The Legendary Spirit of the Night

After he finished explaining everything, Ling Feng Zi did not wait around for a second longer.  He flies out using a flying sword.  Before Qi Huan gets the chance to even speak, he is already hundreds of miles away.

Seeing the golden flash of Ling Feng Zi's sword in the sky, Qi Huan gulps; when will she be able to do that?  Once her turn comes, she will choose the flashiest sword and make phoenixes and dragons fly behind her!  But the distance between her and flying is still far away, she should cultivate to build her foundation first.

Qi Huan casually picks a futon and sits on it cross-legged.  According to Ling Feng Zi, the basis to draw in qi is through meditation.

Perhaps, Qi Huan really has no natural gift.  According to Ling Feng Zi, the person who studied this book back then only took one day to draw in the qi.  But Qi Huan used up two months to study the basics and yet she cannot feel even a single thread of lingqi.

"Perhaps, I am born dull," Qi Huan mutters as she cross her legs in that soft princess bed of hers.  In order to make Qi Huan leaves his abode faster, Ling Feng Zi ordered 100 disciples to build her a castle (as per her request) in the shortest time possible.  Actually, Qi Huan prefers a pyramid even more, but unfortunately, she never has the chance to meet Ling Feng Zi again after the completion of that castle.

"Whatever, let's sleep." Qi Huan lazily turns over, yawns and wraps himself in a soft quilt sleepily.

Before long, long blue light slithers out of her body like a smoke, shrouding her entire body.   With the emergence of the blue light, strands of pure lingqi floats in the air and is absorbed by the blue light.  That goes on for the entire night before the blue light re-enters Qi Huan's body in the morning.

At that very moment, three old men watch the peak where Xu Kong lives from another, solitary peak.  "I say, Junior Brother has never taken any disciple before, but now that you did, you accepted a startling one ah!  You even got the one with the legendary night spirit."  A healthy looking old man looks at Xu Kong in envy.

"I got lucky.... It's only luck... hahaha," even though Xu Kong's mouth is humble, his expression is full of arrogance.

Night spirit is the way cultivators absorb the lingqi of the heaven and earth in the middle of the night.  People who have that ability can only cultivate at night.  It is said that they can cultivate even in their sleeps; and it is ten times more effective than regular cultivators.

That is why Qi Huan did not feel a single strand of lingqi entering her body when she cultivated in broad daylight. She never tried cultivating at night so she didn't even know that she had passed the stage of drawing in lingqi long ago

Right now, Qi Huan is in the middle of zhuji, building her foundation.  She can already be considered a master when put amongst mortals, but since she is in Qing Yun Sect, a single flick of a finger from another disciple can put her to death.

After realizing how rare and precious his disciple is, Xu Kong Zi quickly heads back to his own mountain peak and leave his Senior Brothers to ponder over those ancient artefacts themselves.  What a joke, he has lived for 2000 years; it was not easy for him to find this treasure, of course he has to groom her!

Even if they cannot kick Kunlun or flatten Mount Shu, he can still show her off.  The representative of Mount Qing Yun ma!

But, once he finds out that Qi Huan is studying 'Path Within People', his face darkened a little. Seeing that expression on her shifu; who quickly boards his flying sword and flies off; Qi Huan clicks her tongue.  Seems like this good-natured old man is going to turn into a fire-spraying dragon!

As expected, an hour later, some Qing Yun disciples said that an ancient monster got lost and accidentally roast their sect leader's mountain peak to a flat plain.

Qi Huan stands at the foot of the charred hill, looking at the peak that is already levelled.  She rubs her own nose while sniggering.

Actually, after she chose that manual, Ling Feng Zi did told her about the problem that book has.  But Qi Huan has no plan to change book; and she was not stupid enough to tell Xu Kong that earlier on.

After he finished venting, Xu Kong glued himself to Qi Huan.  He coaxes and pesters her to change manual, he even wants to hand her his Qing Yun's ancestral manual that has been passed down through generation.

Qi Huan ignores him.  You finally realize how precious I am, old man?  Too late!  Who told you to ran off and casts me aside the moment we reached Qing Yun, serve you right!

Qi Huan squandered two days against Xu Kong while holding on to that idea.  In the end, Xu Kong couldn't take it anymore and invites his two Senior Brothers over.  Does it make any sense?  He is a big expert in the cultivating world and has lived for over 2000 years and yet he has no idea how to deal with his twenty-something disciple.  His two Senior Brothers are pretty ill-tempered.  Before they even show up, their swords already swing over.  Qi Huan is so shocked, her soul almost leaves her body.  But in the end, the two Senior Brothers are defeated by one sentence from Qi Huan.  She tells them that since the entire cultivation world will be shook if the three of them show up together, then why didn't they go and steal 'Path Within Heaven' and 'Path Within Earth' to complete the manual?  In the end, the two old men leave in defeat, leaving only Xu Kong swallowing his tears while facing his disciple who is smiling warmly.

It's not that they didn't want to steal them.  They are not weak, but the other party is not weak as well.  'Path Within Heaven' and 'Path Within Earth' are each in the Sorcery Sect and in the Demonic Sect.  Even if each of the three of them can go against ten at a time, they will not be able to stand against the two sects.  With a wave of hand, the demonic sect and the sorcery sect can pull out tens of thousands of people while they can pull out around ten.  If the other party spits at them one by one, their spits will be enough to drown them.

Lucky Xu Kong has been cultivating for a long time, he knows that the heaven is unpredictable.  Who knows, maybe Qi Huan's choice isn't wrong.  Maybe, her fate is deep.  Perhaps, she will be lucky one day and manage to collect all three books.  This is his best guess.  Besides, Qi Huan will have to study Jiedan first, the fastest she can achieve that is around two hundred years.  No need to rush.... No need to rush.....

Chapter 6

"In front of the gate and under the bridge, a raft of ducks swims freely....." a loud beast-like voice hollers from Wang You Peak, early in the morning.  After the volume is amplified, it passes through the mountain and can be heard from even the entrance.

The disciples of Qing Yun Mountain get up from their respective beds and head to their classes with green faces.   With that song, every single person in Mount Qing Yun starts their day. If you look carefully, no matter how far their classes are, no disciples dare to fly through Wang You Peak, they are more willing to circle around it instead.

This is Qi Huan's fourth month in Mount Qing Yuan.  Everytime she reminisces about her past life, she will feel as though everything is just a dream.

The days of cultivation are free and unfettered.  All she needs to do is to get up before dawn everyday, mobilize the lingqi within her body and completely even out all the heaven and earth lingqi she absorbed in the previous nights.  Now that her spiritual power has increased, Qi Huan can now sense them flowing inside her even in broad daylight.  But, what surprise her even more is her dantian is actually different than Xu Kong's.

Xu Kong once said that in the early stage of foundation, the lingqi will be distributed around the dantian area in gaseous form.  It will also enters your flesh, bones and pulses.  But, when Qi Huan views her inner self, she finds out that even though the lingqi is in gaseous from, it is not simply in gaseous form; it is actually forming a vague pattern of taiji.

After a few days of observation, Qi Huan finds out that the taiji pattern will absorb the heaven and earth's lingqi on it's own.  Even though it isn't very fast, it is still very efficient!  The only downside is the taiji pattern didn't leave a single heaven and earth's lingqi for Qi Huan.  Half of the lingqi she absorbed every night is taken by the taiji pattern.  If it weren't for that, Qi Huan would've breeze through the building foundation phase.  To make up for that, she has to sleep a couple of hours earlier at night.  You have to know, Qi Huan was a total otaku before she time-travelled; she would never sleep if the clock hasn't pass 12 am.  Every day, before the sky is dark, she will play chess with Duke of Zhou, that old man.  Aiya~ all for the sake of cultivating!

(TN: Duke Zhao is the son of King Wen of Zhou.  Below are couple of depictions of him)

Even though she is that diligent, every time she strolls around the sect in broad daylight, she will receives resentful eyes, sweeping her up and down like X-ray.  Since the rest of them have no night-spirit abilities, they have to cultivate for around 20 hours a day and still cannot reach the point Qi Huan gets after three hours of sleep.  Who can openheartedly accepts that?  Had Qi Huan's position been low, she would've gotten into fights long ago.

In the beginning, she had a hard time adapting to those unfriendly eyes, but Xu Kong once told her that a cultivator that didn't receive another's envy isn't a successful cultivator.  Since then on, Qi Huan walks in Qing Yun with her back straight.  Since she is already a successful cultivator, she can walk her own way; others can be jealous as they want!

After absorbing lingqi today, her taiji pattern feels a little unstable.  But it is a lot better than in the past.  From how she sees it, this is the sign of an impending breakthrough.  According to Xu Kong, what sets cultivators different from the mortals happens in the foundation stage.  A cultivator at the foundation stage is an innate master amongst the mortals.  From their physical strength to their meridian development, they are above mortals.  But in the eyes of celestials, they lack a lot.

Once you reach the middle of foundation (zhuji), you can start learning the five most basic magical techniques.  You can also start using low-grade magical tools.  But, in order to fly, you need to reach the beginning of Ningqi.  In order to fulfil their dreams of flying, mankind struggled for hundreds of years, she is only following the footsteps of her predecessors!

"Senior Uncle, Senior Granduncle invites you to Tai Qing Palace."  Just as she walks out of her chamber, she bumps into another Junior Nephew of hers, Ling Yun Zi.  He is standing respectfully outside the door.  His hair is meticulously arranged into a style.  The big robe he wears is having difficulties hiding his robust frame.

This Ling Yun Zi is a capable person.  He isn't even 500 years old yet and he already reaches Yuanying.  He is a little stronger than his Senior Brother, Ling Feng Zi despite the two hundred years of difference between them.  The only downside is, he can a little boring.  Everytime Qi Huan says a bunch of things, he will only reply her with a syllable.

She has no idea which Senior Brother of hers took those two as disciples but whoever he is, Qi Huan is very thankful.  They are both so handsome!  Even though they are a little old, they are very pleasing to the eyes.

"Senior Uncle?"  Seeing her staring at him in a daze, he can't help but speaks out.

"Oh?  Go-  I'll go right away!" Qi Huan wipes the corner of her lips in embarrassment, lucky she didn't start salivating.

Before she even arrives in Tai Qing Hall, she can tell that something is off in the sect today.  Disciples are bustling around, in fact, even those old folks that usually stays hidden comes out today.  "Junior Nephew, did an ancient beast accidentally comes into our place?" Qi Huan asks in wonder.

".... Senior Granduncle is transitioning."  Ling Yun Zi purses his lips, reluctantly opening his mouth.

".... Which Senior Granduncle are you talking about?  Are you talking about my shifu?" Qi Huan gasped in horror.  Why is she hearing this from other people?

Ling Yun Zi gives her a dirty look.  She didn't even know her own shifu is transitioning.  Lucky he doesn't have this kind of disciple, or else he would put her to death in one blow.

"Then, if shifu is transitioning, why is the entire mountain like this?"

"More than ten sect leaders from Mount Shu, Kunlun and Taihang will bring their disciples to observe the ceremony."

"Junior Nephew, I need to go.  My stomach hurts."  Qi Huan's expression changes, she turns around to run.

"Just hold it in."  As though he has long anticipated that move from Qi Huan, he outstretches his right hand without even looking at her.  Red thread-like light flies out from him and envelop Qi Huan like a dumpling.

"You good-for-nothing thing that bullies your elders!  You will get retribution from the heaven one day!" Qi Huan curses him in grief.

"I still have one thousand years before transition, no rush." Ling Yun Zi drags Qi Huan in a brisk pace.

Qi Huan howls like a ghost, "Just let me go, Junior Nephew.  My fragile body cannot take being tossed around like this."

"Life is not that fragile."  Ling Yun Zi pauses.  Thinking about the upcoming ceremony, his face darkens.  If possible, he too does not want to attend them.

The reason Qi Huan is so triggered is because Ling Feng Zi brought her to Mount Shu to observe a transition two months ago.  She originally thought it would end in 2 hours at most.  In the end, after entering the viewing platform, Qi Huan was stuck there for four days.  All that without eating, drinking or sleeping.

In the end, after that guy succeeded, Qi Huan already became a mummy because of the lack of water.  Ling Feng ZI had to search for people to carry her home.

She has no idea who proposed that stupid rule; once one enters the viewing platform, they are not allowed to eat, drink, speak or sleep when the transitioning process is still going on.  Everything is forbidden.  To put it simple, you have to act dead.

Chapter 7

Qi Huan looks left and right upon entering the hall.  There are already so many people around and judging from their ugly uniforms, they are not Qing Yun's disciples.

Qi Huan has no problem with Qing Yuan's uniforms.  It is the same for both genders, green long robes and white belt.  If the man that wears them looks good, like Ling Yun Zi, no matter how ugly the uniforms are, they will still be pleasing to the eyes.  But if Qi Huan wears them, it will be something straight out of a horror movie.  Especially if she strolls around at night!

After dragging Qi Huan into the hall, Ling Yun Zi exchange pleasantries with people who are waiting for Xu Kong.  After that, he stands at the back along with her.  Qi Huan didn't think it was inappropriate or something.  Even though her position in Qing Yun is very high and her two Junior Nephews have been very patient with her, others might not.

After all, there are more esteemed and strong cultivators in the circle.  If she, this person at the lowest zhuji (foundation) level goes around sitting next to Xu Kong, others may not find it fitting.

After Qi Huan settles at her place, her eyes start to wander around.  Seeing Ling Feng Zi chatting eloquently with a couple of sect leaders, Qi Huan glares at him in disdain.  He treats his words like gold when with her, why is he so amiable to everyone else!  This is gender discrimination!

"Is your Senior Brother usually friendly to other people?" Qi Huan can't bear but to poke Ling Yun Zi who is next to her.

"......" Ling Yun Zi looks up to Ling Feng Zi who is smiling on the outside but not on the inside.  He glances at Qi Huan and turns away to ignore her.  He looks friendly in her eyes, but the truth is not what it seems.

"Wei, who is that old guy who is dressing like a peacock?"

"He is from Mount Shu.  The elder of the law, Yuan Xin Zi.  He is in mid-yuanying."  He has no other choice but to reply her.  If he didn't, she will continue babbling and by then, the one implicated will be him.  "By the way, that thing he is wearing is Cang Lan celestial outfit.  A low-grade Celestial Device."

Magical tools are divided into three ranks in the cultivation world, Treasure Device, Spirit Device and Celestial Device.  Each rank is further divided into three.  Celestial Devices are considered a rarity, most of them are the belongings that celestials left in their celestial abode.  Even Mount Qing Yun only has three Celestial-level Devices.

"Tsk, impressive!  He actually bears to wear that Celestial Device!" Qi Huan's tone is a little sour upon thinking about that cheap shifu of hers.  He didn't give her a single magical tool.

If you want to practice ascetical cultivation, then so be it!  Why are you dragging me along with you?

Qi Huan currently has two high-grade Spiritual Devices, but they are all plundered from her shifu's Senior Brother and Junior Brother.  Do you think time-travelling is easy?  She even has to rob old men ah!

"Who is that one who looks like a lady—-" Before Qi Huan even gets to finish what she is about to say, Ling Yun Zi covers her mouth.  Even though the people who are waiting for Xu Kong blocks their senses out of respect, but the ears of a cultivator is very alert.  If they have the desire to listen to what Qi Huan is saying, accomplishing that desire will not be hard.

When Qi Huan was talking about Yuan Xin Zi just now, the other party actually heard her. But Yuan Xin Zi's temperament is really nice, so he only laughed it off.

But Qi Huan is actually poking on a person's pain.  What Qing Xiao, the sect leader of Kunlun hates most is when people tells him he looks like a girl.  Before Ling Feng Zi became the sect leader of Qing Yuan, he mistook Qing Xiao as a girl and called him Junior Sister.  Qing Xiao held a grudge on him for 400 long years.  If Ling Feng Zi hadn't tried so hard to placate him, his life probably would have fly by now.

For the ceremony this time, he brings five exquisite and talented disciples of this generation from Kunlun.  He is undoubtedly doing that to intimidate Ling Feng Zi. What Qi Huan said just now may be pouring oil on a fire.

However, a rare light diabolical smile appears on Ling Yun Zi's face.  If Qing Xiao pretends he didn't hear anything, then fine.  But if he choose to create trouble with Qi Huan, the trouble this time will be really big.

His Senior Granduncle, Xu Kong Zi practises ascetical cultivation his whole life.  His position in the cultivation world is probably on the top five at the moment.  He never took a disciple before, and now that he did, he naturally dotes on her and treats her really well.  Like that time when Qi Huan cut off his ten thousand year old white jade magnolia, he didn't even scold Qi Huan.  He scolded Ling Feng Zi instead.   Naturally, one only dotes on one's disciple, not another's.

Don't judge something by appearance.  Even though Xu Kong has a warm temperament and always puts on an amiable smiling face, he actually committed a lot of wicked acts on his younger days.  No wonder they say a shifu mirrors his disciples ah!  If Qing Xiao acts on Qi Huan, that old man will probably run over to Kunlun and sets it on fire.  Some people said that the fire on Kunlun's big hall five hundred years ago had something to do with their three elders.

Even though Qi Huan's voice is not big, Ling Yun Zi is confident Qing Xiao heard her.  If he didn't, his face wouldn't have turned into a colour palette like that.  He didn't really throw a huge tantrum, perhaps he knows that Qi Huan is just a low-level disciple and he can deal with her anytime.

The anger-filled Qing Xiao did not even consider how that low-levelled disciple could enter the hall; accompanied by the sect leader's Junior Brother at that.

After all the guests that comes for the ceremony are in the hall,  Ling Feng Zi, whose saliva almost dries out, orders Qing Yuan disciples to send the sect leaders into their respective rooms to rest.  The ceremony will begin two days from now.

The hall gradually turns empty, only the three elders and Qi Huan are left.  Qi Huan walks towards Xu Kong and casually sits on a chair, her voice is frustrated as she says, "I say shifu, you really don't consider me as one of your own!  You are transitioning and you didn't even tell me a single thing!"

Hearing that, Xu Kong laughs sheepishly, "Shifu accidentally drank a little too much these past few days.  Only when shifu woke up that shifu finds out the transition date is only a few days away."

"Correct!  Conveniently appreciating the law of the heaven!" Xu Kong Zi's Senior Brother, Xu Ling Zi glares at his Junior Brother.

He can never excel over this Junior Brother of his in this entire lifetime.  But..... he stares at Qi Huan.  At least they still have a little balance; at least the disciples he chose are easier to deal with than Qi Huan.

"Shifu-ah, how long will your transition be?  Don't tell me it's for ten days or half a month!" Qi Huan asks in fear.  She refuse to be the first person in the cultivation realm to die from hunger.  How shameful will that be!

"No."  Black lines appear on Xu Kong's head when he hears what his disciple says.  If it goes on for that long, not a single bone will be left in his remains.

"Good!  Good!  Shifu-ah, after your transition, you ought to go to a retreat.  Don't you think you should leave this disciple a little equipment to help me improve?"

"Equipment?" Xu Kong cannot understand what she is trying to say.

"Your Qi Huan is asking for magical tools!"

"Oh, magical tools ah.  Why don't you take this low-grade Celestial Device," Xu Kong ransacks his storage ring and takes out a small glass pagoda.

"Shifu, I am not capable enough to use that!" Qi Huan grits her teeth.  Being capable enough to use that Celestial Device is one thing, but if others finds out that she possess that thing, she will be robbed and killed the moment she step out of Mount Qing Yun.

She is greedy but she still values her life.

"Na, use this Air Cutting Silk," seeing his Junior Brother ransacking his storage ring and still cannot find anything suitable for Qi Huan, Xu Ling Zi takes out an article of fabric from his own storage ring.

"Senior Uncle, this is so small I can't even use it as a handkerchief."  Staring at that red fabric, Qi Huan secretly thinks his Senior Uncle is being stingy.

"Even though I don't know what this thing does, I got this from a celestial's abode!  It shouldn't be too bad.  Just hurry and accepts it!" Xu Ling Zi harrumphs in displeasure.

"What Senior Uncle said is right!  This disciple was wrong!"  Upon hearing the origin of that fabric, the irritation within Qi Huan disappears almost immediately.  She accepts that fabric with a large charming smile.

serene: Chapter 5, 6 and 7 are sponsored by magicdownunder!