Five Sects Board the Vessel, Take Her Own Life

"Remember this: compared to ascending the mountain through the Autumn Examination, ascending through the Spring Examination merely gives you an extra hundred days of leisure."

Lone Pavilion Master solemnly instructed them in the council hall:

"If, within these hundred days, you fail to break through to Qi Refinement, then by rights, you will be sent back to the market town, and your journey up the mountain will end there.

"Of course, few can break through to Qi Refinement within a hundred days and become outer disciples of the Immortal Sect directly. The vast majority will spend those hundred days accumulating their cultivation until the Third Tribulation is complete. Then, with their Third Tribulation perfected, they can serve as menial laborers within the Immortal Sect. That is equivalent to 'ascending the mountain through the Autumn Examination'—remaining on the mountain directly."

The old woman spoke at length:

"Thus, after going up the mountain, you have only two tasks. First, cultivate diligently and strive for Qi Refinement. Second, familiarize yourselves with the ways of the sect and find yourselves a good place for your hundred-day-later life as laborers. After all, shooting with a target in mind is far better than being assigned somewhere at random.

"Beyond that, the Immortal Sect will surely have all manner of threats and temptations meant to enslave you. Remember, remember—do not let yourselves be swindled away. Even if you are swindled away, you must remember that you went there to cultivate."

"Yes, Master!"

Fang Shu and the others stood below the hall and answered in unison with cupped hands.

After carefully explaining everything, Lone Pavilion Master's voice slowed. She suddenly turned to Xiao Lili and said:

"Lili, going up the mountain is different for you than for the two of them. You are going as a medicine slave;