Furthermore, a high frequency of victories could get her noticed by the Saint Sect before the Ascension Gathering even began.
Perhaps she, like Hua Jian, could be pre-selected?
In fact, the Jian Sect had already noticed Shiqi’s existence to some extent.
After all, the Jian Sect had put a lot of effort into the existence and maintenance of the Outer City Arena.
As soon as a powerful Cultivator appeared, the Jian Sect was the first to react.
Shiqi’s name was likely already written in the Jian Sect’s little notebook.
“Where’s Linglong? Is she coming back late today?”
“She’s visiting the Jade Pool Disciples here. It’s an unavoidable part of her job as the Saintess.”
Hua Jian spread her hands, indicating that Linglong probably wouldn’t be back for a while.
The status of Saintess required actual work. Even a mascot had its duties.
Giving a bit of care to the Senior and Junior Sisters who had been busy and tired all day, making them feel the warmth of home — that was the Saintess’s job.
As the date of the Ascension Gathering drew closer, Linglong would likely become busier and busier, as she had to cooperate with various promotional tasks.
This Ascension Gathering was also a battlefield where the Five Great Sacred Sects competed for influence.
Every Sect would strive to show its best side to lure the Talented Ones into joining.
For example, Penglai probably wished they could strip the uniform off Du Xiaoyue right now, so she couldn’t ruin Penglai’s reputation even if she went out.
This was the difference between people. Linglong could help with promotional work, while someone like Du Xiaoyue only caused trouble.
“What about you? How was your time at the Wanling Sect today?”
“I gained a lot! Starting tomorrow, I can follow the Senior Sister of Lingcai Peak to learn how to plant flowers!” Hua Jian’s eyes curved like crescent moons, her face full of joy.
Shiqi rarely saw Hua Jian this happy. she reached out and poked Hua Jian’s cheek. “So, you’ve decided to go to the Wanling Sect?”
This question instantly ruined Hua Jian’s good mood. After glaring fiercely at Shiqi, Hua Jian turned and walked to her Training spot. “You talk too much!”
She had to bring up the one thing Hua Jian didn’t want to talk about, didn’t she?
If she could make up her mind, she wouldn’t be in this position. She still had no clue whom to choose.
For now, she could only spend her days at Wanling and her nights at Yaochi, trying not to offend either side.
But she also knew that this was not a long-term solution. Eventually, she would have to pick one Saint Sect to join.
At that time, no matter what she chose, there would likely be problems.
‘Sigh, I’ll just take it one step at a time. What else can I do?’
……
The next day, a melancholy Hua Jian arrived early at the Wanling Sect station.
It took her nearly 1 hour to get from the Jade Pool’s Sky City to the Lingcai Peak station, and that was even with her using a Retreat Technique the entire way.
If she had flown normally without a technique, she wouldn’t have arrived for more than 2 hours.
It was then that Hua Jian realized a major problem: the Jade Pool and the Wanling Sect were apparently quite far apart.
She was spending nearly 2 hours every day just on her commute.
“I’ll just treat it as practicing my Retreat Technique…” She could only convince herself that way.
Just as she was wearing a worried expression, Xiao Qi, whom she had met yesterday, jumped out from behind her and slapped Hua Jian’s shoulder hard.
“Hua Jian, you’re here so early!”
Hua Jian was hit square on by the surprise attack from behind. She pitched forward and, before Xiao Qi’s horrified eyes, landed on the ground with a thud.
“Junior Sister Hua Jian, are you okay?!”
Hearing Xiao Qi’s panicked voice and being clumsily helped up, Hua Jian felt that Xiao Qi probably hadn’t done it on purpose.
This girl was simply brainless. She was the legendary person who could almost feed a flower to death; it wasn’t hard to believe she had forgotten the difference in their physical constitutions before slapping her.
As a Neimen Disciple, Xiao Qi was naturally a cultivator of the Ling Wang Realm, while Hua Jian was only a Spirit Master.
When a Spirit Master was slapped like that by a Ling Wang, how could they not fall to the ground?
“I’m fine, I’m fine. Senior Sister Xiao Qi, did you forget I’m only a Spirit Master?” Fortunately, Hua Jian’s body was in good shape.
Had it been any other Spirit Master, they might have suffered internal injuries from Xiao Qi’s hit.
Xiao Qi nodded repeatedly. Here at the station, she was the youngest and weakest Junior Sister.
With Hua Jian’s arrival, she hadn’t immediately registered the difference between this little sister and the Senior Brothers and Sisters she usually hung out with.
It wasn’t until she slapped Hua Jian to the ground just now that she realized the gap.
The various playful gestures she used with her seniors were an unbearable burden for Hua Jian.
Fortunately, Hua Jian hadn’t been broken by her; otherwise, she would have truly caused a disaster.
The two of them walked to the outside of Senior Sister Qiao’s house.
At that moment, Senior Sister Qiao was using Spiritual Power to move some flowers from the room out into the sun.
Seeing their movements and the faint traces of dirt on Hua Jian’s clothes, the clever Senior Sister Qiao instantly guessed what had happened.
A certain brainless individual had definitely done something bad.
“Xiao Qi!”
“Senior Sister, I was wrong!” Xiao Qi, who was supporting Hua Jian, trembled all over and nearly knelt down on the spot.
Looking at the furious Senior Sister Qiao, who looked like she was about to eat Xiao Qi alive, Hua Jian quickly said a few good words for her brainless Senior Sister, which saved Xiao Qi from punishment.
After all, while Xiao Qi was a bit silly, she was still a good person.
“You remember what we learned yesterday, right? Go, today’s little test is on the table in the room. Finish it yourself and bring it to me.” Senior Sister Qiao gave Xiao Qi a sharp rap on the forehead and shooed her into the house.
As for how well Xiao Qi would do on the test, she had a pretty good idea. Having taught Xiao Qi for so long, how could she not know how much the girl could remember in a day?
“Sigh, I always feel this child is better suited for Baishou Peak.”
After sighing and saying something bad about Xiao Qi, Senior Sister Qiao took out a small booklet from her sleeve and handed it to Hua Jian, asking if she had any foundation in planting Spiritual Flowers and Lingcao.
Hua Jian quickly mentioned that she had studied under the Lingcai Peak Master for a few days, saying she was now an old hand at making Fertilizer.
Hearing that Hua Jian had studied under the Lingcai Peak Master, Senior Sister Qiao’s reaction wasn’t too intense.
She herself was also considered a student of the Peak Master, though she hadn’t been formally taken as a Direct Disciple.
Or rather, almost every Imperial-grade disciple on Lingcai Peak had been taught by the Peak Master to some extent.
In this regard, the Peak Master was very open; she would teach what needed to be taught, including things other Peak Masters wouldn’t.
“Oh? Then come, use these materials to make a batch of Fertilizer.”
Since Hua Jian said she could do it, Senior Sister Qiao naturally wanted to see just how capable she was.
If her skills were up to par, she could skip the Fertilizer lesson and teach Hua Jian more advanced things.
Then, Senior Sister Qiao witnessed Hua Jian completing the production of Fertilizer in an extremely short time, using a method that could never be found in any textbook.
The sight of several hands working together to produce something was truly a challenge to normal human perception.
For a moment, Senior Sister Qiao didn’t even know how to evaluate Hua Jian’s technique.
The teaching materials didn’t say how to grade such work. She had no right to criticize a skill that was unique in the world.
If Hua Jian became a Great One in the future and this technique was written into new textbooks, where would she hide her face?
So, she would skip the process score and look at the results.
Pinching some of the powdered Fertilizer between her fingers, Senior Sister Qiao noticed that the appearance of this Fertilizer was also different from what was described in the textbooks.
The batch Hua Jian made was much finer than what was in the books. That couldn’t be considered a loss of points, could it?
This was more of a “standard answer” than the actual standard answer.
If this Fertilizer were used as the reference answer in the future, the Cultivators who just joined Lingcai Peak would probably be driven to tears.
While Senior Sister Qiao was pondering how many points to give Hua Jian, Xiao Qi, who had finished her questions, ran over happily with her paper. “Senior Sister, I’m done!”
Hearing Xiao Qi’s voice, Senior Sister Qiao set down the Fertilizer Hua Jian had made and took Xiao Qi’s paper to look it over.
Then, she handed the paper to Hua Jian.
“You take a look at the questions she answered.”
Hua Jian didn’t know why Senior Sister Qiao wanted her to see the paper, but once she took it, she was startled by the wild, sprawling characters on it.
She had thought her own handwriting was quite poor in this world, but it turned out there was always someone better — or in this case, worse.
Xiao Qi’s handwriting was actually worse than hers.
The most terrifying thing was that there were even typos on Xiao Qi’s paper! The kind of typos that any normal person could spot at a glance!
However, aside from the typos, the other content on the paper didn’t have many points of contention; there were no glaring errors.
At least it wasn’t a case where the Senior Sister asked how to treat a wilted flower and Xiao Qi answered that it should be made into stew.
It seemed Xiao Qi’s learning attitude was very serious; she was just truly a bit brainless.
“Senior Sister, is this the Fertilizer you made? It’s shiny and looks so impressive!”
While Hua Jian was looking at Xiao Qi’s paper, Xiao Qi was also observing Hua Jian’s work.
However, she didn’t associate the Fertilizer with Hua Jian at all. After all, the quality was so high it had to be made by the Senior Sister, right?
Senior Sister Qiao’s eyes darted around, and the corners of her mouth curled up slightly.
“That’s right. You and Hua Jian go and apply this Fertilizer to the flower you tormented for 2 days. Then, record every reaction the flower has after being fertilized.”
“Ooh, okay!”
Xiao Qi picked up the Fertilizer and turned to shout at Hua Jian, “Junior Sister Hua Jian, let’s go!”
Hua Jian returned the paper to Senior Sister Qiao, asking with her eyes what she was up to now.
Senior Sister Qiao blinked playfully at Hua Jian, as if saying, ‘Let Xiao Qi be the one to grade this question.’
Even if Xiao Qi mistakenly thought the Fertilizer was made by Senior Sister Qiao, given the girl’s brainless nature, she would likely speak up immediately if she encountered any issues.
By having Hua Jian follow Xiao Qi, Senior Sister Qiao was letting Hua Jian hear the most honest user review.
Hua Jian had no response to Senior Sister Qiao’s little scheme. It sounded plausible, but was it really? With such confusion, she walked into the house with Xiao Qi.
As they walked, she listened to Xiao Qi voice her opinions on the Fertilizer: “Could this be something Senior Sister bought from somewhere else instead of making it herself? I remember the Fertilizer Senior Sister made before wasn’t like this.”
“Such a beautiful thing — is it really Fertilizer? How strange.”
Hua Jian was getting embarrassed by the praise and quickly coughed to interrupt Xiao Qi’s compliments. “Senior Sister Xiao Qi, is this Fertilizer very special?”
“Yes! You might not know, but making Fertilizer is a very important lesson we learn when we join. I was stuck for nearly 1 month just on how to make qualified Fertilizer,” Xiao Qi said, nodding seriously.
“One of the requirements is that after the Fertilizer is made, there can’t be large particles. It has to be able to pass through a sieve with holes as small as a needle point…”
Xiao Qi rambled on about how difficult the assessment was and how much effort she had spent just to barely pass.
Then her tone shifted as she looked at the Fertilizer in her arms.
“But look at this Fertilizer. The various materials are mixed so evenly that they’ve completely fused together. It feels as soft as water in my hands. I think it could pass through even the smallest sieve without any trouble.”
“Sorry, sorry, I forgot you haven’t taken these courses yet. To put it simply, the value of this Fertilizer is much, much higher than the cost of its raw materials. Other Senior Brothers and Sisters would pay a high price for Fertilizer of this quality.”
Hua Jian’s face turned even redder. This sincere praise was a bit much for her to handle. ‘So the Fertilizer I made is that impressive…’
As they spoke, the two had already arrived beside the wilted flower Hua Jian had seen yesterday.
Hua Jian glanced at the little flower. Compared to yesterday, it seemed to have come back to life a little.
It seemed the Senior Sister had taken very good care of it.
Standing before her masterpiece, Xiao Qi also had a hint of embarrassment on her face.
After all, being able to feed a flower into this state was quite unique.
“I remember the book said this kind of Fertilizer is mixed with this kind of water, and then poured at this speed…”
Hua Jian listened as Xiao Qi recited some knowledge points, poured the Fertilizer she had made into a medium-sized watering can, and then slowly began to water the wilted flower.
Following Xiao Qi’s actions, Hua Jian felt a joyous emotion coming from the little flower, as if it were saying, ‘So delicious!’
But when Xiao Qi had poured about half of the water in the can, Hua Jian felt the emotion from the flower change.
It went from ‘So delicious’ to ‘I’m so full, my stomach is about to burst.’
“Senior Sister, stop quickly! It’s reached its limit,” Hua Jian hastily said to Xiao Qi.
“Huh?” Although Xiao Qi didn’t understand the situation, she obediently stopped the watering action.
“But there’s still half of the Fertilizer left.”
Compared to the leftover Fertilizer, another thing made Xiao Qi even more curious — how did Hua Jian know the flower had reached its limit?
She couldn’t see anything wrong with the flower’s appearance.
“Hua Jian, how did you know it reached its limit?”
“It told me itself,” Hua Jian answered honestly.
Xiao Qi tilted her head. A few seconds later, her mouth fell open, and her eyes filled with immense admiration.
“So cool!”