Lixi remained in deep meditation for a full ten days. When she finally woke up, she felt utterly starved.
After casting the Purification Art on herself three times in a row, she raised her voice to call for her all-purpose maid: "Xiaocui, I want to eat."
The person who came was not Xiaocui, but her Third Senior Brother, Yan Jiuzhi.
The handsome and elegant young man in cyan robes was walking toward her quickly, holding a small bowl in his hand.
Sensing imminent disaster, Lixi immediately slammed the door shut with a loud *bang*.
With her back pressed against the door, she began to scream silently in her heart: *Ahhhhhh, she hadn't washed up or combed her hair yet! Even though she had just used the Purification Art, she hadn't taken a proper bath! She still felt all dirty inside.*
Furthermore, her hair was uncombed, she hadn't changed her clothes, and the room still smelled a bit odd.
Yan Jiuzhi: "..."
After staring at the tightly closed door for a good while, he finally raised his hand and knocked. "Junior Sister?"
"Wait a moment, I'll be ready right away!" Flustered and in a panic, Lixi scrambled to find some clothes to change into. She hastily tied her hair up into a topknot, checked herself in the mirror over and over again, and only after making sure everything was fine did she pull the door open.
The moment she stepped out, she immediately turned around and shut the door behind her.
She had used the Purification Art a few more times, but the room might still retain some lingering odor—she absolutely could not let her Third Senior Brother go inside.
Knowing better than to enter a young maiden's private chamber, Yan Jiuzhi simply set up a table in the courtyard and placed the bowl down on it.
"Junior Sister, eat a bowl of noodles to tide you over first. Granny Wu is already cooking a proper meal for you."
His gaze swept over Lixi's hairstyle, which was noticeably different from usual, and he thought to himself that no wonder she needed a maid—his Junior Sister didn't even know how to comb her own hair.
Lixi accepted the bowl without any polite hesitation. She practically dumped the food into her mouth, polishing off the entire bowl of noodles in just two or three bites and slurping down every last drop of the broth.
The egg noodles, flavored with sesame oil and sprinkled with chopped scallions, were simply too delicious.
Blinking her eyes with an innocent and pure expression, she looked eagerly at Yan Jiuzhi. She was still hungry and wanted more.
Yan Jiuzhi fished out a bottle of elixirs and handed it to her. "Why don't you take a Inaction Elixir first?"
"No, they don't taste good!" Lixi pouted, immediately turning her head away in disgust.
Who wanted to eat an Inaction Elixir? She had been curious and tried one before.
While it left her stomach feeling empty without any sensation of hunger, it failed to satisfy her psychologically—it felt as though she hadn't eaten anything at all.
Suddenly remembering something, she stood up on tiptoe, pulled Yan Jiuzhi closer, and whispered right by his ear: "Senior Brother, the bead you gave me is a legacy inheritance! Inside it is a cultivation manual called the 'Water-Wood Moon Essence Celestial Art'."
Then Yan Jiuzhi watched as his Junior Sister's little face lit up with radiant energy, chattering away as she explained the manual to him in exhaustive detail.
At the end, she added with great delight: "Senior Brother, I can become an alchemist in the future! The manual teaches it, and I can also use healing and purification spells." Her little head held high, she looked immensely proud of herself.
Yan Jiuzhi helplessly rubbed his forehead, grateful that he had long since set up a barrier around this area. "You, you are not allowed to tell anyone else about this in the future. These are all your trump cards."
Refusing to back down, Lixi pouted her lips and retorted, "I didn't tell anyone else, I only told you, Senior Brother!" Since the legacy opportunity was a gift from him in the first place, she naturally had to tell him.
Besides, she wasn't stupid; she hadn't revealed any of the incantations or mental formulas. But all the other regular things she needed to practice and use simply couldn't be hidden, so of course she had to make things clear.
Moreover, she—this newcomer to the path of cultivation—still needed her Third Senior Brother to guide her.
She had seen right through his facade; her Third Senior Brother possessed the unmistakable aura of a hidden master.
However, at this moment, she did not realize that even if she had the intention to speak the incantations and mental formulas aloud, she would have been physically unable to do so.
The legacy was imbued with mysterious powers and bound by special rules, instilled directly into the recipient's soul in a unique manner that could not be accurately conveyed through spoken words.
Yan Jiuzhi had never expected that his Junior Sister would actually manage to activate the legacy bead.
He had obtained this bead from an underground cavern within the Mulberry Forest Secret Realm. Back in his past life, lacking experience, he hadn't seen anything special about it and, failing to figure out its purpose, had simply tossed it aside.
Looking at it again in this lifetime, the area surrounding the goddess stone statue in that cavern had been densely covered in profound runes—this was unmistakably the appearance of a legacy grounds.
Perhaps he hadn't met the conditions for the legacy; even though he took the bead away, the legacy had never opened for him, showing that it was not meant to be his.
Now he finally understood that it required a female cultivator whose Water and Wood spiritual roots were both at maximum value, and whose physique had an affinity for Moon Essence.
With conditions so harsh, his Junior Sister happened to meet every single one of them, proving that this was truly her destined opportunity.
A Junior Sister with such aptitude and destiny would undoubtedly become a pillar of strength for the Yunxiao Sect in the future.
Lixi—who was entirely oblivious to the fact that she was viewed as a "pillar of strength"—had no idea that her Third Senior Brother already had a complete blueprint mapped out for her training.
When Yan Jiuzhi eventually learned all the ways she had stumbled upon discovering the legacy bead, the veins on his forehead throbbed violently. "You actually dared to bind it with your blood without knowing anything about it?! What if it had been a vessel for soul-seizure? What if it had been evil worms or Demonic Gu?"
When he gave it to her, it was simply because the moment he first saw her, this bead had suddenly popped into his mind.
He had realized his mistake only after giving it to her, fearing she would be disappointed if she failed to obtain the legacy, so he hadn't explained clearly. Now it seemed he had been wrong.
He hadn't anticipated that she would possess zero common sense and go recklessly fumbling about on her own.
Lixi, wearing a completely bewildered expression, thought to herself: *It's all those cultivation novels' fault...*
The protagonists in the novels always did things this way—whenever they found a good item, they bound it with blood and then reaped all sorts of opportunities and legacies.
Therefore, she genuinely had never thought there would be any danger...
Yan Jiuzhi had no choice but to give her a thorough lecture on "Cultivation Safety in the Xuancang Realm."
This Junior Sister of theirs lacked far too much basic knowledge; he had no idea how Master and the others had been teaching her.
Fortunately, Xiaocui arrived carrying a meal and standing outside the barrier, rescuing her from the ordeal.
Yan Jiuzhi took the food and placed it on the table, but did not lift the barrier yet—he still had more to teach.
If he were to let his Junior Sister out like this, she would probably get sold by someone and still help count the money for them.
As a result, Lixi's meal was eaten under a cloud of misery.
Before leaving, Yan Jiuzhi did not forget to instruct her: "The tier of your cultivation manual is exceptionally high. You can continue practicing it indefinitely, and you must diligently practice both the physical conditioning and the movement techniques within it."
She would certainly practice them diligently. Physical conditioning would make her figure even more graceful and enhance her agility, while that movement technique was as ethereal and fluid as a drifting celestial mist.
One had to ask, what woman in this world didn't harbor a dream of becoming an absolute beauty of an immortal?
Just thinking about her breathtaking appearance once her cultivation manual reached full mastery made Lixi too excited to contain herself.
Her eyes radiated a dreamy brilliance, as if she could already see herself—dressed in ethereal celestial robes, exuding an otherworldly and refined aura—making a slow, graceful entrance amidst the awestruck gazes of the crowd.
Unaware of whatever daydreams her Junior Sister was indulging in, Yan Jiuzhi anxiously added a few more reminders regarding essential safety points.
Lixi nodded her head like a chick pecking at rice, promising she remembered—she truly remembered—and would never act recklessly again.
Unwilling to listen to any more of her Third Senior Brother's safety lectures, her self-confidence now bursting at the seams, she simply wanted to perform the newly learned Water-Wood Moon Essence Swordplay for her senior brother and master of the art.
It truly was a "performance," because she was still nothing more than a practitioner of flowery fists and embroidered legs, possessing not a shred of deterrent power, let alone the sword qi she had witnessed within the legacy vision.
After watching her execute the routine once, Yan Jiuzhi roughly gauged her current level. "You still need to master the basic sword stances first. All sword techniques evolve from basic stances, and what you lack the most right now is fundamentals."
"Starting tomorrow, you will begin physical conditioning. Since you want to become an alchemist, you must also memorize the compendium of herbs, and you should learn more about medicinal properties and pharmacology from Elder Gao."
"Senior Brother, I want to see what a real sword technique looks like." Lixi gazed at her Third Senior Brother with sparkling eyes, brimming with anticipation.
Naturally, Yan Jiuzhi would not refuse such a request. He instructed her to stand far away under the eaves before picking up a wooden sword and walking to the center of the courtyard.
With a flick of his wrist, his thrusts, slashes, parries, jabs, and blocks were all composed of the most basic sword stances. Yet, in Yan Jiuzhi's hands, they carried immense momentum. Even though he was currently using only an ordinary wooden sword, the sword light was incomparably brilliant, radiant and dazzling as it refracted off the sunlight.
Was... was that actual sword qi?!
It was completely different from what Lixi usually saw when watching her senior brothers and sisters practice.
Good heavens, her Third Senior Brother was simply drop-dead gorgeous! She had actually witnessed living, breathing sword qi in real life!
When would she ever become as formidable as her Senior Brother?
Thinking of the cold and ethereal female immortal dancing with her sword in the legacy, Lixi clenched her fists and secretly resolved: *One day, I will become just as powerful!*