“Yesterday… what did we do?”
As Hua Jian opened her eyes while rubbing her aching head, she felt a heavy weight pressing down on her body.
Looking more closely, snow-white hair cascaded before her eyes.
Linglong’s beautiful little face—so perfect that not a single flaw could be seen even at this distance— was less than one finger’s width away from her own.
Had the two of them really spent the entire night sleeping on the floor like this?
Hua Jian tried to recall what happened after they finished drinking the previous night.
As the memories resurfaced, the color drained from her face, leaving her pale.
‘Alcohol really is harmful…’ How could she have said those things when Linglong was clearly in such a strange mood?
“Don’t you just want my body? Fine, I’ll give it to you!” Were those words really something she, Hua Jian, would say?
What was even more terrifying was that Linglong had been provoked by those words.
She had lunged forward and pinned Hua Jian directly to the floor.
While pinning her down, Linglong had muttered incoherently, “Who wants your body? Even if you gave it to me, I wouldn’t want it.”
However, her actions certainly didn’t match her words. She had held Hua Jian and started biting randomly.
It wasn’t exactly that she had ulterior motives; after all, she had bitten Hua Jian so many times, but only one had landed in a sensitive spot.
There were several teeth marks on Hua Jian’s neck, arms, and shoulders—evidence of Linglong’s poor aim.
As for the place she had actually hit… Hua Jian’s tongue was still throbbing with pain.
Hua Jian had no memory of what happened after that, but it seemed they hadn’t done anything too over the line.
They had simply slept on the floor all night, stacked on top of each other like a human sandwich.
“Linglong, wake up!” Hua Jian slapped Linglong’s face firmly, trying to wake the sleeping Little Dragon Girl.
When her attempts proved fruitless, Hua Jian had no choice but to reach out her wicked little hand toward the small Dragon Horns atop Linglong’s head, which looked as though they were crafted from white jade.
She remembered Linglong saying that a young dragon’s horns were extremely sensitive. If she wanted to wake her up, flicking the horns might be a good choice.
The moment Hua Jian’s fingertips touched the horns, Linglong’s eyelids flickered. When Hua Jian lightly scratched the horns with her fingernail, Linglong’s eyes snapped open instantly.
She was awake, but not fully conscious.
Instinctively, Linglong pushed her hands down for leverage, accidentally pinning one palm directly onto Hua Jian’s chest.
She pressed down so hard that Hua Jian nearly lost her breath.
Once Linglong stood up and felt the cool breeze, her logic finally returned.
Judging by how her face grew increasingly red, she likely remembered the events of the previous night as well.
For both her and Hua Jian, the events of last night were a bit too stimulating.
‘Drunken mistakes…’
“About yesterday…” Her lips trembled as she tried to explain what had happened, but no matter how much she searched her mind, she couldn’t find the right words.
It seemed she really could only blame everything on Penglai’s spirit wine.
“Let’s just pretend nothing happened yesterday. I didn’t provoke you, and you didn’t bite me,” Hua Jian quickly chimed in. It wasn’t just Linglong who was embarrassed; she felt awkward too.
Although, from a physical standpoint, she and Linglong had once again shared a deep, oral exchange, it had been a bit too violent.
What kind of decent person pries someone’s lips open just to take a hard bite out of their tongue?
Even someone as prone to overthinking as Hua Jian couldn’t convince herself that was a kiss.
“Mhm.”
“We should probably stop drinking in the future. You like to bite people when you’re drunk.”
“It’s only because you said those nonsensical things first. I got angry and couldn’t control myself.” Linglong plucked up her courage and glared at Hua Jian.
The blame couldn’t be placed entirely on her. The spirit wine had only lowered her self-control, but Hua Jian’s provocation was the true culprit.
If Hua Jian hadn’t provoked her, she wouldn’t have been enraged enough to do such a thing.
“Fine, fine, we’re both at fault. Let’s call it even,” Hua Jian said, sounding like an older sister indulging a child.
“Anyway, I believe you now when you say you have no feelings for me. If you were actually interested in me, your kissing technique is honestly pretty terrible.”
‘Still provoking me at a time like this?’ Linglong suddenly felt an urge to pin Hua Jian back to the floor and rub her face in it.
Ultimately, she restrained the thought.
“Whew… Let’s go back.”
“Okay.”
“So, have you made up your mind? You’re joining the Wanling Sect?”
Hua Jian fell silent for a moment. This time, even without the liquid courage of spirit wine, she gave a clear answer.
“Yes!”
……
Shiqi felt as though she had missed out on some truly juicy gossip.
Ever since that day the two spent alone, the relationship between Hua Jian and Linglong had become extremely subtle.
Hua Jian seemed to be intentionally ignoring Linglong, and Linglong seemed to be ignoring Hua Jian out of spite.
They acted as if they had gotten into a massive argument.
They didn’t even want to communicate directly; they had to use Shiqi as a middleman to speak to one another.
Despite living under the same roof, the two of them acted as if they belonged to two different worlds.
This made Shiqi desperately curious about what had happened that day to cause their relationship to spiral downward so sharply.
Yet, whenever she asked, they would both claim in unison that their relationship was as good as always and that nothing was wrong.
Shiqi couldn’t exactly put a sword to their throats to force the truth out of them, so she could only continue her days in a state of utter confusion.
After nearly half a month of this muddled situation, things finally took a turn. Linglong was forced to communicate directly with Hua Jian.
The reason was simple: the changes to the Ascension Gathering had finally been finalized. Linglong needed to inform Hua Jian and Shiqi about the change in the gathering’s procedure.
“Only a few people know this news right now. It won’t be announced to the Outer City until tomorrow,” Linglong said, her expression stiff as she spoke to Hua Jian and Shiqi.
Her tone carried a hint of faint confusion, as if she couldn’t understand why the procedure for the Ascension Gathering was being changed so drastically.
“It’s safe to say this Ascension Gathering will be completely different from previous ones. All past experience will be useless.”
As she spoke, Linglong slowly unfurled a scroll. The characters upon it seemed to come to life, flying off the paper and arranging themselves into a long passage of text above the scroll.
Hua Jian quickly scanned the text and sucked in a breath of cold air. This was a total overhaul of the entire Ascension Gathering process.
However, from a certain perspective, the disciples selected through this method would indeed be more formidable than those of the past.
The change was quite simple: aside from the initial talent screening, everything else would take place within a Secret Realm.
Cultivators would enter the Secret Realm to fight one another. The Saint Sects would score them based on their performance, and those with high scores would be recruited.
The Saint Sects would also set up various trials within the Secret Realm. Passing these trials would grant bonus points toward the respective Saint Sect.
“From what I know, some of these trials involve disarming mechanical Array Formations, while others involve combat. You’ll have to face Saint Sect disciples whose power has been suppressed to the peak of the Spirit Master Realm…” Linglong whispered details that weren’t written in the official rules.
“The combat performance of those disciples will also be included in their own evaluations for the year. If a Waimen Disciple performs well in the Secret Realm, they might even have the chance to be promoted to the Neimen for study.”
Hearing this addition, Hua Jian immediately felt a bit overwhelmed.
If that were the case, wouldn’t the Saint Sect disciples acting as examiners in the Secret Realm be as ferocious as rabid dogs?
There was no way they would intentionally go easy on anyone; that would be playing games with their own futures.
“Are there any clear scoring rules?” Hua Jian coughed and looked at Linglong.
Linglong shook her head. “No.”
How points were awarded was up to the elders of the Saint Sects. Disciples like them could only fight their hardest in the Secret Realm.
Hua Jian felt a massive headache coming on. Without clear rules, wouldn’t everyone be lost on what to do?
They couldn’t just enter the Secret Realm and start killing everyone they saw. She felt that wasn’t the kind of disciple the Saint Sects were looking for.
When she voiced this question, Linglong gave her an annoyed look.
“You don’t need to worry. The Wanling Sect will definitely accept you regardless. Even if you just find a spot to lie down and sleep once you enter the Secret Realm, it won’t matter.”
“That’s not necessarily true. If I actually did that, it would be bad for both me and the Saint Sect that wants to take me in.” Hua Jian waved her hands dismissively.
Right now, she only had the intent to join, but whether she could be successfully recruited remained an unknown.
If her performance was too terrible, she might end up unwanted by everyone.
She didn’t dare gamble on her value being so high that a Saint Sect would defy public opinion just to force her into their ranks.
She had to be undeniably excellent so that everyone would know her selection was deserved.
“Now that the rules have changed, it looks like I need to spend more time honing my combat skills.”
Under the original rules, Hua Jian would have only needed a few rounds of talent testing to join. With these new rules, combat was unavoidable.
There were so many geniuses in the world, and with the ravenous Saint Sect disciples in the mix, Hua Jian would be a fool to remain overconfident.
She understood perfectly well that pride goes before a fall.
“By the way, are we allowed to form teams in the Secret Realm? Like, a few people forming a Refugee Squad to take on other cultivators…” Hua Jian continued her inquiry.
Linglong shook her head, indicating she wasn’t sure. These were the only rules she knew, and they didn’t mention anything about teaming up.
However, even if teams were allowed, they likely wouldn’t be very large.
Cultivators wouldn’t know if grouping up too much would lower their scores, and no one dared gamble with their future.
Furthermore, the relationships between the most famous geniuses were quite complex.
They were visibly divided into three groups: Ji Caiyue’s group, the group containing Ji Caiyue’s fiancé and the Justice Swordsman, and independent loners like Shiqi who stayed out of trouble.
The Secret Realm was bound to be quite lively when the time came.
“Aren’t you best at fishing in troubled waters? You should be happy about these changes,” Linglong said with a slightly sarcastic tone.
Hua Jian knew Linglong was still angry with her. She didn’t dare provoke her further and could only lower her head submissively, accepting the sarcasm.
‘She’s providing for me, so I can’t talk back…’
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