I saved the entire sect by playing idly by letting things fall apart.

"What is that?" Song Hansheng's face twisted for a moment. "I'm asking you, Ye Qiao, what is that?"

A ghost baby?

It turned out to be that ghost baby that had been giving the Song family a headache for so long?

"A ghost baby." Ye Qiao's words confirmed his guess. "This realm is his home, have you forgotten?"

Song Hansheng must have been knocked senseless.

Xue Yu pushed him aside. "That's not the point." The boy pointed at Xiao Qi. "This brat has his eye on you ever since we came in from the Song residence, hasn't he?"

Ye Qiao nodded.

Xue Yu subconsciously wanted Ye Qiao to stay away from the child. Ghost infants are unpredictable creatures; they might be working with that ghost cultivator to set a trap.

"He's dangerous," Zhou Xingyun added.

Ye Qiao deeply understands this.

After all, he had initially been chasing after her, wanting to kiss her.

Mingxuan noticed their conversation was drifting off-topic, and in the midst of his busy battle, he turned around and shouted, "Stop chatting, brothers!"

"Don't you know?" He flung out a talisman to block the attack at his feet, and then dropped a bombshell, "She made a contract with the ghost infant."

In other words, this little devil won't betray anyone.

At this moment, some people were stunned, some were relieved, and some were cursing.

Song Hansheng was the one who was cursing and swearing. If I remember correctly, this kid has his own domain. Why didn't he have a contract and was picked up by Ye Qiao?

The woman was surprised that he would walk over and call out to a strange girl. Her expression turned cold: "Xiao Qi."

"come over!"

Ye Qiao pointed to the little devil perched on her shoulder and, under the ghost cultivator's almost murderous gaze, grinned smugly: "Your son is so cute, he's mine now."

The woman's face darkened, and in an instant she flew into a rage, her ghostly aura bursting forth and transforming into several strands that attacked them.

After Xiaoxi joined the battlefield, the situation changed dramatically. The Ghost Hand, which used to harass them from time to time, was gone. Instead, Xiaoxi moved with ease and freedom within the domain, and the slowed speed returned to normal.

"What are you standing there for? Hit her."

Ye Qiao's first sneak attack was swept away. She gripped the bamboo shoot tightly in her hand and decisively slashed to the side, dispersing the black mist.

With the aid of talismanic formations and Xiaoqi's help, she was in her element. Even if she couldn't win, she wouldn't be completely passive.

Moreover, she had been holding back for a long time in the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment, and she could try in the later stage, but for now, Ye Qiao was preparing to lay a solid foundation first.

It's an undeniable fact that she has weak spiritual roots, so we can only proceed cautiously.

Mingxuan has the most stable cultivation among them. Although he has been staying for a long time, he is now in the early stage of the Golden Core realm and can deal with a mid-stage Golden Core cultivator without any problem.

Zhou Xingyun casually snatched a cultivator's sword, his voice calm: "Borrow your wife's sword for a bit."

"Huh?" The sword cultivator, grieving the loss of his wife, instantly broke down in tears. "Your mother..."

The next second, the man slashed his sword as if cutting water with a knife, making a neat cut on the ghost cultivator's body.

He immediately swallowed the words he was about to say, and when Zhou Xingyun looked over, he chuckled awkwardly, "I hope your mother is in good health and everything is going well for her."

Ye Qiao followed closely behind.

Elder Duan always showed mercy during her training, but the ghost cultivators did not. Every time she dodged awkwardly, she constantly improved her swordsmanship and changed her usual sword style. Zhou Xingyun was the busiest, saving this person and that person.

Ye Qiao also truly witnessed the difference between the Nascent Soul stage and the Golden Core stage.

If it weren't for Xiaoqi, they would have been utterly thrashed.

"By the way, if a powerful figure from your Song family captures the ghost cultivator, who gets the final reward for completing the mission?" She swallowed a few mouthfuls of blood-restoring pills and suddenly remembered this.

Without hesitation, Song Hansheng replied, "Of course they're ours!"

The generous price they offered proved they weren't short of money, but they weren't stupid either; they could buy a bunch of talismans for tens of thousands of high-grade spirit stones.

Ye Qiao used the bamboo shoot to quickly slice through the dispersing ghostly energy, which then transformed into several streams of energy that converged again, relentlessly pursuing her.

Troublesome.

"That's a vengeful spirit, formed from resentment, it will never be extinguished or dispersed," she said with a cold laugh.

"Undying and indestructible?" Ye Qiao narrowed her eyes, disregarding everything, she suddenly used the momentum to close the distance, and abruptly raised her hand with her iron fist of materialism to tell her that she didn't believe her at all: "Then try it, see if your mouth is tougher or my fist is tougher."

Trying to explain ghosts and monsters to a modern person will only result in Ye Qiao hitting her with even more force and ruthlessness.

She couldn't dodge and was hit squarely. Several binding talismans fell, but the woman easily broke free, sneering, "You still have talismans?"

As she spoke, she bent her hand into a claw and grabbed at Ye Qiao fiercely. Ye Qiao decisively rolled away and quickly flung the talismans in her mustard seed bag, calling out to the others as she ran.

"Quick, quick, brothers, where are your talismans? Quickly, throw them out and calm her down. I've driven her crazy."

If she hadn't run, it wouldn't have mattered; but as soon as she did, the ghost cultivators would have been chasing after Ye Qiao relentlessly.

"That Ye Qiao." Song Hansheng realized the scene was eerily familiar. As the ghost cultivator approached, he ran while cursing, "How does she always manage to precisely provoke the final boss?"

First it was demonic beasts, then demons, then ghost cultivators. In conclusion: this person is toxic.

Xue Yu: "..." He really wanted to know too!

With Ye Qiao drawing most of the fire, the burden on the others was lighter. Zhou Xingyun attacked alone, while the other sword cultivators covered the talisman cultivators.

Everyone, human or ghost, is showing off, while Ye Qiao is the only one getting beaten up.

"She's so tired she could barely walk straight through a breeze," Mingxuan said with great sympathy.

Ye Qiao dodged several attacks by stepping on the breeze, while using the surrounding formations to restrain them. Ghost cultivators didn't understand formations, but she did. After a while, facing the ever-changing scenery around her, she really couldn't catch Ye Qiao immediately.

The woman's face darkened.

I thought she would be easy to deal with, but it turns out that she, a Foundation Establishment cultivator, is even more difficult to handle than a Golden Core cultivator.

When Mu Chongxi woke up halfway, he was still a little dazed. The place where he was lying was relatively safe. When he opened his eyes, he saw a mess in the dark area, with some cultivators lying on the ground in all sorts of crooked positions.

"Awake?" Xue Yu glanced at them, tossing a bag of pills in his hand to replenish their spiritual energy. "Go and help."

"They're fighting over there."

Without wasting words, Mu Chongxi immediately drew his sword, swept away the ghostly aura, and with a gentle breeze, landed in front of his opponent. With a slight flicker of his sword, he slashed down with lightning speed.

The essence of inheritance is that it can be recalled with the blink of an eye, without needing to comprehend it on one's own. Although it may be somewhat rudimentary, it can be learned entirely without a teacher.

Let Mu Chongxi learn it; with his natural talent, one lesson will be enough.

The ghost cultivator's pupils contracted slightly. She was momentarily stunned by the boy's domineering sword energy and dodged in a sorry state. The next second, Zhou Xingyun followed closely behind and pierced her through.

The woman was restrained within the domain at a speed that the other sword cultivators were not to be underestimated. They could dodge Mu Chongxi's fierce sword moves, but they could not dodge Zhou Xingyun's silent sword strike.

Zhou Xingyun did back down a bit. This was Song family territory, and the person should still be handed over to the Song family head. All they needed to do was capture the other party.

The domain vanished silently the moment the woman was stabbed. At that time, the sky was just beginning to brighten, and a lingering chill permeated the surroundings. There were quite a few injured cultivators, but overall, the mission was considered a perfect success.

"It's finally over."

Exhausted, Ye Qiao collapsed onto the ground, her hands folded over her arms as a pillow, and lazily said, "So tired."

But there's no way around it; this family will fall apart without her.

Ugh.

The girl had light eyebrows and fair skin, and looked as well-behaved as could be; she was the kind of girl that righteous people would like.

But thinking of her endless stream of underhanded tricks, the sword cultivators' faces darkened.

They only realized they'd been tricked after the fight was over. Damn it, that woman was the real ghost cultivator from the Song family.

Moreover, the more they looked at Ye Qiao's face, the more familiar it seemed; they appeared to have just chatted with a guard not long ago.

Absolutely.

"Ye Qiao." The deceived swordsman stepped forward, his voice tinged with despair, "I've long admired your name."

To be honest, they had long heard that this personal disciple was different from the others, but that was just hearsay, and not all cultivators watched the competition.

He looked utterly deceived and sighed, "Now I understand why you deserved to win two first-place matches."

Ye Qiao deserves all of this.

Ye Qiao smiled slightly and waved her hand: "Thank you for the compliment, it's my honor. My name is Ye Qiao, and I speak for myself."

"Stop joking around." Mingxuan was exhausted too. He patted her shoulder irritably. "Let's go. The Song family head wants to see us."

Everyone was exhausted and lay on the ground for half an hour before the powerful cultivators from the Song family finally arrived.

"At this rate, the Song family charges for five minutes, then gets stuck in traffic for two hours, right?" Ye Qiao kicked Song Hansheng's shin. "By the time you guys get here, we'll all be buried alive."

Song Hansheng: "..." He knew he was in the wrong, so he remained silent, which was unusual for him.

Yun Que's gaze was fixed on Mu Chongxi.

"You have received the inheritance." She said with certainty.

That sword strike didn't resemble the swordsmanship of the Changming Sect.

Mingxuan: "What, are you jealous?"

Ye Qiao echoed, "Jealous that he's more talented than you?"

Xue Yu criticized her, saying, "What you're doing is wrong."

With each retort, Yun Que blushed and stammered, "No..." she tried to explain, clearly the inheritance should have been hers.

But the Changming Sect members twisted the truth, making it seem as if she were the petty person.

Zhou Xingyun glanced at Yun Que and said indifferently, "If you're not good enough, don't blame the road for being uneven."

Seeing that the situation was becoming tense, Song Hansheng had no choice but to clean up the mess for Yun Que. He said coldly, "My father wants to see you. Let's go."

……

The group followed behind Song Hansheng, and started their usual nonsense. Song Hansheng got impatient with the noise and quickened his pace. He really felt that the people from Changming Sect were no different from others; they could make people die from their noise.

After several twists and turns, they entered the main hall. Only the head of the Song family wanted to see them. The group exchanged glances and bowed politely.

"Ye Qiao, a disciple of the Changming Sect."

"Mingxuan, a disciple of the Changming Sect."

"..."

After exchanging names, the Song family head glanced at Ye Qiao thoughtfully, then asked in a kind voice, "So, may I ask, who dealt with that ghost cultivator?"

Seeing that none of them moved, Ye Qiao had no choice but to step forward: "Me."

The head of the Song family was stunned; he hadn't expected it to be her.

He seemed to be deep in thought, then slammed his fist into his palm. "So you're Ye Qiao, the one who overpowered the Sword Inquiry Sect during the competition?"

The competition is where a group of teenagers, the pride of their youth, can make a name for themselves. Although the team competition can not show the difference in strength between different groups as well as the individual competition, the most important thing here is cooperation and strategy.

Clearly, Changming Sect leaves a deep impression in every match.

"Truly, heroes emerge from among the young, a prodigy indeed, unlike some people..." He said, his old face darkening as he glanced menacingly at Song Hansheng: "All they know is cultivation, they don't use their brains to think at all."

Song Hansheng, who was usually as diligent as a little bee, was speechless.

Knowing that Ye Qiao had indeed been a great help this time, the young man remained expressionless, suppressing the urge to remain speechless, and did not refute her.

His father's double standards have been long-standing, especially his extreme fanaticism for geniuses. The eight great families compete with each other, and if any family produces a genius, his father will come to their room and sit there all night, nagging incessantly, turning into a lemon spirit of jealousy.

After listening to a series of meaningless words, Ye Qiao and the others finally obtained the spirit stones they had been longing for.

The Song family head was exceptionally enthusiastic throughout, especially towards Ye Qiao. After the Changming Sect members had all left, his smile vanished, and he hurriedly asked, "Hansheng, what do you think of that young disciple of the Changming Sect's talisman-drawing skills?"

Song Hansheng said somewhat aggrievedly, "I've never seen it before."

All he knew was that her talismans were cheap.

But to see Ye Qiao's talisman-drawing skills, we'll have to wait until the individual competition.

"She is indeed a variable." The Song family head said thoughtfully, "You should observe her closely. That child has caused quite a stir these past few days."

To win first place twice in the competition and to be able to deal with ghost cultivators shows considerable skill.

Fortunately, Ye Qiao only had a mid-grade spiritual root; she could do it, but she couldn't truly master it.

Song Hansheng: "I know."

His tone was slightly cold: "Wait for the fourth round. Then she'll be finished."

Then we'll join forces with the other three factions to kill her!

*

The five people, dressed in very different styles, looked quite conspicuous walking together after descending the mountain. Ye Qiao lazily walked with her hands behind her back, saying, "How are we going to explain Xiao Qi's situation when we return to the sect?"

"Just say you brought back a grand-disciple for your master after going down the mountain?"

That would scare Qin Fanfan to death.

"Just tell him the truth," Mu Chongxi mumbled. "I think I know how to practice that inherited sword technique. Ye Qiao, do you want to come along?"

"No, you can keep it for yourself."

"You deserve this." Ye Qiao patted him and offered a fake show of concern to Mu Chongxi. "Remember to report this to Elder Duan later, and you can go to class and get beaten up yourself."

She wouldn't play along.

Now the elders are extremely lenient with her and no longer chase after her to scold her for no reason. Ye Qiao has been experiencing the high-class treatment that alchemists and talisman cultivators have not received in a long time.

It's absolutely awesome!

The group returned to the courtyard where the competition was held. Ye Qiao immediately wanted to find Qin Fanfan to inquire about the Heavenly Spiritual Root in the cultivation world.

All the other senior brothers had gone to sleep, so Ye Qiao, despite being sleepy, asked several people before finally finding him.

"Master."

She knocked on the door and went inside.

"I have a question for you."

Seeing that it was a genius from their sect's third cultivation, Qin Fanfan's irritable emotions calmed down, and she asked, "..."

Ye Qiao pondered for a moment: "How much do you know about Heavenly Grade Spiritual Roots in the cultivation world?"

"...Huh?" Qin Fanfan didn't react immediately: "What did you say?"

He was wiping his precious sword when he learned that the five divine beast disciples had completed their mission and returned to their sect. Qin Fanfan felt a headache coming on, something he hadn't experienced in a long time.

Although they brought him honor in the competition, the sheer number of them together created chaos and disorder.

During their absence, the Changming Sect enjoyed a period of peace and tranquility.

Ye Qiao watched her master polishing the sword, looking at it with an expression as if it were his wife. She paused, then asked, "Master, a Heavenly Spiritual Root. Have you ever heard of it?"

"If I haven't heard of it—" she shrugged, "I'll go look for it in the library myself."

"A Heavenly Spiritual Root." Qin Fanfan paused, her hand busy wiping her sword. "Why did you suddenly think of asking this?"

*

I lost my perfect attendance record, sob sob sob sob sob.

As my name suggests, I am the King of Slacking Off.

I found out someone named a cloud magpie "cloud bird," and I suddenly found it so funny, hahaha.