Chapter 8: Zhenyi Yuanzong (Please add to favorites! Please keep reading!)

The old woman laughed heartily, then continued: "You are truly an interesting little girl, but unfortunately, still too green. You should know that even a fledgling True Dragon can easily tear apart a snake demon with some cultivation."

"Even though I have just awakened and only recovered a tiny sliver of my divine sense, the concealment array I set up casually is not something that the Purple Mansion Realm novice outside can detect. With a flick of a finger, I could destroy this spirit boat."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Yunjang clenched her fists, struggling to keep her face from showing panic.

"Since Senior has such strength, yet has greeted me with a smile until now, it seems you have no malice. Why then, must you frighten a junior?"

The old woman stopped laughing and said to Jiang Yunjang: "Remember this well. My Daoist name is Danhua. I am a Sixth Realm True Monarch, and also a Seventh-Grade Grand Alchemist!"

Jiang Yunjang was stunned.

She had naturally discovered earlier that the jade tablet she received was thicker than the others.

Using the excuse of obtaining Lu Shaoheng's jade tablet, she compared them and found that the information stored within hers was nearly half again as much as theirs.

The extra portion was a general introduction and basic explanation of the Four Arts of Cultivation.

Jiang Yunjang thus learned that the Four Arts were each divided into nine grades, corresponding exactly to the nine realms of a cultivator's journey.

A Seventh-Grade Grand Alchemist meant that this True Monarch Danhua, despite being in the Sixth Realm, could refine spirit pills required by Seventh Realm cultivators. The height of her attainments was beyond Jiang Yunjang's imagination.

"Greetings, True Monarch Danhua."

Coming to her senses, Jiang Yunjang bowed respectfully to the figure before her.

Danhua’s expression shifted, and she finally said: "You have superior aptitude; once you enter the sect, great cultivators will surely want to take you as a direct disciple. However, given your White Tiger True Fetus constitution, you are likely most favored by cultivators of the path of slaughter. I can teach you alchemy instead."

"In exchange, you must find a treasure for me."

"Agreed." Jiang Yunjang accepted without hesitation.

Her gaze was burning, her face full of determination.

Danhua said: "I haven't even told you what it is yet. Aren't you afraid you won't be able to get it?"

Jiang Yunjang lifted her head, her eyes bottomless like deep springs, with a hint of purple light flickering within.

"What I want, I will surely obtain."

"Ten years, twenty years, even a hundred or a thousand—I will not stop until I die."

Danhua instantly noticed the anomaly in her eyes and was suddenly struck with surprise.

"You actually possess an innate divine ability."

"A divine ability?" Jiang Yunjang asked, puzzled.

The illusory figure reached out before Jiang Yunjang’s eyes, brushing through the air, and then clearly saw the six-pointed rune hidden deep within her pupils.

"And it is the [Heart-Bewitching Pupil], ranked nine thousand one hundred and twenty-third on the Great Thousand Divine Ability List!"

...

Shaoheng sat upright in her room, breathing in spirit energy as easily as eating or drinking.

Four or five hours had passed, from dusk to the high noon sun, and the yellow sprout in her dantian had already stored three cycles of mana.

"This is the real me."

Shaoheng regained a familiar feeling.

From childhood, whether it was zither, chess, calligraphy, painting, or abacus accounting—no matter if it was studying classics or practicing archery—as long as she wanted to, Shaoheng could learn it quickly and reach mastery in a short time.

She looked out the window; the speed at which the floating clouds drifted backward began to slow.

"It seems we are almost at the Zhenyi Yuan Sect."

Sure enough, in less than half a quarter of an hour, the scenery outside the window began to change as they descended.

Elder Zhao Tang’s voice resounded throughout the cabin: "All disciples, gather on the deck."

Shaoheng rose from her bed and pushed open the door; the others also heard the news and stepped out.

Now that she had cultivation, she focused her mana into her eyes and could naturally perceive things differently.

Seven of them showed no real change; after all, according to the statistics in the jade tablet, those with inferior aptitude required at least half a month of hard labor to successfully draw qi into their bodies.

However, Jiang Yunjang was already surrounded by a faint, ethereal aura; she must be at the threshold of drawing qi into her body.

"It seems I am definitely of superior aptitude, but why couldn't the Source-Testing Wall detect it?" Shaoheng walked quickly toward the ladder, feeling puzzled.

Jiang Yunjang was also secretly observing her.

"Senior Danhua, this female cultivator in ragged clothes is called Lu Shaoheng. Is she really only of inferior aptitude?" She asked via telepathy, following the secret method Danhua had taught her.

"You seem particularly concerned about her?"

Jiang Yunjang’s inner voice was silent for a moment before she replied: "I once went head-to-head with her. If not for the effect of the Heart-Bewitching Pupil, I would never have been able to beat her."

Her inner voice was frank; she felt no shame in this.

In Jiang Yunjang's eyes, underestimating an opponent was the same as deceiving oneself. Only by recognizing reality could one lay the first step toward victory.

"She is someone who seems capable of learning anything, provided she wants to."

Jiang Yunjang had never looked down on Lu Shaoheng, not even in the slightest.

"And she has a photographic memory. According to what you said earlier, this is a sign of an innately powerful spirit. I don't believe she only possesses inferior aptitude."

Danhua was intrigued. Although her divine sense had only recovered a little, she spent some of it to scan the girl.

"Humans are creatures whose spirits and flesh are perfectly integrated from birth. Aptitude is reflected not only in the tendons and meridians but also in the soul and true spirit. The human soul is naturally sealed within the Niwan Palace; my divine sense has not recovered enough to peer into it without being noticed."

Danhua could have acted forcefully, but it would have surely injured the girl's Niwan Palace.

As they were about to enter the Zhenyi Yuan Sect, she was hesitant to act, fearing the consequences.

"But this person is unremarkable. She only has a faint trace of spirit energy, no different from the other seven with inferior aptitude. It looks like she tried to draw spirit energy into her body but failed. She is not as special as you say."

Jiang Yunjang frowned upon hearing this, not daring to question the judgment of a Nascent Soul True Monarch, even if she was but a thin wisp of a remnant soul.

She suppressed her unease and replied in her heart: "Thank you, Senior."

The eight of them did not speak, but quickly went to the deck and lined up.

Shaoheng stood among them, secretly puffing out her small chest, her back straight as a board.

She was waiting.

Waiting for these elders to exclaim in surprise: "How did you already draw qi into your body?" Then, she would naturally bring up the strange phenomena she saw during the test and question the judgment of her having inferior aptitude.

Imagining this scene of showing off before others, Shaoheng’s eyes curved and her lips curled upward.

But the elders, led by Zhao Tang, looked as usual. They showed no sign of astonishment, standing quietly at the bow of the boat, leaning against the railing and gazing into the distance.

The sect had arrived.

Under the scorching sun, the mountain mist dispersed, revealing emerald peaks like swimming dragons. Three suspended peaks surrounded the area in a 'Three Talents' formation, with brilliant golden wheels circling beneath them.

Amidst the ethereal white mist, countless spirit boats traveled, and men and women stepped on various artifacts, flying through the air with graceful, otherworldly poise.

This Zhenyi Yuan Sect was built on a celestial mountain, located in a blessed land. From afar, it looked even more transcendent and majestic than the White Jade Capital of her imagination, leaving one with no choice but to sigh—it was truly a top-tier human immortal sect, one of the Thirteen Sects of Shangqian.

Before they had even entered the sect's barrier, several beams of white light shot out from within the Zhenyi Yuan Sect, landing on the various spirit boats.

One of the beams landed on their boat—specifically, on Jiang Yunjang—and whisked her away directly.