Chapter 70
The cultivation rooms of the Wendao Sect were built atop an independent mountain peak. From the foot of the mountain all the way to the summit, more than a thousand cave dwellings had been carved into the cliffs specifically for disciples to cultivate in.
The entire peak rested on a high-grade spiritual vein, and the spiritual energy inside the cultivation rooms far surpassed anywhere else in the sect.
Whether for routine cultivation or breaking through bottlenecks, the effects were extraordinary.
Which was exactly why the place was packed.
As Lou Yuqing approached the mountain, she saw streams of disciples in sky-blue robes flying in and out like migrating birds, turning the entire area lively and bustling.
More than a thousand cultivation rooms sounded like a lot—until they had to serve a sect with over a hundred thousand disciples.
Especially during periods before competitions, every room was practically fought over. Reservations had to be made months in advance.
Si Nidie hopped down from the cloud and landed lightly on the platform outside one of the cave dwellings.
With obvious satisfaction, she lifted her chin and said, "Good thing I had the foresight to reserve a room early."
Lou Yuqing nodded seriously in agreement before glancing up at the plaque overhead.
"Room Five Hundred Thirty-Six."
Si Nidie took out her token and compared it against the number on the plaque. "That's the one. The location isn't amazing, but it's decent enough. Let's head in."
The cultivation rooms were arranged in a pyramid-like structure. The higher the room's location, the denser the spiritual energy. Naturally, the rooms closest to the summit were the most coveted.
Si Nidie raised the token and poured spiritual power into it.
In the next instant, the token lit up and flew from her palm on its own, stopping before the cave entrance.
Bang!
The restrictions sealing the room opened.
A line of glowing text immediately appeared in midair:
Clearly used to this already, Si Nidie flicked her finger and shattered the floating text with a burst of spiritual energy before beckoning the token back.
The stone doors slowly rumbled open.
Lou Yuqing followed her inside.
The room itself was incredibly simple. Within a space roughly thirty feet wide, there was only a meditation cushion and a humanoid puppet standing motionless in the corner.
But neither of them had come here to cultivate.
They were here to test spells.
Lou Yuqing's gaze swept over the meditation cushion briefly before landing squarely on the puppet.
It was over a head taller than her.
The puppet looked almost identical to a real person. Its facial features were clearly sculpted, its limbs proportionate and lifelike—only the cold metallic sheen of its body revealed that it wasn't human.
Si Nidie let out a soft sound of surprise. "Huh? This thing appeared without being summoned?"
Lou Yuqing walked over and poked its arm.
Hard.
Cold.
Unyielding.
"Senior Sister, is this thing made of iron?"
Si Nidie smiled. "Our sect has plenty of mines. One of the ores is called iron sandstone—it's flexible and has absurd regenerative abilities, which makes it perfect for crafting puppets."
She rolled her sleeves up slightly. "I'll show you."
The moment she finished speaking, spiritual energy burst outward.
Whoosh!
A sharp force pierced straight through the puppet's chest before crashing into the wall behind it.
Lou Yuqing watched without blinking as the fist-sized hole slowly began repairing itself.
The damaged metal squirmed and reformed inch by inch until the puppet returned completely to normal, as though nothing had happened at all.
But Si Nidie clearly wasn't finished yet.
She clenched her fist, the muscles in her arm tightening, then unleashed a brutal barrage of purely physical punches onto the puppet.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The puppet's body dented inward repeatedly until it looked like it had been beaten by a very angry blacksmith.
Lou Yuqing nodded thoughtfully. "Pretty good punching bag."
For some reason, the puppet's mouth seemed to twitch.
Lou Yuqing narrowed her eyes suspiciously and looked again, only to realize that Si Nidie had apparently punched it in the face earlier. The dent was simply recovering now.
Probably just her imagination.
"Junior Sister, your turn."
Si Nidie stepped aside generously.
Lou Yuqing didn't hesitate. She formed hand seals, and spiritual energy surged from her fingertips as arcs of purple lightning crackled into existence before her.
Then she pulled her hands apart.
The lightning instantly expanded to over a foot long.
Crack—!
Thunder roared through the cultivation room.
The violent arcs shot forward like feral serpents lunging for prey.
Originally, Lou Yuqing had aimed for the puppet's brow—unfortunately, her accuracy still needed work.
The lightning veered slightly at the last second and smacked directly into the center of the puppet's forehead instead.
The moment the attack landed, purple lightning exploded across the puppet's entire body. Brilliant electric light flooded the room so intensely that both Lou Yuqing and Si Nidie nearly got flashbanged on the spot.
"Ah—!"
A faint scream seemed to echo through the thunder.
Lou Yuqing's ears twitched.
Then silence returned.
She frowned slightly, assuming she must've misheard something from overtraining lately.
A moment later, Si Nidie stared at the puppet—now visibly stunned from electrocution—and stroked her chin thoughtfully.
"Lightning techniques are ridiculously effective against iron puppets." She pointed at the residual sparks still dancing over its body. "Junior Sister, try hitting it with brute force while it's still conducting electricity. Let's see how much damage it can take."
Lou Yuqing nodded without hesitation.
Her cultivation technique included tempering the body through lightning, and after several days of training, the results had already become obvious.
The poor puppet never stood a chance after that.
Lightning crackled through the room as Lou Yuqing struck first. Si Nidie followed immediately behind her with a rain of heavy punches, the two taking turns battering the puppet without the slightest mercy.
The puppet's body warped under the assault, only to repair itself moments later. Then it was smashed out of shape again. And again.
Back and forth it went, endlessly deforming and regenerating no matter how brutally they beat it, stubbornly restoring itself to perfect condition every single time.
Lou Yuqing's eyes practically sparkled with exhilaration.
This kind of reckless output was absurdly satisfying.
"Senior Sister," she said eagerly, "the testing's basically done. Let's spar against the puppet directly."
Si Nidie swung her arm loosely and grinned. "Exactly what I was thinking."
She walked behind the puppet and tapped the back of its head three times.
Normally, these puppets remained inactive. If disciples wanted combat practice, they simply had to insert spirit stones into the mechanism inside the puppet's head.
Several seconds passed.
Nothing happened.
Si Nidie blinked.
Then she tapped it three more times.
Still nothing.
A dangerous silence settled over the room.
Finally, Si Nidie sucked in a breath.
"...Did we break it?"
Lou Yuqing scratched her cheek awkwardly. "Could it be because I electrocuted it?"
The puppet had looked very mentally offline after that lightning strike.
"Whatever the reason, we're both responsible for breaking it," Si Nidie declared immediately.
Then she bent down and tried hauling the puppet up. "Junior Sister, give me a hand. This thing's ridiculously heavy."
Lou Yuqing calmly patted her storage bag. "No need. I brought a cart."
A flash of light burst across the ground as an enormous war chariot appeared before them.
Its front end was sharp and aggressive, the rear thick and heavy, with six wing-like blades extending from either side.
The entire thing radiated murderous battlefield energy, looking less like a transport vehicle and more like something built to crush armies head-on.
Si Nidie: "..."
That was not a cart.
That was a battlefield weapon pretending to be public transportation.
Other people used war chariots to kill enemies.
Her junior sister used them to transport broken puppets.
For the first time, Si Nidie truly understood just how outrageously rich Lou Yuqing was.
"...Actually," Si Nidie said weakly, "the cloud should work."
She summoned a white cloud beneath the puppet.
It was only after trying to lift the thing that she realized how horrifyingly heavy iron sandstone actually was.
The moment the puppet landed on the cloud, the entire thing sank downward violently, dropping several feet and nearly scraping the ground.
Lou Yuqing stared. "Senior Sister... can this thing even still fly?"
It looked overloaded enough to qualify as workplace abuse.
"It's fine."
Si Nidie gritted her teeth and continued pouring spiritual power into the cloud. Slowly, painstakingly, it rose back upward.
Lou Yuqing stepped onto the cloud beside her.
Behind them, the cultivation room doors slowly sealed shut once more.
Just as Lou Yuqing glanced back, movement suddenly flashed through the corner of her eye.
The puppet twitched.
She whipped her head around in shock, but before she could react, the puppet flipped itself right off the cloud and dove straight into the forest below.
"...?"
Lou Yuqing froze.
The puppet just ran away.
A gigantic question mark practically materialized over her head.
She immediately grabbed Si Nidie's sleeve in horror.
"Senior Sister," she said stiffly, "I think the puppet developed sentience."
Si Nidie noticed the cloud had suddenly become much lighter and looked down instinctively.
Then she saw it.
The puppet wasn't falling.
It was fleeing.
Flying away on its own.
Si Nidie: "..."
What the hell?!
"I'm going after it!"
The moment she finished speaking, she transformed into a streak of fiery red light and shot after the escaping puppet.
That thing absolutely had problems.
Lou Yuqing watched the two disappear into the forest before quickly following after them herself. With only Qi Refining cultivation, she couldn't maintain a Foundation Establishment-level cloud spell anyway.
Before the cloud dispersed completely, she summoned her flying artifact and chased after them.
The artifact was fast enough for Lou Yuqing to quickly catch up to Si Nidie's retreating figure.
But the moment she looked ahead, she froze.
Outside the cultivation rooms, long lines of disciples stretched across the road as everyone waited to reserve rooms, while rows of identical puppets stood motionless along both sides like decorations.
Every single one looked exactly like the runaway puppet.
Had it infiltrated the crowd?!
At that moment, Si Nidie stopped beside a disciple standing at the end of the line.
"Senior Brother, did you happen to see a puppet run by here just now? Yes, a puppet. Yes, it moved."
The tied-hair disciple fell silent for a moment.
Then, with immense sympathy, he took ten spirit stones out of his storage bag and handed them over.
"Poor Junior Sister," he sighed heavily. "Cultivation pressure has clearly damaged your mind. Please take these spirit stones and visit the medical hall."
Si Nidie: "..."
"I understand," the disciple continued earnestly. "Mental problems caused by cultivation are very common. Unfortunately, I'm poor, so this is all I can do."
Si Nidie: "..."
"Senior Brother," she said through clenched teeth, veins bulging on her forehead, "I am not sick."
The disciple clearly didn't believe her.
"Junior Sister, hiding your illness only delays treatment."
Si Nidie: "..."
Lou Yuqing nearly lost control of her expression.
The senior brother genuinely meant well. Which somehow made this even worse.
Seeing the atmosphere rapidly deteriorating, Lou Yuqing stepped in immediately to smooth things over.
"She really isn't sick. You don't need to donate spirit stones."
The tied-hair disciple looked doubtful. "Really?"
"Senior Sister," Lou Yuqing said calmly, "the token."
Though utterly confused, Si Nidie still handed it over.
Lou Yuqing turned toward the surrounding disciples, who had already begun watching the commotion.
"Dear Senior Brothers and Sisters," she announced brightly, "the puppet from cultivation room 536 escaped.
It's very likely hiding among these puppets right now.
Whoever helps us locate it can take over the remaining usage time for our cultivation room at the agreed price—and you may extend it however long you want afterward. "
The moment those words landed, everyone's eyes lit up.
Although cultivation room rights normally couldn't be transferred, there was one exception:
If a disciple ended usage early, they could pass the remaining time to someone else.
Since the cultivation rooms wouldn't refund spirit stones, many disciples privately traded usage rights to avoid wasting them.
At one point, two clever disciples had even turned this loophole into an entire business.
They repeatedly rented cultivation rooms, resold the time, and made a fortune from wealthy disciples desperate for immediate access.
Eventually, the upper management noticed something suspicious.
Why was one disciple renting cultivation rooms constantly?
And why were they always "finishing early"?
The Enforcement Hall investigated and discovered that the pair from the Great Wisdom Joint Cultivation Chamber had earned over ten thousand spirit stones within just one or two months.
Ten thousand.
An ordinary disciple might need centuries to accumulate that amount.
The two were ultimately punished for exploiting sect rules and sent to cultivate the wilderness—a notoriously dangerous assignment filled with powerful beasts and extremely high mortality rates.
After that incident, nobody dared exploit the loophole openly again.
But right now?
Nobody cared.
The disciples waiting in line hadn't expected anything good to happen today, only for a giant windfall to suddenly drop from the heavens.
Even the tied-hair disciple wavered immediately.
"Junior Sister," he said regretfully, "why didn't you explain earlier? Leave this to me—I'll find the puppet for you right away!"
Another disciple shouted, "I hope you keep your promise!"
Lou Yuqing pointed behind him and smiled. "You'd better hurry. Everyone else already started searching."
The man spun around.
Sure enough, the surrounding disciples were already rushing toward the puppet rows.
He cursed and immediately joined the hunt.
Si Nidie looked at Lou Yuqing approvingly. "Junior Sister, brilliant idea. With this many people searching, that fraudulent puppet won't stay hidden long."
Lou Yuqing smiled modestly.
The two of them stayed nearby, watching carefully for any suspicious movement.
Most of these puppets were merely display models or failed products from the puppeteers—far inferior to real combat puppets—so identifying abnormalities wasn't too difficult.
With so many people searching together, most of the puppets were inspected in no time.
One of the tied-hair disciples soon walked up to a puppet and reached for the back of its head.
He was obviously experienced; by inserting a spirit stone into the puppet's mechanism and observing its reaction, he could immediately tell whether it was functional or merely decorative.
But the instant his hand got close, the puppet moved.
It sprang backward with astonishing speed, dodging his touch completely before chopping the edge of its hand across the disciple's neck mid-leap.
The disciple collapsed unconscious on the spot.
Meanwhile, the puppet didn't even pause as it turned and fled.
"It appeared!"
Si Nidie's eyes narrowed sharply as she transformed into a streak of red light and gave chase.
The surrounding disciples exploded into motion immediately after her.
In the blink of an eye, countless streams of colored light shot across the sky behind the fleeing puppet like a meteor shower.
Lou Yuqing's flying artifact couldn't keep up.
Remembering the Lightning Escape Technique she'd learned recently, she immediately circulated spiritual energy through her body.
Crack—!
Purple lightning spread over her skin like living serpents.
Thunder exploded.
Her figure vanished from the spot.
The speed of the Lightning Escape Technique bordered on teleportation. In a blink, Lou Yuqing overtook most of the crowd and shot directly to the front.
Instantly becoming the lead star of the meteor shower.
The scene naturally attracted attention from passing disciples.
After staring for several seconds, someone suddenly frowned.
"...Wait a minute. Isn't that a cultivation room puppet flying up ahead?"
"Looks like one," another disciple replied uncertainly.
Nearby, Ling Yunxiao glanced over curiously.
He had just returned from a mission and was on his way to report to the Enforcement Hall, so he didn't linger.
After passing the Enforcement Hall assessment earlier, he'd originally wanted to work in the confinement district and keep an eye on Hao Tianping.
But Captain Wei had praised his talent and, after asking for his opinion, assigned him instead to the dispatch team with stricter requirements.
"Disciple has successfully completed the mission," Ling Yunxiao reported calmly inside the hall. "All demonic beasts causing trouble have been eliminated. Their corpses have been brought back."
As he spoke, five beast corpses appeared on the ground.
Every single one had been Foundation Establishment-level while alive.
And Ling Yunxiao had killed them all alone with minimal damage to the corpses.
Wei Houming's eyes revealed clear surprise.
Originally, he had only instructed Ling Yunxiao to scout the situation and wait for reinforcements.
Who knew the kid would simply solve everything himself?
Young disciples truly were reckless.
Still, as long as he survived safely, Wei Houming didn't particularly mind. Even so, warnings still had to be given to prevent arrogance from taking root.
"Ling Yunxiao," Wei Houming said sternly, "do you know your mistake?"
"Yes," the young man answered honestly. "This disciple understands."
"You're smart enough to admit it." Wei Houming snorted. "Next time, don't be so careless. You won't always be lucky. What if something unexpected happens? How would you handle it alone? More people means more strength..."
He lectured for quite a while.
Ling Yunxiao listened quietly the entire time without arguing once.
He knew the other party meant well.
Besides, no matter how much he disliked being lectured, the man before him was still his senior—and his superior.
"You've worked hard. Hand me your token."
Ling Yunxiao complied.
Wei Houming transferred the contribution points before continuing, "Keep your mission rewards safe.
If you need anything, exchange for it at the Contribution Hall.
Pills, talismans, magical artifacts—they have everything there.
I also added your enforcement points. If you want future promotions, cultivation alone isn't enough. Points matter too."
"Thank you for the reminder, Captain. This disciple will take his leave."
Ling Yunxiao turned to go.
He planned to rest first. Another mission would probably arrive soon enough.
But before he could leave, noisy commotion suddenly erupted outside the Enforcement Hall as a large group of disciples crowded through the entrance.
At the very front—Lou Yuqing strode in triumphantly.
Ling Yunxiao halted mid-step.
His gaze drifted toward the girl.
Seeing the smug satisfaction written all over her face, something inexplicably tickled at the edge of his heart.