Chapter 11

Su Jiu seemed to have figured out why she had still been unable to achieve qi induction. The problem probably lay with her spirit root. After all, she had lived for barely a hundred years in her previous life and had never encountered cultivators with mutated spirit roots. At most, she had occasionally heard distant rumors of a few.

One of them was Chu Mojin. Thinking of him, she inevitably recalled what he had said when he lifted her up that day, and shook her head with a smile. She supposed he would not appear again.

She was not disappointed that Chu Mojin had not taken her with him. Neither in her previous life nor in this one had Su Jiu been someone who pinned her hopes on others.

Having no master was certainly harder than having one, but she believed she could still do her best.

Outer Gate disciples could enter the Azure Tide Sect's Library Pavilion once a month. This, too, was recorded in the Outer Gate disciple handbook.

After spending all of yesterday attempting qi induction, Su Jiu finally decided to visit the Library Pavilion and see whether she could find a method that would help her.

An old man sat at the entrance to the Library Pavilion, looking like its caretaker. He seemed to notice Su Jiu, but merely lifted his eyelids a fraction.

"Token." His voice was aged and hoarse.

She had never seen this old man in her previous life. She had already been twelve when she first visited the Library Pavilion back then, and an Inner Gate Disciple had been keeping watch. Apparently, the caretaker had been replaced later.

Su Jiu respectfully handed the old man her wooden token so he could register her visit.

When the old man saw the name on the token, he fell silent for a moment. Then he abruptly grew impatient again and tossed it back to Su Jiu. "Go, go, go!"

Su Jiu entered the Library Pavilion utterly bewildered, but once inside, all other thoughts fell away. She still clearly remembered how its books were arranged and soon found the dust-covered section.

Everything in this dusty section concerned mutated spirit roots.

Su Jiu went straight past the wind-thunder spirit root section to the ice spiritual root section.

One book was titled Origins of the Ice Spiritual Root, and she could not help picking it up.

"Ice and water share the same origin. Ice is formed from condensed water, yet qi belongs to the five elements; thus, ice essence is water essence."

Su Jiu had thought the same, yet she could not even achieve qi induction.

She put the book down and picked up another, Ice Spiritual Root Cultivation.

Su Jiu had been bright from childhood, able to take in ten lines at a glance and remember everything she read. Before long, she found the information she wanted.

"Use the body as a vessel, transform water essence into ice essence and absorb it, or cultivate in an environment of ice."

Su Jiu froze. Clearly, this possibility had never occurred to her.

Afterward, she read several passages on minor ice spells and silently committed them to memory.

She had no idea how long she had been reading. When she came back to her senses, it was already dark outside. Su Jiu was startled. She remembered a rule stating that Outer Gate disciples could spend no more than two hours in the Library Pavilion per visit. She had been here far longer than that-probably even ten hours.

Su Jiu hurriedly checked her wooden token and found that it had given no notification. She rubbed her head in confusion. Could that old man have forgotten about me? But my visit was registered. That shouldn't be possible.

Su Jiu tiptoed to the entrance and found the old man dozing.

Just as she was about to slip away, a hoarse voice sounded beside her ear. "Little girl, I've done you such a great favor. Aren't you going to thank this old man?"

Su Jiu immediately turned around and said solemnly, "Thank you for your leniency, Senior."

The old man studied her for a while. "I'll be going away in a couple of days. Interested in watching the Library Pavilion for me for a time?"

Su Jiu's eyes lit up. "Of course!" The greatest benefit of watching the Library Pavilion was being able to read any of its books.

But then she remembered: had not all its previous caretakers been Inner Gate Disciples?

"Come back in seven days!"

Su Jiu bowed with her hands clasped in thanks, then left. The delight in her heart even dispelled some of the gloom from yesterday's repeated failures at qi induction.

Watching Su Jiu's figure recede into the distance, the old man inadvertently revealed a trace of nostalgia in his eyes.

A man also emerged from the Library Pavilion. He wore the Azure Tide Sect's robes, with red-and-gold thread embroidered along the cuffs and collar.

"That little girl is clever." Remembering Su Jiu's expression as she leafed through the books, the man could not help smiling. What surprised him most was probably her ability to remember everything she read. Even cultivators found such a feat difficult at the lower stages, let alone a little girl who had yet to achieve qi induction.

"So you've spent these past two days in the Library Pavilion lying in wait for this little girl?" The old man glanced at him, then let his eyelids droop.

"What else could I do? My junior brother wouldn't let me bring her back, so I could only sneak over to have a look." The man seemed both helpless and regretful.

As though something had come to mind, the old man remained silent for a long time before saying in a low, hoarse voice, "Your junior brother did the right thing."

The man said nothing more. He merely patted the old man's shoulder and left as well.

By the time Su Jiu returned, it was completely dark. At the courtyard entrance, she met two girls who lived in the same courtyard but whom she had never seen before.

The girls looked about twelve or thirteen, an age as fresh as flowers in bloom.

Relationships between cultivators were generally rather distant. Still, since these girls would be living in the same courtyard as her, Su Jiu gave them a polite nod.

The two girls, however, clearly wanted to talk.

"Hey, hey, you're new too, right? What's your name?" Perhaps the girl had yet to gain a true understanding of the cultivation world; her voice still held a measure of innocence.

But that innocence would probably not last long.

"Su Jiu."

The girl broke into a broad smile, revealing two cute little canine teeth. "I'm Xia Meng, and she's Mu Zihan. Just call me Meng and her Zihan." The little girl, Meng, was a lively one.

"Meng is rather outgoing. Please excuse her." Mu Zihan's tone was comparatively gentler.

Su Jiu pondered for a moment. The name Mu Zihan seemed a little familiar.

"You look much younger than us. Were you sent here as soon as you were old enough, too?"

Su Jiu nodded.

"We're all newcomers. Let's go to classes together from now on."

As for classes, Su Jiu had long since ceased to need them. Her master, the sect leader, had personally taught her all those introductory lessons in her previous life. Still, it would not do to stand out too much.

"All right."

Xia Meng's eyes instantly curved into crescents. She turned to Mu Zihan with a smile. "Zihan, this is wonderful! We have another companion now."

Just as Xia Meng was chattering away and about to say more,

a derisive snort rang out at an inopportune moment.

The three turned to see a girl of about seventeen or eighteen standing at the entrance, looking down on them with open disdain.

"New fledglings in the cultivation world really are naïve." The girl took a few steps inside, then suddenly stopped. "Companions? That word is a luxury in the cultivation world. I'd advise you not to pin too much hope on it."

"Being deceived is a small matter. Losing your life is another story." The girl suddenly turned toward Mu Zihan and smiled. "Oh, right. My former companion was just her type."

Without caring how ugly her words had made Mu Zihan's expression, the girl went straight back to her own room.

Xia Meng indignantly came to Mu Zihan's defense. "What was that? And she calls herself a senior? What kind of things was she saying? Someone like that definitely has no friends. Zihan, Su Jiu, let's all ignore her."

In truth, Su Jiu did not think the girl had said anything wrong. It was cruel, but it was also true.