After Becoming a High-Risk Master, I Flipped the Script Chapter 219

Withdrawing was impossible; in the end, they still stayed to mooch off breakfast.

It was just that during breakfast, Song Xingkui almost wavered in her wish for this master and disciple pair to be tied together every day, because Mo Xuanli’s cooking was simply too amazing.

It made her want to abduct her little grand-nephew on the spot and take him back to be her personal cook.

However, watching Mo Xuanli obediently sit beside Gu Baiqing, peeling eggs for him, mixing dipping sauce for him, and then gazing at his own Master with deep affection, looking as if as long as Master had eaten his fill, he himself could just look on; such a devoted appearance.

Alright then, compared to such an eye-pleasing scene, sacrificing a bit of appetite was still tolerable.

“By the way, I just heard you didn’t stay together last night, aren’t you already dao companions? How come…” The earlier conversation had left her completely muddled.

Gu Baiqing’s head instantly filled with black lines. Since when had this person started spying?

“Xuanli also cultivates at night. Besides, time is tight, having separate rooms is better,” Gu Baiqing said.

Song Xingkui looked at Mo Xuanli and nodded. “Good self-control, not bad. Then that means… the cultivation manual I gave you really hasn’t been looked at?”

Mo Xuanli felt a little awkward. Someone had given him a cultivation manual, yet he hadn’t opened it from beginning to end, indeed a bit disrespectful to an elder. But the manual had always been in Master’s hands.

Mentioning that manual made Gu Baiqing’s face darken. He recalled that when tidying up last night, he had curiously flipped through it and nearly gone blind.

It was all illustrations, not only a dual cultivation manual, but specifically a male–male type.

“I burned it,” Gu Baiqing said directly, his face dark.

Mo Xuanli stared at Gu Baiqing in shock.

Song Xingkui immediately slammed the table in dissatisfaction. “That was what I gave to little Xuanli!”

“If you dare give that kind of thing again, I’ll burn it as soon as you send it! It dirties my eyes,” Gu Baiqing said speechlessly.

“You can’t discriminate just because the drawing skills are bad. Your painting is quite good, you could base it on that manual and draw something nicer, like drawing the two of you.” Song Xingkui suddenly felt her suggestion was excellent. “Then you can give it back to me as a return gift.”

“You… is that something a sect master should say?” Gu Baiqing truly couldn’t out-argue Song Xingkui and could only use status to push back.

Song Xingkui didn’t care at all, looking indifferent. “It’s obviously good stuff. Everyone who’s received it says it’s good.”

Gu Baiqing was instantly alarmed. “You… you’ve given it to who else? You, a sect master, giving this thing as a gift, you…”

“I gave it to your spirit beasts. That true dragon really does have an extraordinary presence, and it’s formed a partner contract with that cat. I could tell they’re both male, so I took the same type of manual as a meeting gift. Otherwise, would they have let me in?”

Gu Baiqing instantly understood. Before, he had thought Song Xingkui’s cultivation was exceptional, so they hadn’t noticed her getting so close. Now that he thought about it, Ao Hang and Three Bean were in the maple forest. How could they possibly let someone they’d never seen enter so casually?

Gu Baiqing felt exhausted. What kind of spirit beasts were these!

And from their conversation, Mo Xuanli had basically guessed what it was. His impression of Sect Master Song Xingkui twisted a bit more.

But… the manual, how could Master just burn it? Fortunately, Ao Hang’s side had kept theirs. Just as he lifted his gaze, he saw Song Xingkui looking at him with a half-smile.

“Don’t worry, little Xuanli. I’ll secretly give you one later.”

Mo Xuanli immediately flushed red in embarrassment. Gu Baiqing rubbed his forehead with a headache.

After finishing breakfast, Song Xingkui spoke in satisfaction, “Come on, I’ll first test Xuanli’s strength.” After all, she hadn’t come purely to fool around, business was still important.

Soon, a barrier was set up over Luofeng Pavilion, and the two of them began fighting inside it.

Although Song Xingkui wasn’t exactly combat-oriented, she was still at the tribulation-crossing stage. Her strength was a complete suppression, and when facing Mo Xuanli, she also used her full strength, including the pressure of her cultivation.

This was high-pressure teaching. When Mo Xuanli faced the strongest opponent and was forced into a desperate fight just to survive, that was when he progressed the fastest.

But Song Xingkui only held on for one hour. Anyone who had fought Mo Xuanli knew how exhausting it was. God Nine Transformations’s nine-stage transformations, combined with various cultivation techniques, created flexible and ever-changing attack methods. Add to that Mo Xuanli’s own quick mind, in battle, he could use all kinds of techniques: spells, close combat, talismans, and magic artifacts. Even the junior brother who loved fighting didn’t like sparring with Mo Xuanli, it was too mentally taxing.

One hour was already the limit of Song Xingkui’s mental stamina. She descended and sprawled half-dead over the table, with one sleeve already burned to shreds.

“What kind of disciple did you take in? Did you teach all of this?” Song Xingkui said speechlessly.

“I wouldn’t dare take the credit. Most of it is his own effort,” Gu Baiqing said, looking at Mo Xuanli not far away, sitting cross-legged and healing himself. He was injured fairly seriously, but everything had stopped short of lethal harm.

“What? Feeling heartache?” Song Xingkui turned her head and asked.

“Yes, heartache,” Gu Baiqing replied frankly.

Song Xingkui laughed. “Mixed-bloods recover very quickly. He’s a grown man, this little injury is nothing.”

“An injury is still an injury. Is there a difference between a serious injury and a minor one? Does a minor injury not hurt?” Gu Baiqing said slowly. “And besides… he shouldn’t have had to go through all this.”

At such an age, among his peers, how many needed to endure his suffering and be forced to grow and advance?

Five years to reach the tribulation-crossing stage… even Gu Baiqing in the past hadn’t needed to be like this. Although Gu Baiqing was also extraordinarily talented, with almost no bottlenecks in breakthroughs, he still had long periods of cultivation accumulation and consolidation.

But Mo Xuanli didn’t have that privilege. He could only achieve such rapid progress through brutal tempering.

Guarding against the world, while also bearing responsibility for the world’s stability.

Gu Baiqing had always felt that there was no one more unfortunate than Mo Xuanli.

So he felt heartache.

Song Xingkui stopped smiling. Instead, she looked at Mo Xuanli with a heavy gaze and slowly said, “There’s no helping it. This world was never fair. The Heavenly Dao only maintains the world’s overall balance, and sometimes, for that balance, it picks a few unlucky ones to sacrifice.”

Gu Baiqing was stunned by what he heard and looked at Song Xingkui with some confusion; it was the first time he had heard such a statement.

At this moment, Song Xingkui’s expression was extremely serious, completely different from her usual self.

“But people like us are meant to contend with the Heavenly Dao for our fates. So the suffering he endures now is precisely to change his fate, to defeat that thieving old Heaven no matter what.”

As soon as these words fell, the heavens suddenly rumbled loudly, yet there was no lightning.

Gu Baiqing looked at Song Xingkui and felt that her eyes seemed to shine with lightning, yet her whole person carried a sense of transcendence beyond the mortal world.

But suddenly, Song Xingkui turned her head, looked at Gu Baiqing, and smiled. “So? What do you think, what I just said was impressive, right? Next time the sect holds a grand assembly, I can use those lines. It’ll make me seem especially profound and unfathomable.”

“You… you’re always getting struck by lightning, could it be because you’re constantly scolding the old Heaven?” Gu Baiqing said speechlessly.

Song Xingkui rolled her eyes. “Of course not. If it struck whenever someone cursed it, then it would be thundering every day. It wouldn’t bother with that.”

“Then you…” Gu Baiqing was actually quite curious why she was always being struck.

Song Xingkui cut him off. “If you really feel heartache for your little disciple, just go up and give him a kiss. I guarantee it works better than any spirit medicine, instant fatigue relief. Go on, go on!”

Seeing the expectant look on Song Xingkui’s face, Gu Baiqing hurriedly shook his head. He didn’t have a habit of putting on displays of affection in front of others.

Because it was inconvenient for Gu Baiqing to use spiritual power, he was only responsible for theoretical guidance. Each time after Mo Xuanli fought with Song Xingkui, he would first heal his injuries; once the healing reached a certain point, Gu Baiqing would begin lecturing, and then this process would repeat in cycles.

In the evenings, after Song Xingkui returned, Mo Xuanli would find Ao Hang and have Ao Hang continue training him. Ao Hang was initially rather unwilling, but somehow the two discussed it out; in any case, afterward Ao Hang became very willing to beat Mo Xuanli into shape, and with ruthless force at that. By nighttime, aside from healing his injuries, Mo Xuanli would enter meditation alone to stabilize his state of mind.

Out of the twelve hours in a day, he almost never rested; this basically became his training routine.

Naturally, his progress was astonishingly fast.

Relatively speaking, Gu Baiqing didn’t have much to do. Occasionally, he would go visit Lou Zixiao. Over the past few days, Lou Zixiao had quickly adapted to Zixiao Sect. Her medical path had also grown proficient, earning Luo Nianyi’s recognition. After learning about the situation here, since he was her sworn elder brother, she came every day to help with treatment. This saved Mo Xuanli a lot of trouble and also allowed Lou Zixiao’s techniques to improve rapidly.

Once, when Mo Xuanli couldn’t hold it in and hugged Gu Baiqing to give him a kiss, it was accidentally seen by Lou Zixiao. After that, whenever she stayed together with Song Xingkui, the atmosphere somehow became a bit strange. As for this, Gu Baiqing expressed that simply pretending not to see it was fine.

Before long, Song Xingkui brought news that Taixu Hall had directly agreed to let them remain at Zixiao Sect to first level up.

Because this mission’s progress had been extremely fast, while progress in other directions was very slow, Taixu Hall discussed taking advantage of this time to let the two of them improve properly. Naturally, their focus was on Li Xiuran. Word was sent that Li Xiuran had been taken midway by people of the Hidden Gods Clan into a secret realm to cultivate, likely related to him obtaining two fragments, so his strength needed to be raised.

Since Li Xiuran had stopped, Taixu Hall naturally believed that Mo Xuanli couldn’t go carry out missions either, so they had Mo Xuanli stop as well and focus on cultivation.

Thus, cultivation repeated day after day, until one day when Song Xingkui arrived and discovered that the spiritual energy field of the entire Luofeng Pavilion had become unstable, then she knew the time had come.

When she entered, she indeed saw Mo Xuanli sitting in meditation, with spiritual power gathering toward his body. Gu Baiqing watched from the side and nodded when he saw Song Xingkui come in.

Song Xingkui spoke up. “Let’s go… to the forbidden grounds.”

The three headed to the forbidden grounds. Before entering, Song Xingkui reinforced the surrounding barrier formations again.

This was Gu Baiqing’s first time coming here. There was no memory of it in the original body, he didn’t know whether he had been here before without leaving any impression, or if he had never come at all. But in Gu Baiqing’s imagination, with spatial rifts leaking demonic energy and demon clans being imprisoned here, it must be an extremely harsh environment, nothing like the immortal aura drifting outside.

Yet after entering the forbidden grounds, Gu Baiqing was dumbfounded. The mountains were bright and the waters beautiful; birds sang and flowers bloomed. It was essentially a hidden paradise tucked within a valley. Only its style leaned more toward the mortal world, utterly out of place with the rest of Zixiao Sect.

Moreover, the abundance of spiritual energy here did not come from a spiritual vein. After all, with spatial rifts present, the spiritual veins here were severed. So aside from the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, most of the energy here came from rare spiritual plants, spirit crystals, and spirit springs placed here, essentially a postnatal, artificially modified environment.

Thus, overall, aside from being able to sense a trace of demonic energy, there was nothing at all that a forbidden ground should look like.

“Strange, isn’t it?” Song Xingkui said with a smile. “The first time I came here with my master, I also found it very strange. If all this spiritual energy was created to counteract the demonic energy and prevent outer disciples from being affected, then why not simply set up powerful barrier formations to seal the spatial rifts? Zixiao Sect has existed for so many years, could they really not gather enough great experts to accomplish this?”

“Didn’t Master explain it?” Gu Baiqing asked.

Song Xingkui shrugged. “Master didn’t know either. He only knew that the arrangements here were made by an astonishingly talented elder from long ago. In any case, this is how it was done, and we later generations are not to alter it at will. So all we can do is reinforce the formations and barriers.”

“Was this elder also the one who captured demon clans and brought them in?”

“Apparently not. But it was something that happened during their era.”

There was very little information left about this place, and it couldn’t be investigated deeply. However, the environment here was good, and staying here wouldn’t be uncomfortable. They then let Mo Xuanli choose a spot where he felt comfortable to prepare for his breakthrough.

Following his instincts, Mo Xuanli came to a spot beneath a waterfall and took the Soul Transformation Pill.

Song Xingkui reminded him, “The most troublesome part of soul transformation is that after evolving the nascent spirit, the spirit will leave the body and wander the heavens and earth, going to the place your true heart most wants to go. At that time, your consciousness may not be clear, and the place you go to might cause you to sink and lose yourself. So it relies entirely on your own willpower. If your will is firm, you can safely return. If it isn’t, we’ll have to pull your spirit back for you, and then the spirit may be damaged. So it’s best if you rely on yourself.”

Gu Baiqing thought of the system’s reminder. If they had to pull the primordial spirit back, then Mo Xuanli would definitely demonize. Originally, this breakthrough of Mo Xuanli’s was very stable, so it was expected that there wouldn’t be a sudden demonization. He only hoped the primordial spirit would be strong enough.

“Disciple understands.” For this reason, Mo Xuanli had been very diligent in cultivating his state of mind during this period. Before coming, he had even asked Ao Hang to stand guard outside. If Ao Hang saw his primordial spirit stray far from Zixiao Sect, he was to use dragon breath to influence him, making his primordial spirit retreat in the face of difficulty and obediently return. He was afraid he would go to places he shouldn’t.

Preparing to enter meditation, Mo Xuanli couldn’t help but look at Gu Baiqing, his eyes filled with attachment and reluctance.

Gu Baiqing was all too familiar with that look and knew Mo Xuanli wanted to get close to him for a moment.

It was just that… there was a pair of big eyes beside them, sparkling as they stared.

Mo Xuanli knew the setting wasn’t appropriate, so he could only softly say, “Master, wait for me.” Then he was about to sit down.

But Gu Baiqing suddenly stepped forward, took the initiative to hug Mo Xuanli, and kissed him once, leaving Mo Xuanli delighted and at a loss.

“Mm, I’ll wait for you.”

Mo Xuanli sat down, fully satisfied.

Song Xingkui was also fully satisfied and gave a thumbs-up.

Gu Baiqing raised his brows and said, “It’s not free.”

Song Xingkui smiled, sat cross-legged, and began guarding Mo Xuanli.

The advancement to the Soul Transformation stage began.

First came the evolution from nascent soul to primordial spirit. During this period, there wouldn’t be any danger. Gu Baiqing didn’t just stand around watching either; he planned to walk around, study this forbidden ground a bit, and see whether there might be anything that could affect Mo Xuanli.

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