The Chief Disciple's Influence

When Jiulian returned with a bounty of "gifts," Sang Ying had just finished a basic Swordsmanship routine, and her aura was still gradually receding.

Seeing this, Jiulian casually cast a cleansing Method Formula, sweeping away all of Sang Ying's sweat.

"Master." Sang Ying turned around and met Jiulian's gaze.

The venerable one, who appeared to be a young man, had a few loving glances in his eyes, which made Sang Ying feel a little strange.

However, she quickly adapted and, at Jiulian's invitation, reached out and accepted the Law Artifact and treasures he had been carrying.

"What did Master go out to do? Why did she bring back so many things?" She vaguely remembered that Jiulian left empty-handed.

"It's nothing," Jiulian waved her hand. "These are all gifts from your senior uncles. See if you like them."

Sang Ying picked up a decent Ice Spirit Root Cultivation Method at random, and then picked up another ice-attribute sword soul!

These dozen or so treasures were all of the ice attribute; not a single one was ordinary!

Even someone as worldly-wise as Sang Ying had never witnessed such a scene.

"Master, why did you accept such valuable gifts from the elders? We at Carefree Peak have nothing to repay you with." In the past few days, with Jiulian's help, Sang Ying has thoroughly explored the entire Carefree Peak.

She even went inside and explored the empty, gray treasure vault within the peak.

She still remembered the awkward expression on Jiulian's face when she touched her nose and explained to her. It was said that because Carefree Peak was a newly established peak, and Jiulian, as the Peak Master, was always lazy and just drifted through life, that was why the treasure vault was so empty.

"But don't worry, my dear disciple, I will definitely save up contribution points in the future and build up a large foundation for you before you become the Peak Master!" Jiulian assured her.

Sang Ying wasn't a greedy person, so she naturally didn't make too many demands on this cheap master.

She never expected that the person who promised to help her build a foundation would accept gifts and leave Carefree Peak with debts!

Sensing a change in her disciple's gaze, Jiulian quickly explained, "Don't worry, I've never taken on any disciples before, but I've always given plenty of gifts to my senior brothers and sisters' disciples. So this is their return gift; we don't need to spend any money."

Sang Ying was finally relieved.

"Keep these things if you need them, otherwise throw them into the treasure vault. I've already given you the key to the vault; you can come and go as you please." Jiulian specifically took out the sword spirit. "I've seen your sword; it's a fine weapon, and it seems to have developed some sentience. However, it doesn't seem to have been imbued with any attributes yet?"

Sang Ying nodded. "I only recently obtained Floating River, and haven't had time to attach any attributes to it yet."

Because cultivators have different Spirit Root, the spiritual swords forged by swordsmiths generally have different attributes.

However, because Floating River had not yet been assigned a master when it was forged, Jimo Qing did not add attributes to it early on.

"That's perfect, then this Ice Soul can come in handy." Jiulian handed the Ice Soul, which emitted a soft blue light, to Sang Ying.

Holding this priceless treasure, she felt a surge of emotion.

Sang Ying wasn't stupid; she could naturally guess that Jiulian had probably used her connections to get these things from other elders (just kidding). Who knew what price Jiulian would have to pay for this later? (Just kidding!)

"Thank you, Master." She said softly, but a bittersweet feeling welled up inside her.

Jiulian patted her disciple's head without saying anything.

Sword Soul is indeed a good thing. It can improve the rank of sword beings that have not yet developed intelligence, and it can also help sword spirits that have already developed to gather Spiritual Qi.

The ice-attribute sword spirit is equivalent to giving the spirit sword a special attribute while advancing it.

Sang Ying had originally planned to find a suitable sword spirit for the Floating River, but before she could take any action, Jiulian solved the problem for her.

She tapped the blade of the Floating River's sword and suddenly realized that this sword seemed to have pretty good luck?

Floating River responded with a buzzing sound, seemingly also expressing its joy.

After chatting with Jiulian for a while, Sang Ying took the pile of gifts back to her room. This room was indeed personally arranged by Jiulian for her disciple, although it had been set up for decades before finally welcoming its owner.

Sang Ying later asked Jiulian why she wanted to take her as her disciple.

Jiulian simply replied, "Fate."

It was fate again. Ten Thousand Daos Born seemed to believe in fate immensely, and everything could be explained by fate.

Sang Ying did not move into Carefree Peak on the same day. She first went back to the inn where she had stayed before and told the Gu cultivator about her situation.

Upon learning that Sang Ying had become a personal disciple of a certain Peak Master, he was extremely proud and even told Sang Ying about the two bets he had made a few days ago.

"Because you, my niece, are not well-known, the stall owner set a very high odds for you. Non-Self been kind-hearted, I'm afraid he would have lost his little stall to me in the end!" The Gu cultivator was not good at business and did not intend to take away the stall owner's stall.

In the end, he only accepted a small amount of Spirit Stone and let the stall owner go, considering that the stall owner had tried to persuade him several times.

As for the Jing Household in Jing Yang, they weren't as lucky as the stall owners.

Given that Jing Yang had crossed the line with the Gu cultivators several times, they also wanted to use the Jing Household's power to suppress him.

Finally, because the Jing Household intentionally publicized the bet between the two Gu cultivators, almost everyone in Du Dujiu City gathered here to witness this dramatic scene when the results were announced and Jing Yang fulfilled his promise.

Jing Yang practically cried as he fulfilled the bet.

Only after the Gu cultivator nodded to indicate that it was okay did he flee with a dark expression, covering his face.

Everyone was amused by this, and they even connected it to the earlier scene where Jing He mistakenly thought they were the top scorer in the test.

"You have no idea, but someone happened to take Image-Retaining Stone that day, wanting to capture the moment when the young master of the Jing Household made a name for himself. Who would have thought that you would suddenly appear? The scene of him claiming to be number one and mocking Ten Thousand Daos Born has now spread all over Yao Zhou!" Gu Xiu sighed inwardly.

Upon hearing this, the Jing Household not only lost face, but Mara Gate also seemed to despise this former prodigy. If the Jing Household hadn't returned all the benefits they had previously gained and given Mara Gate even more good things, they would have been completely humiliated.

I'm afraid Jing He wouldn't even be able to enter the Mara Gate.

However, because of this, Jing He thoroughly hates Sang Ying. It is said that Jing He now carries Sang Ying's painting with him at all times, and when he relaxes, he will take out the painting to look at it, so as to motivate himself to cheer up and work hard in his cultivation.

"In that case, it seems I need to work even harder," Sang Ying replied.

She didn't want to lose to the other person next time they met; after all, she had already been number one, and she wanted to continue being number one!

As for how the other new disciples felt upon seeing their leader's diligence and hard work, and how they would strive to follow in Sang Ying's footsteps and cultivate diligently, that was something the new leader could not predict.

However, such changes appeared quite differently to the sect's founders.

The venerable Elder Ten Thousand Daos Born stroked his snow-white beard, a smile playing on his lips, "Excellent! With such high aspirations from the new disciples, it seems I, Ten Thousand Daos Born, will be a contender in the next sect competition!"

Upon hearing this, Elder Xiao, who was standing behind him, couldn't help but feel a little expectant.

Perhaps, perhaps!

A note from the author:

Gu Gou: I've been floating around for so long, why haven't I been allowed to appear yet?! If I don't appear soon, my apprentice will be gone!

Sparrow (pointing and gesturing): The apprentice wasn't originally yours!

That's all for today, see you tomorrow!

Love you all!