Shouyi certainly lived up to her reputation as an Elder of the Sword Seeking Sect. While it had taken Qu Qi the time of a single incense stick to climb the mountain, returning was achieved in a mere instant.
With only a blink of her eyes, she found herself standing before her own room door.
Qu Qi stared at the familiar yet strange surroundings, dazedly holding the cat. It took her a long moment to process the situation, her face a mask of shock.
One-click teleport back to town? So this is the terrifying power of a high-level cultivator!
Shouyi patted her shoulder with a casual expression: “Disciple, go back to your room and rest for a bit. Do not be late for the morning lesson in a while.”
Qu Qi: What? You mean I actually have to attend classes?
She never expected that as a “social animal” who had graduated years ago and survived a decade of grueling education in modern society, she would still be unable to escape this fate after transmigrating into a book.
Perhaps because her expression looked too painful, Shouyi patted her shoulder again and comforted her: “It is fine. Cultivation is not something one must rush. As long as you maintain a good mindset and let nature take its course, you will be fine.”
Her peaceful words were filled with the tolerance and understanding of a “Zen-style” parent toward a child with bottom-tier grades.
Because the Yin Physique of the original host was not suitable for cultivation, Elder Shouyi never held high expectations for Qu Qi’s progress and had always practiced an encouragement-based education.
Looking at her master’s exceptionally kind eyes, Qu Qi really wanted to explain: Master, I am no longer that little Qi Refining stage nobody! I am now at the Golden Core stage, strong enough to crush the entire inner sect!
The three-year period is up; welcome back the Dragon King!
She thought it over and over, unsure of how to explain her sudden surge in cultivation to Shouyi.
While she was hesitating, Shouyi, unable to sit still, rolled her neck, her joints letting out a series of cracking sounds: “Disciple, old man Ziyin just sent a voice transmission asking me to spar. I will take my leave first!”
Qu Qi had no choice but to swallow her words: “Good luck, Master. I wish you a sweeping victory!”
“That is a given. In terms of strength, your Master is not inferior to the other elders.” Before leaving, the old lady did not forget to remind her: “By the way, people from Moonlight Villa and Jiehai Pavilion will be auditing at Songting Study these few days. Remember to change into your Sword Seeking Sect inner disciple uniform and mind your appearance.”
With that, her toes brushed the ground, and she instantly turned into a blurred afterimage.
Qu Qi did not have time to reach out and stop her, watching blankly as she turned into a shooting star and vanished at the horizon: “Master…”
You did not tell me where the school is!
Having lost her “new player guide,” a weary Qu Qi turned and entered the house.
The black cat curled up in her arms, its round eyes peering left and right. The house had been tidied up by Qu Qi before she left, so it looked relatively clean. Perhaps due to the spiritual protection of Wangxi Peak, there was no dust on the furniture even after she had been gone for so many days.
She placed the cat carefully on the bed and ran to the wardrobe to rummage through it.
Qu Qi remembered that the original book described the specific appearance of the uniform, which differed from ordinary clothing. Fortuitously, the original host did not have many clothes, so she found it without much effort.
It was a blue and white dress with a right-overlapping collar and wide sleeves. A light blue silk belt cinched the waist, and the large skirt was embroidered with lifelike ribbon cloud patterns. The fabric, made of an unknown material, was icy to the touch and felt as smooth as flowing water in her hand.
At first glance, the clothes looked quite ethereal. Qu Qi immediately felt eager to try them on and untied her belt.
The black cat sat high up on the soft bed with a critical gaze and a cold, haughty expression, like a ruler inspecting her future territory.
She turned her head just in time to see Qu Qi standing before the wardrobe.
The girl’s pale yellow collar was slightly open, her fingers hooking the fabric to pull it back. A few stray strands of black hair fell over her shoulders, half-hiding a rounded shoulder line that made her skin look as white as snow.
The black cat’s eyes instantly widened, and she quickly looked away.
Avert your eyes from impropriety!
How could this person change her clothes so casually in broad daylight, not even knowing how to avoid others?
Shameless! Frivolous! Dissolute!
Qu Qi had no idea she had already become a frivolous woman in the black cat’s heart. She changed into her uniform beautifully and happily twirled around in front of the bronze mirror.
The girl in the mirror had red lips and white teeth; her smiling fox-like eyes were bright and moving, and her dress ribbons fluttered as if she were a clever and beautiful fox fairy from a painting.
She spun and spun until she was in front of the black cat. She gently hooked the cat’s chin: “Little kitty, do you like what you see?”
The black cat was forced to tilt her head up, her gaze dark.
Qu Qi gave a wicked smile: “Little kitty, how dare you ignore me? Are you playing hard to get?”
The black cat looked at her. Suddenly, with a “bang,” a cloud of blue-black smoke drifted around her. Within the swirling mist, a woman’s slender figure became faintly visible.
Qu Qi was instantly dumbfounded.
The smoke dissipated quickly. Sheng Xizhu was sitting on the bed with her long legs crossed, her chin still gently hooked by Qu Qi’s finger.
She was dressed in white, making her skin look even paler. Sitting quietly amidst the peach-pink soft bedding, she looked like a mound of fallen snow in a cluster of peonies; the scene was eerie and magnificent.
Three thousand strands of raven hair cascaded down from her shoulders, spreading neatly across the bed like a blooming green lotus on a winter ice pond.
The woman raised her willow-leaf eyebrows and looked at her.
Qu Qi released Sheng Xizhu as if she had been electrocuted, her hands instinctively hiding behind her back as she stammered: “Wh-why did you transform into a beautiful girl without saying a word? You, you, you have no sportsmanship!”
Sheng Xizhu narrowed her eyes.
Whether it was an illusion or not, Qu Qi could rub and knead the black cat at will with a careless attitude, yet she was exceptionally restrained toward her human form. Her attitude was completely different.
Qu Qi looked at her, her cheeks burning: “Do not look at me like that.” It made her so nervous.
Sheng Xizhu looked thoughtful: “Why? Do you not like this appearance?”
Qu Qi was stunned: “How could that be?”
The problem was that Sheng Xizhu’s appearance was a precision strike on her aesthetic preferences.
The closer she got, the more nervous Qu Qi felt. A cold beauty like this, who seemed to sit high in the clouds, was different from a cat. It felt as if just looking at her or touching her was pulling her down from her pedestal; it was a form of profanity.
Sheng Xizhu: “Then why did you not continue?”
Qu Qi looked at her slightly trembling long eyelashes and her vermilion lips. She felt her heart rate was too fast: “I…” How would I dare!
You are not a cat right now, you are a living human! I dare to touch a cat’s tail, but I certainly do not dare to touch a person’s backside!
Looking at her flushed face, Sheng Xizhu felt a slight realization.
The girl was probably afraid of her in this form. Because she was afraid, she did not dare to get close.
Recalling the scenes where she had been toyed with by the girl in the past, she felt she had finally found an opportunity to fight back.
Sheng Xizhu hooked a finger at her. In her usually cold golden eyes, a trace of a smile actually appeared: “Come here.”
Qu Qi looked at her curved red lips and leaned over as if bewitched.
The woman curled her fingers and gently hooked Qu Qi’s chin.
Qu Qi’s body trembled slightly, her beautiful fox eyes filled with an innocence that did not match her usual aura.
The woman’s cool, fair fingers slid down her chin, grazing her slender neck, and finally landed on her collar.
Her throat felt itchy. Qu Qi could not help but swallow, the tips of her ears burning.
She had just been twirling around, and now her collar was haphazardly open, revealing a patch of snow-white collarbone.
Sheng Xizhu slowly adjusted the collar for her, scratching the girl’s chin as if teasing a cat, and said leisurely: “Next time you change your clothes, remember to keep away from others.”