The Suzerain State and the Ice Spirit Root

"Senior Brother Lin, you're awake."

"Xiaohu, were you the one who brought me back to my room last night?"

When daylight came, Lin Sui woke to find himself in his own room. He sat clutching his quilt in a daze for a long while, and when Wang Xiaohu came in carrying breakfast, he asked at once.

"Huh? No, I didn't even go to the back courtyard last night. Didn't you come back yourself?" Wang Xiaohu scratched his head in surprise.

The young man slept soundly, and Su Fuxi had not wanted anyone to notice, so Wang Xiaohu, sleeping next door, had naturally sensed nothing at all.

What? Lin Sui was startled. He hurriedly looked down at himself and saw that he was indeed wearing a spotless white undershirt. His face suddenly flushed with embarrassment.

He felt so awkward he wanted to find a crack in the ground and crawl into it.

Especially with Su Fuxi's ethereal, immortal image in his mind.

What a worthless good-for-nothing I am. How dare I trouble an immortal?

He thought it would be even more awkward when he faced his master.

"Hey, Senior Brother, where are you going? Aren't you eating?"

"No, I'm going to find Steward Wang to study today's Book of Songs."

Lin Sui sprang out of bed, put on his outer robes, and hurried away from Cloud-Capped Peak with a steamed bun in his mouth.

"Young friend, is something troubling you? You seem a little distracted today."

"Forgive me for making a fool of myself, Steward. I'd like to ask, why can't my master see?"

Halfway through the lesson, Lin Sui found himself utterly unable to concentrate. Seeing Wang Yuan stroke his white beard as he asked, Lin Sui simply put down his book. "Is there really no way for even an immortal to cure her?"

"No." Understanding flashed across Wang Yuan's aged face, and he said regretfully:

"Elder Su was born with her eye condition. It isn't a problem with her body; there may be something wrong with her soul. At least for now, there's no solution to be found in Tianshui Kingdom. I'm afraid she'd have to go to the suzerain state to see if there's a way to treat it."

"The suzerain state?" Lin Sui had only asked on a whim. His master was a great cultivator; if even mighty figures had no solution, that meant there really was none.

But where was the suzerain state, and might there be a solution there? Lin Sui thought that if there was hope, he should still make an effort.

"The suzerain state is the sovereign of our Tianshui Kingdom. It's called the Ancient Zhou Dynasty. I don't know how vast its territory is, but it governs perhaps dozens of small countries like Tianshui. I don't know the details myself; even this is only what I've heard."

"Oh? The Ancient Zhou Dynasty is that vast? Wouldn't it have many cultivators too?"

"Rumor has it the dynasty has endured for hundreds of thousands of years. As for cultivators, it certainly has more than we do here. One of our sect's patriarchs was summoned by the dynasty, and it's been decades..."

Lin Sui's memories from childhood were all of that little village. He had never even been to the county town and felt that even the capital of Tianshui Kingdom was far away. How could he have known that Tianshui Kingdom was only a small vassal state?

That distraction shook the embarrassment from his mind. He gathered his thoughts and focused on the day's literary lesson. An hour later, he took his leave of Wang Yuan and returned to Cloud-Capped Peak. Rather than go to the pavilion, he headed straight to the Quiet Contemplation Terrace to cultivate.

Su Fuxi was in seclusion in a secret chamber, cultivating her soul. She was quietly planning to look for an ocular technique or something of the sort when the time came; perhaps it could restore her sight.

The Thousand Mysteries Soul Refining Art was a divine-sense cultivation technique and one of her primary cultivation methods. Since taking Lin Sui as a disciple, she had worked even harder at cultivating her soul, giving herself more chances to seize his body!

Master and disciple were both settling into a proper cultivation routine.

The Qi Refining Stage had thirteen levels in all. Every three levels formed a phase, with a minor bottleneck between them. The first three levels were relatively the easiest to break through; going from the third to the fourth was harder.

For those with good talent, however, minor bottlenecks were nothing, while for those with poor talent, they could be deadly.

Wang Yuan, for example, had been stuck at the tenth level of Qi Refining all his life and had effectively reached his limit. As for Su Fuxi, she simply did not want to recall her own years in Qi Refining.

For Lin Sui now, a minor bottleneck meant nothing more than waiting a few extra days. After his fight with the wolf pack, he had come to feel that he was a... good-for-nothing with nothing but cultivation.

Of course, he did not want to be like that, so he spent a little less time meditating and breathing in spiritual energy, and more time mastering the Remnant Star Sword Art and practicing other spells that could increase his strength.

He left early and returned late every day, often not getting back to his room to rest until the middle of the night.

Su Fuxi took him to collect beast blood once every three days. After two more such trips, his combat experience had grown, and his body was full of strength from body tempering. At last, he broke through to the fourth level.

At the same time, the spiritual aptitude testing assembly was held as scheduled.

"When they call you up to be tested, control your strength. Don't release all of it. Remember?"

The square was packed early in the morning. From a corner of the witnesses' seats, Su Fuxi gave Lin Sui the quiet instruction.

"Yes, Master. This disciple will remember." Though he did not understand why she said that, Lin Sui nodded obediently.

He then silently went to join the queue. Seeing that the line ahead stretched out of sight, he glanced back at Su Fuxi in her distant seat. She was quietly holding a teacup, head lowered as she sipped, without looking at him.

Su Fuxi had withdrawn her divine sense and closed her eyes. She truly seemed blind now, though her other senses were very keen.

In her sea of consciousness, countless golden threads protected her spiritual platform. Three golden handprints formed an array, working together with seven whips of divine sense. Unless a Nascent Soul invaded, ordinary means could no longer harm her divine sense.

She was the only Golden Core cultivator present. The sect master sat one seat away from her; he too was a figurehead.

The spiritual aptitude testing queues in the square were divided into three lines. By a rough estimate, there were probably several thousand people. Lin Sui was toward the back of the second line, and Su Fuxi waited quietly for his name to be called.

"One at a time, don't rush!"

After the bell rang and the crowd fell silent, a middle-aged steward stepped onto the platform. His voice carried across the entire square. "Begin! First person in the first line, come up."

Lin Sui was very curious about how the test worked. He watched intently as a young man stepped onto the platform.

The steward merely told him to place his hand on the spirit-testing crystal, close his eyes, and focus his consciousness. Then... the enormous black crystal gave no response at all.

"Disqualified! Next-"

The young man's face instantly turned ashen. He descended from the platform in a daze, while a faint glimmer passed through Lin Sui's eyes and his feelings grew complicated.

He turned to glance at Su Fuxi in the distance again. If his master had not brought him into the sect... he might already be a wanderer by now.

The testing proceeded quickly. In no time, a hundred or so people had been tested. The black crystal standing in the square did not even reflect the sunlight. It silently let countless people press their hands against it, without the slightest response.

People were called from the three lines across in turn, and the lines moved forward together. Lin Sui silently shuffled forward one step. At last, something happened.

When one youth placed his hand on the crystal, a brownish-yellow light quickly lit up within it, followed by red and blue lights, each flashing in turn. They vanished after three breaths, and in the next moment, three small but distinct starry vortices lit up on the crystal.

"Three spiritual roots, three spiritual apertures, low-grade aptitude. You may enter the outer sect. Take this wooden token and go find an outer-sect steward to make arrangements."

The testing steward waved a hand indifferently and called the next person.

Oh, so that's how they test it. No wonder Master told me not to release all my spiritual power. Lin Sui wiped the sweat the sun had brought to his forehead.

Su Fuxi was long accustomed to such scenes. A canopy overhead kept her quite cool.

She leisurely drank her tea, estimating that it would take about another incense stick of time to reach Lin Sui.

She had told him not to use his full strength because she feared he would shatter the black spirit crystal and attract the attention of forces from the suzerain state. All the testing crystals in the vassal states had been supplied by the dynasty.

She thought that today, the Azure Cloud Sect would witness a genius burst onto the scene.

At last.

"Next, Lin Sui!"

Su Fuxi raised her head.

The youth walked up in dark blue brocade robes, his bearing straight and handsome, his hair tied in a ponytail. He stood upright before the black crystal, ten feet tall, and gently placed his hand on it. He paused for a moment before pressing his palm fully against the crystal.

The next instant!

A blue spiritual light shot skyward, illuminating the entire crystal. It lasted a full ten breaths without any sign of changing color. At once, everyone fell silent.

A supreme-grade single spiritual root!

The steward's eyes widened, and he drew a sharp breath.

Then the blue light shifted, slowly condensing into a huge six-pointed ice crystal!

After it lasted three breaths, nine starry vortices appeared on the crystal.

Everyone, the steward included, was stunned. Only Li Yuanqing and Su Fuxi calmly drank their tea. After a long while, Li Yuanqing coughed, and the steward finally woke as if from a dream and shouted in a trembling voice:

"Ice crystal... phenomenon, Heavenly Spirit Root! Enter the inner-"

"No need! He is my personal disciple."

Su Fuxi stood, her figure as light as purple mist suddenly appearing on the platform. She proclaimed, "Lin Sui, a first-generation disciple of my Chongming Pavilion."

The graceful fairy in purple placed a hand on the youth's shoulder. With that, she took him away from the square in full view of everyone.

They turned into a streak of rainbow light and vanished over the horizon, taking not a single cloud with them and leaving behind only a beautiful silhouette.

After a brief silence, whispers broke out across the square.

"Th-that couldn't be the Fairy Chongming from the rumors, Su Fuxi, could it?"

"She really is as incomparably beautiful as the rumors say. A blind beauty-how marvelous."

"That boy with the Heavenly Spirit Root is her disciple. How enviable, to have such talent and such a master..."

"I want a master like that too..."