You Yu looked at the two items on the table, very surprised. "You're giving me a congratulatory gift?"
"As my savior, since you are officially stepping onto the path of immortality, I wanted to give you a congratulatory gift to express my gratitude." Perhaps because it was his first time saying such words, Huangfu Yuan looked a bit uncomfortable.
"This is too polite." You Yu felt a little embarrassed.
Huangfu Yuan pointed at the ring and said, "This is a spatial ring. If you can earn its recognition, you can make it your master. I got this from an ancient ruin, and how much space is inside, I'm not even sure."
You Yu understood.
Spatial rings were extremely precious in novels, so she had been wondering why he was being so generous—turns out it was one that required self-recognition.
It looked like he hadn't been able to make it recognize him, so he might as well use it to win her favor.
Still, a spatial ring like this must be quite a treasure, right?
Huangfu Yuan glanced at her and continued, "Your constitution... is a bit troublesome."
You Yu's breathing suddenly tightened. She knew her unique constitution was special, but she hadn't expected him to discover it as well.
Her flesh and blood could help people evolve their physiques and change their talents; didn't he have any ideas about that?
Huangfu Yuan expressed his intentions through his actions: "This bracelet is an illusion artifact. It can conceal your constitution; anyone below the Deity Transformation stage won't be able to detect it. Furthermore, it can mask your cultivation level. As long as you don't deliberately display it, ordinary people won't be able to tell your cultivation rank either."
You Yu's jaw dropped.
She remembered the cultivation stages here were Qi Condensation, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, Deity Transformation, Integration, Mahayana, and Tribulation.
The Tribulation stage was a legendary existence; anyway, it hadn't appeared anywhere in the parts of the novel she had read.
The Integration and Mahayana stages were reserved for grand elders of a sect, who usually spent all their time in secluded death-retreats and rarely came out unless it was a matter of life and death for the sect.
Deity Transformation stage experts also generally didn't walk around outside; they cultivated in seclusion within the sect and occasionally stepped out to represent it.
The rulers of most sects were usually at the Nascent Soul stage, and even then, a sect only had a handful of them.
And anyone above the Deity Transformation stage would hardly pay attention to a little ant like her.
Therefore, with this bracelet, she almost wouldn't have to worry about her constitution being discovered.
Plus, she could hide her cultivation and display whatever rank she pleased whenever she wanted—it was practically a divine artifact for playing the pig to eat the tiger!
She wanted it badly, but reason made her struggle for a moment. "This... must be very precious, right? How can I accept such a valuable gift from you?"
"This is merely an illusion artifact, not particularly precious, and I have no use for it anyway," Huangfu Yuan said indifferently. "By comparison, you need it more."
Thinking of the original owner's fate of having her bones scraped, flesh carved, skin peeled, tendons pulled, and blood drained for medicinal baths, the last shred of embarrassment she felt vanished completely.
With agile movements, she grabbed the bracelet and fastened it around her left wrist. It was a bit big, and if she moved too much, it might slip off.
"Drop your blood to bind it," Huangfu Yuan reminded her.
She searched around for a sharp tool and was wondering how to draw blood when a flash of white light zipped past. She felt a slight pain at her fingertip, and then a bead of blood welled up.
Fine, pretty impressive.
She quickly dripped the blood onto the bracelet. The bracelet absorbed all the blood and then began adjusting its size, stopping right when it fit her wrist perfectly.
This was too magical!
This was You Yu's first time witnessing a divine artifact in this world. Her eyes went wide, and her face was full of curiosity.
"Try the spatial ring as well," Huangfu Yuan prompted when he saw her dazed.
"Oh, right."
You Yu picked up the spatial ring and pressed her fingertip against it. She originally thought the remaining blood on her finger would be enough, but the spatial ring seemed alive; it latched onto her wound and kept sucking her blood.
You Yu was startled and instinctively tried to pull it away, only to find she couldn't remove it at all!
Having never experienced anything like this, she instinctively sought help from Huangfu Yuan. "Huangfu Yuan, it's drinking my blood!"
Huangfu Yuan didn't move. "Some spiritual artifacts indeed require a large amount of blood. Just hold on a little longer."
Hearing him say that, You Yu felt somewhat relieved. She endured the pain and let the spatial ring drink her blood. Just as she started wondering if this fellow was going to suck her completely dry, it finally stopped, resting in her palm like it was stuffed and satisfied.
Uh—
Clearly, it was just a spatial ring, but she could actually sense that kind of emotion from it.
Huangfu Yuan looked at the well-behaved ring and asked, "Can you sense the space inside?"
You Yu tried to sense it, then shook her foot—no, shook her head. "I don't feel anything. Did the blood-binding fail?"
"When other people's blood drips on it, it doesn't absorb it," Huangfu Yuan said. "If there's no reaction now, it probably means the blood wasn't enough this time. Try again later."
"Alright then." You Yu slipped it onto the middle finger of her left hand. The previously motionless ring unexpectedly adjusted its size automatically and slowly faded from view right before their eyes!
You Yu could feel that the ring was right there on her finger, yet it looked as though it had vanished!
"This is—"
If I'm not mistaken, this is its stealth function," Huangfu Yuan said. "Some spiritual artifacts come with auxiliary functions, such as defense or attack; its function should be stealth. The fact that even I can't see it means its stealth effect is quite good."
Hearing him say that, You Yu was delighted.
This way, others wouldn't know she had a spatial ring on her!
It's just that this fellow didn't seem to have had enough of her blood yet, as the spatial function hadn't opened, and she still couldn't put her storage bag inside.
Seeing her smile stretch almost to her ears, Huangfu Yuan said, "The gift has been delivered. I still have some matters to attend to, so I'll be leaving."
You Yu was startled. "You're leaving?"
Huangfu Yuan nodded and pulled out a token made of an unidentifiable material. "Tomorrow is the day of the tests; you can just go straight to the testing grounds in the morning. Take this token, and you can choose whichever sect you want to go to."
You Yu took the token, and he turned and left.
You Yu watched him go, closed the door, threw herself onto the bed, and rolled around happily.
She had officially stepped onto the path of cultivation.
She had a spiritual artifact that concealed her constitution.
And she had a spatial ring.
"Huangfu Yuan is truly a wonderful person!"
After sighing with emotion for a moment, she remembered she could use her storage bag now. She went over to fetch the storage bag from her bamboo basket, channeled a sliver of spiritual energy into it, and the storage bag seemed to have its lock picked, laying its contents bare before her eyes.
Ten thousand spiritual stones were neatly stacked together, a sight that made anyone happy just to look at them.
She took one out. The pure white stone looked ordinary, but holding it in her hand, she could feel the dense spiritual energy.
"This is different from the low-grade spiritual stones written about in books. Aren't low-grade spiritual stones transparent? This looks a bit like a middle-grade spiritual stone instead," You Yu grew even more excited.
She had only asked for ten thousand low-grade spiritual stones, but she hadn't expected Huangfu Yuan to give her ten thousand middle-grade spiritual stones instead.
One hundred low-grade spiritual stones were equivalent to one middle-grade spiritual stone, which meant what she had right here was equivalent to one million low-grade spiritual stones!
You Yu's face felt like it was going to cramp from smiling.
"Huangfu Yuan is truly, truly, truly a wonderful person!"
After being excited for a while, she calmed her mind and continued sitting cross-legged in meditation.
Although her fire spirit root had already reached the 1st Layer of Qi Condensation, her wood spirit root hadn't yet. Besides, whenever she read novels, they always said one needed to consolidate their cultivation after advancing.
Waking up early the next morning, she intended to go participate in the tests when she suddenly felt the spatial ring's craving for her blood. It poked the wound from yesterday directly, and she stuck the ring right against it.
This time, the suction was even more ferocious. You Yu managed only a single "what the hell" before fainting straight onto the floor.
……
When You Yu woke up, she was blinded by the glare of the sun.
This orange-yellow sunlight filled her heart with a bad premonition. Sure enough, when she went down to ask, it was already afternoon, and the sun was about to set!
A curse instantly echoed in her heart as she bolted toward the testing plaza.
By the time she got there, it was already pitch dark. All she saw was an empty plaza and a few youths preparing to leave.
She had just seen these people coming down from the high platform, which meant they were representatives from the sects who came here to recruit disciples!
She ran up to the group. Before she could even speak, a baby-faced youth in a water-blue robe blurted out, "Are you here for the tests too? Today's tests have already ended."
Of course, You Yu could see that the tests were over, but she needed to enter a sect to study and cultivate, so she looked pitifully at the only female in the group. "I was delayed by something and came late. I walked for many days just to get here for today's tests. Can you guys please make an exception for me?"
Looking at her frail little frame, the young woman felt a trace of sympathy, but she still shook her head. "It's not that we won't make an exception for you, but the spirit-testing stones used for the exams have already been packed away. We're powerless to help."
"It's fine, it's fine. I can already cultivate; I have spirit roots. Can I still join your sect?" You Yu asked.
She remembered the book mentioning which sects had come to recruit disciples this time; they were all decent, and she had planned to pick one at random beforehand.
Right now, she didn't have a choice—only this sect was in front of her.
"You have spirit roots?"
"Yes, I have dual fire and wood spirit roots, but I don't know what my aptitude is." It definitely couldn't be bad though; she had only cultivated for a few days and had already advanced.
"This..." The woman looked at the other men.
"Eldest Senior Sister, why don't we just take her in? This trip down the mountain, we haven't recruited a single person again. If we go back empty-handed, we're going to be mocked by the neighboring Ten Thousand Beasts Sect again," the baby-faced youth said with a bitter face.
"That's right. Although she's a bit late, it's not like an exception can't be made."
"Yeah, Eldest Senior Sister, I also want a Junior Sister. That Ji Wu has an extra Junior Sister—look at how smug he was. I want a Junior Sister too."
"Alright then." The woman nodded and said to You Yu, "What's your name?"
"Reporting to Senior Sister, my name is You Yu."
The woman nodded. "My name is Ji Qing, the Eldest Senior Sister of the Taiyi Sect. From today onward, you are our Junior Sister. This is your Third Senior Brother Liao Xing, Fifth Senior Brother He Fan, and Sixth Senior Brother Rong Xuan."
You Yu: "..." Weren't they recruiting this Junior Sister a bit too casually?
And those names sounded somewhat familiar, didn't they?
"We're heading back to the sect now. We'll tell you about sect matters on the way," Ji Qing said. With that, she led the group out of the city, pulled out a boat model, and infused it with spiritual energy. The boat grew significantly larger, easily spacious enough for seven or eight people.
You Yu was brought aboard the flying boat. Once the boat had been moving for a bit, she suddenly let out a gasp, drawing the attention of the others who were chatting.
"Junior Sister, what's wrong?" asked the baby-faced Fifth Senior Brother, He Fan.
"I, I..." You Yu froze, not knowing how to say that she had just remembered the novel's description of the Taiyi Sect.
A Taiyi Sect that was poor, tiny, and in the end, had all its members kick the bucket and the entire sect get wiped out!
The novel never mentioned that the Taiyi Sect participated in this round of test recruitments!
No wonder they were so casual about accepting people; were they just taking anyone who was willing to go?
Was it too late for her to say she wanted to quit now?
Faced with four pairs of unblinking eyes, and then looking down at the hundreds of meters of altitude, she sensibly swallowed back the words about quitting.
Sigh, anyway, the sect wasn't getting exterminated tomorrow; she'd just take it one step at a time.
"Eldest Senior Sister, you just took me in as a junior sister like this—will Master agree?" You Yu asked.
Even the worst sects wouldn't take in disciples quite so directly, right?
Ji Qing's expression stiffened for a fraction of a second, but she still told the truth: "Master said that as long as we can find someone willing to become our apprentice on this trip down the mountain, we should take them in."
"Huh?"
We haven't recruited any new disciples in thirty years," Ji Qing said.
"Why?"
"At first Master said our destiny hadn't arrived yet, and later on, prospective disciples heard about our sect's situation and stopped coming, all going to other sects instead." After finishing, Ji Qing glanced at You Yu, feeling somewhat fortunate inside.
If she hadn't arrived late and missed the people from the other sects leaving, she probably wouldn't have chosen their Taiyi Sect either.
You Yu still thought they were being way too casual. "Eldest Senior Sister, aren't you afraid I was just making things up? What if I don't have spirit roots?"
"If you can't cultivate, we'll just send you back," Ji Qing said casually.
You Yu blinked, thinking to herself that this really was the innocent Eldest Senior Sister of the Taiyi Sect. No wonder she ended up being tricked by the female protagonist into handing over countless pills under the guise of friendship, and ultimately sacrificed herself while searching for herbs in a Secret Realm just to refine pills for the female protagonist.
Tsk tsk, when she got the chance, she would definitely teach Eldest Senior Sister what it means to guard against fire, theft, and best friends!
No, with her here, she would definitely not let Eldest Senior Sister play the role of You Xueer's fake bestie ever again!
The flying boat's speed wasn't slow, yet it still traveled for five days before entering immortal cultivation territory. As soon as they crossed into this realm, You Yu felt the rich spiritual energy.
This was far more abundant than the mortal world!
She could sense that cultivating here wouldn't even take her nine days to master her fire spirit root.
She thought entering this area meant they were almost at the Taiyi Sect, but to her surprise, the boat flew for another two months before arriving—and that was only because the Taiyi Sect wasn't all that far from the mortal world.
Fortunately, she hadn't wasted those two months; she had spent them in seclusion inside her room, advancing her fire spirit root to the 2nd Layer of Qi Condensation while her wood spirit root was also on the verge of the 2nd Layer of Qi Condensation.
To balance both spirit roots, she spent the remaining time focusing primarily on her wood spirit root, successfully promoting it to the 2nd Layer of Qi Condensation just as they reached the sect's mountain gates.
She opened the door and stepped out, running right into Ji Qing, who was pacing outside.
"Eldest Senior Sister."
"You're out of seclusion? Perfect, we're about to reach the mountain gates, and I was just wondering whether I should call you." Ji Qing said.
"Thank you, Eldest Senior Sister, I'm all done." You Yu smiled at her.
Seeing that Ji Qing had no reaction, she knew the other woman hadn't noticed that she had advanced to the 2nd Layer of Qi Condensation.
Seeing You Yu's smile, the corners of Ji Qing's lips ticked upward slightly as well. "Then follow me."
When they reached the deck, Third Senior Brother Liao Xing, Fifth Senior Brother He Fan, and Sixth Senior Brother Rong Xuan were all there.
The wind fluttered their long hair and robes, giving them quite an imposing, high-spirited air.
What a pity their ultimate fates were all tragic.
Third Senior Brother Liao Xing was a sword cultivator; usually cold and aloof, he was actually quite simple-minded. After being saved by You Xueer once, he fell right into her pond, protecting the female protagonist time and time again. Later, during a battle with demon cultivators, he was abandoned by You Xueer and the male protagonist to act as a diversion, and was cruelly slaughtered by the demon cultivators.
Fifth Senior Brother He Fan... the most devoted second male lead among them all, who did countless things for the female protagonist, and finally, in an ancient tomb, willingly acted as the eye of a formation to save her, getting shredded by the formation arrays after the male and female protagonists escaped.
Sixth Senior Brother Rong Xuan was an array master who somehow stayed out of the female protagonist's pond. When he found out Third Senior Brother had been murdered by the male and female protagonists, he went to take revenge, only to be wounded by the male protagonist and eventually driven to become a demon cultivator, before being slain by the female protagonist above her level to earn herself a sterling reputation.
In short, everyone in the Taiyi Sect became stepping stones for the male and female protagonists' leveling up.
In two words: utterly miserable.
You Yu bowed to the three of them. "Third Senior Brother, Fifth Senior Brother, Sixth Senior Brother."
"Little Junior Sister is out." He Fan waved at her. Not sensing any spiritual energy fluctuations on her, he comforted her, "Little Junior Sister, it's still early. Once we get back to the sect, we'll have Master find a suitable mental cultivation method for you, and then you'll be able to cultivate successfully."
Earlier, when You Yu said she wanted to go into seclusion, they mentioned that without a cultivation method one couldn't practice, and that was when she claimed she had previously acquired one.
Now, seeing that she still hadn't started after two months, they assumed the manual she had was definitely of a very low grade.
You Yu didn't explain and simply smiled at him.
He Fan thought You Yu's smile was truly cute, much cuter than Eldest Senior Sister's.
He wanted to comfort her a bit more, but Liao Xing said indifferently, "We've arrived."
You Yu looked ahead. A cluster of towering peaks stood between heaven and earth, and on the waist of the foremost peak, a few courtyards were scattered about.
You Yu: "..." Not even a front gate?
How did a dilapidated sect like this manage to mingle with the major sects to recruit disciples?
Seeming to notice her confusion, He Fan took the initiative to explain, "Our Master is at the Deity Transformation stage."
You Yu understood.
The sect masters of other sects were usually at the Nascent Soul stage, but a sect with a Deity Transformation master like the Taiyi Sect was a rare breed.
No matter how few members the Taiyi Sect had, having a Deity Transformation powerhouse meant they could still be ranked alongside other sects.
It was just that their ranking was dead last every single time.
Thinking about when the Taiyi Sect was wiped out, what was this sect master doing?
It seemed he had gone missing.
Otherwise, the disciples of the Taiyi Sect wouldn't have been completely annihilated like that.
Thinking that she was about to meet a Deity Transformation powerhouse, You Yu still felt a bit nervous. "Eldest Senior Sister, since Master is so powerful, will he really take me in as an apprentice?"
"He will. He said that any disciple we bring back, regardless of their aptitude, he'll accept," Ji Qing reassured her. "Let's go, Master should be over by the medicine garden right now."
The novel's description of the Taiyi Sect's master was truly scant; he mostly only appeared in other people's dialogue. She had expected to meet a high-level immortal-like hermit, but instead, she found an old man in homespun clothes weeding the dirt with a small hoe.
The disciples bowed to the old man. "Master, we're back."
You Yu followed suit and bowed, but she didn't call him Master yet.
Jiang Wenji put down his small hoe, clapped his hands together, stood up, and smiled. "You're all back? Is this the Little Junior Sister you found for yourselves? What's your name?"
Called out, You Yu stepped forward. "Disciple You Yu."
Jiang Wenji nodded. "Fire and wood spirit roots, not bad. From now on, you are my closing disciple, ranked ninth."
You Yu stepped forward, knelt, and kowtowed. "Disciple greets Master."
"When I'm in the sect, you can come to me if you have any questions. When I'm not here, you can consult your senior brothers and senior sister, or ask Elder Qing." Jiang Wenji produced a storage bag that looked somewhat worn. "This is the master's welcome gift to you. Your mental cultivation method suits you well, so you don't need to learn a new one."
Since his cultivation was already at the Deity Transformation stage, he could naturally see through the illusion artifact on her and knew her true situation.
You Yu received it with both hands. "Thank you, Master."
"Have your Eldest Senior Sister take you to pick a courtyard, and then get some good rest."
"Yes, Master."
With his instructions given, Jiang Wenji went back into the medicine garden to continue weeding the herbs.