Elder Shi Ding was getting a little restless.
For some reason, his daughter Shi Liuli had taken a seat in the back row of the classroom. She was chatting happily with a male disciple.
She was paying no heed at all to her old father teaching up front, leaving him with the irritation of being ignored.
Of course, with a bunch of disciples eager to become his apprentices giving him their "enthusiastic stares," he couldn't show anything was amiss. Otherwise, they'd swarm him like flies... or notice something was up and crowd around Liuli instead, which would be even more troublesome.
So he simply finished the lesson at an unhurried pace, then announced the end of class at exactly the right moment, in a loud voice.
When Shi Liuli heard her father dismiss the class, she smiled and said goodbye to Luo Yan, then darted out of the classroom and hurried after her father.
"Father!" Once they returned to their cave dwelling, she took Elder Shi Ding by the arm and called sweetly, "You worked hard teaching today. Let me make you some tea."
"Good, good." Elder Shi Ding laughed heartily. But when Shi Liuli went into the inner room to fetch the tea leaves, he suddenly remembered.
Wait, I was going to ask her about that young male disciple. I can't forget.
When Shi Liuli came out carrying a teacup, Elder Shi Ding cleared his throat and said:
"Liuli..."
"Please have some tea, Father." Shi Liuli obediently offered him the cup.
"Oh, all right." Elder Shi Ding took a satisfied sip. "Mm, not bad. You've gotten better at making tea."
"That's good." Shi Liuli turned to leave. "I still have homework to do today, so I'll be going."
"Mm, mm... Hey, wait, hold on." Elder Shi Ding thought, I nearly forgot what I wanted to ask. "Liuli, when I was teaching today, I think I saw you making a new friend?"
Shi Liuli was quick-witted and immediately understood what her father was worried about. She sneered.
"Father."
"What is it?"
"I think there's something off about him. He could be a spy from another sect."
"Something off?" Elder Shi Ding set down his teacup, surprised. "What, specifically?"
"He's pretending to be stupid." Shi Liuli spoke earnestly, confident in her judgment. "He looks honest and harmless on the surface, but that isn't what he's really like."
Elder Shi Ding fell silent for a moment, swallowing the words That's it? before they could slip out. Then he gently explained to his daughter:
"Liuli, it's perfectly normal to disguise yourself. After all, our Yuqing Temple isn't as safe as you think it is. Back when I'd only just joined the sect..."
"Stop!" Seeing that her father was about to launch into another "back in my day," Shi Liuli hurriedly cut him off. "Stop, stop, stop! I get it. You mean he's only doing this to protect himself, right?"
"Exactly." Elder Shi Ding smiled. "The cultivation world is a place where the strong prey on the weak. Sects merely use rules to restrain the competition, concealing it beneath an apparently fair order. Disguising yourself and being wary of others are both perfectly normal."
"Besides, if he really were a spy from another sect, you wouldn't have spotted anything suspicious so easily."
"Hmph." Shi Liuli was still unconvinced, and argued, "But he really hasn't let anything slip. It's just my instincts telling me he's putting on an act."
"I see." Elder Shi Ding didn't argue with his daughter any further. Instead, he asked, "What about his knowledge and talent? I mean, setting aside your personal impression of him, how would you objectively assess his abilities and aptitude?"
"Your daughter put him to the test." Shi Liuli wrinkled her nose. "His theoretical foundation is extremely solid. He must have studied the Daozang thoroughly. The material you covered in class was no challenge for him..."
At that, she suddenly remembered something else and exclaimed:
"Oh, right! When I took him to the entrance exam that day, he clearly said he'd never read the Daozang!"
"There's definitely something wrong here! I'm going to check his entrance exam answers and scores!"
With that, Shi Liuli turned and dashed away.
Watching his daughter charge off in a flurry, Elder Shi Ding could only sigh.
He didn't really believe Luo Yan was a spy, but since his daughter had finally decided to take something seriously, he might as well let her have her fun.
Mm, better to rule out any possible trouble in advance, just in case.
"Nian Nu?" Elder Shi Ding called.
The White Jade Puppet standing in the corner of the room suddenly opened its eyes.
"Elder Shi Ding."
"Look into the exam records of the newly admitted disciple Luo Yan... Mm, from his Daozang observation to the entrance exam, send me footage of the whole process."
After class, Luo Yan returned to his lodgings in the temple.
Yuqing Temple provided cave dwellings for its disciples, but the ridiculous part was that renting one cost money, and quite a lot of it.
Fortunately, Qiu Changtian had supported him, so Luo Yan could afford the rent. He paid for a full year upfront and rented a modest single room.
Back in his cave dwelling, Luo Yan called out to the Kunlun Mirror in his mind.
"Take me to Mount Shu."
The Kunlun Mirror recited mechanically:
[Countdown to World Destruction: One thousand years.]
[Please hurry and find the Sky Mending Stone.]
"Stop!" Luo Yan said helplessly. "Can you skip those first two lines? You repeat them every time. I've practically memorized them backward."
"Then recite them backward for me," the Kunlun Mirror retorted.
Luo Yan: ...
He recited both lines word by word in reverse, then sneered.
"You stupid mirror, have you forgotten that my talent is One Hear Thousand Comprehensions now? With my peerless intellect, I could recite lines backward—or even do advanced math in my head—without breaking a sweat."
"What's advanced math... Never mind." The Kunlun Mirror obediently recited:
[Location two: Mount Shu, Shangqing Sect, Green Snail Peak.]
[Character identity: Ling Yunpo.]
[Mirror Flower Water Moon template overlay in progress. Traversing spacetime.]
Back on Green Snail Peak at Mount Shu, Sword Immortal Ling Yunpo opened his eyes and saw a package on the table.
It was full of the spirit stones Qiu Changtian had earned from his missions.
He picked up the package and headed out to find Senior Sister An, planning to surprise her.
But after searching all the rooms, he couldn't find An Zhisu anywhere.
Then Ling Yunpo suddenly remembered that before the last save, his senior sister had said she was taking some things to sell at a marketplace within Mount Shu, to exchange them for spirit stones.
Sigh, frequent reloading had its drawbacks. He'd jumped from Mount Shu to Kunlun and done a whole pile of things, then jumped to Penglai and done another whole pile of things. By the time he'd finally jumped back to Mount Shu, he'd forgotten most of what was going on here.
He returned to his room and tossed the package back onto the table.
His gaze suddenly fell on the black flying sword hanging on the wall.
This was the flying sword that had answered his call and flown out of the Sword Pool after he resonated with it that day.
The refinement had gone smoothly. When he practiced swordplay with Senior Sister An, the sword had followed his every command, as obedient as an extension of his arm.
But without a master to help identify it, he still knew nothing about the sword.
Ling Yunpo reached out and beckoned. The flying sword immediately soared over and landed in his hand.
"A Jing, what do you think this sword is called?" Ling Yunpo flicked its blade with a finger. It rang with a clear, resonant note. He sighed inwardly.
"Senior Sister said it looks just like the Qingping Sword described in the ancient texts. But that Qingping Sword was destroyed in the Battle Between the Chan and Jie Sects long ago. Could this be a reforged Qingping Sword?"
Before the Kunlun Mirror could reply, another unfamiliar, melodious female voice sounded in his mind:
"You can think of it that way, if you like~ From now on, you can just call me Qingping."
Before you continue