Acceptance Ceremony
Leaving his courtyard, Xue Bai saw that Xiao'er was still inside her own, so rather than bothering her to accompany him, Xue Bai went to Yue Zifeng's Temple on his own.
Thankfully since Yue Zifeng's Peak was only one over, Xue Bai didn't have to run for long to reach it. And after climbing the set of stairs, Xue Bai soon made it over to Yue Zifeng's Temple, where he usually spent his days.
But since the doors were closed, Xue Bai decided to make his presence known even though Yue Zifeng most likely already sensed him.
"Master, Bai'er has arrived." Xue Bai politely spoke before entering.
"Come in." Yue Zifeng's calm voice came from inside, where immediately after, the Temple doors opened, allowing Xue Bai entry.
Walking inside, Xue Bai first noticed how bare the inside of Yue Zifeng's temple was. As, besides a small library that was filled with various ancient-looking scrolls and books, all there was a meditation mat that Yue Zifeng currently sat on.
Motioning for Xue Bai to come over, Yue Zifeng pulled out a small table and a tea set.
"Bai'er, I assume you know how this ceremony works, so I won't lecture you." Yue Zifeng casually spoke as he let Xue Bai do the work.
Understanding what he had to do, Xue Bai went over and prepared a cup of tea for Yue Zifeng obediently before serving it to him with both hands.
Smiling contentedly, Yue Zifeng downed the cup of tea that Xue Bai had made without much thought.
While being a Natural Treasure in their own right, the tea leaves he had prepared were rather plain, so Yue Zifeng didn't care much about their taste. However, the real reason why he was so content was because of how good this day was.
Not only did he accept Ye Rou, a generational talent on her own, but he even managed to take Xue Bai, a monster that already broke more records than he could remember.
A monster with a Fire Element High Black Grade Martial Vein, 13-year old 3rd stage Bone Strengthening Realm cultivation, God tier grade Sword Law affinity, and maybe the most spectacular of them all, managed to comprehend his own Sword Law!
Just remembering all of the accolades that Xue Bai managed to collect in his less than a week of exposure made the plain tea he drank taste better than any Spirit Wine he had ever tasted.
"Good! Now you are officially my third disciple!" Yue Zifeng happily laughed as he finished the cup of tea, "To commemorate this, I'll give you a gift. I noticed your sword is rather weak, being only High Yellow grade, but is used from a great piece of ore. Hand it to me, and I'll reforge it into something worthy of what it was made out of."
Nodding, Xue Bai took Fire Breath out of his Spatial Ring and handed it to You Zifeng without any hesitation. His Master was someone in the Spirit Severing Realm, and even his physical body was stronger than Fire Breath. So how could he lower his pride by so much and steal Fire Breath from Xue Bai?
Other than taking Fire Breath from Xue Bai, Yue Zifeng also handed him a defensive robe named the Golden Cicada Mystic Robe, which was strong enough to take more than ten hits from anyone in the Domain Lord Realm before breaking.
Of course, this didn't mean that Xue Bai could take ten hits from someone in the Domain Lord. The Golden Cicada Mystic Robe only protected his physical body, but if a strong enough penetrative force hit Xue Bai, then his organs would explode, killing him that way.
However, for anyone in the younger generation, Xue Bai was now almost an iron wall of defense thanks to it.
More than happy, Xue Bai gave Yue Zifeng a bow of gratitude, but Yue Zifeng just waved it off nonchalantly.
"I hadn't used that thing for more than a century, so it'll be better in your hands than to continue rusting in my Spatial Ring." Yue Zifen explained.
"Master, what do we do next?" Xue Bai asked with some anticipation in his voice.
He had become a Core Disciple and even accepted a powerhouse as his Master, so Xue Bai was filled with more serotonin than ever. So wanting to continue his streak, Xue Bai wanted to do something exciting.
However, Yue Zifeng shook his head and proceeded to extinguish Xue Bai's enthusiasm.
"Usually, I would take this moment and give you a Cultivation Technique, but currently, you're too weak for that. So you should take this time to get used to my Mountain before holing up and cultivating. Your Bone Strengthening Realm cultivation is certainly mind-boggling at your age, but it's still too weak." Yue Zifeng spoke, "So until you reach the Qi Sea Realm, I can't do much to help you besides with your Sword Law. But I also think you should hold off on that as it would delay your cultivation speed even more."
So with dropped shoulders, Xue Bai left his Master's Temple to explore the Mountain.
His Master was right. The Five Physical Realms in cultivation were nothing in the cultivation world, so while Xue Bai's cultivation was something amazing, it still didn't allow him to do something special.
Walking back down the stairs of his Master's Peak, Xue Bai first decided to pay Ye Rou a visit. She was his Senior Sister now, so he thought it would be polite to acknowledge her.
Though she was annoying and going to suffer a horrible fate in the future, Xue Bai didn't dislike her much. She was only so outgoing and talkative because of her previous upbringing, and with how sad that was, Xue Bai didn't have the heart to hate the girl.
So while hatching up an idea to save her from her fate, Xue Bai walked up the stairs that led to her Peak.
However, before he could reach the top of the stairs, he noticed a slender and beautiful figure standing at the top, with her hands on her hips and her nose raised into the air.
"You've done well, my dear Junior Brother, in coming to greet me before Senior Sister!" Ye Rou arrogantly spoke as she walked down the stairs.
"I can still leave, you know. I still haven't reached the top." Xue Bai spoke as he motioned to turn around.
"No, no, no! You can come up." Ye Rou changed tunes instantly and let Xue Bai go up the stairs himself instead of continuing to tease him.
Shaking his head in exasperation, Xue Bai was feeling slightly regretful about coming to meet Ye Rou first. However, he knew of Jiang Xiaorou's personality from the novel, and most likely, she wouldn't even allow him up her Peak if he went to her.
Jiang Xiaorou, the Sect Leader's first disciple, was the typical Iceberg beauty that cared about nothing but increasing her own strength, but after falling in love would become the most caring woman ever.
However, like Yan Fengxian, she was also a part of Huo Long's harem, and even if she wasn't, Xue Bai had no thoughts of trying to seduce the women.
He personally didn't like people with cold, aloof, and detached personalities. Emotions were what made someone human, so if you constantly suppressed them and turned yourself into an iceberg not phased by anything, were you even human at that point, or just a robot?
Xue Bai liked lively women like Xiao'er. However, Xiao'er was too naive and cheerful at some points, annoying Xue Bai to no end. But he couldn't bear to make her change, so Xue Bai let her be.
Getting out of his thoughts, Xue Bai made it to the top of Ye Rou's Peak, where he first saw a few dozen female servants going around cleaning and modifying the landscape.
Most likely, Ye Rou didn't like how her Peak looked and wanted to modify it to her liking as soon as possible.
"Ignore those Sisters. Come over to my courtyard." Ye Rou pulled on Xue Bai's sleeve as she spoke, guiding him to her courtyard.
Following his Senior Sister, Xue Bai found out that her courtyard looked exactly the same as his. Plain and basic, where it was extremely susceptible to personal modifications.
Most likely, Yue Zifeng did this on purpose, where instead of him picking a design that his disciple would dislike, he could choose the blandest design that allowed them to revise it however they wished.
"Second Senior Sister, isn't it inappropriate for me to go into your courtyard?" Xue Bai asked as they reached the door.
Though Xue Bai was still extremely young at 13, Ye Rou wasn't. She was already 18 and, in the eyes of the people from the Baishen Plane, at marrying age. So for him, a male, to go into her courtyard with her alone it was definitely slightly inappropriate.
"Nonsense! You're my Junior Brother, nothing more." Ye Rou retorted, "And besides, even if you had bad thoughts, one punch and I could take you out!"
Ye Rou also waved her fist around as if showing Xue Bai what would happen to him if he did try anything.
And while her words were rather crude for someone of her appearance, Xue Bai agreed with them. So with a wry smile, Xue Bai followed his Senior Sister into her courtyard.