Chapter 106: No to the Demon Cultivator Mindset

It's useless to think so much about it now; the Sect Leader and Elder Wen have acted like riddle-mongers, not telling her who that backer is, and she has no way to deal with it.

After pondering for a while, Ruan Xing remembered the free map in the library that the disciple mentioned earlier.

She really needs to familiarize herself with the terrain first; Xianyuan City alone is already this big, and she doesn't know how vast the entire Xuanbing Sect is. She'd better go take a look, as it won't do to keep getting lost in the future.

Thinking this, Ruan Xing was just about to grab a passing cultivator on the road to ask for the direction to the library when she suddenly saw a tall, silver-white, majestic white wolf walking over on the wide street in the distance, causing the cultivators on the street to scatter and make way.

On its back was a dark purple cushion similar to a saddle, and sitting on it was a cultivator who looked as noble as a young master from a great family.

"That's kind of cool," Ruan Xing praised; the appearance of this monster beast white wolf was somewhat like Sword Lai.

In the skies above most towns and sects, there are restrictions forbidding flight; of course, some big shots with transcendent cultivation are not bound by this rule.

Therefore, cultivators have their own means of transportation for daily travel. Besides riding a Sword, the most common methods for low-level cultivators are horses raised by mortals, as well as half-monster mules and horses born from the crossbreeding of mortal horses and monster beasts, used to pull carts.

After all, there are too many low-to-mid-level cultivators who cannot afford to raise monster beasts or buy a Flying Dharma Artifact, yet they pride themselves on being nobler than mortals, so they have to compromise.

Ruan Xing, of course, is also reluctant to spend; her money is all used for self-improvement and Simulation. Usually, if she can ride a Sword, she rides a Sword; if she can't, she sticks on a Lightness Talisman and walks. In any case, she doesn't feel that there should be any hierarchy of high or low status just because she is a cultivator.

In her eyes, there are only two ways to judge others: those she can kill and those she cannot, and those who are allies and those who are enemies.

However, people who can keep monster beasts are still relatively few. She doesn't know if it's because the cost is too expensive or the taming is too difficult; she has been in the world of Cultivation for almost a year, and this is only the second one she has seen.

The first one was the Black Eagle from the Six Suns Study. That Black Eagle was much larger than the white wolf; its wingspan alone was over ten meters long, and the eagle's body could hold dozens of people. At that time, she hadn't started Cultivation yet and had no Divine Sense to roughly estimate the strength of the monster beast, but she felt that the Black Eagle should be at least at the Golden Core Stage.

The white wolf's speed was not fast, seemingly intentional to let the people on both sides of the street admire and envy it. By the time they passed by, Ruan Xing's gaze had already sized the white wolf up and down a dozen times.

Ruan Xing tugged at a cultivator next to her who was also watching and asked, "Fellow Daoist, who is that?"

The cultivator looked left and right before lowering his head to notice Ruan Xing. Seeing that Ruan Xing's cultivation was higher than his, he answered good-naturedly, "That is Qintai He, an Inner Sect Disciple of the Xuanbing Sect and the chief disciple of the Yaoguang Peak Peak Master. He's not even thirty yet and is already at the Golden Core Stage!"

Ruan Xing couldn't help but click her tongue. Good heavens, Central Province really has a lot of talent. If you count from Spirit Refining at thirteen, this person has cultivated for less than seventeen years and has already reached the Golden Core Stage? And this person is quite lucky; if he had reached the Golden Core Stage a few years later, he would have just happened to catch this year's Jin Tai Secret Realm and would likely have lost his life inside, his bright life coming to an abrupt end.

His luck is so good; if he were refined into a Puppet, he would probably be very strong, right? No, wait! Ruan Xing quickly shook her head to shake off this thought. If she continues like this, she will really develop a Demon Cultivator mindset—wanting to possess everything good she sees and wanting to pocket every suitable material she finds. This is too terrifying.

No, no, she must correct her thinking and not fall into a demonic obsession.

She stopped thinking about the Puppet, cast it to the back of her mind for the time being, and asked the cultivator again, "Fellow Daoist, do you know where the library is?"

The cultivator pointed out the direction for her, and Ruan Xing stuck on a Lightness Talisman and quickly hurried toward the library.

Also as an industry under the Xuanbing Sect, it was not far from the Teleportation Array station, and she ran there in the time it takes to burn a stick of incense.

This three-story library is open to all cultivators, but other sects and Loose Cultivators need to pay Spirit Stones to enter and read, while Xuanbing Sect disciples only need to show their Sect Jade Token to enter for free. However, if they want to take the books and Jade Slips inside out, they still need to pay a rental fee.

Since it doesn't cost money anyway, she plans to soak in the library and read more books before receiving the message on her Jade Token. To be honest, even now, her understanding of the world of Cultivation is very shallow.

After taking a rough tour, Ruan Xing was a bit disappointed with the library. The first floor was full of idle books unrelated to Cultivation; the second floor had various basic cultivation techniques and formulas for the Qi Refining stage, simple Magic Arts, cultivation insights, and basic applications of Spiritual Power; the third floor was about the same, just for the Foundation Establishment stage.

No wonder it's open to the public; it turns out there aren't many useful things. She had already memorized most of the flashy but useless Magic Arts on the third floor back in Nanzhou by exploiting bugs, so they are completely useless to her now.

Perhaps this is just a means to attract new recruits? She seemed to see many books boasting about the Xuanbing Sect on the first floor.

Most were about the deeds of famous people throughout the history of the Xuanbing Sect, inspirational stories, and gossip—humorous and witty but not offensive. Ruan Xing saw a few familiar names inside: the master of the incredibly stylish Qintai He she just saw, the Peak Master of Yaoguang Peak, Qinghong Zhenjun, and Fu Qinghong's master, the Peak Master of Nebula Peak, Qingyuan Daojun.

She didn't recognize the names of the other Daojuns, Zhenjuns, and Xianjuns, so she just glanced through them and put them down.

Fu Qinghong's Puppet is still in her Storage Bag, and she couldn't help but feel a bit guilty. She quietly flipped through the biography of Qingyuan Daojun; setting aside the flowery, piled-up rhetoric, there were still some useful things inside.

For example, Qingyuan Daojun has a cold temperament, is not one to smile or joke, and is very proactive. He never reasons with people; if they don't agree, he draws his Sword and fights. He treats his fellow sect members the same way, being strict with himself and strict with others. He was once evaluated as the most suitable person to manage the Law Enforcement Hall because with him there, absolutely no one would dare to engage in favoritism.

However, he ultimately did not become the Hall Master of the Law Enforcement Hall because he was single-mindedly focused on Cultivation and had almost nothing else in his eyes, not even wanting to take on disciples. From the time he became the Peak Master of Nebula Peak, he was the only one living on the entire Nebula Peak for hundreds of years, until he went out for a tour over a decade ago when he broke through to the Spirit Severing stage. After returning, he not only successfully joined the ranks of Spirit Severing Daojuns but also added two disciples.

Putting down the biography of Qingyuan Daojun in her hand, Ruan Xing felt a chill on her back. According to the description of Qingyuan Daojun in the book, he feels like the type who would stop at nothing to avenge his disciple... If Qingyuan Daojun found out that she had refined his disciple with the natural Dao bone into a Puppet, wouldn't he fight her to the death? Although she didn't kill the person, she is still terrified.

For the next few years, unless absolutely necessary, she should not summon Fu Qinghong; let him stay in the Storage Bag and gather dust. Anyway, when she first refined Fu Qinghong, her purpose wasn't to use him as a weapon, but because she felt it was a pity he died like that and wanted to restore his consciousness.

After all, a child who loves to eat probably wouldn't be too bad even if he turned dark.

As for Qinghong Zhenjun of Yaoguang Peak, she is a female cultivator who was unremarkable before, fading into the crowd within the Xuanbing Sect as just an ordinary Inner Sect Disciple. However, nearly forty years ago, she suddenly rose to prominence, shone brilliantly, broke through to the Nascent Soul Stage, and became the Peak Master of Yaoguang Peak. The rumor is that she is a "late bloomer."

Ruan Xing finished reading casually, curled her lip, and put this book down as well.

A master who is a late bloomer takes on a young genius as a disciple; doesn't the master feel awkward looking at the disciple every day?

Maybe in the future, if the disciple's cultivation surpasses the master's, they will be dragged out and compared to the master.

It's all very strange; it's best if she isn't assigned to this peak, as there might be all sorts of messy love-hate entanglements.

Ruan Xing continued to the next book, a chronicle of the general history of the Xuanbing Sect. She automatically ignored the long-winded boasting and focused on the parts that seemed more authentic. Sixteen thousand years since the founding of the sect, eleven have ascended to the upper realm so far, over one hundred and seventy have undergone "soldier-disintegration" to become Loose Immortals, and countless predecessors have emerged who shocked the world and became famous across the Five Prefectures, with outstanding achievements in the two Immortal-Demon Wars...

She did see a new term: Loose Immortal. These are cultivators who are reaching the end of their lifespan in the Return to Ruins Stage but cannot ascend, so they choose to undergo "soldier-disintegration" to become Loose Immortals. They can extend their lifespan by one thousand years, and their strength will be slightly higher than the Return to Ruins Stage, but there is no hope of ascension. After this one-thousand-year lifespan expires, there is no other way to extend it.

"Soldier-disintegration," seeking life through death; her Simulator does not have this realm. It seems... just like the Ghost Cultivator techniques, she cannot become a Loose Immortal. The Simulator does not allow it; dead is dead, and there is no such thing as seeking life through death or "soldier-disintegration" to become a Loose Immortal.

However, Ruan Xing is not worried about this now; she is still a long way from the Return to Ruins Stage. And with the Simulator, such a heaven-defying golden finger in her hand, she shouldn't be so unlucky as to reach the point of "soldier-disintegration," right?

Skipping the middle part about glorious deeds, Ruan Xing flipped to the final section and saw the admissions brochure, which showed off the sect's immense strength: one hundred and eighty peaks representing one hundred and eighty cultivation mentors at or above the Nascent Soul Stage, dozens of spirit veins and over a dozen Spirit Mines of various sizes, and as many as eight irregularly opening Secret Realms suitable for use from the Qi Refining stage to the Nascent Soul Stage.

Of course, now it has become seven.

If the next Jin Tai Secret Realm cannot open normally thirty years from now, this number might plummet to six.

The Hanshan Secret Realm has been collapsed for so long and they haven't updated it; perhaps it was just there to make up the numbers and isn't important to Central Province because... Qi Refining cultivators in Central Province wouldn't travel thousands of miles to Nanzhou for a mere Hanshan Secret Realm, so having it or not is the same.

After reading a few more books about common knowledge of the world of Cultivation and the Xuanbing Sect, Ruan Xing boredly put them back in their original places and began to look for the purpose of her coming to the library in the first place.

A free map.

On a table similar to a sand table, the terrain map was entirely three-dimensional. Although it looked somewhat transparent and illusory, when observed carefully after being magnified by Divine Sense, it was like a moving "Along the River During the Qingming Festival," with mountains, rivers, trees, towns, and buildings all vivid and lifelike. One could even see people walking on the streets, like real-time holographic surveillance of the entire area.

It is truly a work of exquisite craftsmanship!

It made Ruan Xing feel somewhat shocked.

Such an awesome thing is actually placed in a library open to the public; it is truly extraordinary.

However, those little figures all had a layer of gray color, making it impossible to see who they were or what they were doing. Moreover, Divine Sense could not probe into the interior of the buildings, so Ruan Xing could not verify whether this was real-time surveillance made by some big shot. Otherwise, she could just probe her Divine Sense into the library on the sand table to see if she was there.

She looked at it carefully, memorizing some iconic buildings and various routes, as well as the locations of each peak.

Just counting them, she didn't expect there to really be one hundred and eighty peaks; the chronicle wasn't boasting after all.

However, it's hard to say whether every one of these peaks has a Peak Master. If they were really that powerful, possessing one hundred and eighty cultivators at or above the Nascent Soul Stage, why would Fu Qinghong tell her that the Inner Sect only has over a thousand Foundation Establishment disciples? Eh? It seems like something is wrong? Just as Shen Lingyun said, in the eyes of most Righteous Cultivators, using Divine Sense to stare at someone is an impolite behavior, so when she was on the street earlier, her Divine Sense only swept over roughly, and she used her naked eyes to look at the white wolf.

Divine Sense is like an X-ray; once it sweeps over, the information obtained is too much, which makes the person being watched feel like they are being stripped naked and spied on, feeling very uncomfortable.

Of course, high-level cultivators using Divine Sense to look at low-level cultivators won't be like this, because low-level cultivators cannot detect that they are being spied on at all.

And from that less than one-second Divine Sense probe, Ruan Xing had obtained the information that both the white wolf and his master, Qintai He, were at the Golden Core Stage.

So Golden Core Stage is also an Inner Sect Disciple?

Fu Qinghong, you brat, do you only say half of what you mean?? Ruan Xing clenched her fists in frustration.

It seems the information obtained from Fu Qinghong is not necessarily reliable; after all, as he said, his master is strict with him, and he rarely has contact with other Inner Sect Disciples.

Sighing helplessly, Ruan Xing found a Jade Slip to record a simplified version of the map, then planned to continue looking at information on other Peak Masters, as this would help her know exactly how many Peak Masters there were in total, and which Peak Masters took in more disciples, so she could gauge where she would most likely be assigned.

After checking that the Jade Slip recording was finished, she turned around intending to go to the book area, when she suddenly felt something was wrong again.

She opened the recorded Jade Slip and looked at it again, then looked up.

Above the sand table, if one were to scale up the ratio of the small figures in this sand table to True Persons, then, ten thousand meters high above the Xuanbing Sect, there were two more Floating Islands.

Probing with her Divine Sense, Ruan Xing narrowed her eyes as she saw the information marked on them.

Tianxin Island.

Floating Island.

Both islands were covered in gray clouds, and only a rough outline could be seen.

She couldn't help but wonder, what kind of places were these two islands? The several books about the Xuanbing Sect she had just read hadn't mentioned a single word about them at all.

She observed for a while but still couldn't make anything out, and just as she was about to go find more books to see if there were any introductions, she suddenly felt that her jade tablet had a new message.

She had only been reading books in the Library Pavilion for half a day; the administrative efficiency of the Central Province was quite fast.

However, the moment she opened the jade tablet and saw the message, Ruan Xing froze, as if the sky had collapsed.

A line of text was clearly written on it.

【Please proceed to Yaoguang Peak within three days.】

Thanks to Mi Li Miao for the monthly ticket~ Thanks to Er Dong Mei You Er for the monthly ticket~ (End of this chapter)