Lin Xinyi stood at the edge of the viewing platform, her heart already racing with panic.
She wanted to turn and leave, but as she spun around, another figure blocked her path.
“Elder Lin truly has foresight. You even managed to predict this disciple’s victory, arriving at such an opportune moment…”
Murong Xue, who had been suspended midair moments ago, now slowly materialized before her.
Flake after flake of snow coalesced, reforming her original body directly in Lin Xinyi’s path of escape.
Realizing her retreat was cut off, Lin Xinyi could only steel herself and stay put.
“What are you saying, Sect Leader? I merely happened to arrive at a fortunate time…”
“Is that so…”
Murong Xue said nothing further.
She simply walked silently past Lin Xinyi, stopping at the railing’s edge to gaze at Bai Qianqian, the champion standing atop the Celestial Altar.
Even Murong Xue felt the urge to take on a disciple at that moment.
“Since Elder Lin happened to arrive by chance, I assume you won’t mind if I take what you desire…”
“Wha… What…?”
Lin Xinyi heard Murong Xue’s words but couldn’t process them at first.
Yet when the figure before her dispersed like blown snowflakes, the entire arena fell into sudden silence.
By then, Murong Xue had already appeared at the center of the Celestial Altar.
Bai Qianqian was just beginning to anticipate when she could choose her master when an invisible pressure instantly enveloped her.
“Would you be willing to become my disciple…”
Murong Xue’s figure materialized with astonishing speed, appearing behind Bai Qianqian almost instantly.
Snowflakes began to fall across the entire arena as she activated her domain, letting everyone feel that overwhelming aura of oppression.
“That woman…”
Bai Qianqian eyed the sudden appearance of Murong Xue with wariness in her gaze, though she didn’t lose her composure.
She clasped her hands in a polite bow before her chest, never expecting the Sect Leader to extend her an olive branch once more.
Just as Qu Siyao stepped down from the Celestial Altar, she witnessed the scene and bit her lip so hard that blood seeped from the corner of her mouth.
That position should have been hers, yet now it belonged to that girl.
“I am deeply honored by the Sect Leader’s favor, but this disciple, Bai Qianqian, already has a master in mind.”
“Is that so? It seems my question was a futile effort~”
Murong Xue seemed to have anticipated this response.
After all, she had already been rejected once before; this attempt was merely another gesture of her appreciation for talent.
A Sect Leader of a great sect refused twice by the same person—the surrounding disciples were speechless with shock.
Even the elders couldn’t help but murmur among themselves.
“But since I’ve already made the offer myself, I didn’t intend to return empty-handed…”
With that, Murong Xue took a single step forward.
Qu Siyao, who had already descended from the Celestial Altar, suddenly felt an invisible force yank her backward.
Before Qu Siyao could react, she found herself teleported before Murong Xue.
As she lifted her eyes to meet the Nascent Soul powerhouse standing before her, she felt as if all the blood in her body had frozen solid.
“Would you be willing to become my disciple…”
“……”
“Hm?”
Murong Xue looked at Qu Siyao and asked her question calmly.
Yet after a long wait, she received no reply.
Expecting acceptance, Murong Xue showed a flicker of confusion, wondering if her reputation had declined so much.
Even taking on a disciple was being repeatedly refused.
At that thought, a hint of helplessness crossed Murong Xue’s eyes.
But just as she was about to speak again, Qu Siyao, who stood before her, toppled backward like a rigid statue.
“?”
Murong Xue reacted first, catching her with a burst of spiritual energy to keep her from hitting the ground.
As she wondered what had happened, she looked down and saw that Qu Siyao, who had been standing moments ago, had fainted.
“This…”
Murong Xue couldn’t understand it.
Were disciples nowadays so fragile?
But she floated Qu Siyao down with her spiritual energy, then turned to face Bai Qianqian, who stood behind her.
“You have won first place in this sect selection. You may freely choose a master from among the elders. Do you have anyone in mind?”
Murong Xue’s voice was soft, yet it carried to every corner of the Celestial Altar.
At those words, the elders who had been idly watching from the viewing platform immediately perked up.
After all, if such a promising seedling chose to enter their tutelage, she would surely become a peerless genius.
“This disciple has only one master in mind: Pure Truth Elder Lin Xinyi.”
“Just as I expected~”
Murong Xue heard the anticipated response and felt no surprise.
But Lin Xinyi, standing at the edge of the viewing platform, took a step back, wanting to flee this place.
When Bai Qianqian’s answer was heard, nearly half the attention in the arena focused on Lin Xinyi.
The air around her filled with congratulatory voices once more.
“Congratulations, Elder Lin! To think such a genius would choose you!”
“It seems Elder Lin will have another demon venerable under her wing!”
“After all, Elder Lin was once a genius herself—genius plus genius~”
……
As Murong Xue officially announced the result, Lin Xinyi, still dazed, found herself seated in the main position.
Before her knelt Bai Qianqian, performing the ceremony of acknowledging her as master.
The scene was eerily similar to what had come before.
Except Bai Qianqian, who in previous lives had been a mere beggar, now wore a completely new face.
Her drifting white hair was no longer tangled but neat and smooth, and her expression bore a gentle warmth.
Bai Qianqian was no longer what she had once been.
Though she still carried a hint of youthful innocence, her eyes held desires that did not belong to a girl of her age.
When the soft voice reached her ears, Lin Xinyi finally realized she could not escape.
“Disciple Bai Qianqian greets Master…”
……
Lin Xinyi was still in a daze all the way back to the grotto-heaven.
Even when she felt the gentle touch against her lips, and the warm, moist tip of a tongue slipping into her mouth and stirring, she only snapped back to reality at that moment.
“What are you doing?!”
The moment she came to her senses, Lin Xinyi shoved Bai Qianqian away.
Her eyes still held shock from what had just happened, and she instinctively wiped the lingering dampness from the corner of her mouth.
“I simply missed Master too much, so I acted thus. I hope Master will forgive me.”
Bai Qianqian, pushed away, showed no hint of apology in her calm eyes.
Instead, she looked at Lin Xinyi’s cheeks flushed with red and licked her lips as if savoring the sweetness just tasted.
“You! Don’t call me master! I haven’t accepted you as my disciple!”
“But during the disciple-taking ceremony just now, I already performed the great rite. The Sect Leader witnessed it as well…”
“That doesn’t count!”
Lin Xinyi spoke impulsively, retorting before she could think.
But to her surprise, Bai Qianqian, who had been calm and composed, turned dark at those words, her voice dropping several tones.
“It doesn’t count? Sister Luo said that if Master won’t be my master, then you’ll have to be my flesh slave…”
“!!!!!”
When Lin Xinyi heard those words, she froze for a moment, then realization dawned, and her eyes widened in shock.
She couldn’t understand what Luo Qingyao had been teaching Bai Qianqian.
At that moment, Luo Qingyao, watching Lin Xinyi’s terrified expression, leaned over and whispered suggestions into Bai Qianqian’s ear, taking advantage of the fact that Lin Xinyi couldn’t see her.
In her other hand, she held a reference book titled The Domineering Master Falls for Me.
“Wait, first you say this… then say this… then this… and then say this…”
“Mm…”
“But Sister Luo, what do ‘flesh slave’ and ‘flesh vessel’ mean?”
“Don’t worry about that. I read it in a book. Just say it, and it’ll work~”
Luo Qingyao didn’t know much about matters of love, but she had read some illustrated stories and remembered some of the phrasing.
Even as a remnant soul, she would occasionally review them, never expecting they’d come in handy now.
Lin Xinyi felt Bai Qianqian grip her shoulders and forcibly drag her to a nearby tree.
Her body was already weak, and faced with such an assertive Bai Qianqian, Lin Xinyi couldn’t even muster the thought of resistance.
“You! You… you rebellious disciple, what are you doing?!”
“Master calling me a rebellious disciple—does that mean you acknowledge me as your disciple?”
“So… so what if I do…”
Lin Xinyi, pinned under Bai Qianqian’s intense gaze, felt a wave of guilt wash over her.
She was supposed to be the one in the dominant position, yet here she was, her aura weaker than the other’s.
Bai Qianqian licked her lips, most of her earlier cold demeanor vanishing.
“Master personally acknowledging me—this disciple is very happy. But Master’s attitude… I’m not too fond of it.”
“You… what are you going to do? This is still outside! I’m telling you, let me go!”
“Are you trying to play hard to get, Master?”