Don't Cause Trouble Chapter 9: Artifact Submission for Selection

As the selection event hosted by Poyuan Sect approached, countless rogue cultivator-refining masters rushed to Dinghai City, making the entire city livelier by the day.

On the day the selection officially began, Ye Su and her companions entered the city and headed toward the artifact submission site established by Poyuan Sect. The streets were packed, and even before they reached the designated area, the crowd became nearly immovable.

"Line up! Everyone, line up properly!" shouted a man wearing a grey-blue Daoist robe at the incoming refining masters. "If you want to submit your artifact, you must queue up first!"

"That’s probably an outer disciple of Poyuan Sect, right?"

"Yeah, grey-blue robe without the fire-in-hand emblem on the chest—must be outer sect."

Ye Su followed the crowd and stood in line. Hearing the two people ahead of her chatting, she turned back to her junior brothers and sister. "The submission site should be just up ahead. Stay behind me."

They waited for half an hour, and although the line was moving steadily, the submission site still wasn’t in view.

Just then, a tall, burly man in a grey-blue robe came walking up from ahead, continuously taking boxes out of his Qiankun bag and handing them to the refining masters in line. After a while, he reached Ye Su and her group.

"One box costs two mid-grade spiritual stones. Each comes with a sheet of paper for you to write down your artifact’s function," he said.

"Two mid-grade spirit stones? That’s robbery!" Xia'er blurted out instinctively. Just a few months ago, even a thousand low-grade spirit stones had to be stretched thin. If not for the spirit stones they earned recently, they wouldn't have even had the means to submit anything.

The burly man responded impatiently, "Two mid-grade stones for a chance to enter Poyuan Sect—that’s already a huge favor. Take it or leave it. But let me warn you—artifacts not submitted in the standardized box will be automatically disqualified."

Ye Su stopped her juniors from arguing and handed over eight mid-grade spirit stones, saying, "Four boxes, please—two large, two small."

"Remember to write your name clearly on the paper," the man said, passing over four numbered boxes before moving along the line.

Looking back at the seemingly endless line behind them, Xiyu remarked, "At this rate, Poyuan Sect might actually make a profit from this whole event."

"This paper really is just regular paper," Xia'er said as he opened a large box and took out the blank sheet inside. "For two mid-grade spirit stones, they could at least include a brush!"

As soon as he said that, a nearby street vendor hurried over, hawking brushes and ink—clearly well-acquainted with this setup.

Ming Liu Sha turned away from the approaching vendor and looked at Ye Su. "Se...senior sister... the brush."

Ye Su took out her writing tools from her Qiankun bag. The brush was already worn and frayed from all the talismans she’d drawn, but it could still hold up for a few characters. "It’s just to write down the artifact’s function—regular paper will do." She handed the brush over to Ming Liu Sha while casually glancing at the queue ahead.

She had noticed something earlier: most of the rogue cultivators here were dressed extremely well. These days, as long as one was an refining master, they likely had more wealth than most disciples of Qianji Sect.

"Come on, hurry up and write," Xiyu nudged the frozen Ming Liu Sha.

"Ri…right away," Ming Liu Sha dipped the brush into the ink Ye Su was holding and started writing.

The artifact he crafted was called the Lotus Hairpin—a two-inch double lotus flower. Every time the hairpin was rotated, one lotus petal would detach and fly in the direction of attack. As for Xiyu and Xia'er, the two had straightforwardly forged swords and blades.

By the time everyone had finished writing and sealed their artifacts in the boxes, they had moved up considerably. After waiting another half-hour, they could finally see the submission site.

At a five-meter-long table sat a woman in her thirties, dressed in a dark cyan Daoist robe, with a flame-and-hand emblem embroidered on her chest—a symbol of Poyuan Sect. A young man in the same robe stood beside her.

Around them stood two rows of sword cultivators in matching dark cyan uniforms, but without the fire-in-hand insignia. They were likely part of Poyuan Sect’s Protection Division, here to maintain order.

The number of people in front of Ye Su gradually dwindled, and soon it was her turn.

"Give me the box," said the young man standing behind the desk.

Ye Su was about to hand it over when he caught sight of her face and suddenly pulled his hand back.

The woman seated at the table also noticed the young man’s reaction and looked up. "Fang Xiu, what’s wrong?"

The young man turned his head and looked past Ye Su—sure enough, he saw Ming Liu Sha and the others behind her. Frowning, he looked back at Ye Su. "Aren’t you all talisman cultivators? What are you doing crashing our Poyuan Sect’s artifact selection?"

Ye Su was quite sure she had never met the man before. She turned back and quietly asked her junior disciples crowding close, "Do any of you know him?"

Seeing them all shake their heads in unison, Ye Su quickly put two and two together. They didn’t know each other, yet he assumed they were talisman cultivators—he must’ve seen her selling talismans somewhere.

She raised her brow slightly. "I didn’t hear that Poyuan Sect has a rule against refining masters who can draw talismans from participating in the selection."

Fang Xiu was at a loss for words. He and his junior had seen her compete against a talisman cultivator from Wuxing Sect the other day. While she had seemed somewhat capable, he instinctively disliked her.

"You can draw talismans too?" the seated woman said. She pulled out a Tracing Jade Disk and held it up to Ye Su’s face for a moment, ensuring her features were recorded. Only then did she speak. "Poyuan Sect has no such rule. As long as you can forge artifacts, you're eligible to participate in the selection."

"Elder, this isn't appropriate. This person—" Fang Xiu frowned at them, his tone clearly disapproving, and tried to argue.

"That’s enough," the woman cut him off and stood up to personally take the box from Ye Su’s hands. "You may go. In three months, any capable refining master can take part in our Poyuan Sect’s entrance trials."

Once Ye Su and the others had their appearances recorded and received their jade tokens, the seated elder turned to look at her still-sullen inner sect disciple and asked with a smile, "What does it matter to you if they can draw talismans? Why are you so worked up?"

"I just feel like they’re arrogant," Fang Xiu said with a frown. "If they get in, they’ll stir up trouble."

The elder chuckled. "So what you’re saying is… you think they’ll actually pass the selection?"

Fang Xiu replied firmly, "Impossible. Their artifacts can’t be anything special." In his mind, no one could be truly proficient in both talisman crafting and artifact forging.

The elder, long used to this disciple’s temper, sighed. "Just keep collecting the boxes."

As soon as Ming Liu Sha squeezed out of the crowd, he let loose a barrage of words: "They won’t let us enter just because we can draw talismans? Has he even looked at himself? That face is as wide as a basin, with a sharp chin and monkey-like features. His nose is as huge as a clove of garlic, his body short and stubby, wrapped in dark green robes—he’s basically a toad spirit come to life!"

Ye Su: "…"

Although that cultivator named Fang Xiu did indeed have a thin face and a somewhat large nose, his features were more or less regular—he could hardly be called ugly.

But Ye Su was used to this. Ming Liu Sha normally spoke slowly and haltingly, enough to make anyone anxious. But the moment he needed to curse someone, he became as fluent as a storyteller under a bridge.

He’d cursed quite a few disciples from Silent Sect before, and was the Jiu Xuan Peak’s number-one verbal weapon in Qianji Sect.

"I thought he’d figured out we were from Qianji Sect," said Xiyu, still a little rattled at the memory. "Good thing that elder agreed to give us the jade token."

Ye Su said casually, "Probably just didn’t like the look of us. The actual evaluation will be done by the elders of Poyuan Sect—the disciples have no say."

As they talked, they walked along. Xia'er kept turning his head to glance at shops on either side. Aside from visiting a materials store, he hadn’t really seen much of the city.

Ye Su’s eyes swept over her junior disciples. The other two might not have looked around as openly as Xia'er, but their eyes were also full of curiosity. They’d been in Dinghai City for three months now, living in a ruined temple outside the city. The best food they’d had so far was a bun from a street vendor by the city gate.

They had earned a decent amount of spirit stones from selling artifacts and talismans, but most of the earnings had been sent back to Qianji Sect, and what remained had been used to buy materials. This way, the junior disciples in the sect would have a chance to practice. The four of them had a silent agreement not to spend frivolously, nor to wander the city.

"Now that we’ve submitted our artifacts and there’s nothing else to do, we can look around," said Ye Su, pulling out twenty mid-grade spirit stones. "That’s today’s budget."

Since their Senior Sister had spoken, the three no longer held back their excitement and began to explore the city in earnest.

When Ye Su returned from exchanging half the stones into low-grade spirit stones, Xiyu crept up behind her and whispered, "Senior Sister… if we spend all forty spirit stones today, how much will we have left?"

All the spirit stones were with Ye Su. The few they had individually were long spent during artifact forging.

Ye Su held up one finger—but before Xiyu could react, she curled it back in. "This much."

None?

Xiyu immediately understood and grabbed Ye Su’s arm. "Senior Sister, maybe we should just forget it?"

"We’ll just earn more after we spend it." Ye Su handed her a handful of spirit stones. "In the future, we’ll have plenty—as long as we become great refining masters."

Ye Su’s word was law among them. With her lead, the group went on a shopping spree. Unless they were buying something like a high-level artifact manual, twenty mid-grade spirit stones were more than enough for fun little trinkets.

They wandered until sunset, and finally entered a spiritual restaurant for a proper meal.

"This is way too expensive," Xia'er said, patting his full belly. "A single plate of venison cost two mid-grade spirit stones!"

"It was spirit deer," Xiyu said, cupping a teacup in her hands. "After eating it, you can feel spiritual energy moving in your core."

Ming Liu Sha seemed a little lost in thought. He muttered slowly, "I want to know what it feels like to cultivate in a place full of spiritual energy…"

"One day, we’ll find out," Ye Su said with a soft smile. "Qianji Sect is still waiting for us to grow stronger."

The four of them raised their cups and drained their tea in unison.

Poyuan Sect.

Once the artifact submissions were over, the elders began selecting the qualified artifacts to determine which one thousand refining masters would be admitted to Poyuan Sect for the preliminary trials.

This task was almost too simple—so much so that it could be handled entirely by inner sect disciples. After all, rogue cultivators had no masters to guide them, and the artifact forging manuals available on the market varied wildly in quality.

Still, to avoid any disputes, the selection process was carried out by elders, with the inner sect disciples observing from the side. Their job was to operate the Sùhuí Jade Disks, recording the entire process to prevent future complaints or accusations of unfairness.

Many of the artifacts could be judged at a glance. Some of the elders didn’t even bother looking at the notes inside the boxes—they could see through the design’s flaws instantly. Some artifacts couldn’t even withstand a trace of spiritual power and shattered on the spot.

After testing so many poorly made items, the elders had become numb. So when an artifact showed even the slightest bit of novelty, it could keep them excited for quite a while.

"Senior Brother, how many artifact submissions were there this year in total?" asked a young-looking inner sect disciple as he adjusted the angle of his jade disk.

"18,472," Fang Xiu replied with biting sarcasm. "Pity the elders who now have to pick a thousand less awful pieces of trash out of nearly twenty thousand useless ones."

"Even if three people make a teacher, there might still be techniques worth learning from," said Quan Jiaying earnestly.

Fang Xiu turned to him. "Junior Brother, you’ve been busy forging lately and probably missed some things. Do you remember those few people who were selling talismans on the street?"

Quan Jiaying thought for a moment. "Selling talismans? You mean the ones who competed against the Wuxing Sect outer sect talisman masters?"

"Exactly," Fang Xiu said, scoffing at the memory. "Junior Brother, can you believe those people actually submitted artifacts for the selection? A bunch of talisman drawers thinking they can forge artifacts—it’s absolutely laughable."

Quan Jiaying frowned slightly. Thinking back, it did seem like they had underestimated the difficulty of artifact forging. "Senior Brother, if they can’t make it through the selection, they’ll give up after hitting a wall. No need to worry about them."

Fang Xiu’s anger eased somewhat. "True. Who knows what kind of garbage they submitted—it might’ve already shattered with the rest of the broken artifacts."

While the two were still talking, a sudden loud boom erupted from the testing ground, startling all the elders and disciples who had been nodding off from boredom.

"What a fine blade!" one of the testing elders shouted. He examined the blade closely. "Huh? It’s even engraved with two rare variant wind-pattern runes?"

Several elders looked over at the damage the blade had caused and grew excited. They immediately gathered around to inspect it.

"This kind of damage output—this blade has real power!"

"And the engraver even knows wind patterns?"

"Wait… don’t these wind patterns look familiar?"

"I remember Jiaying was obsessed with this style of rune carving for a while," said Rong Chu Qiu as she walked over. A single glance told her what she needed to know. She turned toward Quan Jiaying and beckoned him over with a wave, her gaze briefly sweeping across the piles of boxes on the ground.

Some of the box carvings looked extremely familiar. Weren’t those the same ones almost rejected by Fang Xiu—the four people’s submissions from that day?

Rong Chu Qiu scanned the area and spotted three of the distinctive box numbers. The only one without a visible mark… was the box beneath the foot of the elder who had just tested the blade—the one already opened.

She paused, then bent down and closed the large opened box. As expected—it was the fourth.

"Elder," said Quan Jiaying as he and Fang Xiu came over, still holding the recording jade disk, which remained active.

Rong Chu Qiu straightened up and pointed at the blade in the other elder’s hands. "Jiaying, take a look at the wind patterns on that blade—aren’t they the same as the ones you used to carve?"