Chapter 38.1

Dodging His Eyes (1)

Shen Rongyu glanced at her, then turned back, and did not speak.

Ji Qingzhou saw his score, a perfect 100, hanging high above everyone’s name.

She remembered the system’s instruction to her again — “You’d better get your ranking closer to Shen Rongyu, so that you can get closer to him.”

Ji Qingzhou didn’t believe the system’s words. If it wasn’t for the high-grade Immortal Spirit Pill for Maomao, she wouldn’t cultivate hard at all.

She felt that cultivation was useless, and she was not fit for it.

Ji Qingzhou drew her thoughts back. She stood behind Shen Rongyu and saw Yu Sukong who was standing in the water mirror beckoning to her.

As was customary, direct disciples who were personally chosen by their master should stand behind their master, so Ji Qingzhou turned her head to Shen Rongyu and said, “Xiao Yu-shixiong, I’m going there.”

Shen Rongyu raised his head and glanced at Yu Sukong in the water mirror. He nodded and said, “Okay.”

Ji Qingzhou lowered her head, trotted to Yu Sukong’s water mirror, while Shen Rongyu also stood beside the elders.

One of the elders who was well acquainted with him sidled up to him and asked him under his breath, “Rongyu, you are too attached to your shimei who lives with you on White Water Island.”

Although Shen Rongyu appeared generous and gentle on the outside, in fact, he always exuded a detached aura that kept people miles away. He lived on White Water Island and rarely ventured out, and had never cared about the lively events in the sect.

Today, Shen Rongyu unexpectedly came, which surprised the elders who knew his temperament quite well.

“After all, she’s the shimei I’ve been taking care of.” Shen Rongyu said softly, “I should come and have a look.”

There was nothing wrong with what he said. It was indeed him who pulled Ji Qingzhou’s cultivation base up little by little.

The conversation between Shen Rongyu and the elder next to him was neither loud nor soft, but it was loud enough to reach Jiang Qianke’s ears. It had been a long time since the previous attack on White Water Island, but his lips remained pale, as if the injuries he suffered that day had never healed.

Jiang Qianke eavesdropped on their conversation and locked his eyes on Ji Qingzhou again. He couldn’t understand why such a sensible and decent disciple of the sect would fall under her spell.

The instant this thought popped in Jiang Qianke’s mind, the system’s alarm sounded in Ji Qingzhou’s mind: “Watch out — killing intent directed to you is found within my monitoring range; the danger level is 1.”

Ji Qingzhou had heard this warning no less than dozens of times, and now she was used to it. She pressed her small mirror with one hand, signaling the system to be silent.

Yu Sukong, who was in the water mirror, noticed her subtle movements. His gentle gaze fell on the small mirror in front of her chest, and he asked Ji Qingzhou in a whisper, “Qingzhou, does this mirror have any special meaning to you?”

Does it have a special meaning?… No. It didn’t. When she transmigrated, she was wearing this mirror on her, so the system also regarded it as its own habitat.

This being the case, Ji Qingzhou shook her head. She flexed her fingers and hid the small mirror inside her lapel.

Soon, the disciples from the Immortal Ascension Conference gathered at the center of the main hall one after another to go through Elder Mu Ying’s test.

This time, the test method was simple and crude. Mu Ying took out a jade-like test stone and asked the disciples who came to participate to put their hands on the test stone. Afterward, they had to inject all the magic power they could into the test stone.

The more magic power the cultivator’s meridians could hold, the higher his cultivation base would be. Of course — powerful cultivators could continuously absorb spirit qi in between breaths, and could constantly replenish their consumed magic power. In order to prevent mishaps in absorbing spirit qi to make up for the magic power unleashed, the test stone taken out by Mu Ying could cut off the link between a cultivator’s meridians and the external spirit qi.

Once a disciple picks up the test stone, he must inject magic power until he can no longer do so.

Ji Qingzhou watched the test process twice, and gave a brief summary to the system that was also watching the test. “Isn’t this just a lung capacity test?”

The direct disciples were tested in backward order, and in reverse order of their master’s status in the sect. Yu Sukong was the strongest, so as his disciple, she should be the last one.

The ordinary disciples in the distance had finished their test, and most of their cultivation base reached around the 6th stage. When it was the close disciple’s turn, Qiu Mingxue stopped Ying Xiu and went forward first.

Her pride was not without reason. As the princess of Ze Kingdom, her immortal bone aptitude was excellent, plus she cultivated wholeheartedly, so her cultivation base test result reached the 8th stage of Qi Refining.

This was a remarkable score. A new disciple who came up from the Immortal Ascension Conference and reached the 8th stage of Qi Refining was enough to top the list.

But Qiu Mingxue was obviously unlucky and bumped into Meng Yaolan and Shen Rongyu, so it was impossible for her to get the first place.

She did not regard cultivators who were incomparable to her as her opponents, so she gladly accepted the result, raised her head high and stepped back.

When Qiu Mingxue stepped down, she looked proud, but in fact her hands and feet were weak. Her pace was sluggish, and there was even a thin layer  of sweat on her forehead. She exerted her full might to reach the 8th stage.

The disciples around the hall admired her, and it was inevitable that some felt envious. The 8th stage of Qi Refining might be much different from the 5th to the 6th stage, but the higher the stage, the more difficult it was to cultivate.

The next one up was Ying Xiu. Her wrist silver bracelets jingled, and her hand trembled a bit as she took the test stone.

Mu Ying encouraged her, “Just release your magic power with all your might. Don’t be nervous.”

“Hmm.” Ying Xiu nodded as she scanned the crowd and glanced at Qiu Mingxue.

She pursed her lips and injected her magic power into the test stone, which lit up, emitting a light blue glow then grew brighter and brighter.

5th stage, 6th stage, 7th stage, 8…

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