Chapter 27: Aspiration

Chapter 27: Admiration

Whether Mo Bei was dumb or not was anyone's guess, but she definitely had "strength" in spades.

The Extreme Yin Body was a constitution that got a seriously bad rap in the cultivation world.

It was widely believed that male cultivators with this constitution were naturally cunning and treacherous, prone to going off the deep end and falling into demonic paths; while female cultivators with it were slutty and unfaithful, not the type to stay home—but prime cauldron material.

Conversely, leaving aside whether the constitution actually warps your personality, both "cultivation deviation" and "superior cauldron" take a pretty high Cultivation Level to pull off. Cultivators stressing over whether they'd ever hit Foundation Establishment or Golden Core didn't have that problem.

Therefore, as long as the Swordsmanship, Cultivation Method, and Spells were suitable, Mo Bei leveled up at a breakneck pace.

It was only because she happened to run into a teacher like Zhou Hui, who was a stickler for fundamentals and made his disciples chew every move over and over until they'd fully digested it before moving on—except for an outlier like Yu Wenxuan, who could level up even if you left him alone—that Mo Bei and Mo Xi wouldn't have been stuck at just Middle Foundation Establishment.

And Mo Bei's number-one fan (X) Yu Feifei got a front-row seat to the genius's progress.

On the first day, she just thought Junior Sister Mo's sword forms were graceful and smooth, fitting for the master's inner disciple. Even though she'd started learning swords later than most sword cultivators in the sect, she was still more proficient than others. The only hiccup was a slight stiffness between moves, and the water droplets from her whirling soft sword came out all choppy;

By day two, Junior Sister Mo's transitions were way smoother. There were still a few obvious holes, but the water droplets were getting thicker;

By day three, the flaws in her sword forms had shrunk, and the droplets were even thicker now;

On the fourth day...

On the fifth day...

By day six, her sword forms were flawless, and the droplets had turned into a curtain of rain, misting over the Snow Glow Grass around her;

By day seven, her sword forms looked the same, but the rain curtain was all over the place—heavy one second, light the next—hard to control;

On the eighth day, the sword forms still hadn't changed, and neither had the rain curtain;

On the ninth day...

On the tenth day...

By day eleven, a faint sword wind was starting to stir in her forms, and mastery seemed right around the corner...

Yu Feifei watched from the sidelines, her heart hammering.

What shocked her wasn't that Mo Bei was close to mastering the sword forms in eleven days—though that was indeed remarkable, it was pretty much expected for someone who knew Mo Bei's deal—but Mo Bei's sheer hard work.

The Snow Glow Grass outside Mo Bei's cave wasn't just some little lawn. To get that kind of stunning look, you had to cover a whole mountain peak, so that from a distance, a rainbow-hued mountain rose out of the mist like something out of a dream.

Watering all that Snow Glow Grass was no joke.

Back when she used buckets, it was easier—she could cast a spell and douse a huge patch in one go. But now that she'd switched to the unfamiliar sword forms, she trained from the crack of dawn (the Mao hour) all the way to noon, then sat in meditation and reviewed her cultivation methods for two hours, and then round two of "watering" would start.

So basically, whenever Yu Feifei and the others came to check on Mo Bei, they'd almost always catch her practicing.

At first, everyone was all chatter about how pretty Junior Sister Mo's sword forms were, debating which move to use for the chess pieces. Some even hauled over stone stools and chess boards to kill time while they waited;

Three or four days later, some started fretting over Junior Sister Mo's health and began talking about "maintenance" (X) plans;

By five or six days in, fewer folks were goofing off while waiting for her to finish; more were watching with serious faces;

By seven or eight days, people were swapping sword technique questions, and after Mo Bei finished practicing, they didn't just say hi and hand her tea—they'd ask Junior Sister Mo for pointers on sword practice like proper juniors.

On day eleven, someone showed up with their own sword and magic gear.

"You guys are seriously gonna train along?" Yu Feifei finally cracked.

"But just sitting here watching makes me feel so guilty!" someone replied.

Turns out, more than one person felt that way: "Yeah, with talent like Junior Sister Mo's, she doesn't waste a single second every day. The rest of us aren't even as good as her, and we're just messing around all day—how can we stand it!"

"At this rate, I won't even have the nerve to call her Junior Sister anymore."

"Now I actually feel like I can ask her things."

The disciples let out sighs, and Yu Feifei clutched her chest, unable to refute them.

Because she actually felt the same way.

"But do you all remember why you came to watch Junior Sister Mo practice in the first place?" Yu Feifei said resolutely. "We're here for the Immortal Chess competition!"

"But it doesn't conflict! After practice ends here, we can still go back and play a couple of rounds."

"I think understanding a bit more about sword forms might help with how to fight."

"Exactly, I'm an array cultivator. I never really got the Flying Spirit Sword Technique before, but after practicing a few moves this time, I feel like I've got new ideas for breaking arrays in combat."

"Fellow enthusiasts" chattered all at once, leaving Yu Feifei speechless:

How terrifying!

The Celestial Spirit Sect was terrifying!

Back when Yu Feifei was in her clan, she'd already been extremely competitive. That was how she stood out among her father's seventeen or eighteen sons and daughters to gain entry into the immortal sect. Later, she out-competed others and caught the eye of the palace's chief steward. Although her low birth held her back, causing her to be sent to the Celestial Spirit Sect as a planted agent, it was still another stroke of fortune.

—That's right, Yu Feifei was not an ordinary inner disciple. She was a spy, a spy from the Carefree Palace.

Back then, when Zhou Hui had razed the Fallen Immortal Palace in a fit of rage, the Carefree Palace, as the true headquarters, had publicly distanced itself—"What is the Fallen Immortal Palace? Nothing to do with us," "Perhaps some stewards were from the Carefree Palace, but they took advantage of being far from oversight to commit all sorts of evil, and we knew nothing about it," "Many thanks to Tireless Immortal Venerable for eliminating the evil and removing the tumor that was leeching off our reputation"—but privately, they were definitely not convinced.

Unfortunately, they could do nothing against a Tribulation Transcendence Stage powerhouse, so they could only insert spies like Yu Feifei into the Celestial Spirit Sect. For now, they hadn't asked her to do anything except give them a heads-up before the next time the powerhouse went berserk.

When Yu Feifei arrived at the Celestial Spirit Sect, she discovered that while this sect might lack many things, it excelled in its learning environment.

With Tireless Immortal Venerable as a role model at the top, and setting aside the exceptional Yu Wenxuan, everyone from Second Senior Brother Qu Qianxing downward was single-mindedly devoted to the Dao and diligently studying. Combined with the library that was open all twelve hours of the day, and the learning environment where observing others' cultivation was openly encouraged, there was an atmosphere here where not cultivating diligently felt like letting down eighteen generations of ancestors.

Objectively speaking, the last inner sect examination turning into a sect-wide examination was truly no coincidence.

This was how the Celestial Spirit Sect always operated: whenever Zhou Hui taught the inner disciples or direct disciples some new learning method, it would spread through the entire sect like wildfire at lightning speed, and then everyone would compete together.

In such an environment, Yu Feifei should have thrived like a fish in water, but in reality, she didn't feel that way at all.

She was horrified to discover that her former "excellence" was actually built on the fact that everyone around her was lazy and slacking off. When everyone was competing like twisted hemp, her meager talent was no longer enough!

Take the last sect-wide examination as an example.

When all the disciples started passing around the exam papers and memorizing the test scope, Yu Feifei enjoyed doing the papers well enough, but when she finally looked at the rankings, she was still in the middle of the pack.

Worst of all, with those results, before she could even reflect on her mistakes, a secret letter from the Fallen Immortal Palace suddenly arrived, asking her: "What exactly happened to Su Xin, son of the Plum Bamboo Heroic Couple, when he was visiting the Celestial Spirit Sect?"

Yu Feifei was completely baffled at the time:

Who is Su Xin?

What visit?

We're literally in the middle of the sect exam—how would we have seen any visitors show up?

You're not saying your "honored guest" would actually show up to take the exam, right?

Of course, that answer didn't cut it with the Fallen Immortal Palace. First, her contact person chewed her out, then her superior docked her monthly pay, and finally her father sent a letter, blowing his top, saying that if she didn't do her job for the Fallen Immortal Palace right, he'd cut ties with her as his daughter.

Ha, like that dad ever gave a damn about their father-daughter bond anyway.

Yu Feifei ripped up the letter, but she still had to swallow her pride and write a groveling letter of self-criticism, promising to keep a close eye on everything going on in the Celestial Spirit Sect and report back properly next time.

Luckily, "next time" didn't seem to be coming anytime soon.

After the big sect exam, Lord Immortal Venerable finally seemed to think everyone needed a breather. He rolled out Immortal Chess and set up a tournament for it.

Yu Feifei put on a big show of being into the event—signing up all eager, jumping into every discussion, and throwing down heavy bets. But behind the scenes, she was burning the midnight oil every night, grinding away at her cultivation.

That said, her support for Mo Bei was a hundred percent genuine.

After all, coming from the same Fallen Immortal Palace (Carefree Palace) background herself, one of Yu Feifei's spy duties was keeping tabs on Mo Bei and Mo Xi—Yu Feifei figured the palace still couldn't stand to let go of this pair of pricey assets and was looking for a chance to get them back—which is how she found out Mo Bei and Mo Xi had the Extreme Yin Body.

In Yu Feifei's eyes, a gift like that was obviously the ultimate chess piece.

And hey, if she had a good enough excuse, she could use getting close to Mo Bei to hit up the Fallen Immortal Palace for some activity funding.

For both official and personal reasons, Yu Feifei put her money on Mo Bei.

But she never saw this coming!

Who knew that even here in the Celestial Spirit Sect, someone with the Extreme Yin Body would be this driven?

Back in the Fallen Immortal Palace and Carefree Palace, those "sisters" were either dolling themselves up or comparing clients, occasionally moaning about their fates, never buying that cultivating could be faster than raking in spiritual power from sleeping with clients.

But this Extreme Yin Body over here was practicing every single move a hundred times a day without even looking tired!

Who wouldn't get anxious watching that?

Anyway, last night Yu Feifei only got two hours of sleep—she spent the rest of the time secretly practicing her spells.

What pissed her off was that she clearly wasn't the only one feeling the heat—the other "chess buddies" who were just as obsessed were also starting to crack.

No way! This couldn't keep up.

But after practicing all night and burning through her spiritual power, she had zero energy left to keep up with these people.

Yu Feifei coughed and said seriously, "Are you all here just to leech off Junior Sister Mo's spiritual energy? Don't forget, our goal is to help Junior Sister Mo take the win!"

"But besides fetching her water and handing her clothes, there's nothing else we can do."

"Even cheering from the sidelines feels like we might mess up her sword practice."

"Tsk, you guys are way too green," Yu Feifei said. "Momentum is part of the game too!"

"What do you mean?"

"Think about it—if watching Junior Sister Mo train makes us sweat, imagine how her opponents feel? And those who didn't choose Mo Bei?" Yu Feifei said. "As long as we build up this unstoppable 'Mo Bei's gonna win' momentum, we can steamroll the competition."

"That actually makes sense. So what do we do?"

"Did anyone bring any 'sight'-type artifacts? Let's find a good angle and record Junior Sister Mo's sword practice. Oh, and if anyone's got a playback artifact, even better—we can put together all of Junior Sister Mo's practice sessions from the past few days..."

Yu Feifei dug up the promo tricks from Carefree Palace auctions and clumsily bossed the other disciples into action.

A day later, Mo Bei saw a giant illusion playback of her own sword practice in the library and nearly fell off her flying sword from the shock—but that's a story for later.

*

Now the pressure was squarely on Mo Bei's opponents.

"How the hell did they come up with this? Illusions of Junior Sister Mo everywhere," Yan Fei complained.

He stepped out of his cave dwelling, looked up, and there she was—the girl's blank face and graceful figure.

She swung a flying sword, and even though he knew it was an illusion, Yan Fei couldn't help but flinch.

These were the illusions that had been popping up all over the library and the Silent Palace lately, complete with banners saying "Junior Sister Mo is the Strongest" and "Immortal Maiden Mo Will Win." But the place with the most wasn't those public areas—it was near the cave dwellings of the strongest sword cultivator disciples in the Celestial Spirit Sect, practically shoved in their faces.

During the day it wasn't so bad, but at night, they looked like ghosts or assassins. This morning, Yu Cong got up to wash and nearly fell into the water vat after a suddenly appearing illusion scared the hell out of him.

Yu Cong, as a victim, didn't sympathize with Yan Fei at all and mocked him: "If it were Junior Sister Mo, fine, but if it were all your illusions, that would be a true nightmare."

"That's true," Yan Fei actually agreed.

He gazed at the illusion of Mo Bei nearest his cave dwelling, mimicked her sword flourish, and couldn't help but praise: "Junior Sister Mo executed this move perfectly. I never imagined it could have such an effect."

"Right? If it were you, it would be public execution," Yu Cong added.

He itched to draw his own sword and started demonstrating on the spot: "Your opening move is too fast, which makes the follow-up less smooth."

"But I don't want to give up this opening," Yan Fei said troubled. "Even if I sacrifice fluidity later, gaining the initiative in a real fight might be better, right?"

"That's hard to say..."

The two sword cultivators stood there discussing, leaving Yu Feifei, who had come to observe the "enemy situation," speechless.

She couldn't help asking them, "Aren't you afraid of losing?"

"...Of course I'm afraid!" Yan Fei gave Yu Feifei a strange look.

"Then why not give up?" Yu Feifei demanded. "Or do you think you can win?"

"No, it's not about winning or losing. Such a great opportunity—as a sword cultivator, I absolutely can't pass it up," Yan Fei said, looking at Yu Cong. "If you're afraid of losing, you'll never have a chance to improve, right?"

"Exactly. The stronger the opponent, the more you can hone yourself," Yu Cong nodded in agreement. "I'm even envious that A-Fei gets to compete against such an opponent—I wonder if Junior Sister Mo would agree to a sparring match if I asked?"

"..." These people from the Celestial Spirit Sect were completely broken!

In the Carefree Palace, no one would ever act like this. No one would strive for something destined to fail.

Yu Feifei thought with a headache.

At that moment, Yan Fei and Yu Cong both stared straight at Yu Feifei: "Did you put up these illusions?"

"So what?" Yu Feifei said. "Aren't you not giving up?"

"Not giving up is one thing, but putting these right outside our doors is going too far!" Yu Cong said. "If I didn't know this had nothing to do with Junior Sister Mo directly, I'd almost hate her." If he knew the term "anti-fan," he'd have even more to complain about.

"And Junior Sister Mo doesn't need such tricks, right?" Yan Fei flourished his sword and pointed it at Yu Feifei. "You're a contestant in the chess tournament, aren't you? These illusions make those who didn't choose Mo Bei feel nervous. You're not just cheering for Mo Bei—you're using her to pressure your own opponents!"

"This doesn't violate the rules!" Yu Feifei took a step back. "If you're unhappy, you can report me!"

"It hasn't come to that. Anyway, such petty tricks won't work! I will win!"

Yan Fei declared, his voice full of righteous fury, "Whether it's swordsmanship or chess!"

With that, he sheathed his sword and made a dashing exit with Yu Cong.

Yu Feifei stood there, staring at them in disbelief.

For some reason, she couldn't help the smile tugging at her lips, feeling a strange sense of anticipation.

Wait, anticipation?

Of what—losing?

Her own loss, or Junior Sister Mo's?

Yu Feifei stared blankly at their retreating backs, lost in thought.

They hadn't gotten far when Yan Fei suddenly turned around and asked, "By the way, do you still have copies of that giant portrait of Junior Sister Mo hanging in Buyan Hall?"

"...Ten spirit stones per copy." Yu Feifei said flatly.

She figured this guy was a lost cause.

*

And sure enough, Yan Fei was a lost cause.

He didn't even last three moves against Mo Bei before getting taken down.

To be fair, Mo Bei one-shot all her opponents—some didn't even know what hit them before they lost.

Yan Fei managed to hold out for a full minute against Mo Bei, which was actually pretty impressive.

In any case, because of Mo Bei's existence, the Sword Cultivator bracket of this chess-piece selection tournament became the most boring competition to watch.

That cemented Mo Bei's status as the Celestial Spirit Sect's top sword cultivator.

Her display of power shut up anyone who'd had doubts about her.

As for those bamboo slips recording the matches, every single one was sold out afterward. The spirit stones they raked in would've kept the "Mo Bei Fan Club" going for ages—if Mo Xi hadn't come along and shaken her down for a cut.

*

Finally, it's over!

Mo Bei thought, feeling like she'd just survived a catastrophe.

She sheathed her sword, and the sight of her giant portrait still hanging over the arena made her head spin.

God only knows how she'd survived these past few days!

With those portraits and replays looping on repeat, Mo Bei felt like she couldn't show her face in the sect anymore. She'd even asked her master for a ten-year seclusion—and got shot down.

The competition was over now, so those damn portraits would come down, right?

Mo Bei thought hopefully, dodging people who wanted to congratulate her, and took a less crowded path to slip out of the library. She hadn't made it far when she spotted someone sitting on the stairs.

And it was the head of her fan club—Mo Bei recalled the girl's name was Yu Feifei?

Mo Bei instinctively turned to bolt, but the girl's ashen face made her stop in her tracks.

"...You lost?" Mo Bei ventured.

She remembered the girl had come to apologize before the finals, saying her own match clashed with Mo Bei's final, so she couldn't come cheer her on.

Mo Bei had been relieved at the time.

Honestly, Mo Bei's whole one-move-wonder strategy was just so she wouldn't have to watch a bunch of people waving banners and cheering for her—way too cringe.

But now, Yu Feifei was clearly nowhere near as enthusiastic as she'd been ten minutes ago. She seemed to just now notice Mo Bei and forced a smile:

"Yeah, I lost. Badly. To someone I'd gone out of my way to provoke."

Right—the Immortal Chess bracket was way more cutthroat. Yu Feifei hadn't even made it to the finals—she'd never really studied the game, just half-assed it, so her skill was never that great to begin with—she'd lost in the round of sixteen, and to Yu Cong, using Yan Fei's piece, no less.

Of course, that was on Yu Feifei, but Mo Bei stared at her for a beat, then said flatly:

"Sorry."

Yu Feifei flinched like she'd been whipped, staring at Mo Bei in disbelief. "What do you have to apologize for?"

"Because... you used my chess piece?" Mo Bei said hesitantly.

But obviously, the problem wasn't the chess piece.

Mo Bei had already proven how strong she was. Losing with her piece was clearly on Yu Feifei.

Mo Bei apologized anyway: "Next time, I'll try to be even stronger, okay?"

"...You want to be even stronger?" Yu Feifei asked, dazed. "Seriously, seriously... pfft, hehe, hahaha!"

She burst out laughing.

The kind of laugh that just wouldn't quit.

Mo Bei watched her worriedly, then decided, "I'm going to find a healer."

"No, I'm fine! I'm not moping here because I lost." Yu Feifei quickly grabbed Mo Bei's sleeve and wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes.

She figured Mo Bei had no clue about her little feelings, right?

But that was exactly why it was so...

Yu Feifei took a deep breath and pulled a letter from her robes: "It's from my family... no, they're not really family, just the people who raised me. They wrote asking me to set you up in the secret realm!"

Yu Feifei's voice shook a little.

Being smart, she knew that if she did what the letter said, she'd probably be kicked out of the Celestial Spirit Sect. The letter even said that if she pulled it off, she'd be eligible to return to the Carefree Palace.

But Yu Feifei hesitated.

This was clearly a chance to pick a side.

The Fallen Immortal Palace?

Or the Celestial Spirit Sect?

The old her would've followed the orders without a second thought, just to earn merits and climb the ladder. But now she wondered—if she went back to the Fallen Immortal Palace, would she even have a future?

Over there, it was nothing but petty schemers. Even the supervisor she'd worked so hard to suck up to was a total scumbag.

The Celestial Spirit Sect, on the other hand—even the regular disciples had grit and never gave up, let alone a core disciple like Mo Bei.

Someone who was treated like merchandise in the Fallen Immortal Palace had the potential to become the number one sword immortal.

Why should such a beautiful gem be thrown back into the mud!

Yu Feifei made up her mind and shoved the secret letter toward a bewildered Mo Bei: "Please report this to Lord Immortal Venerable! I'll accept whatever punishment comes!"