Duosheng Danyuan

"It's a good story, and I really like the female lead's personality." After listening quietly to Zeng Yixi's words, I pursed my lips and said politely.

"Thanks."

"So, what does this have to do with the clues you found at the Retreat House?"

"...If you could give me a hug at a time like this, instead of reminding me that I'm in some ridiculous, rule-based fantasy world, I might actually start to like you a little." With a twitch at the corner of her mouth, Zeng Yixi released her grip on my wrist, wanting to get away from me for a while.

However, I did not let go of her wrist.

"The story was good, so I listened quietly. If possible, after we escape this world, we can slowly talk about our views on life," I said, rubbing my nose, perhaps a little embarrassed because Zeng Yixi had suddenly revealed her background. "So, can you answer my question now?"

"The third rule of the Tranquil Abode is to provide disciples with rooms that are as warm and welcoming as home. You shouldn't have forgotten that, right?"

"Of course not."

"It's funny, really," Zeng Yixi said, laughing at herself, but it was a self-deprecating laugh. "I spent three years sharing an apartment in a big city, and then lived in a dorm with my college roommates for a year. The room that Jingxilu renovated for me was still that run-down room in that village. Tsk, do they think a place I consider cozy would be that kind of awful place?"

"Perhaps."

"Damn it, I already said it's not true."

"Then it isn't."

"..." Zeng Yixi's gaze towards me changed, from initial admiration to a distant, respectful distance. After a long silence, she continued, "In that old, dilapidated room, damn it, maybe because of the memories, I stayed up very late, spending the entire night fiddling with things from my childhood room. It was then that I discovered some things that didn't belong to me. Then, in the illusion created by the Quiet Abode that morning, I understood the origin of those things. So, when I emerged from the illusion, I naturally revisited those things. Strangely yet not strangely, those things began to become things of this world—some fragments of records about cultivation, just disjointed words and phrases."

"So, you only discovered the clues related to cultivation after you left the illusion this morning?"

"yes."

"I see..." I nodded, then said, "I understand. Let's get out of here quickly."

"Hey, why are you leaving? You still haven't told me how you got to Mingling Residence."

"Sigh... I'll tell you about this after I leave Mingling Residence."

"real?"

"real."

Half-believing, half-doubting, Zeng Yixi still grabbed my wrist again and followed me toward the gate of Mingling Residence.

"Huh? There's no doorknob." When we got to the front of Mingling Residence, Zeng Yixi and I both noticed the strange thing about the door.

"What should we do?"

"It seems like it's not just the lack of a doorknob... This door is custom-made. There are pull rings on the outside, but the inside is completely smooth without a single wrinkle... It's impossible to open from the inside!"

"Of course it can't be pulled apart."

"Who?" Zeng Yixi and I immediately looked at each other, exchanged a surprised glance, and then looked behind us.

There was nothing there.

"The elder in charge of managing Mingling Residence—Qingyue, Qing as in Qingming, and Yue as in the moon."

As that clear and cheerful adult male voice rang out again, following the direction of the sound, Zeng Yixi and I both focused our gazes on the door in front of us.

The sound came from behind the door.

Before we could recover from our shock, the door to Mingling Residence slowly opened in front of us.

"What? You were just complaining that you couldn't find the elders of this place, and now that you've seen me, you have this same expression. Tsk tsk tsk, I'm increasingly unable to understand the minds of kids these days."

Shocked, we released our grip on each other's wrists.

"Greetings, Elder Qingyue." Zeng Yixi reacted quickly, bowing first to Elder Qingyue.

"Greetings, Elder Qingyue." Following Zeng Yixi's example, I also bowed and greeted Elder Qingyue.

"Get up, there's no need for that." Elder Qingyue patted our shoulders and walked in from the entrance of Mingling Residence with a smile.

As he entered, the door to the Cicada's Abode seemed to be pushed by something unseen, and it closed again. Before the door closed completely, I peeked through the crack and saw that green flames had appeared on both sides of the road in front of the Cicada's Abode.

But it's only evening now.

"Elder Qingyue, we..." Zeng Yixi raised her head, looking at the seemingly easy-going, squinty-eyed elder in front of her in astonishment.

"Have you read the 'Disciple's Code of Conduct'?" Ignoring Zeng Yixi's question, Elder Qingyue walked between the two of us and headed straight for the railing in front of the "Wonderful Landscape".

"I've seen it," I replied.

"It's good that you've read it," Elder Qingyue nodded, stroked the railing, turned around, leaned against the railing, and said, "Judging from your conversation just now, you have indeed memorized all the rules in the 'Disciple's Code of Conduct.' However, the rules in it are not complete."

"..."

"Our sect has always had an unwritten rule—the elders stationed in key sect locations can modify or reduce the rules for those locations according to their own ideas. These modifications are not written in the 'Disciple Code of Conduct,' since the elders used to rotate frequently."

"..."

"I personally have no objection to the relevant regulations regarding Mingling Residence in the 'Disciple Code of Conduct'. However, due to my personal preferences, I've added a new rule to Mingling Residence that you may not know about. I'll tell you now—disciples who come to Mingling Residence must complete two objectives in seclusion before they can leave. Otherwise, wouldn't my Mingling Residence become a tourist attraction that anyone can come and go as they please? You can't treat me like that, even if the 'Mountain and Water Wonderland' is indeed beautiful."

"..."

"Okay, come here."

"...yes."

Seeing that we had answered, Qingyue's lips curled up slightly. Suddenly, the railing behind him began to shimmer with strange and colorful hues. In a moment, the previously tightly closed and indistinct fence slowly opened like a gate. In the short distance between the railing and the "Wonderland of Mountains and Rivers," patches of duckweed appeared out of thin air, forming a winding path leading to the center of the "Wonderland of Mountains and Rivers."

"Come in, the location of the surveying qualification is in the cave." With that, Elder Qingyue stepped onto the floating duckweed and walked towards the cave he mentioned.

Zeng Yixi and I exchanged a reassuring look, and I quickly followed.

As I stepped over the railing, I instantly felt a tingling sensation on my scalp. For some reason, a feeling of bloating began to become more pronounced in my abdomen. The duckweed under my feet felt soft, as if it might sink at any moment.

"hurry up."

Hearing Elder Qingyue's urging, I steeled my resolve and stepped onto the duckweed. Zeng Yixi followed suit. Confusingly, yet logically, the seemingly precarious duckweed beneath our feet was remarkably stable, not swaying at all due to our combined weight. The flowing water seemed to sway only because of its current.

Just as we were feeling the strange sensation under our feet, another light blue aura pattered on our faces.

Completely different from the slight coolness I felt on the outer corridor bank, being in this "miracle of mountains and waters," this spiritual energy pattered on my body, and it directly made the bloating in my abdomen start to subside.

"This feeling is..."

Feeling the flow of gas in my abdomen, my eyes widened involuntarily. Yes, this feeling was very familiar to me; it was the exact same sensation I experienced when using the Rapid Step technique.

However, the difference between the two is still very obvious. When using the rapid walking technique, the sense of flow is entirely controlled by my consciousness; but here, the sense of flow begins to spread from my abdomen in an unconscious and passive way, gradually spreading to my limbs and scalp.

Feeling the flow of energy within our bodies, Zeng Yixi and I unknowingly crossed the duckweed on the water's surface and arrived at a crevice between two small hills.

"Come in. The place to assess your qualifications is in the hill on the left."

"Yes."

Following Elder Qingyue's footsteps, we walked to the middle of two hills, turned left, and saw a deep staircase leading underground. Standing at the top of the staircase, we couldn't see what was at the end.

"..." Zeng Yixi and I didn't speak or look at each other, but the hands that were gripping each other's wrists tightened even more.

"Da, da da, ga ga..."

Along the way, only the sound of our three footsteps echoed in the cave; mostly, there was the dripping sound of water falling from the rock walls.

The further we went, the darker it became around us.

After walking for about three to five minutes, a sliver of light gradually appeared before our eyes. The light was pale blue, like the emerald green of newly sprouted buds in early spring.

As we drew closer, the light became clearer, and as we walked, I could feel the flowing energy within my body gradually calming down.

Finally, we reached the end of the stairs and saw the place mentioned in the rules, the place with the surveying qualifications.

What lay before Zeng Yixi and me was a seemingly naturally formed underground stone chamber.

The walls of the stone chamber were shrouded in pale blue ripples, their luster as warm and smooth as jade. To the left, a wooden desk was covered with scrolls of illegible writing and a small alchemical cauldron; to the right, two stone shelves stood casually in a corner of the chamber, one with a few hats, robes, and gloves hanging on it, and the other with some weapon-shaped objects that I couldn't understand.

In the center of the stone chamber, in the most prominent place, stands a white crystal table.

"This is the 'White Crystal Spirit Platform,' originally a first-grade spiritual treasure left behind by the first sect leader. It was later inherited, used, and improved by the second sect leader, becoming a top-grade spiritual treasure. It was later selected by the third sect leader, who is also the current sect leader, to become a tool spiritual treasure used by the Adopted Bird Clan to test the disciples' aptitude."

"..."

"Oh dear, just as Jianshan said, this year's new disciples aren't exactly talkative kids..." Elder Qingyue looked at Zeng Yixi and me, who hadn't said a word, squinted her eyes, and touched her cheek, looking quite troubled. "If you don't understand anything, just ask. I'm actually very willing to answer your questions."

"...It's already evening. If we continue our arduous practice at Mingling Residence, won't we miss the rest time at Jingxi Lodge?" After a moment of silence, Zeng Yixi tried to speak.

"You don't need to worry about that at all," Elder Qingyue said with a slight smile. "The flow of time in the seclusion room is different from that in the outside world. In theory, if you complete two of the goals set for you by Mingling Residence, it should only take half an hour."

"Is that so?" Zeng Yixi asked, still somewhat doubtful.

"certainly."

"If that's the case, then please tell me, Elder Qingyue, why haven't we seen a single disciple emerge from the seclusion room during the long stay at Mingling Residence that Zeng Yixi and I have been there?" I asked.

"Well... the goals set by Minglingju for its disciples are all tailor-made for them. As long as they are not lacking in talent, it is quite normal to complete dozens or even a hundred goals in one seclusion. During the time I served as the managing elder of Minglingju, the number of goals completed by my disciples during seclusion seemed to be around 300, which took about three to five years."

"Didn't you say that two would only take half an hour...? Why would it take three to five years to complete three hundred?" Zeng Yixi asked.

"The later the goal, the harder it is to achieve. The initial stages are all very simple practices. How should I put it, it's like a mission; you always have to start from the simple and gradually increase the difficulty, right?"

"I see, thank you for your guidance, Elder."

"There's no need to be so formal. Although I am indeed an elder in charge of management, I am just a casual staff member in the Shengdan Academy. Unlike Jianshan, who prefers more traditional, disciplined disciples, I quite like the atmosphere of being both a teacher and a friend."

"I see, thank you, Elder," I said.

"Okay, that's all. Any other questions? If not, let's begin the qualification testing."

"Didn't Elder Jianshan say back in the Refining Heart Hall that the 'Refining Heart Purification Pool' had already been tested for us? Why do we need to test it again now?"

"The tests are different. If the Refining Heart Hall's motto is to teach without discrimination, then the Mingling Residence's philosophy is to teach according to aptitude. The 'Refining Heart Purification Pool' will only conduct a general test on your basic information, such as the grade of your spiritual root, your bone attributes, and your physical strength, so that the sect leader can have an impression of the basic information of the new disciples, and that's all. The real tests will be conducted in batches during the disciples' daily activities. For example, the Ancient Alchemy Scripture Pavilion will test the disciples' skills in alchemy, while my Mingling Residence will specifically examine the disciples' talent in spiritual roots."

"I see, I understand now, thank you Elder." Listening to Elder Qingyue's detailed explanation, Zeng Yixi nodded and sincerely thanked him.

"It's alright. You're both new disciples, so it's normal that you don't know about the inner sect. Compared to the outer sect's laissez-faire approach to discipline, the inner sect has much stricter rules for its disciples. So, who wants to go first?" Elder Qingyue said, walking to the "White Crystal Spirit Platform" and smiling at the two of us.

"I'll go first," I said after examining the "White Crystal Spirit Platform" for a long time.