Su Yun put away the three jade slips, preparing to go to the counter and have the contribution points deducted.
Just as he turned around,
a clear, slightly haughty young girl's voice suddenly rang out behind him.
"Hey, who are you?"
Su Yun stopped and turned to look.
Beside a wooden shelf not far away,
stood a young girl.
She looked to be barely twenty.
Her skin was snow-white, her brows and eyes exquisite, her features stunningly beautiful.
She wore a luxurious ice-blue robe, its fabric shimmering with light and its edges embroidered with patterns of frost.
Her long black hair was simply tied back, and a translucent blue jade hairpin adorned her head.
With her hands on her hips and her long, shapely legs straight, she stared fixedly at Su Yun with beautiful eyes.
Her expression held a hint of confusion, along with a trace of haughty pride.
She was beautiful in a pure, cool way.
Su Yun couldn't help exclaiming inwardly.
Damn, a fairy.
She was the most beautiful girl he had seen since arriving in this world.
Her cool, aloof air kept others at a distance, yet she was breathtakingly beautiful.
When the girl saw Su Yun staring at her, her brows knitted together at once.
She strode over.
She looked Su Yun up and down.
Her gaze settled on the white robe of a personal disciple he wore, and she asked in a puzzled tone:
"You're wearing a personal disciple's robe."
"I know every personal disciple in the Azure Cloud Sect. How come I've never seen you before?"
Su Yun looked at the beautiful girl before him and asked, "You don't know me?"
He was puzzled, too.
The girl was dressed in fine clothes and had an extraordinary air about her.
But she wasn't wearing a personal disciple's robe.
The girl was momentarily stumped, her eyes widening.
Su Yun replied calmly, "My name is Su Yun. I'm the third personal disciple the Sect Master has newly taken."
Understanding flashed in the girl's eyes.
"Oh."
"So you're the Heavenly Spirit Root boy who's been the talk of the sect these past few days."
She leisurely circled Su Yun, looking him over from every angle with a scrutinizing gaze.
"You look perfectly ordinary."
"There's nothing special about you."
"Are you really a Heavenly Spirit Root?"
Su Yun smiled helplessly. "As genuine as they come."
He asked in return:
"By the way, who are you?"
"Why didn't you call me Senior Brother when you saw me?"
Hearing that, the girl lifted her snow-white chin, her face full of haughty pride.
"Call you Senior Brother?"
"Dream on."
"Listen up. This young lady is Liu Shuang'er."
"My master is the sect's Grand Elder."
"I'm of the same generation as Sect Master Li Mofan."
"According to the rules, you have to call me... Little Martial Uncle."
Su Yun's mind went blank. He stood there dumbfounded.
A disciple of the Grand Elder?
The same generation as the Sect Master?
This pretty, charming-looking girl who didn't seem very old was actually his senior?
A personal disciple of a Nascent Soul True Lord?
Su Yun didn't dare take any liberties. He quickly straightened up, clasped his hands, and bowed.
"Disciple Su Yun pays his respects to Little Martial Uncle."
Liu Shuang'er nodded with satisfaction, her expression calm.
"Mm. No need for such formalities, Nephew."
She asked casually, "What are you doing on the third floor?"
Su Yun answered honestly, "I came to pick out a few cultivation techniques."
Liu Shuang'er gently shook her head, speaking with a hint of admonishment.
"Young people shouldn't reach beyond their grasp."
"You only joined the sect yesterday, and before that, you were an ordinary mortal."
"Building a solid foundation should be your priority."
"The techniques on the third floor are profound. They aren't suitable for you right now."
"Never rush your cultivation. Haste makes waste."
From beginning to end, she didn't use her spiritual sense to check Su Yun's cultivation.
In her mind,
even a Heavenly Spirit Root could, at most, sense spiritual energy in a single night.
There was no way he could break through a realm.
It wasn't that easy for a mortal to get started.
Su Yun didn't explain either.
He was more than happy for others not to see through him and to underestimate him.
He couldn't just tell her outright: I went all the way to the second Qi Refining level in one night.
That would only invite trouble.
Su Yun casually made up an excuse.
"Thank you for the reminder, Little Martial Uncle. I'm just looking around and broadening my horizons."
With that,
he didn't dare linger.
He took the jade slips, hurriedly said goodbye, and left the Technique Pavilion at a brisk pace.
Watching Su Yun hurry away,
Liu Shuang'er propped her chin on one hand, her eyes curving into a smile.
"Interesting."
"The legendary Metal-type Heavenly Spirit Root..."
"He looks perfectly ordinary, but he's quite composed."
"I hope you aren't all talk."
"The younger generation of the Azure Cloud Sect is a bunch of useless fools. Not one of them can put up a fight. How boring."
She let out a soft sigh.
No one knew
that Liu Shuang'er, who looked young and charming, had already reached the Foundation Establishment Late Stage.
She was barely twenty.
Her talent was terrifying.
The aptitude she publicly claimed to have was a Water-Earth Dual Spirit Root.
In truth, she had an Ice Spirit Root, formed through the fusion and mutation of water and earth.
Her cultivation speed was in no way inferior to that of a Heavenly Spirit Root.
The Grand Elder had discovered and raised her from childhood, giving her unlimited resources and an exalted status.
Her seniority was extraordinary, placing her above all the younger generation. She was a hidden trump card of the Azure Cloud Sect.
Back at Cloud Abode,
Su Yun instructed the maids not to disturb him, then shut the stone door to his cultivation room.
The room was quiet and sealed off, blocking out every sound from the outside world.
He sat cross-legged on a jade cushion and took out the jade slip containing the Breath Concealment Art.
Pressing his fingertips to the jade slip, he sank his consciousness into it.
Dense lines of text, routes for circulating qi, and methods for suppressing one's aura poured into his mind.
The Breath Concealment Art wasn't a particularly profound secret technique.
It was simple to learn and easy to understand.
Any cultivator could master the basics with enough patience.
But reaching perfection was extremely difficult.
It required years of controlling one's aura, reining in one's spiritual energy, and suppressing the fluctuations in one's dantian.
It took an ordinary cultivator at least half a year to reach the minor mastery stage.
Perfection could take more than a decade.
But none of those restrictions mattered to Su Yun.
In his mind, the Thousandfold Amplification trait quietly activated.
His comprehension of the technique, control of his mind, and ability to rein in his aura were all amplified a thousandfold.
The routes for circulating qi that others had to puzzle over, he understood at a glance.
The suppression of one's aura that others had to practice over and over, he grasped in a single thought.
Su Yun closed his eyes.
Following the Breath Concealment Art's instructions, he slowly adjusted his breathing.
He forcibly suppressed the restless spiritual energy in his dantian, bit by bit.
The spiritual energy flowing through his meridians became calm and faint.
The cultivator's aura exposed on the surface of his body steadily faded.
Time passed slowly.
An hour later,
his aura suddenly drew inward.
He seemed to have become an ordinary person again.
No fluctuations of spiritual energy. No cultivator's aura.
Breath Concealment Art—minor mastery.
According to the jade slip,
at minor mastery, the Breath Concealment Art could perfectly hide one's cultivation.
No one below Nascent Soul could see through it.
Even a Golden Core expert standing right in front of him could only tell that he was at the first Qi Refining level.
They couldn't see how deep his cultivation was or what realm he had truly reached.
Su Yun slowly opened his eyes. A glint of light flashed across them and disappeared.
His sense of security instantly soared.
From now on, as long as he didn't want to reveal himself, no one could see his true cultivation.
In front of others, he was a Heavenly Spirit Root genius who cultivated at a steady pace.
In private, he surged ahead, ignoring bottlenecks and breaking through realms at lightning speed.
A perfect disguise.
A satisfied smile curved Su Yun's lips.
"Stay steady. Don't get reckless."
He casually put away the gray jade slip and took out the second one: the Golden Blade Technique.
It specialized in Metal-type spiritual energy, condensing blades to slay enemies.
Su Yun sank into its mysteries once more.
Thousandfold Amplification took effect again.
The spell's circulation pattern, the method for condensing spiritual energy, and the hand seals were all etched into his mind.
Metal-type spiritual energy was naturally sharp and volatile.
An ordinary cultivator would need to practice repeatedly to get used to it and control it, lest the spiritual energy run wild and injure them.
Su Yun had no such problem.