Chapter 82: A Long Night
Before Anji knew it, the sun had already gone down. She had a very busy day after waking up. The gardener sent the potted persimmon plant to her room as she requested right away. However, Anji could not check on it immediately because she had to visit the sect’s shrine. True to Gu Ying’s description, many inner and outer disciples prayed for Anji’s safety. Her appearance created waves within the sect as rumours spread quicker than wildfire that the youngest princess had returned.
Anji received all the congratulatory greetings and grew weary of smiling at so many unfamiliar faces. The sect elders, who were normally busy, paid a special visit to see Anji in the evening after her dinner. Her parents also had a lot of things to tell Anji. Many things in her usual routine would change now that she chose to embark on the path of a cultivator. Even Sect Leader Bai had a few words to add at the dinner table.
By the time Anji agreed not to take any shortcuts on the path of cultivation and explained how much she had learned under Yan Ping, it was already close to her regular bedtime. As for her teacher, Anji only learned how the blind prophet had to recuperate in the secluded depths of the mountain. Her father refused to divulge more information, which meant the situation was serious enough to require top secrecy. Anji secretly activated her Heavenly Eyes to confirm the side effects of those who helped her stabilise her golden core.
With the slightly enhanced Heavenly Eyes, Anji could finally differentiate between the Heavenly, Divine and Supreme cultivation levels. However, to her shock, her father’s core was a deep blue that was almost purple. She wasn’t too sure if he was at the early Transcendent or late Radiant stage. However, it was a far fall from the middle Divine Core stage that he was in. Unlike her teacher, her father had only been there to help her open the sealed gate. Yet, he had fallen by at least two cultivation levels. Her teacher had been there the whole two months. Moreover, she played a huge role in the final stages of stabilising her energy when Grandpa Jin ran rampant. Although her father refused to inform her about her teacher’s condition, Anji felt that her teacher might not be at the Radiant Core level. The drastic drop in her teacher’s cultivation base could prove dangerous if others found out. Hence, she had to enter secluded recuperation with the protection of the Celestial Dragon Sect before she returned to the Mystical Qilin Sect.
This gave Anji enough reasons to break her promise to her shifu and secretly practise cultivation with Grandpa Jin’s guidance behind her father’s back. It wasn’t as if her cultivation base would drastically increase after a few sneaky practice sessions. With her unique core, the golden dragon reassured Anji that it was about ten times harder for her to make progress than an ordinary cultivator.
After ensuring she was finally alone in her room, Anji thought it felt odd to sleep on such a comfortable mattress after spending two months in the hut with her shifu. Part of her thought it would be impossible to fall asleep even if she weren’t secretly training. She had finally gotten used to the slightly hard bed in the little hut. It wasn’t easy to adjust to the sinking feeling of this soft feather mattress again.
Crossing her leg in the darkness and hugging the potted persimmon plant, Anji inhaled deeply and slowly exhaled to slow her mind down. Although her qi circulation quantity still needed to be improved, it was still enough to do what she wanted to do.
Fwoosh!
As soon as Anji completed one cycle of qi circulation in her meditative state, she could access her inner world easily. Grandpa Jin seemed to be sleeping, even if he was a flicker of consciousness from the original golden dragon.