Chapter 57

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Chapter 57

With enough resources, Qingxu Sect developed at the fastest speed. Their sect is not very famous, making it hard to attract talented disciples from good backgrounds. In the Mortal World, there are very few cultivators with high Spiritual Roots.

Fortunately, Qingxu Sect is now rich enough to support many disciples, and with the guest elders brought in by spirit stones, the sect has entered a cycle of healthy development.

Although Qingxu Sect lowered the admission standards significantly, for low-tier disciples, Yun Chuyou did not provide many benefits like a foolish spender. Instead, she offered support based on the cultivation level, similar to those well-known big sects.

With more people, it is impossible to ensure everyone’s character is good. Therefore, Yun Chuyou also set up an elimination mechanism according to the rules of big sects. If the incoming miscellaneous disciples do not meet the cultivation standards, they will be dismissed from the sect. After all, no sect would want to support disciples that require long-term financial support.

Her golden finger is the sect management system, not a charitable gift-giving system. Moreover, Qingxu Sect has a limited size and cannot accept an unlimited number of people.

Although these new disciples in the sect are average, the younger martial brothers and sisters, who are the original story’s antagonists, are still very impressive. Each one practices hard and has talent. After entering a secret realm, they all gradually advanced a small level.

Younger martial sister Zhong Wei successfully coagulated her Golden Core and became an early stage Golden Core cultivator.

However, at the moment, Yun Chuyou is the only nascent soul cultivator. She is continuously working hard to strengthen her cultivation and gain practical experience.

Everything is improving steadily, but there is one small issue: Xie Fuzhi has become even more clingy than before. He used to stay alone on the mountain fishing, but now he openly lingers around Yun Chuyou.

He hasn’t done anything out of line; instead, he actively and warmly guides Yun Chuyou.

When not cultivating, Xie Fuzhi quietly watches from the side. Sometimes, when Yun Chuyou wants to ask him to leave, she sees his sad face and can’t bring herself to do so.

Xie Fuzhi really has a good-looking face. Even after all these years, she still finds him attractive. Well, as long as his gaze isn’t too much, she can think of him as a beautiful background or a cute little cat. There’s nothing wrong with a little cat being affectionate.

Several years passed quickly. Yun Chuyou’s level of cultivation hasn’t increased much, but her practical skills have improved several times over.

During this time, she has been injured, faced dangerous situations, and experienced life-and-death crises. At first, Xie Fuzhi was reluctant to let her suffer like this, but after Yun Chuyou remained determined, he chose to step back.

The world of cultivation is a place where the weak are eaten by the strong. One cannot always rely on someone else for protection. Yun Chuyou is a sturdy tree, not a vine clinging to a tree.

Forcing someone to stay under your protection means that when a storm comes, Yun Chuyou could be easily broken. That would not be good for Yun Chuyou. Logic makes Xie Fuzhi step back, but feelings make him suffer, "Chuyou, it hurts so much."

The first time Yun Chuyou was seriously hurt, Xie Fuzhi couldn’t help but rush out. He defeated the demon beast with one sword, and then the proud phoenix suddenly knelt beside Yun Chuyou.

He hung his head, shoulders shaking. The hand that had just skillfully used the sword now could not hold the weapon. He carefully reached to touch Yun Chuyou’s wound, but his fingers trembled, and small pearls of tears fell, "It hurts, Chuyou…"

Though he was not hurt, it felt as if Xie Fuzhi was suffering more than Yun Chuyou.

"Master, if you keep crying, your tears will fall on my wound. I’m not dead yet."

Xie Fuzhi forced back his tears, his eyes were red.

"Help me get up."

Yun Chuyou leaned on Xie Fuzhi and helplessly struggled to pull out a healing pill from her storage bag. She popped it into her mouth, and as the pill dissolved, her torn wounds quickly healed.

Her injuries had healed, but the fatigue in her spirit had not recovered so quickly. She let out a long sigh and advised Xie Fuzhi, "It’s okay. This injury was just an accident. I can’t always stay in one place and do nothing. To become stronger, I must face challenges. My master also says I need to be strong, but I am only at the Nascent Soul Stage now. There are many powerful beings in the spiritual world that are much stronger than the primordial stage of Nascent Soul. Enduring a bit of hardship and pain now is to avoid worse injuries and suffering in the future."

Although the system’s golden finger allows Yun Chuyou to grow stronger without obstacles, she trained for ten years without the system. Will the system always be there? If she relies too much on it, what will happen when the system disappears one day?

After careful thought, Yun Chuyou decided to balance both paths. She would take advantage of the benefits from the system but would not neglect her own training to become stronger. Relying entirely on the system could lead to her becoming someone who only knows how to take shortcuts.

However, she wouldn’t deliberately seek danger or get hurt. The places she chose for training were stronger than her current level, but only slightly so that she could improve without putting her life at risk.

But reality is different from a game; accidents can happen. That’s why she was seriously injured this time.

In any case, Yun Chuyou tried to persuade Xie Fuzhi several times and finally reached an understanding with him. He did not oppose her training in times of crisis, but she must never seek out danger on purpose. At the same time, he would choose to hide and protect her quietly, at least ensuring she wouldn’t fall into a life-threatening situation due to an accident.

This way, at least when Yun Chuyou was severely injured, he could ensure she got help and healed quickly.

Yun Chuyou agreed with this. After all, she was a careful person who valued her life and wanted to make steady progress, without the intention of pushing herself too hard.

Such situations happened in the first few years; later, Yun Chuyou stopped going out to train and returned to the sect to keep an eye on her younger martial brothers and sisters, which made Xie Fuzhi feel much more at ease.

It wasn’t that Yun Chuyou thought she was already strong, but after defeating enough demon beasts, the system rewarded her with a real combat simulation scenario.

In the virtual scene, if Yun Chuyou got hurt, she would feel the same pain and could experience the suffering of nearing death; even in the illusion, she could die.

This way of dying would have a spiritual impact on her, and for a short time, she couldn’t start the next simulation, but she wouldn’t truly die.

After dying once in the simulation, Yun Chuyou became much more cautious and came up with many ways to keep herself safe, making sure not to die again.

After all, dying in the illusion was very painful, and she absolutely did not want to go through it a second time.

This high-fidelity simulation training was much better than fighting outside; after all, real-world experiences had uncertainties, and finding different training samples could take longer than the actual fighting time.

The only regret was that this simulation was open only to Yun Chuyou and could not be used as a special secret realm for other disciples.

In short, while her younger martial brothers and sisters quickly grew stronger, Yun Chuyou did not delay her training plan; instead, she rapidly accumulated practical experience through intense simulations.

The aura of killing around her grew stronger, and her overall demeanor became sharper. However, before the Hundred Sects Conference began, she started to learn how to hold back that killing aura, slowly returning to a gentle and harmless appearance.

Yun Chuyou did not seem as strong anymore; in fact, she felt even weaker than when she first returned to the Qingxu Sect a few years ago. But neither Yu Jiu nor Meng He would underestimate their Elder Martial Sister.

They were very sure that Elder Martial Sister’s skill level had not increased over the years, but in reality, she was much stronger than before; it was just that her sharpness had been hidden away, and her youthful energy had been restrained.

However, Master Xie Fuzhi seemed to be getting younger and younger, as if his age was decreasing.

Meng He and Zhong Wei did not notice the special change in feelings between Master and Elder Martial Sister; one was completely unaware, and the other had little understanding of such things. Only Yu Jiu, who had seen and learned much, noticed that subtle difference.

But Yu Jiu did not take it seriously; as long as Elder Martial Sister was not at a disadvantage, he didn’t care about much else.

After checking the time, Yun Chuyou asked her younger martial brothers and sisters, "Have you all packed your things?"

The others nodded in agreement, saying, "Elder Martial Sister, don’t worry, everything is packed."

Six months ago, everyone returned to the sect to prepare for the Hundred Sects Grand Competition.

The Hundred Sects Grand Competition had a date set in advance, and the organizing sects started sending out invitations to various sects well ahead of time.

Although the Qingxu Sect is a small sect, it is still on the list to participate in the Great Competition of the Hundred Sects. They only received the special invitation letter recently because they are far from the Tianheng Sect.

The organizer of this Great Competition is the top sect in the spiritual world, which is the Tianheng Sect where the main character, Song Mingzhu, belongs. Of course, there are other sects helping to organize it, but the venue is set at Tianheng Sect.

This shows the favor of the heavenly way towards the main character. While small sects like theirs have to travel a long distance to get to Tianheng Sect, the main character’s competition venue is right at her doorstep; she doesn’t have to take an extra step.

When these disciples arrived, the system quickly released a new task.

[The Qingxu Sect is already a mature sect, but the quality of its disciples is low. This is because Qingxu Sect is not very well-known, and they want to gain fame in the Great Competition of the Hundred Sects.]

This task does not have a time limit, and there is no punishment if it is not completed.

Although the system sometimes acts strangely and causes data errors, it never punishes Yun Chuyou, the host. Instead, it behaves like a game, providing rewards for completing tasks and achievements.

Because the later recruits do not have fast cultivation speeds, along with the fact that Yun Chuyou and a few other disciples have not improved in their ranks, the rewards available from the system have become fewer and fewer. The pages for Yun Chuyou’s Main Task and side tasks have remained blank for a long time.

This time, not only has the Main Task been updated, but the side tasks have also been updated.

[**Side Quest: Win First Place in the Hundred Schools Competition**]

Although the chance is very low, one should still have dreams. Yun Chuyou gathered everything she could carry, took out her small red flag magical tool, and with renewed spirit, waved the flag enthusiastically, setting sail, "Ready? Then let’s go!"