The spiritual-root test had once thrown all of Shuangji Sect into an uproar.
Three new disciples with heaven-defying aptitudes had appeared at the same time!
They had only just entered the cultivation world. They were still in the early levels of Qi Refining and had not even reached Foundation Establishment, but no one could deny their future potential.
They were Lin Xiaoqing, with a single water spiritual root; Cheng Yun, with a single thunder spiritual root; and Li Xiaoshu, with a single fire spiritual root.
Without spiritual roots, a person could not become a cultivator. Perhaps one ordinary person in ten thousand possessed them. Two, three, four, and five spiritual roots were the most common types in the cultivation world.
In general, the more numerous and mixed one’s spiritual roots, the poorer the aptitude. A single spiritual root, by contrast, was known as a heavenly spiritual root—a monstrous spiritual root.
Such cultivators needed only half as much time to advance as others. More importantly, they did not encounter bottlenecks!
They could progress smoothly from Qi Refining to Foundation Establishment, then Core Formation and Nascent Soul, without a single obstruction. It was an absurd advantage.
According to Northern Kingdom records, this divine aptitude had appeared only twice before. Both cultivators were said to have reached late Spirit Transformation and ascended to the higher plane of the spirit realm.
But those people belonged to history. The present reality was that these three girls represented Shuangji Sect’s hope for revival—its brightest future stars.
The sect’s leaders understood that discretion was the best protection and tried to hide the astonishing news. Somehow, the other three great sects still learned that Shuangji Sect possessed three heavenly-spiritual-root disciples.
Once they confirmed it, all three acted. They were equal to Shuangji Sect in strength, and they applied every kind of pressure while offering increasingly generous conditions. Each sect tried its utmost to lure the girls away. If taking all three was impossible, surely Shuangji Sect could spare one.
It could not be allowed to keep every prize for itself.
While the four great sects fought over them, Li Xiaoshu—the girl with the single fire spiritual root—defected from Shuangji Sect. She joined Azure Flame Sect, the foremost sect of the demonic path, and became the formal disciple of a Nascent Soul monster.
The blow humiliated Shuangji Sect. It silenced the other three great sects with overwhelming force, then posted four consecutive pursuit orders on its inner mission list. The reward for capturing Li Xiaoshu ranked second only to the bounty on Ouyang Yue.
Afterward, the sect elders summoned Lin Xiaoqing and Cheng Yun for a serious discussion about their futures. They were afraid another sect—or another demonic faction—would steal the remaining stars.
With the system’s explanation, Xiaoqing finally understood the whole affair.
So that was what had happened. Did this mean she would receive contribution points and spirit stones if she captured Li Xiaoshu and returned her to the sect?
> Ding! The system has no objection to the player attacking. The target is at early Core Formation, while the player is at Foundation Establishment. Your strength is unequal.
Xiaoqing fell silent.
The system had explained everything clearly, but she still hated it.
“What a shame. Anything worth seeing is beyond my reach. The only reward I gained from this auction was meeting you, Xiaoqing—and that’s much better than obtaining a spirit tool or rare material. I’m so happy.” Li Xiaoshu fluttered her eyelashes. Her amber eyes curved like crescent moons. “Xiaoqing, shall we go drink tea?”
When Xiaoqing hesitated and finally nodded, those eyes seemed to sparkle.
They entered a splendidly decorated inn. The proprietress had been working an abacus behind the counter. She swept her spiritual sense over Xiaoqing and Li Xiaoshu and visibly startled.
Only at the seventh level of Qi Refining herself, she hurried forward with a welcoming smile. “Please come inside, Seniors. What may I prepare for you?”
“Find us seats by a window. Bring your signature spiritual tea and some pastries as well.”
Li Xiaoshu gave her a mid-grade spirit stone. Beaming, the proprietress led them to seats facing each other beside a window.
A gentle breeze drifted inside. Directly below, a small street market had been set up outside the inn. When the soundproof barrier was lowered, the steady noise of bargaining and vendors’ cries reached them.
Li Xiaoshu invited her warmly. “Why don’t we go down and look around afterward? A trading fair run by low-level disciples is unlikely to have any treasure, but strolling through the market with you would still be lovely. Please, Xiaoqing?”
Xiaoqing shook her head. “I don’t want to go.”
Li Xiaoshu lowered her head pitifully. “But I want to go with you. I’ve never walked through a marketplace with you—not even once. You’re so kind, Xiaoqing. You surely wouldn’t refuse such a small request from someone as miserable as me.”
*Sorry, but I’m really not that kind. I’m heartless, ungrateful, and completely unreasonable too.*
Xiaoqing had already decided to finish one cup of tea and leave. Then she would find Cheng Yun.
She certainly would not admit that she had forgotten the woman until this moment.
A girl in a gauze dress entered. Her figure was alluring, her face innocent, and every movement carried a seductive grace. After greeting the two seniors, she lit a red clay tea stove and poured in spring water.
Once it grew warm enough, she added something that was apparently tea. Xiaoqing’s knowledge was limited; she could not identify the dark substance at all. At least it probably would not kill her.
Before long, steam curled from the pot and the fragrance of tea filled the room.
“Please drink, Senior.”
The girl’s boneless body leaned against Xiaoqing. Holding a teacup between two fingers, she raised it to Xiaoqing’s lips, then tilted her head and rubbed against Xiaoqing’s neck.
“Will you not taste the fragrant tea Mengyi prepared for you?” she whispered.
Xiaoqing said nothing.
Was this a honey trap?
When the girl began lightly brushing both hands over her shoulders, Xiaoqing became certain. This was absolutely a honey trap.
She could not fall for it. Xiaoqing did not understand the reason, but Li Xiaoshu was clearly plotting something!
“I… Cheng Yun is looking for me,” Xiaoqing said. “I should go.”
No matter how Li Xiaoshu called after her, Xiaoqing left the inn without looking back. On the stairs, she collided with the proprietress coming up. Xiaoqing muttered an apology without raising her eyes and kept fleeing.
She needed to get away quickly.
Li Xiaoshu had treated the original owner very well in the novel. But the present Li Xiaoshu belonged to a demonic sect, and Xiaoqing did not dare gamble on whether the woman would attack her.
According to the system, her aptitude made her a treasure wherever she went.
What if they drugged her and carried her back to the demonic sect?
The tea had already gone cold. Li Xiaoshu stared at the girl who had tried every means to seduce Xiaoqing, anger filling her eyes.
“You deserve to die.”
“Because I touched her?” Xue Meng stuck out her tongue, revealing an adorable little canine tooth as she grinned. “Junior Sister, you’re terribly stingy. If she’s someone you care about, I truly want to make you lose her… Deserve to die, do I?”
Heat surged through the room. A swarm of fireballs scattered, then struck at Xue Meng from every direction. Li Xiaoshu watched coldly as she blocked them. Instead of attacking again, Xiaoshu turned and left, a hint of sorrow in her eyes.
*Xiaoqing, defecting from the sect meant I could no longer see you every day. I regretted it long ago.*
* * *
The Feng family was wealthy enough to rival the Northern Kingdom itself. It controlled half the imperial court’s military supplies, while its banks, restaurants, and rice shops maintained branches across the country.
During a year of disaster, the Feng family donated half its stored grain and saved countless displaced people. Delighted by such generosity, the emperor granted the current family head a noble title with one stroke of his brush. The title carried no real authority, but it was still a title.
Many poor-born officials at court had also benefited from the Feng family’s support. They remained grateful and often spoke in the family’s defense.
If none of that was astonishing enough, the Feng family also had ties to a cultivator.
Cultivators—the beings of legend who could swallow clouds, soar through the sky, burrow through the earth, live forever, and accomplish the impossible.
They never revealed themselves before ordinary mortals. Most people knew them only through stories.
Yet the Feng family had a connection to one.
Nobles and officials throughout the Northern Kingdom were shaken. After confirming the news again and again, they treated the Feng family with extravagant courtesy. Everyone became the family’s dearest friend. No one dared offend it, because doing so might offend the cultivator behind it.
Feng Qian was a gatekeeper at the Feng estate. Though he was only a lowly servant, every visitor treated him with great politeness, regardless of rank, background, or official office.
Over time, gifts from those visitors filled his hands. Feng Qian grew bold. Whenever someone obviously came to seek favor, his answer was always the same.
“Get out! Why are you still here? This is no place for people like you. Leave now, or I’ll beat you. Don’t imagine Feng Qian won’t strike a woman!”
Before arriving, Cheng Yun and Xiaoqing had altered their appearances. Both now looked like completely ordinary passersby, too plain to attract notice.
Cheng Yun spoke coldly. “We have business with the head of the Feng family.”
Feng Qian became impatient. “You think our master sees anyone who asks?”
The sect had ordered them to protect the mortal family head’s life while concealing their identities as cultivators. Everything they did had to appear normal.
Normal, Xiaoqing’s foot.
After waiting outside the gate for over an hour, she felt like a complete idiot.
“Would it kill you to announce us? Just tell him some old friends have come to visit.”
“No,” Feng Qian said. “People like you, old friends of our master? What a joke.”
