Spirit Cultivation is all about absorbing the spiritual energy from the air and turning it to one's own use, yet she couldn't sense any spiritual power in the air at all!
Could it be that her method was wrong? !!
After picking up the book and reading it carefully from cover to cover once again,
Xing Beiluo formed hand seals once more, but still she could sense nothing.
Refusing to give up, she tried a dozen times in a row, only to end up with nothing in the end.
What?! What on earth was going on?!
Xing Beiluo had always been quite confident in her own comprehension.
If not brilliant beyond compare, she was certainly a proud prodigy of her generation.
So why couldn't she cultivate?
Could it be that she was some good-for-nothing who couldn't cultivate at all?
Xing Beiluo sank into a deep state of self-doubt.
Before long, however, she pulled herself together. Since she couldn't sense the spiritual power in the air, going the path of Martial Cultivation surely would work, right?
After all, she had transmigrated with her physical body rather than just her soul, and Xing Beiluo still had a lot of confidence in her physical fitness.
She got up, went out to the courtyard, and ran through a set of fist techniques.
"Ha!"
"Hah!"
With the routine of fist techniques finished,
she immediately felt much better.
Yet soon, Xing Beiluo frowned.
Martial Cultivation was essentially physical combat, relying on physical fitness,
whereas Spirit Cultivation was magical combat, and many martial techniques and weapons required the use of spiritual power.
Unless absolutely necessary, she didn't want to give up on Spirit Cultivation, so she ran back into the Space to look up information and ask the Little Azure Dragon.
The Little Azure Dragon wore a look of utter disdain. "You thought you could cultivate spiritual power just by chanting a couple of incantations? It's not that simple! If it were that easy, wouldn't everyone in this world be a cultivator?"
Xing Beiluo asked, "Then what should I do?"
"I don't know."
"..." Xing Beiluo really wanted to destroy this dragon.
Endure it. I must endure it.
After all, it was her very own Artifact Spirit; if she beat it to a pulp, her heart would ache.
"But there definitely is a solution in here. I saw it before, go look for it," came the Little Azure Dragon's leisurely voice.
Following the direction the Little Azure Dragon pointed to, Xing Beiluo looked over and saw the small wooden cottage.
"Which book is it?" Xing Beiluo immediately asked with excitement.
The reason she asked was that there were only books in that house.
The table and bed certainly couldn't help.
"I don't remember."
"..." Ahhhhh!
Xing Beiluo simply couldn't hold back anymore. Dealing with this unreliable, wicked dragon, she got up and gave the Little Azure Dragon a thorough beating.
"Bang!"
"Whack!"
"Thud!"
...
Lying on the ground, the Little Azure Dragon wailed in pain, "Great-grandmother, I was wrong, okay?"
"Did you remember it or not? If you still don't remember, I'll beat you to death."
"I didn't remember. Even if you beat me to death, I still wouldn't remember."
"..." Xing Beiluo stopped.
That was true, come to think of it.
...
After the fight—or rather, after the Little Azure Dragon had been unilaterally beaten up—
the human and the dragon began bitterly toiling in the ocean of knowledge.
Xing Beiluo simply gave a grand wave of her hand and instructed, "You're responsible for what's on the bed and the table, and I'm responsible for what's on the floor!"
"Why should I?!" What a joke! How much was even on the bed and the table?
It was completely incomparable to the piles on the floor, all right?
"Hmm?" Xing Beiluo drew out the end of her tone, and symbolically brandished her fist.
"Great-grandmother's allocation is simply too fair! I'm reading right now, reading right now."
The Little Azure Dragon gave in instantly, and the spots where she had just been beaten began to ache faintly again.
They read earnestly, but hard work does not always bring rewards.
Because, until late into the night, they still had no results.
Due to physical exhaustion, Xing Beiluo decided to rest for a bit and resume the search tomorrow.
"I'm sleepy and going back to sleep. You keep looking."
"I want to report this! Boss, you're abusing your employee!"
Xing Beiluo turned around, looked at the Little Azure Dragon, and brandished her fist once more.
The Little Azure Dragon instantly caved: "Boss, get a good rest and wait for my good news."
...
In another courtyard of the General's Estate, Youlan Courtyard.
"Mother, that's how things happened." Taking advantage of the deep night when there were few people around, Xing Zhenzhen and Xing Youran went to report the day's events to Second Madam.
Second Madam pondered for a moment. "Youran's analysis is correct. This Xing Beiluo is most likely a fake."
"Hmph! A fake wants to sit on equal footing with us as well? How utterly shameless! A wild chicken trying to turn into a phoenix—she can keep dreaming."
Youran was young after all, and immediately blurted out her anger.
"Shut your mouth!" Second Madam scolded her.
Xing Youran immediately felt aggrieved: "Mother..."
"My good child, Mother isn't blaming you. It's just that your father has been dead for many years, and we are living under someone else's roof. We must be cautious in our words and actions."
"But aren't we all secretly transferring assets and preparing to break away from the General's Estate?" Being young and impulsive, she blurted out the important secret without a second thought.
"Hush!" Second Madam immediately looked out toward the doorway.
Seeing that there was no one around, she whispered to them, "Let's keep this matter between the three of us. No one is allowed to mention it again from now on. Be careful someone might overhear."
"What is there to fear? Sooner or later it's going to be found out anyway." Xing Youran dismissed it nonchalantly.
Second Madam quickly scolded her again, "Care sails ten thousand ships—do you understand?"
"Then how should we deal with her next?" Xing Zhenzhen was relatively level-headed and immediately brought up the pressing issue that needed to be resolved.
"Let Mother think about it. You both go back and rest first."
...