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The sword strike was clean and decisive, piercing the rabbit demon in the grass!

The flowering branch trembled slightly, and she smoothly withdrew her sword stroke.

The elders fell silent. The strike was flawless-even steadier than they had expected, its force released and withdrawn with greater ease.

Standing behind his master, Shen Ji looked on approvingly. The special training during this time had yielded some results after all.

After the flash of the sword, a scream rang out from the grass. No rabbit demon appeared; instead, a boy tumbled out.

The boy had a head of white hair that, paired with his reddened eyes, really did make him look like a rabbit.

Grass clung all over him, leaving him looking rather bedraggled. Even the ponytail holding his white hair was crooked.

What she had seen earlier was not a rabbit demon, but his ponytail.

The boy was quite handsome, with cool, pale skin and delicate features. He wore a gray robe washed so often it had faded. Gloom weighed upon his brow, and a dark cloud seemed to shroud him. With his brows and eyes drooping, he looked utterly dispirited.

The dejected boy asked, "Why did you ambush me?"

Qiaoqiao hastily apologized. "I thought you were a rabbit demon..."

[Is he really not a rabbit demon in human form?]

[That sword strike just now... seemed to hit...]

The senior brothers and sisters before the water mirror all wore expressions that defied description.

On closer inspection, the boy's eyes seemed even redder.

That strand of Sword Qi had struck his tailbone, leaving it both painful and numb. The sensation was truly indescribable.

Qiaoqiao took out a bottle of Spring Recovery Pills and handed it over. "Take some medicine for your injury."

Besides that precious bottle of Spirit Recovery Pills, her third senior sister had given her some other pills. Spring Recovery Pills were the cultivation world's all-purpose medicine, a cure for every ailment.

The boy pressed his lips together and fell silent for a moment before accepting the pills. "Thank you," he said quietly.

Looking at the boy, whose face practically had "entering the examination hall, with nothing left to live for" written all over it, she asked, "You didn't want to come to the trial?"

The boy hung his head dejectedly. "This is my seventh time taking the trial. I've already failed six times."

Having said that, he waited for her mockery.

Would she call him trash, or burst into shrill laughter?

To his surprise, she said dismissively, "What's that worth? I've already failed ten times."

The boy was stunned. He had actually run into the disciple from the rumors, the one even better at slacking off than he was!

"You're the one-"

She smiled. "I'm Qiaoqiao of Ethereal Peak."

Her smile was radiant, like a spring breeze drifting past. Her almond-shaped eyes were clear and bright, without a trace of shadow. She seemed utterly unconcerned about having failed the trial ten times, her carefree attitude enviable.

Compared with her, his six failures did not seem like such a big deal... Much of the gloom in the dejected boy's heart dissipated.

Qiaoqiao, by contrast, was incredibly excited.

[Aaaaah-]

[What a momentous scene!]

[An epic meeting between last place and second-to-last!]

Shen Ji: ...

Was there anything worth getting excited about here?

He had not expected Qiaoqiao's inner voice to remain so loud even through a water mirror.

He nervously glanced around. Seeing no reaction from anyone else, he let out a breath of relief.

He looked at his master again and, seeing his impassive expression, thought, Master probably can't hear her either, right?

It was better if Master could not hear these things his little junior sister was saying...

"What's your name?" Qiaoqiao asked.

"Tingxi."

"Oh," Qiaoqiao said. "Your name sounds quite nice."

"Which peak are you a disciple of?"

The boy clenched the hand hidden in his sleeve and turned his head aside. "None of them."

Qiaoqiao: ?

Only inner disciples could participate in the secret realm trial, and everyone who entered the inner sect was assigned to one of the ten peaks. How could he belong to none of them?

[Tsk, tsk, a boy of mysterious origins. Could he be a key figure in the secret realm? Maybe he can trigger some mysterious fortuitous opportunity!]

The senior brothers and sisters: You're overthinking it...

"Tingxi, why don't we form a team?"

"A team?"

What was the point of the two of them teaming up? To slack off together?

After agonizing for a good while, Tingxi decided to stop thinking. "Whatever you like."

Qiaoqiao's eyes curved with her smile. "Our team's goal is-to take first place in the trial!"

The boy's eyes suddenly widened. "What did you say?"

"To take first place."

"I'll be first, and you'll be second. How about it?"

Tingxi thought gloomily, That joke isn't funny at all.

Looking at her lively eyes and brows, bathed in daylight and glowing warmly, the words on the tip of his tongue turned into, "As long as you're happy."

After walking with Qiaoqiao for a while, he discovered that there seemed to be more to her than met the eye. She had a razor-sharp eye, able to pick out spirit herbs hidden amid tangled weeds at a glance and accurately identify their types.

This puzzled him even more: how exactly had she managed to fail all ten previous attempts?

By cutting grass along the way, the two had already accumulated several dozen points.

Tingxi thought, Forget placing in the rankings. With Qiaoqiao's abilities, we might actually scrape a pass.

However, he had celebrated a little too soon. While picking a third-tier spirit herb, the two stepped into a Howling Wind Beast's territory. The Howling Wind Beast resembled a tiger, with a pair of wings on its back, and rode the wind.

Amid a fierce gale that sent sand flying and stones hurtling, the Howling Wind Beast's massive body charged before them. It unleashed a deafening tiger's roar that made the entire mountain forest tremble.

Its icy beast eyes locked firmly onto Qiaoqiao, bringing a suffocating sense of pressure.

Tingxi mustered his courage and stood in front of Qiaoqiao, shouting, "Run!"

Qiaoqiao pushed him aside instead. "Don't block the way. Leave this to me!"

Tingxi: ...

Outside the water mirror, the senior brothers and sisters standing behind Immortal Venerable Wanghan all broke into a nervous sweat for Qiaoqiao.

"What a pity. I'm afraid the Immortal Venerable's disciple is about to be eliminated," True Person Yao said, stroking his beard.

Qiaoqiao's earlier display of accurately identifying spirit herbs had drawn quite a few elders over to watch. Seeing her run into a Howling Wind Beast, they all felt rather regretful.