Vessel of Worlds

Andy noticed the worry on her face and asked: "Is the trial that difficult? You seem concerned."

She sighed softly and looked down. "Difficult doesn't begin to describe it—the odds are downright bleak. Think about it, Brother Wugen. The Taixu Sect has at least three to five thousand outer-sect disciples, and well over half of them qualify for the Foundation Establishment Trial. Each trial distributes fewer than a hundred Foundation Establishment Pills—only one person in every ten-odd can hope to get one, and with everyone's entire future riding on it, the competition is brutal beyond measure. If not for the sect's rule that combatants may wound but not kill, the sect would probably lose several hundred disciples every single trial. Even as things stand, more than a hundred disciples are seriously injured each time."

So the Foundation Establishment Trial is basically cultivators fighting it out. That seems rather uncivilized, Andy thought to himself with a frown. But he understood the logic well enough. Crude as it was, a tournament-style format was relatively fair—and well suited to the survival-of-the-fittest ethos of the cultivation world. Any other method of selection would inevitably leave people dissatisfied.

"By the way—you mentioned that all outer-sect disciples have to take on certain duties. Is that right?" Andy asked, curious.

"That's right. You just joined this year, so you probably have about a month before they assign you something. What the duty is—whether it's good or bad—that's hard to say. But I do have an idea for how to get you a decent assignment." She gave a light laugh and put on a mysterious air.

Andy refused to take the bait. Feigning indifference, he said: "You've only been here a year longer than me. How could you possibly arrange a good assignment for me? I'll just take whatever comes."

The girl jumped to her feet, alarmed. "I'm serious! The person in charge of registering and assigning duties to new outer-sect disciples is a greedy old Foundation Establishment cultivator. He's close with my senior uncle. Just slip him a little something on the side and you'll get first pick of the available duties."

"Is that so? I'd like something that gives me plenty of time for meditation and cultivation—ideally with my own private cultivation chamber." Andy's face lit up.

She smiled. "All these years and you're still as dedicated as ever, Brother Wugen. Go to the Administration Hall on Xianglu Peak when you get a chance. Ask for an old Foundation Establishment cultivator surnamed Ma, and tell him you were sent by Jian Xin'er under Senior Uncle Sun. That should get you what you want."

The two chatted and laughed, and time slipped by without either of them noticing. By the time the sky had darkened, Jian Xin'er still had to report back to Senior Uncle Sun. They parted ways, each rising on their Flying Plume and heading off in different directions.

Back at his stone dwelling, Andy placed several low-grade spirit stones into the mounting slots around the walls, activating the dwelling's built-in protective formation. The formation was crude and its defenses limited, but it was useful for blocking spiritual sense—at the very least, a Foundation Establishment cultivator would have difficulty probing inside without being noticed.

With the formation active, Andy took out an ancient-looking yellow jade slip, pressed it to his forehead, and immersed his spiritual sense in its contents, studying the secret technique recorded within.

This jade slip had come from one of the two storage pouches he had taken after killing the husband-and-wife cultivator duo on his way out of the Liuyun range. Besides this slip, the two pouches had contained seventy or eighty low-grade spirit stones, three to five mid-grade stones, more than a dozen low-grade artifacts, one mid-grade artifact, and a pile of basic cultivation technique manuals for various attributes. The sheer number of low-grade artifacts and basic techniques obviously hadn't belonged to the couple themselves—they were almost certainly plunder taken from the low-level cultivators who had fallen victim to them over the years. None of it was of any interest to Andy. Only this antique jade slip had caught his eye. After some initial study, he had discovered that it contained a secret technique written in an ancient script: the Spirit-Concealing Art.

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Andy had studied this script during his time with the Jian clan. Over the past while, he had devoted every spare moment to deciphering and comprehending this technique.

The Spirit-Concealing Art was remarkably clever—designed specifically to mask and hide the spiritual energy fluctuations on one's body. Unless one encountered a cultivator of far superior cultivation, it was virtually undetectable. That husband-and-wife pair had disguised themselves as second- and third-layer weaklings right under Andy's nose, and he hadn't noticed a thing. If he could learn a technique this useful, it would surely come in handy.

The next day, Andy flew to Xianglu Peak and found the Administration Hall, only to be told that the old man surnamed Ma had left the peak and wouldn't return for several days. He had no choice but to head back empty-handed.

Over the next few days, Andy continued studying the Spirit-Concealing Art. He felt the technique wasn't overly complex—he was very nearly ready to begin practicing it. It did have one flaw, however: while concealing one's spiritual energy, one could not draw heavily on one's internal spiritual power. Doing so would instantly break the concealment.

One day, while he was practicing the Spirit-Concealing Art, a tiny jade bead the size of a soybean streaked toward his stone dwelling in a flash of red light and stopped at the protective formation's barrier. Andy tapped it lightly with his left hand, and the bead dropped into his palm. He squeezed gently. With a soft pop, the bead dissolved into motes of spiritual light, and a girl's pleasant voice sounded in his ears: "Brother Wugen, are you still cooped up inside cultivating? Let me show you around the sect!"

It was a Flying Talisman Message from Jian Xin'er.

Andy put away the ancient jade slip and stepped outside. Sure enough, Jian Xin'er was leaning against a bamboo stalk with a playful smile—but this time she wasn't alone. Beside her stood a fair-skinned, handsome young man of twenty-five or twenty-six, at the twelfth layer of Qi Refinement.

The moment she saw Andy, Jian Xin'er bounded over, grabbed his wrist, and said in a coy, clinging tone: "Brother Wugen, why haven't you come to see me these past few days?"

Andy was startled for a moment, then caught the look she was giving him—exaggerated, with a hint of urgent eye-signaling—and immediately understood what she was doing. He played along: "I just got here, I'm not familiar with the place yet—I was afraid I'd get lost. You could have come to find me, you know." He let his gaze drift briefly to the young man behind her.

The young man, seeing the two of them flirting shamelessly and ignoring him completely, flushed alternately red and white, visibly struggling to keep his temper.

"And this is?" Andy asked, since Jian Xin'er clearly had no intention of making introductions.

"Oh—this is Senior Brother Bai Chuli. Senior Brother Bai, this is my childhood sweetheart, Brother Wugen. His proper name is Andy." Jian Xin'er pretended to suddenly remember, rattling off the introduction with deliberate emphasis on the words "childhood sweetheart."

"Senior Brother Bai, a pleasure." Andy clasped his hands and bowed repeatedly. "What brings you here?"

The pale-faced young man's cheeks reddened slightly. He cleared his throat. "I heard that Junior Sister Jian was visiting Newcomer Valley, and I thought I'd come along to meet some of the promising new junior brothers."

"I see. Unfortunately, my own aptitude is rather poor—nothing worth Senior Brother Bai's time." Andy could tell perfectly well that the man's real interest lay entirely in Jian Xin'er, but he feigned ignorance.

"All right, enough with the stiff formalities! Senior Brother Bai, Brother Wugen and I are going to go sightseeing around the sect. There are plenty of other new disciples here for you to give pointers to—we'll be off now!" Jian Xin'er was already pulling Andy's arm as she spoke, and the two dashed out of the valley, summoned their Flying Plume artifacts, and soared away.

The pale-faced young man stood on the ground watching them shrink into the distance, no longer bothering to hide his fury. The veins at his temples stood out, his face a shifting canvas of red and white. He clenched both fists, raised his right hand, and slashed it downward with a vicious, whispered snarl: "Andy. If you don't wise up and stay away from Xin'er, I'll show you exactly what I'm capable of."

Having spat out this threat to no audience but himself, the pale-faced young man summoned his own artifact and flew off in the opposite direction.