"For example?"
Chu Yunfei looked at Wen Jiao, a flicker of curiosity in his eyes.
Wen Jiao stood with her hands behind her back, a rare trace of seriousness showing in her cool gaze.
"I cultivate at the Heavenly Sword Sect. It ranks among the seven great sects of the Eastern Continent, with deep foundations and abundant resources. Young Master Chu, your talent is outstanding. If you're willing to join, I can recommend you. With your aptitude, you would receive at least the training and resources of a core disciple after joining."
Had the other disciples of the Heavenly Sword Sect heard this, they would probably have been stunned on the spot.
Wen Jiao was aloof by nature and never took the initiative to befriend others, much less recommend someone to the sect.
The Heavenly Sword Sect's selection of disciples was extremely strict. Outsiders wishing to join had to pass one assessment after another.
But a word from Wen Jiao naturally carried different weight.
Although she spent most of her time away, her status was far from low. With her recommendation, Chu Yunfei could at least spare himself considerable trouble when entering the Heavenly Sword Sect.
The Heavenly Sword Sect.
Chu Yunfei's brows rose slightly.
The Vast Waves Domain was divided into the Eastern Continent and the Western Continent. Each of the Eastern Continent's seven great sects was a colossal power, with tens of thousands of disciples and experts as numerous as clouds.
The Heavenly Sword Sect was a top-tier power renowned among them for its sword inheritance. It even possessed Heaven-tier sword technique manuals, and every sect master throughout its history had been a peerless sword cultivator whose fame shook an entire region.
Disciples capable of securing a place in the Heavenly Sword Sect were at least in the Spirit Martial Realm, however low their cultivation might be.
Wen Jiao was already a Spirit Martial Realm expert at such a young age. It seemed she was someone of note even within the Heavenly Sword Sect.
Chu Yunfei silently weighed this, then finally shook his head.
"That won't be necessary."
Wen Jiao's expression barely changed, but a very faint trace of regret flashed deep in her eyes.
She had not expected Chu Yunfei to refuse so decisively.
"Won't you reconsider?"
Chu Yunfei smiled.
"I know the Heavenly Sword Sect is a top-tier sect, but I have no plans to leave the Azure Mystic Sect for now."
Wen Jiao sighed softly.
Fine as the Heavenly Sword Sect was, she could tell that the young man before her had plans of his own. The composure he carried himself with did not seem like something a youth just beginning to make his mark should possess.
Wen Jiao's heart was as calm as still water, yet beneath that calm lay a thread of feeling even she could not quite name.
Three treatments, three meetings.
The first time, she had felt only wariness and scrutiny toward him.
The second time, there had been a little more gratitude and acknowledgment.
The third time...
Wen Jiao suppressed that thought.
"If you change your mind later, you can come find me at the Pill Pavilion. I'll be staying here for a while longer," she said, her voice returning to its usual coolness.
"All right," Chu Yunfei agreed readily.
After those words, silence fell between them for a moment.
Wen Jiao was accustomed to being aloof and was not good at asking people to stay. She had wanted to ask where Chu Yunfei had been these past few days and why his cultivation had soared, but when the words reached her lips, she swallowed them back.
Everyone had secrets.
Chu Yunfei did, and so did she.
Probing too much would only overstep the bounds.
Wen Jiao nodded, then turned to pick up a storage pouch from the desk and handed it to Chu Yunfei.
"Here's your share of the profits."
Chu Yunfei took the storage pouch and extended his divine sense inside. His brows rose.
Six thousand spirit stones.
They were stacked neatly within the storage space, every one a fine-quality low-grade spirit stone, brimming with spiritual power and bearing clear patterns.
Blood-Replenishing Pills.
When he had signed the contract with Wen Jiao, he had provided the formula for the Blood-Replenishing Pill, while the Pill Pavilion handled production and sales, with the profits split thirty-seventy.
For cultivators in the Body Tempering Realm and Qi Condensation Realm, Blood-Replenishing Pills were a rare lifesaver, healing injuries far faster than other pills of the same grade.
With the Pill Pavilion's sales channels in Qingyang City, promoting them had been effortless.
In just half a month, sales had already reached such a figure.
Chu Yunfei tucked the storage pouch into his robes and cupped his hands.
"Fellow Daoist Wen, until we meet again."
When he left the Pill Pavilion, Wen Jiao personally saw him to the door.
People came and went along the streets. Qingyang City remained as lively as ever.
Standing before the Pill Pavilion, Wen Jiao watched Chu Yunfei's receding figure, and that sense of emptiness surfaced in her heart again.
Her brows knitted slightly. Now that her Heavenly Yin Baleful Intent Physique had clearly been resolved, she ought to have been happy.
Yet why did it instead feel as though something was missing?
Beside her, Uncle Yao said quietly, "Miss, Young Master Chu truly is no creature destined to remain in a small pond."
Wen Jiao did not deny it. After a moment's thought, she spoke.
"By the way, Uncle Yao, help me write a letter and send it to the imperial capital..."
After giving her instructions.
Wen Jiao's gaze returned to the far end of the long street.
"Are we really even now?"
Only after a long while did she turn and return inside.
Meanwhile.
Chu Yunfei had already left Qingyang City and was heading back to the Azure Mystic Sect.
Now that his cultivation had reached the eighth level of Qi Condensation, he was several times faster than before. The mountain path raced backward beneath his feet, and in just two hours, the Azure Mystic Sect's mountain gate appeared in his sight.
The disciples guarding the mountain froze at the sight of him, then hurriedly saluted.
The moment he stepped through the mountain gate, he clearly sensed that the disciples around him were looking at him very differently than they had half a month earlier.
Awe, curiosity, ingratiation, jealousy.
All manner of gazes gathered on him and scattered again, as though they were admiring some rare, exotic beast.
Several newly admitted outer disciples watched his retreating figure with complicated expressions.
"That's Chu Yunfei?"
"I heard he was still an outer disciple not long ago, but he made his name in a single battle at the tournament. Even Yan Guining..."
"Shh, keep your voice down. He's an inner disciple now. We can't afford to offend him."
"Why do I feel like his presence has grown stronger?"
One disciple lowered his voice, his eyes filled with shock.
"No way. How long has it even been?"
No one dared say for certain.
But everyone could sense that Chu Yunfei's presence had grown weightier than before he left the sect.
That oppressive feeling was unlike that of an ordinary Body Shattering Realm cultivator.
It was even stronger than that of some veteran inner disciples they had seen.
News of the outer sect tournament had long since spread throughout the Azure Mystic Sect.
A former trash disciple had swept through the arena with Body Tempering Realm cultivation and claimed first place.
Few precedents for such an almost absurd achievement could be found in the sect's centuries of history.
Chu Yunfei ignored those gazes and headed straight toward the inner sect.
As he passed the training grounds, he spotted an outer disciple crouching in a corner, scrubbing the steps, and stopped.
"You."
The disciple looked up. He was a youth of seventeen or eighteen, with ordinary features and cultivation at only the sixth level of Body Refining.
Seeing Chu Yunfei's inner disciple robes, he immediately stood, still clutching a dripping wet rag.
"Senior... Senior Brother Chu."
Chu Yunfei took five spirit stones from inside his robes and tossed them over.
The disciple scrambled to catch them, his eyes going perfectly round.
Five spirit stones.
For an outer disciple, that was almost a month's allotment of cultivation resources.
"Senior Brother, who do you want killed?"
Chu Yunfei rolled his eyes at him. "Killed? What are you talking about? Go to Flowing Cloud Peak and tell Elder Lin that I, Chu Yunfei, am back. Have her come over."
"Yes, Senior Brother Chu. I'll go right away."
The disciple stuffed the spirit stones into his robes, tossed the rag into the bucket, and took off running.
Chu Yunfei watched him run into the distance, then turned toward his own cave abode.
Flowing Cloud Peak.
Lin Wanyin was in her pavilion, grading the disciples' monthly examination workbooks.
A pale purple dress traced her graceful curves. Her ink-black hair was loosely pinned up, with a few stray locks falling beside her ears, lending a languid charm to her cool features.
Her waist was slender, her shoulders finely sculpted, and her skin like creamy white jade. Her expression held three parts distance and seven parts reserve.
But when the outer disciple relayed Chu Yunfei's words exactly as spoken, the jade slip in Lin Wanyin's hand abruptly stilled.
The air suddenly turned cold.
The disciple trembled inwardly and hurriedly lowered his head.
"Elder Lin, I'm only delivering the message."
Lin Wanyin's face was livid.
"Understood. You may leave."
"Yes."
As though granted a pardon, the disciple turned and left, yet could not help muttering inwardly.
Senior Brother Chu really has some nerve.
He actually dared to tell Elder Lin to come over.
That tone hardly sounded like a disciple requesting an audience with an elder. It sounded more like a superior issuing a summons.
Quiet returned to the pavilion.
Lin Wanyin's expression was so dark it could have dripped water.
That bastard.
The moment he returned, he demanded that she go see him.
What did he take her for?
A maid to summon and dismiss at will?
Lin Wanyin drew a deep breath, her fingertips turning white from how tightly she clenched them.
Should she go or not?
If she didn't...
Chu Yunfei's wickedly smiling face surfaced in her mind, along with those things he held in his hands.
Leverage.
Real, tangible leverage.
If she did not go, heaven knew what that bastard would do, given his temperament. He was entirely capable of spreading those matters, and entirely likely to do so.
When that happened, her reputation and standing in the Azure Mystic Sect would be destroyed in an instant.
But if she went...
Scenes from their last meeting flashed uncontrollably through Lin Wanyin's mind.
Those humiliating, chilling memories were so clear in every detail that they suffocated her.
At some point, a faint blush had crept over her cheeks.
Then...
She discovered a fact that even she found absurd.
She was not as repulsed anymore.
Or rather, beneath that intense humiliation, anger, and resistance, there seemed to be something growing that she refused to acknowledge.
Absurd.
She was absolutely overthinking it.
She took three deep breaths, arranged her expression into its usual coolness, picked up the silk shawl from the corner of the desk and draped it over her shoulders, then pushed open the door and left.
Flowing Cloud Peak was not far from Chu Yunfei's cave abode.
Lin Wanyin walked with her back straight and her steps composed, nothing unusual showing on her face.
But only she knew that her heart beat faster with every step.