo Qingci gave a helpless smile.
After she breaks through to Foundation Establishment and makes it back alive, she definitely had to beat up that Senior Brother who posted the mission.
Three miles downstream.
In a forest clearing by the riverbank, a young man in a bluish-gray long robe was gathering his qi in front of a large tree.
He was about twenty years old, handsome but not strikingly so, with a lazy and easygoing look in his eyes.
His clothes were the most ordinary scattered cultivator’s attire, washed white at the cuffs and collar, but clean.
It was clear they had been worn for quite some time.
The tree was very thick, so thick that two grown men might not have been able to encircle it.
The bark was pitted and covered with dark green moss.
The young man took a deep breath, suddenly opened his eyes, raised his right hand, bent his elbow, and then rammed his elbow into the tree trunk.
“Man!”
With a cracking sound, the large tree broke.
The trunk was sent flying by his elbow.
That shout was full of vigor, echoing through the forest clearing, startling a few unknown birds from the trees.
The large tree broke at the sound.
Not a slow crack, not a wobbling fall—it broke cleanly at the point of impact, the upper half of the trunk with all its branches and leaves leaping into the air, as if snapped in two by an invisible giant hand, drawing a low arc and flying toward the river.
Xiao Han stood still, maintaining his elbow-strike posture, the veins on his arm bulging and then slowly receding.
He slowly retracted his elbow, straightened up, and looked in the direction where the half-trunk had flown.
The corners of his mouth unconsciously lifted.
“Not bad.”
He muttered to himself, with a hint of pride in his tone.
He had been practicing this technique, ‘Meteor Splitting Sky Elbow,’ for three days.
On the first day, he shattered a bluestone.
On the second, he broke three small trees as thick as a bowl’s mouth.
Today was the first time he had taken on such a large tree.
The effect was better than he had expected.
No, it far exceeded his expectations.
He had thought it would at most leave a hole in the trunk, but unexpectedly the whole tree broke, and the upper half flew off.
If this were to hit a person…
Xiao Han shuddered a little, feeling a bit excited.
He decided to go over after the half-trunk landed to check the effect, to see where the true damage to the tree was manifested.
Was the inside of the trunk already shattered into pieces?
Or was it just a simple physical break?
As a transmigrator, he had an almost obsessive curiosity about these details.
He proudly dusted off his hands and walked toward the river.
Parting the bushes in front of him, he saw the scene on the riverbank.
Then Xiao Han’s smile froze on his face.
He stood rooted to the spot, his expression changing from pride to confusion, and from confusion to guilt.
The half-trunk lay across the shallow water.
The broken end was jagged, with wood chips and bark scattered everywhere, like a wooden flower that had exploded on the river’s surface.
The end of the trunk pinned a person—a young woman in white clothes, lying face down in the shallow water, half of her body pressed under the trunk, the other half soaking in the water, her white disciple robe covered in mud and wood chips.
Her jet-black hair spread out on the water like a tangled clump of waterweed, swaying with the ripples.
“Holy crap!”
Xiao Han stood behind the bushes, silent for about two breaths.
Then he rushed out at top speed.
“Miss! Miss, are you okay?”
he shouted as he jumped into the water, rushing to the girl’s side in two or three big strides, grabbing the trunk and shoving it aside with force.
The trunk was flipped to the side, splashing a spray of water.
The expression on Xiao Han’s face changed from guilt to panic.
That elbow strike of his had indeed been satisfying.
But now it wasn’t satisfying anymore.