Chapter 280: My Childhood is so Miserable
Because Zhu Yao was in a hurry, she did not watch where she was going. When she exited the grand hall, she bumped into several little radishes. They should be the new disciples who were admitted in this time, and they were about ten years old. Walking at the front were three children, and most likely because this was their first time visiting such a mystical place, their expressions were rather vivid. The first child’s face was filled with excitement, the second child’s face was filled with excitement, and the third child’s face was filled with… the word ‘bug’!
Zhu Yao stopped her feet all of a sudden, and had almost slipped within the hall.
“Little sister-in-law!” Qu Qu held onto her hand, preventing her from falling flat on her face.
Who’s your sister-in-law!?
No, that shouldn’t be what she should be concerned of right now. Zhu Yao turned around to look at the group of children who had already walked to the center of the hall, the depths of her heart were like the tumbling waves. The bug had once again appeared in such a sudden manner, without any notice whatsoever.
“Cricket, who’s that child over there?” She pointed to the little boy on the right.
“Isn’t he one of the newly admitted disciples?” Qu Qu gave her a ‘how would I know?’ look. “However, since he’s standing at the front row, he must have broken through the illusion at Trueheart Door. Unfortunately, they had never cultivated before their admission, so even if they had received an enlightenment, they were unable to raise their level of cultivation. Merely their convictions have strengthened.”
“The people standing at the front row are the ones who have received enlightenment?”
“Mn.”
Receiving a sudden enlightenment at the moment of admission was clearly the mark of a cheat! She suddenly recalled Xiao Yi. As expected, all bugs walked on the path of fortunate encounters. This child couldn’t possibly be the same as Xiao Yi, right?
She could not help but turn back and look into the hall. They had already begun testing spirit veins. Among the children who had received enlightenment, one possessed tri spirit veins, and one possessed duo spirit veins. Both of them had considerably good aptitudes, and even Qu Jiang’s expression had softened a little as well.
It was now that bugged child’s turn. He placed his hand onto the crystal ball, and instantly, one… two… three… five colours appeared in the ball.
Qu Jiang’s joyful feelings instantly plummeted to the depths of the valley once again!
Penta spirit veins!
Zhu Yao was stunned as well. There was something wrong with this setting! What happened to the promise of the bugged male protagonist being overpowered? Why did he possess penta spirit veins? Could it be the setting had changed, and he had to walk on the path of hard work!?
With doubts in her heart, she was pulled back into Skybond Peak by Qu Qu. Because she could even think of a reason why this bug was different from the rest, she was submerged into a hectic academic life.
Fellow award-winning Principal Qu Jiang personally came to supervise her revision. Everyday, he would come to stare at her cultivate, determined to raise her into a kind, smart and beautiful… ah pui. He’s determined to raise her into a high-end talent who could use all five types of mystic arts fluently. The eyes he had every single day were filled with fiery passion.
Even when she occasionally yawned, Qu Jiang would give her a long bitter lecture, wanting to guide her on the right path at every moment. With a heavy tone, he would say, “Senior-martial aunt… there’s not much time left!”
To the point where even she felt that half of her body had already returned to the earthen soil.
Can’t you let an elderly have a regular elderly life?
Whenever she encountered the slightest of problems with her cultivation, Qu Jiang would treat it as a huge matter concerning the sect and would gather all of the higher-ups with Nascent Soul cultivation and have a focused meeting. They would discuss and dwell deep into investigation, before finally coming up with perfect methods to solve the problems, afraid that she would take a detour. This degree of importance had even startled the grand committee’s… Demigod Sovereigns to make a move.
According to legends, one could see the head of a dragon, but not its tail. The two famed professors – Demigod Sovereigns of Ness Cesary Sect, were even taking turns to counsel and nag at her. Uh… That’s not right. They were imparting their various cultivation experiences to her. They had even especially written all of the possible difficult problems in a binded book- no, in a jade tablet, allowing her to check through them whenever she wanted.
This feeling of the entire population wishing for her to live a long life was truly scaring this old grandma.
“Grandma, Sect Master Master is doing what’s best for you.” Little tyrant said with a serious look.
Zhu Yao stroked the little head of the child who was acting like a mature person. “What do you know? According to scientific studies, there’s a need for moments of relaxation. The idea of pulling the saplings to make them grow is wrong.” She strongly protested, requesting a leave of absence.
“Grandma…” Little tyrant glanced at her face. “You’re already very old. There’s no need to grow anymore.”
“…” She felt like a knife had stabbed into her chest.
That’s not the meaning of the idiom ‘pulling the saplings to make them grow’, hey!
Pinching his chubby little cheeks, she then pulled them to the two sides. “What did you say!?” He actually dared to look down on her old age.
“Grandma… it hurts, it hurts!” He rubbed his reddened little face, and said with a wronged look. “What Little Bai said is right! There’s no way for me to get master to teach me even when I want it!”
Zhu Yao was stunned. She then carried him up and place him on her thighs. “What do you mean by no way? Isn’t Qu Jiang your master?”
“No, he’s Sect Master master, he’s different from my master.” He shook his head.
What did he mean by that? Only after Zhu Yao asked further did she find out. Apparently, Little Bai was the second generation of a pair of practitioners, and his parents could be considered to be in the middle-high tier in the sect with Azoth Core cultivation levels. However, both of them had fallen when he was still young. He possessed the metal and fire duo spirit veins, so he was taken in by one of the Nascent Soul higher-ups as a personal succeeding disciple. However, not long after admitting into the sect, his master had went into life-death isolation, and he had yet to come out of it. In order to prevent wasting the talent of possessing duo spirit veins, Principal Qu Jiang took him in to guide him, which was why Little Bai was addressing him as Sect Master master. However, the Sect Master was after all helping out to guide someone else’s disciple, so in regards to Little Bai’s cultivation, he naturally wasn’t strict like an actual master would be.
Compared to her intense lectures, Little Bai could be considered as an existence with free reins.
“No matter, just learn with grandma from now on.” Zhu Yao was decisive, and made a copy of all the materials Qu Jiang taught her for Little Bai. After all, she could not be the only one suffering.
In the beginning, Little Bai was still rather happy. However, as the things she gave her grew, his little face began to look complicated. There were too many materials, and as a child of ten years old, it was simply a little too hard for him to digest everything. She had no choice but to add a little of her own cultivation experience, especially the details that he had to take note of when establishing Foundation and forming the Azoth Core.
“Grandma, after learning all these, will I really become very strong?”
“Of course, you will become as incredible as grandma.” You must believe me, young man.
His eyes shone, but as though he had suddenly recalled something, he wavered again. “But isn’t it enough to simply eat a Foundation Pellet to establish my Foundation?”
Zhu Yao frowned. As a good successor to Jade Forest Peak, she instinctively hated pellets. “Little tyrant, when it comes to things like medicinal pellets, it’s best not to eat them!”
“Why?”
“……”
“Because…” Zhu Yao activated her children scaring mode. “Think, what are medicinal pellets made of?”
He lowered his little head and pondered for a moment before replying. “Spiritual herbs.”
“Right, spiritual herbs. Then think carefully again, what is your grandma’s original form?”
“Dandelion!”
“You see, dandelions are herbs as well. If medicinal pellets are made of spiritual herbs, then aren’t they made of lots and lots of plant-type corpses similar to grandma…”
Before she could even finish, little tyrant’s expression had already turned deathly pale. He looked at her fearfully, and as though he had recalled something, he covered his mouth while looking as if he was about to puke. Standing up on his feet, he then ran far away.
From Qu Jiang’s accidental slip of tongue, after little tyrant returned to his place, he had puked for exactly two hours, and the little tyrant even had several nightmares.
Zhu Yao felt like she was a criminal for harming the national flower! From that day forth, Little Bai began to distance himself from all medicinal pellets.
Mn, the effects sure are very evident.
After Principal Qu Jiang gave her another three months worth of theoretical and basic course materials, he forcefully requested her to go into closed-door training to digest them. He forbid every single person from coming to Skybond Peak to disturb her, including little tyrant and cricket. Zhu Yao simply did not have the opportunity to hear about the matters concerning the bug. Adding that she had yet to receive the precognitive dream about the scenario, she did not dare to move on her own.
It was rumoured that he was placed in the Outer Sect.
Through her estimates, that child was ten years old at the very most. Even if he wanted to do something like destroying the entire world, it would still only happen when he grows up.
He instructed Qu Qu to pay more attention about that unknown bugged child. If he were to ever face any danger, she would step in and prevent him from turning into someone like Xiao Yi with all her might, while correcting his three views.
After finishing these preparations, she officially began to cultivate with all her effort. Though she did not really agree with Qu Jiang’s hasty actions of wanting her to raise her cultivation level as soon as possible, with her present body, there was indeed a need for her to improve herself. Though she was much better than a regular elderly who would start panting after three steps and take a break after five steps, compared to other practitioners, she was presently too weak and her bones were rattling.
The palace of Skybond Peak was a very good place for closed-door training. Probably because of the entire floor being tiled up with spirit stones due the former owner’s money spilling behaviour, the spiritual energy within was more than ten times denser than anywhere else. She could even skip the step of setting down spiritual energy gathering formations and immediately search for a place where the five elemental spiritual energies were at their richest. Then, she began to meditate and close off her senses.
During this meditation period, though she did not form her Azoth Core, she had actually dreamt. If she was not wrong, then it would most likely be the nonsensical precognitive dream.
Compared to the previous scenarios, what she saw this time was an inspirational drama.
The main protagonist was called Ye Qingcang, and his plight was rather similar to the first bug, Xiao Yi. However, he was not an orphan. His family was extremely poor, and he was just a regular village boy that herds cows. Because of his skinny figure, he was often bullied by others, so he was a male protagonist belonging to the same “my childhood is so miserable” category.
Because of a fortunate encounter, he met a Foundation practitioner that was close to death, and he found out about cultivation and deities. As such, the brave young man packed a few large flatbreads and went on his way. After experiencing several trials, he finally entered a first-rate deity sect – Ness Cesary Sect. However, because of his poor aptitude of penta spirit veins, he was placed in the Outer Sect.
The Outer Sect was basically a gathering of people who had no hopes of reaching the Heavenly Dao, especially in a first-rate sect such as Ness Cesary Sect. The Outer Sect disciples were left on their own. Some of them could not even be considered as mere labourers, and the cultivation resources they received were fewer than few. No matter how hard they worked, they could only stop at the Foundation level. Furthermore, a large portion of the disciples could not establish their Foundations in their entire lives.
Ye Qingcang had believed that he was fortunate in the beginning, as he had stepped on the path of longevity. However, slowly, he realized that this path was more cruel than the one he had before. There were a large number of Outer Sect disciples, but because of poor resources, the higher-ups of the sect had never set their eyes on these disciples, which thus led to a few chaotic mess on the management side. Various hidden acts of bullying and pressuring often happened, yet no one managed them.
Thus, Ye Qingcang once again raided the “my childhood is so miserable” dungeon. Putting aside the resources given by the sect, even the Hunger Dispelling Pellets that were given every month would also be taken away by the other disciples through various means.
His cultivation thus grew even harder to progress, and he had experienced every form of hard and dirty work.