Far away, inside a Secret Realm.
A delicate young girl with a high ponytail and robes as white as snow was swinging her sword to battle a demonic wolf.
From the flow of the battle, she had already gained the upper hand, and finishing off the demonic wolf was only a matter of time.
Not far away stood a crowd of onlookers, every single one of them wearing infatuated smiles:
"As expected of the Junior Sister! Having just entered the Foundation Establishment Realm, she is already able to fight a Silver-Moon Demonic Wolf! Truly formidable!"
"Hehe~ Qingxue's talent is second to none across the entire Cultivation World! She is bound to achieve great things in the future!"
"No doubt about it! From now on, our Cold Moon Sect will be counting on her..."
"Die!" Following a low cry from the young girl, her sword mercilessly severed the demonic wolf's head, sending fresh blood splashing across the ground.
The battle ended, and the onlookers immediately swarmed around her like flies spotting fresh dung:
"Is Junior Sister tired? Come, have a sip of spiritual spring water."
"Junior Sister's spiritual power must have been heavily expended this time; these are pills specifically prepared for you by Senior Brother, take them quickly!"
"Junior Sister..."
"There's no need." A faint smile hung on the corners of the young girl's lips. She flicked her blade into a pretty flourish, sheathed her sword, and turned her gaze toward the corpse of the demonic wolf. "Let's clean up the battlefield first."
"Alright, alright, you rest first. Leave such matters to us."
Watching the people scrambling to step forward, the young girl turned around, a mysterious smile blooming at the corners of her lips: *I, Leng Qingxue, will one day become a presence looked up to by the entire Cultivation World!*
"Chirp—" At that moment, a bird's cry caught her attention.
"Senior Brothers, I'm going to take a look over there. You go ahead with what you're doing." Leaving those words behind, Leng Qingxue walked off in a certain direction.
Arriving beneath a tree and making sure no one was paying attention to her, she pulled a slip of paper out from the peeled-back tree bark.
After reading the contents, her pupils constricted: "How could this be..."
"Junior Sister!"
"Qingxue!"
Hearing the shouts, Leng Qingxue quickly hid the slip of paper away, put on a smiling face, and looked at the approaching people: "Senior Brothers, why did you follow me over?"
"We were just worried about you."
"Right, you are the future of our sect after all. Master gave strict orders not to let you act alone."
"Oh~" Leng Qingxue nodded, pointing in a certain direction. "Let's go. Once we finish exploring this last place, we'll return to the sect to report back."
"Alright, I'll go ahead and scout the path!"
*
Three days later, at the site of the third round of the Cold Moon Sect's disciple entrance examination.
Unlike the previous two rounds, an countless number of people had come to watch this one.
After all, every entering disciple had suffered hardship here, so naturally they wanted to see others make fools of themselves.
With melon seeds, peanuts, and small stools, they gathered together like a village-entrance intelligence network, chattering away incessantly.
Yan Xiaoyi had woken up a bit late. When she arrived at the scene, she squeezed and shoved for a long time but still couldn't manage to push her way through.
Seeing that Elder Hu was about to announce the start, she grew anxious out on the outer perimeter and let out an angry roar toward the heavens: "The Eldest Miss Yan has arrived, make way, all of you!"
Who?
Eldest Miss Yan?
Yan Xiaoyi! That female villain who relied on her family's backing to act imperiously, bully women and men alike, and commit every imaginable evil!
She had actually come as well!
For a moment, the gazes of the onlookers all fell upon her. Confirming that it was indeed Yan herself, *whoosh*, a ten-meter-wide path was instantly cleared.
Wherever she passed, the onlookers scrambled outward, looking as though they were afraid of catching the avian flu.
Yan Xiaoyi inwardly clicked her tongue: *It seems that having a bad reputation isn't always a bad thing.*
Today, she was still wearing an eye-catching red gauze dress, its train dragging more than two feet on the ground. A butterfly hairpin was casually stuck at an angle into her casually coiled hair, and a faint smile hung at the corners of her lips, revealing two shallow dimples.
At a glance, she still looked somewhat human.
"Could you please walk a little faster?"
Seeing her strutting proudly with her chest puffed out, looking like a leader inspecting the countryside, Elder Hu said with displeasure: "Why do you dress so festively day in and day out? You're here for an examination, not a matchmaking session!"
Yan Xiaoyi brushed her sleeve: "Is this against the rules?"
"It's not against the rules!"
"Then why are you sticking your nose into other people's business..."
"I..." The corner of Elder Hu's mouth twitched, and he glared at her, scolding, "Get over here quickly! Don't waste time."
"Alright, alright!" Seeing the Old Man pull a long face, Yan Xiaoyi didn't dare to dawdle any further and quickly picked up her pace.
"The final test: climb the Cloud-Climbing Ladder! The rules are very simple: just keep climbing all the way up. Passing thirty floors is considered meeting the standard, fifty floors is good, seventy floors is excellent, eighty floors is peerless, and ninety floors defies the heavens!"
"What about the hundredth floor?" Yan Xiaoyi was holding melon seeds she had purloined from somewhere, cracking them open as she asked.
Elder Hu glanced at her, casually swept her melon seeds away with a wave of his hand, and said expressionlessly: "So far, no one has ever been able to climb to the hundredth floor!"
"What if there's one?" As if performing a magic trick, Yan Xiaoyi produced a handful of peanuts from nowhere, crushing them until they crackedle-snapped.
"Why do you talk so much?" Displeasure showed on Elder Hu's face. He knocked the peanuts out of her hand once more and said in a deep voice, "The Founding Patriarch said back then, anyone who manages to climb to the hundredth floor may have one wish granted by the sect!"
"Really? Any wish at all?"
Yan Xiaoyi's eyes shone brightly. Just as she pulled a flask of stolen fruit wine from her sleeve, Elder Hu snatched it away with a glare and roared, "Right! Do you have anything else to ask?"
*No, why is he getting angry now?* Seeing his bite-someone expression, Yan Xiaoyi shrank her neck and waved her hands sheepishly: "Gone, gone."
"If it's gone, why aren't you going to line up? Do you want me to invite you?"
"No need, no need!" Yan Xiaoyi quickly shut her mouth and walked to the back of the line.
"Before the test begins, I remind you all once again! Do not bite off more than you can chew! The higher you go, the greater the pain your body and soul will have to endure! If you cannot bear it, stop in time! Otherwise, the best-case scenario is going mad, and the worst is losing your life!"
"Remember, I am not trying to scare you with alarmist talk!—That is all I have to say, take care of yourselves, begin!"
At his command, the people at the front began to climb.
Instantly, screams echoed continuously. It was just like walking into a collective maternity ward; the heart-rending sounds made people's hair stand on end.
Yan Xiaoyi raised an eyebrow: "Is it really that exaggerated? Could these people be faking it?"
Soon, it was her turn.
The moment her feet stepped onto it, she merely paused slightly, and then blurted out: "This doesn't feel like anything at all!"
In contrast, the guy beside her trembled in his entire being, his previously pale face instantly regaining a flush of blood.
A young man's blushing face surpasses all confessions.
Yan Xiaoyi kindly inquired: "Little brother, are you in a lot of pain?"
That person was stunned by her question: "Aren't you in pain?"
"This doesn't feel like anything."
Naturally, that person didn't believe her nonsense and sneered coldly: *Putting on an act! Let's see how long you can keep pretending!*
Besides, it was only the first step after all; anyone could endure it.
He immediately flicked his sleeve and put on an unaffected expression: "Actually, I don't feel anything either. I was just teasing you earlier."
"Oh, then keep it up." Yan Xiaoyi didn't bother with him anymore and walked upward on her own.
Wherever she passed, wailing filled the ground.
Some were trembling all over, foaming at the mouth as if suffering an epileptic seizure; others lay flat on their backs with limbs sprawled, ferocious expressions on their faces, kicking their limbs wildly as if giving birth right on the spot...
Their postures could be described as bizarre in every possible way, and the only constant was that everyone wore the identical mask of agony on their faces.
At this, Yan Xiaoyi was extremely puzzled: "Strange, why are their reactions so intense? How come I don't feel much at all?"
Trash System: "Heh~ Did you think those ninety-nine deaths at the start were for nothing?"