Zanxing was completely unaware of what happened that night.

Having Mimi around made her sleep much more peacefully. Even if Hua Yue secretly wanted to cause trouble, Mimi could at least serve as a watchdog. With sufficient sleep at night, she had more energy during the day to wholeheartedly devote herself to the career of cultivation.

Moreover, she didn’t know if it was her recent imagination, but Zanxing felt her spirit was much better than when she first came to the Taiyan Sect. Every time she circulated Yuanli through her spiritual meridians, it was very smooth. Zanxing estimated that if she continued working hard, she shouldn’t be far from breaking through to the next realm.

At this moment, several people were seated in Miaokong Palace.

Cui Yufu, Li Danshu, Zhao Mayi, and Yueguang Daoren had all arrived. Xuan Lingzi walked out from behind the palace and glanced outside. “Hasn’t Seventh Junior Brother arrived yet?”

“He’s here.” Zhao Mayi gestured toward the outside with his mouth, and they saw Gu Baiying walking in from outside.

Each of Shaoyang Zhenren’s seven disciples had their palace. However, whenever Sect Master Shaoyang Zhenren wasn’t present and they needed to discuss important matters, the seven disciples still preferred to gather in Xuan Lingzi’s Miaokong Palace.

Like Cui Yufu’s palace, it was piled with various talismans and formations. If you accidentally stepped wrong, your cultivation would regress ten years, quite miserable. Li Danshu had alchemy furnaces of all sizes placed everywhere, and he was habitually stingy. Even when his alchemy failed, he would blame outsiders for entering and disturbing the air, making others compensate. After being made to pay several times, the rest didn’t dare visit anymore. Zhao Mayi wasn’t in his palace year-round, so bamboo shoots grew batch after batch there. Sect disciples would occasionally go break off a couple to fill their stomachs when hungry at night. As for Gu Baiying, with such a fierce temper, anyone who secretly entered his palace would get more than they bargained for.

After thinking it over, Xuan Lingzi had a gentle temperament, and his palace had plenty of good food, making it suitable for discussing important matters. After all, when discussions ran late, they could eat something and continue.

Yueguang Daoren coughed lightly twice and said, “I’ve called all junior brothers here today, actually for the matter of Li’er Kingdom’s secret realm.”

Throughout the Duzhou continent, various secret realms were scattered about. These secret realms weren’t easily found by people. Some grew spiritual treasures and immortal herbs, some contained secret manuals and cultivation techniques… In any case, finding them required great fortune.

Twenty years ago, during the great war between humans and demons, most of Duzhou’s secret realms were destroyed by demon cultivators. The secret realm in Li’er Kingdom could only be considered a small one. It had opened ten years ago, and the Taiyan Sect had also sent disciples there. The opportunities gained weren’t particularly precious, but they were better than nothing.

“Li’er Kingdom? Didn’t Zi Luo go to that secret realm last time? A pile of trash—what’s so rare about it?” Cui Yufu spoke harshly.

Cui Yufu was sixty-eight years old this year but looked to be in his early forties. He was built with strong muscles and had fierce eyes and brows. His head was shaved completely bald, and though he wore white gauze robes, he still looked like a malicious monk. His rolled-up sleeves revealed sinewy arms with black talismans tattooed on them.

It was said these tattooed talismans were needled into the flesh, spreading from his arms across his entire back. If enemies attacked Cui Yufu, the talismans on his body would activate formations.

“That may be so,” Li Danshu adjusted his hat, “but finding some flowers and plants to bring back for alchemy would still be quite good.”

Yueguang Daoren spoke unhurriedly, “Indeed, this time all the major sects in the cultivation world have such intentions regarding Li’er Kingdom’s secret realm. Li’er Kingdom’s secret realm has existed for hundreds of years, and the spiritual herbs and immortal medicines within have been picked until very few remain. All the major sects intend to send outstanding new disciples from their sects to this secret realm. Gaining opportunities and spiritual herbs is false—using the secret realm to temper their character is true.”

“Why must we go to Li’er Kingdom for tempering?” Cui Yufu frowned. “Our sect isn’t lacking in methods to temper disciples.”

“Temper them through exams?” Li Danshu glanced at Cui Yufu and mocked, “The sect disciples don’t think so.”

Cui Yufu looked like a demon monk who only knew violence, but he was an exam maniac. Unlike Li Danshu’s constantly innovative alchemy, talisman arts relied entirely on rote memorization. Talisman arts on the Duzhou continent had many varieties—even cleaning techniques alone had thousands of types. Cui Yufu’s exam questions were always very obscure, with very low pass rates. Disciples feared him most.

“Compared to falling to your level of alchemy, exams are naturally very good,” Cui Yufu retorted.

These two would start arguing whenever they got together. Xuan Lingzi quickly came out to mediate, “Since other sects are doing this, we’ll just follow the trend. But for this trip to the secret realm, Senior Brother, do you have candidates in mind?”

Yueguang Daoren spoke unhurriedly, “There are six spots total. Zi Luo has already been there once, so she doesn’t need to go this time. Mendong has ‘Spiritual Immortal Apertures,’ which are convenient for picking spiritual herbs and fruits. Meng Ying should be coming out of seclusion soon—she can use the secret realm to test her sword. For the rest, choose from your disciples.”

“My disciples?” Xuan Lingzi was startled.

“Aren’t you planning to take direct disciples?” Yueguang Daoren smiled slightly. “Outstanding performers in the inner disciple assessment will become your direct disciples.” He paused, then said, “The qualification to go to Li’er Kingdom’s secret realm will be the reward for this assessment.”

Xuan Lingzi: “…”

He looked bashfully at the fruit plate before him, “Senior Brother, I’m afraid this makes our sect seem rather stingy…”

“No matter,” Yueguang Daoren continued, “Manager Jin from ‘Huajin Tower’ said he’ll provide other rewards for this assessment.”

Only then did Xuan Lingzi breathe a sigh of relief.

Zhao Mayi looked at Gu Baiying and suddenly asked, “Junior Brother, why aren’t you speaking?”

These past few days, Gu Baiying had been absent-minded all the time—who knew what he was thinking about?

Gu Baiying stood up with no particular expression and said, “I heard everything you just discussed. I have no objections.” He picked up a spiritual fruit from the table and took a bite, still appearing unconcerned. “I have other matters to attend to, so I’ll leave first.” After saying this, he walked straight out of the palace.

“What’s wrong with him?” Xuan Lingzi nudged Zhao Mayi. “He seems to have something on his mind.”

Zhao Mayi pondered, “Yesterday I cast a divination for him.”

“What was the situation?” Li Danshu also leaned over.

“When the Red Phoenix Star moves, the courtyard fills with peach blossoms.” Zhao Mayi tugged his beard with an inscrutable expression. “Seventh Junior Brother is probably about to have a romantic fortune.”

…

Gu Baiying was unaware of the nonsense being spouted by the group in Miaokong Palace.

He returned to Xiaoyao Palace. With no one else in the palace, the youth sat down and gripped the spiritual fruit in his hand, feeling somewhat irritated.

There was still no solution to the Qin Chong seed matter. Setting aside everything else, when Shaoyang Zhenren came out of seclusion and learned of this… he would probably be greatly shocked.

Just as he was thinking, there was a series of “thump thump thump” sounds outside. He looked up to see Mendong running in.

Gu Baiying said nothing. Mendong ran to him in one breath, caught his breath, and said, “Master Uncle, I found a solution!”

“What solution?”

“To get the Qin Chong back into your body, you only need to…”

The youth’s eyes lit up as he asked urgently, “Only need what?”

“…only need to dual cultivate with her!” Mendong answered loudly.

With a “crack,” the spiritual fruit in Gu Baiying’s hand split in half.