Chapter Eight: A Bet
At times like this, Bai Qiuran would sit outside as well, with only a screen separating master and disciple. He would comment on her progress that day while taking the opportunity to mock her.
Bai Qiuran rubbed his chin and corrected her. "It's hard not to think that, Ruowei. You really are a lot like me when I first joined the sect. We both have five-element Heavenly Spirit Roots, we're both passionate about cultivation, and we're both a little naive and foolishly sweet. On top of that, you're about to practice my cultivation method..."
"Hmph. Cultivators don't dwell on the past."
For instance, "Don't wear a padded bra while practicing," or "Orthodox cultivators should be humble and patient. No matter how hard you work, it'll take at least a hundred years to put on any weight." He always picked at Tang Ruowei's most sensitive spots.
Tang Ruowei pulled a long face and retorted, "Our backgrounds should be different, too."
The master and disciple covered their respective hearts like a pair of idiots and glared at each other in outrage.
The girl's face held a trace of nervousness, a trace of anticipation, and a blush from embarrassment.
Tang Ruowei, of course, wouldn't back down. She immediately counterattacked her master, Bai Qiuran, under the pretext of asking her teacher questions. For example, what it felt like to reach ten thousand levels in the Qi Refining Stage, or how old her master was this year.
Bai Qiuran put down his brush, his expression indescribably complicated, and murmured,
Bai Qiuran let out a laugh.
Bai Qiuran said coldly, "When it comes to gender, Ruowei, you're only missing one organ compared to your master. Put you in men's clothes, and nobody would think you were a woman."
"Here. This is the Calming and Qi-Nurturing Method my master passed down to me when I was about to reach the Foundation Establishment Stage. Use it over the next couple of days to settle your mind. I'll go prepare a Foundation Establishment Pill for you!"
"I think I'm about to reach Foundation Establishment."
"Does that mean you want to make a bet with me, Master?"
He stood up, took down a very old-looking scroll from the bookshelf, and handed it to Tang Ruowei.
"Wait here. I'll prepare a Foundation Establishment Pill for you."
And so, for a while, life on Seven Star Peak followed a steady routine: body training, cultivation, studying the life experiences of senior cultivators, medicinal baths, and finally a soak in the hot springs at night to unwind.
Tang Ruowei unrolled the scroll.
"This is just a rational suspicion. Just a suspicion."
"All right."
For now, Tang Ruowei could only cultivate at the very top. However, thanks to her spiritual root aptitude, it didn't take long for the girl to produce her first wisp of Primordial Magnetism True Qi within her body.
"Ruowei, let me ask you something."
Unlike other earth-element cultivation methods, this one, just as Bai Qiuran had said, focused from the very beginning on the most fundamental power of the earth element: the attractive force of Primordial Magnetism. So Bai Qiuran had also transformed Black Stone Peak into a cultivation ground suited to the method.
Tang Ruowei asked suspiciously.
Over those six years, Bai Qiuran did as he had said and resisted the urge to break through. He didn't advance to the sixty-six thousand six hundred and sixty-sixth level of the Qi Refining Stage. Instead, whenever the urge to break through arose, he turned it into motivation for research. During those six years, he added several top-grade cultivation methods and divine abilities to the Azure Nether Sword Sect's Library Pavilion.
"We're master and disciple, after all. Isn't it a little stupid to mess around like this?"
"Mm!"
To cultivators, six years passed in the blink of an eye. Even though Bai Qiuran focused on tempering Tang Ruowei's foundations and gave her no pills or other remedies to boost her cultivation, she still reached the peak of the tenth level of the Qi Refining Stage, just one step away from Foundation Establishment.
Besides the rich earth-element Spirit Qi, the strength of the Primordial Magnetism increased by one degree for every twenty meters downward from the mountaintop. At the foot of the mountain, it was more than twenty times its normal strength.
"Master, what do you mean by that?"
In the afternoon, Bai Qiuran escorted Tang Ruowei to the school on the Azure Nether Sword Sect's Main Peak, where she studied general knowledge about the Cultivation World. In the evening, Bai Qiuran would haul Tang Ruowei back to her bedroom, where she soaked in a medicinal bath he had prepared from various herbs.
Finally, one morning, Tang Ruowei sought out Bai Qiuran, who was in the Study Room researching how to compress True Qi when the Qi Sea was nearly infinite.
"I'll start cultivating right away!"
From that day on, spurred on by her bet with Bai Qiuran, Tang Ruowei threw herself into cultivation with two hundred percent of her energy and enthusiasm.
Bai Qiuran raised an eyebrow. "With your aptitude, it shouldn't take long to reach the tenth level of the Qi Refining Stage. It took me five years back then, and you shouldn't be much slower. Five years is only the blink of an eye to us. Want to see if you can break through to Foundation Establishment?"
"Seems like it."
After practicing until Bai Qiuran had breakfast ready and eating, Tang Ruowei would cross the stone bridge to the new mountain beside Seven Star Peak and devote herself to the cultivation method Bai Qiuran had created, called Great Evolution Primal Magnetism.
"Finally... this day has come?"
"Master."
"Are you cursing your only disciple to be just like you and never overcome the hurdle of Foundation Establishment in her life?"
Tang Ruowei raised an eyebrow defiantly.
"I'm completely different from you when it comes to gender, okay?"
Bai Qiuran nodded proudly.
Tang Ruowei retorted,
Tang Ruowei's face crumpled when she heard Bai Qiuran's words.
"Hmph. I'm clever as can be. No matter what, I won't end up like someone who's been struggling along the Qi Refining path forever!"
"I win."
"Then what if I win?"
During this period, Tang Ruowei didn't have to endure any physical hardship, but it was the hardest part for her to bear.
This time, Bai Qiuran's expression darkened.
"Anything I can do, as long as it doesn't harm the innocent."
"Then I'll forge you a top-grade Flying Sword as a gift, and grant you one request."
Every morning, Tang Ruowei got up around five, roused by the dawn call of the Azure Nether Sword Sect's guardian spirit beast. She began practicing the Heaven-Defying Fate-Changing Method Bai Qiuran had taught her: the Creation Body-Tempering Art.
Bai Qiuran's voice sounded a little world-weary.
The two traded barbs for a while. Then Tang Ruowei threw herself into cultivation with even greater determination and enthusiasm, while Bai Qiuran turned his anger into motivation for research and shut himself in the Study Room to keep searching for a way to break through to Foundation Establishment.
"All right. Since you're so unconvinced..."
Bai Qiuran said, "If you fail to break through, you'll listen obediently to your master from now on. If I say one, you can't say two; if I tell you to sit, you can't stand."
"Of course."
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