“But what on earth does that clumsy Gu Qinghan want to ask me?”
Rinsing ice and washing snow to scoop up a white reflection; with skin of ice and jade, a fox stands at the edge.
Frosted feet ripple the moon within the Spirit Spring; jade-like hands let fall a Cold Fragrance Pill.
One had to admit that Gu Qinghan actually possessed a bit of an appreciative temperament.
Her Cave Residence was as cold and detached as her name, and her room was frighteningly simple.
However, amidst this mountaintop that resembled a world of ice and snow, there sat a warm Spirit Spring like a heavenly pool on a snowy mountain.
The dense warmth washed away one’s fatigue, and the rising mist was tinged with a few hints of holy light.
Qian Yu shed her clothes and stepped in with her snow-white little feet.
She had just consumed a high-grade Spirit Fruit of the third rank, something that couldn’t be obtained even if one completed a hundred sect missions.
Now, wrapped in this high-rank Spirit Spring full of warmth and spiritual energy, she felt much closer to breaking through the shocking chasm of the Initial Stage of the First Realm.
The breakthrough starts now!
Mist curled within the Spirit Spring; spiritual energy surged within Qian Yu’s body.
Qian Yu gently closed her eyes and circulated her energy through her meridians.
As the Spirit Fruit’s effects continued to exert their power, the spiritual energy in her body became completely active.
A moment later, following a crisp and tender—”Break.”
The breakthrough failed!
Even with a Spirit Fruit that would have a decent effect even for Gu Qinghan, the little Half-Yao was once again stuck at the chasm of the Initial Stage of the First Realm.
Such talent, even when placed within the Luoxia Immortal Sect—one of the Seven Holy Lands of the Cultivation World—was still as rare and shocking as a phoenix feather or a qilin horn.
“Ugh… Good Shizun, where on earth is that Saint Potential you mentioned I had in the future? Ahhhhh…”
Her body completely submerged in the Spirit Spring, Qian Yu’s small face was full of sorrow.
As a little Half-Yao who could stay in the Luoxia Immortal Sect for a long time with only the cultivation of the Initial Stage of the First Realm, Qian Yu naturally wasn’t without some background.
She had a Shizun.
The woman had picked her up and brought her back to the mountain when she was three years old.
She used to hold her and spin her around, rubbing and kissing her face while asserting that she had Saint Potential.
And then… that drunkard of a woman died from drinking too much.
Since then… her cultivation had been stuck at the Initial Stage of the First Realm ever since she started her path of cultivation. No matter how she trained, she couldn’t advance.
When Gu Qinghan stuffed the compensatory Spirit Fruit into her mouth, Qian Yu’s excitement and cheering had been completely genuine.
Ever since her Shizun died, she had barely seen even the most common first-rank Spirit Fruit, let alone a high-tier one of the third rank.
She thought she could finally see the scenery of the middle stage of the First Realm, but unexpectedly, she had failed in the end.
The vast spiritual energy brought by the Spirit Fruit had just begun to flow through her meridians before it vanished without a trace, as if it had never existed.
If Qian Yu hadn’t been certain that her Shizun’s joy wasn’t faked when she said her talent was exceptionally high back then, she would have suspected the woman was drinking fake alcohol that day.
“Sigh, it’ll be the sect’s Year-end Examination again in a while.”
According to the rules of the Luoxia Immortal Sect, those who failed the Year-end Examination would have their treatment reduced, and those who failed three times would be directly struck from the rolls.
Since coming to the mountain, Qian Yu had failed the examination a total of fourteen times.
If it weren’t for her drunkard Shizun having strong connections in the sect while she was alive, and the lingering shadow of her influence after her death, Qian Yu would have been kicked out long ago.
But now…
Qian Yu knew clearly that her Shizun’s protection ended here.
As long as she failed this examination, she would be kicked off the mountain by the sect without hesitation.
At that time, as a Half-Yao without any cultivation, she would truly experience the malice this world held toward Demon Race bloodlines.
“But passing this Year-end Examination requires at least the late stage of the First Realm. I only have…”
The rogue cultivators down the mountain weren’t like the people in the Luoxia Immortal Sect who, at most, only mocked and beat her.
For those who fought to the death over a tiny bit of resources, seeing a Half-Yao like Qian Yu who looked quite decent, they would truly kidnap and sell her.
Qian Yu didn’t dare imagine how miserable her life would be after being driven off the mountain.
Yet, given her “formidable” talent, she couldn’t think of any possibility of breaking through before then.
And that wasn’t the most pressing matter—the most pressing matter was that woman, Gu Qinghan, who said she had something to ask her tomorrow morning and told her to rest well today.
What could she possibly have to ask?
Hadn’t she asked everything today?
Even if she did have something to ask, why didn’t she ask on the spot?
Why wait until tomorrow?
Qian Yu shrank her small body further into the Spirit Spring.
She had a feeling that this matter was much more urgent than the imminent examination or her rare talent.
To some extent, it would even determine her future fate!
Perhaps because she had to rely on herself since she was small, Qian Yu trusted her intuition very much, and it had never let her down, helping her survive several major disasters.
Now, that intuition had appeared once more.
From the moment Gu Qinghan began questioning her earlier, she had felt a faint sense of unease, which reached its peak when the woman mentioned she had something to ask tomorrow morning.
Gu Qinghan was a good person who could choose to forgive even after her face had been slashed.
Why would a few questions make her so uneasy?
Even if the questions were tricky, she could just talk nonsense.
Could the other party actually Soul Search her?
Qian Yu was completely baffled.
Even the ridiculous guess that Gu Qinghan was a Regressor—and one who had returned from the time when she had been harmed the most—had crossed her mind.
Just kidding.
If even the protagonist had been reborn, then the reason her cultivation wouldn’t improve was that there was an old grandmother in a ring sucking her spiritual energy.
Unable to accept such an absurd idea but also unable to figure out where the crisis lay, a slight stinging pain suddenly crawled up her wrist.
Shuddering, she instinctively looked at her left hand.
A clear and warm bracelet appeared on Qian Yu’s wrist as if out of thin air, flowing with faint and exquisite cloud patterns.
It added the only decoration to her, who was incredibly simple whether she wore clothes or not.
Third-rank spiritual tool—Flowing Cloud Bracelet.
A gift Nalan Yunyan had given her before she “executed her mission.”
Long-term wearing not only calmed the mind and aided cultivation, but underneath its seemingly ordinary appearance, it also contained three instantaneous formations that could resist a full-power strike from a Third Realm cultivator.
A spiritual tool like this, which combined self-defense and support functions, was top-tier even among third-rank spiritual tools.
In the hands of someone like Qian Yu, who only had five Spirit Stones to her name, it was truly worth several of her lives.
However, Nalan Yunyan had given such a precious item just for the instant communication formation within it, making it convenient to contact Qian Yu at any time.
One could only say she was truly a young miss born with a silver spoon.
Stroking the beautiful Flowing Cloud Bracelet on her wrist, Qian Yu furrowed her small eyebrows slightly.
Originally, Nalan Yunyan wouldn’t have given her something like this.
Seeing her as a despicable person, the woman didn’t even deign to contact her directly, usually giving orders through Tang Qiurou.
Now, the fact that this had appeared was likely because she was in a good mood after being confessed to, so she gave it as a casual gift.
Qian Yu had only intended to use this as a simple protective treasure and never thought of using it to talk to Nalan Yunyan.
Unexpectedly, the other party took the initiative to find her.
Was she here to supervise her progress?
Qian Yu was a bit conflicted; she didn’t really want to communicate with a rival on Gu Qinghan’s territory.
Before she could make a decision, the Flowing Cloud Bracelet on her hand glowed with a white light and began scanning the surrounding environment.
After confirming there was no danger, it actually projected Nalan Yunyan’s image directly.
Qian Yu’s small face turned pale, and she hurriedly covered her body.
The eldest Miss Nalan didn’t allow her subordinates to ignore her calls, so she had set up formations to scan the surroundings and answer automatically.
Since the other person’s image appeared here, the other person could also see her there.
This was the power of tyranny, but a third-rank spiritual tool clearly wasn’t that smart yet. She was still bathing, hey!
Would Nalan Yunyan kill her for some reason like “Brave Half-Yao, how dare you dirty my eyes”?
Qian Yu had heard too many stories about such arrogant young misses who wanted to kill people after seeing them.
While clutching her small body tighter and tighter, she kept shrinking back into the Spirit Spring.
She had forgotten—with her chronically malnourished child-like body, Nalan Yunyan, the future Demon Venerable, probably wouldn’t even deign to look.
Then…
In the image, Nalan Yunyan’s face, which originally held three parts indifference and three parts cold arrogance, became visibly more moved.
Well…
The future Demon Venerable was only sixteen now; she couldn’t be judged by common logic.
“Tie up your hair.”
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