The days passed uneventfully.
Lin Zhou realized that having an apprentice around made things less troublesome.
Xiao Chen, that kid, doesn't talk much, but he's quick and efficient. Every day he gets up before dawn and starts practicing with that "rusty iron spear" in the yard—although he hasn't recovered his cultivation yet and his movements are as clumsy as a child learning to walk, he's incredibly earnest, practicing again and again until his tattered shirt is soaked with sweat.
After finishing his shooting practice, he started tidying up the yard. He pulled weeds, swept the floor, repaired the creaking broken door, and even covered the leaky roof of Lin Zhou's bamboo house with some thatch.
In just a few days, the dilapidated Qingyun Sect miraculously regained some of its "human touch".
Lin Zhou was quite satisfied with this. Since he didn't have to lift a finger and someone was doing the work for free, why not? He continued to sunbathe and take naps every day, occasionally glancing at Xiao Chen. Seeing that Xiao Chen was cultivating diligently, he would casually grab some "scrap" from the warehouse and toss it over—sometimes a dark stone, sometimes a withered yellow leaf.
Xiao Chen treated these things as treasures, always accepting them respectfully and carefully putting them away.
That afternoon, Lin Zhou was lying in a rocking chair, squinting as he listened to Xiao Chen chopping firewood in the corner of the yard (he said he wanted to reinforce his dilapidated house) when he suddenly heard light footsteps outside the gate.
This place is so remote that even birds are too lazy to poop here. Besides him and Xiao Chen, how could anyone else come here?
Lin Zhou lazily opened his eyes and looked towards the door.
The mottled vermilion door was gently pushed open, and a girl in a fiery red dress stood in the doorway. She was slender, with skin as white as snow, and long, jet-black hair that cascaded down like a waterfall, making her red dress even more vibrant and eye-catching.
Her appearance was exceptionally beautiful, yet she possessed a composure beyond her years. Her eyes were clear and deep, as if they held the weight of countless ages. At this moment, she was slightly frowning, surveying the courtyard as if confirming something.
Before Lin Zhou could even speak, the system voice in his mind exploded.
[Ding! Detected an unparalleled genius—the reincarnation of an ancient empress!]
[Forced quest triggered: Take him as an apprentice.]
[Mission Requirement: Within one day, have him/her become an apprentice of the Qingyun Sect.]
[Task Reward: To be determined.]
[Mission failed: Annihilation.]
Lin Zhou: "..."
He sat up abruptly, looked at the girl in red, then looked down at the melon seeds in his hand, his face filled with disbelief.
"System, are you doing wholesale?" he mentally ranted. "Just received one, and now another one? And it's an ancient empress reincarnated? Why don't you just send me all the big shots from the Three Realms in one package?"
[…] Silence is golden for the system.
Lin Zhou rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on. When he was recruiting Xiao Chen, he could at least tempt him with "elixirs." But this reincarnated empress—sounded incredibly powerful; why would she even look at his shabby sect?
The girl in red at the door also saw the two people in the courtyard.
One was lying in a rocking chair, looking lazy and casual, with unfathomable cultivation (she couldn't see through him at all); the other was chopping wood, his breath weak, but he faintly revealed a tenacious and sharp spirit.
There's someone here...?
The girl was surprised.
Her name was Jiang Li, and she was indeed the reincarnation of an ancient empress. Before she passed away in her previous life, she had heard that there was a Qingyun Sect in the Southern Region, which was once extremely prosperous, but later inexplicably declined and disappeared into the long river of history.
In her past life, she accidentally learned of a rumor: a hundred years ago, a rogue cultivator stumbled into a secret realm and unearthed several ancient treasures. According to the rogue cultivator before his death, the entrance to the secret realm was near the former site of the Qingyun Sect.
Although Jiang Li has not yet fully awakened the power of the Empress, she urgently needs resources to recover. The Qingyun Sect was once so glorious; even in its decline, there might still be some hidden opportunities beneath its ruins. So, following the clues, she finally found her way here.
Looking at the overgrown, dilapidated scene before her, she had assumed it was long gone, but she was surprised to find that people actually lived there.
Moreover, the man lying in the rocking chair... gave her a strange sense of oppression, as if she were facing an unfathomable starry sky.
Jiang Li composed herself, stepped into the courtyard, her gaze falling on Lin Zhou, her voice clear and cold like the clash of jade: "Excuse me, is this the Qingyun Sect?"
Lin Zhou looked her up and down a few times, thinking to himself: She's quite pretty, but her demeanor is like an old relic, not cute at all. If I take her as an apprentice, won't I have to manage her every day?
But thinking of the word "annihilation," he swallowed back the words "No, you've gone to the wrong place" that were on the tip of his tongue, and lazily pointed to the plaque above his head: "Look, see for yourself."
Jiang Li looked up and saw the peeling paint on the plaque, confirming that this was indeed the Qingyun Sect. A slight thought crossed her mind, and she asked again, "And who are you, sir?"
"The Sect Master of Qingyun Sect is Lin Zhou," Lin Zhou replied casually, then pointed to Xiao Chen beside him, "That's my disciple, Xiao Chen."
Xiao Chen stopped chopping wood, nodded slightly to Jiang Li as a greeting, and then continued working—he knew that his strength was currently too weak to say anything more.
Jiang Li's gaze lingered briefly on Xiao Chen before returning to Lin Zhou, her eyes scrutinizing him: "You've been cultivating here?"
"It's hardly a retreat," Lin Zhou yawned. "I just live here, eating and waiting to die."
Jiang Li: "..."
She had considered many possibilities, but she never imagined that the leader of a once glorious sect would so bluntly say that he was "just waiting to die."
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