Chapter 9: Promotion, Outer Sect Disciple

He had given her ten books, but none of them contained information about Blood Dew Grass. How could she possibly recognize it?

Self-taught?

Even if she had heard of Blood Dew Grass before, it was unlikely she could identify it easily. After all, Blood Dew Grass and Blue Dew Grass were extremely similar in appearance, almost indistinguishable to the naked eye.

How had she recognized it?

It was really annoying. If she hadn’t looked so delicate and annoying, he might have believed she had some real talent.

However, Xuan Yangzi was grinning from ear to ear, his mood as bright as a father-in-law finding the perfect son-in-law.

Fire attributes naturally had an extraordinary affinity and control over fire-based spiritual energy, and during the alchemy process, a cultivator could precisely control the heat, improving the success and quality of the pills. Moreover, this girl was born with a full fire spirit root, making her a natural talent for alchemy!

Now that she could even identify the elusive Blood Dew Grass, it showed she had an extensive knowledge of spiritual plants. It would be a waste for her not to pursue the alchemy path!

Initially, he thought Heaven had cursed her, that her incomplete heart meridians would be troublesome to treat. But now, he realized Heaven had spared her; her heart meridians were starting to heal on their own.

If this were to spread, wouldn’t everyone be rushing to fight over her as a disciple?

The thought that someone might snatch his future prized disciple made him want to spit blood.

This brat had better stop being a stumbling block on his disciple road, or he would kick him out for good!

“Girl, come tell him how you recognized the Blood Dew Grass. It will help this brat here give you some credit!” Xuan Yangzi urged.

Leaf Qingning didn’t want to answer, knowing that Jiang Shaoling had a bad temper. She was quite happy to see him displeased. But since Xuan Yangzi had already promoted her to an outer sect disciple, and she had a good opinion of the old man, she decided to humor him.

“Blue Dew Grass and Blood Dew Grass look identical, and indeed, you can’t tell them apart with the naked eye. However, the difference is that Blue Dew Grass is used for cleansing the impurities of a cultivator’s body. It’s a key ingredient for making Wash Marrow Pills and Marrow-Cleansing Spirit Liquid.”

“On the other hand, Blood Dew Grass is used to make the Life-and-Death Rebirth Pills. This pill has the powerful effect of reviving the dead and healing grievous wounds. It can quickly recover injuries, making it extremely rare.”

“Blood Dew Grass requires a special nutrient to grow — blood.”

“When Blood Dew Grass comes into contact with blood, it rapidly absorbs the essence from the blood to nourish itself, promoting its growth. Therefore, Blood Dew Grass has a very limited growing environment, and cultivating it is quite difficult.”

“At first, I thought this was Blue Dew Grass, but when I bled earlier, a few drops of my blood fell onto the leaves of the grass. Now, there’s no trace of blood left, so I realized this must be Blood Dew Grass.”

Xuan Yangzi clapped his hands in satisfaction. The sound was so loud that it made Jiang Shaoling’s forehead ache.

Seeing the old man glare at him, Jiang Shaoling awkwardly said to Leaf Qingning, “Alright, you’ve passed. You can stay in the spiritual plant garden. Your timing for spitting blood was quite perfect.”

Leaf Qingning shrugged but didn’t speak. Her expression seemed to say: You’re jealous, aren’t you?

Xuan Yangzi stroked his beard and smiled, looking as if he had seen through everything. This kid was clearly trying to catch the girl’s attention.

As an old hand, Xuan Yangzi knew the game all too well. He understood completely.

The system, ever sharp-eyed, wanted to add a word of caution: Old man, don’t overdo it with the self-congratulation, okay? You’ll only end up hurting yourself.

That night, the stars dotted the sky, the Milky Way spanning across, and the full moon hung high, casting soft silver light.

Leaf Qingning returned to her dwelling at the Daoist Academy after the time of the Xu hour. It wasn’t that she had walked for another couple of hours. In fact, after her foundation establishment, her steps were much lighter, and she no longer felt out of breath with every step.

She felt that her heart meridians would fully heal soon, and it shouldn’t affect next month’s outer sect trial.

The reason she returned late was that she had gone to the outer sect elders’ office after leaving the spiritual plant garden. There, she had received her outer sect disciple’s robes and token, and she also changed her living quarters.

Speaking of the outer sect disciple token, unlike the servant disciple token, which was just a plain wooden token, the outer sect disciple token had many functions.

For example, there were many places in the outer sect with restrictions that servant disciples couldn’t enter, but outer sect disciples could use their tokens to enter. Additionally, the token could receive messages. If a sect manager or elder needed to call a disciple, the token would light up and emit a sound.

Coincidentally, she had met some outer sect disciples who were signing up for next month’s trial in the outer sect elder’s office, so she had added her name to the list as well.

Now back in her room, she was just finishing packing her things.

Inside, Su Ruoxi and the others had returned ahead of her.

One of them had fallen asleep while cramming for a book last night and was punished for not answering questions today. Another had been punished for not cleaning up the mess properly and had to clean for an extra hour. The last one had stayed behind in the outer sect elder’s office to cook for Elder Qiu.

Thus, the three hadn’t known that Leaf Qingning had already been promoted to an outer sect disciple.

When they saw her holding the neatly folded outer sect disciple robes, their eyes went wide.

But soon, their expressions returned to normal. A servant disciple with a heart meridian problem had only been in the spiritual plant garden for one day. How could she possibly be promoted to an outer sect disciple?

Su Ruoxi sneered, immediately mocking, “Leaf Sister, you didn’t finish your memorization, so were you punished to wash someone’s robe?”

“Though the punishment wasn’t heavy, I wonder whose robe you’re washing. What will people think if they find out?”

“Yeah, although we don’t have strict gender boundaries in the cultivation world, it’s still close-fitting clothing. It should be handled carefully.”

Lin Yue’er chimed in, looking at Leaf Qingning with a disdainful gaze, as though the very sight of the disciple robes in her hand was a stain.

Leaf Qingning, always someone who preferred to act rather than talk, didn’t bother to respond to them. However, she did think to herself that she couldn’t blame them for being so clueless. After all, she had already established her foundation, while they were still at the Qi Refining stage. Naturally, they wouldn’t have noticed the difference.

If they had, they would have realized that the disciple robes in her hands were not someone else’s.

She placed the robes in the bag, ready to leave, and smiled at the three of them, saying, “From now on, I won’t be staying here. After I leave, you three sisters should get along well!”

“What? What do you mean by that? Did Jiang Shishu expel you from the sect?”

“But how did you get the outer sect disciple robes then?!”

Yun Mengyao finally noticed something was off, and her previous suspicions resurfaced. She clenched her fists tightly, her mind racing.