New Official Takes Office

So Tired….

‘Why am I so tired?’ It felt as if last night she had single-handedly weeded all the medicinal fields on dozens of Sword School mountains, only to be told that the spiritual plants she pulled were actually the weeds, and the ones she left behind were the actual spiritual plants.

Not only would she not get contribution points, but she would also have to pay tens of millions of spirit stones in compensation.

Her muscles ached so much she couldn’t lift a single finger.

Even if offered to a demon beast, it would disdain her flesh as too weak and mushy, its taste truly awful.

Su Qing, not knowing any better, would have thought she had been run over by the Orange King, that truck, several times from head to toe.

The spiritual energy in her body had also been drained completely, parched like a withered riverbed.

Her stomach was empty, and her throat was so dry that not even sour water could emerge.

‘Damn this exam! It was supposed to be just a dream illusion, so why are the side effects also brought into reality…?’

Su Qing used all her strength to slowly push her eyelids open, revealing a tiny slit.

The exam had ended, the arena exploded, and she had, of course, returned to her dorm room.

All she saw were familiar sights: Tang Yueling’s sky lantern, acquired from the Spiritual Treasure Pavilion, floated quietly near the ceiling, like a blossoming red lotus.

It was said that this lamp had the effect of calming the mind, dispelling agitation, and resolving inner demons, but after using it for a period, Su Qing and the others unanimously agreed that such invisible effects were all marketing gimmicks.

However, the lamp was truly beautiful, so Tang Yueling had forgiven it by three points.

Outside, the sky was already bright. Judging by the area of sunlight spilling onto the floor from the window, it was already noon. It seemed the flow of time in the exam was similar to the outside world.

At this moment, the room was extremely quiet, so quiet that Su Qing could almost hear the dust falling.

Tang Yueling and Tian Ning’s breathing were extremely light, almost in a state of semi-coma, likely in the same state of physical exhaustion and immobility as her.

After a long while, Su Qing slowly absorbed some spiritual energy, feeling her dry dantian gradually moisten.

Only then did she have the strength to turn her head.

She saw Tian Ning on the adjacent bed, who had, at some point, sat up, palms facing upwards, embracing the origin and guarding the one, clearly in a posture of impending breakthrough.

Her brows were rarely furrowed, and her face was snow-white, an indication of extreme discomfort.

At this moment, the spiritual energy in the air subtly converged, appearing to surge around her body, so much so that her dark hair and the corners of her clothes were lifted by an invisible wind, rustling softly. Tian Ning’s state was not right—

Immediately after exiting the exam, she was going to break through?

If Su Qing remembered correctly, the Golden Core stage involved a lightning tribulation.

Undergoing a tribulation in the dormitory would be quite difficult; the entire dormitory building would probably be struck down, and it might even affect the adjacent dormitory buildings.

By then, when Tian Ning woke up, she would first be burdened with massive debts.

As a friend with whom she bought discounted goods, Su Qing would absolutely not let Tian Ning fall into a bankruptcy crisis.

Perhaps she was too anxious, Su Qing disregarded everything, leaped out of bed, and shook Tang Yueling awake.

Tang Yueling was originally drowsily squinting, her breath faint as a wisp.

She squeezed out words from her throat, “What is it? Don’t bother… The spirit stones are in the storage bag on the table, take them yourself if you need them…”

She lay on her side, feeling pain everywhere in her body, as if her muscles, bones, and spiritual meridians had been scorched by fire. She was too lazy to open her eyes.

Su Qing quietly whispered, “Tian Ning is about to break through.”

“Now?” Tang Yueling felt no more pain and sprang up, her eyes wide open. “How does she pick such a time?”
So competitive, isn’t she afraid of death?

Indeed, she knew she was a genius, but she was also a genius.

As the saying goes, comparing oneself to others can be infuriating, but Tang Yueling simply couldn’t help but compare.

Outside, the sky was subtly changing. The wind began to stir, and dark clouds slowly gathered by the window, seeming to intend to drift inside.

The lightning tribulation was coming—

Tang Yueling had long since summoned her Golden Phoenix artifact, which floated by the window.

She had no time to tidy her sleepy appearance, barely managing to throw on a magic robe, and was the first to leap out. “I’ll go open the array.”

The Golden Phoenix artifact transformed into an arc of light, flying towards the Sword Tomb in the blink of an eye.

Su Qing picked up Tian Ning and placed her on Man Qing Sword. With a “whoosh,” both person and sword flew straight out the window.

Tian Ning’s body was very cold, like a block of ice, without a trace of warmth.

Ice spiritual energy condensed around her, and even her eyelashes were covered with a layer of ice flowers.

A shadow subtly appeared in Su Qing’s heart.

Her consciousness was still unclear, yet she was forcing a breakthrough like this. It was indeed too hasty.

But since things had come to this, they could only try it first.

The dark clouds of the lightning tribulation slowly followed them, shrouding them in shadow.

The dark clouds grew larger and larger, and faint arcs of electricity glimmered within the cloud layers.

By the time they reached the Sword Tomb, dark clouds had obscured half the sky.

The Sword Tomb was full of strange rocks, which looked even grayer under the cloudy sky.

The old plum trees above, however, appeared even redder, like fiery clusters, covering the mountaintop.

Spiritual gathering arrays were not allowed in the dormitory building, but there was no problem in the Sword Tomb.

Tang Yueling moved quickly, throwing piles of spiritual gathering arrays around as if they cost nothing, causing the other people practicing swordsmanship in the Sword Tomb to tremble with fear.

Tian Ning was placed in the center of the array disk.

She seemed to feel the abundant spiritual energy around her; her tightly furrowed brows relaxed slightly.

The spiritual gathering array disk shone brightly, drawing in the immense spiritual power from the top of the Sword Tomb, so dense it almost turned into droplets.

The air became much wetter, but in the next second, it was continuously drawn into Tian Ning’s body, tightly enveloping her.

A natural phenomenon occurred: the thunderclouds, like a tornado, enveloped the mountaintop and pressed down. They were only a few meters above Tian Ning’s head.

The mountain winds howled.

If a mortal stood here, they would likely have already been swept off the cliff.

People practiced swordsmanship in the Sword Tomb every day.

The first-year students were almost all in post-exam stress reactions, so they couldn’t possibly be here.

The few second and third-year students here couldn’t help but stop, looking at the overwhelming dark clouds, muttering, “What a magnificent lightning tribulation. Is a senior going into seclusion?”

Looking at the range of the lightning tribulation, it didn’t seem like a breakthrough to Golden Core, nor like a breakthrough to Nascent Soul, but rather somewhere in between.

“It’s said… it’s a first-year.”
“A first-year, how is that possible?”
“Why not? It’s not like there aren’t Golden Core cultivators in the first year.”
“…I can’t live like this, I’m going to fight these geniuses!”

Su Qing didn’t have much concept of lightning tribulations. Tang Yueling, however, immediately noticed something was off. “It doesn’t seem like a simple Golden Core lightning tribulation.”

Su Qing hesitated, “Surely it’s not because her talent is too high, so the lightning tribulation she has to face is also more difficult?”

“I haven’t taken the elective course on Heavenly Tribulation Response Theory and Methods.” Tang Yueling frowned. “Besides, everyone has their own karmic destiny; who can say for sure?”

Tian Ning’s figure was already obscured at the center of the lightning tribulation. Around her, strong winds raged, and dark clouds spread, their purplish-gray wisps concealing her.

A deafening “boom” of thunder suddenly erupted, followed by a flash of white light that overexposed the heavens and earth for a moment. A bolt of lightning struck down, with a world-destroying momentum, as if to crush everything to dust.

The mountain beneath Su Qing’s feet trembled in response for a moment.

Stones rolled and clattered down, falling towards the base of the mountain.

“Under the Heavenly Tribulation, only one’s own body can be relied upon.” Tang Yueling withdrew her gaze. There was still some worry in her eyes, but she also knew that this was all they could do. “You and I will guard her here. It is said that observing a Heavenly Tribulation can also lead to insights.”

As for leeching off a Golden Core stage lightning tribulation, forget about it.

That was a good thing for cleansing meridians, forging bones, refining the body, and tempering the soul. Cultivators themselves barely had enough, let alone sharing it with others.

Furthermore, rashly sharing someone else’s Heavenly Tribulation could very likely invite divine retribution, which would be more trouble than it was worth.

Although for body cultivators it might be another kind of opportunity, for a first tribulation, no amount of caution was too much.
Anyway, with them guarding here, no matter what Tian Ning’s final outcome, her life would at least be preserved.

Tang Yueling straightened her outer robe, smoothed her hair, and sat on the Golden Phoenix, meditating and seeking enlightenment on the spot.

At this time, hundreds of people had arrived upon hearing the commotion.

However, everyone knew the rules of the lightning tribulation and sat hundreds of meters away, silently cultivating, not stepping forward to disturb.

After waiting for a while, Su Qing also placed her Man Qing Sword before her and sat down on the spot.

She suddenly recalled that Daozi was a natural Dao body. He was born with a smooth path, free from inner demons and obstacles.

Once his cultivation reached a certain point, his realm would naturally follow, as if he were synchronized with heaven and earth.

His existence alone allowed him to cultivate, as if he were a manifestation of the Heavenly Dao in the human world.

When she first heard of this, Su Qing only felt that the heavens were blind, blurring good and evil, reversing black and white.

It would be utterly ironic if the world’s Dao tradition fell to such a person.

But as her cultivation deepened, she slowly realized that this might not be heaven’s favor.

Daozi of the Qi family did not participate in this beast tide mission, or even the midterm exam, because there were no resources he needed there. He never put himself in danger or did thankless tasks.

Such a life—no need for blood or tears, no need for trials, no need for self-reflection, just sitting comfortably, nurtured by the heavens with spiritual energy, automatically upgrading when the time came—at first glance, it was indeed enviable to others. But upon closer inspection, how was it different from a pig waiting to be slaughtered?

Was such talent truly talent?

And was the reason Tian Ning’s lightning tribulation was so immense because, as a twin, she bore the fate of Daozi, taking on the calamities he avoided?

Su Qing had no way of knowing these secrets.

She calmed her mind and began to meditate and cultivate.

Amidst this turmoil of heaven and earth, she quietly sorted out her inner self.

It was at this moment that she discovered a small golden item had appeared in her Sea of Consciousness at some unknown time.

‘What is it?’

She examined it closely with her divine sense and found it was a pure gold shovel.

The bottom of the shovel was imprinted with a chubby cat paw print.

It was very small overall, its decorative function far outweighing its practical use.

At first glance, it seemed like a key.
Su Qing had touched the Orange King’s four paw pads, and recognized at once that this cat paw print belonged to the Orange King’s left front paw.

‘Why would this thing appear in her Sea of Consciousness?’

The moment Su Qing’s divine sense touched the shovel, a burst of golden light spread, and a giant golden cat phantom appeared before her eyes.

Its orange fur shone like the morning sun, its eyes bright like stars. The phantom let out a long, drawn-out “meow” from its throat.

It was at this moment that a gentle, yet powerful, smiling female voice appeared in Su Qing’s ear. She said, “A new official takes office. Congratulations.”

‘New official takes office?’

‘What kind of official?’

Su Qing’s breath hitched, and she suddenly understood.

She seemed to have received the approval of the Orange King’s former master, acquiring a treasure that was both a shovel and a key.

And for some reason, she was absolutely certain that the source of this voice was Carefree Immortal.

She had never met her, yet she just knew it was her.

So, the Orange King was Carefree Immortal’s cat.

No wonder it possessed such divine abilities. Yet, this fact somehow made her feel a little sad.

The female voice quickly dissipated with the wind.

A vague sense of melancholy filled Su Qing’s heart. She remained stunned for a long while before slowly blinking her dry eyes, thinking:

‘Although I don’t know what this thing is for, the first step is to make the Orange King lose weight, and then teach it some characters.’

‘After all, thanks to it, she was now an official.’

‘A poop-scooping official is an official too.’