A Ten-out-of-Ten Beauty

The Golden Rainbow Sword Sect's market.

As always, the market nestled among the valleys bustled with people and noise.

Shops of every description stood shoulder to shoulder along both sides of the broad flagstone street.

Among the crowds moving back and forth were Golden Rainbow Sword Sect disciples in robes of various colors, scions of Aristocratic Clans, and travel-worn Rogue Cultivators in plain clothes.

Vendors' cries, the sound of bargaining, and the crisp clink of Spirit Stones mingled into a lively marketplace hubbub.

With the Golden Rainbow Sword Sect, that colossus, standing guard, this market ranked among the safest in all of Qin Province.

As a scion of a small Lineage, Lu Yang had visited other markets before.

To put it nicely, those places were a murky mix of fish and dragons. To put it bluntly, they were hunting grounds where Bandit Cultivators and Evil Cultivators lay in wait for prey.

But here, no Evil Cultivator or Bandit Cultivator dared come close and run amok.

For that very reason, many Rogue Cultivators would rather travel for several extra days to trade at this market.

Using his sect token, Lu Yang passed through the checkpoint at the market entrance with ease and stepped into the bustling streets.

He glanced down at the location Lin Ying had sent through the sect's voice transmission, got his bearings, and followed the flagstone road farther in.

Before long, he spotted Lin Ying's stall in the distance.

To his surprise, the people standing beside Lin Ying this time weren't the two outer sect senior brothers from before, but an unfamiliar female cultivator.

The female cultivator also wore outer sect disciple robes and had a tall, slender figure.

She stood with her hands behind her back, a longsword slung diagonally across it. Its scabbard was plain and old-fashioned, with a faint, keen chill emanating from it.

Her brows and eyes were full of heroic spirit, her nose was high-bridged, and her eyes were as deep as ancient wells. Standing there, she looked like a sharp sword with its edge concealed.

And her face was even a shade more beautiful than Lin Ying's.

[Ten-out-of-ten beauty detected!]

A notification silently appeared on the light screen before his eyes.

Lu Yang raised an eyebrow and couldn't help marveling to himself.

The cultivation world really was a place that produced beauties in abundance.

A ten-out-of-ten beauty might not appear even once in a generation across all of Blue Star in his previous life.

Yet here he was, casually running into one at the sect market.

One was gentle as a little white flower, the other as heroic as an immortal of the sword.

The two great beauties stood side by side behind the stall, like a pair of magnets in the bustling market, holding the gazes of everyone around them fast.

Many passing customers slowed their steps in front of the stall from time to time, pretending to look down at the pill bottles on display, but their gazes drifted uncontrollably toward the two women.

Lin Ying had a gentle disposition, but the female cultivator beside her was clearly the exact opposite.

Whenever a cultivator's gaze lingered on them a little too long, she would snap her eyes up and sweep a look at them, her gaze as sharp as a tangible sword's edge.

Even standing so far away, Lu Yang could sense a faint trace of sword intent mixed into that gaze.

The slight sting of that sharpness against their skin made quite a few cultivators' expressions change on the spot.

Coupled with the Golden Rainbow Sword Sect outer disciple robes the two wore, the customers who wanted to sneak a few more looks immediately acted as though they'd been pricked with a needle, hastily lowering their heads and slipping away.

Lin Ying turned her head to look at the girl beside her and said helplessly, "Nanyue, rein in your sword intent a little. You're going to scare away everyone who actually wants to buy pills."

Qin Nanyue pursed her lips and snorted, utterly unconcerned. "Yingying, why don't you just sell the pills to the sect? Why come all the way here to set up a stall and waste your time?"

Lin Ying gave her a helpless look.

Her friend had been born into a Golden Core Aristocratic Clan and raised with a golden spoon in her mouth. How could she understand Lin Ying's difficulties?

She patiently explained, "If I sell them to the sect, the purchase price is a little lower than the market price. Setting up a stall takes more work, but I can earn a few more Spirit Stones."

Pill Peak disciples had a fixed pill-refining assignment to complete each month, and they were free to do as they wished with whatever they produced beyond that.

The sect would naturally buy those extra pills, but its price was about five percent lower than what they could get by selling them individually at the market.

Five percent didn't sound like much, but as the days and months piled up, it amounted to a considerable sum for Lin Ying.

The Lineage behind her was only middling in strength, and the resources it could give her were extremely limited.

She had to earn every Spirit Stone herself, one furnace of pills at a time.

Naturally, she had to count every coin and earn whatever extra she could.

Qin Nanyue, on the other hand, came from the Qin Household, a Golden Core Aristocratic Clan, and had never lacked Cultivation Resources growing up. Naturally, it was hard for her to truly understand why Lin Ying had to be so careful with her money.

"All right, all right, our Yingying knows how to run a thrifty household, happy?" Qin Nanyue drawled, a teasing note in her voice.

Then, as though remembering something, she leaned closer, a trace of curiosity appearing in her eyes. "By the way, what made you suddenly ask me to keep you company at your stall today? You've never done that before."

Lin Ying's eyes flickered slightly, and a handsome figure involuntarily surfaced in her mind.

The young man climbing the mountain steps in the fading sunlight, the serious, focused look on his face as he ate, and those words so blunt they had made her blush and her heart race: "Our hearts are in harmony."

She suppressed the little ripple rising in her heart and smiled faintly, putting on a composed air. "Because if you're here, those sticky pests won't dare follow me."

Qin Nanyue folded her arms and gave a snort of feigned displeasure. "Hmph, so you're using me as a bodyguard, you girl."

Lin Ying immediately pressed her palms together, her manner taking on a girlish playfulness she showed only around her close friend. "Nanyue, you're the best. I'll treat you to a meal next time," she said sweetly. "Besides, weren't you planning to come browse the market today anyway?"

Qin Nanyue was so amused by her behavior that she couldn't keep a straight face, and the corners of her lips lifted. "You said it, so remember to treat me next time. Honestly, you're too easygoing. If those flies dare come back, why not just swat them dead?"

Lin Ying rolled her eyes at her, caught between laughter and exasperation. "I'm not like you. You're strong in a fight, and you have a powerful background."

Hearing that, Qin Nanyue understood Lin Ying's situation and said no more about it.

She raised a hand and patted Lin Ying's shoulder, comforting her. "With your talent for pill refining, Yingying, you'll definitely have no trouble entering the inner sect in the future. If your luck is a little better, you might even become a pill-refining elder of Pill Peak."

A look of longing appeared in Lin Ying's eyes, but she soon shook her head gently. "Getting into the inner sect is already my greatest goal. I wouldn't dare dream of becoming an elder."

To enter the inner sect, one needed a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivation as a foundation.

With her pill-refining skills on top of that, at least she wouldn't be at the bottom of the inner sect.

Once her position was secure, she could give back to her Lineage and give her family a better life.

That was already the best future she could envision.

As for an inner sect elder... one needed a Golden Core Realm cultivation just to qualify.

Although she had a high-grade Spirit Root, breaking through to the Golden Core Realm would be as hard as ascending to the heavens without a vast quantity of resources to support her.

She didn't dare hope for it at all.

Just as Lin Ying was going over her future path in her mind again and again, she suddenly caught sight of a figure approaching through the crowd.

She knew that figure all too well.

These past few days, whenever she had nothing to do between cultivation sessions, that figure had appeared unbidden in her mind.

His well-proportioned features, his unworldly bearing, and the smile at the corners of his lips when he spoke, which somehow put her at ease.

She remembered every detail clearly.

Almost without thinking, Lin Ying rose from behind the stall. A smile blossomed on her face without her realizing it, gentle yet touched with an unmistakable brightness.

At the same time, a thought suddenly sprang into her mind: Junior Brother Lu's talent doesn't seem all that great... If he can't break through to the Golden Core Realm in the future either, could the two of us support each other as we go on?

The moment the thought appeared, she hastily pushed it down, even the tips of her ears growing hot.

What am I thinking?

Judging by Junior Brother Lu's bearing and how lavishly he spent, his background was probably no worse than Nanyue's.

Even if his Spirit Root was only mid-grade, with plenty of resources to back him, his chances of breaking through to the Golden Core Realm were far higher than hers.

Qin Nanyue was standing beside her with her arms folded, bored out of her mind, when she caught sight of the smile blooming on Lin Ying's face and couldn't help freezing for a moment.

She and Lin Ying had known each other for several years.

Yingying had always been gentle and reserved, polite to everyone but rarely letting her true emotions show on her face.

Only when she was with Qin Nanyue, her closest friend, did she smile a little more openly.

But this smile... it was bright and vivid, with a hint of eagerness that even Lin Ying herself hadn't noticed.

It was obviously not meant for her.

Then who was it for?

Did Lin Ying have another close friend outside that she didn't know about?

A sudden, indescribable sourness welled up in Qin Nanyue's heart.

She followed Lin Ying's gaze and soon saw a young man making his way toward them through the crowd.

When she saw what the young man looked like, Qin Nanyue froze. A thought sprang uncontrollably into her mind.

How can someone be that good-looking...?

His features were impeccably handsome, and his bearing was ethereal and unworldly.

Amid the noisy stream of people in the market, he seemed to carry a soft-focus filter of his own, turning the cultivators, tiled roofs, and stalls around him into faint shadows that served only as his backdrop.

A second thought followed close behind: An entry disciple? How come I've never heard of him before? Looking like that, he ought to have at least some reputation in the sect, shouldn't he?

In all her years at the sect, she had seen more handsome young talents than she could count, but none had ever looked like this.

By now, Lu Yang was used to other people staring at him.

After all, his charm stat rose by 0.1 every day without fail, making his looks and bearing more outstanding with each passing day.

The contours of his features didn't seem to have changed much, but their overall harmony kept improving in a way as subtle as rain moistening the earth.

He became more and more pleasing to look at, harder and harder to look away from.

But the greatest change of all was in his bearing.

It had grown increasingly ethereal and clear, even showing a faint, tranquil sense of heaven and man becoming one. Walking among the crowd, he stood apart like a crane among chickens.

Sometimes he couldn't help wondering: if his charm stat kept rising like this, would he eventually come to look like the banished immortals of legend?

For that same reason, whenever he went out around the entry disciple residences now, he drew a crowd of gazes.

The female disciples in particular sent wave after wave of glances his way, and the heat in their eyes sometimes truly made him feel as though they wanted nothing more than to swallow him whole on the spot.

Sometimes Lu Yang himself found it rather troubling.

Being too handsome seemed to be a problem too.

Before coming to the market, he had prepared himself to be gawked at.

Sure enough, all along the way, the gazes cast at him from every direction never stopped.

He had long since mastered the art of ignoring them and walked straight through the onlookers.

He stopped in front of Lin Ying's stall and gave her a warm smile. "Senior Sister Lin, I'm here."

The moment he finished speaking, Qin Nanyue whipped her head around, her eyes wide as she stared at Lin Ying in disbelief.

Her gaze was full of shock and accusation.

You little rascal! You're in love, and you didn't even tell me?!

And...

She couldn't help sneaking another glance at Lu Yang.

Isn't your sweetheart a little too good-looking?!