Chapter 4

Qimia set out with Fang Xiaoyu, carrying the crushing debt that weighed upon her like a mountain.

With a ride hitched along the way, the distance between two peaks was crossed in the blink of an eye.

After getting down, Qimia brushed back the hair that the wind had blown across her face. “Thank you, Senior Brother Fang.”

Fang Xiaoyu waved it off, unconcerned.

Qimia did not say goodbye at once. Instead, she looked up at him with hopeful eyes. “Senior Brother Fang, is there anything in the sect that a mortal can use for travel?”

She had been lucky to run into Fang Xiaoyu today; otherwise, by the time she reached the artifact workshop on her own, it might already have been morning.

So this was her top priority.

Fang Xiaoyu hesitated for a moment, then said tactfully, “Yes. There are spirit beasts available for rent over at the Beast Taming Valley, and the artifact workshop also has flying instruments that mortals can operate, but they are all rather expensive...”

Qimia, impoverished to the bone, fell silent.

After a long pause, she struggled to ask, “Then, Senior Brother Fang, do you know where I might borrow some money?”

Fang Xiaoyu looked entirely sincere. “Junior Sister Qi, anyone who knows your situation probably would not lend you money.”

Who knew whether the money would ever be repaid.

The two of them stared at each other in silence for a while. Then Fang Xiaoyu said uncertainly, “Why not ask the elders? They ought to help you.”

Yesterday’s misunderstanding had caused a scene. Though, in the end, because of Qimia’s circumstances, they had not taken her as a disciple, the elders’ love of talent was not false. They certainly would not want Qimia spending every day traveling back and forth to the artifact workshop.

Qimia felt that Fang Xiaoyu’s suggestion made a fair amount of sense. She accepted it happily, then bade him farewell.

They were both inner-sect disciples, but they did not attend classes together. She could not cultivate, so before she could absorb knowledge of artifact refining, she first had to learn how to draw in spiritual energy.

Thus, Qimia’s plan for these next few days was to attend the elementary class in the outer-sect disciples’ study hall at the artifact workshop, learn the most basic things, and then move on to the advanced inner-sect study hall after she had mastered them.

Following the map of the artifact workshop on her spirit tablet, she first collected her books on cultivation and artifact refining, then hurried to the study hall. By the time she arrived, it was not terribly late, and the elder teaching the class had not yet come.

The study hall was crowded. No one noticed that a new face had appeared today.

Qimia found an empty seat and sat down, only to see two disciples beside her leaning close together, whispering over a spirit tablet.

“Why is there still no word? Who was it that awakened the herald bird?”

“I asked an inner-sect senior brother I know to send a message. He said he did not see any unfamiliar disciple. Could the one who awakened the herald bird not be from our artifact workshop?”

“Impossible. Even the elders were alarmed by what happened yesterday. They would not let a genius like that slip away.”

Qimia heard them discussing her and quietly averted her gaze.

How embarrassing. The artifact genius who awakened the herald bird was just beginning cultivation from zero.

Was it that she did not want to go to the inner-sect study hall? No—it was that she could not understand it.

With tears in her eyes, Qimia opened her book and began desperately cramming.

The person teaching the outer-sect disciples today was Lan Xuejing, and what he taught was stone refining.

As an outsider who had joined the class in the middle, Qimia listened to the concepts as though wrapped in fog. It was not until Lan Xuejing took out an ordinary piece of iron ore and demonstrated, before all the disciples, how to purify the ore by hand that she finally understood.

Qimia’s eyes widened.

She watched as the iron ore took shape again in Lan Xuejing’s hands. The same lump of metal kept changing forms—first becoming a dagger, then a lock.

In the end, it turned directly into a pool of red molten iron.

The melting point of iron was 1538 degrees Celsius. These people had not used a single tool, yet they had melted iron ore with bare hands, and there was not even any oppressive heat around them.

Qimia did her best to accept the baptism of this new world.

Once Lan Xuejing had finished most of the lesson, he called the disciples below to try it themselves, which no longer had anything to do with Qimia.

She carefully observed the people around her, then combined it with what Elder Lan had said, and realized that they were directly controlling qi, gathering it around the ore and breaking it down and reshaping it from within.

The disciples’ control over qi was nowhere near as precise as the elders’. The forms they produced were mostly unrecognizable, yet even so, Qimia found it wondrous. She was watching with great interest when a shadow fell across her head.

“Can you understand it?”

Qimia tilted her head and saw Lan Xuejing standing beside her at some point.

She dutifully addressed him as Elder Lan, then answered, “Only partly, for now.”

Lan Xuejing glanced at the book in her hands, his tone gentle. “You have not yet drawn in spiritual energy. What was taught today is still difficult for you, so there is no need to rush.”

Qimia nodded.

Since this was the study hall, Lan Xuejing asked her a couple of questions before leaving.

As soon as he was gone, Qimia prepared to continue watching the other disciples refine stone. But when she turned her head, she found that the disciples who had just been so engrossed in fussing over the ore were now staring at her with burning eyes.

“What did Elder Lan say to you?”

“What is your relationship with Elder Lan?”

Under the countless gossiping gazes, Qimia said, “...Elder Lan saw that I was a new disciple, so he just asked after me a little.”

“You do look a bit unfamiliar,” said the tall ponytailed youth sitting across from her, raising his brows. “But Elder Lan is treating you very differently. I’ve never seen him speak to anyone else with such gentleness.”

Qimia’s breathing tightened.

Before she could think of how to salvage the situation, a disciple nearby mocked the ponytailed youth, “Oh, come on, Yue Huai. Aside from ignoring you, Elder Lan’s tone with everyone else is pretty much the same.”

Yue Huai’s face darkened. “Quit talking nonsense.”

The two sides began arguing, and instead the one involved, Qimia, was ignored.

Qimia touched the page of her book, secretly relieved that she had not gone straight to ask Elder Lan to solve her travel problem in the study hall. Right now, the last thing she lacked was attention. If she had tried to ask Elder Lan for help just now, she would have had no way to bluff her way through.

Thinking of this, Qimia rubbed the bridge of her nose, quietly fading into the background. She let them bicker at her ear and kept her head down, devouring the book.

Only when it was time for the noon break did Qimia put down the book, massage her sore neck, and head out with the book tucked in her arms.

Before going to the dining hall for lunch, Qimia took a detour to the artifact house.

She had to solve the travel problem first; she could not afford to spend the whole day on the road.

The elder on duty in the artifact house was Elder Zhao.

Zhao Qiong was somewhat surprised to see her. “Qimia, why have you come here?”

Qimia explained what she needed.

Before she had even begun to press the matter, Zhao Qiong cheerfully pulled out a pouch of spirit stones. “Take this and go rent a spirit beast.”

Zhao Qiong smiled. “I took into account that you haven’t yet drawn in spiritual energy. Even if I loan you an artifact, you can’t use a storage pouch, and it would be inconvenient to put it away.”

“...Elder Zhao, I will definitely return it as soon as possible.”

Qimia was nearly in tears. Looking at Zhao Qiong, she felt deeply moved beyond words.

“It’s only a small sum,” Zhao Qiong said lazily. “You have limitless potential in artifact refining. It’s a pity that fate does not bind you and me as master and disciple, so take this as a little support from me, an elder, to one of my own artifact disciples.”

After Qimia came out of the artifact house, she still recorded Zhao Qiong’s spirit stones on her spirit tablet.

Then, feeling delighted, she opened the chat window with Jiang Ran from the list, intending to ask the beast-taming senior sister about the rental price for spirit beasts.

Just as she was typing, a message from Jiang Ran arrived first.

Qimia paused.

“The elders have already informed those disciples about your situation.”