"As expected, the competition day has come around again. Back then, I had only just begun cultivating the Withering and Flourishing Great Art, and lost to Senior Sister Zhang by a single move. But now I've attained minor mastery in it. Taking her second-tier Limit Spell should be no problem. After the competition, I'll be Green Water Palace's second-ranked True Disciple." After hearing the hunchbacked old man's words, the young man's eyes flickered for a moment before he murmured expressionlessly.
In Green Water Grotto Heaven, beside a vast pool shrouded in blue mist.
A fair, plump little girl who looked no more than three or four sat on a rock, wearing a red cloth bellyband and two little braids. Her lotus-root-like arms hugged a large, vividly blue crystal stone, which she gnawed with her tiny mouth, making crisp crunching sounds.
The pealing bells reached this place as well, but the little girl paid them no heed, concentrating solely on gnawing the crystal stone.
Suddenly, the little girl seemed to sense something. She raised her head and glanced in a certain direction, then pursed her lips and vanished from the spot in a flash, still clutching her crystal stone.
A moment later, footsteps sounded along a gravel path leading to the pool.
A woman in her thirties, dressed as a maid, approached from afar, a trace of solemnity on her face.
But when she reached the pool's edge, she stopped. After a brief hesitation, she drew a glittering golden bell from inside her robes and carefully shook it toward the pool.
Ding.
A clear, pleasant note rang from the bell.
The mist-shrouded pool remained silent, seemingly without any response.
Holding the golden bell, the maid stood obediently where she was, not daring to show the slightest negligence.
After an unknown