Wanling Sect was currently very anxious and extremely angry.
Jade Pool was being far too inhumane.
They were actually pulling such underhanded tricks behind the scenes; after whisking Hua Jian away, they refused to let her go, refusing to compete fairly.
“Shameless! So utterly shameless!”
Five whole days after Hua Jian had been taken away, Wanling Sect finally received some good news.
The girl who had accompanied Hua Jian to the Ascension City seemed to have appeared at the Arena in the Outer City.
On the Arena, that girl had fought for one whole day with a Black Sword in hand, achieving a quite impressive track record.
Someone from the Jian Sect had already noticed her and seemed intended to guide her into joining their sect.
But none of that was important. What mattered was where Hua Jian was!
Her companion had come out, so why hadn’t she appeared herself?
‘Could she really be under house arrest in the Sky City by the evil Jade Pool, unable to move a single step?’
At the thought that her mission might fail directly due to Jade Pool’s shamelessness, the red-clothed girl from Lingcaifeng grew frantic.
This was a high-priority mission personally assigned by her Master; if she failed to do it well, her status in her Master’s heart would surely plummet.
At this moment, she felt like taking a blade and rushing into Jade Pool’s Sky City to rescue her designated Junior Sister from Jade Pool’s poisonous clutches.
Unfortunately, the cultivators of Lingcaifeng were not the type that focused on combat.
She was essentially clerical staff and did not possess such powerful fighting strength.
“Senior Sister Luo! Good news, truly good news!”
While she was fretting, a girl who had followed her from Lingcaifeng rushed into the room, her face full of pleasant surprise.
“Our people saw Hua Jian and Linglong walking out of the Jade Pool’s building!”
“What?!” Senior Sister Luo slammed the table forcefully and stood up with a start. “Where did they go?”
“Uh, they went toward the Penglai area. Perhaps they’re going to try Penglai’s Spirit Wine?”
“Let’s go! We’re going too. Even if we can’t take her by force, we have to let little sister Hua Jian know that our Wanling Sect is still keeping an eye on her!”
Wanling Sect hadn’t guessed wrong this time; Hua Jian and Linglong were indeed heading toward Penglai’s Spirit Wine.
As the saying goes, since they were already here, they had to experience the unique specialties of the other sects.
Over the past few days, Hua Jian had followed Linglong around the Sky City of Jade Pool, receiving incredibly enthusiastic hospitality from the Senior Sisters there, which made Hua Jian feel a bit uncomfortable.
She was the kind of child who would bloom with just a little sunlight, but too much sunlight made her miss the cloudy days.
This trip out was also to experience other places that weren’t quite so intense.
‘I shouldn’t be treated like a little princess in the Penglai territory next to Jade Pool, right?’
“The small island Penglai uses to receive guests is over there. Let’s fly straight over,” Linglong said, pointing to a small black dot within the Penglai territory.
Penglai’s territory was a massive lake, with islands of various sizes scattered across it like stars on a board. Ordinary guests could only land on a few fixed islands.
On those islands were the restaurants with the best business in the entire Inner City, and perhaps all of Ascension City.
While flying toward Penglai’s guest island, Linglong explained to Hua Jian why Penglai’s restaurant business was so successful.
“Penglai’s Spirit Wine is different from secular alcohol. It’s more like a type of Alchemy Pill with wine as its carrier. Drinking Penglai’s Spirit Wine is just like consuming Alchemy Pills; not only does it not harm the body, but it can also increase one’s cultivation.”
“And for cultivators who usually face a lot of pressure, Spirit Wine allows them to briefly escape those troubles and immerse themselves in pure joy…”
That being said, Linglong still very seriously reminded Hua Jian not to actually become addicted to alcohol.
She didn’t want her Junior Sister to turn into one of those swaying drunks.
“Don’t worry, trust my self-control!” Hua Jian patted her chest, indicating that Linglong could fully trust her in this regard.
As they spoke, an island wafting with the fragrance of wine appeared not far away.
The most eye-catching feature on this island was undoubtedly a large pavilion, which was likely the Penglai restaurant.
Cultivators were constantly entering and leaving the pavilion.
Those going in generally had smiles on their faces with their arms around each other’s shoulders, while those coming out were a strange sight indeed.
After all, who knew what they would turn into once they were drunk?
Moreover, because Penglai didn’t restrict its guests to women like Jade Pool did, the atmosphere here seemed… quite lively.
Even for cultivators, the personality traits brought about by innate gender were unavoidable.
“In my memory, the smell of alcohol isn’t very pleasant, but the wine here is actually fragrant…” Hua Jian sniffed her nose and muttered softly.
It wasn’t that she hadn’t seen alcohol before.
Back when she was working various jobs, she had smelled it, and had even been fed a few cups by a certain older sister who wished to remain anonymous.
That older sister said the wine was very valuable and that ordinary people couldn’t afford it, but Hua Jian didn’t think it tasted that good. It had felt like it was burning her throat.
But the Spirit Wine here in Penglai seemed different. Just from the scent alone, it was on a completely different level than the “fine wines” she had tasted before.
“Because the wine here is Spirit Wine,” Linglong said as she took Hua Jian’s hand, landed steadily, and walked toward the entrance of the restaurant.
Several Outer Sect Disciples of Penglai in neat uniforms stood outside the restaurant’s entrance. Seeing Linglong and Hua Jian approaching together, they immediately greeted them with faces full of smiles.
“Do you two guests have a reservation?”
Naturally, they had no reservation.
Seeing Linglong shake her head, the Penglai disciple acting as a receptionist quickly stated that it was fine, but they could only arrange a seat in the main hall for them.
This didn’t really matter. Linglong didn’t have the typical spoiled temper of a young lady who insisted on a private room.
Besides, it was quite normal for private booths to require reservations.
Led into the restaurant by the Penglai disciple, the two followed him up to the second floor and sat at a spot near the window.
From here, they could still see the scenery outside, making it quite a good location.
Linglong ordered a few dishes with Penglai’s unique characteristics from the menu provided by the Penglai disciple.
Then, after hesitating for a moment among the various types of Spirit Wine, she chose the one least likely to intoxicate.
She felt that since this was Hua Jian’s first time trying Penglai’s Spirit Wine, it was better to be cautious.
The Spirit Wine here was specifically brewed for drinking, unlike the Spirit Wine Su Xiaoxiao had given Hua Jian before.
Hua Jian had long since finished the Spirit Wine Su Xiaoxiao gave her as a cultivation acceleration potion.
To be honest, Hua Jian didn’t really consider that stuff to be wine.
Though it had an alcoholic scent, it was even worse than ordinary wine when it came to intoxication; it was only because it was concentrated that it had been able to knock Linglong out.
‘Sigh, I wonder when I’ll see Lady Xiao again.’ Thinking of the Spirit Wine from Su Xiaoxiao, Hua Jian missed that gentle older sister.
Only Hua Jian could pull off the stunt of reminiscing about a former girlfriend in front of her current one.
Fortunately, Linglong was fairly broad-minded, and Su Xiaoxiao didn’t pose a huge threat to her, so Hua Jian was spared another flick to the forehead.
While waiting for the food to be served, Hua Jian teased the small Spirit Civet that had already poked its head out from her collar, while keeping her ears pricked to listen to the idle chatter of the nearby cultivators.
A restaurant with such a mix of people was the most efficient place to gather information.
Furthermore, the cultivators who could afford to drink here were at least Outer Sect Disciples of a Saint Sect, so the quality of information was much higher than elsewhere.
Soon, Hua Jian heard some very interesting topics. For example, the Inner Sect had been busy to the point of madness recently.
Every single disciple of the sects had basically been pressed into service to speed up the construction of buildings needed for the Ascension Gathering.
Some people were complaining, saying that the Ascension Gathering had been held so many times already, so why did the procedure suddenly have to be changed, making them so busy their feet barely touched the ground?
Speaking of which, Hua Jian looked curiously at Linglong, wanting to ask exactly what the Ascension Gathering was being changed into.
Faced with Hua Jian’s question, Linglong shook her head calmly, indicating that she didn’t know the specifics of the changes either.
She had also just arrived at Ascension City, and she had never even participated in the Ascension Gathering herself. The procedures she knew were all from books.
In other words, Linglong was a genuine armchair theorist with zero practical experience.
“I remember the original process was that over a few days, cultivators who wanted to join a Saint Sect would undergo several rounds of talent testing, and then participate in the entrance examinations of various sects. If they passed the exams, they could be admitted into the Saint Sect.”
The process of the Ascension Gathering wasn’t complicated at all.
It was just like a school recruiting students: first, the least talented batch was filtered out, and then disciples who could be admitted were selected through examinations from the cultivators with decent talent.
“Generally speaking, after entering a Saint Sect through the Ascension Gathering, one would be placed in the Outer Sect. If one could stand out in the Outer Sect’s annual evaluation, they could be promoted to the Inner Sect…”
“Of course, a genius like you can directly enter the Inner Sect to practice.”
The significance of the Ascension Gathering was both great and small. Regardless, it was the easiest path for cultivators to enter a Saint Sect.
However, most cultivators who entered a Saint Sect this way could only stay in the Outer Sect, being Saint Sect disciples who didn’t quite look like Saint Sect disciples.
Many Outer Sect Disciples joked that they didn’t even have the face to call themselves Saint Sect disciples; only those in the Inner Sect were true disciples.
“But even the Outer Sect of a Saint Sect is somewhat better than those other sects.”
There weren’t only the Five Great Sacred Sects in the world; other sects of various sizes still existed.
However, the disciples they could recruit were basically those who had been filtered out by the Saint Sects.
The quality of their disciples couldn’t even compare to the Saint Sect’s Outer Sect.
Even if they had explosive luck and picked up a disciple with extraordinary talent, they couldn’t keep them.
There was a high probability they would have to give up that genius disciple under the overt or covert pressure of the Saint Sects.
As for the genius’s own thoughts… to be honest, not many people cared.
Often, those geniuses snatched back to the Saint Sects would actually thank the Saint Sects for helping them escape their misery.
After all, these snatched geniuses entered the Saint Sects directly into the Inner Sect.
Jumping from a small ordinary sect to a Saint Sect’s Inner Sect was like allowing an ordinary person to ascend to immortality directly. Who could handle such a gap?
In a small sect, a genius wouldn’t even have access to a Cultivation Chamber and would have to practice miserably.
But once in the Saint Sect’s Inner Sect, advanced Cultivation Chambers were freely available, and various cultivation resources were provided in abundance.
As long as you practiced fast enough, the sect would continuously provide resources, leaving you with no worries.
Anyone would find such temptation hard to resist.
“Those who had a good relationship with their original sect would find ways to do something for it after becoming stronger. Those with a bad relationship might even trip up their original sect…” Linglong said softly.
As she spoke, the dishes they ordered were served.
As the plates and Spirit Wine were arranged one by one, the two began to eat and chat about various details and interesting facts about the Saint Sects.
Naturally, it was mostly Hua Jian asking and Linglong answering.
Linglong’s answers weren’t necessarily correct, either. After all, she only knew more about Jade Pool; her knowledge of other sects was merely hearsay.
The Spirit Wine Linglong ordered this time was the most conservative kind. To Hua Jian, it tasted almost like fruit juice. She couldn’t even taste any alcohol after drinking a whole cup.
However, her body still began to warm up slightly. This was probably the only proof that this stuff was actually Spirit Wine.
“But in recent years, such things have become quite rare. Even if most ordinary sects get a genius, they will let them try their luck here once they reach the age to participate in the Ascension Gathering to see if they can be selected by a Saint Sect.”
“If it’s just an ordinary genius, between the Saint Sect’s Outer Sect and their old sect, the probability of them choosing the familiar old sect isn’t small, and the Saint Sect won’t step in to play the villain.”
After all, what the Saint Sects wanted were only the top-tier geniuses. They didn’t mind leaving a few minor geniuses for the ordinary sects below.
The resources of the Saint Sects were also limited. It wasn’t a bad thing to let the ordinary sects below share some of the pressure of nurturing minor geniuses.
“I see. So that means if I wasn’t so powerful, you wouldn’t have cared about me so much?”
Hua Jian’s question caught Linglong off guard.
A few seconds later, she glared at Hua Jian and retorted, “If you weren’t so powerful, you would have been sent out of the Secret Realm by my Thunder Magic long ago.”
What attracted Linglong’s attention was not just Hua Jian’s unconventional battle tactics, but also her movement techniques, which were agile enough to create a massive gap between her and cultivators of the same rank.
If Hua Jian had truly been weak, she wouldn’t have even lasted until Linglong showed mercy; she would have been struck out of the Secret Realm by a reactive strike from Linglong, and everything that followed wouldn’t have happened.
“Haha, I didn’t know you were so powerful back then.” Hua Jian laughed awkwardly twice.
Back then, being young and frivolous and not recognizing Linglong, who could have imagined that the Saintess of Jade Pool would appear in such a small pond?
She would definitely not make such a mistake now!
“Don’t worry, I’ve learned my lesson. I will definitely not provoke someone I can’t afford to provoke again.”
“Are you sure?” Linglong held her Spirit Wine, not believing Hua Jian’s nonsense.
“Of course I’m sure.”
“But you don’t even know who shouldn’t be provoked.” Linglong pointed out a fatal flaw in Hua Jian.
She believed in Hua Jian’s instinct to seek profit and avoid harm, but how would Hua Jian know who could or couldn’t be provoked?
Hua Jian probably didn’t know many geniuses in the Saint Sects.
That was the biggest problem.
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