"Hey!"
"Have you heard?"
"?"
"Heard what?"
"I heard that a couple of days ago, Sect Master Mo, who had just successfully advanced to the Nascent Soul stage, took on a new disciple!"
"A personal disciple, no less!"
"Huh?"
"The sect master took on a disciple?"
"Is that for real?"
"Of course it's for real! Why would I make something like that up?"
"Listen, yesterday the sect master held an initiation ceremony at Cloudrise Hall. The four hall masters, the chief senior disciple, and quite a few senior brothers and sisters went to witness it!"
"It was quite a spectacle!"
"Oh, no!"
"I missed it. I went out on a mission yesterday, all the way to the Yuanwu Kingdom. The round trip took me several days!"
"Junior Sister, same here. I went to the Jiang Kingdom, though..."
"I didn't go anywhere. I was so busy crafting magical artifacts in my quarters that nobody even thought to give me a heads-up!"
"Then..."
"Which lucky soul won Sect Master Mo's favor?"
"Yeah, come on, tell us!"
"Quit keeping us in suspense!"
"Heh!"
"It was an ordinary mortal named Mo Caihuan, and it seems she doesn't have a spiritual root at all!"
"No spiritual root?"
"Come on!"
"Spiritual roots aren't important. Our Flame God Cult on Cui Ping Mountain doesn't put stock in that sort of thing. Sect Master Mo herself had no spiritual root, and look at her now—she advanced to the Nascent Soul stage just fine!"
"Have any of you ever heard of cultivation progressing that fast?"
"Exactly!"
"But having a spiritual root still makes cultivation go faster."
"That's true, but what I'm more curious about is: who exactly is this Mo Caihuan?"
"Not sure..."
"Wait!"
"Think about it. Mo Caihuan's surname is Mo, right? And our sect master's surname is