Chapter 4 Rebirth (Part 4) Su Lin's defeat, the disciple's first glimpse of the Spirit-Locking Pearl. ...
The scene before Su Lin's eyes instantly distorted, as if he were being squeezed into some kind of space.
He felt nothing in his hand—his sword was gone.
Once everything returned to normal, the first thing that caught the eye was the ninety-nine phoenix flames overhead.
He felt the place looked familiar, but couldn't quite place it. The phoenix flames flickered before him, and Su Lin was both shocked and furious: What method had Qingxing used to get them here?!
He moved his hands slightly and realized that he was still lying on the ground.
"Su Lin?"
A clear voice rang out, and Su Lin stood up, meeting the cold, stern gaze of his sect leader.
"The elders are having a meeting. What are you doing here?"
Upon hearing this, Su Lin was momentarily stunned. Looking around, he realized that the elders were standing in a circle around him, each with a complex expression on their face, especially Jiu Qu Chen, who looked like he was watching a show.
He was startled, then turned his head sharply. The two characters "逍遥" (Xiaoyao, meaning carefree and unrestrained) on the plaque on the wall caught his eye, and his heart felt as if it had been struck by lightning.
Why did Qingxing send him to the council chamber?!
At the same time, the martial arts arena on the back mountain of Qiyun Peak was silent for a moment, then burst into discussion. Some lamented about their lost spirit stones, some wondered where Su Lin had gone, and others were curious about what kind of magic Qing Xing had used. It was quite a lively scene.
"Junior brother, can we announce the results now?"
Qingxing looked up and glanced at the supervising disciple who was still oblivious to the situation.
"Yes, yes." The disciple glanced at the incense stick that had only just begun to burn, then wiped away non-existent sweat from his brow before striking the bell with his sword and announcing the result with a megaphone, "Qingxing wins this match!"
At the very beginning of the competition, he had already made it clear that the first to step out would lose. Now, Qingxing was standing properly on the stage, while her opponent, Su Lin, had vanished without a trace, leaving only a dimly lit sword behind.
According to the rules, it's obvious who won and who lost.
Most disciples accepted the result, but some in the audience still protested, "This isn't right! Who uses external objects to draw arrays? We've never even seen it before. Who knows if some evil magic was used!"
"Yes, have you seen it before?"
"That's right, that's right."
His shout was echoed by the disciples who had lost spirit stones, and for a moment, doubts filled the entire training ground.
"this……"
The supervisor glanced at the green apricot and hesitated.
Teleportation arrays aren't particularly difficult spells. Although Qingxing's actions exploited a loophole in the competition rules, they were still reasonable. As for the bead in her hand…
He had seen array cultivators before, but most of them preferred to draw arrays by hand. This was the first time he had seen someone like Qingxing who relied on external forces.
Faced with the doubts, Qingxing didn't show anything. Instead, the little dog on her shoulder snorted coldly and mocked, "Look, look, this is the consequence of only knowing how to cultivate and not how to study. How ignorant!"
"It's alright," Qingxing reassured it. "Just explain it."
But before she could even speak, someone else jumped in to defend her.
"Her beads are magic artifacts used only by high-level array cultivators!" The disciple who had just spent a hundred spirit stones betting on Qingxing to win recovered from his shock and loudly retorted to the troublemaker, "Brother Li, you don't understand magic artifacts and you're just spouting nonsense. I think you're just upset because you lost spirit stones and are deliberately picking a fight, aren't you?"
These words immediately caused an uproar among the audience, and many disciples cast complicated glances at Qingxing.
In the early days of array formations, due to people's lack of familiarity with them, problems arose such as arrays being difficult to form and consuming excessive spiritual energy. Sometimes, the spiritual energy of the person drawing the array was not pure enough, which led to the array's core being disordered and the array being difficult to maintain.
To overcome these difficulties, the ancestors of array cultivators collected various spiritual treasures from heaven and earth to create Spirit-Locking Pearls. Arrays drawn with Spirit-Locking Pearls took shape quickly and lasted for a long time, quickly becoming highly sought after.
However, as time went on, people became more and more familiar with formations. Many lower-level cultivators could not buy the materials needed to make the Spirit-Locking Pearl, so they skipped this step and ushered in the era of drawing formations by hand.
Nowadays, array cultivation has gradually declined. Low-level arrays can be learned by anyone, while high-level arrays that require the blessing of spirit beads are almost extinct. Over time, people have come to regard "arrays" as auxiliary spells, and no one studies them carefully anymore. "Spirit-locking beads" have also long disappeared from the sight of cultivators. In the last hundred years, few people have mentioned them, let alone seen them with their own eyes.
At this very moment, Qingxing, the disciple of the universally acknowledged "useless master" Jiuquchen, used the purification array of the Spirit Locking Pearl to defeat Su Lin, a level above him.
The disciple who spoke up for Qingxing knew how to use the Spirit Locking Pearl, and was clearly a young man with lofty ambitions to "revitalize formations." Qingxing's performance seemed to give him hope for formation cultivation, so he naturally wouldn't allow himself to be slandered so easily.
With so many people in the training ground, Brother Li was humiliated and felt very unhappy. He still stubbornly insisted on finding fault with Qingxing: "High-level array cultivator? If I remember correctly, Senior Sister Qingxing is only at the fourth level of Foundation Establishment, right? Knowing that she couldn't win, she resorted to some opportunistic methods."
As if he had found a loophole, he arrogantly stuck out his neck and added, "He has no martial ethics whatsoever, which is quite disgraceful!"
His words sounded rather unreasonable; Qingxing's move just now was clearly a surprise attack and hadn't violated any rules. The disciples who had initially supported Brother Li fell silent upon hearing this, even moving further away from him, thinking that this man was probably blinded by spirit stones.
Qingxing didn't want to pay him any attention, but the situation was at a stalemate, and leaving abruptly might embarrass the disciple who spoke up for her. So she could only raise her eyes and look at him through the crowd, her tone indifferent: "Junior brother, what will it take for you to be convinced?"
Brother Li: "Simple! Just demonstrate it again, so everyone can see it clearly!"
Qingxing nodded: "Okay."
After speaking, she released wisps of cyan spiritual energy from her left hand, which once again enveloped and lifted the Wood God Pearl.
The Wood God Pearl, sensing the change, shone even brighter. The disciples watched intently as Qingxing lowered her eyes and silently recited an incantation. With a "whoosh," a blue light surged from the Wood God Pearl and rushed towards the area below the martial arts stage.
Qingguang bypassed the disciples and went straight to "Brother Li".
The man clearly hadn't expected Qingxing to use him as a demonstration. His eyes widened, but it was too late to run.
With a "whoosh," he disappeared from everyone's sight, just like Su Lin.
Qingxing withdrew her spiritual power, and the Wood God Pearl dimmed again. She raised her eyes, looking expressionlessly at the crowd below the stage: "Do you see clearly now?"
Inside the Qi Yunfeng Council Hall—
Before Su Lin could explain the situation to the sect leader, he suddenly heard a "rip" sound. He looked up and saw another blue crack appear out of thin air above him. The next instant, a buttock wearing the robes of a Taihua Mountain disciple appeared and landed straight on his chest.
Su Lin: ...
Elders: ...
Su Lin restrained himself from crying out, but in reality, the little devil inside him was screaming in pain: it felt as if someone had thrown a thousand-pound weight onto his chest, his heart felt like it had been crushed instantly, and he almost coughed up a mouthful of blood.
"Master..."
Left with no other choice, he raised his hand and begged for help from the sect leader, Jiu Chaoying, who was standing to the side.
The scene was so comical that Jiu Quchen's ribs ached from trying to hold it in, but he finally couldn't help but turn his head and laugh out loud. Jiu Chaoying glanced at him, and he immediately cleared his throat, pursing his lips so tightly that his jaw was trembling.
"What's going on?" Jiu Chaoying frowned and waved her hand to separate the two. "Are you testing the magic array of Qiyun Peak?"
There is a teleportation array halfway up Qiyun Peak. Inner disciples can activate it with the Taihua Token to reach any location on Mount Taihua.
The inner sect test was not a secret. She only summoned the elders to discuss the start date and other issues, so she did not set up any shielding spells in the council hall, which is why the two of them were able to enter.
"No..." Su Lin both respected and feared his master. He stood stiffly to one side, meeting the elders' gazes, unsure how to explain. "I..."
"They're all green apricots!"
The disciple who was brought in later interrupted Su Lin, clutching his backside, "Today, it was supposed to be Senior Brother Su fighting Qingxing, but who knew that Qingxing used some kind of evil magic to teleport the two of us here, interrupting the elders' meeting!"
He completely ignored the fact that Qingxing could make the spirit pearl, and only said what was in his favor, emphasizing the word "deliberately".
"Qing Xing?"
An elder spoke up in confusion, and everyone present turned their gaze toward Jiu Qu Chen.
Jiu Quchen was stunned for a moment, then laughed twice, his eyes darting around, his heart pounding with cold sweat.
Qingxing? Qingxing knows formations? Qingxing defeated Su Lin?
How could he not know that his apprentice was so capable!
It seems that all that talk about being a salted fish in the past was just a facade...
Jiu Chaoying ignored her disciple's words. She looked expressionlessly at the person standing opposite her in a comical pose and asked, "What's your name? Which peak are you from?"
"Disciple Li Xu! A disciple of Six Dragons Peak!"
When the sect leader began to greet him, Li Xu was overjoyed, thinking that he had gained the sect leader's favor and was about to rise rapidly in rank.
Unexpectedly, the next moment, he felt a burning sensation on his wrist. He looked down and saw two fiery snakes flicking their tongues, coiling around and binding his hands together. Li Xu was instantly terrified and fell to the ground with a thud.
"Disrespectful to teachers and elders, slanderous to fellow disciples, and of improper conduct. Enter the Discipline Hall and receive fifty lashes!" Jiu Chaoying spoke coldly. She then turned to an elder with a white beard, "Elder Musheng, do you have any objections to my punishment of your subordinate?"
Mu Sheng quickly bowed and said, "Of course, it is in accordance with the sect leader's wishes."
Jiu Chaoying acted swiftly and decisively, and the fact that she didn't reprimand him, the leader of a peak, was already a sign of leniency. How could he dare to have any further objections?
Jiu Chaoying tightened the fire snake, then glanced at her disciple, who had his head down, seemingly waiting for her to punish him.
"Su Lin, you should work on cultivating your mental state."
It wasn't criticism, just a warning. Su Lin pursed his lips upon hearing this: "Yes, disciple knows his mistake."
"As for you," Jiu Chaoying called out to Jiu Quchen, who was about to slip away, her tone icy, "shouldn't you also take on the responsibilities of a master and properly instruct your disciple?"
Jiu Qu Chen shuddered: "Of course, of course. I'll teach her a lesson when I get back today!"
That's all for today, let's call it a day.
Having explained everything, Jiu Chaoying waved her sleeve, and the ninety-nine phoenix flames above her head instantly went out. The elders left one after another, with Jiu Quchen leaving last.
As he stepped through the gate, he glanced at Li Xu, who was being dragged away. The man seemed disheartened, hanging his head and remaining silent, completely devoid of the arrogant demeanor he had displayed when he complained earlier.
Jiuqu Chen clicked his tongue and quickly passed by, thinking that he would definitely ask Qingxing what had happened when he got back.
Unbeknownst to everyone, Li Xu's eyes were half-open, during which a purple flame flashed and then quickly went out, just like usual.
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