A beautiful lively girl runs through the misty track down the hill. Her pigtails bounce and flutter with the speed she uses to run along with her controlled laboured breaths. Despite her delicate appearance, she is energetic and nimble. Her dull pink dress does not dim her brightness and youth. She's like an energetic young swan taking flight.
She jumps and lands at a patch of green, twirling. After she finishes two full spins, she moves her light sword forward with a flawless slashing motion, followed by stabbing the air and another leap. There seems to be an invisible opponent she's fighting against; sometimes she charges, sometimes she retreats back with a flutter of her light green ribbon. Be it forward or backward, each step she takes is accompanied by playful chimes of the tiny bells on her anklet.
The day is young, and the morning dew has yet to dissipate, it clings to her fair skin that flushes with exertion. She exhales heavily, and her gaze turns downcast. "Not enough... not enough..." She murmurs, frustrated.
"Wow..."
The girl gasps and turns around. "Who's there?!"
The beautiful girl immediately spots Feng Xing, who sits on the riverbank just behind a large stone with his entire body drenched. His hair sticks to his face, framing only his pair of gleaming eyes, straight nose, and gaping mouth. If he were a woman, he would have looked so terrifying that anyone would faint. But because he's a boy...
"Pervert!" The girl exclaims in shock and points her sword at Feng Xing while simultaneously taking a few disgusted steps back.
Feng Xing chokes, his jaw drops even lower when he realizes he's been misunderstood as an evildoer. "No!" He hastily denies. "I didn't mean to! I wasn't peeping— I fell into the river and got washed off here, you see," he explains quickly. "I swear! I dare to swear by heaven."
Having said that, he sneezes and coughs, shivering. The girl loses her hostility when she sees he's not in good condition.
"You really got washed off here? Not a pervert?"
Feng Xing shakes his head. He knows just how thin-skinned and intolerant young girls are when it comes to the sanctity of their bodies. Girls will be more offended by perverts than murderers! "I swear not. I was fascinated by your expertise with the sword. It's so beautiful and powerful." He coughs.
The girl blushes. "Thank you, but I'm not that good..." she sighs gloomily. "I'm the most pathetic of my martial siblings..."
Feng Xing's eyes widen in astonishment. Even with such expertise, the girl is still the worst in her school? The standard is really high, and Feng Xing doesn't know how to feel. "A-Achoo!"
The girl looks up again, startled by the sneezing sound. "Oh! You must be cold. Sorry, I forgot about that..." She sheathes her sword and makes a gesture with her hand. She then points two fingers at Feng Xing and a dim glow appears on her fingertips.
The glow floats straight to Feng Xing and disperses once it touches him. Steams rise from Feng Xing's wet clothes, but he doesn't feel any discomfort or heat at all. In seconds, his robe is dry, and even his hair is dry.
Feng Xing pats his clothes and he looks at the girl in surprise. His heart jumps in joy. "Are you a cultivator?" he asks politely.
The girl nods reservedly. "Yes." She relaxes slightly when she sees Feng Xing's astonished and ignorant look, finally perceiving Feng as not a threat.
With vigor, Feng Xing climbs to his feet and jumps across several rocky steps. "Miss." He chokes out, almost drowning in excitement. "My name is Feng Xing, I'm fifteen years old. I've always wanted to cultivate. Can I have your name?" he asks breathlessly to the pretty girl.
The girl is surprised but not startled at Feng Xing's excitement, she quickly theorizes Feng Xing is a complete mortal who likely never gets into close encounters with cultivators. She blushes slightly, feeling overwhelmed by his politeness and excitement. "I'm Cai Qingyin, don't be too polite. We are the same age, I will turn fifteen this year."
"Cai Qingyin..." Feng Xing repeats, committing it in his memory.
Cai Qingyin smiles and nods. "Come on, morning dew around this part of the creek is very thick, you'll catch a cold if you stay around longer." She motions and Feng Xing nods, falling into steps just behind her.
As they walk, Feng Xing observes Cai Qingyin subtly. The girl is beautiful and also very gentle. Feng Xing was worried earlier that he would be stabbed because he was peeping at a girl doing her training routine from behind a rock, even though he didn't mean it that way. Not to mention, Cai Qingyin is also very beautiful. In his experience, beautiful girls usually have a temper, but she's still very gentle aside from her initial justified suspicion.
"Miss Cai, please pardon me if I'm ignorant, but do you know where to find a sect or where I can find a sect that is recruiting disciples...?" he asks hopefully.
Cai Qingyin frowns and tilts her head thoughtfully. "You're too far away from any sect here. There's Dark Moon Sect to the southeast, and it's roughly a thousand miles away. I don't think they're recruiting this year."
'A thousand hundred miles?' Feng Xing is stunned. With his current bedraggled state and with no means of transportation, how long could he travel there? Moreover, they're not even recruiting.
Cai Qingyin sees Feng Xing's stunned look and sympathizes. "Actually, I'm also not knowledgeable about this; I don't know which sect will open recruitment this year."
Feng Xing shakes his head and smiles, cheering himself up. "It's okay, Miss Cai. By the way, are you here traveling alone to gather experience?" he guesses. One look at Cai Qingyin, and it's obvious she's the typical pampered junior sister. Her form is perfect, graceful, and very beautiful. At least through Feng Xing's ignorant eyes, Cai Qingyin is the perfect example of a young female cultivator. In the novels, young cultivators usually went out to travel by themselves to train independently, so he made some guesses.
Cai Qingyin shakes her head. "I... I can't possibly travel, I'm not good enough. I just went to the creak to train alone in silence." She blushes.
Feng Xing catches her words immediately. "If you're not traveling, then, do you live nearby?"
"Yes." Cai Qingyin nods with a sweet smile.
Feng Xing blinks. "You're a member of a sect, right?" he blinks when she blinks back in surprise. "I mean, that's what I gathered when you mentioned you have martial siblings earlier..." he rambles.
"Oh..." Cai Qingyin purses her lips and nods. "Yes, my sect is nearby... Why?"
"Then... is your sect recruiting...?"
"Ah..." Cai Qingyin stops, and her expression turns complicated.
Because she stops, Feng Xing also naturally stops walking. With her silence, his heart lurches nervously. Beads of sweat form on his back, mixing with the morning dew that clings to his skin, making it hard to distinguish which is which.
"My sect only has a few people in it," Cai Qingyin then says after a long while. "We all have our own things to do, and we're not really involved in many things outside." The girl tries to describe her beloved home. She speaks vaguely, as if wanting to reveal its cons, but at the same time also unwilling to do so. In the end, it comes out sounding mysterious. She gets flustered and starts walking again with a noticeably faster pace.
Her words instantly captivate Feng Xing, and his heart trembles in both excitement and trepidation.
Few people? That means they're not desperate for fame and only pick selected ones.
They all have their own things to do? Which means each of them is accomplished.
Not really involved in many things outside? That means they've abstained from mundane worldly affairs and are comfortable remaining crouching tigers and hidden dragons!
Having concluded his imaginative and creative train of thoughts, Feng Xing catches up to her, also quickening his steps.
Feng Xing's years of being a webnovel reader conditioned him to immediately picture an unassuming sect that is actually a giant underneath. Unconsciously, his breath quickens and his hands tremble. What are the odds of him falling off a cliff and then finding a hidden sect? This right here proves it's pretty big. Falling off a cliff is truly the classic after an engagement annulment.
Feng Xing controls his expression not to show too much excitement; if he's too eager, he'll lose composure. "I think a sect with fewer members is great," he praises. "Where is your sect located?"
They walk out of the creek area, passing by several rows of trees and a rocky path. The air is clear and moist with mist, the overwhelming sound of the rushing river finally fades and is overpowered by chirping birds. As they make a turn, a grand misty mountain reveals itself at a distance away, causing Feng Xing to freeze in his place.
Cai Qingyin points at the mountain. "That's where I live and where my sect is."
"Miss Cai, can I apply to be a disciple in your sect?"
Cai Qingyin turns to look at him in disbelief. "You?"
Feng Xing coughs, thinking Cai Qingyin surely feels he's very audacious to recommend himself. He bites his tongue and continues insisting. "I'm very hard-working and diligent. I just need a chance to shine my talent."
"My sect is nothing special," Cai Qingyin says with a little hesitation.
Feng Xing doesn't believe it, but he acts earnest. "I'm also nothing special."
Cai Qingyin is no match for Feng Xing's clever mouth. She scratches her cheek, feeling a bit ina dilemma. "I can't decide that. You need to speak to my master first."
"No problem!" Feng Xing nods happily. "Is your master available? What's his personality like?"
Cai Qingyin brightens up when the topic turns to something she knows about. "My master is always in the mountain, and she's a woman. She's very beautiful and also gentle. I have never seen her mad, but she doesn't like to talk that much."
Feng Xing nods and smiles every few words as if every word she said made perfect sense to him. Only a gentle woman can raise a gentle girl like Cai Qingyin. Feng Xing met a cultivator before, and the girls in that group are all very arrogant with their eyes at the top of their heads. They're not even half as pretty as Cai Qingyin beside him.
"Did she teach you swordsmanship?" Feng Xing asks, trying to keep the conversation going and compiling information at the same time.
"She gave me my sword." Cai Qingyin lowers her head and subconsciously puts her hand on the hilt of her sheathed sword. "She said I move fluidly like water and light on my feet, so I'm suitable for the sword."
She chatters and he listens, the two make a perfect duo on their way to the mountain.
.
.
Within the courtyard on top of the mountain, there are seven bamboo chairs arranged in a way that makes it clear they're frequently used. One of the chairs is occupied by a startlingly stunning woman in a light green dress.
The humidity on top of the mountain in the morning is incredibly high, the morning mist surrounding her makes her look like a mirage rather than a human being. The mist also dampens the piece of paper in her hand, but it doesn't prevent her from reading the content in it.
Beside the woman, her fourth disciple stands still with a troubled and equally helpless look. "Bright Moon Competition... a low-tier cultivation meets-up. The prize money for the top one hundred is one thousand low-grade spirit stones. I guess junior sister found this pamphlet while she was roaming around outside."
The fourth disciple cautiously glances at his master and purses his lips helplessly.
"That will cover her mistake a month ago..."
Finally, a ripple appears in the stunning woman's eyes. "That kid..." The stunning woman sighs as she looks at the piece of paper in her hand.
"I think she still feels guilty for that incident, so she has ideas to get money herself," the fourth disciple says. "But the minimum cultivation for solo registration is foundation building, lower than that, and they must be in a pair at the minimum. Not to mention there's an age limit. By the date of this meeting, the participant must be nineteen or younger. None of us is a teenager anymore by that time except for junior sister Cai..."
The master hums and taps her finger against the armrest of the bamboo chair. In the end, she doesn't say anything against it. "She's grown, so she already has her own idea," the woman says calmly. "I suppose I should look for the seventh disciple."
"Master, can you be less casual?" The fourth disciple sighs as he pours another cup of tea for the stunning woman he calls master. "Looking for a new member is easier said than done. How many 'seventh disciple' have you had?"
"We just need to lie better for the next one."
"...I think you misspoke 'try' with 'lie' there."
"Did I stutter?" The woman arches her brows.
Silence fell between the pair of master and disciple, the master is busy sipping her tea while the disciple is busy being exasperated. "How about you have another talk with junior sister? It was an honest mistake, and none of us minded. At worst, it was just a debt. We're used to living poor."
"You know how stubborn she is, so what am I supposed to do? She's already so big now, I can't distract her with a candy anymore," the woman says indifferently. "I'm not one to discourage any of you from making your own life decisions."
The fourth disciple pauses and closes his mouth. He knows his master's temperament is always like this. She raises them all, yet aside from a character trait of caring for each other, none of them under her tutelage has the same personality.
"Now, about tricking someone to be my seventh disciple again," she starts again. "Can you find a young total sucker who hasn't seen the world yet?" she asks bluntly.
The fourth disciple crosses his arms thoughtfully, and just when he opens his mouth to answer his master, they both hear a faint call from the staircase that leads to the lower part of the peak.
Not long after, the familiar chimes of bells sound out and the familiar beautiful face of their youngest member appears on the flights of stairs facing the east, where the sun rises. Her beautiful eyes are a bit dodgy when she meets her master's eyes.
"I... I brought back someone who wants to join," Cai Qingyin remarks, her young face flushed pink with both excitement and hesitation.
The two people in the courtyard look at each other with shock evident in their eyes.
Before they could even try to look for a sucker to deceive, the youngest junior sister already tricked someone back first?!