Chapter 11: The Top Priority

Chapter 11: The Most Important Matter

"How could you be studying in secret?"

Mo Xi found it hard to believe.

If Mo Xi had to pick the two most lazy disciples in the entire Celestial Spirit Sect, it would definitely not be the dead-last Senior Brother Yu Wenxuan, nor the bookworm-in-chief Senior Sister Ran Deng, but the siblings standing before him.

After all, to better conduct business, Xiang Rong had even given up his status as an inner disciple.

This had to do with their background.

The Xiang siblings were "locals"—children of ordinary mountain folk near the Celestial Spirit Sect. But unlike other disciples who were selected and recruited for having spiritual roots, the twins were unfortunately born in a year when the Celestial Spirit Sect wasn't taking in new disciples. They'd also hit a famine, and their family was so poor they were about to sell Xiang Yi to a sixty-year-old geezer in the village.

When Xiang Rong heard about this, he grabbed Xiang Yi by the hand and ran off. The two nine-year-old children trekked hundreds of miles over mountain roads before collapsing near the peach trees at the sect's gate.

They obviously hadn't come looking for immortality—someone had used this place's spooky stories to scare them, and they'd come here to die on purpose.

Fortunately, the siblings turned out to have spiritual roots. The elder brother Xiang Rong had a triple spiritual root of fire, wood, and metal, while his sister Xiang Yi had metal, fire, and wood. For a third-rate sect like the Celestial Spirit Sect, they just barely made the cut for the inner sect, but to get anywhere—like reaching Nascent Soul or above—they'd need serious cultivation, tons of pills and spirit stones, and a little "luck."

Once they figured out their situation, the two siblings played it smart—one stayed in the outer sect, the other joined the inner sect—and started working together to game the resource gap between the inner and outer sects for spirit stones.

They'd been scared poor. Even after becoming cultivators, they didn't chase after the dreamy Three Thousand Great Dao. They felt like mayflies, here today and gone tomorrow, just wanting a moment of peace.

And now these two were actually studying?!

Mo Xi would've rather believed they were plotting to backstab him!

Mo Xi stared at them, heartbroken, and demanded, "It's just one sect-wide exam. The Master never said the results matter. Why are you killing yourselves over it?"

"We can't not study!" Xiang Yi said mournfully. "Everyone's doing it."

As she spoke, Xiang Yi pulled two bamboo scrolls from the drawer—actual account books this time.

Xiang Yi was always careful with her business. She'd recorded not just the sales, but who bought what, how many copies, and their feedback afterward.

Mo Xi took them and flipped through, his face growing complicated.

He'd been in charge of prepping for the sect-wide exam lately, so he'd gotten the most detailed census of the Celestial Spirit Sect from Qu Qianxing. Comparing the two, it was easy to tell who'd bought the papers.

And just as Xiang Yi said, every disciple who needed to take the exam had bought one—and—

"Isn't this Old Huang from the Delicacy Tower? He's a cook—what's he doing buying exam papers?! And this Zhang Xi—he's the handyman in charge of the spirit fields, right? Why's he butting in?!"

Xiang Yi had asked them the same thing: "They said they're also members of the sect and have the right to take the exam—even if they don't need to this time, who knows if the Lord Immortal Venerable might make them take it later?"

"Okay, forget the cook and the handyman—what about these people? Their names aren't even in the registry!"

"These are wandering cultivators passing through. They bought them because they admire the Immortal Venerable's name."

"And why are there pre-orders?"

"These are from allied cultivation families. They pre-ordered for their kids."

"..."

Mo Xi rubbed his temples.

"If you don't want this, I can go refund the pre-orders?" Xiang Yi asked, watching Mo Xi's expression.

"No..." The repairs on the Silent Words Palace were already bleeding money; Mo Xi wasn't about to turn any away.

So basically, everyone with a reason to buy the papers had bought them. This was exactly what Mo Xi wanted—so why didn't he feel happy about it?

Xiang Yi didn't dare say more, just kept explaining: "Since everyone's working so hard, we figure the average score this time will jump way up compared to last time. If I do too badly, I'm scared I'll get kicked out of the inner sect."

"...The Master never said that." Mo Xi said flatly.

But with Zhou Hui making such a big deal about the exam lately, Mo Xi couldn't be totally sure it wouldn't happen.

"Fine, study if you want!" Mo Xi looked away from Xiang Yi and glared at Xiang Rong instead: "What about you? You don't have to worry about being expelled from the sect, right?!"

After all, the outer sect couldn't fall any lower.

In the cultivation world, "inner disciple" puts more weight on "disciple"—they're real students, and without a formal master, they can actually get kicked out for bad grades.

But outer disciples are basically handymen—it's a "job," kinda like a state-owned company in another world, except the pay's way worse. As long as you don't screw up big, you won't get kicked out.

Xiang Rong could just coast along.

But Xiang Rong gave a bitter smile: "I don't have to worry about getting kicked out, but if I score too badly, it could hurt my business!"

"Hurt your business?"

"Yeah, I'm the one selling the papers. If I end up dead last, even if the papers had nothing to do with me, people will start doubting if they're any good," Xiang Rong said helplessly. "And it's not just the papers—people will question the pills and artifacts I sell too!"

Damn... that actually made sense!

For the first time, the Xiang siblings had left Mo Xi completely speechless.

His face turned red, his fists clenched and unclenched, and finally he flicked his sleeve:

"Do whatever you want!"

Mo Xi stormed out of Xiang Yi's room.

The siblings exchanged a look, but only for a second before Xiang Yi picked up the practice book:

"Keep going?"

"Yeah."

"The Abyssal Sea was formed when...!"

Xiang Yi was reading the problem when she heard a bang at the door. She looked up and saw Mo Xi back at the door, glaring at her with those mismatched cat eyes.

The hairs on the back of Xiang Yi's neck prickled. She instinctively tried to hide the practice book again.

But Mo Xi held out his hand:

"Hand it over!"

"?"

"The new exam papers you got, and the practice book—copy them for me," Mo Xi demanded. "No—all the exam papers and answer keys. Give me a copy of everything!"

"..."

Xiang Rong and Xiang Yi weren't dumb. They didn't ask why Mo Xi wanted them, just copied everything onto a jade slip as fast as they could and handed it over.

Then they respectfully sent off this jinx whose only redeeming quality was his face.

*

"Master, the little junior brother has started studying!"

Zhou Hui looked at his fifth disciple, Lu Shulong, who had rushed over to him excitedly.

This disciple of his was also a great beauty.

However, unlike the bright and dazzling Qu Qianxing, Lu Shulong's appearance belonged to the melancholic type.

He probably had some demon blood in him, which gave him a head of silver-blue hair, but it didn't look strange against his delicate features. His long, slender willow-shaped brows seemed perpetually furrowed, his pale glass-colored eyes always seemed hazy, and there was a beauty mark under the corner of his left eye that gave him a somewhat gloomy air.

Perhaps because of this appearance, Heaven's Dao had spitefully written a melancholy ending that "matched" his looks:

When the Celestial Spirit Sect was destroyed, he was originally sent by Qu Qianxing to transfer the wealth from the alchemy warehouse, but upon hearing the news of Zhou Hui's death, Lu Shulong burned down the alchemy hall with a blast of Samadhi Fire, sacrificing himself along with it, keeping the protagonist's loot within a range that wouldn't break the power curve of a progression novel.

But if you actually got to know Lu Shulong, you'd know his personality had nothing to do with his appearance.

Lu Shulong loved to smile, a bright and sunny grin that revealed a canine tooth. It seemed like a total waste of his good looks, but it was contagious, making anyone who saw it crack a smile too.

At least as his master, Zhou Hui preferred Lu Shulong when he was smiling.

Zhou Hui also smiled: "How did you know the kid's started studying?"

"I just passed by the Bùyán Palace and saw the little junior brother hiding in a corner studying secretly. He looked really focused, so I didn't bother him," Lu Shulong said happily. "He's definitely gonna do well on his next test."

...Whether Mo Xi's grades would improve was anyone's guess, but their bond was solid.

Zhou Hui thought, amused.

So far, his second, third, fourth, and fifth disciples had all put in a good word for the little junior brother, directly or indirectly. It seemed that despite all of Mo Xi's flaws, the kid had people skills.

Although it was precisely because the inner disciples of the Celestial Spirit Sect were so tight-knit that they ended up in a "Huluwa saves grandpa" situation, getting taken out in one go, that wasn't their fault.

Zhou Hui was pretty pleased with how well his disciples got along.

He mulled over whether to give his little disciple an out and asked Mo Bei beside him, "So Xi'er should be just about ready to regret taking on all those tasks by now, huh?"

"Huh? Ah!"

Mo Bei was spacing out and took a second to realize Zhou Hui was talking to her.

Mo Bei was Mo Xi's twin sister, with a face almost identical to his, except their eye colors were complete opposites.

But unlike Mo Xi's spark, Mo Bei seemed totally vacant, like a lifeless doll. Pretty as she was, she was so blank she seemed completely devoid of emotion.

Given how out of it she seemed, it was hard to imagine she'd one day lose her mind over some guy, willing to join his harem, betray the Celestial Spirit Sect for him, even selling out her own master's weaknesses.

But if you looked closely, the signs were there.

Mo Bei was currently throwing her brother under the bus without hesitation:

"Mo Xi hasn't learned his lesson at all... Not only that, he even came up with a half-assed renovation plan to cut corners and save spirit stones. He clearly still needs Master to knock some sense into him."

"What kind of plan?" Zhou Hui asked with interest.

Mo Bei explained Mo Xi's task completion plan in detail.

After hearing it, Zhou Hui was caught between amused and exasperated: "That kid's got some street smarts. The idea's actually not bad, but unfortunately his cultivation level... Ha, letting him suffer a bit won't hurt."

Hearing that, Mo Bei went back to her doll-like standby mode.

Lu Shulong shrugged and, like Ran Deng and Guan Ye, silently said a prayer for the little junior brother.

He figured the little junior brother might as well have been strung up in a tree like the senior brother! That would've been a quicker way to go.

Lu Shulong's own grades weren't good either, so he didn't dare say anything more. Besides, he and Mo Bei weren't there for Mo Xi's sake, but for the "official business" their master had assigned:

"Master, regarding the full-sect examination at Bùyán Palace, should we keep it a secret from the guests?"

"Hmm?"

"I've confirmed with the guests from the Heavenly Dao Alliance that they'll arrive on the day of our full-sect examination," Lu Shulong said. "But with an event like the full-sect exam, and the little junior brother's plan making it so... elaborate, I'm worried it might tip off those guests."

"It doesn't matter," Zhou Hui said coldly.

If they were coming during the full-sect examination, it probably wasn't a mere "coincidence," so there was no need to worry about tipping them off.

"Just receive them as usual. If they don't ask, treat it as nothing. If they're interested in the full-sect examination, let them observe. But regardless, the full-sect examination comes first. Don't let those 'guests' affect our disciples' exams."

"Yes."

Lu Shulong and Mo Bei acknowledged.