In the days that followed, Luo Qingci would go to the Back Mountain Cliff Edge to cultivate before dawn every day, then return for breakfast when the morning bell rang.
She practiced swordsmanship at the Training Ground in the morning, meditated in her Residence in the afternoon, and continued cultivating into the night until midnight.
Her life had become a straight line, moving back and forth between four points—her Residence, the Training Ground, the Cafeteria, and the Back Mountain—with no extra detours in between.
No idle chatting with others.
No attending any gatherings.
No responding to any invitations.
When someone came looking for her, she would smile and decline.
“I’m preparing for the Grand Competition recently. I really can’t spare the time.”
Her tone was soft, her attitude pleasant.
No one could find fault with it.
After enough times, fewer people came to find her.
Zhao Heng came twice.
Both times, she turned him away.
The third time, Zhao Heng stood outside her courtyard gate, glanced at her through the half-closed wooden door, seemed to want to say something, but ultimately just shook his head helplessly and walked away.
Luo Qingci felt his presence leave and finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Then she found it a bit ridiculous.
An Inner Disciple at the late Foundation Establishment stage, coming to find her, an Outer Disciple at peak Qi Refining—what serious business could he have?
It was just that keeping a pretty girl in the courtyard was always nice to look at.
Even if he couldn’t pluck her yet, it was good to get a few extra glances.
When he found someone easier to go after, he’d naturally change targets.
She had seen too many people like this.
Zhao Heng wasn’t the only one.
Two years ago, there was one named Zhou Yan.
Early Foundation Establishment, a Sword Cultivator, handsome, quite popular in the sect.
He pursued her for three full months, coming every day to bring gifts—pills, spirit herbs, beautiful hairpins, expensive robes.
She refused, and he would just smile and say,
“No rush, no rush, take your time.”
She pushed him away, and he would say,
“I’ll come again tomorrow.”
Luo Qingci had just turned fifteen back then and wasn’t as good at dealing with people as she was now.
She didn’t know what to do with someone like that, so she just avoided him.
After two months of hiding, Zhou Yan finally stopped coming.
Not because her evasion succeeded, but because his target had switched to another newly entered female disciple, one who was quite pretty.
Once, Luo Qingci saw Zhou Yan sitting with that female disciple in the Cafeteria from a distance, chatting and laughing.
Zhou Yan was putting food on the girl’s plate, his gaze as gentle as the spring breeze in March.
She looked once, then withdrew her gaze and lowered her head to drink her porridge.
She had never felt anything for Zhou Yan, nor had she ever accepted his kindness.
But in her heart, she understood clearly—if she didn’t have this face, would Zhou Yan still have pursued her?
No.
In the years from age seven to fourteen, when she didn’t have this face, not a single person had ever come to pursue her.
She could understand why those people acted this way.
After all, she really was quite beautiful now.
The room was dimly lit, with only the oil lamp on the table casting a faint yellow glow.
She walked over, sat down at the table, and took a small paper wrapper from her Storage Pouch.
She opened it.
Inside were two pieces of Osmanthus Cake.
Breakfast for tomorrow.
She smelled the fragrance of osmanthus, wrapped the paper back up, placed it by her pillow, then blew out the lamp and went to sleep.
Seven days before the Grand Competition, Luo Qingci stood at the edge of the Training Ground, watching two disciples sparring in the field.
This Training Ground was reserved for Outer Disciples.
It wasn’t large, and the facilities were simple.
The bluestone slabs covering the ground were already pitted and worn.
It was busiest in the early morning and at dusk—sometimes for formal sparring, sometimes for casual bouts.
Anyone with an itch to fight would come here to trade a few moves.
It was dusk now, and the sparring was heating up.
Both disciples in the ring were at late Qi Refining.
One used a sword, the other a blade.
They went back and forth, the clashing sounds of their weapons ringing out.
To an outsider, it might have seemed impressive, but in Luo Qingci’s eyes, it was full of holes.
She watched for less than half the time it took a cup of tea to cool before losing interest.
It wasn’t that her standards were too high.
It was that she had improved too much over the past year.
At this time last year, she would have found a sparring match between late Qi Refining disciples quite meaningful and could have learned a lot from it.
But now, watching a fight at the same level, all she saw were flaws.
Every move, every stance—she could see three or four ways to break it.
This feeling made her a little proud.
‘What, so I’m actually pretty amazing, huh?’
‘After the Grand Competition, after I build my Foundation, I’ll definitely be even stronger!’
‘A seventeen-year-old Foundation Establishment—that’s it! There isn’t a seventeen-year-old Foundation Establishment genius within a hundred miles!’
‘From now on, I won’t be a Qi Refining ant anymore. I’ll be a Foundation Establishment powerhouse!’
Luo Qingci withdrew her gaze from the Training Ground, turned around, and headed back toward her Residence.
On the way, she ran into a few Outer Disciples.
When they saw her from a distance, they waved.
“Junior Sister Luo! Come spar with us!”
“Yeah, yeah! We haven’t seen you here in a long time!”
Luo Qingci smiled and waved them off.
“My qi is settled these days, so I won’t be fighting. I’ll save it for the Grand Competition.”
“Then it’s a deal! If we meet in the competition, you have to go easy on me!”
“You should be the one going easy.”
After a few simple pleasantries, Luo Qingci left.
Behind her, a female disciple’s lowered voice drifted over.
“Don’t you think Junior Sister Luo has been getting quieter and quieter lately? Last time I talked to her, I felt like she was listening, but also like she wasn’t. It was strange.”
“Is that so? I think she’s fine, isn’t she always smiling?”
“That’s exactly why I think it’s strange…”
The voices faded into the distance.
Luo Qingci’s steps didn’t stop.
Of course she was smiling.
If she showed any other emotion, people would come flocking to her with concern.
So she just put on a smile.
Smile until everyone thought she was doing fine.
Smile until everyone thought she had no troubles.
Smile until everyone thought she didn’t need help.
Then they would leave, and she could finally have some peace.
Three nights before the Grand Competition.
Luo Qingci sat cross-legged on her bed.
Her internal spiritual power cycled through thirty-six full circuits before converging into a tiny vortex in her lower dantian.
She could feel the vortex spinning slowly, as if brewing something.
This feeling had been going on for half a month now.
She felt like she was close to Foundation Establishment.
But she had to hold back.
She needed to condense her true qi properly before building her Foundation.
She couldn’t rush it.
She opened her eyes and let out a long breath.
The spiritual power inside her slowly settled, like the tide receding, leaving behind a peaceful stillness.
The room was very dark.
The moon outside was obscured by clouds; she couldn’t see anything.
She reached for the paper wrapper by her pillow, unwrapped it, picked up a piece of Osmanthus Cake, and brought it to her mouth in the darkness.
She took a bite.
Soft, sweet, and sticky.
The fragrance of osmanthus spread through her mouth.
As she chewed, a thought suddenly struck her.
The Grand Competition was in three days.
After it was over, she would be an Inner Disciple…
‘When that happens, I’ll be an Inner Disciple. I’ll have a Golden Core Grandmaster as my master. Maybe, if I work hard enough, I could even become a Direct Disciple.’
Luo Qingci swallowed the last bite of Osmanthus Cake and licked the crumbs from her fingertips.
“Foundation Establishment,” she said in the darkness, her voice very soft.
“Dissolution of engagement. I have to achieve both.”
A wind picked up outside the window.
The branches of the osmanthus tree tapped gently against the window lattice, one beat after another, as if drumming for someone.
So what if she had turned into a girl?
Her future… seemed quite bright…
Suddenly, she laughed.
A genuine laugh from the heart.
She pulled the covers over herself and closed her eyes.
[Name: Luo Qingci]
[Physique: Supreme Yin Profound Body—Awakening Progress: 40%]
[Traits: Taiyin Origin—Extreme affinity for ice-type and yin-attributed techniques. Cultivation speed increased tenfold. Immune to all ice-type spell damage from cultivators of the same realm. Innate Perfect Cauldron—Functions as a natural, mobile spirit-gathering formation. Those who cultivate by her side will have their cultivation speed directly increased by thirty to fifty percent. When engaging in Dual Cultivation to harmonize yin and yang with a cultivator, she can channel her pure yin origin to her partner, helping them rapidly break through bottlenecks, stabilize their Dao foundation, and cleanse impurities from their meridians. She can also help cultivators suppress heart demons, extend their lifespan and increase their vitality, with a chance of granting an epiphany on the Great Dao. The higher the partner’s cultivation level, the greater the benefits gained from the cauldron constitution. Innate Path of Cultivation—Her own cultivation speed far surpasses that of ordinary cultivators. She enters stages quickly and easily breaks through bottlenecks.]
Xiao Han stared at those lines on the system panel, his mouth twitching.
Not from shock.
From sheer absurdity.
Supreme Yin Profound Body.
Innate Perfect Cauldron.
“You’re telling me… after she fully awakens, with a face that could topple cities, she’ll also have the ‘Innate Perfect Cauldron’ trait.”
He paused.
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