Seeing Xiao Fansheng's gaze, Xie Yichu swept his gaze downward and quickly locked onto Xue Fuyao, who was standing at the very front yet tucked away in a corner.
"Little girl, are you willing to take this lord as your master?"
Xue Fuyao looked at the man seated in the seat of honor, her gaze somewhat dazed. This was not because she was cowed by the man's handsomeness, but because she recognized his identity and felt shocked that her master-seeking process had gone so smoothly.
Did Elder Lingmu not take disciples? How was he taking one now, and could it truly be because of her own aptitude.
Seeing Xue Fuyao stand foolishly in place without making a sound, right as Xie Yichu grew somewhat impatient, Gu Nian hurriedly smoothed things over, "Junior Uncle, Fuyao is just too happy. Fuyao, hurry and pay respects to Master."
Hearing Gu Nian's voice, Xue Fuyao snapped back to her senses, knelt on the ground, and kowtowed respectfully, "Disciple pays respects to Master."
Seeing this, Xie Yichu finally relaxed his mood.
"Senior Brother, I've already taken the disciple. The remaining matters have nothing to do with me, so the two of us master and disciple won't get involved and will be leaving first.
With that, Xie Yichu stood up and left, along the way taking Xue Fuyao with him.
Xue Fuyao only felt her body being tightly grasped by a large hand, followed instantly by her body leaving the ground, carried outside like a gust of wind.
A short moment later, the two arrived at Green Bamboo Peak.
Green Bamboo Peak was not one of the Main Peak of the Yuanji Sect, but rather something Xie Yichu had moved over from elsewhere. The entire Green Bamboo Peak was inhabited by Xie Yichu alone.
Xue Fuyao looked at the scene before her and widened her eyes in shock.
To put it nicely, Green Bamboo Peak at this moment was verdant with flourishing vegetation and extremely suited for Wood-attribute Spiritual Root cultivation; to put it bluntly, it was overgrown with weeds.
Xue Fuyao was casually set down on the ground by Xie Yichu, who said, "Just find any place to live; anyway, there are only the two of us on Green Bamboo Peak."
After speaking, Xie Yichu recalled how he had gotten through it back when his own master took him in as a disciple, and decided to emulate it.
"This is my cultivation experience from the Qi Refining Stage, along with some cultivation resources, medicinal baths, and the sect's cultivation resources are distributed on the first of every month. Since Green Bamboo Peak has only you as a disciple, you can just go collect them yourself when the time comes. The medicinal bath is once every three days, three hours each time. From today onward, you will concentrate on cultivation; come ask me if there's anything you don't understand. You are not allowed to leave the Yuanji Sect until you cultivate to Foundation Establishment, and normally you are even less permitted to leave Green Bamboo Peak. Right, when establishing your foundation, you must reach the Qi Refining Stage, Twelfth Layer, and you must not rely on any external force, succeeding in one go. Only in this way can it be considered a Perfect Foundation Establishment."
After saying these things, Xie Yichu also observed Xue Fuyao's reaction. Seeing that the other party showed no dissatisfaction, inwardly he felt much more satisfied with this disciple.
As for Xue Fuyao, clutching the things Xie Yichu had given her, she indeed had no dissatisfaction. She was not a real child, and of course she could tell good from bad.
"Understood, Disciple will strictly obey Master's teachings."
"Remember it well. The hour is not early, go find a residence to settle down in first. I'll be meditating right over there."
Xue Fuyao pointed in a direction, and looking over, one could see that in that place there were no houses, let alone a cave abode, but only a black stone resting there.
Probably because someone frequently sat upon it, this stone was exceptionally smooth.
Master wouldn't be cultivating on this very stone, would he?
This scene gave Xue Fuyao a completely new understanding of how casual her master Xie Yichu was.
Watching her master walk toward that stone, Xue Fuyao turned around to look for a place where she could live.
Because she carried no small number of secrets, Xue Fuyao did not choose a spot very close to her master Xie Yichu.
Fortunately, Green Bamboo Peak was large enough. In the end, she used her sword to carve a crude cave abode into the rock face beside a small stream, which was considered a basic operation among cultivators.
After all, she needed to soak in a medicinal bath once every three days; it couldn't be that they expected her to soak out in the open.
With a residence secured, Xue Fuyao began her cultivation.
Her cultivation realm looked to be the Qi Refining Stage, Third Layer, but in reality it was the Qi Refining Stage, Sixth Layer, and given her current state, she should be able to break through again in less than two days. Therefore, the target her master had set for her was actually not difficult.
Before cultivating, Xue Fuyao first transmitted all the information she had sorted out earlier on the Spirit Boat to Shadow One and the others via her token. Especially that Upper-Grade Spirit Vein-whether they used it themselves, threw it into the water to play ducks and drakes, or gave it away to others was fine, but it absolutely must not fall into the hands of the Zhang Clan members.
Originally Xue Fuyao had also wanted to draw up a roster of Zhang Clan disciples, letting Shadow One and the others deal with these people given the chance.
On second thought, these people were all key cultivation targets of the Zhang Family, and experts were definitely guarding them. Furthermore, Shadow One and the others' most important task right now was cultivation, so it was better not to let them be distracted.
Afterward, she came to the small stream outside the cave abode, preparing to first deal with that dirt inside the Storage Bag.
Several hours later, all the dirt inside the Storage Bag was finally cleaned out completely.
Xue Fuyao looked at the fragments inside the small bowl in her hand. There was a full half-bowl of them, and once they were all bound to her, they were altogether as large as two thumb-nails combined.
In the time that followed, Xue Fuyao's life became extremely routine: cultivating every day and soaking in a medicinal bath once every three days.
Through identification, she recognized that the items used to soak her in the medicinal bath were all good things-various spirit medicines ground into powder, forming the medicinal bath most suited for Wood Spiritual Roots.
Although Xue Fuyao did not possess a true Wood Spiritual Root, the Creation Spirit Root and the Wood Spiritual Root were actually somewhat similar, so this medicinal bath also brought her no small benefits.
As expected, it is good to have a backing; being a rogue cultivator is no life for a human.
Xue Fuyao soaked within the dark green medicinal bath, a faint medicinal fragrance permeating the air, and could not help recalling herself at this time in her past life.
At this time in her previous life, she had not yet entered the Cultivation Realm, still living a life of hiding here and there in the Mortal Realm.
Three hours later, Xue Fuyao emerged from the medicinal bath barrel, wiped the moisture from her body, sat cross-legged on the rush mat at the side, and quietly absorbed the medicinal efficacy within her body.
Feeling the cultivation realm within her body once again show signs of breaking through, she was not in a rush to break through either.
During this period of time, her cultivation realm had progressed from its original Qi Refining Stage, Sixth Layer to the Qi Refining Stage, Ninth Layer, and breaking through the ninth layer would bring her to the Qi Refining Stage, Tenth Layer.
During this process, every single one of her breakthroughs was made under "compelled" circumstances-just like a cup of water, changing to a larger cup only when the water inside reached its limit and was about to spill over.
Although doing this made her cultivation realm's advancement much slower, it forged an incomparably solid foundation for her, allowing her to walk farther and steadier on her future path of cultivation.
Having finished absorbing the remaining medicinal properties, Xue Fuyao stopped her cultivation. She came outside the cave abode and began clearing the weeds of Green Bamboo Peak, pondering the upcoming Foundation Establishment matter as she cleared them.
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