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

The forbidden area is arguably the place with the richest spiritual energy besides the main peak. Therefore, it can not only be used to punish disciples who have made mistakes, but also to aid in cultivation.

The four people, trapped in the forbidden area once again, were so frustrated they wanted to scratch the wall.

Xue Yu and Ming Xuan were alright; both of them were calm and collected. Talisman cultivators and alchemy cultivators were already rare in the cultivation world, so they naturally had to work twice as hard to live up to the sect's expectations. However, Ye Qiao and Mu Chongxi, the two sword cultivators, were a bit restless.

She sat cross-legged on the ground. "The elders wouldn't be watching us every day for no reason, would they?"

"Can we sneak out?"

Mingxuan's sleeve was being held by Ye Qiao. He glanced at her and said, "Okay."

"However, if we want to keep it from the elders, we'll have to use a teleportation talisman to get out."

Ye Qiao's eyes darted around, and she pressed her advantage, "Does Senior Brother have a teleportation talisman?"

Mingxuan raised his chin: "Of course."

"My Ming family is a leading family of talisman cultivators in the cultivation world."

Ye Qiao exclaimed enthusiastically, "Second Senior Brother is amazing!"

Mingxuan met Ye Qiao's admiring gaze, cleared his throat, and felt extremely pleased. Without thinking, he took out the only teleportation talisman he had and tossed it to her, "I only have these two. You can use them as needed."

Ye Qiao's eyes lit up, and she immediately took it, praising him with delight, "I knew Second Senior Brother was the best."

"..."

Mingxuan raised his eyebrows smugly.

of course!

but……

I feel like what my junior sister said sounds very familiar.

Xue Yu, who was meditating to the side, opened his eyes. He probably knew that his two junior brothers and sisters were the kind of people who were afraid that the world was not chaotic enough. Getting them to behave would probably be more difficult than destroying the cultivation world.

He sighed, and, still worried, instructed from the side, "If you two go out, don't cause any trouble. If things get weird, tear up the talisman and run away immediately."

"If you come across any opportunities, seize them if you can. Don't be greedy if you can't win. There will be many great secret realms to enter in the future competition. The safety factor will be higher if the five of us go together. We can get you whatever you want."

Xue Yu kept nagging and giving instructions, and Ye Qiao nodded like a chick pecking at rice, smiling and saying, "Don't worry, Third Senior Brother, we are all honest people, and we will definitely not cause trouble this time we go down the mountain."

"Oh, right." Ye Qiao looked down and took out the Spirit Tempering Pill from her mustard seed bag. These were leftovers from her previous refining process. "This pill can help you absorb it faster."

Since her two senior brothers were planning to cultivate, she would definitely help them if she could.

The Spirit Refining Pill can help people quickly purify the spiritual energy in their bodies that contains impurities. Taking one pill while absorbing spiritual energy will have an excellent effect.

Upon smelling the familiar aroma of snail rice noodles, Mingxuan's face immediately turned green.

Months later, he still couldn't forget the taste of that elixir.

Ye Qiao was unaware that her senior brothers disliked the taste of her pills. After hurriedly putting down the Spirit Tempering Pill, she exchanged a glance with Mu Chongxi, tore up the teleportation talisman without hesitation, and left the forbidden area.

Having been through Ye Qiao's ordeal last time, Xue Yu was somewhat prepared this time. He shook the bottle, carefully smelled the aroma, and was surprised to find that what his junior sister said seemed to be true. "This pill has a very high concentration of spiritual energy. Could it be that my junior sister really knows how to refine pills?"

When Ye Qiao gave it to him, Xue Yu thought she was just joking, and the taste was so awful that he spat it out after one bite. Little did he know that the spiritual energy inside was so pure.

Upon hearing this, Mingxuan silently shivered. Xue Yu himself had an obsessive attitude towards pills, and Ye Qiao was not exactly normal either, treating pill refining like manufacturing biological weapons.

If these two get together to refine pills in the future, how will he and Mu Chongxi be able to live together?

"Uh...maybe these pills were bought from the Azure Water Sect." Mingxuan's voice was dry. "I heard from Master that the Azure Water Sect's disciple recently went down the mountain, right? The Great Secret Realm will open in a few months. Maybe my junior sister and junior brother just happened to run into them and bought a few pills."

Xue Yu blinked. "Is that so?"

Mingxuan nodded frantically: "Yes, yes, people who cultivate both paths can be counted on one hand in the entire cultivation world. Junior Sister is still just a child!!"

Xue Yu thought about it and agreed. He felt a little regretful, as he had hoped to study pill formulas with his junior sister in the future.

After all, being alone is really too boring.

……

Ye Qiao had entrusted a lot of her pills to a pill shop called Four Seasons Hall in Cloud City. The shopkeeper was currently enthusiastically promoting the pills to two female cultivators who looked very wealthy.

"Fairy, don't let its ugly appearance fool you, it has a beautiful heart."

The other woman's beautiful eyes widened, she crossed her arms, and laughed angrily: "Are you sure?"

Is this inner beauty?

"Really, my fairy? As the saying goes, you can't judge a book by its cover, and the same applies to pills." The shopkeeper earnestly advised. So many alchemists had sought cooperation with him these days, but he hadn't actually been interested in these strangely shaped pills at first.

But who can blame them when their prices are lower than other alchemists' prices?

The key point is that, apart from its less appealing appearance, it tastes just as good as those made by major sects.

"I'm not bragging. These pills are actually not much different from those of the Azure Water Sect."

The two, who had initially shown little interest in such an ugly thing, paused slightly. "Is it any worse than the Azure Water Sect?"

The girl burst out laughing. "Do you know what you're saying?"

"Do you really think the pills of the Azure Water Sect can compare to those of some shady, unorthodox practitioners?"

She immediately launched into sarcastic remarks, but the woman next to her stopped her, disapprovingly whispering, "Miaomiao, watch your words."

The girl named Miaomiao pouted and muttered unconvinced, "It's true...it's ugly."

The woman frowned slightly, poured out a yellowish-brown pill, and crushed it: "Look."

"The spiritual energy inside is very strong."

"The quality is not bad, but why is the shape so strange?"

What kind of genius alchemist could produce such an ugly pill? And the price is ridiculously low. Aren't they worried about the pill market becoming inefficient and price gouging?

As the sect with the most alchemists, this was a scene they absolutely did not want to see.

Miao Miao carefully sensed the spiritual energy permeating the air. Her initial dissatisfaction subsided, and she slightly opened her eyes. "Ah, what's wrong with this alchemist? Does he not know how to price pills or what?"

One pill costs only ten mid-grade spirit stones.

Are you crazy?

"Perhaps it's because it looks too ugly, and the price is too high to sell?" The woman pondered, after all, the cost of alchemy is actually very low, the high cost is labor.

"Or perhaps the other party isn't after money, but simply wants to benefit independent cultivators?" Miao Miao's voice was soft and sweet. "I heard from my master that the Great Secret Realm opened early this year. There have been many cultivators gathering here recently."

The woman nodded in agreement. "Of course there are such unassuming cultivators; perhaps we just happened to run into one."

……

After tearing the talisman, Ye Qiao landed in the center of Cloud City, where there were many passing rogue cultivators. Ye Qiao breathed a sigh of relief. It was said that teleportation talismans were used for random teleportation, and fortunately, she was not teleported to any strange place.

What if I were teleported into the belly of a monster, or into someone's grave? That would be terrifying.

Mu Chongxi noticed the Xuan sword hanging at Ye Qiao's waist and couldn't help but advise, "Junior Sister, you should go to the Sword Cave to choose a natal sword."

"The Sword Cave is located at the Sword Inquiry Sect. During the Grand Competition, as long as you rank in the top ten of the Sword Cultivator Ranking, you will be qualified to enter the Sword Inquiry Sect's Sword Cave."

"They even have ancient spirit swords there."

Ye Qiao: Good roll.

"Forget it, my Xuan Sword is fine." She muttered to herself. If it breaks, she can get a new one. The important thing is that she doesn't need to be in the top ten of the overall rankings.

Mu Chongxi: "..." Fine.

In any case, it's impossible for anyone to get Ye Qiao to put in the effort on her own initiative.

As the saying goes, wherever there are people, there is a world of its own, and places to eat are always the best sources of information. So the duo decided to go get something to eat first.

The upstairs private rooms were all full, leaving only a few empty tables downstairs. Ye Qiao ordered two bowls of noodles, and nudged Mu Chongxi to remind him, "Pay later."

Mu Chongxi readily agreed: "No problem."

While they were waiting, a large group of people entered from outside. Ye Qiao noticed that they were all dressed in the same clothes and had swords hanging at their waists, making them seem like disciples of a certain sect.

The man in the lead had a long, horse-like face. He glanced around and suddenly exclaimed, "Oh ho, isn't this from the Changming Sect?"

Ye Qiao was stunned for a moment, almost thinking that they were talking about her and Mu Chongxi.

As a result, two people at the other table stood up.

The other party wasn't wearing disciple's robes, and if it weren't for the horse-faced man speaking up, Ye Qiao wouldn't have known that these two were also from the Changming Sect.

Mu Chongxi stroked his chin: "If I'm not mistaken, then we should ask the inner sect of the Sword Sect."

Sword Inquiry Sect?

Ye Qiao blinked. "The Sword Inquiry Sect is rumored to be poised to become the number one sect this year?"

Mu Chongxi nodded, and all eyes around him turned to the group of people not far away.

The horse-faced man seemed to have some grudge against the other two Changming Sect disciples, and the atmosphere became somewhat tense.

The Changming Sect disciple raised his voice, "Song Jian, don't go too far."

"This is Cloud City; swords are forbidden."

The long-faced man named Song Jian laughed, "What's the rush? I haven't done anything yet."

"Didn't I say before? You people from the Changming Sect are just a bunch of trash in my eyes?"

"From now on, if you see us, go around us, understand?" He lightly patted the other person's face with one hand, which was extremely insulting.

Seeing the Changming Sect disciple's eyes redden, Song Jian smiled even more smugly, "What? Did I say something wrong?"

Mu Chongxi gritted his teeth, suppressing the urge to fight. He took a deep breath. There were rules in Yunzhong City that prohibited fighting and drawing his sword. He could only try his best to calm down.

Ye Qiao picked up the bowl of clear soup noodles in front of her, lowered her eyes, and asked in an ambiguous tone, "Fourth Senior Brother, are all the Sword Inquiry Sect members this arrogant?"

This was the first time she had ever seen such an arrogant person.

Mu Chongxi hummed in agreement, his tone filled with disgust. "Their sect is the number one sect in the cultivation world, and they've looked down on us for a long time. Moreover, our sect has a grudge against them, and we always end up in conflict whenever we run into them."

"In the last century-long competition, Wenjian Sect came in first, Yueqing Sect second, Chengfeng Sect third, and Bishui Sect fourth."

"We're fifth."

"Most of the female disciples of the Azure Water Sect who are skilled in alchemy are not good at fighting, so their fourth-place ranking is not low."

Besides, the Azure Water Sect is wealthy and has many alchemists. No one wants to offend them, otherwise, if they end up on the Azure Water Sect's blacklist, they'll have nowhere to turn for help if they get injured.

Ye Qiao: "In other words, our Changming Sect is the worst."

Mu Chongxi: "...That's right." But does this junior sister have to be so straightforward?

The commotion continued, but Ye Qiao nonchalantly drank a few more mouthfuls of noodles, then picked up her bowl and asked, "Fourth Senior Brother, are you full?"

Clear broth noodles aren't really that good, Mu Chongxi nodded, not understanding why she was asking this. "What's wrong, Junior Sister?"

As soon as he finished speaking, he saw Ye Qiao walk straight up to Song Jian.

"You must be Song Jian?" She smiled slightly.

Song Jian was suddenly interrupted, turned his head and said fiercely, "What?"

She slammed the bowl down on his face: "You unfilial son, how dare you speak to your father like that?"

The entire movement was executed flawlessly, without the slightest hesitation. He turned and shouted at Mu Chongxi, "Run!"

The duo had already gained experience from being chased in Changming Sect, and they ran as fast as rabbits, disappearing in no time.

Song Jian was left standing there, disheveled, with soup dripping from his chin and a few unfinished noodles hanging from his head, looking both pathetic and ridiculous.

Ye Qiao stepped into the breeze and left without looking back.

She wasn't worried about the other party catching up. The highest cultivation level among those inner disciples was only at the Foundation Establishment stage, and Mu Chongxi could handle it alone.

Besides, fighting is not allowed in Cloud City.

Recalling the other person's bewildered state, Ye Qiao smiled and felt much better. "I wanted to do this from the moment he walked in."

"Junior Sister." Mu Chongxi caught up, stepping on his Chaoxi Sword, and gave her a thumbs up, taking a deep breath: "You really are like a cow giving birth—"

He slowly uttered four words: "Absolutely awesome."

Mu Chongxi had disliked the people of the Sword Inquiry Sect for a long time, and always kept in mind the elders' teachings, never daring to cause trouble. Ye Qiao's clean and decisive actions made him extremely happy.