Chapter 96: Internal Competition

"Ninety-six days……" Yuan Yao murmured these words, after realizing, she happily patted the blanket a few times.

This shows she at least still has three months of lifespan!

All along, the taut string in Yuan Yao's heart finally loosened.

However, she still needs to quickly improve her strength and cultivation!

In the following days, Yuan Yao almost every day arrived on time at the back mountain, following the Youngest Senior Brother to practice sword, and from time to time sparred with the Second Senior Sister, Third Senior Brother, and Youngest Senior Brother.

Of course, she also exchanged blows with Lu Xiangxiang, fighting to a draw.

After sparring, Yuan Yao discovered that Lu Xiangxiang actually hid her clumsiness in front of everyone; after all, given her past life's combat experience, it was impossible for her to only fight evenly with herself.

Over the past month and a half, Yuan Yao has diligently trained, practicing sword in the day and studying mental power and formations at night.

She has hardly ever allowed herself to be idle.

And after Cang Li discovered that she also secretly cultivated at night, his feelings became extremely complex, so he also threw himself into the fray.

Cang Li practices spear techniques by day and studies medical texts to concoct pills at night.

Gradually, everyone in the sect knew that the Junior Sister, once a lazy child from childhood, had become a diligent cultivator!

Moreover, the news that the Junior Sister wanted to participate in the internal quota competition spread throughout the Carefree Sect.

The original participating senior brothers and sisters also secretly informed each other: although they could not yield their spots for the Junior Sister, they could show mercy when facing her.

"When the time comes, we must not let the Junior Sister lose too miserably, understand?"

"Actually the Junior Sister has already become much stronger; we might not need to yield." A disciple who had once witnessed Yuan Yao's battle against the Nightmare Beast in the Nightmare Space furrowed his brows slightly and spoke with a complex tone.

"Really?" Many fellow disciples held doubtful attitudes.

"No matter the Junior Sister's strength, we cannot hurt her heart." Whoever dared to maliciously harm the Junior Sister would surely be beaten up by the entire sect.

"Exactly!"

…

The night before the internal quota competition.

Second Senior Sister brought Yuan Yao the participant list and analyzed: "Among the participants, there are seven outer sect disciples and one hundred fifty-two inner sect disciples. Among these people, only two outer sect disciples have cultivation in the Qi Refining Realm; the rest are all in the Foundation Establishment Realm."

"Our Carefree Sect has a total of thirty disciple quotas; excluding those at Golden Core Realm, the remaining quotas are only eighteen."

The Carefree Sect has four peaks.

At Heaven Martial Peak, the disciples meeting the competition conditions are: Song Yan, Xiao Lingwei, Cang Li, Xue Jin, Ying Wuji.

At Heaven Inquiry Peak are the sect leader's four disciples: respectively, the Eldest Senior Disciple Wenren Jibai, the Second Senior Disciple Li Weiying, the Third Senior Disciple Yao Linglong, and the Fourth Senior Disciple Ao Su.

Heaven Learning Peak: Zong Yu'er, Wei Ziping.

Heaven Literature Peak: Lin Xuechen.

And the Carefree Sect's four peaks have distinct cultivation focuses: Heaven Martial Peak emphasizes martial cultivation, Heaven Inquiry Peak emphasizes law cultivation, Heaven Learning Peak emphasizes medical and alchemy dual cultivation, Heaven Literature Peak emphasizes talisman cultivation.

Yuan Yao nodded to show understanding.

"Among the participants, nineteen have cultivation at the late stage of Foundation Establishment Realm. One person, although only at the middle stage of Foundation Establishment Realm, can fight above his level, and his strength is sufficient to deal with Initial Golden Core cultivators." Xiao Lingwei said, sliding her finger down to a name.

Yuan Yao lowered her head to look.

——Shiziwen.

Yuan Yao blinked slightly, raised her head and asked: "Second Senior Sister, which peak's senior brother is he? I have no impression of him at all."

"He is not a senior brother, but a new junior brother from Heaven Inquiry Peak." Xiao Lingwei said.

After a pause, Xiao Lingwei continued: "This Shiziwen is the same age as you; he passed the sect's recruitment exam in three months and successfully entered the outer sect. He is now an outer sect disciple. It is said that he recently slew a Golden Core Realm cultivator."

"That impressive?!" Upon hearing this, Yuan Yao formed a deep impression of Shiziwen, secretly thinking: If she were to face that junior brother, she definitely could not be distracted.

Yuan Yao glanced over the participant list once.

She knows all the participating senior brothers and sisters.

Just thinking that tomorrow she would have to fight them for the quotas, her mood became a bit complicated.

…

Night surged with darkness.

Near the foot of Heaven Inquiry Peak, a miscellaneous labor building stood upright, the surroundings completely silent, only a gentle breeze brushing the leaves produced a rustling sound.

Behind the building, two figures appeared.

"What happened to the back of your hand?" A youth's voice, slightly immature yet somewhat low, broke the tranquility.

His gaze locked firmly onto the girl, his eyes full of concern and worry.

The girl slightly lowered her eyes and softly said: "It's nothing."

Saying that, she unconsciously moved the back of her hand behind her back, wanting to conceal the fact that she was injured.

But the youth seized the girl's hidden hand in one grip and forcibly pulled it to the front.

Borrowing the hazy moonlight, the youth stared intently and instantly sucked in a breath of cold air.

The girl's originally tender and fair hand back had actually turned purple and swollen, looking extremely horrible.

"Was it her again?" The youth's voice unconsciously carried a hint of anger, his brows knitting tightly together.

"It has nothing to do with the Sixth Senior Sister; I just bumped into it by accident." The girl lifted her head, revealing under the moonlight that extremely beautiful and cold face, her eye sockets slightly red, as if forcing herself to appear strong.

Seeing this, the youth felt his qi and blood surge, unable to suppress his anger as he said: "She clearly knows you will participate in the quota competition tomorrow, yet she still dealt you such a vicious blow? She obviously does not want you to obtain the quota."

"The people of the Carefree Sect have all been fed that Yuan Yao's love potion alike, all indulging her!"

"Shiziwen, keep your voice down." Lu Xiangxiang's face showed surprise.

She lowered her eyes, her voice soft and gentle: "I'm fine."

"Lu Senior Sister, if you keep doing this, you'll be bullied to death by them." The youth took a deep breath.

Lu Xiangxiang raised her head, looking at the youth before her who was about the same height; the youth's face was fair, his features exquisite, the only flaw being his eyes.

His left eye wore a black eyepatch, making him one-eyed.

Lu Xiangxiang recalled her past life.

Everyone in the Carefree Sect regarded her as a stand-in for Yuan Yao, but only Shiziwen did not; therefore, in her past life she did not kill Shiziwen.

Later, Shiziwen became her right-hand man, striking wherever she pointed—a rare and precious blade!

She had always known that Shiziwen secretly loved her.

However, she had always pretended not to know.

After all, once the relationship was exposed, it would be difficult for her to keep Shiziwen by her side.

She needed Shiziwen, this precious blade.

Rather than a lowly-born, one-eyed dao companion.

"I hope everything will get better. If… if there were no Sixth Senior Sister, perhaps Master wouldn't turn a blind eye to me, and the senior brothers and sisters wouldn't be so cold toward me, nor would…" Lu Xiangxiang said, saying, seeming to realize she had misspoken, she hastily stopped herself.

Shiziwen's eyes were deep and thick, as if filled with an inky darkness that could not be dispelled.

"It will get better." He pulled her hand over, took out his only low-grade ointment, and gently applied it to the back of her hand.

Lu Xiangxiang furrowed her brows almost imperceptibly.

This low-grade ointment emitted a pungent smell.