“Just now, Eldest Senior Brother gave me ten bottles of pills, one hundred spirit fruits, two hundred sheets of talisman paper, and ten thousand spirit stones. Eldest Senior Brother is so good.” Ye Ruyue deliberately listed out, one by one, the welcoming gift Ji Juqian had given her, her face full of childlike delight.
With Eldest Senior Brother as a comparison, surely the other senior brothers would be too embarrassed to give too little.
Normally, the senior brothers were supposed to give separate welcoming gifts.
But ever since they’d seen the apprenticeship gift Grand Elder had given, the senior brothers all instinctively felt it didn’t matter whether they gave anything or not.
After all, the apprenticeship gift Little Junior Sister had received was simply too much; even if they emptied out their entire savings, it would be a drop in the bucket by comparison.
Since that was so, better not to give at all, to avoid embarrassing themselves.
Yet little did they know, in Ye Ruyue’s eyes, every little bit still counted!
Besides, if she didn’t fleece these senior brothers hard right now, they’d just turn around and use the good stuff to curry favor with Hua Sijin. That wouldn’t do at all.
Better to give it to her than to Hua Sijin, who’d bring ruin to the sect. At least she truly thought about how to protect the sect!
“Why did you give so much?” Second Senior Brother Gui Chao’an was a bit puzzled. He quietly walked up to Ji Juqian and gave him a secret nudge.
Giving a welcoming gift was one thing, but giving this much? What were the ones coming after supposed to do?
“Is it a lot?”
But he hadn’t expected that his deliberately lowered voice would still be caught by Ye Ruyue. She tilted her head, her big eyes fixed on him with an innocent look, the two little tufts of hair on her head swaying.
“We’re different from Grand Elder…” Gui Chao’an instinctively tried to explain.
His intent was to tell Little Junior Sister that their seniority differed, and Grand Elder’s private hoard was surely far greater than that of juniors like them.
But Ye Ruyue still looked puzzled and retorted, “Different? Is it that my Master isn’t a person?”
“Or is it that you’re not people…”
Otherwise, how were they different?
The senior brothers were instantly stunned.
They chanted over and over, “A child’s words carry no offense, a child’s words carry no offense!”
But this welcoming gift, whether they wanted to give it or not, they now had to give.
And it couldn’t be too little!
Third Senior Brother Xing Xi was the most generous. Spirit fruits, spirit stones, talisman paper, he gave them all to Ye Ruyue. And Third Senior Brother was also an alchemist, so he immediately gave Little Junior Sister all the fine pills he’d recently refined.
Over fifty bottles, all handed over to Ye Ruyue in one go. Even Hua Sijin, in all her time here, had never received this much at once.
Fifth Senior Brother Bi Yue was decent too. He loved beauty, so besides spirit stones and such, he also gave Ye Ruyue quite a few decorative little magical artifacts. These little magical artifacts couldn’t compare to the powerful ones Grand Elder had given, but they were pretty.
For instance, a pretty necklace, a bracelet, a silver hairpin, each with its own special function. Sometimes they were the best at bewitching people.
Come to think of it, these had been prepared for Hua Sijin. He’d originally planned to give them to her after she returned from this training journey. But for now, well, he could only use them to please the even younger Little Junior Sister.
At worst, he’d just prepare others later.
Who could blame him? Little Junior Sister really was tiny, only five years old, a small little thing with a round little face that was utterly adorable.
To rough old fellows like them, who were several decades or even over a hundred years old, Little Junior Sister really came across as so tender and endearing.
And among these senior brothers, the stingiest and most tight-fisted was none other than Second Senior Brother Gui Chao’an.
He fumbled for ages and only pulled out two bottles of pills, two spirit fruits, and one thousand spirit stones.
In the past, this would have been absolutely enough for other junior brothers and junior sisters, but with the earlier ones as comparison, his offering really didn’t measure up.
“Are you Seventh Senior Brother?” Ye Ruyue looked at this paltry pile, blinked her big eyes, and deliberately called out to Gui Chao’an.
Gui Chao’an was dumbfounded, thinking to himself, could Little Junior Sister’s eyes have a problem? How could she mistake a senior brother?
Hadn’t he said, when he arrived just now, that he was Second Senior Brother?
But unexpectedly, Ye Ruyue nodded with certainty. “You’re definitely Seventh Senior Brother, since only the youngest is the poorest!”
Gui Chao’an, who’d been keeping a straight face, felt the corners of his mouth crack into a grin despite himself.
How could anyone understand it that way?
But on second thought, someone understanding it that way wasn’t wrong either.
After all, without a family backing them, the later one entered the sect, the lower one’s rank became, and the fewer resources one naturally accumulated.
But that was no reason for her to mistake him!
Calling him Seventh Senior Brother? Who was she insulting?
“I’m not Seventh Senior Brother, I’m your Second Senior Brother! The Second Senior Brother ranked second in strength among the direct disciples, nearly a hundred years older than your Seventh Senior Brother. Got it?” Gui Chao’an emphasized.
Ye Ruyue immediately shot back, “So Second Senior Brother is the poorest!”
“I’m not poor!”
As if to prove his identity, and to prove he wasn’t poor, Gui Chao’an could only dig out more spirit stones, along with several more bottles of pills and spirit fruits.
In the process, he secretly glanced at Third Senior Brother’s share. He didn’t have enough pills, so in the end he could only grit his teeth and dig out quite a few more spirit stones.
He absolutely couldn’t lose to Third Senior Brother.
Wow, with that, the amount was almost catching up to what Eldest Senior Brother had given.
Seeing this, Ye Ruyue was finally a bit satisfied. She nodded and gave a fake compliment. “So Second Senior Brother really isn’t poor. Who could blame me for mistaking you, when Second Senior Brother looks so young?”
“I knew Second Senior Brother treats me so well, so generously!”
With the goods in hand, everything was negotiable.
Gui Chao’an choked, his eyes wide as saucers.
For some reason, though Little Junior Sister had clearly said something nice, he felt so uncomfortable inside.
Fortunately, after collecting this great pile of gifts, Little Junior Sister put the things away, and her attention finally shifted.
“Third Senior Brother, did you refine all these pills yourself?” Ye Ruyue casually opened a bottle of pills, poured one into her palm and looked at it, then held it under her nose and sniffed.
She looked utterly serious, but Xing Xi figured Little Junior Sister had only just joined the sect; a five-year-old baby certainly couldn’t tell how good the things he’d given were.
So Xing Xi smiled gently and told Little Junior Sister, “Little Junior Sister, these are high-grade pills. Even outside, they’re highly sought-after goods.”
“Among the pills I just gave you, there happen to be quite a few Qi-Replenishing Pills, Origin-Cultivating Pills, Foundation Establishment Pills, and Antidote Pills. Keep them and use them slowly in the future.”
So many pills were enough for Little Junior Sister to use all the way to Foundation Establishment. It was just that, with Little Junior Sister’s trash spiritual root, who knew how long it would take before she succeeded in Foundation Establishment.
Xing Xi was even a little worried about Ye Ruyue’s future cultivation, but unexpectedly, Ye Ruyue suddenly raised her eyes to look at him, her small face grave, as if she wanted to speak but held back.
“What’s wrong, Little Junior Sister?” Xing Xi asked very softly.
He was afraid that if he spoke too loudly, he might blow away such a small Little Junior Sister.
He thought Little Junior Sister must be worrying about her future cultivation, but never in a million years did he expect her first words to be a question: “Third Senior Brother, are you really an alchemy prodigy?”
“Before I came to Xuanyun Sect, I heard people say so, that Third Senior Brother has very high talent in alchemy. But today, seeing the pills Third Senior Brother refined…”
She paused, then Ye Ruyue pressed her lips together and shook her head in disappointment, finally saying, “I never expected that the pills Third Senior Brother refined were merely so-so!”
Merely so-so???
This time, not only did Xing Xi’s eyes go wide, Gui Chao’an and Bi Yue were also shocked by Little Junior Sister’s outrageous words.
They howled inwardly: Little Junior Sister, do you even understand? High-grade pills are already considered excellent throughout the entire cultivation world!
Pills were graded as low, mid, and high, and the word “supreme” alone already showed how high such pills stood.
How could she say that high-grade pills were merely so-so?
They were so shocked that even their retorts came half a beat late.
They even concluded that a five-year-old baby certainly didn’t understand!
But unexpectedly, Little Junior Sister suddenly slapped her thigh and shouted with a look of sudden enlightenment: “I’ve got it! It must be because Third Senior Brother doesn’t have True Fire yet!”
“As an alchemist of exceptional talent, how could you lack the purest, truest True Fire?”
“Third Senior Brother, it must be because you don’t have True Fire that the pills you refine still aren’t supreme-grade. If only you had True Fire, with True Fire, you’d surely be able to casually produce supreme-grade pills, and even heaven-grade pills would be possible.”
“By then, your value would soar, and you’d be the number one alchemy prodigy in our cultivation world, solidly number one.”
As if! Hua Sijin happened to be away from the sect right now. If she didn’t seize the chance to give Xing Xi a good prodding, was she supposed to wait two years for Xing Xi to obtain True Fire and then give it away?
As long as she, this Little Junior Sister, was around, she would keep reminding Third Senior Brother how important True Fire was to an alchemist.
After all, True Fire really was important. It could not only be used to improve the purity of pill refining, but also to temper one’s own bones, strengthen one’s power and attacks, and so on.
Such a good thing, if in the end Xing Xi still foolishly gave it away, she, Ye Ruyue, would absolutely snatch it up at the first moment, and absolutely not let the female lead get it cheap. Hmph hmph!
The senior brothers naturally had no idea what Little Junior Sister was thinking. Right now, everyone was stunned by Little Junior Sister’s lofty ambitions.
They couldn’t help but think Little Junior Sister really was too young. A heavenly treasure like True Fire, how could it be so easy to obtain? Such a thing depended on chance, on tremendous chance, before one could even possibly encounter it!
Among the alchemists on this continent, no one had heard of anyone obtaining True Fire for over a thousand years.
Still, jokes aside, as an alchemist, Xing Xi truly did have a new thought stirring in his heart at this moment.
That’s right. If he had True Fire, he surely could, as Little Junior Sister said, refine supreme-grade, even heaven-grade pills…
Once the seed of longing was planted, it would always take root more deeply than a sudden surprise!