Testing for talent wasn’t hard—the Saint Sect now had a foolproof Linggan for talent testing.
All the child had to do was hold the Linggan, and it would instantly display their talent. It wasn’t precise, but it was enough.
They just needed to know if the child had good or poor talent. How good or bad—well, that could wait for the Ascension Gathering.
The Saint Sect Disciples sent to test talent didn’t spend much time on the tests themselves. Most of their time was spent hurrying from village to village.
The villages were tiny, with only a handful of children of the right age. The test might take less than half an hour.
Once they finished, the Saint Sect cultivators would leave. The time window to meet them was tiny—it would be pure chance.
“Hearing you say that, I feel like we’re bound to run into them,” Hua Jian muttered, rubbing her chin. Given her luck, she was sure she’d run into trouble!
Absolutely!
“Are you looking forward to trouble?” Shiqi couldn’t help but ask.
“It’s not that I’m looking forward to it—I just have faith in my protagonist’s fate! She’s spelled out all the conditions so clearly. If nothing happens, it’d be a waste of my protagonist status!”
Hua Jian gave a little snort, showing she wasn’t just saying this for fun, but based on her special status.
“I can already picture what’ll happen—a rotten disciple of the Saint Sect will use the talent testing as an excuse to indulge their dark desires, and we’ll swoop in like divine heroes to expose their lies and restore justice to the world!”
Linglong, hearing Hua Jian start ranting again, helplessly put away the map and reminded her—hadn’t she forgotten her favorite “confidante” plotline?
Wasn’t this another big event? Didn’t she want to add another confidante?
“I was thinking, the ones being tested are all little kids—how can a kid be a confidante? Don’t make me out to be a pervert, thank you,” Hua Jian declared righteously that she wasn’t a pervert. Who’d want a little girl as a confidante?
“There aren’t only children. Some were tested years ago but were too young to attend the Ascension Gathering—so they have to wait for this round. They’re old enough to be your confidante.”
“Oh! I see. Then I’m sure I’ll run into a beautiful village maiden—kind and clumsy, wearing rustic clothes but…”
Linglong pressed her forehead, regretting ever reminding Hua Jian of this trope.
She’d just asked for it!
“Why are you so hung up on confidantes? You’re not a man—what’s the point?” Shiqi voiced her own confusion.
Hua Jian was strange. She was a girl, but had such passion for other girls.
But if you said Hua Jian liked girls, she was more like someone who admired them from afar—when a true confidante appeared, she’d lose her nerve.
Like with Linglong—wasn’t she a proper confidante? Yet how did Hua Jian treat her?
And as for Shiqi herself, when they first met, Hua Jian would joke about it, but now that they were close, Hua Jian just wanted to be good buddies.
“Linglong and I count as your confidantes, right? But you never did anything to us.”
“Ahem! You don’t understand—I… I have broad love!” Hua Jian flushed as she was caught, regretting bragging too much.
A confidante, after all, was about beauty—eye candy was the key. As for what came after… she really didn’t dare think further.
Little chicks were like that—try to understand, okay?
“And I do like girls! Is it only men who can like women?” Hua Jian once again declared her orientation—she was a girl who liked pretty girls. Problem?
“That’s fine…” Shiqi shook her head—she didn’t care much about this stuff.
“She even said before that she’s actually a man,” Linglong quietly added, stabbing Hua Jian in the back.
Shiqi stared at Hua Jian. Seeing her sheepish, half-admitting expression, she took a sharp breath.
Heavens—was she actually serious?
She thought she was already something, disguising herself as a man. Who’d expect someone even more outrageous?
Daring to wear a dress, with a delicate, girlish face, and still claim to be a man—Hua Jian’s skin was thick indeed.
“Ahem, I meant in my heart, in my heart—get it?” Hua Jian tried to defend herself, but even she didn’t believe that nonsense.
She’d long since gotten used to her body—she had no real hang-ups about gender.
She just lived however she pleased. It wasn’t as if she could travel back and reclaim what she’d lost.
Having survived death and crossed over was lucky enough—no need to expect to die again and return. If that failed, it’d be the real end.
Even before transmigrating, Hua Jian wasn’t a macho man. She wouldn’t fall apart just because she’d become a girl.
Far more worrying than gender was her penniless state, on the brink of starvation.
The only traces of masculinity left in her were perhaps her instinctive shyness around other girls.
“You don’t act like a man at all—less than I do,” Shiqi said, tying up her now-long hair and putting on a serious face. If she were dressed as a boy, she’d actually be a bit androgynous.
Compared to Hua Jian’s utter girliness, she was much more convincing.
She’d spent a lot of time perfecting her disguise—way better than someone like Hua Jian, who only talked.
Being called unmanly by a country girl stung Hua Jian.
What stung more was, she couldn’t even argue.
Shiqi had real experience in crossdressing, and Hua Jian, after years as a girl, had forgotten most of her old habits.
She really couldn’t compete.
“I’m hurt, wuwuwu.” Hua Jian covered her face and wept.
Successfully gaining no one’s sympathy.
“It’s time to go. There are still plenty of powerful spirit beasts around—it’s too risky to spend the night here.”
“Hey, Linglong, aren’t you going to comfort me a little?”
“I don’t think you need it.”
Annoyed or not, Hua Jian still remembered her role as Linglong’s employee, though she hadn’t been too polite with Linglong lately.
Linglong’s chosen route avoided most dangerous areas, so the spirit beasts they met were all at the Ling Master Realm, evenly matched.
They didn’t run into many other cultivators either—maybe two or three encounters a day, usually just a nod in passing, with little interaction.
Maybe some cultivators had evil intentions, but there were three of them, all clearly well-equipped—not the sort of people you’d want to provoke.
The risks clearly outweighed the benefits.
If anyone really wanted to try, the trio fought spirit beasts two or three times a day.
Anyone witnessing their strength would have second thoughts—if you didn’t have Ling Wang strength, don’t even dream of walking away.
And even if you did, you’d better watch out for Hua Jian’s bullets—those could pierce even Ling Wang experts.
Over the past month, Hua Jian had been busy every night making bullets. She’d almost used up the Yusui she’d bought.
Now, her ammo stockpile was huge—enough for a major battle.
“So this is the dividing line between the main and secondary ranges? Doesn’t look like anything special,” Hua Jian said, looking around. It didn’t match her expectations at all.
The environment was the same. What made this a boundary?
“That’s what the map says. If you have a problem, take it up with Qian Feixue,” Linglong said, refusing to take the blame. “Besides, these boundaries are always fuzzy. Spirit beasts don’t care.”
The dividing lines were just symbolic, a reminder to cultivators that the secondary range was less dangerous than the main one.
No one really bothered to mark the exact border—spirit beasts certainly didn’t care.
As long as the general area was right, that was enough.
“Enough arguing—there are spirit beast tracks here,” Shiqi stepped in as mediator again, motioning for them to hush. She’d found some interesting tracks.
It had rained recently, so the soil was soft. In the moist dirt were several pale prints.
Shiqi crouched down. The prints were about half a palm in size, with traces of white frost left behind—probably the mark of an ice-element spirit beast.
That explained why they stood out so much.
“With this size and shape, and this attribute… Strange. Are there spirit beasts like this here?” Shiqi puzzled over the prints, scratching her head and looking to Linglong for help.
She’d accepted that she knew the least out of the trio—when it came to spirit beasts, she’d ask Linglong. For spirit flowers and grasses, she’d ask Hua Jian.
Linglong usually answered quickly, though sometimes even she didn’t know.
Hua Jian was different. She might take longer, but given enough time, she could identify even the rarest spirit plants—though she was basically cheating with the encyclopedia the Lingcaifeng Master had given her…
This time, it was a spirit beast, so she turned to Linglong.
Linglong glanced at the print and answered right away: “Looks like the tracks of a Shuanghua Lingmao.”
She paused. That didn’t seem right—Shuanghua Lingmao were native to the far north. What was it doing here?
Maybe a cultivator had smuggled one down from the north?
“Shuanghua Lingmao? That’s worth a fortune! Let’s catch it!” Hua Jian’s eyes lit up at the name.
She hadn’t forgotten—just a few months ago, Chai Xianyun, Miss Chai, had spent a mountain of Spirit Stones to buy a Shuanghua Lingmao. Clearly, those kitties were popular among cultivators of the Central Continent.
If she could nab one, it’d be set for a lifetime of pampering!
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