Chapter 56: The Woman of Great Fortune Destined by Heaven

Outside Wuji Hall, the stars filled the sky, as if pouring and spilling down. On Wangxian Terrace, Shangqing Zhenren stood with his hands behind his back, gazing at the vast galaxy overhead, lost in thought.

"With the Demon Race appearing this time, the Old Ancestor did not manifest as he did last time; one would think there is nothing to worry about." Qianyuan Zhenren, dressed in a yellow robe, walked out from Wuji Hall and looked up at the sky with Shangqing Zhenren. That nebula was like a rose, dreamlike and illusory.

Yet Shangqing Zhenren seemed not to have heard, staring blankly at some unknown star. Only after a long while did he reply:

"Let us hope so..."

This martial exercise was exactly as Long Qi had said: although the topic was the Spirit Keeper Fruit, it was actually testing the disciples' ability to adapt. Regardless of whether what they picked matched the topic, as long as it could be used as medicine, they would all receive points. As for the point deductions Danyang Zhenren mentioned before entering the array, that was merely a ruse.

Yet, even with just that, there were truly some who were timid and hesitant, ending up with empty Storage Bags and nothing gathered at all.

But what no one expected was that the winner was Banxia, who knew how to do nothing.

It was quite a coincidence that Banxia won this martial exercise.

That day, after Shangqing the Adept drove away the Demon Race, Banxia, sitting on the ground, felt as if she had grasped something in her hand. Looking down, she saw it was a Long-bearded Immortal Grass.

The grass seemed like a living thing; its white long beard drifted like immortal clouds, while its stems and leaves were reddish-brown.

And the moment she picked it up, the Mountain-Arranging Array on Yinyu Mountain immediately disintegrated.

That is right, she was the person with excellent Dao luck that Danyang Zhenren had spoken of.

The Floating Cloud Perilla can calm stubborn pain and resolve strange poisons. Unlike ordinary Spirit Plants, it is a rootless Spirit Plant; it stays wherever the Spirit Qi is abundant, yet it never stays in one place for long.

At the time, Zhaoming Zhenren had taken a fancy to this habit and set the array eye on a Floating Cloud Perilla, which was why the array was so overcast and blocked the sun, making it difficult for people to distinguish directions.

It was also because of this that Banxia, who had originally gained nothing, suddenly obtained the highest score and won this martial exercise.

As for Banxia, she had no particular strengths, save for two things that others could not match. The first was her ability to remember everything she saw; if the two volumes of "Fu Theory" were placed in someone else's hands, it would take at least half a month and they might still not remember them, yet she had casually flipped through them for one night and remembered seventy or eighty percent.

As for the second, it was her luck.

From childhood to adulthood, she had never lost when playing with her companions. When she was small, several children went up the mountain to pick mushrooms to roast and eat, but unexpectedly, all they picked were poisonous mushrooms. They went home vomiting and having diarrhea, and only after calling a doctor in the city were their lives saved, while she had not a single thing happen to her from beginning to end.

Over many years, whenever she encountered any situation, she could always turn bad luck into good and escape danger.

The people in the village always felt this child was a bit uncanny, so this year they pooled some travel money for her and sent her to Guyang City.

This sending off was another coincidence; just as Lingxiang was tearing down the medical recruitment notice from the City Lord's house in Guyang, she also happened to see the Yuanqing Sect's notice on the bulletin board. Thinking she had nowhere else to go anyway, she followed what the notice said and came to Jiuque Mountain.

Yuanqing Sect recruitment usually required a name placard to enter, but she had been sent out by the villagers in a muddle, so how could she have a name placard? She thought she would just go up the mountain to find a meal first.

But it was another coincidence: after one day, the number of disciples recruited was sixty-three, which was not an even number and thus somewhat inauspicious. Banxia, who had gone up the mountain looking for food, happened to run into True Person Donghui, who was strolling about. As soon as True Person Donghui saw this girl with her willow-leaf brows raised and clear eyes, he saw she had the appearance of great fortune, so he took it upon himself to get her a name placard.

Hanyang had been troubled by the matter of the disciples, and this move by Donghui Zhenren solved his problem and also gave his martial uncle some face; why wouldn't he be happy to do it?

Thus, she became a disciple of the Yuanqing Sect.

Yet she had only read a few books with her younger brother since she was small; how could she understand any Daoist methods, let alone cultivation techniques or sword arts? But the person had good luck. Although she hadn't learned the Sword Technique well after two months, under the intentional or unintentional cultivation of Donghui Zhenren, she slowly began to grasp Mysterious Power.

Some readers might say, how could there be such coincidences in the world for her to occupy them all? But truth is stranger than fiction, is it not?

Take the first martial exercise: her opponent had caught a cold the day before and was in a state of chaos and discomfort during the fight, which simply let her win the match.

And take this martial exercise: setting aside her grabbing the Floating Cloud Perilla, the mere fact that she could remain unscathed among the demonic creatures was enough to show that this girl's heavenly luck was extraordinary.

It is not impossible that in this age of scarce Spirit Roots, she might be able to attain the Dao and become an immortal by relying on this luck.

By comparison, where there are those with good luck, there are naturally those with bad.

This day, Lingxiang was cursing while feeding fire to an old Pill Furnace: it was just a Small Fu Prescription pill, yet that old man Shangqing had given her such a huge medicine cauldron. Could it be that he was muddled from old age? If that were truly the case, he should abdicate early and yield to her, so she could enjoy the pleasure of being high above and feeling the cold.

However, even though it was a Small Fu Prescription, one could not be careless. If the step of feeding the fire was not done well, first, the refined pills could turn into pill dregs, and second, it was highly likely to explode the furnace when raising the fire.

Lingxiang still remembered when she was practicing medicine as a child, one time when feeding the fire, she put in a little too much saltpeter. It was just that little bit that blew up half of the Xianyun Abode. If Fuyin Zhenren had not been present at the time, she feared her life would have gone to the Land of Ultimate Bliss with that explosion.

The Quxie Pill was finished in just one day. As Lingxiang expected, the quality was indeed only Middle Grade. Looking at the pill in her hand, she once again greeted all her senior brothers in her heart.

With the Quxie Pill, used both internally and externally, everyone's Miasma Poison was cleared in just one night. Chengkai was up early the next day with a cloth strip tied around his head, practicing his sword.

For these two days, he always felt as if there was a stream of Qi wandering in his body, but when he tried to regulate his breathing, he could not calm it down no matter what. He did not know what was wrong with him, only thinking it was caused by lying in bed for too long and the internal Qi of his body being out of balance, so as soon as the poison was cleared, he began to swing his sword.

Liu Xia was the same as him; there was also a stream of Qi jumping up and down that he could not resolve. After practicing the sword for two days, he found it could not resolve this abnormally impulsive Qi, so he began to sit in meditation every day.

Zhao Wuyang's body was not as sturdy as Chengkai's. Although the poison was cleared, his wounds were not healing well. However, Maidong came to take care of him every day, and he always felt uncomfortable all over. Therefore, whenever Liu Xia or Chengkai practiced the sword, he would endure the pain in his body, lean on a long stick and sit to the side, watching them practice while basking in the sun.

Perhaps frightened by Maidong's idea of wanting to take care of him personally, Xin Yi, despite having serious internal and external injuries, was the fastest to recover. Two days after the Miasma Poison was cleared, he was able to get out of bed, making Maidong chase him to return to bed and rest.

Long Qi, however, seemed a bit different this time. Although the Miasma Poison was cleared, he remained in a deep sleep. Fuyin Zhenren came personally to diagnose him; although the injury of blood reversal had not healed, he should have been awake, yet he did not know why he remained as if in a coma, and from time to time he would run a fever and mutter incessantly.

Could it be that the demonic creature during the martial exercise had frightened him into a mental illness and he was trapped in a nightmare?