Chapter 54: The Distinctiveness of the Peak of Heavenly Law

Not wanting to dwell on the issue any longer, Ji Yao changed the subject and directly asked Situ Jing about Mo Daoyan taking her as his disciple.

“Him? He’s not bad. If you look at Lingyun Sect as it is now, he’s probably the most suitable master for you,” Situ Jing explained, offering three reasons for Ji Yao’s sake.

“First, he is the head of the Law Enforcement Hall. Second, he’s a man of principle and rather open-minded—not excessively rigid, even though he’s a sword cultivator. Third, Tianlü Peak’s relationships are simple: apart from the Law Enforcement Hall’s personnel, there are only the three of them, master and disciples.”

Ji Yao had never known that Situ Jing paid such attention to Mo Daoyan. Was it because of her?

This thought made Ji Yao’s eyes suddenly turn red with emotion.

“Silly girl, what’s gotten into you? I thought you were so mature, but it turns out you’re still just a child at heart!” Situ Jing teased, pulling Ji Yao out of her mood.

“I know, Senior, you’re afraid you might leave at any moment and I’d be left alone, so you’re helping me find someone to rely on in advance, right?”

“Heh! You certainly think a lot.” Situ Jing couldn’t help but smile. “If you want to get rid of me, you’ll have to complete my tasks first. That won’t happen until you’re at least at Nascent Soul or even Soul Formation stage. With your talent, it’ll be several hundred years before that’s possible.”

Learning that Situ Jing wouldn’t disappear anytime soon, Ji Yao felt inexplicably happy.

“Still grinning like a fool?” Suddenly, Situ Jing knocked on Ji Yao’s head from afar with spiritual power.

“The opportunity you just gained from Mo Daoyan—aren’t you going to make the most of it? Sit and cultivate right now. I’ll help you trigger the suppressed insight. Use the combat experience you gained in the recent tournament and break through to the tenth level of Qi Refining in one go.”

What? Was that really the case? Did she experience an epiphany? It didn’t feel like the way others described it!

With no time for further thought, Ji Yao immediately followed Situ Jing’s instructions, sitting cross-legged on the meditation mat and beginning to draw in spiritual energy and enter a state of stillness.

In truth, such moments of insight are hard to detect—even when she was in front of Mo Daoyan, he only sensed that Ji Yao had grasped her Dao heart, not that she had a suppressed epiphany.

It was all thanks to the long-lived Situ Jing; otherwise, such a latent insight might only erupt during a major breakthrough—or, more often, remain undiscovered and slowly dissipate over time.

It had only been a little over a month since her last breakthrough to the ninth level of Qi Refining. Now, with Situ Jing’s help, it took only three days for Ji Yao to advance to the tenth level.

If not for Situ Jing’s reminder not to rush things, Ji Yao might have wanted to keep riding that momentum straight to the top.

She spent another day consolidating her unstable cultivation before finally finishing and rising to her feet.

Feeling her body brimming with spiritual energy, Ji Yao wanted to laugh out loud. After being stifled for so long, she had finally become a fifteen-year-old prodigy who reached the tenth level of Qi Refining.

Despite this, Ji Yao understood the gap between herself and the others. She had the benefit of her own space, a high-grade spirit jade array, and Situ Jing’s help—only with those did she achieve such rapid progress.

Had she been in the same circumstances as the others, she would likely still be lingering at the seventh level of Qi Refining at this point.

It had been eight days since her last tournament match and subsequent breakthrough. The sect’s grand competition was over, and today was the day for distributing rewards and announcing those admitted to the inner sect—she needed to make an appearance.

As expected, the first place in the Qi Refining stage competition went to the young man who had comprehended sword intent, while Shi Xiuyue, whom Ji Yao had faced in her last match, ranked ninth.

As for the other contestants, Ji Yao had some understanding of them and had already guessed at their rankings. The results of the top ten were largely as she had predicted, holding little surprise.

She didn’t envy the rewards of the top ten, but she did pay special attention to Shi Xiuyue’s destination—he had been assigned to Blazing Flame Peak, which made sense given his spiritual roots.

However, Shi Xiuyue seemed to have stuck to his principles as always, refusing to rely on family connections and honestly joining Blazing Flame Peak as an ordinary inner disciple. His progress had been steady and reliable.

Ji Yao nodded to Shi Xiuyue from a distance, exchanged messaging talismans, and they each went their separate ways to their assigned peaks.

As Ji Yao walked, she began to sense something was wrong.

Why? Out of a hundred people, why was she the only one assigned to Tianlü Peak?

That wasn’t the main issue. The main issue was that she was a girl—and Tianlü Peak was entirely male, not a single other female in sight!

How was she supposed to handle this?

She could already imagine the looks she would get from everyone—what a headache!

Gu Qiu, Senior Brother Gu? From now on, you’ll be Second Senior Brother. Just you wait!

Infusing her legs with spiritual power, Ji Yao hurried off toward Tianlü Peak.

As the new junior sister at Tianlü Peak, Ji Yao was greeted with a barrage of enthusiastic welcomes. Every person in disciple’s robes she met had higher cultivation and was older than her, so she had to call each one “senior brother”—it was exhausting!

Even though Ji Yao maintained a reserved smile, after making a round, her face was stiff from smiling.

Weren’t Tianlü Peak disciples supposed to be aloof? Weren’t they supposed to be serious, unsmiling?

Where did this group of sunflowers come from, beaming at her as if they’d just bloomed? Drag them all away!

She had never known the Law Enforcement Hall could be like this!

One after another, disciples in indigo robes, upon hearing that she was the new junior sister, grinned so widely it was almost unsettling.

Only when Mo Daoyan, the head of the Law Enforcement Hall, appeared did this strange group of creatures return to normal—their change of expression was lightning-fast.

In an instant, they all stood tall and expressionless, as if their earlier smiles had been nothing but Ji Yao’s imagination.

Ji Yao wanted nothing more than to cling to Mo Daoyan’s leg and weep.

Master, you’ve finally come riding your rainbow cloud to rescue your disciple—there’s a whole group of lunatics here, your disciple is terrified!

But reality had no such warmth.

“Head (Master)!” Ji Yao bowed along with the other disciples to Mo Daoyan.

“Mm.” Mo Daoyan nodded calmly, his face serene.

The disciples of the Law Enforcement Hall dispersed in an orderly fashion, each returning to their tasks.

Soon, only Mo Daoyan and Ji Yao remained at the scene.

“Come with me.”

Mo Daoyan acted as if he hadn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary and beckoned for Ji Yao to follow, turning toward the other side of Tianlü Peak.

Indeed, wisdom comes with age! Taking advantage of Mo Daoyan’s back being turned, Ji Yao vigorously massaged her stiff facial muscles before following after him.

The two of them walked in single file until they reached the bamboo grove where Ji Yao had last met Mo Daoyan.

“It wouldn’t be convenient for you to live with the other inner disciples on Tianlü Peak, so you might as well move directly here to the Sword Tempering Grove. When you formally become my disciple, you won’t have to move again.”

With that, Mo Daoyan led Ji Yao into the bamboo grove, stopping not far from the place where he and his two disciples lived.

To be precise, the few bamboo cottages assigned to Ji Yao were separated from their residence by a large pond, facing each other across the water.

“You’ll live here from now on,” Mo Daoyan said, and Ji Yao felt a deep sense of comfort settle in her heart.