Chapter 14

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The method of making an array disk was similar to refining artifacts. With modern technology making everything more convenient, Li Yunxian finished it quickly and even processed the materials for the talismans while she was at it.

Only after she came out did Li Yunxian realize that Director Chen had called her back.

Li Yunxian sent him a message: “Everything’s fine now. I only wanted to ask where the artifact shop was, but I’ve already found it. Congratulations on reaching the Golden Core stage, Director.”

Director Chen replied just as quickly: “Congratulations to you as well. I owe it to what you told me before you left. Here’s a red envelope to share in the good fortune. I hope your Qingteng Selection Exam goes smoothly too.”

A moment later, Li Yunxian saw the transfer notification, accompanied by an entire string of zeroes.

Li Yunxian: “…”

Remembering what she had just “encountered,” she thought:

The people of this world were all far too polite.

So Li Yunxian accepted the money without the slightest hesitation.

Her family was quite wealthy, and her parents were generous with her allowance, but it was still money given to a child, and there was naturally a limit to it.

Li Yunxian had originally had plenty of money in her account, but after wave upon wave of purchases for supplementary materials, her wallet had been considerably depleted.

This time, it had been filled right back up.

When she returned to the hotel, Li Yunxian took out the array disk she had refined and installed a spirit stone in it.

The array disk activated.

Within a space roughly the size of a person, the surrounding spiritual energy was continuously drawn inward.

Li Yunxian sat down inside it and closed her eyes.

Once again sensing fluctuations of spiritual power, the people in the hotel raised their heads.

This time, the spiritual power was not surging and turbulent. It was calm and steady, and everyone knew that someone was cultivating.

Immediately, a crowd began clicking their tongues in amazement.

“So this is how a genius cultivates?”

“No wonder she opened twenty-eight acupoints in just a few days after entering the path. That’s terrifying!”

“Now I want to try that medicinal bath formula too.”

“Forget it. By evening, all the Blood Bone in the entire city had been sold out. The pharmacies are out of the related ingredients as well. Who knows when they’ll be restocked?”

“Seriously? It’s that frightening?”

“Some people acted quickly. They bought the materials and tried it as soon as the formula came out. Apparently, the person screamed terribly, but once it was over, he really did advance to the Qi Refining stage.”

“Hey, why are you running?”

“Obviously I’m running! I have to hurry to the neighboring city. Otherwise, once people realize what this stuff is worth, who knows how expensive it’ll become!”

…

After an unknown amount of time, the spirit stone on the array disk shattered, and Li Yunxian emerged from her cultivation state.

Her thirty-second acupoint had opened.

After checking the time, she saw that it was almost time for the special remedial class the school had arranged for her.

She took a taxi to school for her lesson, then returned to the hotel with an entire head full of general knowledge and continued cultivating with the array disk.

The cycle repeated itself again and again.

Seven days later, when Li Yunxian stepped out of the hotel where she had been cultivating, she had already reached the second level of Qi Refining, with fifty-eight acupoints opened.

A car was waiting outside the hotel.

Li Yunxian got in and said to the driver, “Please take me to First High School first.”

“Sure,” the driver replied.

At the entrance of Jincheng First High School, Li Yunxian stood before the gates.

Everyone was still in class. The security guard looked at her questioningly, asking with his eyes whether she intended to enter.

Li Yunxian shook her head. She had come only because, after finishing her remedial lessons a few days earlier, she had promised her classmates that she would say goodbye before leaving.

Taking a deep breath, Li Yunxian cupped her hands around her mouth and amplified her voice with spiritual power.

“Everyone! I’m setting off!”

The students of First High School recognized Li Yunxian’s voice, and a commotion broke out in classroom after classroom.

The teachers in the middle of their lessons wore helpless expressions. They paused their teaching and waved their hands, signaling the students to go ahead.

A crowd immediately poured into the corridors.

Li Yunxian vaguely saw that quite a few students were even standing on their desks by the classroom windows.

They waved at her.

“Have a safe journey!”

Li Yunxian smiled and waved back.

“See you later!”

“See you later!” the students shouted, bursting into laughter.

When she got back into the car, Li Yunxian noticed that the driver also wore a lingering smile.

The genuine enthusiasm of ten-year-olds really was contagious, even to an “old person.”

“I’m done here. Thank you for your trouble,” Li Yunxian said.

“No trouble at all,” the driver replied cheerfully.

“Where are we going next?” Li Yunxian asked. “Straight to the capital?”

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The driver gave an affirmative grunt. “That’s right.”

Li Yunxian looked at the car, then recalled the distance between Jincheng and the capital.

?

Wouldn’t they have to drive for an entire day?

“Why aren’t we taking the high-speed rail?” Li Yunxian asked sincerely.

The driver’s expression turned strange. After giving Li Yunxian a sidelong glance, she said, “There are no tickets left.”

The key factor behind the ticket shortage was mainly Li Yunxian herself.

Over the past seven days, all the Blood Bone in the surrounding cities had disappeared. Those who had realized the situation too late had no choice but to buy high-speed rail or bullet-train tickets to go to more distant cities.

Not only were tickets for the next few days gone; many tickets for the next couple of weeks had vanished as well.

Those to the capital were especially difficult to obtain.

As the heart of the Divine Land, the capital possessed the richest resources and was naturally the first choice for many people.

“Besides, students taking the Qingteng Selection Exam generally aren’t allowed to travel by train or airplane.”

“There were incidents long ago, back when there were no such requirements. Hunter cultivators infiltrated those forms of transportation, and ordinary people suffered heavy casualties.”

“Now, everyone travels in specially arranged vehicles.”

Li Yunxian paused. “Could Hunter cultivators target us on the way?”

Only then did she realize that the driver assigned to her was actually at the eighth level of Qi Refining.

In the whole of Jincheng, that already counted as a formidable expert.

The driver smiled without denying it, then teased her in a relaxed tone. “I’ll be counting on you to protect me when the time comes, then.”

Li Yunxian: “…”

Silently, she took several spirit stones from her storage bracelet and kept them close at hand, just in case.

In the end, they drove for several hours. The journey was fairly peaceful. They encountered only a few drifting apparitions, and Li Yunxian dispatched them with a single stroke of her sword without even needing to stop the car.

They entered a service area to rest.

Li Yunxian stretched and silently absorbed the spiritual energy in the surroundings.

Even after setting up an array disk in the best location in Jincheng, the spiritual energy concentration had been about the same as this.

This place was wonderful. It contained far more spiritual energy than the mortal cities of the cultivation world.

After cultivating for a while, Li Yunxian suddenly heard the sound of a vehicle approaching in the distance. The small sword hidden in her sleeve instantly appeared in her hand.

Hunter cultivators?

Before long, a bus drove into the service area.

The first person to get off was a Foundation Establishment cultivator. His wary gaze swept across the surroundings before pausing briefly on Li Yunxian.

He seemed to sense a trace of danger, but after discovering that Li Yunxian was merely at the second level of Qi Refining, he did not give her another look.

Only after surveying the entire area did the Foundation Establishment cultivator wave toward the bus.

“Come on down.”

As soon as he spoke, Li Yunxian saw a group of noisy, low-level Qi Refining cultivators stream off the bus.

“I’m exhausted. Why haven’t we arrived yet?”

“Finally, we can get off. If I had to sit any longer, I was going to throw up.”

Their energetic complaints quickly revealed their identities to Li Yunxian.

They were examinees, just like her, traveling to the capital to participate in the Qingteng Selection Exam.

Li Yunxian put away her sword and stopped looking at them.

However, quite a few of the students opposite had noticed her presence, and someone soon walked over.

“Hello. Why are you here by yourself?”

The newcomer was a slightly tall girl with a gentle appearance and an exceptionally approachable air.

Fourth-level Qi Refining.

Li Yunxian instinctively made an assessment first. Since she could not yet determine whether the other party was friend or foe, she answered cautiously, “I just came out to stretch my legs.”

The other girl did not seem to mind her slightly cold reply and continued asking, “Are you also a student taking the Selection Exam?”

Li Yunxian nodded.

“Then where are your companions?” the girl asked.

“She got tired from driving and is resting inside,” Li Yunxian replied.

The girl looked surprised. “There’s only a driver? Where are your classmates?”

“It’s just me,” Li Yunxian said.

The girl blinked once, then again, before finally digesting that information. She immediately looked relieved and smiled.

“I see. We thought you might have been ostracized, so we wanted to ask whether you’d like to sit with us.”

“My name is Yu Qiyao, and I’m from Kui City. What’s your name?”

Li Yunxian’s expression relaxed.

From beginning to end, the other girl had first shared her own circumstances before asking about Li Yunxian’s. Li Yunxian could sense the goodwill she radiated.

“Li Yunxian, from Jincheng.”

After answering, Li Yunxian looked toward the examinees from Kui City in the distance.

“Can I come over and sit with you now?”

Yu Qiyao froze. She had never expected Li Yunxian, who had seemed rather aloof just moments ago, to suddenly say something like that.

She then smiled. “Of course!”

Thus, when the driver finished resting and came back out, she saw that Li Yunxian had already become one with the students from Kui City.

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Confusion filled the driver’s eyes.

It felt as though she had only taken a short nap, yet somehow she had missed several episodes of an ongoing drama.

“Yunxian, we’re leaving,” the driver called, waving at her.

Li Yunxian looked at the driver with a bright smile and replied, “No need. I’ll go to the capital with my friends from Kui City. Sister Zhao, you can head back. This way, you won’t have to drive for so long.”

The driver frowned and did not agree immediately. She glanced at the number of students from Kui City around them but said nothing. Instead, she waved Li Yunxian over, indicating that she wanted to speak with her privately.

Li Yunxian nodded to the students from Kui City and followed the driver to a deserted spot.

“Yunxian, it would be safer for the two of us to continue together. A large group like theirs would be the primary target of the Hunter cultivators.”

“We have only one small car and two people. Even if Hunter cultivators ambush us on the road, seeing that there are only two of us, they’ll have to consider whether exposing their hiding place is worth attacking.”

After listening, Li Yunxian replied, “Wouldn’t that mean I should go with them even more?”

The driver choked on her words and stared at Li Yunxian, momentarily unable to respond.

She had also heard how Li Yunxian had previously clashed with the Liu family.

Seeing the driver’s expression, Li Yunxian softened her voice.

“Besides, there won’t be much distance between us and them along the road to the capital.”

“If the Hunter cultivators really intend to ambush them, they probably won’t mind taking the two of us Qi Refining cultivators along with them.”

The driver was rendered speechless.

“Sister Zhao, you should go back. I know what I’m doing. And you know what I’m capable of. Even if I encounter danger, I can still protect myself.”

“Besides…”

Li Yunxian took out a jade token.

It was the one Duan Qiu, a Golden Core cultivator, had given her at the testing center.

“I still have this life-saving token. At the very least, it can block a full-force attack from a Foundation Establishment cultivator.”

As for the other things Duan Qiu had said afterward, Li Yunxian did not repeat them.

The new month had already begun, and this place was no longer within Yuehai Province. Its effect had already expired.

Listening to Li Yunxian say all this, the driver knew that her mind was made up. With a resigned sigh, she compromised.

“Then be careful.”

As she spoke, the driver also stuffed something into Li Yunxian’s hands.

Li Yunxian looked down. There were ten spirit stones and a tortoiseshell.

“These were approved by the Educational Office for your protection on the journey. Keep them.” The driver pointed at the tortoiseshell. “Attach this to an object and it can accelerate it. If you run into danger and need to escape, use it.”

In fact, it could also accelerate their small car and allow them to pull away from the group from Kui City.

But the driver had already understood that Li Yunxian’s first statement had reflected her true intentions. Everything she had said afterward had merely been reasons meant to persuade the driver.

When she finished speaking, the driver lowered her head and looked at Li Yunxian.

“Yunxian, everyone on the path of cultivation must be mentally prepared to face danger. Those who lack the courage can choose to remain ordinary people.”

“Don’t think that you can protect everyone.”

“When someone cannot be saved, there is no shame in running away.”

Li Yunxian nodded and answered solemnly, “I will. Please rest assured.”

A sword cultivator who knew only how to charge recklessly would never live to reach the Tribulation Transcendence stage!

“I’ll report that I’m safe once I reach the capital,” Li Yunxian said.

The driver smiled and reached out to pat Li Yunxian on the head.

“Good.”

After bidding farewell to the driver, Li Yunxian returned to the students from Kui City. Faced with everyone’s curious gazes, she immediately satisfied their curiosity.

“I can leave with you now!”

The students from Kui City cheered enthusiastically.

“Yay!”

“Since Yunxian has joined us, let’s celebrate by having some snacks!”

“That’s just because you wanted to eat them yourself!”

“Are you saying you don’t want any?”

“…I do.”

Li Yunxian sat down and smiled as she listened to the students teasing one another.

Yu Qiyao reached out and poked her.

“Yunxian, hurry up and say what you want to eat. If you take too long, these guys will finish everything.”

Li Yunxian thought for a moment.

“…I don’t think there’s anything in particular I want. If I have to choose, maybe ice cream? Do you have any?”

Yu Qiyao gave Li Yunxian a thumbs-up.

“Of course we do. Naturally we do. We absolutely have to.”

Then Yu Qiyao shouted toward someone in the distance, “Lin Xiufeng, one vanilla ice cream!”

The corner of the forehead of a certain person carrying a small box twitched. He shouted back at Yu Qiyao, “I told you already, my mutated Ice Spirit Root isn’t for this sort of thing!”

Along with his furious roar, he opened the box and angrily tossed over a vanilla ice cream.

Li Yunxian: “…”

Holding the ice cream in her hand, Li Yunxian could not help saying, “At first, I thought you were very gentle.”

Yu Qiyao tore open a bag of potato chips.

“At first, I thought you were a cool and aloof cutie.”

The two exchanged a glance, then burst into laughter together.