Better Call Me Qingping Sword

Elder Shi Ding was somewhat agitated.

This was because his daughter, Shi Liuli, had, at some point, taken a seat in the back row of the classroom and was now engaged in a lively conversation with a male disciple.

She completely ignored her old father lecturing from the front, which filled him with a sense of indignant neglect.

Of course, at this moment, he was being "actively stared at" by a group of disciples who wanted to become his students, so he couldn't show any unusual behavior. Otherwise, these disciples would swarm him like flies... or, if they noticed something was amiss, they might gather around Liuli, which would be even more troublesome.

Therefore, he merely finished his lecture at a leisurely pace and then, precisely on time, loudly announced the end of class.

Upon hearing her father declare the class over, Shi Liuli smiled and bid farewell to Luo Yan before rushing out of the classroom to catch up with her father's hurried footsteps.

"Father!" Back at the Cave Mansion, she grabbed Elder Shi Ding's arm and sweetly said, "You must be tired from lecturing, Father. Your daughter will make you some tea."

"Good, good, good." Elder Shi Ding laughed heartily. Only after Shi Liuli turned to go into the inner room for tea did he suddenly realize.

Hmm? Wait a moment, I need to ask her about that young male disciple. I can't forget.

Seeing Shi Liuli emerge from the inner room with a teacup, Elder Shi Ding coughed and said:

"Liuli..."

"Father, please have some tea." Shi Liuli obediently offered the teacup.

"Oh, thank you." Elder Shi Ding took a sip with satisfaction. "Mmm, not bad, your tea-making skills have improved."

"That's good then." Shi Liuli turned and said, "I still have homework to do today, so I'll be going now."

"Mhm, mhm... Hey, wait, hold on a moment." Elder Shi Ding thought he almost forgot the important matter. "Liuli, I think I saw you making a new friend in class today?"

Shi Liuli, being sharp-witted, immediately understood her father's concerns and gave a cold laugh:

"Father."

"What is it?"

"I think he's suspicious, possibly a spy from outside."

"Suspicious?" Elder Shi Ding put down his teacup, surprised. "In what way?"

"He's pretending." Shi Liuli said confidently and seriously, "He appears naive and harmless on the surface, but his actual personality is not like that."

Elder Shi Ding was silent for a moment, swallowing the words "Is that all?" that almost escaped his lips. He gently explained to his daughter:

"Liuli, it's quite normal to disguise oneself. After all, our Yuqing Temple sect isn't as safe as you might think. When I first joined the sect back then..."

"Stop!" Seeing her father about to launch into "back in my day," Shi Liuli quickly interrupted. "Stop, stop, stop! I understand. You mean he's just acting like this to protect himself, right?"

"Yes." Elder Shi Ding smiled. "The cultivation world is a place where the strong prey on the weak. The sect merely uses rules to restrain competition, masking it all under a seemingly fair order. Disguising oneself and being wary of others are perfectly normal behaviors."

"Besides, if he were truly a spy from another sect, you wouldn't have been able to detect something was off so easily."

"Hmph." Shi Liuli was still somewhat doubtful and argued, "But he really didn't show any flaws. It's just my intuition telling me he's disguising himself."

"Is that so?" Elder Shi Ding didn't argue further with his daughter but instead asked, "What about his knowledge and talent? I mean, setting aside your subjective impression of him, objectively evaluate his abilities and aptitude."

"I deliberately tested him." Shi Liuli wrinkled her nose and said, "His theoretical foundation is very solid. He must have read the Daozang thoroughly. The content you lectured on today was no challenge for him..."

As she said this, she suddenly remembered something and exclaimed in shock:

"Right! The other day, when I took him to the entrance exam, he clearly said he hadn't read the Daozang at all!"

"There must be something wrong here! I'm going to check his entrance exam papers and scores!"

As soon as she finished speaking, Shi Liuli turned around and dashed away.

Watching his daughter leave in a whirlwind, Elder Shi Ding felt a sense of helplessness.

Although he didn't quite believe this Luo Yan was a spy, since his daughter was finally interested in doing something seriously, he might as well let her have her fun.

Well, just in case, it would be better to eliminate potential problems in advance.

"Nian Nu?" Elder Shi Ding called out.

The white jade puppet standing in the corner of the room suddenly opened its eyes.

"Elder Shi Ding."

"Go and investigate the exam records of the new disciple Luo Yan... Hmm, from his viewing of the Daozang to the entrance test, send me the full video footage."

Luo Yan, having finished his class, returned to his living quarters within the temple.

Yuqing Temple provided Cave Mansions for disciples, but the absurd part was that renting them cost money, and it wasn't cheap.

Fortunately, with Qiu Changtian's support, Luo Yan wasn't entirely unable to afford it. He paid for a full year upfront and rented a small single room.

Back in his Cave Mansion, Luo Yan mentally summoned the Kunlun Mirror and said:

"Take me to Shushan."

The Kunlun Mirror mechanically recited:

[Countdown to World Destruction: One thousand years.]

[Please hurry to find the Sky Mending Stone.]

"Stop!" Luo Yan said helplessly. "Can you skip these opening lines? Repeating them every time, I've memorized them by heart."

"Then recite it backward for me to hear?" the Kunlun Mirror said indignantly.

Luo Yan: ...

He recited the two sentences backward, word for word, then sneered:

"Stupid mirror, stupid mirror, did you forget my current talent is 'One Hear Thousand Comprehensions'? With my current supreme intelligence, let alone reciting lines backward, even mental calculation of advanced mathematics is a piece of cake."

"What is advanced mathematics... never mind." The Kunlun Mirror obediently read aloud:

[Location 2: Shushan Shangqing Sect, Green Snail Peak.]

[Character Identity: Ling Yunpo.]

[Mirror Flower Water Moon template applied, currently time-traveling.]

Returning to Green Snail Peak in Shushan, Sword Immortal Ling Yunpo opened his eyes and saw a package on the table.

It was filled with spirit stones earned by Qiu Changtian from completing quests.

He picked up the package and went out to find Senior Sister An, planning to surprise her.

However, after searching all the rooms, he couldn't find An Zhisu's trace.

Then, Ling Yunpo suddenly remembered that before the last save, his senior sister had told him she needed to bring some things to sell at the internal Shushan market to exchange for spirit stones.

Alas, this was the problem with frequent loading. He had jumped from Shushan to Kunlun and done a bunch of things, then jumped to Penglai and done another bunch of things. Finally, after jumping back to Shushan, he had almost completely forgotten the situation with Ling Yunpo.

He returned to his room and placed the package back on the table.

His gaze suddenly fell on the black Flying Sword hanging on the wall.

This sword was the Flying Sword that had responded to his call and flown out of the Sword Pool after he resonated with it that day.

The refining process had been very smooth, and when practicing swordsmanship with Senior Sister An, this Flying Sword had been as obedient as an extension of his arm.

However, without his master's help to identify it, he still knew nothing about this Flying Sword.

Ling Yunpo beckoned, and the Flying Sword immediately flew over, landing in his palm.

"A Jing, what do you think this sword is called?" Ling Yunpo flicked its blade with his finger, producing a crisp, clear sound, and sighed inwardly.

"Senior Sister said it's very similar to the Qingping Sword recorded in ancient texts, but that Qingping Sword was destroyed in the war between Chan and Jie. So, could this be a reforged Qingping Sword?"

Before the Kunlun Mirror could reply, a strange, soft, charming female voice echoed in his mind:

"You can think of it that way if you want~ Then you can call me Qingping from now on."