Chapter 95

After buying the alchemy furnace and returning to their courtyard, Xie Chuxue was already waiting for them. “Hi hi hi, long time no see.”

“The genius of triple cultivation.” He extended his hand with a smile and ruffled Ye Qiao’s hair. Seeing her deadpan expression, he found it incredibly amusing.

“Junior Uncle, what are you doing here?” Xue Yu asked, clearly frustrated at the sight of him. He quickly rescued his junior sister from Xie Chuxue’s clutches, forcing a smile on his face, and wondered why Xie Chuxue had come to Floating Life City.

“This is the yard for the direct disciples’ competition. Why is Xie Chuxue here?”

Xie Chuxue said, “I’m here to bring you something.”

He patted the mountain of books beside him, revealing a bright smile, his light brown eyes blinking. “These talismanic books record the long history of talisman cultivation from its inception to the present. Ye Qiao, Ming Xuan, both of you need to memorize all of them.”

“There will be an exam in a month.”

“And Xue Yu, Ye Qiao, there’s also the development of alchemy on that side.”

“Zhou Xingyun, Mu Chongxi, Ye Qiao. Have you seen the other stack of books? They contain the entire glorious history of your sword path as well.”

Ye Qiao, who had been called out three times, thought, “…”

Mu Chongxi nudged Ye Qiao with his arm. “Reflect on why you were called out three times.”

“An exam?” Ming Xuan looked at the books and felt overwhelmed. “Wait a minute.”

“Senior Uncle, don’t tell me that if we fail this exam, we’ll be disqualified on the spot.”

In previous major competitions, there had never been any cultural exams. Given Xie Chuxue’s unreliability, the five of them first thought he was joking.

Xie Chuxue smiled slightly. “It’s not just you who needs to memorize them. Other clan disciples also have to, right?”

“We’d rather be beaten than memorize books.” Ye Qiao and Mu Chongxi were united on this front.

“Why?” Zhou Xingyun was also surprised. “Sword cultivators need to be tested too?”

Ye Qiao flipped open a page at random, and the questions included: Who was the founder of the sword path?

— How would they know that?

For example, how are the four major mental methods categorized?

Mu Chongxi raised his hand to answer, “I know this one. Speed is one type, but what are the other three?” The Qingfeng Method is a mental method focused on speed.

Xie Chuxue sighed.

Oh dear.

A bunch of uneducated direct disciples.

Ye Qiao waved her hand. “So, why do I have to be tested too? I helped Bishui Sect make a comeback; if that’s not worth a commendation, why am I being tested on three subjects?”

Xie Chuxue gave a helpless expression. “It was decided in a meeting with the elders. All direct disciples need to participate.”

“Prepare well.” The young man clapped his hands, his tone cheerful. “The exam will be next month. I hope you will reflect on it well and do your best.”

In fact, Xie Chuxue was more looking forward to seeing the direct disciples discovering they really had to take a cultural exam, staying up all night reading, and ending up in a state of collapse.

It would be quite amusing to watch.

The group exchanged glances but didn’t take it seriously.

The immortal cultivation world hadn’t had cultural exams for so many years. How could they suddenly be tested on this?

It must be a joke.

At this moment, the five members, who were currently slacking off, had no idea that their lack of concern was setting them up for a future of intense, late-night studying.

—

The holiday was long, and except for Xue Yu, who could focus on alchemy, the others couldn’t sit still. After half a month, Mu Chongxi came in enthusiastically with a task.

“Is anyone interested in going down the mountain to complete a task?”

“No.” The four answered in unison.

“Don’t be so heartless.” Mu Chongxi waved the paper. “We can pick an interesting one to do.”

The grand path is clear; one can’t be training all the time.

At this moment, Ye Qiao was studying the high-grade elixirs she had been refining with Xue Yu.

The success rate with the alchemy furnace was much higher than with a pot. She initially didn’t know how to use it, especially since it was a high-grade furnace, which made it somewhat difficult to master.

Xue Yu had been working with her in the alchemy room for half a month, experimenting with various elixirs.

When using the pot, Ye Qiao could produce ten alchemical seals. With the furnace, she tried it once, and without knowing her limits, she produced fifteen all at once.

Then she successfully fainted.

Xue Yu sighed.

“How many can you produce?” he asked.

“First, produce the number you can handle, and gradually increase, rather than producing fifteen at once. Your sea of consciousness will collapse from the strain.”

Ye Qiao said, “… But I produced nine the first time.”

At that time, she had no experience and thought more alchemical seals were always better.

Xue Yu: “…”

Alright then.

He said, “I underestimated your level of proficiency.”

Xue Yu had thought her limit was five, given that in the secret realm, Ye Qiao had only shown five seals. After a moment of contemplation, he became enthusiastic: “Since that’s the case, why not try high-grade elixirs together?”

He was looking for an alchemist to join him.

Ye Qiao was just the right person.

High-grade elixirs generally require one to be at the later stage of the Golden Core realm to refine because the sea of consciousness expands with realm advancement. But clearly, Ye Qiao’s sea of consciousness was not like an ordinary person’s.

Xue Yu thought they could challenge high-grade revival elixirs together.

The two alchemists worked together for half a month and finally emerged with blood on their noses and ears, their miserable appearance akin to characters from a horror film.

Mu Chongxi paused. “Xue Yu, did you get beaten up while going down the mountain?”

Xue Yu: “Can’t you use a different way to phrase it?”

Mu Chongxi: “Oh, did you and Ye Qiao get beaten up as a team?”

Ye Qiao reached out and grabbed his task list. Yawning lazily, she asked, “What tasks are there?”

“Want to take it?” Mu Chongxi pointed to the tasks listed. “There are commissions from the Eight Great Families, rumored treasures from secret realms, and tasks from the mortal world.”

“Tasks from the mortal world?”

Ye Qiao didn’t understand.

Ming Xuan explained, “The mortal world is where ordinary people live, separate from the cultivation world. Cultivators need the elders’ approval to go there, and there are people stationed at the intersection of the two realms.”

Mu Chongxi, being from the mortal world, was very familiar with it. “If you take this task, we could visit the palace together.”

“Wow.”

Several people exclaimed.

“Your Highness is impressive,” Ye Qiao immediately flattered, approaching with servility.

“Stop joking around,” Xue Yu signaled them to look over and said softly, “What do you think of this mission from the Eight Great Families?”

“The Eight Great Families…” Ming Xuan stretched out his tone, “The problem is, what could those idiots from the Eight Great Families possibly do?”

Yes, idiots.

If Ming Xuan were to give a single comment, it would be that there isn’t a single normal person among them.

Back in the day, as soon as he was tested for spiritual roots, he couldn’t wait to run away.

Despite his disdain, Ming Xuan remembered that the cultivation world was generally dominated by the Eight Great Families and the Five Great Sects. It was quite rare for them to seek help from others.

“There’s a reward of a hundred thousand high-grade spirit stones. It’s a reward posted by the Song Family. I heard that the Song Family…” Mu Chongxi paused and said maliciously to Ming Xuan, “Is haunted.”

Immediately.

Ming Xuan’s face turned pale.

“This reward mission seems to have been posted last year,” Xue Yu calmly wiped the blood from his ears due to spiritual exhaustion and recalled, “But at that time, everyone was busy preparing for the grand competition and had no time to take on such tasks, so it was shelved.”

Upon hearing that it involved ghosts, Ming Xuan immediately panicked, “I’m not going! You all go!”

Xue Yu grabbed him, “There are no ghosts in the world. Wake up.”

Zhou Xingyun added, “But there are ghost cultivators.”

Ming Xuan’s face turned even paler, and he shouted loudly, “I’m, not, going!”

Xue Yu quickly covered the eldest senior brother’s mouth and tried to comfort Ming Xuan, “Don’t be afraid. The Song Family is at least the Song Han-sheng’s family, so nothing will go wrong.”

Ming Xuan was the type who was very cocky with his mouth but reluctant to go. Although he used to envy Ye Qiao and the others when they encountered a demon clan in the secret realm and said he wanted to go out and play.

But in reality, when faced with such a gloomy environment, Ming Xuan would be the first to lose his composure.

He was most afraid of ghosts.

Hearing that it was the Song Family, Ye Qiao was slightly lost in thought for a moment, and she roughly knew where the plot had developed to.

In this plot, the female protagonist would receive a legacy from a senior sword cultivator.

Although she didn’t know why the Heavenly Dao wanted to forcibly give a sword cultivation opportunity to a talisman cultivator like Yun Que, since this plot point, Yun Que became a top genius in dual cultivation in the personal competition, quickly becoming the focus.

Finally, after some coaxing and hard bargaining, the ghost-fearing Ming Xuan reluctantly agreed, but he insisted on holding onto a bucket of KFC chicken, confidently claiming, “Chicken can ward off evil.”

Ye Qiao said, “Alright.” If that comforts you, so be it.

Hearing that these core disciples were about to take on a multi-person task, the elder from the Task Hall glanced at the core disciples a bit more and, unusually, said, “Be careful and protect Ye Qiao.”

“If necessary, let her run first.”

This was a task involving three cultivations; no one could take responsibility if something went wrong.

“…”

Ming Xuan leaned over and whispered to Ye Qiao, “The three-cultivation experts are different, huh? Look at how the elders’ attitudes have changed.”

Mu Chongxi also pondered, “Is this the privilege of geniuses?”

In the past, when they took on missions, they hadn’t seen the elders from the Task Hall say anything.

Seeing the three of them huddled together, Xue Yu couldn’t help but remind them, “In any case, let’s all keep a low profile during this trip, especially you, Junior Sister. You’re currently under a lot of external scrutiny.”

Cultivators from the outside world were curious about what kind of extraordinary figure the three-cultivation expert was and where they had been found. Naturally, the old people from the Eight Great Families also wanted to have a look.

“Got it, got it,” Mu Chongxi said, “Don’t worry.”

Ye Qiao also assured, “Understood. Starting today, I’ll be the most low-key person in the team.”

—