Chapter 14

After Feng Xiwu left, only Liuli remained in the icy pool.

Liuli lay on the white jade bed, gazing affectionately at the ice layer above. She extended her finger and tested every spell she knew, one after another—Water Blade, Water Whip, Water Dragon Twister. She tried them all, but they failed to leave even a scratch.

This wasn’t something that could be broken with brute force at the Foundation Establishment stage. Liuli probed her Storage Ring with her divine sense and rifled through her inventory.

As the Sect Leader’s daughter, she was never short of good things. She naturally had high-grade artifacts that could let her unleash power beyond Foundation Establishment, but…

Though Feng Xiwu wasn’t there, Liuli sighed and withdrew her divine sense.

Shortcuts were fast, but she didn’t want to take one now.

This layer of solid ice wasn’t simple. It contained large and small formations set by Feng Xiwu, interlocking like a Chinese puzzle ring. It required finesse to break.

Liuli calmed her mind. Controlling her True Qi with her divine sense, she condensed it into streams and slowly spread it over the ice layer, carefully probing the internal structure…

When her True Qi ran low, she meditated diligently, drawing spiritual energy from the Cold Pool water.

At first, the process consumed True Qi at an alarming rate—maintaining her breathing while simultaneously exploring the complex ice structure was incredibly taxing, and Liuli tired very easily.

But slowly, without her realizing how long it had been, she learned to use every wisp of True Qi and divine sense efficiently, to reduce consumption without sacrificing speed or range.

Liuli entered a wondrous state.

Later on, she learned to absorb spiritual energy and release True Qi simultaneously. She also mastered the art of splitting her mind, executing several spells at once.

She could breathe, explore, warm the water around her, and dismantle the small formations within the ice.

When she finally dissolved the ice and stood up from the pool…

Feng Xiwu was already waiting on the shore.

Liuli’s face lit up with joy. Steadying herself, she called out, “Perfected One Feng, I did it!”

Feng Xiwu looked at her with a faint smile and was about to speak, but paused and changed her words. “Change into something dry and come up.”

Liuli finally remembered. She looked down at herself—her tattered, beggar-like clothes were soaked, clinging to her in a wet, crumpled mess. There was a huge hole torn in the fabric around her belly, exposing her fair, tender skin.

Horrified, Liuli splashed back down into the water.

Taking a deep breath, she squirmed and said, “I need to change, Perfected One Feng… please turn around.”

Her image was such a mess! Had her impression score dropped again?!

Under Liuli’s anxious gaze, Feng Xiwu turned around without a ripple of emotion.

It had been days. Only now did Liuli remember her appearance. This girl was sometimes hopelessly slow on the uptake.

Liuli quickly fished out a set of clothes and changed into them right there in the pool. It was the Heavenly Martial Sect’s standard uniform—a white base with blue patterns, simple and plain, with wide sleeves and a long robe. Usually, the sect didn’t enforce dress codes for disciples, so this uniform had been buried at the bottom of her trunk.

After changing, Liuli flopped onto the shore and dried her clothes with a spell. Her control over True Qi was now practiced and precise.

Unknowingly, her foundation had been solidified.

Leaving the Cold Pool behind, Liuli followed Feng Xiwu around a bend and realized they had been inside the cliff behind the Bright Moon Pond waterfall all along.

The rumbling sound she’d heard earlier was the roar of the falling waterfall.

Feng Xiwu asked her how her internal True Qi felt now.

Liuli thought for a moment and answered, “It’s hard to describe. If I had to say, it feels more… intimate.”

Feng Xiwu nodded in understanding and brought Liuli back to the Meditation Room.

Liuli looked at the Meditation Room, sensed the surrounding spiritual energy, and curiously asked why she couldn’t continue cultivating in the Cold Pool.

Wasn’t the concentration of the water element higher there?

Feng Xiwu gave her an answer from a different angle. “Higher concentration is not always better. A cultivator’s body acts as a filter, extracting the pure substance from within the impurities. That process itself is also a form of training.”

It was then that Liuli remembered to ask, “Perfected One Feng, how long was I soaking in there?”

She had lost her sense of time in the water, eating snacks from her Storage Ring whenever hungry. So engrossed, she hadn’t noticed time passing at all.

“Seven days.”

Liuli’s mouth gaped in disbelief. “That long?!”

Feng Xiwu lightly tapped her shoulder, pressing her down to sit on the floor. “Wrong. You should be asking, ‘Only that short?'”

Liuli half-understood, half-didn’t.

Feng Xiwu had originally planned to temper this child’s temperament, intending to trap her in there for a month.

Who knew she would be able to break through the ice so much sooner…

Feng Xiwu inwardly acknowledged her talent but had no intention of saying it aloud. If she did, Liuli would certainly puff up with pride and ask if she was impressive or not.

Just thinking about it gave Feng Xiwu a headache.

…

Over the next few days, Liuli stayed in the Meditation Room, eating and sleeping there. But she quickly slipped back into her old, lazy cultivation rhythm.

After learning she’d been soaking in water for seven straight days, she deeply pitied her poor body and spirit and decided she deserved rest and compensation.

Following her old pattern, she slept and cultivated simultaneously. When bored, she’d run to Feng Xiwu’s small garden, stand atop the pavilion, and water the flowers—refusing to step down onto the soil. Occasionally, she’d even use the small kitchen, unused for years, to cook.

At first, Liuli was anxious about acting up in front of Feng Xiwu. But she soon found that Feng Xiwu still diligently answered her questions, showing no displeasure, as if she had no objection to Liuli’s half-heartedness.

So Liuli boldly continued to laze about.

Over half a month passed peacefully, without any incident. During a meditation session, Liuli naturally and effortlessly broke through another minor stage. It felt like water finding its course.

She was ecstatic. Crediting this entirely to Feng Xiwu, she hung upside down from the pavilion, picked chrysanthemums, gardenias, and other edible flowers, and made a plate of flower-filled pastries.

Feng Xiwu’s garden was wondrous. Somehow, plants from completely different blooming seasons all blossomed together, staying in bloom permanently, and even contained pure spiritual energy.

Inside the pavilion, surrounded by orchids and fresh blooms, a subtle fragrance filled the air as a gentle breeze blew.

Feng Xiwu sat on a stone stool, looking at the snack presented to her. She extended her fingers, picked up a small piece, and chewed it slowly.

Watching the beauty eat her pastry, Liuli couldn’t help but reveal a strange smirk.

She stared so intently that after Feng Xiwu finished one piece, she didn’t want to reach for another.

Feng Xiwu lifted the flower tea Liuli had brewed, taking a delicate sip. “What are you looking at?”

“I was watching to see why you don’t drop crumbs when you eat, Perfected One Feng.” Liuli stuck out a thumbs-up. “As expected of Perfected One Feng. Your movements are so elegant, your bearing so flawless. Just looking at you, Disciple feels full. This must be what they call ‘a feast for the eyes’!”

Feng Xiwu: “…Do you know what you’re saying?”

Liuli rested her chin on her hands, beaming. “Of course! I’m praising you, Perfected One Feng. Even if it sounds like flattery, every word comes from Disciple’s true heart. This disciple is clumsy with words and doesn’t know how to speak elegantly, so she can only speak honestly. Perfected One Feng, please don’t take offense…”

Clumsy with words?

Others rarely even dared to speak nonsense in her presence, let alone words carrying a hint of frivolity.

Only this girl had the gall to be so unrestrained.

With lightning speed, Feng Xiwu pinched a piece of pastry and stuffed it into Liuli’s mouth. Flatly, she said, “Shut up.”

Liuli: “Mmph!”

It’s so delicious! And there was a comfortable energy settling in her stomach too!

Liuli had invited Feng Xiwu out for pastries because she had some questions.

This breakthrough had been as smooth as milk. Curious, Liuli asked, “Perfected One Feng, did you know my breakthrough wouldn’t take long this time, so you just let me play?”

“So you admit you are playful?” Feng Xiwu glanced sideways at her.

Liuli immediately bit her lip and grinned sheepishly, trying to play cute to get away with it.

Feng Xiwu didn’t press the issue. “Your natural talent is quite high, but your foundation was unstable. After laying that groundwork in the Cold Pool, progress came naturally. Moreover, a cultivator’s mindset is also important. When your heart isn’t in cultivation, forcing you into closed-door training would only do more harm than good.”

Better to just let her be and let her be happy.

Liuli deeply concurred. “Perfected One Feng, you are absolutely right!”

…

Liuli was still kicked out.

With a flick of her sleeve, Feng Xiwu sent her flying outside the courtyard.

“You’ve stayed long enough. Time to go.”

With only half a month left until the Grand Sect Tournament, Liuli had almost grown attached to Parasol Tree Mountain.

She unilaterally felt that since Feng Xiwu had taught her so much, they already had the substance of a master-disciple relationship and only lacked the formal title.

Without thinking much, she said this to Feng Xiwu’s face. Who knew what Feng Xiwu thought of upon hearing it—her expression immediately cooled, and she threw Liuli out.

Liuli was utterly baffled: Was such strictness really necessary?

Baffled or not, since Feng Xiwu told her to go back, she obediently went down the mountain. She absolutely couldn’t anger her at this final juncture.

On her way down, Liuli stopped by the Disciples’ Court halfway up the mountain to deliver some of her flower pastries to the two Senior Sisters.

Stored in her ring, the pastries were still fresh—thin, crispy crust with a fragrant, savory-sweet filling.

Junior Sister Little Feng tasted one and asked with a smile how the filling was made. Liuli said, “Honey, sugar, pine nuts, fresh flowers… hmm, the quality of the flowers is important too. Try it. These were grown in Perfected One Feng’s courtyard. Quite excellent.”

The two Senior Sisters stiffened and looked at each other.

“What’s wrong?” Liuli was puzzled.

Junior Sister Little Feng hesitated. “What grows in Perfected One Feng’s courtyard… are Spiritual Herbs.”

“Red-Gold Phoenix Chrysanthemum, Thousand-Leaf Gardenia, Whirlpool Night-Shining Orchid…” Junior Sister Little Feng broke open some pastries with different fillings, listing them with growing despair. “These are all high-grade Spiritual Herbs that even the Hundred Herb Garden couldn’t keep alive!”

Liuli looked at the pastries, then at Junior Sister Little Feng. Slowly swallowing what was in her mouth, she hesitated before saying:

“What the eye doesn’t know… the heart doesn’t grieve over, right?”