Don't Cause Trouble Chapter 83: The Fifth Disciple

Even before the preliminary tournament began or rather, even earlier than that. The Sword Sect had already started preparing their flying boat. Once their disciples received the entry tokens and the sect master and elders wrapped up their affairs, they would be ready to set off.

Before leaving, Lian Lian and Cheng Huaian even came over to ask Ye Su if she wanted to take their flying boat.

Ye Su thanked them for their kindness. "We’ve already made arrangements with the Sword Sect."

Lian Lian gave a light snort. "Sword cultivators' flying boats are definitely not as stable as ours, the ones made by talisman cultivators."

"But ours are faster," Zhou Yun countered.

"Well, this year we’ll see who’s faster," Lian Lian said smugly. "Just wait and see, the Wuxing Sect’s boat is definitely going to dazzle the crowd."

After they left, the Sword Sect also began making preparations to head to Kunlun to participate in the Sect Tournament.

In this year's preliminaries, a total of 451 Sword Sect disciples earned entry tokens. The flying boat prepared for them had five levels, each able to accommodate one hundred people.

"So this is a flying ship?" Xia Er looked up at the enormous structure in the sky, completely stunned.

"In the future, we should build a few of these ourselves for Qianji Sect," Xiyu fantasized.

Ming Liu Sha clicked his tongue. "Burns… money."

Just hovering in the air for a short time already consumed massive amounts of spirit stones. Even for a major sect, flying boats were only used for important events or missions.

The three of them turned to look at their senior sister nearby. She stood with her back to the flying boat, holding a communication jade disc, talking to their sect master.

The three immediately crowded over and called in unison, "Master!"

Zhang Fengfeng responded to them all.

"Master, we’re about to head to Kunlun," Ye Su turned sideways and pointed behind her at the flying boat. "This is the Sword Sect’s flying ship. Wait for us to come back with good rankings."

She intended to make a name for herself at the Sect Tournament to let everyone know that the Qianji Sect was still here, and its artifact refinement skills were still strong.

"Alright. Be sure to stay safe out there," Zhang Fengfeng said again. "Your junior brothers and sisters have crafted quite a few magical artifacts lately. Some are pretty good, I had Huang Erqian secretly take them out to sell."

Although he couldn’t use the Qianji Sect name publicly, at least they could earn back a bit of spirit stones. The only issue was that the disciples' cultivation levels were still low, so their artifacts didn’t fetch high prices.

"I heard quite a few of them have reached Foundation Establishment," Ye Su said with a smile. "Don’t be stingy with spirit stones."

"Don’t worry, I’ve been supervising them—made sure they spent their stones in class," Zhang Fengfeng said cheerfully.

"Master, I was talking about you," Ye Su said flatly. "Stop throwing spirit stones into the spirit vein. It’s useless."

Zhang Fengfeng guiltily stroked his beard. "What nonsense are you spouting? Why would I toss good spirit stones for no reason?"

"I saw you do it before," Ye Su exposed him. "The spirit vein at Qianji Sect has long dried up. If you channel the spiritual energy from the stones into it, it’ll just dissipate into the air."

"...I’m done talking to you." Zhang Fengfeng was about to shut off the communication jade.

Ye Su called out, "Zhang Fengfeng, keep those spirit stones and use them to cultivate properly. If you keep slacking, we’ll all surpass you soon."

When Zhang Fengfeng heard her call him by name, he tensed up, then brushed it off. "It’s normal for talented disciples to surpass their master!"

"I forgot you don’t care about saving face," Ye Su muttered. She looked at her sect master, then changed her tone after a moment. "The competition’s about to start. Don’t make us worry."

Sure enough, Zhang Fengfeng hesitated for a second, then finally said, "Got it. I’ll use them."

Just then, Xin Shenzi popped out from who knows where, gripping his sword and leaning his head over. "Who’s that? My disciple’s grandmaster? Already this old at only two hundred?"

Zhang Fengfeng: "…"

Yi Xuan, who had come up behind, also: "…"

"So you’re that crazy Xin?" Zhang Fengfeng immediately recognized Xin Shenzi, he had seen him from a distance once before while following his master.

"Oh? You still remember me," Xin Shenzi looked Zhang Fengfeng up and down. So this is the guy claiming to be the head disciple of my master.

"Master." Yi Xuan walked over and greeted him.

"How’s your sword training going? While you’re out here, make sure to listen to your other master too," Zhang Fengfeng reminded him.

"Mm." Yi Xuan responded with a soft hum.

"You’re about to set off, right?" Zhang Fengfeng asked. "Go on, then."

Everyone turned and flew up onto the flying vessel. Just before Ye Su turned off her transmission jade slip, she heard Zhang Fengfeng quietly ask, "Does our master look that old?"

He’s clearly younger than that lunatic Xin!

Ye Su thought for a moment and replied, "Master, it might be time to shave the beard."

Zhang Fengfeng—dignified head of his sect—patted his chest and declared, "Not only will your master shave his beard, he’ll also raise his cultivation!"

Ye Su smiled. "Alright. I hope the next time I see you, you’ll be completely refreshed."

After she put away the transmission jade slip, Ye Su turned and saw You Fushi still standing to the side. "Why haven’t you gone up yet?"

You Fushi pointed to her wrist, this mortal still hadn’t taken the hint.

Ye Su followed the direction of his finger and looked down. Then she finally realized, "You want the Mistflower Fang?"

She didn’t really understand why her little junior was so attached to this particular magic artifact, but watching him always try to get it from her was honestly kind of amusing.

"It’s time to board," Ye Su said, removing the Mistflower Fang from her wrist and handing it to You Fushi. As he reached out to take it, she smoothly pulled him along with her onto the flying vessel.

……

The flying vessel had five levels, and each one was no different from rooms on land. Every room was equipped with a spirit-gathering array for cultivation, and there were even designated areas for sword practice.

Ye Su and her group were arranged on the middle level, while the elders accompanying them stayed on the top and bottom levels.

Among those traveling with them was also Zhou Qi, the sect master of the Sword Sect. For the Grand Sect Tournament, all the sect masters were required to attend, while each sect's internal affairs would be managed by the grand elders in their absence.

None of Ye Su’s group were idle but instead of cultivating, they were crafting.

When they approached Kunlun, the Qianji Sect would need to disembark from the vessel. They had to prepare something eye-catching and impressive to descend with flair.

Since they were determined to elevate the status of the Qianji Sect, step one had to start with a striking entrance! Ever since Ye Su had learned that flying vessels could be used for showmanship, she had been stocking up on all kinds of materials in advance.

Inside their room, the four artifact refiners of Qianji Sect were cracking their knuckles and rolling up their sleeves, ready to go all out.

……

Within the borders of Kunlun, in a grand and majestic hall, several cultivators in the Great Ascension Stage sat in council. Each radiated immense spiritual pressure. In the center stood several hundred Kunlun disciples.

"Qianji Sect?" A brown-haired elder seated on an upper tier flicked his finger lightly, shattering the floating leaderboard of the Eastern division in front of the hall. "Disciples of the Sword Sect and the Wuxing Sect are this weak? To be overtaken by an artifact-crafting sect? Ridiculous."

"The rankings from the other divisions are about the same as in past years," said a beautiful woman in white seated on the right. Her tone was calm and clear like flowing water. "In the Western division’s top ten, two unfamiliar sects appeared."

An instant buzz of discussion swept through the hall.

"Unfamiliar sects" was the common label used for loose cultivators; they were all categorized under this name. The Southern and Northern divisions were a bit less competitive, so it wasn’t rare to see loose cultivators break into the top ten there but in the Western division, it had been a long time since any unaffiliated cultivator had made it that far.

Kunlun didn’t participate in the preliminaries. The Western division had only one major sect: the Ten Thousand Buddhas Sect. What’s more, they dared to limit the number of their own disciples allowed to enter, creating room for many loose cultivators to come.

But even so, the Ten Thousand Buddhas Sect still had overwhelming strength and dominated the rankings.

So, for any loose cultivator to break through in the Western division and make it into the top ten, it was no small feat. At least seventy to eighty percent of such cultivators would go on to perform well in the Grand Tournament.

Yet this time, two of them had made it into the top ten!

"Silence." The white-robed woman raised her hand slightly, sending a soft pulse of spiritual energy through the hall.

All the disciples instantly fell silent, heads lowered.

"The unaffiliated cultivator in second place," the cool-toned woman continued, "is ranked just below Gu Liangtian of the Ten Thousand Buddhas Sect."

She paused for a moment before adding, "Gu Liangtian is their newly appointed Buddha Child."

A white-haired man sitting to the left looked at the group of disciples and turned toward the one standing in the center: "Chen Han, you’ll need to keep an eye on those two this time."

The young man in the center stood tall and straight, clad in pure white. He had a lean, strong frame, a strikingly handsome face, and a fresh wound between his brows that did nothing to diminish his commanding aura.

Lu Chenhan lifted his long, narrow eyes and looked toward the woman. "Master, there’s one more."

"Ranked third." The woman waved her hand, and the leaderboard of the Western division shrank down and flew directly into her disciple’s hand.

Lu Chenhan took the list and glanced down. Gu Liangtian, Jian Hu… and in third place, he saw a very familiar name.

—Ning Qianyao.

It’s her?

……

Somewhere in the western region, in a city inn.

Ning Qianyao sat on the second floor. There was a table full of food and wine in front of her, but she had no appetite. In her hand were four name lists.

How was this possible?

She stared fixedly at one of the lists, recognizing both the names at the top and bottom, along with the sect names listed next to them.

Why were they participating in this kind of tournament and even managed to obtain entry tokens?

Who were Lü Jiu and You Fushi? Why were they listed as disciples of Qianji Sect? And why had Senior Brother Yi suddenly become part of the merged sect?

A flood of questions surfaced in her mind.

Ning Qianyao gradually tightened her grip on the list. Since they were coming to the Sect Tournament, there was a high chance she’d run into them.

"Why aren’t you eating?" the person across from her asked, noticing she hadn’t touched her food.

Snapping back to reality, Ning Qianyao forced a smile. "I’m not feeling well. I’ll head back to my room first. You eat."

"Not feeling well? Should we find a healing cultivator?" the person asked with sudden concern.

"We’re leaving for Kunlun tomorrow. You go ahead and eat." Ning Qianyao stood up. "A nap will do me good, don’t worry."

She quickly returned to her room and paced in circles, still unable to make sense of everything.

She had never given Qianji Sect much thought. She’d been focused on her cultivation and improving her realm, and hadn’t kept in touch with her master. All she knew was that Ye Su had returned from the minor secret realm—after that, she was completely out of the loop on Qianji Sect matters.

Did Qianji Sect somehow get in with the Sword Sect?

Ning Qianyao thought back to the two sect names listed beside Yi Xuan’s name. A thought occurred to her, and she immediately opened her message jade plate.

"…Junior Sister?" Yi Xuan had just finished a sparring match with Xin Shenzi when he saw his jade plate light up. He opened it and froze for a moment when Ning Qianyao’s face appeared.

"Senior Brother," Ning Qianyao smiled with curved eyes. "I saw the name list for the Sect Tournament—didn’t expect to see you on it."

"Senior sister and brother?" Xin Shenzi drifted over on his sword, eyeing them suspiciously. "Disciple, don’t tell me you have a third master?"

"…She’s also a disciple of Qianji Sect," Yi Xuan explained.

Xin Shenzi raised his brows in surprise. "Funny. I don’t recall Ye Su or the others ever mentioning you had a junior sister."

Ning Qianyao glanced at Xin Shenzi’s sect robes and then heard what he said. Her heart sank: So Ye Su really had cozied up to the Sword Sect.

Yi Xuan added, "She’s from a different peak."

"Oh." Xin Shenzi instantly lost interest. "I’ll head out first. Going to see what your senior sister’s messing with."

Lately, Ye Su had been making a lot of noise on the flying boat. He was curious what she was up to.

"Alright."

Once Xin Shenzi was gone, Ning Qianyao continued, "Senior Brother, are you with Senior Sister Ye and the others?"

She had assumed that after meeting Ye Su in Dinghai City, Yi Xuan would part ways and travel alone.

"Don’t call me Senior Brother anymore," Yi Xuan suddenly said.

"What?" Ning Qianyao was caught off guard.

"Master took in a new disciple," Yi Xuan replied flatly. "I’m now the fifth disciple."