The cultivation technique involves absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, circulating it along the meridians and bones of the body, and completing a small cycle and a large cycle. This process is repeated eighty-one times, which is a typical practice for a cultivator.

Since the day of his rebirth, Luo Jianqing noticed that he could no longer absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth as easily as before. Previously, it was like playing with powerful but naive children, but now they avoided him.

No matter how Luo Jianqing practiced his cultivation technique, there was no spiritual energy within three zhang of his body.

Luo Jianqing was practicing the top-secret cultivation technique of the YuXiao Peak, called the Nine Lotus Heart Sutra. This was the highest secret of the entire Taihua Mountain, and it was said that the founding ancestor of Taihua Mountain had used this technique to ascend to immortality.

The Nine Lotus Heart Sutra was definitely not the problem, but the spiritual energy was just unwilling to come close.

Luo Jianqing sat on his meditation cushion and contemplated for a long time but still couldn’t find an answer. He had stabilized at the mid-level of Golden Core stage after his rebirth, but now he had fallen back to the starting point of the mid-level. If this continued, he would probably fall back to the early stage of Golden Core within a year.

After meditating in his bamboo hut for a month, Luo Jianqing stood up and looked up at the vast sky, suddenly thinking…

“Could it be that the will of heaven no longer tolerates me?”

The will of heaven and earth could not respond to him, but the plateau of no longer being able to grow and slowly declining has given Luo Jianqing an answer.

However, Luo Jianqing was not angry. He had already hated the unfair will of heaven and earth. Although he knew that his world was just a book, cultivators cultivated their hearts and selves. Even if he was just a character in a book, he was still Luo Jianqing and not the perChildren written as “having a handsome appearance but being actually wicked, envious, and jealous.”

… Ahem, he still had a bit of envy and jealousy though.

Without thinking too much, the first experience for new disciples was not far away. Luo Jianqing packed up some necessary items and put them in his storage ring, then went to find the elder responsible for the experience to obtain a token.

After obtaining the Taihua Mountain team leader token, Luo Jianqing had just come down from the Cangshuang Peak when he saw a ball of fire flying towards him from the horizon. He instinctively turned around to leave, but after taking two steps, he heard a disgruntled voice behind him, “Senior Brother, is it necessary to turn around and run when you see me?”

Luo Jianqing forced a dry laugh, and finally turned around helplessly, looking at his junior sister.

Wearing a red chiffon dress, with a small face and round apricot eyes, delicate willow-shaped eyebrows furrowed tightly, she was extremely beautiful, but her arrogant and willful perChildrenality completely lacked the gentleness of a woman, instead blooming like a soaring sun and radiating countless rays of light.

The seven great disciples of Taihua Mountain, known as the Taihua Mountain Seven Children, were famous among the younger generation of cultivators.

Although Luo Jianqing is not the oldest among them, he has the highest cultivation level and is respected as the eldest senior brother. The other six are all in the initial stage of the Golden Core realm, which would be considered impressive in the outside world, but they are still junior disciples on Mount Taihua.

Luo Jianqing sighed and said, “Junior Sister, I didn’t see you.”

Meng Tianxin didn’t believe him and pouted, “Senior Brother, you always called me by my name before, never by ‘Junior Sister’.”

As she spoke, Meng Tianxin took a step forward, forcing Luo Jianqing to take a step back. They continued like this on the narrow path under the Cangshuang Peak, one step forward and one step back. Some other junior disciples watched curiously. When they were about to return to the Cangshuang Peak, Luo Jianqing finally stopped and asked, “Tianxin, is there something you need from me?”

As soon as she heard “Tianxin,” the lovely little girl immediately smiled with joy. She pretended to cough a few times to hide her excitement and said, “Senior Brother, I heard that you will be leading the new disciples on their training journey. I specially made some pills for you to be careful on the road.”

Luo Jianqing took the three small jade bottles handed over by his junior sister and couldn’t understand whether to cry or laugh, “Is that all?”

Meng Tianxin nodded heavily, “Yes, that’s it.” As soon as she finished speaking, a bright smile appeared on her face. Her big eyes were fixed on Luo Jianqing, and her hands were constantly twisting under her sleeves, as if she was worried that he would not accept her goodwill.

After looking at the jade bottles for a while, Luo Jianqing put them into his storage ring and said, “Junior Sister, I remember that Fourth Junior Brother asked you to refine a third-grade pill for him. Since you have made pills for me, what about the pill for Fourth Junior Brother?”

Meng Tianxin waved her hand nonchalantly and said with a domineering calmness, “Let Xie Zizhuo wait slowly.”

Luo Jianqing immediately laughed, “Junior sister?”

The next moment, Meng Tianxin smiled gently, completely devoid of the small tyrant demeanor she had just displayed.

The two chatted for a while longer on the mountain path of Cangshuang Peak, but Meng Tianxin was in a hurry to go back and refine a furnace of pill, so she didn’t stay long. When she left, she looked back at Luo Jianqing reluctantly a few times.

As they reached the end of the mountain path, the girl in red suddenly stopped in her tracks, turned around and looked at Luo Jianqing, and said loudly, “Senior brother, do you think I owe you something from my past life? It’s my business that I like you, but it’s your business if you don’t like me. Don’t use having someone you like as an excuse to reject me in the future, it hurts my heart.”

Before Luo Jianqing could react, the bright red figure had already flown away at an extremely fast speed, leaving him standing in place with a stunned expression.

In the steep and rugged mountain path, Luo Jianqing looked up at the place where the red figure had left for a long time before shaking his head lightly.

He took out three bottles of pills from his storage ring, two of which were second-grade pills, and one was actually a third-grade pill. Even for the direct disciple of Qinglan Peak, it was not an easy task to refine a third-grade pill. It seemed that Meng Tianxin hadn’t rested well in a long time to be able to obtain so many high-grade pills in just a month.

Remembering the bloodshot eyes from earlier, Luo Jianqing sighed silently.

“It’s not that you owe me from a past life… it’s that I owe you.”

His murmur was drowned out in the air, unheard by anyone. A green light suddenly rose and flew straight from Cangshuang Peak to Yuxiao Peak. Luo Jianqing returned to his own bamboo hut and continued his meditation, searching for a solution to “what the heavens did not allow.”

Perhaps he couldn’t give a response to his junior sister, but he could at least guarantee, “Junior Sister, I won’t let anyone bully you.”

A month passed quickly, and Luo Jianqing withdrew his Shuang Fu Sword from between his eyebrows, revealing another green sword pattern on his forehead. He changed out of the white school uniform of Taishan Mountain’s Yuxiao Peak and put on a simple and lightweight blue brocade robe before stepping out of his door.

As he left Yuxiao Peak, Luo Jianqing looked back at a bamboo hut on the mountaintop for a long time before finally withdrawing his gaze and flying away.

This time, there were a total of twenty-four new disciples, the largest number in a hundred years. Practicing was a must for every new disciple, and Luo Jianqing was the leader this time. The sect also sent four Foundation Establishment disciples to accompany Luo Jianqing and lead the new disciples in their training.

Twelve junior brothers and sisters had already been taken away by the four Foundation Establishment disciples when Luo Jianqing arrived at the teleportation formation. The remaining twelve disciples all looked at him with big, curious, admiring, and grateful eyes…

Wait, grateful?!

Luo Jianqing turned his head and saw little miss Liu Xiaoxiao waving at him incessantly, mouthing to him, “Thank you, big sister.”

Luo Jianqing: “…”

Even if you don’t say it out loud, he can still tell what you’re saying, okay!

Lu Jianqing looked at the twelve new disciples and directly ignored the hot gaze of the little girl Liu Xiaoxiao. He stood with one hand behind his back, emitting a cold and calm aura that made the little radish heads unable to breathe.

Lu Jianqing said lightly, “Everyone has entered the teleportation array. Hold hands and do not separate. You have all reached the Foundation Establishment stage, so entering the teleportation array will only cause some dizziness and disorientation. Just endure it for a while and it will pass. Now, one by one, enter the array.”

The little radish heads obediently nodded their heads and happily entered the teleportation array one by one.

After the last person went in, Lu Jianqing stepped up and stood in front of the twelve people. He turned to look at the two disciples in charge of the teleportation array and nodded slightly. The two of them then bowed to him and said “Senior Brother” before they began to place spiritual stones in the slots to activate the teleportation array.

A bright white light filled the world in an instant, and a massive amount of spiritual energy surged into the sky, enveloping Lu Jianqing and the twelve disciples. The pressure of the teleportation array was a small matter for Lu Jianqing, but for the little radish heads, it was a spiritual shock. Lu Jianqing saw that one of the little radish heads was about to collapse, so he shook his head helplessly and brushed his sleeve, blocking some of the spiritual energy for that little radish head.

In the next second, he saw little radish looking at him with teary eyes, nodding gratefully.

Luo Jianqing: “…I just did it on a whim.”

Little radish nodded hard: “Thank you, Senior Brother, thank you so much!”

Looking at the grateful little radish, Luo Jianqing felt amused, but also a little warm inside.

The teleportation array was not fast, but just as the thirteen of them were about to be teleported away, a golden sword light flashed across the sky. Luo Jianqing heard a voice in his mind: “Jianqing, didn’t I tell you to focus on your cultivation?”

The voice was as cold as ever, but for some reason, Luo Jianqing heard a hint of urgency in it.

When the voice sounded in his mind, Luo Jianqing trembled at first, but then gradually calmed down. He sent a message back: “Master, as the senior brother of Taihua Mountain, I should lead the new disciples on their training.”

After a long pause, Xuan Lingzi’s voice became low: “Jianqing, are you really leaving?”

Luo Jianqing gritted his teeth and said, “Master, the teleportation array has been activated.”

After waiting for a few breaths, Luo Jianqing thought that his master no longer wanted to talk to him. But unexpectedly, a golden sword light slashed straight towards his forehead. Luo Jianqing’s eyes narrowed, and he was about to take out his sword to resist, but he heard Xuan Lingzi’s clear and indifferent voice in his mind: “This vermilion seal carries a little bit of my intention. If you dare not focus on your cultivation on the way, I will know.”