Wang Shouren no longer dared to insist.
It seemed that Mr. Qi was very fond of Pei Lianxue.
In Wang Shouren's memory, Mr. Qi seldom liked or was interested in a disciple. He usually showed a sullen face even to the ***Black Star*** Matriarch.
"Sir, this..." After a pause, Wang Shouren asked, "You seem to be quite fond of that Pei Lianxue?"
"Hmm." Qi Baishi glanced at him and nodded. "That Feng Yu Die was, after all, under the tutelage of Taixu. If she couldn't answer like that, I'd have to deal with her accordingly. But the other girl is different. When I interrogated her before, I saw her meridians, and oh, man...""Well... What was it?"
"Ahem---" Qi Baishi coughed and said, "Anyway, her master must have tormented her a lot."
"Tor... torment?"
"Well, that girl cultivated the hard way. She practiced the method of forging bones and joints. She also ingested poisonous insects and immersed herself in freezing water."
Wang Shouren's jaw dropped even more. "She ate... poisonous insects? Why?"
"Why?" Qi Baishi sighed and said, "It's the same principle as with pills; the more you take, the less effective they will be. The more poisonous insects she eats, the harder it is for them to have an effect on her. In other words, those demonic cultivators' insects have no effect on that girl now.
"...""Because of this, that girl is far superior to cultivators of the same stage in terms of willpower and energy field. If she can learn a better technique and is given some opportunities, she will definitely be no worse than those cultivators with a single spiritual root."
Hearing this, Wang Shouren was reminded of Ye Anping. Back then, at the ***Hundred Lotus*** Sect when he examined Ye Anping's meridians, he was also taken aback, thinking that Ye Ao was so cruel that he made his son practice so hard.
But now, listening to Mr. Qi, he felt that Ye Ao was indeed heartless. Not only did he have his son cultivate through these inhuman methods, but he actually had a girl practice the same.
"So, that's how it is..."
Qi Baishi exhaled heavily, and then said, "But there's still something I don't understand."
"What is it?"
"I can understand that Feng Yu Die learned the answer from Master Taixu, but Pei Lianxue said that the answer was given to her by her brother."
"And? What about it?"
"Then, who taught her brother?"
"Her brother should be taught by the Patriarch of ***Hundred Lotus*** Sect."
"Ye Ao?" Qi Baishi gave him a blank look. "Impossible. I've seen him before. He's not too bright and has a mediocre spiritual root. He wouldn't be able to understand this."
Having said that, he glanced at the heap of test papers piled up in the room, stood up suddenly, and said, "Anyway, Pei Lianxue's cultivation exercises seem a bit strange to me, so I'll check them out in the library."
"Ah... alright."
After watching Qi Baishi leave the room, Wang Shouren didn't think too much, sat back, and continued grading the papers, but after correcting a few more, he thought better of it.
Something's not right!
Mr. Qi was gone, but there were still more than 10,000 papers in this room. And now, he had to check all of them...
In an instant, his complexion turned black, but there was nothing he could do. In the end, he was just a deputy Elder.
"Ah---"
Wang Shouren sighed and had no choice but to dutifully pick up the next paper and read it.
...
The next morning.
While Feng Yu Die was still fast asleep, Pei Lianxue had already woken up early and was revising her *Leaf Shadow Sword* technique in the outer courtyard of the compound.
With the swing of her wooden sword, the fallen leaves at her feet seemed to instantly come to life, following the direction of the sword---either forward or roll to the side and eventually straight to where her sword tip pointed.
A click was heard.
One of the bamboos was cut into pieces by the leaves pointed by her and fell.
Pei Lianxue nodded in satisfaction and placed the wooden sword at her back, breathing steadily.
"I wonder what my brother is doing now? Didn't he say he would come to me later?" She grimaced and puffed out her cheeks, complaining, "It's the second day of the selection. How come he hasn't come yet, really!"
At this time, a female voice came from behind her.
"Did you just use this bamboo as a training post?"
"Ah?!" Startled, Pei Lianxue looked behind her, only to see that the one who spoke was the young lady of the ***Black Star*** Sect that she and Feng Yu Die met yesterday.
Xiao Yunluo, wearing a purple dress and carrying an expensive-looking sword on her back, was leaning against the fence and seemed to be watching Pei Lianxue's sword routine from the sidelines for some time.
"..." Pei Lianxue stared blankly at her, then glanced at the dozen or so bamboo pieces cut out by her and asked in a small voice, "It's not allowed?"
Xiao Yunluo stepped forward and sighed, saying, "This bamboo is the seedling of *Cloud Thunder Bamboo*. One is worth two thousand spirit stones. It hasn't even grown up yet, and you cut it down."
"Two... two thousand spirit stones?!!" Hearing this number, Pei Lianxue's eyes almost popped out.
"Well... this..." She looked at the bamboo and then at Xiao Yunluo, then at the bamboo again, and then lowered her head with a guilty face. "I didn't know."
"So, if you don't know, can you just cut it down at will?"
"Ah..."
Pei Lianxue did not know what to say. How could she know that this ordinary-looking bamboo was so expensive?
Dazed for a moment, she suddenly thought of the elixir that the *Nascent Soul* cultivator from yesterday had given her, so she took it out of the storage bag and asked, "Can I use this to compensate?"
"This?" Xiao Yunluo looked at the bottle of elixir in her hand with the ***Black Star*** Sect's logo engraved on it, and asked with a frown, "Where did you get this?"
"It was given to me by that senior who supervised the exam yesterday."
"Mr. Qi..." Xiao Yunluo frowned even harder. She grew up in the ***Black Star*** Sect, so why didn't she know that Mr. Qi gifted pills?
That old man was usually stingy and uncaring.
She took the bottle and unscrewed the cork to take a look.
"Top-grade *Foundation Building* pills, well... is worth quite a bit."
Pei Lianxue asked naively, "Is it enough to pay for this bamboo?"
Looking at her serious face, eager to pay for the damage, Xiao Yunluo snickered and said, "Pfft--- I was kidding. You really believed it? If it was really *Cloud Thunder Bamboo*, how could it be planted here, with no one guarding it?"
"..." Pei Lianxue was embarrassed. After all, she had not seen any *Cloud Thunder Bamboo* before...
"Okay, enough kidding. Your sword routine is so strange. What kind of technique is it?"
"Well..." Pei Lianxue hesitated, recalling that when she left the ***Hundred Lotus*** Sect, her brother had instructed her that if anyone asked about the sword technique, she should just say that her brother had taught her.
So, she said, "My brother taught me."
"And what kind of sword technique is that?"
"It's the technique my brother taught me."
Xiao Yunluo glanced at the leaves on the ground, then shrugged and said, "Forget it. The sword test is about to start. Go get your little companion and go to the sword test platform."
"My little companion?"
Xiao Yunluo tilted her head and asked, "What? Isn't that silver-haired girl your companion?"
"Actually..." Pei Lianxue was taken aback, then replied, "I am her companion."
"..."
Now, it was Xiao Yunluo's turn to be shocked. Seeing how good her sword technique was, she took it for granted that she should be the one who came to participate in the selection, but in fact...
Embarrassed, she nodded and said, "Well then, that said, I forgot to say hello to you guys yesterday. My name is Xiao Yunluo. You can just call me Sister Xiao."
"Well, Elder Wang told us yesterday." Pei Lianxue nodded and cupped her hands, "Thank you, Sister Xiao, for reminding me."
With that, Pei Lianxue was about to head back to the house to wake Feng Yu Die up.
But seeing her leave, Xiao Yunluo looked embarrassed as she grabbed her shoulder and asked, "Pss---tell me your name!"
"Oh... Pei Lianxue."
