Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Seems Like I’m Being Watched?

***

Xinlian’s tone was flat, yet it made the two elders’ spines go cold. They felt like prey being targeted by a hunter, involuntarily trembling.

The Black Mole Elder suppressed his terror and hurriedly explained: “It was Fairy Wanqing who actively requested to participate, not something we arranged.”

He was deathly afraid that Fairy Xinlian might casually eliminate him if she became unhappy.

After all, she had both the power and the temperament to do so.

Hearing this, Xinlian’s expression, which had been calm as still water, suddenly rippled with emotion as she pondered:

“Actively requested to participate? Could it be because of that woman she brought back?”

Her divine consciousness then drifted through the clouds toward a delicate young girl near the back of the stairway, and her expression changed.

“Hmm? Why would Wanqing give her the jade pendant she treasures most?!”

…

Under the scorching sun, Lin Muyu gazed at the seemingly endless heavenly stairway before her and moistened her parched lips.

The path of cultivation truly wasn’t smooth sailing.

She swept her gaze around and saw that many young men and women had already collapsed on the steps.

This indicated that their cultivation journey had reached its end.

“Thud!”

Another young girl fainted in front of Lin Muyu, heavily crashing onto the steps.

“Sigh.”

Lin Muyu sighed but didn’t follow the example of the young man ahead who simply stepped over the fallen girl. Instead, she gently went around to the side.

A disciple in a plain Daoist robe came flying over on his sword and quickly shouted to his companion: “Another one.”

He then cast a spell to send her down from the heavenly stairway.

Although Lin Muyu had a frail body, she understood how to conserve her strength. At the beginning, she didn’t sprint at full power but instead saved her energy, trying to maintain a steady pace.

This could greatly improve her endurance and allow her to go further.

Fortunately, the spirit root in her body seemed to be activated by the scorching sunlight and began absorbing some of the heat from her body.

This prevented her from fainting due to heatstroke.

“No, I must cultivate! I cannot faint!”

Not far away, a girl in gray clothes suddenly pulled out a sharp dagger and, with a crazed expression, viciously stabbed it into her arm.

After simply bandaging the wound, she continued forward, ignoring her bleeding arm.

Lin Muyu watched the crimson blood seep through the bandage and drip down the girl’s arm, thinking to herself: “Hiss, she’s ruthless.”

“But won’t this cause shock from blood loss?”

Sure enough, although the girl managed to walk a certain distance thanks to the adrenaline rush from stabbing herself, she ultimately fainted from blood loss and collapsed thunderously to the ground.

“Quick, save her!”

Two patrolling disciples nearby witnessed this scene and hurriedly cast spells to stop the bleeding. After stuffing a low-grade healing pill into her mouth, they sent her down.

“This pill… doesn’t seem as good as the one Su Wanqing gave me?”

Lin Muyu pondered. The pill Su Wanqing had fed her was the kind of fine-quality pill that was smooth and glowed with a subtle aura, while the pill this disciple used felt like it contained many impurities.

“Why am I thinking about that woman again? Even if I owe her a favor, I’ll just repay it later. I shouldn’t keep thinking about her!”

Lin Muyu’s face turned slightly red as she hurriedly cast the distracting thoughts from her mind, gritted her teeth, and continued dragging her lead-heavy legs up step by step.

…

“Fairy Xinlian, who do you think among those people will succeed? Do you have any favored disciples?”

The Black Mole Elder noticed Xinlian was watching the situation below intently and asked obsequiously.

The Sword Elder pointed at the red-haired girl and dark-skinned big man in the first group and said carelessly:

“Need you ask? Fairy Xinlian must be favoring those few at the front.”

His tone completely lacked the respectfulness of the Black Mole Elder.

Xinlian didn’t mind and said with a slightly rising tone: “Guessing who among those in front can make it is boring. Why don’t we guess which of those at the back can make it?”

Hearing Xinlian’s words, the Black Mole Elder immediately shifted his gaze to the last group of remaining climbers and looked troubled.

“Those at the back are mostly exhausted. Probably none of them can make it.”

Those who were slow were either extremely lacking in talent or extremely poor in constitution. In such weather, the longer they stayed, the more likely they were to be eliminated.

Xinlian stopped pretending, pulled out the wine gourd from her waist and took a big gulp, saying in a slightly intoxicated manner:

“Is that so? Then let’s bet on whether that last girl can make it to the top, how about it?”

The Black Mole Elder was immediately terrified. He didn’t believe Xinlian was truly drunk.

Although logically speaking, those further back were less likely to reach the top, this was a Peak Master they were talking about.

He didn’t dare bet against this temperamental Peak Master.

Winning would be fine, but if he lost, he’d be ruined.

“Everything Fairy Xinlian says is correct. We agree with your viewpoint.”

The Black Mole Elder bowed and said, his tone as obsequious as could be.

But the Sword Elder was displeased and was about to speak.

He was immediately silenced when the Black Mole Elder somehow produced a red, plump fruit and stuffed it into his mouth.

“How boring.” Xinlian fastened the wine gourd back to her waist and stopped paying attention to the two elders.

Instead, she focused her gaze on the girl who had captured her precious disciple’s attention.

“What kind of person could make my disciple give her the jade pendant that even I cannot touch? How interesting~”

Xinlian stroked her silky hair, a playful expression appearing at the corners of her mouth.

Is someone watching me?!

Despite the scorching heat, Lin Muyu felt her spine go cold, as if thorns were pricking her back.

She was like a small rabbit that had somehow been targeted by an experienced hunter.

Lin Muyu looked up at the sky but saw nothing, only sunlight scattering through the clouds and mist.

Finding nothing, Lin Muyu had no choice but to look away. She wrung out the sweat that had accumulated in her sleeves and wiped her sweat-drenched face.

“Won’t those people running so fast really get heatstroke?”

Lin Muyu could no longer see the shadows of the front groups and could only vaguely remember that she seemed to have become the last place.

Ahead of her were climbers swaying unsteadily, all with expressions of unwillingness on their faces.

“How much time has passed? Can I still make it?”

Looking back, there was no one behind her. She had become the last person.

Rather than saying Lin Muyu was walking slowly, it was more accurate to say that those slower than her had already been eliminated.

“So how exactly did the original pass this test?”

Lin Muyu somewhat doubted her life. With such a frail body, if she hadn’t accidentally collapsed her spirit root into a single spirit root, she would probably have faced much greater resistance.

If that were really the case, she probably wouldn’t have had any possibility of reaching the end.

“Am I even inferior to the original?”

Lin Muyu, who hadn’t carefully read the plot, had no idea that the original body should have been able to join the sect a year ago to cultivate for a period, relying on a favor their family had once done for a certain immortal of the Qinglan Sect.

It was during that time period that the original, due to her spoiled and willful personality, offended the male and female leads, allowing the male lead to feel justified in trading her as an object to the Hehuan Sect.

Until her death, the original thought it was because she had provoked the female lead that she met such an end, not knowing this was just a scheme the male lead had set up to increase his power.

The original was merely a stepping stone for their advancement.