Jiang Qiao's Stone Body Incantation ultimately did not hold out for much longer.
"Fortunately, you haven't grown to the point where I can't beat you yet; otherwise, this would have been far too troublesome."
Before she died, Mu Qinggan delivered her final verdict on Jiang Qiao.
......
I do not know how much time passed before Jiang Qiao woke up.
Purple gauze curtains swayed in the breeze, and a faint, captivating fragrance filled the air.
"You are far too advanced. That set of cultivation methods at Plucking Stars Cliff is long no longer applicable to you. If you enter my sect, I guarantee that with your aptitude, you can master the Water Heart Formula in three days. Surpassing my currently proudest disciple will not be a difficult task either. Will you agree?
"Hmm? What is wrong with you? Is something making you uncomfortable?"
The Sect Master furrowed her brows tightly. Just a moment ago, Jiang Qiao had been perfectly fine; why was he suddenly clutching his chest now?
With a thud, Jiang Qiao collapsed onto the ground. His body curled inward, and the agonizing sensation of being pierced through the heart was still torturing his nerves.
He rolled around on the floor in agony, clutching his chest and gasping for breath.
This sight frightened the Sect Master out of her wits. She leaped to her feet, hurried swiftly to Jiang Qiao's side, and took his pulse herself.
"Clearly, judging by his pulse, nothing is wrong at all."
The Sect Master was deeply puzzled, but the pain Jiang Qiao was exhibiting right now did not look like an act. Surely this wasn't some trick of his to politely decline her offer to take him as a disciple.
Little did Jiang Qiao expect that this time around, the death throes—the stabbing, twisting pain piercing straight through his heart—would be far more intense than the previous four times.
His ears rang persistently, and it took a long time for him to gradually recover. The Sect Master supported Jiang Qiao up with deep concern.
Jiang Qiao knew that he had been reborn back to the exact moment when the Sect Master summoned him to take him as her disciple.
It seemed that this time he had not respawned back in his own room; instead, a brand-new save point had appeared.
Therefore, following the saving mechanics of a visual novel, it was very likely that he had made the wrong choice during this sequence of the plot.
So, he was not supposed to become the Sect Master's disciple, was he?
Based on what Mu Qinggan had said at the moment of his death in the previous loop, he could deduce that Mu Qinggan wanted him to remain forever weaker than her and not display an overwhelmingly rapid capacity for learning. Otherwise, once her favorability rating dropped below 90, she would easily feel a sense of crisis and resort to murder.
Furthermore, Mu Qinggan was likely jealous that he had likewise won the Sect Master's favor.
In other words, refusing to become the Sect Master's disciple would alleviate Mu Qinggan's sense of crisis. The more the resources he possessed kept pace with Mu Qinggan's, the more jealous she would become.
This was perhaps the underlying train of thought behind Mu Qinggan's actions.
Jiang Qiao had only pieced together a portion of her character motivations, and as for Mu Qinggan's other traits, he would still need to pay extra attention.
He slowly stood up, feeling somewhat drained of strength, and said to the Sect Master, "Master... Sect Master, I have not considered taking you as my master for the time being. I still feel I should continue building my foundations at Plucking Stars Cliff."
"Are you certain?"
"Yes."
"Very well. Since that is the case, you have your own thoughts, and I will not force you." The Sect Master looked somewhat disappointed. It was truly a pity that such a fine sapling could not be brought under her command.
Jiang Qiao harbored no dissatisfaction whatsoever regarding the Sect Master's teaching abilities; he intended to refuse her first. As for the Water Heart Formula, he had already learned almost all of it during his previous round of death. With a little more practice, he could probably manage to cultivate it to the first level.
Once he subsequently resolved the matter with Mu Qinggan, he could always return and seek to become her disciple anew.
Leaving the Sect Master's residence, Jiang Qiao headed straight for the dining hall. It was currently just the right time for meals, and he might run into Mu Chenyuan.
In the previous loop, he had encountered Mu Chenyuan on the sixth day of the game's plot and initiated a conversation, but today was only the fifth day. Having just turned down the apprenticeship offer on the heels of the last event, he went directly to see her.
Doing it this way would waste no time, net him an extra 0.1 luck points, and also allow him to state his intentions straightforwardly—joining the Zhenbao Society.
It was currently mealtime, and the dining hall was crowded. Jiang Qiao glanced toward the interior of the dining hall and indeed spotted the Junior Sister in the western corner.
The Junior Sister was quietly and peacefully gnawing on an ear of corn at that moment—one of her rare moments of leisure.
And her pleasant time enjoying good food was abruptly interrupted just like that by Jiang Qiao.
"Hello, Junior Sister. I'd like to discuss something with you."
Having said that, Jiang Qiao sat down directly opposite the Junior Sister.
The Junior Sister seemed to have been probing something from under the table as she replied:
"What a coincidence, I also have something to talk to you about. Good thing we are so close by."
Mu Chenyuan had not expected such a coincidence; the closer one was to the target person, the more accurate the teapot's spiritual energy tracking would prove to be. So Senior Brother Jiang Qiao was actually Number Thirty-Two.
Mu Chenyuan put the corn back onto the plate and quickly swallowed the food she had been chewing in her mouth.
"I want to join the Zhenbao Society."
"Of course you can. I was actually looking for you for this very reason in the first place. It seems you are even more unfathomable than I imagined."
Jiang Qiao suddenly remarked, "You still have a kernel of corn stuck on your face."
Upon hearing this, Mu Chenyuan immediately reached up and felt her left cheek. "Is it on this side?"
"No, a bit more to the left."
"Here?"
"No, a bit lower down."
"Like this?"
"No, a bit lower down... sigh, I'm almost tempted to reach out and wipe it off for you myself."
"Then go ahead." Mu Chenyuan's eyes were as still as stagnant water; it seemed no form of intimate contact could cause the slightest ripple within her.
"Very well." Jiang Qiao paused for a moment. Staring blankly for a second, he reached out and removed the corn kernel stuck to Mu Chenyuan's face, his fingers making slight contact with her skin as he did so.
[System Prompt: Luck +0.1]
Today's contact check-in mission had unexpectedly succeeded.
Meeting with Mu Chenyuan every day was mandatory, and today's physical interaction felt relatively less stiff by comparison.
"Uh, where were we just talking about?" Mu Chenyuan's mind was somewhat scrambled from being touched like that by Jiang Qiao.
Jiang Qiao reminded her, "About my joining the Zhenbao Society."
"Oh right, right. My initial assumption was that you might be unwilling to go, and I was even considering applying appropriate threats, but now it seems that won't be necessary. There's an event at the painted boat Zhenbao Society tomorrow night; you can attend and take care of the membership formalities along the way. This is our Zhenbao Society recruitment flyer."
"Got it." Jiang Qiao nodded.
Feeling that matters had been settled, Jiang Qiao went to fetch a tray of food from the dining hall and sat down at a freshly opened table.
To his surprise, the moment he sat down, Li Wentian took the seat right opposite him.
"Brother, hey, we meet again."
Though there were differences between the dialogue in his previous death and this one, overall, Li Wentian's over-familiar trait had not changed in the slightest.
"Good afternoon."
"Don't you have anything you want to ask me?"
Jiang Qiao said indifferently, "I have nothing I want to ask you."
"Aren't you wondering why a Golden Core Stage cultivator would come to eat here when he's already reached a state of complete penance and no longer needs mortal food?"
"Not curious." After all, he had already asked in his previous death loop.
"Tell me, can you recognize most of the people who come to eat in this dining hall?"
"...... I can probably recognize most of them." Jiang Qiao thought to himself that if he were playing this kind of visual novel game on his phone, he would definitely be mashing the fast-forward button through this section.
"Then tell me, what's the name of the person sitting in the very first row on the northern side?"
"Don't know."
"How about this, I'll introduce you. First off, that scrawny guy sitting in the first row on the northern side is called Xia Yang. He's been stuck at the Qi Refining Stage for a very long time without the slightest bit of breakthrough.
"That gluttonous fellow on the west side with the appalling table manners is Fu Jiacheng. He usually neglects his proper duties and only loves tinkering with flowers and plants. He's basically a nepotism hire—stuck in here to sponge off meals and wait for death despite having zero cultivation talent.
"And there's more..."
Jiang Qiao promptly interrupted the spellcasting. Rather than listening to Li Wentian rambling endlessly about everything under the sun, it was better to ask some more substantive questions: "Do you have any other secrets about Mu Qinggan? Even some hearsay or minor details will do."