It was the seventh day after switching to the 《Mystic Frost Heavenly Heart Art》, which happened to coincide with the bi-monthly instruction session on Xueji Peak.
In the early morning, before the sky had even brightened, Bai Qingxue had already sat cross-legged beneath the old plum tree in her courtyard.
Over her frost-white disciple robes, she wore only a thin cloak. The snowy wind swirled down from the peak, lightly tossing the strands of hair resting against her shoulders.
Yet Bai Qingxue seemed entirely oblivious to the wind. With her eyes slightly closed, she continued to breathe in and out, absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth from her surroundings.
Spiritual power flowed through her meridians, completing one cycle after another.
By now, Bai Qingxue had the formulas for the first layer of the 《Mystic Frost Heavenly Heart Art》 memorized by heart. Without needing deliberate guidance, the spiritual power naturally followed its established path.
The pale blue spiritual light within her dantian had grown several times stronger than it was seven days ago.
The surrounding spiritual energy slowly gathered toward her, forming a vortex invisible to the naked eye.
The temperature in the air quietly dropped with her at the center, and a thin layer of white frost formed on the surface of a nearby stone stool.
After an unknown amount of time, Bai Qingxue opened her eyes. Just as she was about to stand, her gaze suddenly fell upon the branches above her head.
On the bare branches, over a dozen rice-grain-sized protrusions had appeared at some point.
They were flower buds.
Not just one or two, but the branches were densely dotted with them. Some had already slightly unfurled, revealing a sliver of tender white petals.
Bai Qingxue was slightly dazed for a moment.
Soon, she reached out to lightly touch the nearest branch.
The moment her fingertip touched a petal, a clear, biting chill seeped up through her finger—not the natural coolness of the plum tree, but the coldness of the Mystic Frost spiritual power within her.
Fine beads of frost were still condensed on the trunk, looking as if the cold had been forced from the inside out.
Bai Qingxue withdrew her hand and looked down at her fingertips.
The cold qi she released during her cultivation had actually made this old plum tree think that winter had arrived.
Bai Qingxue’s gaze lingered on the bud-filled branches for a moment. Without saying anything more, she rose and walked toward the main hall halfway up the mountain.
Behind her, the old plum tree swayed gently in the morning breeze.
The frost beads on the branches fell with a rustle, spreading a circle of fine silver-white around the stone stool. The few half-opened buds trembled slightly in the chill and bloomed a little more.
The main hall for the instruction session was not large, only capable of holding forty to fifty people.
When Bai Qingxue arrived, about twenty disciples in white robes were already seated in the hall, conversing in low voices in groups of two or three. She found a corner, sat down, and closed her eyes to rest her mind.
Before long, Liu Ningshuang walked in.
As an elder of Xueji Peak and the eldest disciple of True Lord Shuanghua, she managed all matters, large and small, on the peak.
Naturally, she also presided over the bi-monthly instruction sessions.
Liu Ningshuang wore frost-white Daoist robes, her expression cold. Her gaze swept over the disciples in the hall, and she gave a slight nod.
“Let us begin.”
The first half of the session was dedicated to answering questions about cultivation techniques. Liu Ningshuang addressed the problems the disciples encountered in their practice one by one.
She was a woman of few words, but every sentence cut to the heart of the matter. Even Bai Qingxue listened very intently.
The second half was an assessment of their cultivation progress.
Liu Ningshuang walked to each disciple, using her spiritual sense to inspect their meridians and dantian, pointing out issues and correcting deviations.
This was the rule on Xueji Peak, held twice a month to ensure the disciples did not stray in their cultivation path.
When it was Bai Qingxue’s turn, there was no particular stir in the hall. After all, as a newly joined disciple who had only been re-cultivating for seven days after dispersing her power, most people assumed her cultivation would at most be at the middle or late stages of the first level of Qi Refining. There was nothing worth paying attention to.
Liu Ningshuang walked up to her. “Your hand.”
Bai Qingxue extended her wrist.
Liu Ningshuang placed two fingers on her pulse and sent a strand of spiritual sense into her meridians.
A few breaths later, her brow twitched slightly.
“The second level of Qi Refining?”
Her voice was not loud, but it was exceptionally clear in the quiet hall.
Many disciples looked up, their eyes showing surprise. Returning to the second level only seven days after dispersing her cultivation was a speed far faster than most had anticipated.
“Yes,” Bai Qingxue answered frankly.
Liu Ningshuang did not immediately withdraw her hand. Instead, she sent her spiritual sense a few inches deeper, inspecting Bai Qingxue’s meridians and dantian inch by inch.
Wherever her spiritual sense passed, the light of the spiritual power was as clear as water, without a single trace of impurity.
Liu Ningshuang’s brow went from slightly furrowed to slightly arched.
She had taught disciples on Xueji Peak for nearly a hundred years and had seen no shortage of geniuses, but those with spiritual power this pure could be counted on one hand.
What surprised her even more was that the density of Bai Qingxue’s spiritual power even surpassed that of some disciples at the third level of Qi Refining, even though she had only just broken through to the second level.
She had originally thought that progressing too quickly would lead to an unstable foundation, but she hadn't expected this girl to be exactly the opposite.
“It seems I worried needlessly; your foundation is well-established,” Liu Ningshuang said flatly. Her tone revealed neither joy nor anger, but there was a faint trace of surprise in her eyes.
However, coming from her, those words carried significant weight.
A few senior disciples in the hall exchanged looks. Elder Liu was always stingy with praise; for her to offer even a single compliment was enough to prove that this new junior sister actually had some real ability.
Bai Qingxue bowed her head slightly. “Thank you, Elder.”
Liu Ningshuang looked at her and nodded. “Continue your cultivation and maintain this pace.”
“Yes.”
After the instruction session ended, Liu Ningshuang did not stay in the hall to answer questions as she usually did. Instead, she walked straight toward the main hall at the peak.
True Lord Shuanghua was sitting cross-legged on a meditation mat, an unfinished game of Go set before her.
The hall was filled with swirling cold qi, and within three feet of her, even the air was condensed with fine ice crystals.
Seeing Liu Ningshuang enter, she looked up.
“How was it?”
Liu Ningshuang performed a salute and gave a brief report on the day’s instruction session, focusing particularly on Bai Qingxue at the end.
“...Seven days since switching techniques, and she has already reached the second level of Qi Refining. Her spiritual power purity is extremely high—wherever my spiritual sense passed, the light was as clear as water—and its density far exceeds those of the same rank. I believe that although her progress is fast, her foundation is solid and does not need to be suppressed.”
True Lord Shuanghua did not immediately respond after hearing this. She closed her eyes for a moment and sent her spiritual sense toward Bai Qingxue’s courtyard on the mountainside.
There was no one in the courtyard, and the door to the quiet room was slightly ajar. Her spiritual sense enveloped the entire Xueji Peak, and at this moment, Bai Qingxue was sitting cross-legged on the stone couch, practicing her art.
A pale blue spiritual light shone from her palms, making the entire quiet room look like an ice cave.
And that old plum tree stood quietly in the courtyard, its buds blooming a bit more in the chill.
Seeing this, True Lord Shuanghua withdrew her spiritual sense and opened her eyes.
“Her foundation is indeed solid,” she said. Her tone was flat, yet it carried a sense of certainty. “The compatibility between her constitution and the 《Mystic Frost Heavenly Heart Art》 is even higher than I imagined. Since the technique is compatible, let nature take its course. There is no need to slow her down.”
Liu Ningshuang nodded. “Disciple understands.”
True Lord Shuanghua paused, then added, “The plum tree in her courtyard... is it blooming?”
Liu Ningshuang was slightly taken aback. “...They are buds. Not yet in full bloom.”
True Lord Shuanghua said nothing more. Her gaze returned to the Go board before her as she picked up a white stone and placed it down gently.
Liu Ningshuang tactfully performed a salute and withdrew from the main hall.
Walking along the corridor, she thought of the old plum tree she had just seen through her spiritual sense and felt a sudden wave of emotion.
That old plum tree on Xueji Peak had been planted by True Lord Shuanghua herself the year she reached Foundation Establishment; it had been hundreds of years since then.
It never bloomed—not because it couldn't, but because the time was never right.
It was said that it would only bloom out of season when it encountered someone whose Dao heart was in harmony with the True Lord’s.
The last time it bloomed was when True Lord Shuanghua herself broke through to the Nascent Soul stage.
Liu Ningshuang looked back toward the main hall at the peak and shook her head slightly.
Perhaps it was just a coincidence.
Rate on N.U.
