Ascending to Tianyi Sect

The book said that Lin Jue and Gong Shaojun had entered a marriage alliance between their two families and become Dao Companions.

At the time, both of them had been Foundation Establishment cultivators.

Gong Shaojun devoted herself wholeheartedly to cultivation and paid no heed to worldly matters. Her cultivation advanced by leaps and bounds with each passing day.

Lin Jue had a weak temperament and disliked cultivation. Rather than organizing daily affairs, he preferred certain secret techniques from the mortal world.

More than twenty years after their marriage, Gong Shaojun had already become Arid City's youngest Nascent Soul cultivator, while Lin Jue still lingered in the Foundation Establishment Realm.

The vast gulf between their cultivation and personalities had turned the husband and wife into strangers beneath the same roof.

That was why, three days ago, he had brought Lin Yun and her mother to their doorstep.

Just as Lin Jue went mad and howled in fury, an old woman appeared, knocked him unconscious, and flashed over to Lin Qi.

Tian Qi immediately bowed respectfully. "Great Aunt!"

Great Aunt Lin took Lin Qi from Tian Qi's arms and spoke expressionlessly.

"Your master committed a grave mistake yet refuses to repent. He even dared to barge into Shaojun's room and make a scene. Pass down my order: make him reflect on Guilt Island for three months!"

Sweat beaded on Tian Qi's forehead. "Yes!"

Great Aunt Lin carried Lin Qi to her own side room.

Lin Qi remembered that the book had described Great Aunt Lin as the Lin Family's eldest ancestor by seniority, someone who had always wished to win over Gong Shaojun, a Nascent Soul cultivator.

Unfortunately, Lin Jue had failed to measure up. It would have been one thing if he and his wife merely did not get along, but he had even brought a mistress home from outside, breaking Gong Shaojun's heart and leaving her utterly disheartened. She had chosen to enter death seclusion.

The Lin Family's sole Nascent Soul cultivator had been driven into death seclusion. The news spread through Arid City overnight, and no one knew how many people secretly laughed at the Lin Family.

At the time, Great Aunt Lin had wanted nothing more than to twist Lin Jue's head right off his neck.

Lin Qi felt that Great Aunt Lin was someone she could trust for the moment.

She followed her great-aunt grandmother to the side room. Just as Great Aunt Lin was about to summon a maid to care for her, she suddenly said, "Great-aunt Grandmother, I want to cultivate at Tianyi Sect."

Great Aunt Lin stared at Lin Qi in shock. "Little Qi... you, you're not foolish anymore?"

Lin Qi fell silent for a moment before lowering her eyes in feigned sadness. "Yes. These past few days, I'd been muddleheaded and confused, but then my mind suddenly cleared. Though it seems I haven't fully recovered. Little Qi's reactions are always slower than other people's."

"It's all right. This is probably an aftereffect of your soul returning. Once you get used to it, you won't react so slowly anymore."

Lin Qi did not believe she was some so-called One Soul, but she did not refute her either. "I hope so."

She also handed Great Aunt Lin the Phoenix Feather Gong Shaojun had left behind for her to see.

Given Lin Qi's status, if she could cultivate and had a Nascent Soul cultivator supporting her within the sect, Great Aunt Lin would send her to Tianyi Sect no matter what.

It was precisely because she had calculated this that Lin Qi had revealed part of the truth to Great Aunt Lin.

No, to be precise, Gong Shaojun had calculated everything.

Lin Qi suddenly felt a little fortunate.

Luckily, she had opened her eyes only after Gong Shaojun entered seclusion. Otherwise, facing someone as shrewd as Gong Shaojun, she would definitely have given herself away!

Great Aunt Lin did not even need Lin Qi to lay out the pros and cons. Tears of excitement welled in her aged eyes, and only after a long while did she manage to say one word: "Good."

Once her excitement subsided, Great Aunt Lin remembered something. "Little Qi, you're only four this year. You'll have to wait until next year to test your spirit root and take the sect examination..."

Lin Qi froze as well.

Before she could answer, Great Aunt Lin had already thought of an explanation for her. "No! Since your mother left behind such a letter, she must have been certain that you could cultivate after going to Tianyi Sect!"

"Even if you can't cultivate, it would still be good to go early and learn some things."

She slapped her thigh and made the decision without another word!

"Little Qi, pack your things. Tomorrow, Great-aunt Grandmother will take you to Tianyi Sect!"

Lin Qi, whose reactions were always half a beat slow, stared blankly at the sky.

Cultivators truly moved at a speed beyond ordinary people's imagination.

On the day Lin Qi left the Lin Family, she encountered Lin Yun at the gate, crying and begging for someone to save her mother.

Sitting in the carriage, she quietly lifted the curtain and examined Lin Yun, who knelt on the ground.

She was only three years old, a tiny little figure curled into a ball as she knelt there weeping.

"Great-aunt Grandmother, please be merciful and save my mother's life! My mother has had a high fever for a full day and night. If this continues, she'll die!"

"Great-aunt Grandmother, please save her!"

Lin Yun desperately knocked her head against the ground until her voice turned hoarse.

Looking closely, Lin Qi could still see the wounds she had left on Lin Yun's face some time ago.

Great Aunt Lin lowered her eyes and swept a cold glance over her, then indifferently instructed the servants, "Take the Second Miss away!"

With that, she flicked her sleeve and boarded the carriage.

Lin Yun was forcibly dragged away by the servants.

Unable to struggle free, she cried and shouted, "Great-aunt Grandmother, please save my mother!"

Great Aunt Lin ignored her and told the attendant driving the Fourth-tier Winged Horse, "Set off!"

Through the carriage window, Lin Qi could see Lin Yun's despairing and resentful gaze.

She could not help thinking of the plot from the book.

Lin Yun's birth mother had died from this very illness.

Lin Jue had been confined for three months and happened to miss this matter. By the time he returned, he was met with Great Aunt Lin's subsequent string of punishments and had no attention to spare for Lin Yun at all.

In the short time since entering the Lin Family, Lin Yun had become a true orphan.

The death of her birth mother, the humiliation of being bullied by everyone in the Lin Family... This was how her hatred for the Lin Family piled up bit by bit.

So much so that later, even though she knew the enemy she had offended intended to slaughter the entire Lin Family in revenge, she calmly pretended that nothing had happened and never leaked a single word.

Thinking of the Lin Family, Lin Qi tilted her head toward Great Aunt Lin and said, "Great-aunt Grandmother, Lin Yun is also a member of the Lin Family now. If the resentment runs too deep, it will eventually lash back at the Lin Family."

It was not that Lin Qi was blindly overflowing with saintly compassion. Lin Yun had the halo of a female protagonist, after all. Those who opposed her or treated her badly would all meet miserable ends in the end.

Lin Qi was not sure whether her future cultivation could surpass Lin Yun, this Child of Destiny. For now, the only thing she could do was make the Lin Family form fewer grudges with her.

After hearing Lin Qi's words, Great Aunt Lin lowered her eyes and pondered for several seconds.

She reached out and stroked Lin Qi's head. "Good child, Great-aunt Grandmother understands."

In the blink of an eye, the Fourth-tier Winged Horse descended onto the plaza at the foot of Tianyi Sect's mountain.

As she got out of the carriage, Lin Qi looked around and found that many sects on the plaza were testing spirit roots and accepting disciples. Dozens of banners billowed in the wind.

People streamed back and forth, creating a truly magnificent sight.

Great Aunt Lin sighed with a complicated expression. "Today is the final day for the major sects to recruit disciples. I had thought I would never see such a scene again in this lifetime..."

Lin Qi stood silently at her side.

The former little Lin Qi had lacked one soul and one spirit, making cultivation impossible. Naturally, she would never have come to such places.

As for the disciples of the Lin Family's other branches, they were not worth having an ancestor personally escort them.

She wanted to say something to comfort her great-aunt grandmother, but a woman in fitted black clothes suddenly appeared before them.

"I am Feng Ling, True Monarch Qingyun's maid. I have come on her orders to receive you."

It turned out that Great Aunt Lin had sent a message to True Monarch Qingyun while on the road, confirming that Lin Qi's birth mother and True Monarch Qingyun had an agreement. Only then had she dared to boldly send Lin Qi to Tianyi Sect.

After they exchanged tokens, Great Aunt Lin entrusted Lin Qi to Feng Ling.

Lin Qi had assumed Feng Ling would take her straight to see True Monarch Qingyun, but Feng Ling instead settled her in a small courtyard. Beside it stood a row of side rooms for the children whose spirit roots had been tested during these past days and who had been accepted as disciples.

Feng Ling said, "Today is the last day of disciple recruitment. Rest here for the day, and tomorrow, return to the sect together with these disciples."

Lin Qi answered slowly, "Yes."

Her sluggish response made Feng Ling somewhat puzzled. Fortunately, Lin Qi was fair, tender, and well-behaved, so she did not appear overly cold or arrogant.