“Fifth Senior Brother!”
After finishing with Third Senior Brother, Ye Ruyue loudly called out to Fifth Senior Brother as well.
Bi Yue’s eyes widened. He had no idea why, but although this was his first time dealing with the new little junior sister, he had a strange urge to run away.
That made no sense!
Little junior sister was so small, she had only just joined the sect, and she had no cultivation at all. Why would he be afraid of her?
An illusion. It had to be an illusion!
Bi Yue comforted himself, then saw little junior sister suddenly step forward. She had meant to pat his shoulder, but she clearly couldn’t reach, so she settled for tugging at his sleeve instead. The moment she opened her mouth, it was to praise him: “Fifth Senior Brother, you’re amazing!”
Praising him???
Had he misheard? He’d better listen again!
“I heard about it. Fifth Senior Brother, you have a rare variant spiritual root, a supreme-grade wind spiritual root. So cool, so amazing!” Ye Ruyue praised loudly.
Of course he was amazing, wasn’t he?
He’d even dug out his own spiritual root and handed it over to someone else. Ye Ruyue had never seen anyone so “amazing,” so cruel to himself!
The funniest part of all was that after Bi Yue dug out his spiritual root and gave it to Hua Sijin, Hua Sijin’s original spiritual root hadn’t actually been ruined. She ate a great deal of heavenly treasures and materials and repaired her fire spiritual root.
For other people, dual spiritual roots might mean slower cultivation, but what she had obtained was a supreme-grade spiritual root, with very high purity.
What was more, the wind spiritual root had already fully grown inside Bi Yue’s body, so for Hua Sijin, who had resources to spare, this variant spiritual root made her all the more formidable.
Bi Yue had no idea why, but this time he heard her clearly and distinctly. That was right, little junior sister was praising him! Really praising him!
Of the four senior brothers present, little junior sister had praised him alone!
Look, Eldest Senior Brother and Second Senior Brother were both staring at him with disbelief in their eyes!
Bi Yue couldn’t help feeling a little proud, and he couldn’t resist bragging a bit: “Not bad. My cultivation may not match our senior brothers’, but this variant spiritual root of mine really is a cut above the rest.”
Cultivators of the same cultivation level were no match for him, and if he worked a little harder, challenging above his level wasn’t impossible either.
Bi Yue was feeling quite pleased with himself.
Then a pointed little remark from little junior sister suddenly reached his ears: “Oh my, Fifth Senior Brother’s variant spiritual root is so amazing. Won’t someone with ill intentions covet it? If it got dug out of you, that would be awful!”
Ye Ruyue let go of Bi Yue’s sleeve, folded her little arms over her chest, and walked away.
Before she left, Bi Yue’s whole body visibly tensed from its earlier relaxed state.
Bi Yue’s pretty face went cold and stiff at once, and he retorted instinctively, “How could that be? How could it possibly happen?”
“Those are not the deeds of the righteous path. Such a thing could never happen in the cultivation world.”
“Little junior sister, you’re too young, you just love letting your imagination run wild.”
Ye Ruyue sneered inwardly. So you know those are not the deeds of the righteous path. Then in the original novel, why did you dig out your own spiritual root with your own hands?
Some things were better left unsaid. After all, she hadn’t formally met the female lead, Hua Sijin, yet.
It didn’t matter. There was still plenty of time.
First she would give the senior brothers a little warning, then take things as they came! Her chance would come!
…
“All right, if there’s nothing else, I’ll go back and cultivate now!”
“I’m a diligent good child. I’ll definitely catch up with all my senior brothers as soon as I can.”
She waved, turned, and headed into her own little courtyard.
She left without taking a single thing with her.
But she carried off nearly half of several senior brothers’ savings.
It hurt!
The senior brothers’ faces were stiff; their hearts ached and went numb.
They couldn’t even quite understand it. They had come to see little junior sister for no particular reason, planning to tease the child a little for fun, so how had it ended with their pockets emptied?
Not only were their pockets emptied, but it seemed every one of them had also been needled by little junior sister’s teasing, laughter, and scolding.
Eldest Senior Brother Ji Juqian was thinking at that moment that little junior sister seemed to care a great deal about closeness and distance. They were all disciples, but only she and he shared the same Master and the same father!
Second Senior Brother Gui Chao’an had been given a very fine, very grand compliment. He couldn’t help thinking that if he treated little junior sister worse than the others in the future, would he be labeled as unkind and stingy?
Third Senior Brother Xing Xi was already quietly hoping that if only he had True Fire, he would no longer be looked down on by little junior sister, no longer disappoint her.
Fifth Senior Brother’s hands moved unconsciously to the spot where his spiritual root sat, and inwardly he complained bitterly: ridiculous, ridiculous, truly ridiculous. What little junior sister spoke of absolutely could not happen. Even if he died, he would never let anyone dig out his precious variant spiritual root…
After returning to her room, the calm, unruffled look on Ye Ruyue’s face was long gone.
She had given the senior brothers a warning, and this time, taking a master had also earned her countless good things.
But time was still a little tight.
The cultivation world’s ranks were divided into 12 levels of Qi Refining, and after that came Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, and Spirit Transformation, each of which was further divided into early stage, mid stage, late stage, and Great Perfection.
Hua Sijin had reached Foundation Establishment half a year after entering the sect, reached mid-stage Foundation Establishment at a year and a half, and now, in her third year, she was already at late-stage Foundation Establishment. Such speed of advancement was a rare, heaven-sent talent in the entire cultivation world.
If she remembered correctly, Hua Sijin’s half-year training trip this time was because she had moved between two places and obtained a great stroke of fortune. Not only had her strength risen to Foundation Establishment Great Perfection, she had also obtained a divine beast.
Never mind the cultivation. A divine beast! That was something three senior brothers had fought with their lives to protect her and seize for her.
Ye Ruyue remembered that in the original novel, it was during this protection of the female lead while snatching the divine beast that Fourth Senior Brother had his arm broken, his leg injured, and his dantian shattered, becoming a cripple from then on!
Fourth Senior Brother Ren Shuotu. Ye Ruyue had never met him, but her impression of him ran deep, simply because he was an especially honest and loyal person.
If not for his desperate protection, perhaps Sixth Senior Brother Yang Jiongqi and Seventh Senior Brother Ding Yunyi, who had gone along, would not have come back so lightly, with only serious injuries.
He had not only protected Hua Sijin, he had also used his life to protect his two junior brothers.
So, if possible, Ye Ruyue still hoped she could lend him a hand.
After all, she had taken quite a lot from the Xuanyun Sect, and she couldn’t bear to see anything bad happen to its people!
By the same logic, she also couldn’t bear to see Hua Sijin gain good things, gain the divine beast.
It was just that if she wanted to go, she had to reach that dense forest before they snatched the divine beast.
In other words, she had to succeed in Foundation Establishment within half a year.
But…
Five Spiritual Roots, the legendary trash spiritual root!
Because for the same spiritual power, to advance to Foundation Establishment, a single spiritual root needed only one share, while Five Spiritual Roots needed five!
Spiritual power had to fill one spiritual root before one could level up, and Five Spiritual Roots meant filling five!
From this it was clear that cultivating with Five Spiritual Roots not only consumed an enormous amount of spiritual power, it also consumed far more time!
Moreover, there were differences among spiritual roots. Based on purity, they could be divided into low-grade, mid-grade, high-grade, and supreme-grade!
Low-grade spiritual roots generally had a purity above 60 percent, mid-grade above 70 percent, high-grade above 80 percent, and supreme-grade above 90 percent!
As for heaven-grade, with 100 percent purity, it seemed the current cultivation world had never even heard of such a thing.
So supreme-grade was already the best spiritual root. The seven senior brothers and Hua Sijin, all eight of them, had supreme-grade spiritual roots, differing only in attribute.
Supreme-grade spiritual roots had high purity, doubled, even multiplied, cultivation speed! And a high ceiling!
Unfortunately, Ye Ruyue had no idea what grade her own spiritual root was.
Who could blame her? Grand Elder had grabbed her and brought her back directly. She hadn’t gone through the entrance test at all. Everyone had only roughly raised a hand and touched her, seen Five Spiritual Roots, and immediately judged it a trash spiritual root.
After all, the odds of a single spiritual root being high-grade were already very low, supreme-grade was even scarcer, let alone Five Spiritual Roots.
So there was no need to test it to know how useless it was!
The sect master and the elders also didn’t want to discourage such a small child, so no one brought up the matter of testing.
Anyway, Grand Elder was happy, and if he insisted on taking her in, then so be it!
The sect wasn’t short of one more mouth to feed. They’d just raise her!
Now this was just great. Ye Ruyue only knew she had the trash Five Spiritual Roots, and she didn’t even know her spiritual root’s purity!
But Ye Ruyue didn’t care.
Who cared what purity her spiritual root was? She’d just cultivate recklessly and that was that!
After all, she had just joined the sect and had already raked in so many treasures from the senior brothers, the sect master, and the elders. She couldn’t let them go to waste!
Thinking this, Ye Ruyue settled her mood and immediately sat cross-legged on her bed to meditate.
She hadn’t even looked at the introductory cultivation method.
In just one second, she had drawn qi into her body.
It was a very strange feeling, as if she did this sort of thing often, a very familiar feeling. As long as she calmed her mind and stirred a thought, spiritual qi would naturally begin to circulate within her body.
One night passed, and she went straight to the first level of Qi Refining.
When the first ray of morning sunlight came through the window, Ye Ruyue finally opened her eyes and slowly let out a breath of turbid air. Her whole body felt smooth and clear.
Then she raised her right arm and looked at it, raised her left arm and looked at it, and finally lowered her head to examine her whole body. With a strange look, she made a sound of surprise.
“Don’t they say that when mortals first begin cultivating, they always expel a body’s worth of impurities?”
After all, mortals grew up eating ordinary grains and cereals, so it was normal for toxins and impurities to pile up inside them.
Ye Ruyue remembered that in the cultivation novels she had read, whenever the female lead began cultivating, her body would expel a great deal of grime and impurities, all sorts of filthy, stinking liquids, and then she absolutely had to take a good, thorough bath.
Mm, and after washing clean, her skin would become finer and smoother, and she’d look even prettier!
Strange!
Just now, apart from spitting out one breath of turbid air, she’d had no reaction at all. Not a speck of impurity had been expelled.
She had been counting on getting prettier. How was she supposed to do that now?
Or was it that her current cultivation wasn’t high enough yet? Not enough to expel impurities?
Or perhaps it was because she was young and had eaten less ordinary food?
Never mind. This sort of thing could take its natural course. As long as her cultivation improved, that was enough.
Ye Ruyue didn’t dig any deeper into the question. She casually took a spirit fruit from her Sumeru Ring and nibbled on it, then pulled out a cultivation method to read.
Reading ten lines at a glance, this sort of basic cultivation method was incredibly easy for a top student from the modern era.
Before long, Ye Ruyue had quickly skimmed through several cultivation methods, and without realizing it, she had also finished nibbling three spirit fruits.
The spirit fruits were sweet and fragrant, their juice filling her teeth and tongue, and the spiritual qi contained within them was extremely abundant. Having accidentally eaten too many, Ye Ruyue immediately felt the abundant spiritual qi inside her begin to rampage, and she had to absorb it at once.
She immediately sat cross-legged and continued to meditate and cultivate.
After Ji Juqian finished his own business, he went to take a look at Ye Ruyue’s courtyard. He found the doors and windows shut tight, and thinking little junior sister might still be reading the cultivation methods, he didn’t disturb her and left without a sound.
He went again in the evening. The doors and windows were still shut, with no sign at all that she meant to come out.
After thinking it over, he still left quietly.
When he went again the next day, Ji Juqian found the door still hadn’t opened!
Now he couldn’t help wondering: could it be that little junior sister was proud and thin-skinned, and though she couldn’t understand the cultivation method, she was too embarrassed to come out and ask him?
Never mind. To spare little junior sister’s face, he decided to give her a little more time.
If it really came down to it, tomorrow he would take the initiative and ask her himself, doing his best not to wound little junior sister’s pride.
Even if she was only a child, Ji Juqian would still respect her wishes.
What he never expected was that when Ji Juqian went to little junior sister’s courtyard again on the third day, he found a sign hung by the door.
On it, in several very, very ugly large characters, was written: “In seclusion. Do not disturb!”
For a moment, all the senior brothers who heard the news were dumbfounded!
Every one of them was thinking: is this little junior sister all right in the head? She had only just entered the sect, she didn’t even know whether she could draw qi into her body, and she was going into seclusion???
A five-year-old little baby, did she even understand what seclusion meant?
It wasn’t called seclusion just because you shut yourself in your room and didn’t come out. Seclusion meant cultivating day and night without pause, focusing single-mindedly and constantly breaking through your own limits. That was what seclusion meant!
Was this little junior sister just playing around?