After a howling wind, the dark clouds in the sky completely dissipated.

On Xiaoyuan Peak, Wu Er lay on his side on a large blue stone with his legs crossed, his face full of laziness.

Meanwhile, Han Qingxiu sat cross-legged on the ground.

A spiritual light emanated from her body, her aura gradually strengthened, and all the spiritual energy in her body flowed towards her dantian.

Before long, Han Qingxiu opened her eyes, and her entire demeanor changed, becoming much sharper than before.

She broke through, advancing from Foundation Establishment to Golden Core.

"All done?" Wu Er, who had been lying on the bluestone, sat up. "How did it feel?"

Han Qingxiu stopped sitting cross-legged and stood up. She clenched her fists, presumably to feel her current strength.

"Thank you for protecting me, Master!"

Han Qingxiu felt that she had become several times stronger, so she was overjoyed and quickly bowed to Wu Er, who had been protecting her.

The change just now was due to the improvement in my cultivation level.

Han Qingxiu is no longer at the Foundation Establishment stage, but has now reached the Golden Core stage.

Wu Er yawned again, waved his hand and said, "You can break through without my protection. I only helped you because I had nothing else to do."

That's the truth.

Hearing the truth, Han Qingxiu's face darkened. She knew what kind of person Wu Er was, but hearing this still made her joy at her breakthrough disappear completely.

He thought to himself: I don't know why, but I feel like my master is so annoying...

Wu Er stopped sitting and lay back down on the large blue stone, saying in a lazy tone, "You broke through a bit late. With your talent and hard work, you should have broken through a year ago."

After saying this, Wu Er rolled over and looked up at the sky, "If you had been accepted into the inner sect earlier, your cultivation level would probably be much higher than it is now."

That's indeed the case. Without being an inner disciple, resources are pitifully scarce, barely enough to sustain daily cultivation. Even with the best aptitude, cultivation progress is slow.

Since Han Qingxiu became the sect leader's disciple, she has had access to resources and her cultivation progress has accelerated. She broke through a major realm in just a few days.

Han Qingxiu lowered her head slightly and replied, "That's why I'm even more grateful to Master for accepting me as his disciple!"

"You don't need to thank me," Wu Er said, completely oblivious to any romantic sentiment. "The reason I took you as my disciple was simply to see how you would swallow a hundred loquats whole."

Han Qingxiu's lips twitched, and the gratitude in her heart vanished instantly.

She even had the urge to slap Wu Er.

Wu Er looked up at the sun and realized it was noon.

So he said, "Alright, I see it's getting late. You should head to the mountain gate soon. It's almost time to set off. While you're at it, see how many good seedlings you can recruit this time."

Han Qingxiu cupped her hands and said, "Yes, Master."

She then drew her sword, the Sword of No Return, intending to fly to the mountain gate and join the group recruiting disciples to travel to the mortal realms surrounding Pengshan.

"Xiuer, wait a minute."

Suddenly, Wu Er called out to Han Qingxiu.

Han Qingxiu, who had just taken off on her sword, landed back on the ground, sheathed her sword, and asked, "Is there anything else, Master?"

"Take this."

Wu Er pulled out a small red paper figure from somewhere and threw it to Han Qingxiu.

After Han Qingxiu took the paper doll, she looked down at it.

This little paper figure has a large head and a small body, and is very well made. It is adorable just to look at.

Han Qingxiu withdrew her gaze and asked, "Master, what is this?"

Wu Er hesitated for a moment before slowly saying, "This is the support for your master's free soul."

A free spirit? Or something to rely on? What is Master saying?

Han Qingxiu was stunned by what she heard, but fortunately she had gotten used to it over the past few days, since Wu Er often said some strange things to her.

However, since Wu Er gave her the paper figure, Han Qingxiu accepted it.

After carefully placing the paper doll close to her body, Han Qingxiu cupped her hands and asked, "Master, is there anything else?"

"That's all, you can go now." Wu Er waved his hand, then lay flat on the large blue stone, gazing at the sky with boredom.

Looking at Wu Er, who was so bored that he was staring at the sky, Han Qingxiu couldn't help but feel a little sorry for him.

I imagine the life of the Pengshan Sect Leader must be quite boring.

Then Han Qingxiu bowed to Wu Eryi again, and then rode her sword into the air, heading towards the main gate of Pengshan Sect.

As Wu Er lay on the large blue stone, a smile appeared on his lips when he saw his apprentice leave.

He muttered to himself, "Even if I can't go out in person, I can at least attach a wisp of my soul to the paper figure, right?"

......

Han Qingxiu broke through her cultivation level, so her flying speed on her sword increased considerably.

Before long, you will be able to see the main gate of Pengshan Gate.

It's called a mountain gate, but it's really just a square with a few pillars.

By this time, a large number of people had already gathered at the mountain gate.

Judging from their attire, most of them are inner disciples, and their cultivation levels are mostly between the Golden Core and Foundation Establishment stages.

Besides the disciples, there were also several elders leading the group. These elders were not very powerful either, all of them were Nascent Soul cultivators.

For Pengshanmen, such a traveling group was pitifully small.

But that's enough. It's only good for recruiting a few new disciples; it's useless for building a particularly strong team.

"Qingxiu, you've arrived?"

As soon as Han Qingxiu landed in the mountain gate square, the Nascent Soul cultivators surrounded her, all of them, young and old, with smiles on their faces.

When Han Qingxiu met this group of elders, she politely bowed to each of them.

He also respectfully said, "Greetings to all the elders."

"Oh, why are you bowing?"

"That's still too modest!"

"As expected of the sect leader's disciple, he truly possesses extraordinary bearing!"

All the Nascent Soul cultivators were all smiling, showering Han Qingxiu with praise and not holding back their words.

Han Qingxiu felt embarrassed and said shyly, "You flatter me, you flatter me. I am just an ordinary inner disciple."

This wasn't the first time she'd seen this; ever since she became the sect leader's disciple, the elders in the sect had always treated her this way.

Back when Han Qingxiu was just an outer disciple, the elders ignored her. Now that she has a different status, they all come to flatter her.

Fortunately, Han Qingxiu already had experience in dealing with such situations.

Smile when you receive praise, and return any gift bags that are secretly slipped to you.

After a long day of work, we finally saw these enthusiastic elders off.

After settling things off with her elders, Han Qingxiu's gaze swept over the inner disciples who were traveling with her.

The disciples behaved quite differently; most of them had jealousy in their eyes.

Indeed, one should be jealous.

The fact that a disciple with no background was chosen by the sect leader made them, the "extraordinary" second-generation immortals, feel very unfair.

Han Qingxiu sensed the unfriendly attitude of these people, but still smiled politely.

He thought to himself: It seems I'll have to be more cautious this time...