Don't Cause Trouble Chapter 16: The Preliminary Test

The Poyuan Sect was impressive in scale. On the outer perimeter lay a vast training ground, and in the distance, a towering peak stretched into the clouds. Closer by stood rows of grand halls and buildings—just the sight of them gave off a sense of grandeur.

Out of the corner of her eye, Quan Jiaying glanced at Ye Su. She was speaking quietly to someone beside her. So she’s the one who refined the Mistflower Fang?

She was not quite what he had imagined.

"Senior Sister, the spiritual energy here is amazing!" Xia Er whispered excitedly. "It’s almost as rich as that small secret realm we were in!"

"Use this time to train well," Ye Su nodded. "It’s safe inside the sect, so you can absorb the spiritual energy freely."

She could feel her cultivation realm beginning to loosen—likely because she had passed out in the secret realm and hadn’t been able to control her condition properly afterward.

"Good thing we made it here in time," Xiyu still felt a chill remembering the past few months. "Senior Sister, how did you end up staying behind in the secret realm? We all got thrown out. They said someone took the Realm-Stabilizing Treasure, so the secret realm collapsed."

"I’m not sure," Ye Su replied, thinking of the mysterious figure she’d seen. After she woke up, she hadn’t encountered any other living being. For a while, she even thought she was hallucinating. "I might’ve been trapped in a realm within a realm. Time moved differently there—by the time I got out, three months had passed."

"As—long—as—you’re—not—hurt," Ming Liu Sha said slowly and clearly, enunciating each word.

Ye Su chuckled. "There weren’t really any treasures in that secret realm anyway."

In the world of cultivation, risks and opportunities always came hand in hand. The more spiritual treasures there were, the more danger; the opposite was also true.

Since entering the secret realm, their biggest gain had been absorbing plenty of spiritual energy. Three of them had successfully built their foundation, and they’d taken down a few demon beasts. Even when they encountered that secondary realm, there hadn’t been any truly dangerous beasts.

"Probably someone got there ahead of us," Xiyu muttered. "The Realm-Stabilizing Treasure’s gone—we don’t even know what it was."

Xia Er was about to say something when suddenly, everyone walking ahead came to a stop.

At the front, Rong Chuqiu turned around and pointed to the ten outer sect disciples who had been waiting at the training ground.

"These disciples will lead you to your accommodations shortly—get some rest."

"Thank you, Elder."

"Much appreciated, Elder Rong."

……

The scattered cultivators who had been selected all cupped their hands in thanks.

Rong Chuqiu continued, "The preliminary test will take place in ten days. The competition will be held here. As for the contents of the test, I’ll give you all a small hint—it’s related to materials."

With that, she led the deacons and inner sect disciples up toward the main peak.

Before leaving, Quan Jiaying instinctively glanced back toward the crowd.

Perhaps his gaze was too direct—Ye Su looked up and caught sight of the handsome young disciple looking her way. She raised her eyebrows slightly, and he quickly looked away.

"Everyone, please follow us," one of the outer sect disciples announced. Each of them led a group of around a hundred unaffiliated cultivators to their assigned lodgings.

When they finally arrived, the scattered cultivators realized they’d be staying in large shared rooms—with ten people to a room.

"Your name will be posted on the door of your assigned room," the disciple who brought Ye Su’s group explained. "Your submitted magic artifact is on your bed. You may reclaim it now. If you have any questions, you can come find me."

Ye Su and her junior walked through the corridor and eventually found their names posted on the door of the last room.

"You all know each other?" a man around forty years old walked over, looking at them with admiration. "Your artifacts are really well made."

"Who are you?" Ye Su asked. She didn’t remember knowing him.

"My name’s Liu Min," he introduced himself. "I was ranked 1000th. I saw your artifact in the playback recording. That Mistflower Fang was incredible. It could definitely make it into the Hundred Green Ranking, right?"

A few other people entered the room at that moment. They gave them a glance, said nothing, and went straight to their own spots.

"The Hundred Green Ranking?" Ye Su found the name familiar.

"The—one—that—costs—money," Ming Liu Sha chimed in from the side.

With that reminder, Ye Su recalled it. Their sect leader had once mentioned the Hundred Green Ranking—it was a list that evaluated magic artifacts. But to enter, you not only had to submit your artifact, you also had to pay a hefty review fee: five hundred mid-grade spirit stones.

"That ranking... it’s not really worth it," Ye Su shook her head. A list that required payment to even be considered? She wasn’t impressed.

Liu Min: "...?" Did she just say the Hundred Green Ranking is ‘not really worth it’?!

They stepped into the room and found that, just as expected, each person’s artifact had been neatly placed on their bed, stored inside a box.

Ye Su opened her box, took out the Mistflower Fang, gave it a quick look, then stored it back into her Qiankun Bag.

Most of her talisman papers had already been given to Yi Xuan. As soon as she placed the Mistflower Fang into her bag, she noticed something else had appeared inside—a pearl.

...What is that?

Ye Su glanced around the room but didn’t take the pearl out. She stared at it for a moment, then calmly withdrew her hand, though her mind was spinning. When had this pearl gotten into her Qiankun Bag?

The pearl was crystal clear, with a faint mist swirling inside—it was clearly no ordinary object.

She was certain she had never owned anything like it.

Ye Su sat down on her bunk, eyes lowered as she tried to recall everything that had happened in the secret realm. No one had touched her Qiankun Bag, so the only possibility was during the time she was unconscious... Which meant—that dark-cloaked figure wasn’t a hallucination?

Yi Xuan and Ming Liu Sha had been ejected from the secret realm together, so it wasn’t her junior brother. So who was that person? And why would they toss a pearl into her bag?

She couldn’t figure it out.

With outsiders still nearby, Ye Su didn’t dare take the pearl out for closer inspection. For now, she acted as if she hadn’t noticed anything at all.

……

A corner of the Poyuan Sect was bustling with activity.

The thousand artifact refiners who had made it through the selection were now spending their mornings diligently memorizing the properties and effects of different materials. Some of the more secretive ones would even hide away from the others, quietly reviewing the materials they already knew in hopes of gaining an edge.

Under this intense atmosphere, Ming Liu Sha, Xiyu, and Xia Er all started to feel the pressure. They were worried that if they fell behind, they’d be eliminated during the preliminary round. So, every morning they studied the jade slips Ye Su had written, and spent their afternoons and evenings in meditation, absorbing spiritual energy.

As for Ye Su, she stayed in her room all day, focusing solely on cultivation.

Though this was just the outer area of the Poyuan Sect, the spiritual energy was still quite dense. But for Ye Su, it was barely enough—her spiritual reservoir was too large, which made cultivating slower and more demanding.

"Senior Sister," Xia Er said, returning from outside, "I asked around, and everyone’s saying the preliminary test will probably focus on material proportions."

"Proportions… that shouldn’t be too hard," Ye Su said as she stood up. "As long as your fundamentals are solid, it should be fine."

She wasn’t worried about that. Even though Qianji Sect didn’t have spirit veins or an abundance of materials, it had plenty of books. The disciples there had a strong foundation.

Suddenly, Xia Er remembered something. "Oh right—Second Senior Brother sold the moon grass we found in the secret realm, along with the share of beast parts we got. It added up to over 1,600 mid-grade spirit stones."

Ye Su looked at him, waiting for the rest.

Xia Er’s gaze darted away for a moment before he leaned in and whispered, "When we were rushing over that day, Second Senior Brother quietly slipped 500 mid-grade spirit stones into Junior Brother Yi Xuan’s Qiankun Bag."

Qiankun Bags had different grades. The ones used by Qianji Sect disciples were the lowest grade, and the restrictions on them were so simple that any decent artifact refiner could unlock them without much effort.

While Yi Xuan was focused on sword flying, Ming Liu Sha took the chance—hugging his waist from behind—to slip the spirit stones inside.

"Well done," Ye Su said. She had wanted to give Yi Xuan some spirit stones back then too, but he was too proud. She had given up the idea, knowing he wouldn’t accept them. Now that the stones had already been slipped in without him noticing, he couldn’t exactly throw them away.

Thinking of people slipping things into bags reminded Ye Su of that mysterious pearl she’d found in her own Qiankun Bag. Just by touching it, she could tell it was no ordinary item—but she definitely didn’t have any senior brothers who might’ve given it to her.

Once she returned to Qianji Sect after soaking up all the spiritual energy she could here, she’d have to ask the Sect Leader or Elder Yu. A pearl like that couldn’t have just appeared in her bag on its own.

……

Wisps of spiritual clouds curled around the peaks, where countless sect gates stood tall. Cranes soared through the sky, beasts roamed the valleys—it looked just like a realm of immortals.

On a flowing stone bridge stood a young man and woman, both around seventeen or eighteen years old, dressed in bright yellow Daoist robes.

"I heard Poyuan Sect is holding another competition," the young girl leaned lazily on the bridge’s railing, clearly bored. "Do they really think they'll recruit someone amazing?"

The young man lowered his gaze to the stream below the bridge, as if he hadn’t heard her.

"But Quan Jiaying’s already in the late Foundation Establishment stage," she raised her hand to block the blinding sunlight and chuckled softly. "Can’t believe he’s caught up to us."

"He’s just lower-mid ranked on the Baiqing List," the young man said flatly.

"True." The girl dropped her hand. "Time we moved up the rankings too."

……

Ten days passed in the blink of an eye.

On the day of the preliminary round, outer sect disciples came to guide the selected rogue cultivators to the trial arena. When they arrived, several elders were seated at the top, with many inner sect disciples standing beside them.

The chosen artifact refiners sat according to their assigned spots. The first row was reserved for the top ten from the preliminary selections.

Elder Rong Chuqiu was the host for the day. She raised her hand gently, and a thousand scrolls flew down, landing in front of the participating refiners.

"These scrolls contain one hundred different materials. You must, within twelve hours, write out as many correct refining combinations as you can. The top one hundred in terms of valid methods will pass the preliminary test and advance to compete alongside Poyuan Sect's inner disciples."

Some participants immediately unrolled their scrolls. The scrolls displayed images of the materials, but the main surface was blank. Brushes and ink were already prepared—they were expected to write directly on the scrolls.

Ye Su ran her fingers lightly over the scroll, quickly scanning the images. As expected, Poyuan Sect had set a tricky test—at least half of the materials were obscure or rarely used.

She glanced around and saw many refiners already sweating, their faces tense as they frantically flipped through the scrolls, trying to find materials they recognized.

Luckily, Ming Liu Sha, Xiyu, and Xia Er had crammed hard on unfamiliar materials beforehand, so it wasn’t too bad for them. Besides, there were still around forty common materials mixed in.

"Junior Brother, isn’t this the same exam we had at the end of last year?" Fang Xiu leaned over to ask Quan Jiaying after staring at the scroll for a while.

"Yes," Quan Jiaying replied, his gaze falling on Ye Su, who sat in the front row on the far left. She didn’t seem nervous at all.

Fang Xiu wiped the sweat from his forehead instinctively. After that exam, nearly every inner disciple had been scolded by the deacons, and even the elders came out to reprimand them for lacking discipline and motivation. They said there were so many handwritten notes in the library, and yet no one bothered to read them.

"How many combinations did you come up with back then?" Fang Xiu asked. Quan Jiaying was the only one who hadn’t gotten scolded.

"Three thousand nine hundred twenty-one." Quan Jiaying answered calmly. He wasn’t even satisfied with that—he hadn’t recognized seven of the materials, so he hadn’t used them.

Fang Xiu: "…" He had barely managed over eight hundred.

Down in the arena, the refiners had begun writing. Ye Su also picked up her brush and started listing material combinations and refining methods.

Armadillo Scale, Blackfang Tooth, and Darksteel—can be used to refine a Tri-Spike Cone...

Ye Su wrote quickly, barely needing to think. The combinations flowed out of her memory effortlessly. The three beside her—Ming Liu Sha and the others—were doing fairly well too.

But after only three hours, Ye Su suddenly stopped writing. She glanced around the arena, then at the sundial on the platform. It was clear her focus had drifted elsewhere.

"What’s she doing?" Elder Zhang had been keeping an eye on the refiner who made the Mistkiller Bloom. Seeing Ye Su looking around and not writing, he frowned. "Out of ideas already?"

Originally, they hadn’t planned for so many elders to attend this preliminary round—but their curiosity about a few specific refiners had brought them all here.

Elder Zhang, known for his impatience, couldn’t hold back. "That refiner—what’s going on with you?"

"Elder Zhang," Rong Chuqiu reminded disapprovingly, "The competition is still in progress."

Down below, Ye Su was still a little spaced out and didn’t even hear them.

"The one who refined the Mistkiller Bloom—why’d she stop writing?" Elder Zhang wasn’t having it. With so many of the other refiners already stuck, what harm was there in asking? He raised his voice again. "You out of ideas?"

Ming Liu Sha heard that loud and clear. He coughed a few times in Ye Su’s direction, motioning toward the stage with a tilt of his head.

Ye Su finally looked up and noticed everyone staring at her. She calmly pushed her chair back, placed her hands on her knees, and sat cross-legged on the spot.

"Sorry, I’m about to break through," she said. "I can’t hold it back anymore."

The elders: "……"

What the hell?!