Practice diligently and intensively

“Strange, truly too strange.”

Within the mist-shrouded palace, Mù Qīngyǔ stroked her chin, her crimson eyes gleaming with contemplative light.

“This palace can’t be as simple as I imagined.”

“At the very least, its functions surely aren’t so singular.”

After she used a silver key to unlock one of the mysterious palace’s doors, a Xuán Bird engraving appeared on its surface.

Behind it lay a row of bookshelves.

The Xuán Bird.

According to the history Mù Qīngyǔ knew, the spiritual engraving associated with it had been lost centuries ago.

However, that was merely the outside world’s perception.

Mù Qīngyǔ, privy to future plotlines, knew there was still a Spirit Wielder in this world who bore the Xuán Bird engraving.

That person was Xǔ Tiānlí.

“A Xuán Bird of destiny,” Mù Qīngyǔ couldn’t help but sigh.

“He was born to be a genius, destined to ascend to the world’s pinnacle.”

“In comparison, while my engraving is also exceptional, it simply can’t compete with the Xuán Bird.”

In the past, otherworldly demons had triggered three world-ending catastrophes.

Each time humanity survived a crisis, it was heralded as the dawn of a new era.

It was now the year 1256 of the Third Era, and the fourth catastrophe had yet to occur.

The Four Sacred Courts, the faction Mù Qīngyǔ belonged to, was an ancient power founded by the Sacred King.

Its history could even be traced back to the First Era, predating the Heaven’s Will Bureau.

The Sacred King and the Heaven’s Will Bureau President were the only two Tier-6 Spirit Wielders, or ‘Dominators,’ in the Sacred Dynasty.

However, the former had been missing for years, while the latter was constantly traveling domestically and abroad, too busy to ever be seen.

Thus, the actual leaders of the Four Sacred Courts were the four ‘Court Lords’ under the Sacred King, or rather, the ‘Patriarchs of the Four Great Families’ that formed the Four Sacred Courts.

Mù Qīngyǔ’s father was the Court Lord of the Azure Dragon Court.

The spiritual engraving passed down through their Mù family lineage was the Azure Dragon engraving, which commanded lightning and the sky.

Despite its grand reputation, Mù Qīngyǔ, having transmigrated for so long, had never truly unleashed the full power of the Azure Dragon engraving.

She had even found videos online of the original Mù Qīngyǔ participating in various martial arts competitions.

No matter how many times she watched them, she couldn’t believe that fierce young woman was supposed to be her.

That young lady, who could summon lightning to encircle her body at merely Tier-2, brutally beating her opponents until they begged for mercy, inspired awe just by watching her, promising a brilliant future.

‘Speaking of which, I can generate electricity.’

The silver-haired girl on the throne formed her right hand into a pistol, pointing it forward.

“Bang.”

Nothing happened.

‘Tch, good thing I ran fast.’

‘Otherwise, I’d probably be exposed and captured for interrogation by now.’

Time travel and such — even if she told them, no one would believe it, right?

They would only assume the current Mù Qīngyǔ had been possessed and controlled by an evil demon, and would try every method imaginable to torture and manipulate her.

Forget about relatives interceding on her behalf.

Her only remaining family was that scoundrel father who disregarded familial affection.

Her mother, it seemed, had never been seen since Mù Qīngyǔ’s birth.

She hadn’t fully integrated the original host’s memories, but fragments allowed her to infer that the original host also didn’t have a good relationship with her father.

Ultimately, it was because he was too headstrong and utterly clueless about his daughter’s subtle feelings.

‘What a terrible family dynamic.’

‘Worse than mine in my previous life.’

Mù Qīngyǔ stretched languidly on the throne, then rose with a grunt, walking towards the remaining sealed stone doors.

She had tried to unseal them, but every attempt had failed without exception.

‘Because I took Xǔ Tiānlí as my disciple and genuinely taught him, I was able to open the first door.’

Did the remaining doors also require her to take more disciples to open?

That would be terribly troublesome!

One Xǔ Tiānlí was enough to keep her busy; did she really need to take more?

The more disciples she took, the greater her risk of exposure.

Not everyone was as easily fooled as Xǔ Tiānlí.

Moreover, if she carelessly took on a disciple with terrible talent who couldn’t learn anything, wouldn’t that be a wasted opportunity?

The number of stone doors was limited, and they didn’t look like they allowed for changing candidates easily.

‘Never mind, this matter requires careful deliberation.’

‘At worst, I just won’t take any more disciples.’

Mù Qīngyǔ returned to the throne and sat down again.

‘One Xǔ Tiānlí is enough for me.’

‘As long as I dump everything for him to learn, I can enjoy the fruits of my labor and even create an upgraded version.’

Freeloading?

How could a Spirit Wielder’s actions be called freeloading?

This was a reasonable exchange of benefits.

If Xǔ Tiānlí truly grew stronger, Mù Qīngyǔ would also grow alongside him — a win-win situation.

As for who would beat whom after the three-year pact, Mù Qīngyǔ couldn’t concern herself with such details.

Returning from the mysterious underground palace to the real world, Mù Qīngyǔ slowly opened her eyes, instinctively glancing to the side.

She saw several small heads peeking from the window.

The moment their eyes met hers, they recoiled like startled animals.

Bang!

Someone even accidentally bumped into the door due to their haste.

“Shh, quiet.”

“I didn’t mean to, but my head hurts so much.”

“So scary, she’s not going to eat us, is she?”

As the little ones whispered amongst themselves, the door silently swung open, revealing Mù Qīngyǔ standing behind them.

“What are you all doing?”

Faced with her golden eyes, the children from the orphanage were momentarily too terrified to speak.

“Big sister, we, we were just passing by.”

“Right, right, we definitely weren’t peeking at you.”

“We really were just passing by.”

“How could we possibly be here because we wanted to find you but were afraid you’d hit us, so we only dared to hide outside and secretly observe… Ow, why did you hit me?”

Looking at these adorable little ones, Mù Qīngyǔ understood their intentions and offered a relatively gentle smile, asking:

“Just tell me directly.”

“What do you need me for?”

“Why didn’t you go find Xǔ Tiānlí?”

Although she had been at the orphanage for some time, Mù Qīngyǔ still hadn’t built a good rapport with the children.

They didn’t even know she had once paid for them to have a good meal.

‘As long as Xǔ Tiānlí knows I have a kind heart, I don’t care what others think of me.’

The children exchanged glances.

Finally, the oldest one stepped forward to explain the cause of the commotion.

Ever since Xǔ Tiānlí received that secret manual, he had spent almost all his non-working hours practicing it in the courtyard.

He even specifically bought a wooden sword and warned everyone not to disturb him.

This practice had completely immersed Xǔ Tiānlí in his own world.

Whenever the children wanted to play with him, he ignored them.

They were afraid of getting injured by his swinging wooden sword if they got too close.

The children, having lost their important playmate, could only sulk until someone suggested finding Mù Qīngyǔ.

“Xǔ Tiānlí is really burying himself in hard practice?”

Mù Qīngyǔ walked to the railing of the corridor, watching the diligent figure swinging his sword in the courtyard.

Even in the scorching summer heat, drenched in sweat, he never slowed his pace.

He was either sitting quietly in a corner, poring over the secret manual, or picking up his wooden sword to practice according to its contents.

He certainly looked diligent, but…

“Has his progress truly been zero?”

Mù Qīngyǔ had entered the mysterious palace every day these past few days, also checking Xǔ Tiānlí’s corresponding stone door.

Logically, after learning something new, a new book should appear on the bookshelf.

Yet, after all this time, the number of books on the shelf remained unchanged.

This boy was truly just charging forward blindly, without caring if the path he was on was correct.

Sighing softly, Mù Qīngyǔ crouched down and gently stroked the children’s heads.

“Don’t worry, I’ll go talk to him this afternoon.”

“Yay!!”

The children cheered, then rushed downstairs in a flurry, their laughter echoing once more.

Mù Qīngyǔ, of course, wasn’t so kind as to help them unconditionally.

She simply felt that Xǔ Tiānlí’s blind, head-down practice was truly not good.

That afternoon, after lunch, Xǔ Tiānlí went to the courtyard and continued to read the secret manual.

Though he remained unchanged, unable to discern any clue or hidden secret from the text, he firmly believed that with enough effort, even a useless person could shine like a diamond.

“Xǔ Tiānlí.”

“Ma… Sister Qín?”

Seeing her approach, Xǔ Tiānlí immediately put down the manual.

“How is your progress?”

“Um… Master, I don’t seem to have grasped the knack for getting started yet.”

“That’s to be expected, given your talent.”

“Indeed, I’m not some genius after all.”

As Xǔ Tiānlí lowered his head, Mù Qīngyǔ was brainstorming.

‘Your heaven-defying talent is right there, so how could you have made no progress for several days straight?’

‘You learned the second stage of the Qi Accumulation Art just by glancing at it from afar.’

‘Why are you stuck now?’

‘Or rather, is the problem not with him?’

Mù Qīngyǔ felt it was indeed necessary to slow his momentum a bit.

He couldn’t just keep charging forward recklessly; she genuinely feared he might bash his head against a wall and die.

“Since you’ve hit a bottleneck, why don’t you consider easing up, taking a break, and resting?”

“Huh?”

Her words utterly bewildered Xǔ Tiānlí.

‘Master wants me to ease up?’

‘Does she want me to stop practicing?’

‘No, it can’t be that Master sees I’m not making progress and wants me to stop, can it?’

Xǔ Tiānlí believed he understood his Master, Qín Yuè, well enough to think her words were definitely not as simple as they sounded.

“I understand, Master.”

“You mean to say that the three-year pact is fast approaching, and I have no time to rest, right?”

“…Ah?”

“Don’t worry, Master.”

“No matter how much hardship or exhaustion, I will not be defeated.”

“Thank you for your guidance, Master.”

With that, Xǔ Tiānlí once again immersed himself in his own world, leaving a bewildered Mù Qīngyǔ behind.

‘Is this kid going to practice until his brain turns to mush?’

‘Surely, it won’t reach that point, will it?’