Once, Jiang Rui mentioned this during class, showing a rare look of gratification. “Your batch is the most worry-free one the Dharma Academy has ever taught.”
“New disciples in the past spent their first three months figuring out how to slack off. You lot, on the other hand, spend every day figuring out how to practice for four more hours.”
Below the stage, Yin Ruozhuo muttered in a low voice, “It’s only because Senior Sister is too amazing •˶ɞ˶•.”
His voice was very quiet, but it couldn't escape Shen Qingci's ears.
She tilted her head to glance at Yin Ruozhuo, who immediately sat up straight. “Senior Sister, I wasn't speaking ill of you! I was saying you lead us so well!”
Shen Qingci turned her gaze away, not wanting to pay him any mind.
She only silently calculated a “reward” in her mind.
When they did extra practice later, she would make a certain someone strike the wooden training dummy five hundred more times!!!
...
By the time Shen Qingci came out of the spell-casting arena, the sun was already dipping toward the west. Gu Qingyi walked half a step behind her, quietly whispering about an embarrassing incident involving a disciple from a minor peak during the assessment.
Just as the group passed through a moon gate, her footsteps suddenly paused.
There was a gaze behind her, faint and seemingly non-existent.
It cast a few glances toward her from several hundred meters away before quickly withdrawing. If she hadn't spent the past three months honing her divine sense to be several times sharper than others at her level, she probably wouldn't have noticed even this fleeting instant.
Her divine sense silently expanded, wrapping around corridor pillars and stone steps to climb up the pavilion diagonally behind her. The window frames on the second floor were half-open, and a figure stood inside—wearing a narrow-sleeved long robe, tall and broad-shouldered.
【The scumbag male lead!】
He stood behind the window, holding a scroll in his hand, but his gaze was not on the pages.
He had withdrawn his gaze very quickly, so fast that it seemed as if nothing had happened. But Shen Qingci had caught the direction he was looking in—it was precisely her back.
She retracted her divine sense and continued forward with a normal expression.
Ever since Lu Beichen was publicly reprimanded by Jiang Rui that day, he had restrained himself a lot. He arrived and left for morning classes right on time, and his every move was executed strictly according to the 《Disciples' Code》.
His scores in several assessments ranked behind Gu Qingyi's, placing him third—neither high nor low, completely unremarkable.
At first, the new disciples still gossiped a bit, saying things like, “So this is the level of the Sect Master's personal disciple.” But after seeing that he didn't compete, didn't fight back, and didn't talk back, they gradually lost interest and turned their attention entirely to her instead.
His marginalization happened quite naturally.
Yet Shen Qingci had never let down her guard.
In the original novel, this male lead was accustomed to hiding his true abilities in the early stages. He appeared respectful and humble on the surface, but in reality, every step he took placed him in the most advantageous position.
Though he seemed well-behaved now, who knew what he was plotting in the dark.
“Senior Sister Shen, then I will return to my cave dwelling first?” Gu Qingyi stopped at a fork in the path, saying reluctantly, “For tomorrow's morning class, I will bring some newly obtained pastries for Senior Sister to try?”
Shen Qingci nodded. “Alright.”
Gu Qingyi took another half-step forward and said playfully, “Senior Sister probably doesn't know yet, right?”
“This morning, we privately played rock-paper-scissors to set a rule: the loser has to tag along tomorrow morning, while the winner gets to escort Senior Sister back.” She curved her eyes. “I had great luck today, winning two out of three rounds!”
Shen Qingci was stunned for a moment before realizing that these people actually decided who would escort her back to her cave dwelling every day by playing rock-paper-scissors.
She calmly replied, “I see.” For the eldest young lady of a great family, being surrounded by a crowd of people whenever she went out was the norm; it didn't really matter who escorted her.
Gu Qingyi said goodbye with a grin, turned around, and walked toward the First Peak.
Shen Qingci turned onto the mountain path leading to Yunqi Cave. The twilight filtered through the gaps in the tree canopy, casting patches of fragmented gold onto the stone steps. She pushed open the stone door of her cave dwelling. Qinghe brought over a cup of spiritual tea, placed it on the stone table, and then quietly withdrew.
She sat down and drank half the cup. Just as her divine sense was about to sink into her sea of consciousness to run a few great cycles, footsteps suddenly echoed from outside the cave dwelling.
Wancui's voice drifted in through the stone door. “Senior Sister, a letter has been delivered from the Hall of Enshrined Guardians. They said Enshrined Guardian Shen asked someone to bring it over.”
Shen Qingci raised her hand and made a slight gesture, causing the stone door to open a crack. Wancui placed a jade slip on the stone table in the outer room, bowed, and retreated.
She stood up, picked up the jade slip, and injected her spiritual energy.
Shen Hanzhou's message surfaced in her sea of consciousness: “Eldest Young Lady, I heard of an incident at the Hall of Enshrined Guardians today. A deacon had originally accepted the evil cultivator extermination order for Blood Thorn Ridge, but for some unknown reason, he backed out this morning. The Mission Hall put the task back up, and it was taken by a personal disciple of Wanjian Peak. Chi Yuan has just signed the spiritual contract and has already returned to her cave dwelling, saying she will set out in half a month.”
Shen Qingci's fingers tightened slightly around the jade slip.
【Chi Yuan accepted it.】
In the original novel, it happened at this exact point in time as well.
The intelligence from the Mission Hall had labeled the target at the mid Golden Core stage. Chi Yuan traveled light out of the sect, only to run into a peak Nascent Soul evil cultivator upon entering Blood Thorn Ridge. After exhausting all three of her life-saving sword qi, she barely managed to protect her heart. Then, she was afflicted by an aphrodisiac poison, causing her spiritual energy to dissipate, and was picked up by Lu Beichen, who just happened to be passing by.
When she was chasing the updates and reached this chapter back then, she had been so angry she almost threw her phone. What kind of bullshit opportunity was this? It was clearly the author forcing a brilliant, high-and-mighty senior sister onto the male lead to serve as his stepping stone.
A peak Nascent Soul cultivator facing a late Golden Core stage cultivator—three strands of sword qi sealed with Soul Transformation power could block a hundred moves at most.
Yet the author insisted on having her severely injured, insisted on having her poisoned, and insisted on having her fall into Lu Beichen's arms with a blurred consciousness.
The male lead's great-grandfather was at the end of his lifespan, so the male lead was heading home for a funeral. Yet his funeral trip somehow took him right into Blood Thorn Ridge—the author didn't even bother to write a plausible logical flow.
She rolled her eyes hard.
【(ㅍ_ㅍ)】
That Lu Beichen, with only a Qi Refining cultivation, could actually take someone away from right under the nose of a Nascent Soul old monster, and that old monster “suddenly stopped and retreated” after Chi Yuan was poisoned.
Which of these details could stand up to scrutiny? It was entirely the damn author forcing it down the readers' throats.
The most ridiculous part was that this was actually the male lead's first opportunity. Out of all the secret realms, ruins, and natural treasures in the world, the author just had to turn Senior Sister into this “opportunity.”
A person as cold, detached, and self-possessed as Chi Yuan was forcefully written by the author to feel “grateful” and harbor “strange feelings” toward Lu Beichen after this ordeal, completely distorting her character.
Shen Qingci had argued with people in the comment section for over three hundred replies back then, only to be banned for seven days by the moderator for “starting flame wars.”
Thinking back on it now, she still felt incredibly frustrated.
She closed the jade slip and set it back on the stone table. Her tea had already gone cold. She picked it up and gulped it down. The icy-cold spiritual liquid slid down her throat, jolting her into a state of clearer focus.
【What's the rush?】
When Blood Thorn Ridge came around in half a month, she would just tag along.
But the problem was whether Senior Sister would be willing to bring her.
She couldn't just run over and bluntly say, “Senior Sister, don't go to Blood Thorn Ridge in half a month; there's a Nascent Soul evil cultivator waiting to trap you there.” Chi Yuan would only think she had lost her mind.
【No, I have to think of a proper excuse.】
At least if Senior Sister had an extra person by her side to shield her when that day came, the author's bullshit plot wouldn't fall upon Senior Sister's head so easily.
Shen Qingci placed the jade slip back on the table and tapped her knuckles twice against the surface.
Qinghe poked her head in from the entrance of the cave dwelling. “Senior Sister, should I set the dinner table now?”
“No need.” Shen Qingci stood up. “I'm going out for a bit.”
As for the matter of Lu Beichen going to a funeral but somehow ending up in Blood Thorn Ridge, she would definitely curse at the author face-to-face sooner or later: “Was your brain filled with water when you wrote this part?!”
Rate on N.U.
