Chapter 5 Cultivation (Part 1) An Unfamiliar Master, the Key to the High-Level Bookstore...
If asked to describe her impression of her master, Qingxing could only give two words: not familiar with him.
There was nothing they could do; after all, the fact that the two of them became master and disciple was a huge accident in itself.
Back when she was a kitchen helper at Qiyun Peak, she was summoned by her supervisor to the council hall to deliver pastries, where she happened to witness the sect leader urging Jiuquchen to accept disciples.
At that time, Jiu Chaoying, who was only thirty years old and already in the position of sect leader, poked her younger brother's forehead and said, word by word, "Jiu Quchen, if you continue like this, I will throw you out of Mount Taihua!"
Jiu Qu Chen stood obediently, but his face showed a resentful expression: "Sect Leader, having someone as talented as you in the family is enough. Why drag me, a good-for-nothing, into this? Your younger brother is really not cut out for cultivation."
"That's sophistry and utter nonsense! You're already twenty years old, and all you do is eat, drink, and have fun all day long, without any ambition whatsoever." Jiu Chaoying looked at him, wishing she could throw him into Jade Tiger Peak for three days and three nights of training. "When I was your age, I had already reached the Nascent Soul stage!"
At that time, Jiu Quchen was still in the late stage of Golden Core. He opened his mouth to refute, but was shut down by Jiu Chaoying's words.
"I think we must take you on as an apprentice so you can settle down and focus!"
Jiu Chaoying's words were meant to inform, but even knowing his elder sister's temper, Jiu Quchen still replied weakly, "If I act like this, I will only mislead the younger generation!"
The sect leader completely ignored him. Jiu Qu Chen's resistance was futile, and he instantly deflated. He sat down angrily, glancing to the side and seeing Qing Xing silently putting down the pastries.
That one glance sealed their fate, making Qingxing his master and disciple for three lifetimes.
“Alright, I’ll take her as my disciple.” Jiu Qu Chen pulled Qing Xing to his side, raised an eyebrow at Jiu Chao Ying, and directly revealed his wicked idea, “I want her to be my disciple.”
Jiu Chaoying herself came from humble beginnings, so she didn't care about her disciple's status or qualifications. Jiu Quchen was originally a rebel, but he didn't expect his older sister to actually agree.
And so, Qingxing moved from the cramped kitchen to the spacious Tingyu Garden with its garden, transforming from a servant into Jiuquchen's last disciple.
The bright lights in front of her grew closer, pulling Qingxing back to reality. She walked to the door and gently knocked.
"Come in."
Qingxing pushed open the door and first performed a disciple's salute: "What does Master want to see me about?"
She had just returned from the back mountain and was about to wash up and go to bed when a message talisman suddenly appeared before her eyes: "Is my disciple asleep? Come to Biyueyun Residence, your master has something to discuss."
"It's nothing serious." Jiu Qu Chen coughed lightly, making a fist and putting it to his lips. "It's just... I heard that you got into a fight with the sect leader's disciple?"
Qingxing nodded: "Yes."
The egrets that Su Lin challenged filled Qiyun Peak, and Qingxing was not surprised that Jiuquchen would find out.
The fight itself wasn't a problem, but the outcome was somewhat awkward. Jiu Qu Chen pondered his words, wanting to subtly remind Qing Xing not to be ostentatious and to occasionally show some restraint.
“Well, disciple… a private duel is fine, but I still want to say that although we don’t care about cultivation, we should still abide by the rules of Mount Taihua. The elders are having a meeting right now; if you bring someone here, it will startle everyone…”
Qingxing was taken aback upon hearing this: "What meeting?"
Jiu Qu Chen was also stunned: "You didn't know you had summoned Su Lin and the others to the council hall?"
Qingxing shook her head: "I don't know."
She glanced at Jiu Quchen somewhat guiltily, thinking that there must be something wrong with her teleportation array.
In the past, cultivators mostly used swords to fly when traveling long distances. Some strong and robust individuals, such as body cultivators, would grit their teeth and stick a few talismans that allowed them to travel a thousand miles a day onto their bodies, enabling them to run more than ten kilometers in one go.
Teleportation arrays do exist, but they consume an extreme amount of spiritual energy and are very unstable; some people have even been teleported into hordes of demons. Therefore, these arrays are mostly used for short-distance travel within the sect, and Qingxing felt it was somewhat wasteful when she saw it.
When she read books about formations in the past, she always felt that the formation set up halfway up Qiyun Peak was extremely mysterious. Therefore, she couldn't help but think: if this kind of formation were combined with the old teleportation array, modified, and placed on the enemy, wouldn't it be possible to send people away directly without them being able to touch them?
Thinking this way, she did just that. For a while, Qingxing would run to the mountainside as soon as she got up, working from sunrise to sunset. Of course, hard work pays off, and ten days later, she successfully transferred a small plant from Qiyun Peak to Riyue Peak.
Cultivators value pride above all else. In every duel, they would rather fight to the death than resort to underhanded tactics like teleportation arrays. Of course, since array cultivators are so low-profile, it's not certain that anyone would remember how to use them.
Qingxing didn't care. The moment she lost the golden-patterned sword, she had already decided that she would study array formations and become an array cultivator. So when she shamelessly sent Su Lin away, she was just testing the waters.
She acted swiftly, and the magic array contained the operating mechanism of the ancient array of Qiyun Peak. In addition, there was no magic barrier set up on the martial arts stage, so Su Lin and Li Xu were easily teleported away.
But she didn't expect that the two of them would be summoned to the council chamber.
“I thought they went to Sun and Moon Peak,” Qingxing explained. Originally, the first little grass was also teleported to Sun and Moon Peak. “Maybe the magic array isn’t perfect yet.”
Jiu Qu Chen was somewhat puzzled: "Apart from high-level formations, most of the formations recorded in ancient books are intact, so how could they be incomplete?"
Qingxing frankly admitted, "I used the Qiyun Peak magic array."
"It's possible to do that?!"
Jiu Qu Chen was somewhat surprised, after all, the magic array on the mountainside had been operating for a hundred years, and breaking it would be quite difficult. But then he thought, if it weren't for some ancient mechanism, it would be difficult for Qing Xing to send the two away in succession across five levels.
"You learned it yourself?"
Qingxing: "Yes."
Jiuquchen pressed further, "Where did you learn that?"
Qingxing answered truthfully: "The library has books related to formations."
Upon hearing this, Jiu Qu Chen felt a pang of unease. He hadn't demanded anything of Qing Xing's cultivation level when he first took her as a disciple, and hadn't interfered in her practice. Now that her talent was beginning to show, Jiu Qu Chen wasn't jealous, but rather thinking: I really have misled a student!
It's a complete waste of Qingxing's great talent to have him in his hands!
Jiu Chaoying's words echoed in his mind again, and Jiu Quchen sighed inwardly, resigned to his fate, and finally decided to take on his responsibilities as "Master".
"Good disciple, for the past two years, I haven't been paying attention to you; I was testing your character." He coughed lightly, speaking with great seriousness, "Now, you have successfully passed the test!"
Qingxing remained silent, not exposing Jiuquchen's lie. After all, if Jiuquchen was truly testing her, she had lived to the age of twenty-four in her previous three lives, spending ten years under her master's tutelage without ever seeing him teach her anything.
Moreover, in this life, she has the mission of tracking down the protagonist and uncovering the villain, so she must improve her strength. Previously, she tried to cultivate on her own, but her progress was fraught with difficulties. Now that Jiu Qu Chen is going to teach her, she is naturally very happy to do so.
Thinking he had fooled her, Jiu Quchen continued, "After this battle, I have discovered that you have an exceptional talent for array formations! Starting tomorrow, come to Biyue Yunju every day at 9:00 AM, and I will teach you the correct method of circulating spiritual energy!"
Si Shi (9-11 AM)? Qingxing thought for a moment. She usually got up at Chen Shi (7-9 AM). The day of the inner sect test was not far away. If she came earlier, she could learn more. So she took the initiative to say, "I can come earlier."
“That’s not necessary,” Jiu Qu Chen resolutely refused. “I can’t get up.”
His tone was frank, without the slightest shame that he was even lazier than his apprentice.
“…Alright.” Qingxing nodded and bowed again. “If Master has nothing else, this disciple will take her leave.”
"Wait a minute." Jiu Qu Chen called out to her, opened the small box on the table, rummaged through it for a while, and took out a jade token. "I am a doctor who specializes in medicine, but I know nothing about formations, so I'm afraid I can't help you much. This is the key to the high-level scroll library in the Scripture Pavilion. You can take it and find some books to read when you have time."
"Thank you, Master."
"Your master treats you quite well."
After Qingxing had walked a distance from Biyueyunju, Guda finally woke up completely from its sleep. It crawled out from behind Qingxing, took the jade pendant from her hand, and tossed it around to play with it.
"Um."
Although Jiu Qu Chen was always carefree and irresponsible, he always adhered to the principle of "raising his apprentices well" in terms of material things. As long as he had an ox, he would never lack a piece of meat.
Of course, as for the spiritual aspect...
It's good enough that he didn't corrupt the young apricots.
Guda clicked his tongue twice in his mind and returned the jade pendant to Qingxing.
The jade tablet was specially made by Mount Taihua, and apart from the sect leader and elders, only Jiu Quchen possessed it. Qingxing flipped the jade tablet over and found that the other side was printed with the two large characters "Quchen," which shone brightly in the darkness.
As if suddenly remembering something, Qingxing glanced at Guda sitting on her shoulder: "We're getting up at 5 a.m. tomorrow, should I wake you?"
"Mao Shi (5-7 AM)?!" Guda shook Qingxing's head, trying to bring her back to her senses. "Didn't your master just say Si Shi (9-11 AM)?!"
Why are you making yourself work overtime?!
"Weren't you asleep? Eavesdropping?" Qingxing raised her hand and poked Guda's cheek. "It's the first time I've gotten the key to the High-Level Secret Scrolls Library. I want to go and take a look as soon as possible."
After all, the cultivation of array formations has declined, and even in the Taihua Mountain Scripture Pavilion, there are not many records about array formations.
There were only a few books, and Qingxing could recite them by heart.
"I'm not getting up, don't wake me, I'm really grumpy when I wake up!" Guda used to sleep in years, how could she stand Qingxing's schedule? "Take the Book of No Words with you, I'll sleep in the book."
"OK."
It was already completely dark. Qingxing's Tingyu Garden was not far from Bishui Yunju. While chatting with Guda on the way, they soon saw the gate of Tingyu Garden.
Taihua Mountain's sect leader, Jiu Chaoying, dislikes the dark. In order to create a good cultivation environment for her disciples, she specially collected flames from Yanshan Mountain and made countless lotus lanterns. Using her spiritual power, she suspended them on the main paths of Taihua Mountain's various peaks all day long, making them look like a golden-red celestial river from afar.
Every time Qingxing walked home at night, she liked to count the lotus lanterns in her mind one by one, and she continued this habit throughout her life.
The sound of snoring filled her ears. Qingxing walked slowly, looking at each number one by one: ninety-six, ninety-seven, ninety-eight, ninety-nine...
Just as she was about to count to the hundredth, Qingxing stopped. She squinted, as if she saw some kind of flying creature, stumbling and flying around aimlessly in the dark.
thump--
A white egret fell from the sky and crashed straight into the lotus lantern, its wings scorched by the flames.
The aroma wafted over and entered Guda's nostrils. In its sleep, it smacked its lips and murmured, "Roasted meat..."
Qingxing:......
The egret on the ground had its eyes closed, as if it had fainted, and the golden-red flames were still dancing on its wings.
The flames on Yanshan Mountain are not easily extinguished; only special methods can be used.
Qingxing stepped forward, broke off a branch covered with leaves, and released wisps of spiritual energy, enveloping the branch.
She crouched down and fanned the branch against the wings, but as soon as it touched the feathers, the egret opened its eyes wide and suddenly flapped its wings, splashing mud all over Qingxing's clothes.
"A demon has appeared in the Discipline Hall! A demon has appeared in the Discipline Hall! Disciples, do not act alone! Disciples, do not act alone!"
"Watch out! Watch out—"
A sharp warning echoed through the mountains, piercing the silent night.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
