Chapter 50

Su Jiu slowly rose from the ground, her pitch-black eyes unfathomably deep. She scrubbed fiercely at the corner of her mouth with her sleeve, then turned and left the hall.

Inside Tianyuan Hall, everyone watched the scene in the Heaven-and-Earth Mirror in silence.

The First Elder sighed inwardly. "How did Yi Xiu become like this?"

The Second Elder shook his head as well. "That little girl doesn't know how high the heavens are or how deep the earth is. To dare speak to a Golden Core True Person in that tone! A little lesson now will keep her from suffering losses when she goes out to temper herself in the future."

Long Aotian spoke up for Su Jiu. "I don't think the little girl did anything wrong. If she doesn't understand, she should ask. Besides, wasn't her attitude perfectly polite? That Yi Xiu, on the other hand-I don't know which peak she's from, but to injure a junior from her own sect like that is going too far."

Meng Li, the peak master of Wood Perch Peak, was a man of few words. Vaguely recalling that Yi Xiu seemed to belong to his peak, he said, "Apart from my personal disciples, all the other disciples were assigned by the sect leader. Their instruction has nothing to do with me."

Ning Hai glanced sideways at Meng Li and could not help marveling at how coldhearted he was. Aside from his three personal disciples, Meng Li probably paid no attention to any other disciple on Wood Perch Peak.

Ning Hai took out a voice-transmission talisman. "Jue, take a bottle of Blood-Coagulating Pills to that girl Su Jiu in a little while."

Before long, he received Xia Jue's reply. "Su Jiu was injured?"

Ning Hai sighed and told Xia Jue how it had happened.

After a long silence, Xia Jue replied, "Understood."

The Rocky Wasteland was nothing but scattered rocks.

The ground was uneven to begin with, and looking around, one could barely see an end to it.

Some of the cultivators with lower Cultivation Levels began to shrink back. Wouldn't walking all the way through kill us?

Most, however, channeled their Cultivation Levels and sprinted in one direction the moment they understood the situation. The path ahead was far from smooth, and they used nearly twice their usual spiritual energy because they had to dodge around certain enormous boulders.

Several late Qi Refining stage disciples were the fastest among them, but spiritual energy was consumed far too quickly here. They had to swallow a pill every so often, while those without pills were forced to sit down and meditate to recover their Cultivation Levels.

Seeing that they had no hope of catching up, some simply gave up.

By the end, those at the very front were competing over the supplies of Returning Spirit Pills in their Storage Bags.

The sect leader frowned at this sight. "Weren't they forbidden from bringing Storage Bags?"

The First Elder shook his head. "Forget it. Yi Xiu is choosing the recipients of her inheritance herself, anyway. We can just enjoy the show."

It had to be said that True Person Yi Xiu had indeed forgotten.

In the end, Bai Su and the others were still the first few to emerge from the Inheritance Grounds.

After returning to her room, Su Jiu sat cross-legged on her bed and tried to cultivate through meditation. Yet after sitting for a long while, she found she could not calm her mind.

She drew out a sheet of talisman paper and spread it on the table, lightly dipping her brush tip in cinnabar as she prepared to concentrate on drawing a talisman. Yet the brush tip remained suspended, unable to descend.

The words True Person Yi Xiu had spoken kept echoing in her mind.

"I don't teach people who take opportunistic shortcuts."

"I don't want to teach because I don't want to teach. And you-I simply don't want to teach you."

"A disciple with your disposition won't get very far, I imagine. Better not waste my Superior-Grade Cultivation Method."

Crack!

The moment Xia Jue entered, he saw Su Jiu's ink-black eyes. She had snapped a perfectly good talisman brush in two, and cinnabar splattered from its tip, staining the white fabric of her clothes with several red spots.

Seeming to notice someone had arrived, Su Jiu briefly shielded her eyes. When she looked at Xia Jue again, her expression had returned to utter indifference, as though nothing had happened.

Xia Jue chuckled inwardly. She certainly changed expressions quickly.

Su Jiu rose and bowed with her hands clasped. "Senior."

Smiling, Xia Jue shook his head and placed the pills he was holding on Su Jiu's table. "Don't be so rash again."

A faint warmth stirred in Su Jiu's heart. Even after a lifetime had passed, some people still had not changed.

In truth, after returning, Su Jiu had also felt that she had been somewhat impulsive. But after being spoken to like that, she still found her anger difficult to quell. There was nothing she could do, however; she was only at the Qi Refining stage.

Su Jiu sighed. "I'll remember."

Xia Jue shed the coldness he wore when enforcing the rules, his tone softening slightly. "Your talent is already quite good. This cultivation method wouldn't actually be of much use to you."

Su Jiu still held great respect for this eldest senior brother from her previous life, and she nodded earnestly.

That book had devoted very little attention to Xia Jue. What she could confirm was that he had remained alive through its ending, though she did not know what had become of the Azure Tide Sect afterward.

Only after Xia Jue left did Su Jiu pick up the pills on the table. She opened the bottle and sniffed it. They were superior-grade Blood-Coagulating Pills.

Su Jiu swallowed one immediately. A warm current surged through her body, and the meridians damaged by Yi Xiu's force slowly began to heal.

Before long, a clamor sounded outside. Su Jiu guessed that the others who shared her courtyard had returned.

"Zihan, you're really amazing!" Xia Meng circled Mu Zihan, laughing and chattering.

"Securing a spot at the second level of Qi Refining is impressive indeed." Sun Wei was a little envious too.

Han Jia's gaze drifted toward Su Jiu's room now and then.

Mu Zihan was only in her teens, after all. This was the first time those around her had showered her with praise, and no matter how well she concealed it, she could not help feeling a little pleased with herself.

Inside her room, Su Jiu was not particularly surprised. Mu Zihan was an important figure at Bai Su's side, after all, so such a result was only to be expected.

She stopped fixating on the Five Elements Cultivation Method and began considering the possibility of practicing the Supreme Goodness Is Like Water Cultivation Method. She could modify a Sword Formula; perhaps she could modify a cultivation method as well.

At the thought of this possibility, a hint of a smile appeared on Su Jiu's face, sweeping away all her earlier gloom.

Yet no one noticed the faint trace of madness mingled with that smile.

Ice Veil Peak.

Chu Luohen abruptly opened his eyes, unease stirring in his heart, as though something was about to happen.

Chu Mojin had left on a special mission several days earlier, and there was no telling when he would return.

Outside the door, the Ice-Congealing Beast was carelessly munching on an Ice Jade Fruit. When the beast saw Chu Luohen emerge, the beast immediately bounded over in delight and rubbed its head against the hem of his robe.

Before he knew it, he had reached the Spirit Garden on Ice Veil Peak.

It seemed he had not seen that little one for nearly a year.

Chu Luohen waved his hand, and the bucket flew up on its own and began watering the Spirit Garden. In truth, this Spirit Garden did not need watering every day. Chu Mojin simply had not told the little girl at the time, and he had been too lazy to mention it either.

Just then, the stone at the entrance suddenly lit up.

In a flash, he returned to Ice Veil Hall.

The visitor wore white robes, with embroidered golden runes gleaming at his collar. It was Xia Jue.

"Are you really not going to explain things to her? That little girl seems to be getting anxious."

He seemed not to have expected that his visitor had come because of Su Jiu.

Chu Luohen was silent for a long while. "Wait until Chu Mojin returns and speak to him. He's the one who wants to take a disciple, after all."

Xia Jue sounded hesitant and uncertain. "I don't know whether I imagined it, but when I delivered the pills to her, I kept feeling that she seemed to have run into some trouble."

Chu Luohen frowned at Xia Jue, signaling for him to explain. Xia Jue shook his head. "I'm not sure. The last time I saw her, she was calm and detached. This time, when I entered, I seemed to catch a trace of viciousness in her eyes."

Silence settled over their surroundings, while the furrow between Chu Luohen's brows only deepened.