A Guide to Self-Rescue in the Cultivation World - Chapter 2

The Twin Peaks of Xingcong Mountain stood side-by-side, one short, one tall. After catching up to her Master, Zhou Suyao dutifully placed herself behind him, naturally landing on the summit of the shorter peak.

Straight ahead, an impressive stone archway stood tall, its three scarlet characters, “Xingcong Sect,” gleaming brilliantly.

Unlike other archways, this one was adorned with two carved, phoenix-like divine birds at either end, shimmering with iridescent light.

Zhou Suyao couldn’t help but exclaim, “Wow, so divine! So luxurious!”

“…You have no taste, you brat,” her Master sighed helplessly.

But Zhou Suyao had no mind for banter. Her attention was drawn to the bustling crowd at the Sect’s entrance, specifically a lovely woman.

The woman was wearing a form-fitting uniform—a mix of blue and white—which Suyao mentally referred to as a “school uniform.” She called it that because the entire group following her wore the same outfit, which instantly brought back the terrifying memories of being forced into unified, sack-like school uniforms in her past life.

The beautiful woman was walking slowly alongside an old man. The old man was equally distinctive, with a pile of snow-white, curly beard stacked on his chin, which inevitably made Suyao think of the Santa Claus from her childhood memories. However, this “Santa” was thin, not wearing red robes, and looked like a venerable immortal. Plus, he wasn’t speaking in standard English.

The old man strolled over, bowed to her Master, and said, “Junior Brother, it’s been years. Take a word of advice from your Yangming. Take on a few more disciples. Otherwise, when your unique techniques have no successor, I won’t even know where to find your grave to cry.”

To Suyao’s surprise, her usually roguish Master simply rolled his eyes, not bothering to utter a single word in reply.

The old man could only take the snub in stride, turning his scrutinizing gaze to Zhou Suyao. His look seemed intent on seeing through her, inside and out, making her shiver and quickly shrink back to hang like a pendant behind her Master.

“Oh my, this little girl looks highly gifted,” the old man’s tone switched, sounding overtly solicitous. “I truly worry for my Mingluo now.”

As his words fell, the stunning woman behind him stepped forward and bowed.

Even with the sudden tension in the air, Suyao’s first thought was: Wow! Even the beauty’s name sounds amazing!

She was about to strike up a conversation when her collar suddenly tightened—she’d been snagged again by her cheap Master!

“Hey!”

Yet, when she looked up and saw the serious look on her Master’s face, she stiffened her neck and immediately retreated into silence.

Her Master nodded slightly to the old man with a poker face. “The competition is about to start. We’ll be going ahead. You two should hurry as well, not just to avoid being late, but so you don’t lose the match to my Suyao later and lose face.” With that, he grabbed Suyao and flew toward the highest peak.

“Seriously?!” Suyao silently ranted. “Master! Didn’t you just say that the chicken in the village could learn faster than me? Now you’re using me to show off!”

But seeing her Master’s foul mood, she wisely kept her mouth shut. Still, when they reached the highest peak, her curiosity won out. “Master, what was that all about?”

He glared at her. “Mind your own business, you little brat!”

“Just tell me, Master~” Zhou Suyao switched into repeat-mode, bouncing around like a tiny spring. “Tell me, tell me, tell me…”

Annoyed beyond measure and unable to shake off the clinging girl, her Master sighed, fanned himself, and put on a world-weary expression. “You really want to know?”

“Yes, yes, yes!” She nodded frantically.

“Fine,” her Master said slowly. “After you finish the exam, your Master will give you the full rundown.”

Her hopes crushed, Suyao instantly deflated. She decided on one last effort, grabbing her Master’s sleeve and shaking it vigorously. “Master, if you don’t tell me, I won’t be in the mood to take the exam… just tell me a bit…”

Perhaps completely exasperated, her Master checked the sky, which was still early, sighed, and settled down on the ground, sweeping his robes aside. “Fine, fine. If you really want to know, I’ll tell you the story.”

“Yay!” Zhou Suyao instantly followed suit, sitting cross-legged in the classic stance for a good gossip session.

Her Master preened, stroking an imaginary long beard, his eyes drifting, and his head bobbing. “Long ago, your Master was a handsome, graceful young man from Jiangdong, completely fooled by your Grandmaster’s words: ‘I see you have extraordinary bone structure and innate wisdom.’ I foolishly followed him into the deep mountains…”

“Uh-huh, uh-huh!” Suyao nodded like a pecking chicken.

“However…”

Her Master had just managed to utter one word when Suyao suddenly found her feet leaving the ground—her collar had been grabbed again!

“Aow—!”

The scream had barely left her throat when her Eldest Senior Brother, Zhou Shanyuan, quickly slapped a silence spell on her.

“Mmph! Mmph! Mmph!!!” She kicked her legs in a futile struggle.

Eldest Senior Brother, standing on his mighty golden Xuanwu turtle mount, held his “acrophobic patient” and flew toward the examination peak with a blank expression. The speed was so great and the wind pressure so fierce that Suyao felt her stomach churning and her vision darkening.

Touching down, Eldest Senior Brother released the silence spell.

“Blegh—! Eldest Senior Brother, you’re trying to murder—Ugh—!”

While Zhou Suyao was still half-dead, lying pale and disoriented on a rock formation, Second Senior Brother Qu Mingu and Third Senior Brother Zhou Zonglan finally arrived.

Third Senior Brother gracefully leaped off his sword, hands behind his back, grinning at her state. “Well, looks like you got the ‘flying with Eldest Senior Brother’ after-effects again, huh?”

Nearby, Eldest Senior Brother was crouched down in a posture completely unbefitting his stunning looks, hugging a bare peach branch. He looked up and asked, “Where’s Master?”

“Down below, reminiscing about the old days with his old buddies,” Second Senior Brother answered, walking over to Suyao. He deftly tapped a few pressure points on her. “Hey, come back to life. The exam is about to start. Why are you playing dead here?”

“No one cares if I live or die…” Suyao whimpered, feeling utterly miserable.

Just then, three thunderous BANGS! sounded near a huge rock engraved with the characters “Spirit Hall.” A middle-aged Daoist with a booming voice yelled, “Examinees, enter! Anyone late will be barred! Hurry up! Get in!”

Eldest Senior Brother sighed, hoisting her up off the rock, and quickly slipped a string of pearl prayer beads onto her wrist. He whispered urgently, “Don’t stall, hurry up and go.”

His eyes swept over Second and Third Senior Brothers standing together in the distance. He leaned closer to her, lowering his voice even further. “Do well on the exam. Don’t embarrass the sect. Everything you want to know, I’ll tell you when you get back.”

This move hit her precise weakness.

Her eyes instantly lit up. “Really?!”

“Really.”

“Is this gossip guaranteed to be good?” she instinctively pressed.

“…It’s guaranteed,” Eldest Senior Brother’s mouth twitched imperceptibly.

“Awesome!” The gloom vanished from Zhou Suyao’s face. She instantly revived to full health and bolted toward the entrance, as if the person who had just been violently sick was not her.

The Eldest Senior Brother stared at her cheerful back, shaking his head helplessly. This girl’s acting is too good. I worried for nothing.

Passing through the massive, rippling golden barrier at the entrance of the Spirit Hall, her vision suddenly opened up.

A huge, semi-circular blue energy shield encased the entire area, where a large number of people had already gathered. The crowd was clearly divided, each group wearing its own unified “school uniform”—clearly, these were the young disciples of the “Thirty-Two Paths” her Master had mentioned.

As Zhou Suyao looked around, a somewhat familiar figure waved to her from not far away. She squinted and saw it was the beautiful woman named Mingluo.

Mingluo jogged over and took her hand warmly. “Where are the others from your Daoist Academy?”

Suyao offered an awkward smile. “Actually, I’m the only new student we have this year. We specialize in low population and peace.”

Mingluo’s face showed a flicker of embarrassment. After a moment’s thought, she said, “In that case, come stand by me.”

As she followed Mingluo toward the neat formation of blue and white uniforms, Zhou Suyao couldn’t help but grumble inwardly: The Xingcong Sect has so many adult disciples just this year; the sect must be huge. The dorms are probably as cramped as Liu Yuxi’s ‘Humblest Dwelling.’ Tsk, it’s much better to have a whole mountain to myself and be the king.

Before she could finish her thoughts, a junior sister squeezed past them and anxiously called Mingluo away. “Senior Sister! A junior sister behind us is dizzy with nerves and has fainted!”

Mingluo could only give Zhou Suyao an apologetic look and hurried off with the junior sister. This left Zhou Suyao, in her completely out-of-place casual clothes, standing alone amidst the sea of blue and white. She sighed, feeling her legs ache, and simply crouched down, bored, looking aimlessly around.

Just then, with a low buzz, the golden barrier at the entrance slowly closed. The last group of people entered right on time.

Their outfits were nothing short of luxurious. Suyao’s eyes immediately fixed on the large, intricate gold Qilin embroidery on their sleeves, but she found it odd that the eyes of these mighty Qilins were left blank. Perhaps they were afraid that if the eyes were dotted, the Qilins would fly away, taking the clothes and the person with them.

Lost in these random thoughts, the tall, imposing young man at the front of the line suddenly turned his head and looked precisely in her direction. His eyes were filled with scrutiny and a subtle sense of pressure that made Suyao’s heart jump.

“Do you know who that is?” A round-faced girl wearing the same uniform as Mingluo leaned over, lowering her voice with a hint of excited gossip. “That’s the Eldest Young Master of the world’s foremost Dao—Raotian Dao! I heard he was born with an ‘Innate Spiritual Body,’ a rare talent seen only once in a century!”

Zhou Suyao nodded vaguely, looking thoughtful on the surface, but in reality, her mind was calculating how much the golden Qilin embroidery might fetch per piece.

The barrier had closed, and the new student test was about to begin. With another loud buzz, a huge, ancient-looking black spirit stone materialized in the center of the Spirit Hall, slowly floating into the air. A white-haired, venerable old man soundlessly appeared on the stone. He flicked his whisk, chanting loudly, his resonant voice instantly echoing throughout the blue shield:

“Esteemed disciples, today marks a critical junction in your path of cultivation. The newly-come-of-age disciples of the Thirty-Two Paths shall gather here to face their first trial. Following this trial, the Masters of the Spiritual Path will assess your grades. This grade determines your future trial trajectory and ultimate achievements! I urge you all to give your utmost.”

The old man paused, his gaze sweeping the crowd before continuing:

“Before the trial begins, you must each touch the ‘Stone of Inquiry’ before me! The stone will sense your spiritual roots and bone structure and assign a fitting trial! This trial will be conducted in a four-person squad format. Squad assignments—will be purely a matter of Heaven’s Will!“

“Now, those whose names are called, step forward and touch the stone!”

The first person called was the round-faced girl who had just gossiped with Suyao. Next was Mingluo, followed by the imposing Eldest Young Master of Raotian Dao. Soon, the name “Zhou Suyao” rang out through the hall.

She took a deep breath, walked up, and pressed her hand onto the cool surface of the black spirit stone.

Buzz—!

The stone suddenly erupted in a blinding, dazzling golden light. As the bright light swallowed her vision, Zhou Suyao felt a dizzying disorientation.

When she opened her eyes again, she was in an unfamiliar, chaotic space.

Beneath her feet were cracked, floating gray boulders; above, the bizarre sky rolled with purple thunder. She steadied herself and saw three figures not far away. She quickly ran over and peered at them—it was Mingluo, the Eldest Young Master of Raotian Dao, and a third young man with an icy demeanor, wearing the same luxurious Qilin-patterned uniform.

Mingluo waved at her, and she immediately stood by Mingluo’s side. The other two young masters, one looking arrogant and the other expressionless, created an atmosphere as cold as an ice cellar. Zhou Suyao opened her mouth but quickly thought better of it and swallowed her words.

Before the giant, verdigris-covered bronze gate ahead could open, Zhou Suyao quickly leaned in and whispered into Mingluo’s ear:

“Who are those two? They look like they’d be a nightmare to deal with…”

Mingluo also lowered her voice, speaking quickly: “Nightmare is an understatement; they’re incredibly pretentious! The one on the left, dressed like a peacock showing off, is Qi Shuobei, the Eldest Young Master of the First Great Dao. He loves asking people, ‘Are you staring at me because you’ve fallen in love?’ The one on the right, the ice-face, is their Second Young Master, Qi Jie. He looks aloof, right? Actually…” She paused, a hint of mischief in her tone, “…he’s a hopeless cat slave who can’t walk past a cat without stopping!”

“Pfft!” Zhou Suyao couldn’t help it. She quickly covered her mouth, her shoulders shaking wildly as she fought to keep from laughing. “Is that true?!”

“Absolutely!” Mingluo nodded vigorously.

The two young masters nearby: “…”

Qi Shuobei’s mouth twitched, and while Qi Jie maintained his stone-cold expression, his earlobes seemed to turn suspiciously red for a second. Wasn’t your whispering a little too loud?

Just then—

RUMBLE!!!

A blinding, pale white light unexpectedly burst from the crack in the bronze giant gate, instantly engulfing the four of them. A moment later, a terrifying, bone-chillingly cold aura surged toward them like a tide, instantly enveloping them.

A strange, ethereal chant, sounding as if it came from the deepest abyss, drifted closer:

“Yin walks three, Yang walks four, the Ghost Army passes, living make way—!”

“Yin walks three, Yang walks four, the Ghost Army passes, living make way—!”

A chill immediately crawled up everyone’s spine.

This place… was the Yin Realm!