Chapter 75

Although it was only a tiny, negligible change, Ye Qiao couldn’t ignore the shift in her spiritual roots.

After much contemplation, Xie Chuxue finally realized where things started to change. It seemed to have begun when she raised her middle finger to the sky, and then lightning struck near her ear.

“Thunder spiritual root,” he muttered to himself, repeating the phrase.

If he remembered correctly, Ye Qiao’s spiritual root attribute tested at the time of joining the sect was indeed a thunder spiritual root.

Does this thunder spiritual root have such a use?

In the cultivation world, thunder spiritual roots are very rare, almost to the point of being unheard of. No one has ever developed a use for this kind of spiritual root. Generally speaking, low talent in spiritual roots has already set their future path. No one would be willing to take in a disciple with mediocre spiritual roots, leading to thunder spiritual roots being largely ignored.

Ye Qiao was probably the only one with low talent who could still enter the five major sects.

“Do thunder spiritual roots also absorb heavenly thunder?” Xie Chuxue had a headache for a moment, then suddenly clapped his hands. “How about this: in the future, when someone is undergoing tribulation, you just stand next to them and see if you can absorb some of the lightning?”

He was a heartless person who didn’t care if others undergoing tribulation were affected. All he could think about was his disciple’s spiritual root growing stronger.

Growing stronger…

How interesting.

“Zhou Xingyun,” Xie Chuxue shouted, “why don’t you undergo a lightning tribulation and let your junior sister try getting struck by lightning?”

Xue Yu couldn’t hold back his sarcasm any longer. “Little Uncle, can lightning tribulation be undergone just because you want to?”

“Hey, hey, hey,” Ming Xuan interjected, “does no one care if I live or die?”

He was struck by lightning, smoking black, and no one cared about him at this moment.

Life was unmanageable.

However, Ming Xuan had already finished his tribulation, and there wouldn’t be a second Golden Core breakthrough for Ye Qiao to try at this time. Xie Chuxue ran to the library to look for books, preparing to find out if there were any records of thunder spiritual roots throughout history and to help Ye Qiao with research.

…

Taking advantage of having no classes, Ye Qiao went to sell the pills she had refined. She had been missing for more than a month, and the pharmacy had been waiting for her eagerly. Every master alchemist has a specific name, but Ye Qiao had always been too lazy to name herself.

So the pharmacy she worked with enthusiastically gave her a name.

They respectfully called her “Ugly Thing.”

Although her pills were ugly, their effects were good!

Ye Qiao: “…” Thank you very much.

Meanwhile, at Wenjian Sect.

The junior sister delivered a heavy blow, smacking Chu Xingzhi on the head, speechless. “Don’t buy these weird things back to the sect, Second Senior Brother. They smell awful.”

The pills he had bought recently made the whole Wenjian Sect uneasy.

“But the effects are really good. And cheap,” Chu Xingzhi emphasized the last two words. Pills from alchemists are usually expensive, and their sect had been running low on funds recently.

Who doesn’t want to take advantage of a bargain?

Upon hearing that the pills in Yuncheng were cheap, Chu Xingzhi immediately dragged Ye Qinghan and hurried over.

The two of them, both at the Golden Core stage and sword cultivators, scrambled for the pills in the market like unruly housewives.

Their ungraceful behavior angered the rogue cultivators around them.

“Is that sect uniform rented?”

“Wenjian Sect? Pfft, since when did Wenjian Sect produce such scum?”

“Who has ever seen a personal disciple with such poor manners?”

“Ye Qiao,” he said righteously, “she’s even less well-mannered than I am.”

In Chu Xingzhi’s eyes, if bad manners had a shape, it would definitely be Ye Qiao’s form.

Ye Qinghan hid behind the crowd with a cold face, feeling too ashamed to show himself and letting Chu Xingzhi take the fall.

On their way back to the sect, they were surrounded by a few girls.

“Ah? Are you from Wenjian Sect?” one girl asked excitedly. “Are you really from Wenjian Sect?”

Chu Xingzhi found her question baffling. “Yes. Why?”

“Can you tell Ye Qiao that I’ve liked her for a long time?” she said, her eyes shining with excitement.

Chu Xingzhi: “…”

*

“The first round was the Beast Forest, the second was the Ancient Battlefield, so what’s the third round?” Ye Qiao counted on her fingers.

“The third round?” Xue Yu thought for a moment. “Flame Mountain.”

“That place is quite dangerous. I should refine more Clear Mind Pills.”

Ye Qiao thought to herself, are we filming Journey to the West here?

“Do any of you have any food?” Ye Qiao asked as she lazily sat on the ground, looking at her senior brothers lying around.

Zhou Xingyun, with a book covering his face, lazily answered, “I have some sugar candies.”

Ye Qiao lived by the principle: if the world gives me pain, I slap it back.

Her eldest senior brother, however, seemed to live by: if the world gives me pain, I’ll die right in front of it.

This behavior might be ungracious, but perhaps because they had been beaten too much lately, Zhou Xingyun had a rare fit of conscience and started carrying sweet food to share with his junior brothers and sisters.

Ye Qiao rummaged through his sleeve, successfully found some sugar candies, and tossed them to the other three senior brothers before lying on the ground. “Ahhh, why do they torture us? We finally get a break.”

Elder Duan Yu seemed to have noticed her struggles with swordsmanship and had been giving her intensive lessons these past few days.

Though his methods had become much gentler than before, it was still exhausting.

Ming Xuan wasn’t having it any easier. He had just broken through to the Golden Core stage and was now being trained by Xie Chuxue.

As for Xue Yu?

He was the busiest, preparing a lot of pills needed for the next round. He was the only alchemist in the sect and was swamped with work.

The most relaxed people in the sect now were Mu Chongxi and Zhou Xingyun, the two sword cultivators.

Ming Xuan, with a candy in his mouth and puffed cheeks, complained, “This is too much. How can they treat us like this? We’re precious talisman and alchemy cultivators!”

In the cultivation world, talisman and alchemy cultivators were invaluable!

But instead of getting special treatment, the three of them were the busiest, while the two sword cultivators were the most relaxed.

Ye Qiao, sucking on a candy, took out the Chaos Pearl. Xie Chuxue had been obsessed with studying why her spiritual root had grown recently. Before he left, he had surprisingly given her a reliable tip: contract the Chaos Pearl and see if she could refine it with spiritual fire to absorb it into her dantian.

“Third Senior Brother, can I borrow some fire?”

Ye Qiao had tried using talismans but couldn’t burn it.

Xue Yu raised an eyebrow at her request. The spiritual fire on his fingertip touched the Chaos Pearl, but after a while, nothing happened. It didn’t move or change at all.

“No luck.” Even the supreme fire spiritual root couldn’t refine it. What kind of fire was needed?

Just when Ye Qiao was at a loss, the KFC in her sleeve suddenly hopped out. With its golden eyes full of disdain, it strutted over to the Chaos Pearl.

It breathed a small flame at the fist-sized pearl.

“Hey,” Mu Chongxi exclaimed, “I didn’t know this thing could spit fire.”

He had always thought it was useless.

Ye Qiao remarked, “Such a small flame.”

But the next second, she saw the Chaos Pearl being enveloped in the flame and slowly melting. It finally turned into a faint mist and was absorbed into her dantian. Ye Qiao quickly amended, “Small but effective.”

“Wow,” Ming Xuan exclaimed, “Did the Chaos Pearl really melt a bit with that one breath of fire?”

Although it was just the size of a fingernail, it was still astonishing. What kind of fire could burn a pearl from the beginning of the world? The supreme spiritual root’s flame couldn’t do it, but a chicken could?

“I might know what it is,” Ming Xuan said excitedly. “Let’s go to the library.”

Zhou Xingyun was clueless, and Mu Chongxi grabbed him and ran to the library. The five of them rushed there, almost knocking over several inner sect disciples along the way.

“Are they crazy? These personal disciples.”

“Understandable, the next secret realm is opening soon.”

“Hey, I think I saw Senior Sister Ye Qiao.”

Ye Qiao had become quite popular recently. Everyone in the inner and outer sects of Changming Sect knew her as a dual sword and talisman cultivator.

Some even suspected that she had been pretending to be weak in the outer sect to surprise everyone in the big competition.

On the way to the library, Ye Qiao tested the power of the refined Chaos Pearl. As the pearl’s energy flowed into her dantian, Xue Yu couldn’t help but ask, “How does it feel?”

“Very hot.” Ye Qiao channeled the energy into her dantian and placed her hand on a withered tree. Before their eyes, the tree began to revive.

The Chaos Pearl, a creation from the beginning of the world, had the power to bring things back to life.

Just a bit of its energy was enough to revive dead plants. No wonder the sect master had offered it as a reward.

Ming Xuan clicked his tongue. “The five major sects are quite generous in this regard.”

Despite the open and secret battles, they treated their personal disciples very well. This was why families with talented members would always choose to send them to the major sects.

The resources were excellent, and while it was hard to stand out, the treatment for personal disciples was incomparable to that within a family.

Ye Qiao commented, “Except for Yunhen Sect.”

“You’re right.”

When the five arrived at the library, Steward Yu’s expression was priceless, changing colors like a palette. Ever since Ming Xuan and Ye Qiao had set the library on fire while cleaning it, he hadn’t liked these personal disciples.

What day was it today?

All five of them showed up.

Did they think this was a tourist resort?

“Don’t be angry,” Mu Chongxi raised his hand, “We’re not here to cause trouble. We just want to look up some information.”

Steward Yu: “…” Sure.

Not long ago, Xie Chuxue had also been here, mumbling about ‘growing spiritual roots’ and had turned the place upside down.

Now Ye Qiao and the others were here in a group. Steward Yu was exhausted.

But the library was meant for these personal disciples, so he could only wave them off. “Hurry up and look, then get out.”

Ming Xuan immediately responded.

“I wonder if we’ve been looking in the wrong place?”

“For example?” Ye Qiao raised an eyebrow.

“For example, we shouldn’t be looking for the KFC origin in the exotic beasts’ records.”

“But in the mythical beasts’ records.”

“…There’s a mythical beasts’ record?”

Ye Qiao, being a novice, had no idea there were so many intricacies in the cultivation world. Ming Xuan climbed a ladder. “Of course there is.”

“Look.”

He pulled out a thick book.

It documented many mythical beasts that had disappeared over the millennia in the cultivation world.

“Vermilion Bird?” Xue Yu leaned in and murmured, “But the Vermilion Bird’s tail doesn’t look like that, does it?”

The KFC was quite long, with beautiful red feathers.

“Compared to the Vermilion Bird… it looks more like a Phoenix.”

A Phoenix hatchling, the group compared the pictures in the book with the chicken perched on Ye Qiao’s head and found them increasingly similar.

“What the heck.”

“A phoenix that only roosts on parasol trees and only eats bamboo seeds?” Ye Qiao pulled it off her head. “So why does it nest on my head every day?”

Xue Yu, seeing her rough handling of the creature, hurriedly scooped up the little chicken, speaking calmly, “I’ve heard that Qingluan, peacocks, and golden phoenixes are all descendants of the phoenix. It’s very powerful. If it’s a phoenix, this growth rate makes sense. It might still be this size even after you die.”

Ye Qiao: “…”

–

Just writing about some daily life.

It’s not exactly daily life, but I quite like this calm and peaceful feeling.