"Yes, next month there's-" Pei Ye stumbled over his words. He was a little sensitive now to words involving the future. "There's a Golden Autumn Martial Contest in the Prefectural City. I want to try competing first."
But Yue Muzhou thought nothing of it. He said gently, "Don't reach too high too soon. You've only just begun cultivating. It's perfectly normal if you don't place."
"Mm."
"Once you reach the Divine Capital, do you know what matters most?"
"Ability."
"A backer."
"...That's not something you can just have because you want one," Pei Ye said.
Yue Muzhou sighed. "When you go back in a bit, go to our courtyard and fetch the little box under my bed."
"The one with the two little pieces of jade?"
"Yes," Yue Muzhou said. "Today I'll tell you what they're for-the blue-green one shaped like a little bird: take it to the Cultivation Literature Academy in the Divine Capital and pay your respects to its head. He'll be your backer in the Divine Capital."
"What about the white one?"
"The white one..." Yue Muzhou fell silent for a moment. "The white one is to save your life. Whether or not you go to the Divine Capital, you can use it. If something truly desperate happens, take it to seek an audience with the Dao Leader of the Shenxiao Sect."
"Shenxiao...the Shenxiao of the Seven Daoist Houses?"
"Yes. But unless it's necessary, act as though that piece of jade doesn't exist."
Pei Ye was briefly stunned-Yan Feiqing was precisely the Qingwei Dao Leader's final disciple, and the Qingwei Sect was another of the Seven Daoist Houses.
That certainly counted as an important figure. But on second thought, given the old man's former standing, it was hardly strange that he knew such people.
Only, after all