When he thought about it, he had been running three personas on three parallel tracks for quite some time now.
So he took a moment to review each track's progress.
Kunlun's Qiu Changtian was currently the furthest along. As the leading senior brother of his generation and the Sect Master's personal disciple, he not only possessed immortal cultivation techniques and the Five Thunder Orthodox Law, but was also beloved by countless outer disciples of Kunlun. It was safe to say his future was already an open road.
Penglai's Luo Yan was currently the furthest behind. He was merely an ordinary disciple who had just joined Yuqing Temple, a nobody who had yet to find an opportunity to climb the ranks. Every day, he did nothing but attend lectures, attend lectures, and attend lectures.
Shushan's Ling Yunpo was currently in a difficult position. All he could say was that there were both good and bad sides to it.
The good part was that Senior Sister An took meticulous care of him. The bad part was that his cheap master, Su Jian, had not only entered a death seclusion, but had also made countless enemies before doing so. As a result, the two senior and junior disciples' situation in Shushan was so difficult that they could barely take a single step.
Now they had even fallen victim to Purple Cloud Peak's schemes and were being forced to compete in a sword duel: a Qi Refining Stage disciple against a Marrow Cleansing Stage disciple... How could one describe such misery except with the word "miserable"?
Speaking of the upcoming duel, Ling Yunpo currently had two trump cards:
The first was the Tenth-Order Immortal Sword, Qingping Sword, and its Daoist Magic, "Green Mist Shrouding the Blue Peaks," which could conjure an endless bank of fog.
Anyone caught inside would have their divine sense restricted and their senses clouded. The power of any non-Water Element Daoist Magic would be halved.
The second was the Lightning Magic from Qiu Changtian's side: Jade Pivot Thunder.
He had already planned everything out. During the duel, he would first activate the Daoist Magic on Qingping Sword to seal off the area with thick fog, then unleash Jade Pivot Thunder. He had to kill his opponent in one strike and ensure the existence of the Lightning Magic did not get exposed.
At present, Qiu Changtian could not be said to have "mastered" Jade Pivot Thunder. He had only "roughly grasped" it.
But even at the level of a "rough grasp," its power was already terrifying.
Below the Golden Core stage, any cultivator hit head-on by this thunder would either die or be injured. It was therefore his greatest trump card at the moment.
What else could he say? He could only praise the wisdom of Ziwei Sect Master, his master, and thank the Kunlun Mirror for the "Clear Dao Heart" talent that let him master such an incredible Daoist Magic.
Next, he only needed to load Ling Yunpo's save again and keep practicing until his swordsmanship was polished.
After thinking things over in his cave for a long while, Qiu Changtian decided to load a save.
Ling Yunpo's synchronization value was quite high now. Last time, he had used the villain Lou Zhizheng to recite quite a few lines in front of Senior Sister, so he did not need to worry about it for the time being.
Luo Yan's synchronization value was already very low. If it dropped any further, it would affect the Mirror Flower Water Moon's effect.
Forget it. He might as well go to Penglai first and look for an opportunity.
"A Jing, load save!"
[Point Three: Penglai, Yuqing Temple, dormitory.] [Identity: Luo Yan.] [Mirror Flower Water Moon template overlay in progress. Traveling through time and space.]
Luo Yan opened his eyes on the soft couch.
To explain, the Kunlun Mirror's so-called "save" mechanism marked the time and space coordinates of that moment.
Its so-called "load" mechanism then teleported his body to the time and space coordinates marked by the previous save, before changing the illusion mask of Mirror Flower Water Moon.
For example, Luo Yan had initially saved in the dormitory, then his body had been teleported away.
After that, he had spent some time living in Shushan and Kunlun as Ling Yunpo and Qiu Changtian, respectively.
Finally, he had been teleported back to the time and space coordinates where Luo Yan had saved. The transition was completely seamless, so even if someone nearby had been watching him, they would not have noticed that he had left in the interim.
Of course, to be on the safe side, Luo Yan still chose to save and load in places where no one was around.
After spending the night in the dormitory, Luo Yan planned to head to class as usual the next morning.
But on the way to the lecture hall, he was blocked by Shi Liuli, who had clearly been waiting for him.
"Come clean." Shi Liuli dragged him to a secluded spot, then summoned the Heaven-Turning Seal and threatened him. "Are you a spy from some outside sect?"
"Senior Sister, what are you talking about?" Luo Yan wore a helpless expression that said, "I'm completely dumbfounded." With his brows drooping and his eyes kindly narrowed, he made even the usually certain Shi Liuli waver a little.
[Deceitful persona, synchronization value +1.]
"Your entrance exam." Shi Liuli pulled out his test paper and confronted him. "Before the exam, you admitted that you didn't even know what the Daozang was!"
"Yet you got a perfect score on this exam! A perfect score! Could you be any more fake? How did you get a perfect score if you hadn't studied the Daozang? Don't tell me you guessed the answers to all one thousand questions!"
"But, Senior Sister, I had studied the Daozang before the exam," Luo Yan said, looking innocent.
"Haha! So you admit that when you told me you hadn't studied the Daozang, you were lying, right?!" Shi Liuli crowed triumphantly, like a big cat that had caught a mouse by the tail.
"When I first met Senior Sister, I really hadn't studied the Daozang," Luo Yan explained awkwardly. "But an hour before the exam, I went to the Daozang Pavilion and carefully read the Three Caverns section. That's how I was lucky enough to pass the entrance exam."
"Oh, right!" He smiled gratefully. "I still have Senior Sister to thank for reminding me that the Three Caverns section was the main subject of the entrance exam. I forgot to thank you..."
[Deceitful persona, synchronization value +1.]
Shi Liuli was already dumbfounded by what she had heard. Then she suddenly came to her senses and grabbed his arms, asking urgently:
"You're saying you spent an hour in the Daozang Pavilion and memorized and fully comprehended the entire Three Caverns section?"
"That's right." Luo Yan looked embarrassed. "Don't laugh at me for cramming at the last minute, Senior Sister. I didn't know our sect would test us on the Daozang."
[Deceitful persona, synchronization value +1.]
"How is that possible?!" Shi Liuli cried in disbelief.
There were three thousand Daozang texts, and the Three Caverns alone contained twenty-four scriptures. How could anyone finish reading them in an hour?!
Luo Yan looked at her with a pure, innocent expression, laughing to himself.
Although she kept saying, "How is that possible?" the notification that his synchronization value had risen showed that, deep down, she already believed him a tiny bit.
Don't ask why. The answer was simple: this fat lamb was ridiculously easy to fool!
"Fine. In that case, I'll test you!" Shi Liuli said, steadying herself. "I'll teach you the Nine Tripod Divine Elixir Scripture. I'll recite it just once and see if you can remember and understand it!"
She opened her beautiful eyes wide and rapidly recited:
"To make a divine elixir, one must first make the Mysterious Yellow. Take ten jin of mercury and twenty jin of lead, put them in an iron vessel, and heat them fiercely. The lead and mercury will release their essence, which will be purple or perhaps the color of gold. Collect it with an iron spoon; this is called the Mysterious Yellow..."
She recited a mere thousand characters over the course of three or four minutes. At the end, Shi Liuli stopped and said coldly:
"Did you remember it, little genius junior brother?"
"I think so," Luo Yan replied with a nod.
"Good. I'll test you!" Shi Liuli sneered. "Then tell me, according to the theories in the Nine Tripod Divine Elixir Scripture, how should the Returning Elixir be prepared?"
Luo Yan smiled slightly and recited in a clear voice:
"Since it is the Returning Elixir, one should take nine substances: alum, Yu Stone, Dai Zhe, Rong Salt, oyster, Red Stone Fat, Earth Dragon Droppings, mica, and talc. Burn them for one day and one night over a fierce fire, then grind them all together until they become powder. Mix them with left-flavor until they become a paste. Put it in a cauldron, then add one jin of mercury..."
As he smoothly recited the method for preparing the Returning Elixir, Shi Liuli's expression swiftly shifted from scorn to blankness, from blankness to suspicion, from suspicion to shock, and from shock to elation.
"Could there really be someone in this world who never forgets what he sees and comprehends a thousand things from a single hearing?"
Luo Yan felt a little regretful, since showing off with this identity did not grant him synchronization value. Then he heard Shi Liuli suddenly cry out:
"Quick! Little junior brother, I'm taking you to see my father. I'll have him take you as his disciple!"
Before you continue