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

Faced with Qin Fanfan's questioning gaze, Ye Qiao scratched her head, hesitated for a moment, and asked, "If I said I have a Heavenly Spiritual Root, would you believe me?"

Qin Fanfan put down her sword and looked at her worriedly. "Oh dear, Xiao Qiao, did you turn into an idiot from all three cultivations?"

Ye Qiao was taken aback: "No."

Although overuse can sometimes cause dizziness, it's generally not enough to turn you into an idiot.

The two were a perfect match: one dared to ask, and the other dared to answer.

Wait a minute, she realized, "You think I'm an idiot?"

Qin Fanfan felt a little guilty after being asked that question. He straightened his back and said, "Then why are you bringing this up out of the blue?" He pointed at Ye Qiao and started criticizing her as usual.

"Cultivation? At your age, how can you not work hard?"

Ye Qiao's lips twitched, and she took a deep breath. "Never mind." She went to find her junior uncle.

Watching the girl's departing figure, Qin Fanfan quickly chased after her, because he realized that Ye Qiao really wasn't joking.

Who could blame Qin Fanfan for leaving such a deep impression with the other person's unreliable image in the past? She shouted, immediately tossing aside her sword, expertly stroking her beard, transforming into an intellectual, wise man, "Xiao Qiao, I know about the Heavenly Spiritual Root!"

Ye Qiao immediately stopped walking. Qin Fanfan stroked his beard and explained more clearly: "Above the top grade is the heavenly grade. There used to be such a saying in the cultivation world, but later there are fewer and fewer people with this kind of talent. Even the top grade is rarely seen in the eight great families."

"Nowadays, even the most outstanding individuals can be exceptionally made to become personal disciples."

Top-quality items are in high demand.

Otherwise, Qin Fanfan wouldn't have been jealous that Yueqing Sect was able to pick up a top-grade water spirit root.

Ye Qiao: "Oh." I understand.

"How much do you know about the reason why Heavenly Grade Spiritual Roots need to grow?"

She always believed that spiritual roots were already fully developed at birth.

Qin Fanfan choked, "Wait for me, I'll go check the library."

Don't worry.

He had no knowledge of this kind of spiritual root.

After Ye Qiao asked so many questions, it was Qin Fanfan's turn to ask in return, "Ye Qiao, are you really not joking? A Heavenly Grade Spiritual Root, is that related to you?"

Ultimately, the cultivation world is still full of old-fashioned stubborn people. The fact that no sect has poached Ye Qiao's talent for so long is simply because they look down on Ye Qiao's spiritual root. Qin Fanfan had no hope for Ye Qiao from the start.

That's a Heavenly Spiritual Root.

Ye Qiao thought for a moment: "Can we try it with the testing stone?" She wasn't sure either. Anyone who had been a mid-grade spiritual root for so long would feel like it was a dream if they were suddenly told that they had changed to a different level.

Qin Fanfan readily agreed: "Of course."

Ye Qiao had already been tested when she entered the outer sect. Her talent was barely qualified, just barely passing.

Although she had no hope, Ye Qiao never boasted. Qin Fanfan was extremely anxious and rushed to find the testing stone as fast as she could, even leaving her sword aside.

By the time he hurriedly retrieved the testing stone, Ye Qiao was almost asleep. Considering that she had only gotten a mid-grade result from the previous testing stone, Qin Fanfan specially got a higher-grade one.

Normally, the upper limit for testing stones is top-grade, but this time the upper limit is heavenly grade.

This was the first time Ye Qiao had ever seen a Heaven-grade testing stone. She took a few more glances at it and then placed her hand on it.

"It's okay if it's not true, just take it easy, Xiao Qiao."

Qin Fanfan was still comforting her. Ye Qiao was speechless: "Then can you please stop pinching me?!" It hurts!

Qin Fanfan: "..."

Ye Qiao lowered her eyes and placed her hand on it. The test stone reacted very slowly, and Qin Fanfan stared at it without blinking the whole time.

No response.

Qin Fanfan glanced at Ye Qiao's calm expression and instinctively wanted to say a few words of comfort: "It's okay."

"It's normal if it isn't." After all, it hasn't happened in a century.

Ye Qiao seemed to be deep in thought. "Master."

"Does this flickering indicate a reaction?"

"Huh?" Flashing?

Qin Fanfan looked down. Having been the sect leader for so many years, he had naturally seen countless geniuses come to test the stone. Take Xue Yu as an example, a top-grade fire-type spiritual root, the test stone almost exploded.

Geniuses are certainly rare... but they use up a lot of testing stones.

This was the first time Qin Fanfan had ever seen such a weak Heavenly Spiritual Root in all his years of life. He calmly swallowed his scream and watched as Ye Qiao's purple light flickered to the very top before quickly disappearing.

If you don't look closely, who would notice that this is a top-quality item?

In their minds, if a top-grade stone could burst a test stone, a heavenly-grade stone should at least burst.

As a result, no.

There was nothing there.

It flashed briefly, then returned to calm.

Ye Qiao fell silent as well. Qin Fanfan pressed her down onto the stool. "Calm down first. I'll go find them and have a meeting."

Fine.

So, one by one, the elders came over to watch her intently.

It looked like they were sizing up some giant panda.

Elder Zhao admitted that he had raised his voice a bit when he spoke to Ye Qiao. He was extremely pleased: "Don't throw away a disciple you've picked up. Raise him for a year and he'll become a genius, hahaha."

He was indeed the wisest!

Duan Yu also came along, and when he arrived, he frantically patted Ye Qiao's shoulder, almost knocking her to the ground. "I've known you'd be good since we were kids."

Ye Qiao: "..."

"A Heavenly Spiritual Root, or rather, a Heavenly Spiritual Root that still needs to grow." Qin Fanfan remembered something else. "Is it possible that other Heavenly Spiritual Roots are the same?"

But they were almost all ignored.

After all, in major sects, anyone whose spiritual root is not up to par will be eliminated right away; not everyone is Ye Qiao.

As Ye Qiao listened to their discussion, she suddenly felt a chill in her chest. So, was the original owner's spiritual root dug out because she had a heavenly spiritual root?

The group couldn't come to any conclusions, but improving Ye Qiao's strength was an urgent matter.

Originally, Ye Qiao had given up hope for the competition. Even if the team won the competition, there would still be individual competitions to follow. Now that a Heavenly Grade had been discovered, Ye Qiao thought that the elders would be kinder to her. However, after she had been slacking off for a short while, Elder Duan Yu dragged her away to the back mountain.

There were still diligent disciples training on the back mountain. When they saw Ye Qiao, a few of them subconsciously wanted to greet her, but when they turned their heads, they saw Duan Yu's stern old face.

excuse me.

"You've been down the mountain for so long, come and test your skills." With that, Duan Yu casually delivered a merciless punch to her face.

Despite her high rank, training must continue. After the two secret realms, it will be the individual competition. If she doesn't improve her own strength, the individual competition will be full of Golden Core stage cultivators. What can she, a Foundation Establishment cultivator, do to compete? Just because she runs fast?

"Choose one of those weapons on the shelf to use against me."

Seeing this, Ye Qiao did not hesitate to pick up her most comfortable sword. After exchanging blows with Elder Duan for a while, she found herself at a significant disadvantage once she got close. So she immediately abandoned the sword, picked up the heavy spirit bow, drew it to its full extent, and shot it straight out.

The girl moved so fast that Elder Duan Yu was slightly surprised and even changed his fighting style.

Ye Qiao learned this move from that ghost cultivator; it's a strange and unpredictable fighting style. As for how to properly use the spirit bow, she learned it from Miao Miao.

She fired several arrows in quick succession, forcing Elder Duan to stop in his tracks. The battle between the two ended with Elder Duan sweeping his arrow at her abdomen and suddenly pulling her down, knocking Ye Qiao to the ground.

"Sure." He clapped his hands, utterly astonished. "You can use a spirit bow?"

Some exceptionally talented cultivators may use other magical artifacts, such as folding fans, bows and arrows, and others.

Some disciples have fixed fighting styles and are good at using fixed magical weapons. For example, those sword cultivators with good aptitude can only use swords.

Si Miaoyan could use a vertical flute and was skilled in attack techniques. The elders' surprised reaction at the time was enough to prove how difficult it was to master a single type of magical artifact.

Ye Qiao shrugged: "You know that already."

"I'm the kind of person who's not good at anything, but can do a little bit of everything." There's no way around it; she has too few opportunities to handle magical artifacts.

All told, he's only been learning swordsmanship in the cultivation world for a year. He can't really be called an expert; he just knows how.

Duan Yu shook his head, surprised that this kid was really so low-key. He said in a slightly serious tone, "If you were at the same level as those personal disciples, you might not necessarily lose."

Although Ye Qiao was not very skilled with a sword, this child's greatest strength was not swordsmanship, but rather his ability to counter any move.

Moreover, Ye Qiao's progress is astonishing. His fighting style is gradually changing. At the beginning, he followed the sword technique without any changes, but now he has learned to change according to the opponent's fighting style.

This child learns too fast. At first, Duan Yu could kick her away with one kick, but now Ye Qiao can dodge him several times and even fight back.

Ye Qiao blinked, feeling unusually embarrassed by the praise.

"Ye Qiao," Elder Duan said earnestly, looking at her intently, "tell me honestly, how many years have you been practicing swordsmanship?"

You have a photographic memory! How could you not even be proficient in using a sword after more than ten years?

Ye Qiao was silent for a few seconds. She had been in the cultivation world for a full year, not including the time she spent slacking off. Finally, after thinking for a moment, she answered truthfully: "One year."

"???"

a year?

One year!?

-

This is a weird title. I have to go out tomorrow, so I'll try to finish writing 8,000 words today. I'll post this chapter first, and there will be more later, but it might be quite late. Everyone should go to sleep now.