Capturing the heart and mind of a Soul Formation cultivator, even one who was an inexperienced maiden, was truly no easy task.
Over the course of six months, Li Qing patiently played the role of an obedient disciple.
Aside from occasionally tumbling in bed with Sima Jing, the rest of the time he practiced strict self-restraint and conducted himself with gentle propriety, focusing solely on diligently cultivating the Hundred Transformations of Yuehua.
Li Qing was exceptionally handsome to begin with. After achieving initial mastery of the Hundred Transformations of Yuehua, the charm it granted stacked with the effects of the Scripture of Inverse Order.
Combined with his exquisite wit and consummately polished social finesse, even though he had joined the master's tutelage only recently, Li Qing had already become the most popular cultivator on Liuyue Peak.
And in spending time together day and night, the female cultivators gradually forgot the fact that Li Qing had originally been a man.
Six months later, on this day, Li Qing, who had bided his time for so long, finally found an opportune moment.
Huo Jingtong's master—Grand Elder of the Dadao Sect, the Dao Integration cultivator Yang Nishang—whose lifespan was nearing its end, had failed to break through to the Longevity realm and passed away in her secluded cultivation cave.
Yang Nishang had personally chosen Huo Jingtong from the foot of the mountain and raised her with her own hands.
The two had been close as mother and daughter.
Yang Nishang's death dealt a massive blow to Huo Jingtong.
She would even abruptly zone out into dazed distraction while imparting Dao techniques to her disciples.
And right at this juncture, the tournament among the Dadao Sect's nine lineages and seventy-two peaks commenced.
Rankings in the sect tournament not only determined the allocation of resources within the sect for the next century, but were also closely tied to the granting of Longevity fruit status.
One had to know that even in the Dadao Sect, one of the Ten Sects of the Immortal Dao, Longevity fruit statuses were exceedingly scarce, fiercely contested by numerous Dao Integration experts.
It was precisely because the Yuehua Lineage had placed poorly in the tournament a century ago that Yang Nishang's standing in the succession order had dropped.
Thus, up until she exhausted her lifespan and perished, her turn for a Longevity fruit status never came.
This matter had become a knot in Huo Jingtong's heart, making her desperately eager to achieve an outstanding result in the tournament to comfort her master's spirit in heaven.
Unfortunately, the Yuehua Lineage was already among the weakest of the nine lineages. Moreover, Zhao Ruoxi, the junior disciple with the most outstanding potential and talent, had cultivated for too short a time to shoulder such heavy responsibility.
Thus, the tournament concluded with the Yuehua Lineage's worst performance in history.
Li Qing, who appeared to have only a Foundation Establishment cultivation, had not even qualified to participate in the tournament, so none of the blame fell on him.
Yet in the tournament's aftermath, the suffocating atmosphere permeating the Yuehua Lineage from top to bottom genuinely affected him.
As the saying goes, feeling shame spurs courage; the female cultivators of Yuehua put away all playful thoughts. Every one of them devoted herself to rigorous cultivation, striving to regain their dignity in the next tournament.
With the peak's atmosphere turning completely serious, Li Qing's sweet talk and flattery became somewhat inappropriate and awkward to deploy.
Huo Jingtong's temperament shifted drastically as well; what she prized in her disciples gradually moved from physical beauty toward cultivation aptitude.
Naturally, she grew increasingly distant toward Li Qing, whose apparent cultivation remained stagnant.
Li Qing, however, was not worried in the slightest.
He knew that although Liuyue Peak boasted many female cultivators and not a few had good talent, there was not a single true, peerless prodigy like Senior Sister Zhao who could shoulder the burden of a lineage's rise.
Therefore, Li Qing was fully confident that once he revealed his true cultivation, it would completely overturn Huo Jingtong's impression of him.
"Still, now isn't the best time. Wait a little longer."
Just as Li Qing expected, the cultivation progress of Liuyue Peak's female cultivators failed to satisfy Huo Jingtong's demands.
Her temper grew increasingly irascible, flaring into reprimands and scoldings at the slightest provocation.
The disciples dared not talk back, only bowing their heads to accept their punishments.
Blind chastisement could not change reality.
The atmosphere across Liuyue Peak grew more and more suffocating.
Under enormous psychological pressure, Huo Jingtong's direct disciple Zheng Keyin, upon whom high hopes had been pinned, failed in her breakthrough to the Nascent Soul stage. Worse, she damaged her cultivation foundation, leaving her Dao path forever ruined.
This caused the already emotionally unstable Huo Jingtong to completely lose her composure.
She offered not a single word of comfort to this once-beloved disciple, but swept her sleeves and departed, cold as frost.
The chilling indifference in her eyes reduced Zheng Keyin's heart to dead ashes.
A pang of shared sorrow arose in the hearts of the disciples, like the fox mourning the dead hare.
After a long, dead silence, Li Qing knew the prime opportunity he had awaited had finally arrived.
He first helped the heavily wounded Zheng Keyin back to her quarters, then spent three full days consoling her shattered Dao heart.
Drawing upon the pure primordial yin qi within her body, he broke through to the mid Golden Core stage in one fell swoop.
Afterward, he waited patiently for another half-month.
Once he confirmed that Huo Jingtong had virtually abandoned all hope in her current disciples and was preparing to descend the mountain to recruit anew, Li Qing quietly knocked on Huo Jingtong's door that evening.
The restriction on the door dissolved, and Huo Jingtong's aloof voice drifted out from inside.
"It is so late. What brings you here?"
"Master... I have questions regarding my cultivation that I wish to ask of you," Li Qing said, bowing his head in apparent trepidation.
Huo Jingtong fell silent for a moment. Without opening the door, she dismissed him: "Go find any of your senior sisters. They should be able to answer your questions."
Li Qing did not leave.
Just as Huo Jingtong began to feel annoyed, Li Qing suddenly spoke again: "Master, I am afraid my senior sisters cannot resolve the doubts in my heart."
As he spoke, Li Qing released a wisp of his mid Golden Core aura.
"Hm?"
The doors flew open with a bang, and Huo Jingtong appeared before Li Qing in an instant, scrutinizing him with utter shock on her face.
Since the tournament ended, Huo Jingtong had paid little attention to this exceptionally handsome little disciple.
After all, his cultivation had been too low and his aptitude unremarkable.
Never would she have imagined that a disciple she had neglected would have quietly broken through to the Golden Core stage!
How long had he been cultivating?
Not even three full years!
Such talent...
"Come with me!" A strange gleam flashed in Huo Jingtong's eyes as she grabbed Li Qing and hauled him into the room.
"A pure yin constitution?" After examining him thoroughly, Huo Jingtong was stunned once more.
When taking him as a disciple back then, she had felt a slight aversion to his transition from male to female and hadn't examined him closely, only scanning him roughly with divine sense.
She had never dreamed that a male body could possess an extreme yin constitution!
"Master, is there something wrong with my cultivation speed?"
"It's too fast..."
"So fast that I'm even a little afraid," Li Qing said at just the right moment, having closely read her expressions all along.
Hearing this, Huo Jingtong looked grave.
She carefully inspected his progress in the Hundred Transformations of Yuehua technique.
Confirming that nothing was amiss, she suppressed the joy in her heart and comforted him: "It's fine, don't worry. The cultivation speed of a true prodigy is indeed beyond ordinary imagination."
"Fast is good. The faster, the better,"
Huo Jingtong murmured under her breath.
"By the way, have you revealed your cultivation progress to anyone else?" Huo Jingtong quickly followed up after coming to her senses.
"No. Aside from Master, I haven't dared mention this to anyone. Senior sisters have all been busy cultivating lately, so none of them know I'm already in the Golden Core realm," Li Qing answered honestly.
"Very good. Remember, do not casually reveal your cultivation before outsiders from now on," Huo Jingtong warned seriously.
Li Qing nodded repeatedly.
From that night on, Li Qing moved into the courtyard adjacent to Huo Jingtong's.
He received personal guidance in cultivation from Huo Jingtong.
Bearing all of Huo Jingtong's hopes, Li Qing's treatment was worlds apart from before.
There was no lack of spirit stones or pills, and requests for cultivation manuals and texts were fulfilled as much as possible.
Whenever he came to her with questions, Huo Jingtong would even pause her own cultivation to explain and resolve Li Qing's doubts with great care.
Day or night.
Thus, over the next six months, Huo Jingtong's attention was almost entirely pinned on Li Qing.
However, what caused Huo Jingtong some anxiety was that while Li Qing's cultivation had indeed progressed during this time, it fell far short of the pace of a true prodigy and what he had previously shown.
"Perhaps I've placed too much pressure on him."
Unable to find the cause after examining Li Qing's body thoroughly again, Huo Jingtong could only conclude as much.
So she granted Li Qing's request for leave to relax.
When Li Qing returned three days later, his energy, vitality, and spirit all seemed different.
Furthermore, his cultivation progress instantly leaped upward.
He was not far off from the late Golden Core stage.
This set Huo Jingtong's mind somewhat at ease.
Yet before long, Li Qing's cultivation pace slowed down again at a perceptible rate.
Li Qing once more requested time off to relax.
Huo Jingtong agreed on the surface, but suspicion had arisen in her heart.
She followed Li Qing in secret.
To her shock, she witnessed a scene that left her blushing and her heart racing.
Inside the room, Li Qing was tangled in an embrace with Han Haiyan, one of her female disciples, and Sima Jing.
They revelled in passion, the room brimming with spring warmth.
They kept whispering wanton, scandalous words, which made Huo Jingtong nearly burst in on the spot to put an end to such an unsightly spectacle.
Yet in the end, Huo Jingtong held back.
After all, though scandalous, it was consensual, and they had not violated any sect rules.
Her expression shifting repeatedly, Huo Jingtong ultimately refrained from interrupting their pleasure, sweeping her sleeves and leaving.
Sensing Huo Jingtong's retreating presence outside, a faint, imperceptible smirk touched the corners of Li Qing's lips.
His movements grew all the more fervent.
Three days later, when he returned to Huo Jingtong's quarters, seeing her hostile expression, Li Qing knelt straight down without a word.
"Disciple knows his wrong!"
Huo Jingtong scoffed, "And just what wrong have you committed?!"
"Disciple should not have lost his senses and engaged in such scandalous affairs with senior sisters. But..." Li Qing said, looking pitiably contrite.
"But what?" Huo Jingtong glared daggers at him.
"But every time after doing it, I feel my cultivation pace grow faster and faster. Not wanting to let Master down, I..." Li Qing's face was full of self-reproach.
Hearing Li Qing's words, Huo Jingtong's heart skipped a beat.
Upon checking, she discovered Li Qing hadn't lied.
The pure yin qi within Li Qing's body had grown noticeably purer. Its effect on cultivation was proven a month later when Li Qing smoothly broke through to the late Golden Core stage.
"Such cultivation speed..."
While Huo Jingtong was stunned once again, her heart was filled with confusion.
Could doing that truly benefit cultivation?
Completely ignorant of such matters, Huo Jingtong couldn't help but feel bewildered.
After quietly consulting some ancient texts, Huo Jingtong came to an understanding.
It had to be because of Li Qing's extraordinarily unique constitution!
Regardless of the motive, Huo Jingtong found no reason to stop Li Qing's behavior.
Thus, regarding Li Qing causing havoc across Liuyue Peak, she chose to turn a blind eye.
"As long as he can maintain this cultivation speed..."
"There's no need to wait a century. Soon, the entire sect will be astonished."
Huo Jingtong was immersed in fantasies of the Yuehua Lineage holding its head high.
After repeated testing, having confirmed that Huo Jingtong had tacitly permitted his conduct, Li Qing finally cast off all restraint.
Toward the female cultivators of Liuyue Peak, he bared his fangs.
Li Qing was already exceptionally popular among these female disciples.
Now that he had become Huo Jingtong's prized darling, as long as he didn't cross the line too far, matters on Liuyue Peak were practically decided by his word alone.
With the help of cultivators who had already fallen into his clutches, like Sima Jing, Li Qing hardly had to exert any effort to coax and sweet-talk these female disciples into bed.
And so, Li Qing harvested the yin essence of numerous female cultivators at a terrifying pace.
The benefits brought by this were immensely striking.
Barely three months after breaking through to the late Golden Core stage, aided by this unimaginably pure and vast pool of yin essence, Li Qing successfully formed his nascent soul and stepped into the Nascent Soul realm.
Such cultivation speed could no longer be described merely as fast.
Even Huo Jingtong, who had witnessed Li Qing's progress from start to finish, couldn't help feeling a tremor of fear in her heart.
She seemed to finally understand the bewilderment Li Qing had felt when he knocked on her door in the dead of night.
Just as she began wavering over whether to let Li Qing continue running wild like this, she received orders from the sect directing her to assist in investigating the incidents of spreading teachings that were sparking up like wildfire across the sect's territories.
Helpless, she could only give Li Qing a verbal warning before hurriedly departing the mountain gate, hoping to complete her mission and return as soon as possible.
What she could never have imagined was that without her presence, practically no one on Liuyue Peak could rein in Li Qing.
Li Qing dropped all pretense and openly preyed upon the remaining female cultivators.
Perhaps describing it simply as "preying upon" was not entirely accurate.
In truth, not only did the female cultivators offer no resistance, most of them thoroughly enjoyed it.
Physical and psychological pleasures aside, the crucial part was that the female cultivators of Liuyue Peak discovered their own cultivation speed quickened after revelling with Li Qing.
At first, with few encounters, it went unnoticed.
As time passed and encounters accumulated, the difference inevitably showed itself.
It brought pleasure and aided cultivation.
Who could possibly refuse?
And so, in barely half a month, Liuyue Peak fell completely.
Not a single female cultivator escaped Li Qing's clutches.
When Huo Jingtong returned, this was the situation that greeted her.
Huo Jingtong's expression was grim to the extreme.
Chapter 921