Chapter 9: Xiao Lingxi's Immortal Arts
Xiao Lingxi entered the Immortal Arts Pavilion like a curious little cat, glancing left and right with wide eyes.
When she saw the countless immortal arts scrolls drifting through the air all around the room, she was instantly struck speechless.
Unlike Zhuge Feng, she had been raised in a great clan and had seen much of the world.
The more immortal arts a sect possessed — and the higher their quality — the greater the sect's true power!
The Lingxiao Sect was already considered formidable, wasn't it?
Yet even they possessed no more than a hundred immortal arts in total!
But here in this Immortal Arts Pavilion, the number of scrolls alone clearly exceeded ten thousand!!
This was no mere Immortal Arts Pavilion — it was an entire treasury of priceless wonders!
Xiao Lingxi's delicate frame trembled with excitement. Faced with so many immortal arts, she had absolutely no idea where to begin.
"Please place your hand on the stone platform before you."
Sensing that Xiao Lingxi was at a loss, the spirit guardian of the Immortal Arts Pavilion spoke up.
"Who... who's there?"
Just like Zhuge Feng before her, Xiao Lingxi was startled and spun around, scanning her surroundings.
"I am the spirit guardian of the Immortal Arts Pavilion. There is no need to be afraid."
The spirit guardian's voice rang out: "According to the sect's rules, every new disciple who joins our Heavenly Dao Sect may choose one immortal art."
"If you wish to choose on your own, you may freely select any scroll. If you would like me to choose for you, please place your hand on the stone stele ahead."
"A spirit guardian? The legendary artifact spirit?" Xiao Lingxi was dumbfounded once again.
On this continent, a divine artifact that possessed an artifact spirit was absolutely among the most supreme of existences!
And a cultivator who owned such an artifact was undoubtedly among the continent's very finest!
At the very least, she had never heard of any artifact spirit existing within the Lingxiao Sect!
"Master didn't deceive me. He truly may not fear the Lingxiao Sect at all!"
Xiao Lingxi mused inwardly, then took a deep breath, suppressed the shock welling up in her heart, and steadied herself before carefully making her way toward the stone platform.
She placed her hand upon the stone pillar.
Hum—
A gentle tremor ran through it. Light bloomed atop the platform, and a scroll slowly materialized. At the same moment, the spirit guardian's voice rang out once more.
"Your nature is lively and your spirit is free. This is the "Jade Maiden Heart Sutra — Qi Refining Chapter." Combined with your constitution, it will yield a far superior cultivation effect."
"The Jade Maiden Heart Sutra? Isn't that what Senior Brother Zhuge is cultivating? No, no, no — just from the name alone, this is clearly meant for women."
Xiao Lingxi muttered to herself, then picked up the scroll and asked, "Senior spirit guardian, is the Jade Maiden Heart Sutra the most powerful immortal art in the Heavenly Dao Sect?"
"Can cultivating it achieve one hundred circulation cycles in two hours?"
Xiao Lingxi asked eagerly. She simply couldn't get those one hundred cycles out of her head.
"There is no such thing as the most powerful immortal art — only the most suitable one. If one blindly pursues power and cultivates an art ill-suited to oneself, how far can one truly go?"
The spirit guardian's voice drifted through the air.
"Understood. I'll remember that. Thank you, Senior spirit guardian."
Xiao Lingxi gave a sincere bow toward the stone platform before turning to leave.
"How did it go? Did you find a suitable immortal art?"
Seeing Xiao Lingxi walk out with a spring in her step, Su Bai asked with a smile, already knowing the answer in his heart.
"I found one! Master, this disciple is going to start cultivating right away!" Xiao Lingxi replied, her voice bright and melodious, unable to conceal her joy.
With that, she gave Su Bai a quick bow and eagerly went off to find a quiet spot to begin practicing the immortal art she had just received.
"That girl — she really is quite impatient." Su Bai chuckled and shook his head.
Zhuge Feng spoke up as well: "Master, since Junior Sister has already begun cultivating, this disciple also wishes to make good use of the time and train diligently. I humbly request your permission."
Su Bai nodded. "Cultivate whenever you wish. The sect has no tasks at the moment — there's no need to report to me."
"Yes, Master!"
With permission granted, Zhuge Feng turned and departed as well, finding an open and secluded corner where he settled his mind and began to cultivate with full focus.
Watching both disciples enter their cultivation states one after another, Su Bai's gaze drifted to the sect's upgrade conditions.
To advance from a One-Star sect to a Two-Star sect, he needed three disciples with a loyalty of 60 or above, as well as one hundred sect points!
A loyalty of 60 wasn't particularly high — both Zhuge Feng and Xiao Lingxi had already reached 80.
Oh wait — it was already 85 now!
Su Bai only just noticed that in the short time since, both Zhuge Feng's and Xiao Lingxi's sect loyalty had risen.
As for sect points, Zhuge Feng's Breakthrough earlier had rewarded 10 points. It seemed that whenever a disciple achieved a Breakthrough, sect points would be earned.
What remained unclear was whether every Breakthrough rewarded a flat 10 points, or whether the reward varied depending on the cultivation level at which the Breakthrough occurred.
Either way, to upgrade to a Two-Star sect, he still needed to recruit at least one more disciple whose sect loyalty reached 60 or above.
Watching Zhuge Feng and Xiao Lingxi both deep in cultivation, Su Bai shook his head and decided inwardly to wait until the two had trained for a while and stabilized their cultivation before heading out to recruit more disciples.
"...Eighteen, nineteen, twenty!"
Xiao Lingxi cultivated while counting softly under her breath. When she reached twenty, the Spiritual Energy she had absorbed had completed exactly one full circulation through her meridians.
One hundred circulation cycles in two hours!
Yet another heaven-defying immortal art!
Moreover, she discovered that the Spiritual Energy drawn into her body through this art required absolutely no refinement or purification!
In other words, one hundred circulation cycles in two hours truly was the pinnacle of cultivation arts!
Because no purification was needed, it saved several times the usual effort — no wonder Senior Brother Zhuge had been able to refine his Qi through an entire night.
Xiao Lingxi's shock was beyond words. Such a heaven-defying immortal art — countless powerful sects would kill for even one copy, yet the Heavenly Dao Sect had two!
No — certainly not just two!
The Immortal Arts Pavilion still held so many more scrolls. There were surely countless other heaven-defying arts hidden within!
At that thought, she opened her eyes and looked in a certain direction. There stood Su Bai in the sunlight, hands clasped behind his back, gazing up toward the clouds.
The sunlight fell upon Su Bai, wrapping him in a golden radiance that made him appear extraordinarily brilliant.
In that moment, Xiao Lingxi's heart skipped a beat.
Such precious immortal arts, shared freely rather than kept for himself alone — so this was the kind of person Master truly was. How magnificent!
* * *
Three days later. The Lingxiao Sect. A certain chamber.
"Where is she?! I'm asking you — where is Xiao Lingxi?! A bunch of useless trash!"
A young man with a sickly pallor was raging and roaring.
Before him, several Stewards knelt on the ground, trembling, heads bowed low, not daring to look up.
"Young Master, Steward Li reported that Xiao Lingxi has fled. He took several disciples out to search for her, but it has now been three days with no word......"
One of the Stewards steeled himself and answered carefully.
Upon hearing this, the pale-faced young man erupted in fury!
"Useless! Useless! Every last one of you is useless! I told you to bring her back to me, and you've gone and lost her!"
The Stewards who had been berated trembled even harder.
They knew all too well the temper of this spoiled young lord. He could kill them on a whim, and no one would ever speak up for them.
"Find out where she disappeared and go look for her! No matter the cost — dig three feet into the ground if you have to — but bring her back to me!!"
"If you can't find her, don't bother coming back!"
The pale-faced young man bellowed.
At those words, the Stewards shuddered violently from head to toe.
"Don't bother coming back" was not simply a matter of not returning to the Lingxiao Sect.
It meant not returning to this world at all!
One of the Stewards broke the silence first, answering in a trembling voice: "Yes... this subordinate obeys!"
The others dared not hesitate either, and one by one they rose and hurried out.
Once everyone had gone, a cold and vicious gleam flickered in the pale-faced young man's eyes.
"Damned wretch, how dare you run from me. When I catch you, I'll make sure you beg for life and pray for death — you'll taste exactly what I'm capable of!"
"Hmph. A woman this Young Master has set his eyes on — no matter where you flee to the ends of the earth, I will find you and make you obediently become my plaything!"
"No one escapes the palm of this Young Master's hand!"
"No one!!"