Chapter 85: Inner Disciples (Part 3)

Xu Qianyu needed to continue practicing her internal energy, so she opened the long-sealed Dream Shadow Tube.
After not seeing it for a long time, she initially wanted to share her joy about entering the inner sect with her Uncle shi. Unexpectedly, the illusion of Wuzhen appeared, so faint that it was almost invisible, which startled Xu Qianyu and made her hold her breath. “Uncle shi, Uncle shi, what’s wrong with you?”
The boy raised his dark eyes and glanced at her with a calm expression before weakly closing his eyes again.

In that glance, Xu Qianyu detected a hint of disdain, which silenced her doubts. Silently, she slid off the bed and assumed a meditation posture, her worried eyes still fixed on him.
Fortunately, after a moment, the illusion slowly became more substantial, and the scrolls and pillars in the scene began to take shape.

“Is it because I haven’t been back for too long that this happened?” Xu Qianyu thought, attempting to infuse a bit of spiritual energy into Wuzhen’s illusion.
The scene became more vivid and lifelike; even the embroidery on Wuzhen’s flowing black robes became clearer.
“You really do need spiritual energy.”

Xu Qianyu’s tone was somewhat nuanced. Saying he needed spiritual energy was an euphemism—the Wuzhen in the Dream Shadow Tube entirely relied on absorbing her spiritual energy for sustenance. “No wonder you didn’t let me close the Dream Shadow Tube before.”
He had to float in the room for twelve hours a day, absorbing her spiritual energy.
And he even forced her to practice her internal energy diligently.

For a foundational disciple, the amount of spiritual energy in her reservoir was only sufficient to feed a severely injured patient a grain of rice per day; it was truly insufficient.
Thinking of this, Xu Qianyu felt a surge of anger. No wonder she had been unable to advance during her foundational training; the spiritual energy she absorbed had to be divided between two people—how could that be enough?
In response to her thoughts, a clear voice emerged from the book tube. Xu Qianyu closed her eyes, quickly reached up to touch the flower in her hair, and moved away a bit. However, Wuzhen watched her for a moment and spoke, “The first lesson…”
Xu Qianyu was puzzled. “The first lesson?”
She remembered she had already heard up to the fourteenth lesson.

The boy showed no sign of stopping: “From Foundation Establishment to Nascent Soul.”
Xu Qianyu was taken aback. After listening for a while, she confirmed that the course in the Dream Shadow Tube had indeed been updated, and she hurriedly stood up. “I haven’t finished the last one, ‘From Zhuji (Foundation Establishment) to Jidan (Golden Core)’ yet.”
To prevent the disciples from becoming complacent, only a select few within the immortal sect knew that Xu Qianyu had reached the initial stage of the Nascent Soul, and she herself was unaware of it.

When she was building her spiritual reservoir, she suffered greatly from incomplete courses. Since then, her learning had been quite grounded, and she no longer rushed into things. Moreover, she had found the previous Golden Core course very challenging; it was incomplete, and how could she keep up with the subsequent lessons?
Wuzhen replied, “The first lesson is about consciousness catalysis.”
“Can we go back?” Xu Qianyu was still examining the Dream Shadow Tube. “Is it possible to go back?”
Wuzhen provided her with a book tube.
Xu Qianyu sat back down.

She found this lesson to be confusing, but it didn’t matter; Wuzhen assigned her some coursework. The assignment was not difficult; it merely required her to repeatedly practice projecting her consciousness.
Wuzhen only lectured for a short time before resting, seemingly still a bit weak.
Having finally caught a senior-level cultivator, Xu Qianyu took the opportunity to ask questions. She took a sheet of paper and repeatedly drew a vortex pattern on it with her finger. When she saw Wuzhen glance over, she picked up a brush and drew a Gathering Spirit talisman in front of him, watching him burn it. “Do you know how to do this? Do you know why I can’t draw the talisman?”
Wuzhen: “…”
After a long while, he wrote four golden characters in front of him:
“I am a Fa Xiu (Law Cultivator).”
It was one thing to ask about sword techniques, but how could he understand talisman cultivation?
After writing these four characters, he exhausted some spiritual energy, and the illusion faded a bit more, startling Xu Qianyu into quickly supplying him with energy. “I understand.”

Wuzhen was left with only a remnant of his soul, sealed within past images, unsure if he could still think as he used to. Communicating like this with fellow practitioners truly leaked secrets of the heavens, which must have consumed a lot of energy.

“This method of communication that consumes so much spiritual energy should be reserved for crucial information,” Xu Qianyu thought it was a waste. “Last time, Uncle shi wrote ‘Wufu Cliff’ but didn’t finish. What is it that can save you?”
Wuzhen lowered his eyes and wrote in golden characters: “Floating Grass Shenchong.”

The ink flowed down the page, and with another stroke, it lost all strength.
The young boy turned his face, as if looking in the direction where Xie Yuzhen was, but the illusion quickly dissipated, retreating back into the dream shadow tube.
Xu Qianyu hung the dream shadow tube on her body.
“Floating Grass Shentu…” the system recited twice and said, “I understand now!”
“You understand?” Xu Qianyu quickly asked, “What is it?”
“It seems to be the name of a rare spiritual herb cultivated by Lu You.”
The system continued, “When I was writing, I established that this is an extremely rare and precious spiritual herb, with white flowers, pure and beautiful, known for soothing the soul and relieving pain.”
“But it only grows naturally and has never been successfully cultivated by anyone; Lu You is the first, which highlights the uniqueness of the female lead.”

Xie Yuzhen always had headaches, and Lu You often brewed tea from this herb for him to drink.
Xu Qianyu said, “So my master asked me to find this herb… But he has already passed away; how can he take it?”
The system was immersed in excitement: “I also know how to plant it!”
Xu Qianyu immediately got up, following the system’s instructions. She found several old clay pots from the weapon storage, filled them with soil, and placed them by the window. She wrapped ordinary daylily seeds in a handkerchief soaked in spiritual water, buried them along with peach and apricot petals, pearls, and glass beads in the soil, then watered them with some spiritual water.

“Are you sure this will work?” Xu Qianyu looked at the soil in her hands, doubtfully saying, “What I buried were daylily seeds; it should grow into daylilies.”
“It’s a fantasy world,” the system coughed. “Lu You grew it like this! As long as your heart is sincere, your willpower strong, and you make a wish every day, it will turn into what you want.”
But wait… It couldn’t remember clearly now whether it had originally named this herb Floating Grass Shentu or Floating Grass Shenchong. However, the names were so similar that it was likely it just remembered incorrectly; they were probably the same type.
Xu Qianyu stood by the window with her arms crossed, still very skeptical.

She had been pampered since childhood and had never tended to flowers or plants. Let alone a single blade of grass, she wouldn’t even be able to care for a healthy person. Could she really grow something?
With that thought, she sheepishly lifted a makeshift kettle made from old magical tools and carefully added some water to the clay pot.

*
That night, Xu Qianyu began to practice the assignments left by Wuzhen.
She took a dress and caught twenty cicadas, beetles, and grasshoppers, placing them on the ground. She recited a spell with her wooden sword, drawing a cage to trap them inside, and began attempting to invade their consciousness.
Previously, when her consciousness had left her body to tame a fire crow, it could only be considered dealing with lifeless objects. Now, however, Wuzhen wanted her to try taming living creatures without harming them.
This was likely the purpose of Wuzhen’s training.

He wanted to separate the small spikes protruding from Xu Qianyu’s consciousness light sphere into thousands of threads and forcefully cultivate them into divine awareness.
Weak insects did not need to be “tamed”; facing her intense consciousness light sphere was like touching fire, and they fled in panic. Xu Qianyu practiced for a long time before finally grasping the knack.

She had to learn to separate parts of her consciousness and also precisely control its actions, approaching gently, striving to feel what a small bug was thinking.
Her consciousness was too nimble and chaotic; this required her full concentration and not a single stray thought. Xu Qianyu found it easy to launch a large-scale attack, but it was extremely difficult to suppress her impatience and listen to the sound of rain. It was like threading a needle for a blind person, and the consciousness light sphere even trembled with eagerness.
After enduring a moment of extreme silence, she barely sensed a very subtle feeling, and she sprang out of her meditative state, having exhausted all the spiritual energy in the spiritual pool and had to meditate again.

However, during this meditation, she felt an unprecedented lightness and tranquility, as if she could hear the crisp sound of rain falling on the lotus pond a few feet away and a toad brushing past the grass under the leaves.
Xu Qianyu kept her eyes closed.
In an instant, she found herself inhabiting the toad, feeling the dampness of water droplets on her body and the fragrant scent of the grass.

Suddenly, all sounds, colors, and energies swirled and reversed around her, and she looked up at the vast sky and wide earth, feeling how small everything was.

In the evening breeze of Zhaoyue Palace, Xu Qianyu was still drenched in sweat. She opened her eyes, and the buzzing of mosquitoes filled her ears; it took her a moment to regain her senses. Just as Xu Qianyu was about to swat it away, the mosquito shook and spoke, “It’s me!”
It turned out to be Keyun.
Xu Qianyu was about to swat another one.
The system said, “Don’t hit it! This one is me too.”
Xu Qianyu asked in confusion, “What are you doing?”
The system replied, “Seeing you so serious, I also want to work hard on my cultivation!”
When it came out of the flower realm, it split itself in two, transforming into cicadas to snatch the soul-locking talisman, but it ended up failing because it was too awkward, leaving it feeling unsettled.

Since it had nothing better to do, it practiced splitting itself into two mosquitoes, hoping to become more useful.
Hearing this, Xu Qianyu was greatly encouraged and got up to water the clay pots again.
In the deep night, the two exchanged their insights.
The system transformed into three mosquitoes, flying in formation, horizontally, vertically, and diagonally. “How about it?”
“Not bad,” Xu Qianyu nodded after watching for a while, then turned to look at the little insects in the cage.
With a slight shift in her thoughts, the cicadas began to chirp in unison: “House contract, house contract, house contract, house contract—”
The ladybugs also flapped their wings, making a trembling sound: “Land contract, land contract, land contract.”

The system: !!! You made the insects able to talk!
Is this something a person can do?
Xu Qianyu was very pleased, collected them all, and sent them out of the window: “Go.”
That night, Xu Binglai slightly opened his eyes, sat up from the couch, and listened intently, his face showing confusion.
Was he going crazy?
Ever since Xu Qianyu left, that voice lingered; how did it feel like the bugs in the trees were all shouting about house and land contracts?
He hadn’t had a good sleep in a long time.

After listening for a while, he found it boring; why bother himself with such trivial matters?
He closed his eyes and used his divine awareness to create a barrier, blocking out the summer night’s insect sounds, and tried to rest again.
Xu Binglai lay on the bed, and after a while, he sat up again.

If he said there was no house contract, Xu Qianyu would probably not let it go. Suddenly, he thought that since Xu Qianyu didn’t know whether the house contract was real or not, he could just draw one for her.

In any case, she just wants this piece of paper; having it will bring her peace.
With that thought, she quickly made a hand gesture to light a lamp and summoned the sleepy young boy: “Come here, find me a deed for a house in the mortal realm.”
The boy: “…”
In the middle of the night, Xu Binglai was satisfied as he compared the two deeds.
The differences were merely slight modifications made to the text using magic. With Xu Qianyu’s cultivation level, it was impossible for him to detect anything unusual.
After drying the ink, Xu Binglai’s smile suddenly frozen.

What was he really doing? Xu Qianyu was just a Foundation Establishment disciple, making a fuss and causing trouble because she had no sense of decorum. Here he was, the dignified head of the Immortal Sect, starting to think about how to appease her when something happened. Was he afraid of her?
That he engaged in such matters at midnight was boring and absurd.
Xu Binglai, with a proud expression, crushed the forged deed into powder with a pinch of his fingers and, with a flick of his outer robe, lay down with a haughty demeanor.

…
The next day, Xu Qianyu was inexplicably called to the headmaster’s chamber.
She knelt outside the curtain, looking at the deed in her hands.
“Is this the deed for Zhaoyue Palace?” Xu Qianyu rarely dealt with deeds and couldn’t really tell. However, to Xu Binglai’s ears, her questioning sounded quite grating.
“I’ve given you the deed; what else are you dissatisfied with?” Xu Binglai erupted with anger from behind the curtain. In reality, it was his first time doing something so deceitful to cover up his own sense of guilt and shortcoming.
But how could he not get angry?
The young boy standing by quietly thought to himself that he had lit the lamp and bothered people twice in the middle of the night. In a hundred years, the headmaster had rarely been so conflicted.
Xu Qianyu tucked the deed away: “Thank you, Master.”
Xu Binglai had just let out a sigh of relief when Xu Qianyu called out again: “Master, is there any way, if I am not around, to stop someone from intruding into my chamber?”
Xu Binglai replied, “These are all people with names and faces in the inner sect; who would dare to intrude into your chamber? Huh? Who would dare?”
Xu Qianyu said, “What if?”
“You’re being unreasonable.”
Xu Qianyu fell silent. She was just trying to ask; if he didn’t agree, then it was fine—she was already very satisfied with the deed.
However, Xu Binglai waved her over.
He had originally been quite dissatisfied with Xu Qianyu, but then he thought about how she seemed to care so much about her chamber, as if she feared someone would step into her residence. Was she afraid of noise, just like him?
He would even feel his temples throb at the sound of a knock.
After all, she was his blood relative, so it was normal for her to inherit such a sensitive hearing. He himself had suffered greatly, so he could empathize.
Xu Binglai softened his tone, handed her a talisman, and spoke with rare affection: “Take this; stick it inside the window, and it will be fine.”
Xu Qianyu didn’t know the use of this talisman and stuck it in Zhaoyue Palace upon returning.
Every day at dawn, Shen Suwei would usually use a paper crane to tap on the window and call Xu Qianyu to get up.
But today, the paper crane kept flying and pecking at the window frame a hundred times, yet the person inside didn’t make a sound.

Shen Suwei performed a hand gesture, and the paper crane crashed against the window several times. Outside Zhaoyue Palace, a radiant light surrounded the chamber, as if a harmonious energy was enveloping it, preventing even the window from being pushed open.
Believing something was wrong, Shen Suwei took out his sword and pushed the door open to enter the room.
He directly lifted the bed curtain and saw Xu Qianyu sleeping soundly inside. He was momentarily taken aback. After a pause, he bent down, gently touched her shoulder with his fingers, and awkwardly said, “Get up.”