Chapter 51: Bathing Together Part 1

Bo Xuenong and Shen Yanting had both prepared—one for death, the other to fight desperately—yet it turned out to be a false alarm.

No one had expected the person dispatched by the Divine Pavilion to handle the matter to be Wu Qingshu.

The Divine Pavilion was initially established jointly by the Three Great Sects. Although it later absorbed some supreme elders from other sects, its main members were still the reclusive supreme elders concentrated in the Three Great Sects.

Any one of these women could intimidate a region and rarely acted collectively. Wherever an issue arose, they simply assigned the nearest person to deal with it.

Everyone carried an unclaimed Tianxiu Catalogue, but without the Divine Pavilion’s approval, they could not give it away.

Wu Qingshu had always felt that some of those old folks in the Divine Pavilion were overly hypocritical. They had clearly agreed from the start that the rankings would be absolutely fair, just, and open, yet many of them deliberately erased their names from the rankings to hide their strength, claiming it was to avoid exposing their sect’s foundation.

Once someone took the lead, more and more people in the Divine Pavilion hid their strength over the years, making Wu Qingshu—the one who openly dominated the top spot in talisman cultivation for over a millennium—stand out awkwardly.

She could understand those with real strength hiding it, but many who erased their names could not even crack the top ten on their own immortal path rankings, yet they still hid. Wu Qingshu could not stand it, and what annoyed her most was that her senior Shishu was among them—a topic she dared not broach.

Joining the Divine Pavilion was supposed to be an honor, yet Wu Qingshu found it shameful.

She never mentioned her identity as a Divine Pavilion elder and sometimes even forgot she still held the position.

If the Divine Pavilion had not assigned her the task today, she would not have remembered she was one of them.

Wu Qingshu naturally would not do anything to Bo Xuenong or Mistlongevity Village. After receiving the Divine Pavilion’s message from thousands of miles away via the teleportation array’s spiritual power, she activated the Tianxiu Catalogue and tossed it to Bo Xuenong and Gui Nian’an. Then she took Zhu Ningfu and Si Xianling to the Heavenly Feast Sect.

She needed to use spirit stones to record the Heavenly Feast Sect’s current situation and note down the Beast Taming Sect’s claims before sending it all back to the Divine Pavilion.

With the narrative authority in Wu Qingshu’s hands, she naturally covered up the matters involving Mistlongevity Village and Shen Yanting. Just as they had initially planned, she focused on the Heavenly Feast Sect’s crimes of harming the Beast Taming Sect’s junior sect master and harboring demonic cultivators.

Bo Xuenong and Gui Nian’an stood at the village entrance, weighing the Tianxiu Catalogues in their hands and exchanging glances.

Gui Nian’an fiddled with her token, still a bit incredulous. “So, being part of the Divine Pavilion is that embarrassing?”

After all, it was Wu Qingshu.

Wu Qingshu was someone who could be called the strongest heavenly pride of her generation even in the talent-rich Cloud Smoke Sect—despite talisman cultivators being at a disadvantage against peers in body cultivation and combat power. It would not surprise Bo Xuenong if she looked down on anyone.

Once she grew as strong as Wu Qingshu, she planned to follow suit: snag a top-tier status first, then disdain it.

It would make her seem even more impressive.

As she reflected on her own lack of strength, Gui Nian’an had already flipped open the Tianxiu Catalogue to check the list. Both she and Bo Xuenong were on the heavenly pride list—Bo Xuenong at ninety-first, Gui Nian’an at ninety-second. Those behind them were probably replacements, since everyone from the Heavenly Feast Sect on the list had died.

Besides the heavenly pride list, Bo Xuenong also appeared on the absolute beauty ranking, unlike Gui Nian’an.

This ranking was based purely on appearance, regardless of gender, and stood the farthest from actual immortal path rankings among all lists. Yet its rewards were the richest in many eyes, not just from the Divine Pavilion but also mortal world’s offerings.

To mortals, every cultivator seemed immensely powerful, and while they could not judge exact cultivation levels, they could instantly assess looks.

Cultivators were not true deities, so mortal incense offerings held no real power for them. But for those who cared deeply about face, it was a prestigious boast.

Shen Yanting had told her the ranking originated because a Divine Pavilion senior thought himself dashingly handsome and irresistibly charming. He wanted everyone to admire his striking features through portraits, making it the only Divine Pavilion ranking sold to mortals.

It started to satisfy that old senior’s vanity. Later, as more mortals deified the beautiful immortals on the list and built temples for them, the Divine Pavilion changed the rules.

Only those on other Tianxiu Catalogue rankings had their portraits appear. If half the Divine Pavilion members thought someone could compete for the absolute beauty ranking, their portrait went up for three days for all to see.

Votes over those three days determined the ranking. Anyone with a Tianxiu Catalogue—whether issued by the Divine Pavilion or bought—could vote. The highest votes could displace incumbents.

The Divine Pavilion’s intentions were threefold: first, those with mortal temples should have real skills to protect their worshippers; second, ranking the defenseless would attract demonic cultivators and harmonious union cultivators; third, mortal participation might teach them cultivators were not true gods, curbing deification and temple-building.

Unexpectedly, mortal voting only fueled temple-building enthusiasm. One city even signed an eternal pact with a major sect over shared faith in one person. The sects tasted the benefits, gaining more perks, so elders who wanted to scrap the list held their tongues.

To curb temple proliferation, they shrank the list—from an initial hundred to fifty, then forty, and finally thirty. It stopped at thirty because further cuts would boot the original vain senior.

Rumor had it that five hundred years ago, that senior added a new rule to stay on: new purchases of absolute beauty ranking versions could add extra votes for list members. The longer one stayed, the more votes accumulated, making it harder for newcomers with only three days to surge.

The cultivation world revered strength, so most showed little interest in such rankings. The enthusiasm came from city-dwelling mortals accessing Divine Pavilion goods; few cultivators griped about the senior’s slyness.

Of course, some took interest—like Bo Xuenong.

Because on this list, Shen Yanting ranked first.

Bo Xuenong had just entered the three-day voting pool, lingering in the absolute beauty ranking’s pending zone alongside a new male cultivator added to the heavenly pride list.

Her eyes burned as she stared at her name and his, utterly absorbed.

Shen Yanting sensed something off about Bo Xuenong. “Xuenong, what are you thinking?”

Bo Xuenong pointed at her own name, flickering with faint golden light—proof of others voting for her. “Master, my name is flashing faster than his. I feel like I can make this ranking.”

No grand reason; mainly, everyone on this list had golden names, just like the color she yearned for to match Shen Yanting’s.

Ideally, she could claim second, placing her name right next to Shen Yanting’s.

To eye that spot, Bo Xuenong instinctively glanced at second place. Last time Shen Yanting showed her the catalogue, she fixated on the heavenly pride list and only recalled Shen Yanting at first here. Now she noticed the ominous second name.

Cheng Huaizhou.

The male protagonist.

How dare he!

Having spotted the male lead, Bo Xuenong unsurprisingly found the female protagonist at third.

Had not the rule changes made it hard for latecomers? How did Cheng Huaizhou and Yu Cenwan climb so high? Was this protagonist charm?

Wait.

Fourth was Wu Qingshu, fifth He Shuyan, sixth Tan Ruolian…

Bo Xuenong had not looked closely before, but now she jumped in shock.

These were all strategy targets from the Love Firmer Than Gold panel—twenty out of its twenty-two members made the list.

Only Bo Xuenong and Zhu Miaotong, Zhu Ningfu’s niece, missed out. Zhu Miaotong’s absence was due to the Demonic Sect’s lack of Divine Pavilion recognition, leaving Bo Xuenong suspecting the list targeted her.

She tried to reason with herself: the absolute beauty ranking prioritized strength first—only those qualified for other Tianxiu Catalogue lists competed on looks. The novel focused on these gifted protagonists who constantly found resources, so their strength was inevitable. Good looks… made sense too.

Still, could the male protagonist just die and free up second for her?

But even if she killed him now without making the list, Yu Cenwan would take second, keeping her name from adjoining Shen Yanting’s.

Bo Xuenong’s faint fondness for Yu Cenwan evaporated instantly, and she let out a long sigh.

Shen Yanting found the sigh baffling.

Though Bo Xuenong carried a bronze mirror daily, it was to perfect her fake smiles, not admire herself.

No matter how beautiful, everyone paled before Bo Xuenong; she showed no mercy or favoritism. Why obsess over a ranking irrelevant to cultivation strength? Temples and incense?

Such offerings were useless to them, and surely to Bo Xuenong too.

Her ancestor was a divine beast that could absorb incense power, but her bloodline had long diluted.