Can't Beat Him? Then Cripple Him!

Lin Ke only had to tell her a few things about Earth for Zong Ya to believe him.

After all, people could not imagine things they had never seen.

As for the subtle changes in Lin Ke's manner and behavior, Zong Ya found her own explanation, something along the lines of "the influence of memories."

In short, he had cleared the hurdle of his senior sister, the only person in this world who knew the original owner of his body well.

"Now that you've gained such a tremendous opportunity, you shouldn't let anyone else know..." Zong Ya could no longer sit still.

She wiped her tears away and stood up, pacing back and forth before finally gritting her teeth. "I'll erase my memories and leave only a few vague impressions."

With that, Zong Ya sat down cross-legged. A moment later, she stood up and smiled. "I've erased my memories, junior brother. You don't need to tell me what secret I erased. Just remember not to tell anyone else."

Lin Ke nodded.

Erasing memories sounded difficult, but it was manageable for cultivators. It was like cutting a section out of the middle of a thread: the sections above and below remained.

She had simply lost her memories of what Lin Ke had told her about Earth.

"Junior brother, now that you're a Dao Foundation cultivator, you'll need to prepare carefully for the Sect Grand Tournament in a month." After erasing her memories, Zong Ya sat down across from Lin Ke again.

"The Sect Grand Tournament? Isn't that a competition for outer disciples?" Lin Ke frowned at her words.

The Sect Grand Tournament offered outer disciples a chance to become inner disciples.

At the beginning of every year, the sect held an assessment for inner disciples and a grand tournament for outer disciples.

The sect selected those with decent talent from among the winning outer disciples to become inner disciples.

During the inner disciple assessment, disciples who had made no progress were removed.

In January, disciples were stripped of their inner disciple status; in February, outer disciples were promoted to the inner ranks.

Besides those methods, reaching the Dao Foundation Stage allowed one to become an inner disciple directly.

Lin Ke already counted as an inner disciple. He simply had not registered with the elder in charge of imparting techniques yet. By rights, he should not have needed to enter the Sect Grand Tournament.

"You indeed don't need to enter the Sect Grand Tournament," Zong Ya explained. "After reaching the Dao Foundation Stage, you haven't registered with the elder in charge of imparting techniques yet, have you?"

"No." Lin Ke shook his head.

"Qi Refining Stage disciples don't know these rules..." Zong Ya immediately told Lin Ke everything she knew.

Simply put, inner disciples at the Qi Refining Stage did not have to enter the Sect Grand Tournament.

But Dao Foundation Stage disciples did!

That was because Dao Foundation Stage disciples had to compete for the spots available for Personal Disciples!

Normally, one needed to reach the Golden Core Stage to be promoted to a Personal Disciple, but exceptionally outstanding Dao Foundation Stage disciples could be admitted as exceptions.

However, becoming that outstanding was generally something only possible at the late Dao Foundation Stage.

Even so, they still had to enter the Sect Grand Tournament.

The sect determined whether disciples were outstanding by watching Dao Foundation Stage disciples compete.

A person's reactions, mental acuity, cultivation of spirit insects, and so on could all be demonstrated in battle.

In tournaments like these, disciples at the initial and middle Dao Foundation Stages were essentially just background scenery.

"...But I'm afraid Li Le will target you." Zong Ya's expression darkened. "I've clearly rejected him many times, but he remains obsessed with pursuing me and uses you to pressure me. I'm worried he'll strike viciously at you during the tournament."

Lin Ke knew Zong Ya was not stupid. She simply could not reject Li Le too forcefully. After all, Lin Ke could be considered her weak spot, and Li Le also had an elder backing him.

"He's only at the initial stage too, senior sister. Don't worry." Naturally, Lin Ke could not say anything discouraging, so he could only reassure her. "I'm also at the Dao Foundation Initial Stage. If I can't beat him, I can always concede."

"No. You'd better cripple him." Zong Ya narrowed her eyes, a flash of ruthlessness passing through them.

Lin Ke froze at her words.

"Crip... cripple him?" Lin Ke thought he had misheard.

Was Zong Ya the one whose body had been possessed, not him?

In his memories, his senior sister had always been gentle and frail, yielding a little to everyone, even somewhat cowardly and accustomed to backing down.

How could she say something like "cripple him"?

"Yes, cripple him." A thoughtful look appeared in Zong Ya's eyes.

"Li Le has kept pressuring me relentlessly. Before, I thought you were too young and feared he'd harm you if I broke with him, so I gave way at every turn, hoping to maneuver around him. But yielding one step only made me yield step after step."

"But now you're a Dao Foundation cultivator, an inner disciple of the sect, one of its central pillars. You even have a chance of forming a golden core and becoming a Personal Disciple. It won't be so easy for Li Le and Elder Li to harm you!"

Good grief!

Thinking back to the Zong Ya in the original owner's memories, Lin Ke could only feel that she was utterly different.

He had to hand it to her. A woman might be weak, but as a mother, she became strong!

"I'll do my best." Lin Ke nodded.

"By the way, what brought you to the Spirit Insect Cave this time? Are you here to buy spirit insects?" Zong Ya's expression brimmed with approval.

"Just as I thought, you've considered it too, junior brother. There isn't much of a gap between you and Li Le. To defeat him in one strike right under Elder Li's nose, you'll need a special spirit insect."

"Let me check whether the Spirit Insect Cave currently has any such vicious, venomous insects."

As she spoke, Zong Ya turned her hand over and produced a jade slip, lowering her head as she extended her mental power into it to search.

"No, no, senior sister. I can't afford one." Lin Ke did not know whether to laugh or cry. "I came to check the prices, then sell spirit insects."

"Sell spirit insects?" Zong Ya raised her head, her eyes puzzled. "What spirit insects do you have? Don't tell me you're going to..."

She frowned. "The Blackgold Silkworms are issued by the sect and aren't eligible for trading. You can't sell them here. You'd have to go to the Yi-Wa Market."

"But once you sell them, you won't be able to complete your sect assignment."

"No, not the Blackgold Silkworms." Lin Ke shook his head. "Even after becoming an inner disciple, I want to stay at the Green Mulberry Garden. Naturally, I wouldn't do something like sell off my Blackgold Silkworms."

"Stay at the Green Mulberry Garden? Why?" Zong Ya was baffled. "The Green Mulberry Garden is remote and produces little. Why not become a steward at the Spirit Insect Cave? You can earn a commission on the spirit insects sold here every day. Over a year, your pay would be eight hundred to a thousand spirit stones more than elsewhere."

So Lin Ke told her what he had discovered about the Blackgold Silkworms.

Of course, he left out the Mysterious Bead and his niwan palace. The fewer people who knew about those things, the better. After all, they were connected to the Cloud Frontier Beast Venerable.

That was unlike the matter of Earth. Even if many people learned about it, they would probably just assume it was some special secret realm or domain and think no further.

"...So I'll stay at the Green Mulberry Garden and keep researching."

After he finished speaking, Lin Ke quietly waited for Zong Ya to digest it.

Staying at the Green Mulberry Garden was the result of his repeated deliberation.

The greatest advantage of staying at the Green Mulberry Garden lay in the Blackgold Silkworms.

As he had thought before, the Blackgold Silkworms were merely an unimportant, inconspicuous product the sect had obtained from who knew where.

But in truth, the fact that there was no need to boil their cocoons to reel their silk already made Blackgold Silkworms superior to other silkworm breeds.

Every other spirit silkworm the original owner knew of could only spin silk by forming a cocoon.

Blackgold Silkworms, however, could spin silk while remaining in silkworm form.

Beyond that, there was their compatibility!

He had also experimented in his spare time.

Although many insects could mate within his niwan palace, they could not lay eggs. After all, it was only natural for his niwan palace to have various limitations.

But what about the Blackgold Silkworms?

After just a few attempts, they had successfully mated with bees and even combined with the Mysterious Seed, giving birth to Lin Can.

That compatibility far surpassed that of other ordinary insects.

Lin Ke vaguely felt that the sect predecessor who had developed the Blackgold Silkworms must have had some grand design.

He simply did not know why that predecessor had stopped researching them, leaving the Blackgold Silkworms reduced to eking out an existence in the Green Mulberry Garden on the fringes of the sect.

"I see... So the Blackgold Silkworms accidentally combined with bees..." Zong Ya nodded slowly, then gave Lin Ke a meaningful look. "Junior brother, bring out that Stinger Hawk Moth..."

"By the way, don't tell anyone else that this has anything to do with the Blackgold Silkworms. Others won't be as 'foolish' as your senior sister. Just say you discovered it in the Poison Tempering Mountains."

"Plenty of new insects appear there every day. It's nothing unusual."