Regardless of whether Gu Baiying’s appearance was a romantic storyline set up by the original work for her, Zanxing had no time to deal with it. For now, developing her career path was more important.

Throughout the entire Taiyan Sect, all inner disciples, whether new or old students, had to undergo assessments every four months. First place in the assessment had rewards, and last place also had punishments. Zanxing didn’t care about rewards and wasn’t afraid of punishments, but there was still Hua Yue who came to trouble her from time to time.

Keeping the peace and doing things carefully and low-key could temporarily help her survive, but given this damned original work’s personality, who knew if it had already dug a pit for her, waiting for her to jump into the fixed ending of a cannon fodder supporting female character. After thinking it over, she still needed to cultivate properly—the only strength was the hard truth.

Hua Yue had already formed her Golden Core, while Zanxing was now working hard and was close to entering the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment, still some distance from Hua Yue. Cross-level challenges weren’t always successful, so before the next inner disciple assessment, she needed to at least narrow the gap between them.

Therefore, during these days, Zanxing studied so intensely that she forgot to eat and sleep, leaving early and returning late, hanging her head from a beam and pricking her thigh with an awl—she hadn’t been this diligent even when preparing for graduate school entrance exams.

Besides Yueguang Daoren’s theoretical lectures, inner disciples also had smaller classes with various uncles. For example, Third Uncle Cui Yufu’s talisman class, Fourth Uncle Li Danshu’s alchemy class, Fifth Uncle Zhao Mayi’s divination class… and so on. They developed comprehensively in virtue, intelligence, physical fitness, aesthetics, and labor—a very high-quality education.

Among these, Zanxing’s favorite was the alchemy class.

The spiritual herbs, spiritual fruits, and alchemy materials used in the alchemy class were all provided by the sect. As new disciples, they used low-grade spiritual herbs. But Zanxing’s failure rate in alchemy was very low, for no other reason than the help of the Xiaoyuan Pearl.

In alchemy, the most important thing was mastering the heat. The Xiaoyuan Pearl was like a constant-temperature automatic heater, keeping the heat controlled perfectly without the slightest error. Zanxing only needed to throw materials into it. While others could refine one Qi-Replenishing Pill from a pile of materials, she could refine three. Even Li Danshu praised her work.

The successfully refined pills could be taken back for personal use. After accumulating a box full, Zanxing brought them back to the small wooden building to feed her cat.

Once, Tian Fangfang saw Zanxing put three Qi-Replenishing Pills into Mimi’s food bowl and was shocked, “You’re feeding it this?”

“Isn’t that how you raise cats? Give them the best.” Zanxing found it perfectly normal as she scratched Mimi’s chin, “Just think of it as nutritional supplements.”

Mimi didn’t waste Zanxing’s Qi-Replenishing Pills and was quite promising. In just over a month, its body had doubled in size. It no longer looked like a kitten—at least now it was a fat cat, though its personality of enjoying being pampered hadn’t changed. Recently, Zanxing was often awakened not by the morning rooster’s crow, but by Mimi’s huge bottom sitting on her.

She figured that while Mimi might not develop into a Yinlang Shi, it could at least develop to a Yinlang Shi’s weight.

Each day, besides attending classes, petting cats, and going to Chuhong Terrace for self-cultivation, Zanxing also liked to visit the sect’s Scripture Pavilion.

The Scripture Pavilion was essentially a large library. Unlike the Martial Arts Hall, which contained only cultivation techniques and secret manuals, the books in the Scripture Pavilion covered a very wide range. There were books about the customs and culture of various countries on the Duzhou continent, exclusive gossip from the cultivation world spanning hundreds of years, literary works, social laws, medicine and health, natural sciences—even children’s books.

Besides its exciting pace, another selling point of “Nine Heaven Summit” was its rich and grand worldview. When one was immersed in the book’s world, understanding all aspects of this world could only be done through these classics. During these days, whenever Zanxing had free time, she would run to the Scripture Pavilion to make up for her incomplete understanding of this world.

There were very few people in the Scripture Pavilion. When the wind lanterns outside lit up, Zanxing looked out the window—night had fallen, and it was already dark.

She stood up from the ground, patted the dust off her body, put the book in her hand back on the shelf, and left the Scripture Pavilion. At this time, she could have dinner and then go to Chuhong Terrace for self-study and cultivation.

After Zanxing left, a person jumped down from the shelves upstairs in the Scripture Pavilion. White robes with vermilion embroidery—it was Gu Baiying. He walked to where Zanxing had just been standing and pulled out the book Zanxing had been reading all afternoon. It was a book titled “Shocking! 100 Fantasy Stories You Don’t Know About the Cultivation World.”

Gu Baiying: “…”

The youth slammed the collection back onto the shelf with a “snap” and cursed, “Sick!”

These days, he had seen Zanxing frequently coming to the Scripture Pavilion. After hesitating for a long time, he still followed her, thinking that since she was chosen by “Qing E Nian Hua Gun,” perhaps she had some special qualities. But every day, what Zanxing came here to read was either “Practical Suggestions for Winter Flower Cultivation on Gufeng Mountain” or “Transportation Atlas of Northwest Duzhou”—completely lacking any proper form.

Gu Baiying very much doubted whether that “Qing E Nian Hua Gun” had found the wrong person.

He walked out of the Scripture Pavilion and headed toward his residence, Xiaoyao Palace. Xiaoyao Palace was right next to Xuan Lingzi’s Miaokong Palace. Years ago, Qinghua Xianzi had lived here.

At night, Xiaoyao Palace would be filled with steaming clouds and mist, with Qinghua Xianzi’s palace hidden within, like blue seas and flowing clouds, appearing even more ethereal and dreamlike.

But Gu Baiying didn’t like it this way.

Compared to the ethereal immortal realm, he seemed to prefer lingering in the vivid, lively mortal world. Over these years, he had spent a few days in the sect—perhaps not only because he needed to search everywhere for herbs to repair his spiritual meridians, but also because, from the bottom of his heart, he didn’t love these celestial fantasy realms.

Too beautiful, too fragile, and too unreal.

He returned to his palace. Unlike his other senior brothers, Gu Baiying didn’t like to keep serving disciples or attendants in his palace. Therefore, Xiaoyao Palace was often empty, appearing somewhat desolate.

He stood for a while and was about to return to his room when he saw Mendong rushing in frantically, shouting as he ran, “Master Uncle, something’s wrong!”

“What is it?” Gu Baiying was impatient. “Don’t shout and yell—you’re making too much noise.”

The child stopped in front of him. Having run too urgently, his face was flushed red, making him look even more like a little attendant serving an immortal. Mendong said, “Master Uncle, today I wanted to go to the Black Swamp to see how the Qin Chong was growing, but then, but then…”

Qin Chong was a spiritual herb seed that Sect Master Shaoyang Zhenren had obtained from a secret realm ten years ago. Legend had it that thousands of years ago, when an immortal ascended to immortality, a spiritual herb grew from the ancient Qin left behind by that immortal. This spiritual herb looked like a larva but was a spiritual herb. When consumed, it would sprout within one’s spiritual roots, and as the Qin Chong gradually grew, it would slowly repair deficiencies in the spiritual meridians.

Qin Chong seeds were rare—Shaoyang Zhenren had gone through countless hardships to obtain just one. This spiritual herb needed to be cultivated in a place with abundant miasma. On Gufeng Mountain, only the Black Swamp had thick miasma, so Shaoyang Zhenren placed the seed at the bottom of the Black Swamp pool and added restrictions so ordinary people couldn’t enter the swamp. However, even if ordinary people entered the Black Swamp, the miasma within would immediately claim their lives.

The few people in the know, including Zhao Mayi, had never doubted that there would be any problems with the Qin Chong. Moreover, Mendong would check on the seed’s condition at regular intervals.

It was now the tenth year, and the seed was about to mature.

Mendong said with a mournful face, “Master Uncle, the Qin Chong is gone!”