The Prodigy Who Upgraded Returns!

Seventeen kingdoms spanned the Southern Wilderness, divided among nine sects. Among them, the Xu State was the heart of the Qiwu Sword Sect. The Qiwu Sword Sect was a sect of sword cultivators with formidable strength. Centuries ago, it had reigned supreme as the head of the nine sects, presided over by a Nascent Soul cultivator two thousand years prior. After that Nascent Soul master passed away, the Sword Sect gradually declined. Even so, it remained a towering power among the Southern Wilderness's nine sects, solidly ranking among the top three. "The Sword Sect possesses profound reserves—there are as many as six Golden Core True Persons! True Persons of the Golden Core, ah! 'A three-foot blade sheathed across their backs, redressing injustice for heaven's sake!'" Li Changqing spoke without pause, utterly enchanted by the Qiwu Sword Sect. Chen Zhuo, playing the role of an attentive listener, took it all in quietly from the side. "The Qiwu Sword Sect..." Chen Zhuo was also weighing whether he ought to join a sect. Compared to the Qiwu Sword Sect, Yunjin Market was undoubtedly insignificant. Whether in spiritual energy or resources, the Qiwu Sword Sect surpassed Yunjin Market several times over. However, once inside the Qiwu Sword Sect, shuttling to and from the Immortal Mansion would demand far greater caution to avoid detection. After all, the Boundary-Breaking Bead was his greatest trump card. After a fierce inner struggle, Chen Zhuo drew a deep breath and thought, *If I constantly second-guess myself and hesitate over every little thing, how could my path of cultivation ever be smooth and unhindered?!* He would go! With his spiritual root's spiritual energy sensitivity rating of 20, he would likely only qualify as an outer disciple anyway. If he kept a low profile when the time came, it wouldn't be much different from living in the market. With that settled, Chen Zhuo looked at Li Changqing and asked directly, "Speak your mind. Why bring this up to me unprompted?" Seeing his intent laid bare, Li Changqing scratched his head and answered earnestly, "Senior has peerless divine arts and boundless magical power. If you sign up for the selection, you will surely be accepted into the revered sect. If Senior becomes a disciple of the sect, we only hope you might look after my sister and me in the days ahead..." Chen Zhuo glanced at Li Changqing. Though aided by his elixirs, and endowed with decent natural aptitude, Li Changqing was currently only at the second layer of Qi Refining. Over the next three months, even if Chen Zhuo supplied pills each month, Li Changqing could at best touch the threshold of the third layer of Qi Refining. Therefore, if the siblings wanted to enter the Qiwu Sword Sect, they would either have to rely entirely on extraordinary innate talent, or wait ten years for the next recruitment cycle. Evidently, Li Changqing was planning for the latter. Chen Zhuo nodded slightly. "Perhaps." He offered no grand promises, merely adding, "Scrape together some spirit stones as soon as you can. Otherwise, your pill supply will dry up next month." With that, Chen Zhuo stood and took his leave. Seeing Chen Zhuo rise, Li Changqing did not dare dally. He scrambled to his feet at once, cupped his hands respectfully, and said, "Take care, Senior!" Beside him, Li Yao mirrored her brother, her tender voice piping up: "Take care, Senior!" After leaving, Chen Zhuo headed straight back into the market and bought another bronze token. Feeling flush with cash, he rented a full three months up front! Including the extra bribe slipped to the guard, it came to thirty-two spirit stones in total. Although Chen Zhuo's net worth now exceeded a hundred spirit stones, spending over thirty in one breath still pained him immensely. Yet it was an absolute necessity. After all, the spiritual energy concentration within the market's cave dwellings hovered infinitely close to 10! To Chen Zhuo, this was practically equivalent to securing the cultivation environment enjoyed by the second-generation elites back in the Immortal Mansion world! The cost-effectiveness was superb. His assigned cave dwelling was different from the previous one, though the layout was identical. It was still just a stone bed, a stone table, and a stone stool. Sitting cross-legged, Chen Zhuo meditated in silence. For the coming period, he needed to keep his head down. When dealing in spirit stones, it would be best to rely primarily on the talisman-crafting academy and shelve the pharmaceutical rep business for now. Pocketing seventy or eighty spirit stones each time felt fantastic, sure. Yet Yunjin Market was only so large. Once or twice was fine, but if high-quality elixirs kept flowing without end, how could the local heavy hitters fail to notice him? Last time, it was just minor local scoundrels, whom he had dispatched with ease. If he kept flaunting such wealth and let people realize a mere cultivator at the fourth layer of Qi Refining sat on such deep pockets, cultivators at the Qi Refining pinnacle or even Foundation Establishment wouldn't hesitate to rob him blind. After completing a full heavenly circulation, Chen Zhuo felt thoroughly refreshed and headed out to purchase spirit bamboo. In the Immortal Mansion world, three-hundred-year-old spirit bamboo was exceptionally rare. Here, however... It wasn't actually that unusual. It was simply somewhat uncommon. To acquire it, one still had to pay a fair price. After talking his lips half off through relentless haggling, Chen Zhuo finally secured a stalk of 370-year-old purple spirit bamboo for seven spirit stones. With that done, Chen Zhuo activated the Boundary-Breaking Bead and returned to the Immortal Mansion. "Phew~" Exhaling softly, Chen Zhuo brought out his spiritual communication jade slip to see if anyone had looked for him. He had assumed that as a complete nobody, few would ever seek him out. Upon checking this time, however, he discovered quite a few unread messages. [Meng Yan: Brother Zhuo, you there? Are you free recently? Can we chat?] [Counselor Yuan, Department of Elixir Appraisal, Alchemy Academy: @Everyone, meeting in Classroom 7.] [Si Jing: Junior, Junior! Our department's outstanding graduate, Senior Dong, who successfully upgraded from vocational to undergraduate, returned to school these past couple of days for promotional lectures! Aside from speaking, she's mingling with the lowerclassmen and brought along a lot of great goods. If you're interested, I can introduce you to Senior Dong this weekend. Her stuff is exceptionally pure!] Chen Zhuo: ??? *So many messages?* While staying in the ancient cultivation world, Chen Zhuo returned to the Immortal Mansion every other day to check his jade slip and ensure he didn't miss anything important. He hadn't expected that this single round trip would coincide with such a barrage of alerts! Everything was piling up at once! First, Chen Zhuo replied to Meng Yan with a polite refusal. That guy was a walking time bomb who could detonate at any moment. Chen Zhuo's own hands weren't entirely clean; getting dragged into whatever mess Meng Yan was cooking up was the last thing he wanted. Next, he posted a "Received" in the department group chat. Honestly speaking, half a year had passed since he enrolled, and Chen Zhuo had never even laid eyes on the counselor. This was the very first time. He had no idea what kind of matter required an all-hands meeting. Finally, there was Senior Si Jing. This senior had clearly come to regard Chen Zhuo as one of her own, to the point of offering to introduce him to a core member of her circle—Senior Dong, who had successfully upgraded to an undergraduate degree! Senior Dong's full name was Dong Xuejiao. When Chen Zhuo first enrolled, she had just passed her vocational-to-undergraduate transfer exam and been admitted to the Alchemy Academy of Qingwu Immortal Dao Academy, becoming an honorable undergraduate student! Even if it was only a Tier-2 university, the difference between that and a vocational junior college was as vast as heaven and earth! The only drawback was that Qingwu Immortal Dao Academy was located in Qingwu City, another city entirely within the Taiqing Domain. To put it bluntly, it was like a student from the capital scoring into an out-of-town school in the boonies. That put Senior Dong at a distinct disadvantage within the transfer circles. Her social orbit had shifted. As for why Chen Zhuo knew so much about her? When he first enrolled, Senior Dong's name and portrait had been prominently displayed on the academy's wall of honor. Regardless, now that Senior Dong had upgraded to an undergraduate program, her supply channels for pharmaceuticals were bound to be far superior. Chen Zhuo happened to need new sources for enhancers as well. After pondering for a moment, he promptly replied to Senior Si Jing: "Senior, thank you so much!" "One more thing: the batch of medicine you gave me sold out again. Should I hand over the twenty spirit stones all together when we meet?"