The Young Lady Only Wants to Cultivate Immortality Chapter 25

After leaving the Gu family, the wind ceased and the rain stopped. As far as the eye could see, clouds and mist shrouded everything, a hazy sky after the rain.
After instructing the coachman to drive slowly, A’Ling leaned back in the carriage, listening to the tap-tap of the wheels rolling over the wet bluestone road, pondering what Gu Jingyang had just told her.
“That year, the Huo Residence welcomed a new child, hosting a grand banquet and widely inviting prominent families and wealthy clans from the town. Any family with a bit of standing was on the guest list, and our Gu family was among them. That was my first time visiting the Gu family, and also the first time I saw Qingqian.”
“At that time, I didn’t know Qingqian yet. I only knew that the Huo family had a child whom they had never brought out to meet people. During that frightening encounter, I initially didn’t even know she was the Huo family’s young miss. Little Qingqian was very different from how she is now.”
“I don’t know the exact situation of the Huo family, or why they would keep a five-year-old child locked alone in the embroidery tower. And after Qingqian fell from a height, only one servant rushed to take her back.”
“I wanted to call for help, but that servant begged me not to make a fuss, saying that if people knew Qingqian had left the embroidery tower, she would be beaten. Later, I told my father about it, and my father also told me to forget about it, though he did promise he would confirm that Qingqian was alright.”
“After that, we never visited the Huo family again, nor did I see Qingqian again, until Qingqian was ten years old and Elder Zeng detected her pure immortal physique. That’s when I saw Qingqian again at Hongjian Academy.”
“By then, Qingqian was no longer as disheveled as she was when she was little. Besides looking excessively thin, she was otherwise indistinguishable from ordinary people. However, she still spoke very little, almost nothing. If you spoke ten sentences to her, she might not even reply to one.”
“Because of her exceptional talent, her cultivation speed was very fast. People in the academy simply regarded it as a genius’s habit. People always believe that powerful individuals speak little.”
Gu Jingyang still felt a bit troubled as she spoke. She was clearly very strong too, but it seemed people didn’t perceive her that way. She speculated that perhaps it was because she talked too much, making her seem less distant.
Keep quiet, act like an expert.
She just couldn’t act.
The carriage wheel sank into a small pothole and then climbed out, causing the carriage to jolt. A’Ling, leaning her head against the carriage wall, bumped her head unexpectedly.
A’Ling rubbed her forehead, snapping out of her contemplation with a wry smile. If she were to say it, Gu Jingyang wasn’t just talkative; she also loved to join in on the fun too much. What kind of expert had such a personality?
As for the things Gu Jingyang told her, A’Ling actually suspected she might have misremembered. How could Shi Qingqian sound so pitiful as a child? When A’Ling returned to the Huo family, the Huo family members she met were very kind to Shi Qingqian.
She still remembered that at the time, Huo Zhen even said, ‘Why not just let it be, and continue the mistake?’
Her own mother, Lin Nianli, sat upright in the main seat, scrutinizing her with an displeased expression, unable to hide the disdain in her eyes, and didn’t refute Huo Zhen’s idea at all.
And her younger brother, Huo Changsheng, even directly stated his agreement, saying he only recognized Shi Qingqian as his sister.
They were clearly all siding with Shi Qingqian! A’Ling often dreamt in the dead of night that they were a loving family, and she was the one who abruptly appeared, disrupting their family’s affection.
How could little Shi Qingqian sound so different from what she imagined…?
A’Ling felt that there might be something she didn’t know.
“Young miss, we’ve arrived.”
Suddenly, the carriage stopped. The coachman’s words interrupted A’Ling’s thoughts. She lifted the carriage curtain and looked at the ancient and elegant house ahead. Black, drooping beast-headed ridge ornaments sat quietly on the rain-glistened rooftop, exuding an air of mystery.
A’Ling dismissed her earlier thoughts. What did Shi Qingqian’s past have to do with her? Would it comfort her if Shi Qingqian had a bad childhood? Would it be worse than her, constantly teetering on the edge of life and death?
A’Ling rubbed her face, composed herself, and got out of the carriage. She had no time to waste. She had just asked Gu Jingyang about some spiritual arts masters in town, and she had noted down all the reputable and capable ones.
Hongjian Academy was an orthodox immortal cultivation academy, teaching a comprehensive concept, from absorbing spiritual energy step by step. It was the top choice for building a solid foundation.
However, besides Hongjian Academy, Longyin Town had many other immortal cultivation academies. Although their reputation and strength weren’t on par with the leading Hongjian Academy, they all had their unique skills to establish themselves in Longyin Town.
For example, Taichuan Academy, currently before her, was renowned for its spiritual arts.
Gu Jingyang also studied spiritual arts there in her free time. All the masters at this academy were spiritual arts cultivators, teaching only spiritual arts.
In her previous life, A’Ling was ashamed to admit, she was a medical cultivator worse than a half-baked one, practically crippled.
Originally, A’Ling had wanted to pursue the sword cultivation path and contend with Shi Qingqian.
However, after years of stagnation in the Inner Sect, she couldn’t enter the gate of sword cultivation. In the end, she was favored by the medical cultivator elder of the Twelve Cave Abodes and became a medical cultivator.
To this day, A’Ling was unsure how she was chosen back then. She seemed to have no relation to healing the world or having the benevolent heart of a healer. It was likely the elder had misjudged her.
A’Ling’s later studies were indeed subpar. If she had even half of the elder’s skill, she wouldn’t have been unable to refine even a potent aphrodisiac, needing to trade a magic artifact with the fox clan for one.
This time, she was determined not to study medicine, nor did she plan to cultivate the sword path.
The day she watched Gu Jingyang and Shi Qingqian’s spiritual arts duel, she made up her mind: in this life, she would become a spiritual arts cultivator, a super powerful spiritual artist revered and admired whenever mentioned in the cultivation world.
A’Ling straightened her back and walked directly into Taichuan Academy. She found the head spiritual arts master and, with a grand gesture, enrolled in all spiritual arts courses offered by all the instructors.
She paid half a year’s tuition at once, spending lavishly. The head spiritual arts master immediately arranged one-on-one master classes for her, specifically scheduling courses that suited A’Ling’s time requirements.
For the next month, A’Ling went to Hongjian Academy in the mornings to consolidate her cultivation techniques and build her foundation. In the afternoons, she went straight to various spiritual arts schools, and in the evenings, she returned home to refine magic artifacts day and night.
After a month, not only was the spiritual energy in her body condensing and refining, making Core Formation imminent, but she had also learned many novel things about spiritual arts.
Indeed, among three spiritual artists passing by, there was always one useful.
A’Ling in Taichuan Academy recognized a spiritual arts cultivator who had been expelled from the Inner Sect. This person had escaped the Heaven-Bearing Sorrowful Prison Cliff relying solely on her spiritual arts, proving her exceptionally high skill.
However, because she had been expelled from the Inner Sect, orthodox academies wouldn’t accept her. But due to her immense strength, she was highly valued in these spiritual arts academies.
Perhaps it was A’Ling’s lavish spending, or a natural affinity with A’Ling, or perhaps A’Ling’s talent in spiritual arts, that made her even want to take A’Ling as an introductory disciple. But upon hearing A’Ling also wanted to go to the Inner Sect, she had to give up.
If one entered the Inner Sect and was chosen by an elder of the Twelve Peaks’ Cave Abodes, they would naturally become their disciple.
Although A’Ling couldn’t become her disciple, she felt some regret but still diligently taught A’Ling spiritual arts.
After a month, A’Ling’s spiritual arts advanced by leaps and bounds. Perhaps it was due to her foundation from her previous life, but A’Ling felt it was more because she had suddenly ‘opened her mind.’
Spiritual arts she could never remember before, she could now reproduce perfectly after just a few repetitions, as if someone had unblocked her inner wisdom.
Even Gu Jingyang was astonished by A’Ling’s rapid progress and became even more convinced that A’Ling possessed talent in spiritual arts.
She wanted to cultivate together with A’Ling but was rejected.
A’Ling wouldn’t dare to cultivate with Gu Jingyang. Her own Ling Ersan’s voice had already turned hoarse from just repeating one phrase, its formerly melodious nightingale voice transforming into a crow’s caw.
It had been on sick leave for the past few days, so A’Ling had to take over personally.
After enduring three nights, A’Ling couldn’t take it anymore. Even more tragically, she had already ruined seven Three Purity True Fire Furnaces this past month.
She had refined two ugly things, and five farts.
Let’s talk about those two ugly things.
The first time she refined something, she succeeded, and A’Ling was ecstatic, thinking she had succeeded. Unexpectedly, she did refine something, but it was just an ordinary whip.
Not only was it not her Little Wandering, lacking the purple-gold light, but it also broke after just two cracks…
The other ugly thing was A’Ling’s renewed effort, refining it again with the same materials. The result of the second refinement wasn’t even a whip; it was more like a melted profound iron wire that was twisted and coiled into a whip.
It lacked any smooth lines.
Two failures later, A’Ling began to summarize the differences from her previous life, finally concluding that the materials she used were too good.
After all, in her previous life, she had no money, and all the materials she bought were ordinary or inferior. This life was different; her pockets were bulging, and even the refining furnace she bought from the Gu family was the best.
Believing she had found the reason, A’Ling bought new materials, using inferior ones of the same grade as in her previous life. The result was…
The furnace fire died out, and nothing came out.
As for the five farts, well, no need to mention them.
A’Ling was utterly confused. She was clearly refining according to the methods of her previous life, using the same items. How could she refine a magic artifact in her previous life but not in this one?
After analyzing all night, A’Ling felt that the only change was the Gu family’s Three Purity True Fire Furnace. Originally, she had used the Vast Sky Stone from the Huo family’s mine.
In this life, because of her, she used the Vast Sky Stone from Profound Dark Flow Mountain.
After realizing this difference, A’Ling sent a message to Gu Jingyang last night, asking her to bring her an old Three Purity True Fire Furnace made by the Gu family today.
Gu Jingyang had not seen A’Ling for nearly half a month. A’Ling seemed incredibly busy day by day. Today, when she delivered the item to A’Ling, she wanted to pull her aside for a good chat.
But A’Ling just took the item and left.
“A’Ling, are you treating me like a delivery service?!” Gu Jingyang looked at the figure who had said “thank you” and turned to leave, a wry smile on her face.
A’Ling was genuinely in a hurry. Today, she had another conflict with Qi Leshan, which delayed her. Besides, she had also booked a spiritual arts artifact refinement course at Taichuan Academy.
She refused to believe it! The Little Wandering she could refine in her previous life, she wouldn’t be able to refine in this one!
“I’m in a hurry, talk later.” If it were anyone else, A’Ling might have exchanged a few more pleasantries, but this was Gu Jingyang. If they started chatting, A’Ling was afraid she wouldn’t be able to end the conversation.
Gu Jingyang looked at the hastily departing back with a pang of regret. She had so many things she wanted to tell A’Ling, especially about Shi Qingqian’s recent abnormalities.
Recalling her gaze, Gu Jingyang turned around and saw a figure in moon-white standing behind her. Her swaying skirt revealed several blooming lilies embroidered on it.
“Qingqian? When did you arrive?”
Shi Qingqian gazed in the direction A’Ling had left, retracting her eyes only when the green figure was no longer visible.
“Just passing by.”
Shi Qingqian nodded at Gu Jingyang as she spoke, then turned to walk forward.
The first thing Gu Jingyang had wanted to tell A’Ling earlier was about Shi Qingqian.
Ever since they reunited when Qingqian was ten, she had always worn only white—pure white, without any patterns or designs.
But half a month ago, her white dress suddenly had something different on it.
Patterns suddenly appeared on her dress. It was no longer so aloof; it suddenly gained a hint of human warmth, even though her recent expression seemed even more distant than before.
Gu Jingyang had been observing for nearly half a month and didn’t know why Shi Qingqian had suddenly undergone such a big change.
This matter was now the hottest topic in the academy, with everyone discussing it and saying all sorts of things.
Gu Jingyang had originally wanted to ask A’Ling, but alas, she was too busy.
Looking at Shi Qingqian, who was about to leave, she also seemed very busy lately.
“Oh, right, Qingqian, how’s the item you wanted to refine coming along?”
A month ago, besides A’Ling asking her for a Three Purity True Fire Furnace from the Gu family, Shi Qingqian had also commissioned one from her.
Shi Qingqian paused her steps, turned her head to look at Gu Jingyang, her expression complex, as if contemplating something.
Gu Jingyang raised an eyebrow. “What’s wrong? Did you encounter any problems?” Gu Jingyang wondered if she had also failed, and if she should send her a few more Three Purity True Fire Furnaces.
Shi Qingqian thought for only a moment before dismissing the idea that had flashed through her mind. “It’s nothing, it’s refined.”
After saying this, Shi Qingqian continued to walk forward, leaving a regretful Gu Jingyang behind. She had hoped that if Shi Qingqian encountered trouble, she could use that as an opportunity to subtly inquire about her recent abnormality.
At Gu Jingyang’s question, Shi Qingqian thought of the whip she had refined half a month ago and sighed faintly. The magic artifact had indeed been refined, but she didn’t know how to deliver it to that person.
Just now, the thought of having Gu Jingyang hand it over had crossed her mind, but she dismissed it in an instant.
A’Ling wouldn’t accept it.