"Disciple, this isn't an ordinary stone, is it?" Tantai Xu asked as soon as he brought Song Nianchu back to Tianyu Peak.
Besides, he felt as though he had some faint memory of this stone, though he couldn't quite recall it at the moment.
"Can you sense something from it, Master?" Song Nianchu asked, looking at Tantai Xu.
"A little, but it's not very clear." Tantai Xu glanced at his disciple. "Most importantly, if you hadn't sensed that this stone was special, you wouldn't have picked it up."
Song Nianchu was silent.
She had only been with this nominal master of hers for a few hours—how was he already so certain of her thoughts?
"I'm right, aren't I?" Tantai Xu said with a proud look upon seeing her dazed reaction.
Song Nianchu nodded. "You're right, Master. That's indeed how it was. I felt a pull drawing me toward this stone at the time."
"A pull?" Tantai Xu instantly grew excited. "If you could feel its pull, then it must be a rare treasure!"
Song Nianchu nodded again, but she said nothing further. Although this nominal master of hers seemed decent enough so far, she had never been someone who trusted others easily. She decided to wait and see a little longer.
Tantai Xu saw that she didn't intend to elaborate. He didn't mind, leading her to another peak instead.
"This is where you'll be living from now on. It's very close to the main peak." Tantai Xu began explaining a few things about the sect to her.
The peak where Tantai Xu resided was called Tianyu Peak, surrounded by a dozen or so peaks of various sizes. Two of these peaks were second in size only to the main peak itself, and one of them was the very mountain Song Nianchu was standing on right now.
Having arrived here, Song Nianchu felt the surroundings carefully; the spiritual energy here was not much different from that of the main peak.
"That area over there belongs to the other elders..." Tantai Xu pointed off in several other directions.
Song Nianchu looked over and could only faintly see a few mountain tops poking through the clouds. However, those areas were much larger in size than this place.
"Master, do a lot of people live on those peaks?" Song Nianchu asked.
"Of course. They take in many disciples, whereas on my side, you're my only disciple." Tantai Xu liked peace and quiet. Over the years, the Sect Master had approached him more than once asking him to take on disciples, but he had always refused.
"If you don't take on disciples, don't the other elders in the sect have a problem with it?" Song Nianchu asked out of curiosity.
"How could they not?" Tantai Xu let out a cold snort at the thought of those people. "However, they need my talismans. So no matter how dissatisfied they are, they just have to bear it."
With that, Tantai Xu produced a manual on talismans and handed it to Song Nianchu. "Whenever there are classes over at the main hall, you go attend them. As for which classes to take, you can decide for yourself. If you can't make up your mind, just come ask me."
"But I can't fly on a sword yet..." Song Nianchu glanced toward the main hall in the distance, only one thought coming to mind: *It's so far.*
Tantai Xu curled his thumb and forefinger to his mouth and blew a crisp, clear whistle. The next moment, a fiery-red spiritual crane flew over.
"These are spiritual cranes raised by the sect. Disciples who cannot fly on swords can ride them over," Tantai Xu said as he taught Song Nianchu the mnemonic chant to summon a spiritual crane.
After Song Nianchu learned it, she established a bond with the spiritual crane as her master instructed.
"Whenever you focus your mind, the spiritual crane will fly over to pick you up." Having taken Song Nianchu as his sole disciple in the sect, Tantai Xu showed rare patience as he briefed her on the key rules and matters of note within the sect.
Fortunately, Song Nianchu had a great memory and committed everything to mind.
"When you're attending classes, if that Liu Rushuang bullies you, you bully her right back! If you can't beat her, come find your master, and I'll avenge you." Tantai Xu babbled endlessly, acting entirely like a worried parent who couldn't rest easy about his disciple.
Song Nianchu had never experienced this kind of affection back in modern times. To be precise, she had suffered from an emotional disorder back then. To put it in plain terms: high IQ, low EQ. Except for standing far ahead of the pack in medicine, she was genuinely lacking in every other aspect. It wasn't that no one had ever been good to her—she knew people were—but her emotions had remained entirely flat, like an outsider looking in.
Now, touched by her master's protective nature toward her, she realized she could finally feel emotions. It was as if her human desires and feelings were finally normal.
"Matters between disciples are best resolved among ourselves," Song Nianchu said. She wasn't particularly worried about Liu Rushuang. After all, they were both Personal Disciples in the sect; if she wanted to deal with her, it wouldn't be difficult.
"That woman is malicious; she will definitely find a way to target you," Tantai Xu warned. "And then there's your three elements..."
"Are you saying she might interfere, Master?" Song Nianchu asked.
Tantai Xu nodded. "That Huo Wen comes from a decent background and is currently completely obedient to Liu Rushuang. If Liu Rushuang wants to plot something, Huo Wen will likely cooperate."
"Master, none of that matters," Song Nianchu said indifferently. "I don't want too many people to know about my three elements anyway. So if she really does something like that, you can give it a little push to make everyone think I'm trash. Wouldn't that be great?"
Tantai Xu looked at his disciple in surprise. "You don't care if people call you trash?"
"Do you care if people call your disciple trash, Master?" Song Nianchu asked back.
"Not at all." Tantai Xu recalled the previous affinity test. "When you were taking the test earlier, did you feel like there was still a huge amount of Spiritual Power inside your body?"
Song Nianchu hesitated briefly before nodding. "Yes. I felt something was wrong at the time and wanted to withdraw. If it hadn't been for you, Master..." She definitely would have been exposed.
"So you might be quad-elemental, or even all-elemental?" Tantai Xu's eyes lit up.
"I don't know." Song Nianchu was indeed unsure about this.
However, she had a hunch in her heart. Back in modern times, she had always been a fast learner at everything. If an all-elemental affinity really existed in this world, there was a high chance she possessed it. Even if she didn't, her current three elements were already quite impressive.
Through the original host's memories, she had also learned quite a lot of things.
"Never mind." Tantai Xu didn't press the topic further. "Get familiar with the surroundings first. I'll go fetch your identity token."
Normally, such tasks were handled by attendants working under the elders. But Tantai Xu preferred solitude, so there were hardly any attendants around his peak.
"Thank you for troubling yourself, Master," Song Nianchu said gratefully.
Tantai Xu waved a hand. "I am your master, no need to stand on ceremony."
After Tantai Xu left, Song Nianchu tried once more to contact her family.
It turned out that right after leaving the Forbidden Land, she had failed to establish a connection and had only left a message informing them of her whereabouts. When she tried to contact them again later, the communication jade remained silent. It was likely due to the vast distance, and her communication jade wasn't top-tier, making a connection impossible.
According to the original host's memories, her family members were by no means fools. On the contrary, they possessed exceptionally high intelligence. The original host had been foolish and couldn't understand, but looking through her memories, Song Nianchu noticed that whenever something happened, her parents and brothers always had looks of clear understanding on their faces.
Yet why did their actions result in a completely different picture?
In her eyes, Liu Rushuang was not particularly clever. How could she have harmed her family so severely?
There had to be something going on that she didn't know about. She was determined to figure out the truth.
However, the communication jade gave no response.
Looking at the communication jade in her hand, Song Nianchu let out a sigh.
*Thud!*
Song Nianchu looked in the direction of the sound and saw that the transparent box, which had clearly been sitting on the table nearby, had fallen to the ground.
The black stone had fallen out of the transparent box and was rolling around on the floor.
She wasn't sure if it was just her imagination, but she actually sensed a hint of urgency emanating from the black stone...