A Rogue Cultivator at the Ninth Layer of Qi Refining?

A Rogue Cultivator at the Ninth Layer of Qi Refining?

"Impossible."

"My senior sisters dote on me the most. How could they possibly not know that I was captured by an evil cultivator?"

Tan Yurou refuted him decisively.

But as she looked at the three senior sisters before her, chatting and laughing as if nothing in the world could bother them, she felt uncertain too. All she could do was purse her little lips and approach with a gloomy expression.

"Junior Sister Yurou, you finally came."

"We were just about to look for you."

Xu Qing turned around. The moment she saw Tan Yurou, her face lit up with joy, but she soon realized that something was wrong.

Tan Yurou's expression was secondary. What mattered most was that the clean clothes she had been wearing from head to toe were now filthy, her hair was disheveled, and her cheeks were smeared with quite a bit of mud and grime.

Pfft.

The three senior sisters struggled not to laugh.

"Junior Sister Yurou, you couldn't have gone rolling around in the mud, could you? How did you get this dirty?"

"Didn't Master warn you before we came down the mountain? She told you not to play too wildly."

Zhao Ling laughed.

Under the teasing of her three senior sisters, Tan Yurou's gloomy little face quickly turned tear-streaked, and she could no longer hold back the grievances in her eyes.

"Senior Sister, I was just captured by an evil cultivator."

"I thought you would come looking for me."

She whimpered pitifully.

What?!

There was an evil cultivator here?!

The smiles vanished from the faces of Zhao Ling and the other two in an instant, replaced by solemnity and tension. Little did they know that by the time they raised their guard, it was already too late.

"Junior Sister Yurou, what exactly happened? Could the mud and grime on you be what was left behind after fighting with the evil cultivators?!"

Fang Xinyun asked solemnly.

At the same time, she was deeply concerned about Tan Yurou's condition. Only after confirming that her junior sister had not been left with even the slightest trace did she finally let out a sigh of relief.

If something had happened to Tan Yurou, they would not even have known how to explain themselves to Master when they returned!

Seeing that her three senior sisters had finally begun showing concern for her, Tan Yurou naturally poured out all her grievances. She recounted everything she had experienced, from beginning to end, leaving Zhao Ling and the other two gnashing their teeth and trembling with shock.

"How outrageous! Under this bright and righteous heaven, an evil cultivator actually dared to plot against a disciple of our Yunqing Sect. He truly doesn't know whether he lives or dies!"

"Junior Sister, rest assured. We will definitely uphold justice for you, find those evil cultivators who harmed you, and butcher every last one of them!"

Zhao Ling promised.

At this, Tan Yurou was rendered speechless.

Her three senior sisters' reactions were simply too slow. They had only just realized that they needed to capture the evil cultivators and avenge her. If she had not run into Qin Yang, she would probably already be lying there with her head separated from her body!

"Senior Sister, the three evil cultivators who captured me are already dead. This is Qin Yang—he was the one who rescued me."

Tan Yurou pointed at Qin Yang, who had long since come to stand behind her.

Zhao Ling and the other two exchanged glances, their faces filled with disbelief as they looked at Qin Yang suspiciously.

They had not noticed anything before, but now that they looked closely, they immediately understood.

Although Qin Yang did not possess the outstanding bearing they had, traces of cultivation were clearly present on him. Moreover, his strength seemed far from low, immediately drawing their full attention.

Only after confirming that Qin Yang was not an evil cultivator and that there was no unusual aura about him did Zhao Ling relax.

"Thank you, Fellow Daoist, for coming to our aid. You have helped us greatly. We are all disciples of the Yunqing Sect."

"May I ask where you are from and where you practice cultivation?"

Zhao Ling expressed her gratitude while making discreet inquiries.

Qin Yang gathered his courage. At last, it was his turn.

"To be honest, I am merely a Rogue Cultivator. I happened to come to Linhai Town this time and encountered you by chance, so I drew my blade to help."

"Senior Sister Zhao, Fellow Daoist Qin's strength is no small matter. He is at the Ninth Layer of the Qi Refining Realm. He also told me that he wishes to join our Yunqing Sect and become one of our disciples." Tan Yurou eagerly cut in from the side.

Upon learning that a Rogue Cultivator had actually reached the Ninth Layer of the Qi Refining Realm, Zhao Ling, Xu Qing, and Fang Xinyun were all shaken to the core, finding it difficult to believe.

One had to understand that Rogue Cultivators could obtain only pitifully few cultivation resources.

That alone was bad enough, but the most important issue was that no one could guide them into cultivation. That was the greatest problem of all.

Yet Qin Yang looked no more than one or two years younger than them, while his cultivation was already on par with theirs. How could someone like that possibly be a Rogue Cultivator?

"Fellow Daoist, you don't look much like a Rogue Cultivator."

Zhao Ling narrowed her eyes and scrutinized him.

Qin Yang had already prepared an explanation for this from the very beginning. He had expected them to wonder where his cultivation had come from.

He explained, "Speaking of it, I only embarked on the path of cultivation by chance. I once stumbled upon a spiritual herb in the mountains. After swallowing it, I somehow gained cultivation. Later, I encountered a wandering Daoist in the town where I lived."

"That Daoist saw that I possessed a spiritual root and already had some cultivation. He praised me highly, accepted me as his disciple, and taught me some rudimentary Cultivation Methods. Little by little, I cultivated to my current level."

"But although I possess Spiritual Power, I do not have any Cultivation Methods. After the Daoist who taught me left, I had no choice but to seek another way to continue cultivating. That was when I learned that the Yunqing Sect was a righteous orthodox sect famous far and wide, and I decided to come here!"

Qin Yang looked utterly sincere, his gaze focused and free of the slightest evasion.

After all, eighty percent of this explanation was true. It had merely been embellished in a few places.

Under such circumstances, Zhao Ling and the other two naturally believed him to some extent!

Zhao Ling nodded slightly. After pondering for a moment, she said, "It seems your fortuitous encounter was truly extraordinary. There are indeed many people in this world like you, who obtain Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures such as spiritual herbs by chance and then soar to the heavens in a single bound."

Xu Qing and Fang Xinyun also echoed her from the side.

As disciples of a righteous orthodox sect, they had heard many stories like this. They simply had not expected to witness one with their own eyes—and Qin Yang had happened to encounter their junior sister halfway here and rescued her.

After confirming that there was nothing wrong, the three women's trust in Qin Yang had increased considerably.

"It's just that you came at an unfortunate time. This is not when our Yunqing Sect accepts new disciples," Zhao Ling said apologetically.

The moment he heard this, Qin Yang felt as if the heavens had collapsed.

After finally coming up with a good path, he had been counting on becoming a disciple of the Yunqing Sect to break through to the Foundation Establishment Realm and resolve the poison of the Soul Locking Pill in his body. Yet now they were telling him that they were not accepting disciples?!

It was over. All his efforts had been in vain.

Qin Yang took a deep breath, unable to conceal the disappointment in his heart.

But at that moment, Xu Qing spoke up. "Senior Sister, have you forgotten? Although this is not the time when our Yunqing Sect publicly accepts disciples, as long as a disciple makes a recommendation, one can still obtain a chance to take the entrance examination in private!"