Uncanny Immortal 16

Chapter 16

After a while, Xie Qingzheng recovered, stood up, performed a deep bow, and said softly, “Elder, it’s been a long time. I’m here to treat my poison…”

Mo Jiangxue sat at the tea table by the side of the jade pool, poured herself a cup of tea, and hummed in acknowledgment, saying nothing more.

Emboldened by her drunkenness, Xie Qingzheng leaned in close and asked daringly, “Elder, look at me. Haven’t I grown much taller than a year ago?”

Mo Jiangxue glanced at her and still just gave a cool hum.

She was indeed much taller than when they first met, no longer a skinny, sickly figure. After a year of being raised on Weiming Peak, she had shed some of her naivete and now appeared as graceful as an orchid. The cinnabar mark on her forehead and the black and white Daoist robe added a touch of refined, otherworldly elegance.

Having drunk wine, her face was slightly flushed, her eyes a little hazy, and she had become even more talkative:

“Um, I was just thinking, my mother was from the Tianshu Sect. If I had been sent to the Tianshu Sect in the beginning, would you have personally come to the Tianshu Sect to pick me up for treatment?”

The Tianshu Sect was far away, outside Chang’an City, while Ethereal Peak was on the East Sea. The two places were more than a thousand li apart. For these senior masters, it was just a matter of a cup of tea’s time on a flying sword. But when she had first started, her sword-riding skills were clumsy, and she had even fallen off once. She couldn’t possibly have let her fly over slowly by herself.

Mo Jiangxue shot her a look and said, “I wouldn’t. You’d fly yourself.”

“Th-th-then, what if I fell to my death halfway?”

“Then the Tianshu Sect would collect your corpse.”

Xie Qingzheng was silent for a moment, then smiled and said, “I don’t believe you! In the beginning, you definitely would have come to get me. Even if you didn’t come, you would have sent the Xuanji Sect’s cranes!”

She had previously thought the sect’s cranes were lazy and mischievous, and wondered what they were raised for. It wasn’t until one day, when she saw them carrying several injured senior sisters back to the sect, that she realized their use.

Mo Jiangxue didn’t reply. She poured her a cup of tea, trying to sober her up.

Seeing that she had guessed correctly, Xie Qingzheng smiled again. She knew when to quit while she was ahead and didn’t press the issue, instead rambling on, “The Sect Master said that the Sect Master of the Tianshu Sect is my mother’s junior martial sister. I don’t know why she didn’t take me to the Tianshu Sect, but let me stay at the Xuanji Sect instead. The Xuanji Sect… The Xuanji Sect is actually very nice. I like it here…”

She chattered on, telling Mo Jiangxue about all she had learned and seen over the past year:

How she had accidentally fallen when she first learned to fly on a sword, breaking her leg for half a month;

How the little fox’s spiritual essence had recovered, and it could now cultivate with her, preferring to do so under the moonlight;

How the senior sisters of the Xuanji Sect all took good care of her, the youngest junior sister who had entered last…

In short, she was doing well and was very happy.

In these chaotic times, the sect had taken in many unfortunate orphan girls. The senior and junior sisters looked after and cared for each other, practicing swordsmanship, cultivating, laughing, and playing together on a daily basis, just like real sisters.

She had no memories before the age of seven, and her entire childhood was spent in the deserted Wen Family Village. She had never experienced such a lively and warm atmosphere.

She didn’t know how senior and junior sisters in other sects got along, but in the Xuanji Sect, what she felt most was warmth.

She was very grateful to Mo Jiangxue for bringing her back to the Xuanji Sect, and also very grateful to the Sect Master for taking her in.

At the end, Xie Qingzheng asked Mo Jiangxue, “Will you be coming to the inner sect assessment next month?”

Mo Jiangxue nodded. “I will.”

She didn’t speak much, but when others spoke to her, she would always look at the space between their brows and listen attentively.

A person who was cool but not without grace.

Xie Qingzheng reminded her cautiously, “Then it’s a deal. If I win first place, you have to see if there’s a fated opportunity to take me as your disciple.”

She was a fast learner. The sword techniques taught by the senior sisters, she could usually remember them all after just one or two demonstrations.

Senior Sister Min He would come to Weiming Peak every month to organize mock battles. For the past year, she had consistently ranked in the top three.

She practiced during the day and also at night, almost to the point of forgetting to eat and sleep.

Elder Mo was a renowned figure in the immortal sects, a top-tier master in the cultivation world. To become this person’s disciple, she dared not be anything but diligent.

“You talk too much.” Mo Jiangxue was noncommittal. She pointed to the Jade Water Cold Pool and ordered her, “Go treat your poison.”

Xie Qingzheng said, “Oh,” and drank the tea in her cup. The faint scent of plum blossoms washed away some of her drunkenness.

She walked to the edge of the Jade Water Cold Pool, sat down, and began to refine her qi.

In Xuanmen cultivation, the first stage was refining qi and building a foundation.

That is, to absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and make it one’s own.

The spiritual energy here at the Jade Water Cold Pool was far more abundant than on Weiming Peak. Meditating here for one night was equivalent to meditating for ten nights on Weiming Peak.

But more spiritual energy was not always better. Her current body was like a trickling stream. If a flood of spiritual energy were to rush in, not only would she be unable to contain it all, but she would also be washed away. Therefore, she still needed to proceed step by step.

The next day, when Xie Qingzheng awoke from her meditative state, Mo Jiangxue was already gone.

She looked up at the mountain peak, suddenly in a daze. Was last night a dream she had after getting drunk? Or did she really see that person?

After staring for a long while, she reluctantly withdrew her gaze and flew back to Weiming Peak on her sword.

The assessment hadn’t officially begun yet, but many junior sisters were already in a panic, asking Senior Sister Min He, “What happens if we don’t pass the assessment in the end?”

Min He said, “In previous years, at most one-third of the participants passed the assessment. Of the remaining two-thirds, some go down the mountain to become rogue cultivators; some wait three years to take the assessment again; and some find another way, becoming handymen.”

The junior sisters didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “The first two are understandable, but—a handyman?”

Min He spoke humorously, “That’s right, a handyman. Take a chance, take a gamble. See if, while serving tea and delivering things, your luck will turn, and you’ll catch the eye of some senior in the sect and be taken in directly.”

The junior sisters burst into laughter, and Xie Qingzheng also couldn’t help but chuckle.

If she didn’t pass the assessment and went to Ethereal Peak to be a handyman, would Mo Jiangxue be willing to have her?

In early March, the inner sect assessment officially began.

The assessment was held on Weiming Peak. Except for the cultivators who were out on missions, many people would come to join in the excitement.

Two or three thousand people gathered on Weiming Peak. Cries of “Senior Sister” and “Junior Sister” filled the air, and the sounds of conversation and laughter rose and fell.

The fellow disciples around her were enthusiastically discussing where they would go after the assessment. Some wanted to go to Ethereal Peak, some to Zixiao Peak, and some to Green Pine Peak:

“I heard from the senior sisters that Elder Mu has a bad temper, but she’s very good to her own people!”

“And there’s Elder Lan Mei of Water Cloud Peak. She’s Elder Mu’s best friend, and they’re both protective of their own. It’s just that she often travels and doesn’t take many disciples.”

“I want to learn the pipa! Elder Danshu of Red Cloud Peak is humorous and easygoing, and she plays the pipa beautifully…”

“Definitely don’t go to Jueqing Peak. I heard Elder Jin Suchen is strict and old-fashioned!”

…

“Dong, dong, dong—” The bell of Weiming Peak rang nine times.

The field instantly fell silent. The cultivators held their breath and looked up to see six women flying over on their swords, their robes fluttering as they landed on the high seats by the side of the arena.

In the center seat was Sect Master Xiao Wangqing. To her lower left was Guest Elder Mo Jiangxue, and to her right, in order, sat the four elders: Mu Qingdai, Danshu, Jin Suchen, and Lan Mei.

On Weiming Peak, the gazes of all the cultivators were irresistibly drawn to the Guest Elder.

She was dressed in a white robe, like the wind rustling a jade tree. The red patterns on her white robe were like the crimson on the crown of a red-crowned crane.

Her face was completely hidden by a white veiled hat. The cultivators could clearly only see her graceful figure, yet they still gazed at her, mesmerized, feeling that her ethereal and otherworldly bearing was not that of a mortal, but rather of a deity who had ascended to the upper realm.

Xie Qingzheng stood in the crowd, looking up at that cool and otherworldly figure.

In that instant, she suddenly felt as small as a tiny drop of water in a river, able only to gaze up from afar at the high and lofty moon.

The moon had occasionally cast its reflection into the river, yet she had naively thought she could reach out and touch it.

Can I really become her disciple?

Author’s Note:

You can, Little Xie. You can also become her Daoist companion!