He suddenly felt that at times, this Lingxiao Sect was not as indifferent and unfeeling as everyone saw it. Like now, it felt quite humane.
Jin Dan and Yu Ming returned to their respective cave dwellings to cultivate on their own.
Mo Qi had initially thought Han Yang was going to visit Baili Bing. However, after entering the cave, Han Yang maintained a somber expression, showing no signs of concern or pity.
Han Yang looked at Baili Bing's leg, which was wrapped up like a zongzi, and frowned. He instructed Mo Qi, "Unwrap everything you've bound there."
"Unwrap, unwrap it?" Mo Qi hesitated, disbelieving his ears. He immediately looked at Han Yang and asked.
"Yes, unwrap it." Han Yang's eyes held an unyielding look, and his tone was even a little impatient.
Baili Bing, however, remained calm. She felt that Han Yang Zhenren must have his reasons and urged Mo Qi, "Just listen to Han Yang Zhenren."
Mo Qi lowered his head and slowly, layer by layer, unwrapped everything tied to Baili Bing's leg. The wound showed signs of scabbing, but a prominent red line remained. Her entire lower leg had swollen considerably since yesterday.
Han Yang slowly crouched down and gently placed a finger on the most swollen spot. Almost simultaneously, a wisp of red mist coalesced, flowing like spring water into the swollen skin.
Miraculously, as the red mist flowed in, the swelling gradually dissipated, receding from the most swollen area outwards at a visible speed.
Mo Qi's eyes nearly bulged out of his sockets. "Didn't they say it would take three months? Looking at this, it seems like she'll be healed soon!"
Baili Bing felt an unbearable itch. She bit her lip tightly, afraid that a careless sound might draw ridicule. She broke out in a cold sweat.
As the swelling subsided, the prominent red line also gradually thinned, shortened, and finally disappeared.
A moment later, her entire lower leg had returned to its original color, still as pearlescent white and as smooth as congealed fat.
"Try getting out of bed," Han Yang said, standing up and addressing Baili Bing.
In fact, there was no need to test it by getting out of bed. She could clearly feel that her lower leg was no longer swollen at all. It felt as if it had been reborn, filled with vitality.
But at Han Yang's request, she had to comply.
She leaped down from the bed and even circled the cave dwelling a few times. Mo Qi's jaw nearly hit the floor.
Baili Bing sincerely bowed to Han Yang, "Thank you, Han Yang Zhenren."
A faint smile finally appeared on Han Yang's face. "You're welcome, it's just a small effort!" With that, he turned and walked out.
Mo Qi remained frozen in place. Baili Bing immediately saw him off, "Han Yang Zhenren, please take care."
Suddenly, Han Yang's figure flickered, and he reappeared out of thin air before Mo Qi, holding something translucent in his hand. He laid it out at a very low position. Mo Qi looked at him, puzzled.
Han Yang lowered his voice, speaking somewhat mysteriously, "I'll give you something. This is called a Divine Awakening Pill, it will help you awaken your divine sense."
Mo Qi always felt that the other party had ill intentions. He said blankly, "Why give it to me?"
Because from childhood to adulthood, he had never been lucky enough to be struck by a falling pie. If a group of friends went out to play and found a copper coin on the ground, it was always someone else who picked it up.
Han Yang seemed to have a guilty conscience. For the first time, he felt that his actions were not entirely above board, and for the first time, he felt like a thief caught and exposed.
He became a little anxious. "I just came to treat her injuries, and I was afraid that her leg injury would affect her divine sense awakening. So I'm giving you a pill to promote it."
"What are you talking about?" Mo Qi was completely bewildered. "Then you should give it to her, not me."
Han Yang's face turned red with anger. He casually handed the pill to Baili Bing, who was also stunned beside him, and then took out another one, handing it to Mo Qi. "You all came together. I'm afraid you'll think I'm biased. Besides, she missed the lecture today, and you're responsible for teaching her everything I lectured on. It will take time and delay your cultivation. To compensate you, you can have one too."
Mo Qi still made no move to take it. "There are two other people who came with us, in the next cave."
Han Yang's face turned green. He was so angry he almost slapped him.
But after taking a deep breath, he calmly took out two more pills and handed them over. Only then did Mo Qi reluctantly take them. Han Yang looked at his reluctant expression, his lungs about to explode with anger.
Han Yang snorted coldly and turned to leave, almost fleeing.
However, before escaping, he did not forget to admonish the two, "This matter cannot be known by anyone else, because I've only given it to you four. If others find out about this, I will hold you accountable."
Mo Qi looked at the three pills in his hand and fell into deep thought.
Baili Bing's voice sounded in his ear, "I don't know what you're hesitating about. Can't you tell? He's here for you." She then said enviously, "Perhaps it's thanks to you that he came to treat my injuries, right?"
Mo Qi also had a vague feeling of this. It was just that being ignored for so long, and then suddenly being favored, would startle anyone.
What was going on? Why was he suddenly favored?
Baili Bing further clarified his doubts. "Yesterday, by the Sanggan River, he saw your performance and looked at you with new eyes. What's so strange about that?"
Gradually, Mo Qi began to feel a sense of elation. He said, "I won't become arrogant due to this favor."
Baili Bing rolled her eyes.
Fearing that the medicinal effects might expire, Mo Qi quickly ran over and successfully delivered the two pills to Jin Dan and Yu Ming. Fearing that these two (especially Jin Dan) might blab, he lied to them, saying that Baili Bing gave them, as her family was a renowned alchemy lineage.
He also repeatedly warned them, fearing that others might disturb Miss Baili, that they must not mention the pills to anyone, and that they should never ask Baili Bing for medicine again.
These two actually believed him. They immediately swore oaths to keep silent and not to ask Baili Bing for medicine again. They then put away the pills and began their cultivation to awaken their divine sense.
Mo Qi also desperately wanted to start cultivating immediately, but he had to return to the next cave to teach Baili Bing everything he had learned that day. He explained in meticulous detail, even adding some of his own insights.
Finally, he relayed Han Yang's words about the grueling training and the three-month agreement to Baili Bing, word for word.
After hearing this, Baili Bing, like many others, felt as if she had entered a devil's den, truly trapped with no easy way out. However, after not much thought, she decided to stay.
Baili Bing had already begun to meditate. Mo Qi, fearing that he might be distracted while cultivating with Baili Bing, withdrew from her cave dwelling and found an unoccupied cave nearby. Although it was a bit damp, it would not affect his cultivation.
Once he entered meditation, using Han Yang's method to perceive and awaken his divine sense, he immediately felt that elusive sensation, wanting to grasp it, but it always slipped through his fingers. He tried several times with the same result.
Perhaps it was time to try the pill. Mo Qi, with no other recourse, decided to seek a breakthrough from that pill. He took out the pill, tilted his head back, and swallowed it.
The pill dissolved instantly in his mouth, releasing a faint fragrance that wafted into his nostrils. Simultaneously, wisps of spiritual energy began to circulate around his body.
Mo Qi quickly entered meditation again, focusing his mind on perceiving all things in heaven and earth, his body quietly merging with them.
The spiritual energy seemed to flow between heaven and earth, and also integrated with his mind and spirit, finally settling in a boundless and vast place deep within his heart. It was vast and boundless, unfathomably deep, as if a seed had taken root in the heaven and earth, and soon, it sprouted.
To be precise, it didn't sprout. If that vast and boundless place was called the Sea of Soul, then at this moment, from the Sea of Soul, a pair of eyes suddenly opened. They lacked the aura of looking down on the world, but possessed a power that seemed to perceive everything.
It was as if through these eyes, the boundless power of the vast ocean could be unleashed, through them, all things in the world could be perceived, and the boundless power of the vast ocean could be used to influence all things in the world.
Everything was not yet over. He could clearly feel those eyes changing rapidly. Under the influence of the ocean's tides, they became blurry, like smoke and dust, like mist, like golden light.
As they spun rapidly, they stirred up huge vortexes in the vast ocean. Together they spun, and then a force finally broke free from the ocean's restraint, soaring into the sky, colliding and impacting between heaven and earth, trying to break through the world, but finding no way.
The booming sounds were continuous. Mo Qi felt his body being battered as if it were about to explode, as if a volcanic eruption's power could not be released, and the scorching magma was frantically consuming his body.
Mo Qi immediately understood. His divine sense had awakened. He needed to cooperate with the mental cultivation techniques and incantations to guide and condense his spirit. He immediately formed a hand seal and chanted, and with a sudden point of his finger, the air twisted, and a ripple shot out with a crackling sound, shattering the air and causing it to wrinkle.
Most directly, a crack appeared on the ground, extending from near to far, reaching outside the cave. Then, with a loud crash, a tree about the thickness of a bowl outside the cave snapped.
"Divine power! That's divine power! I've successfully condensed my spirit!" Mo Qi exclaimed with joy and immediately jumped up, rushing out of the cave again.
Mo Qi wanted to share this good news with Baili Bing, Jin Dan, and Yu Ming immediately. However, he went to both their cave dwellings, and all three were in a state of meditation. He didn't have the heart to disturb them, so he retreated.
He decided to stroll around the sect. His mission was complete, and he felt relaxed, confident that he would pass easily.
He couldn't understand why Han Yang had given him three months for something so simple.
Walking across the plaza and up the stone steps, he saw buildings like the Hall of Medicine Testing and the Sutra Repository.
The Hall of Medicine Testing was where cultivators' potential for alchemy and the degree of that potential were tested.
Mo Qi walked over and looked around outside the entrance. To the left of the main gate was a stele made of spirit stone, displaying three rankings. The contents were revealed by the spirit stone's spiritual power, and they were the Silk Extraction Ranking, the Fire Control Ranking, and the Herb Recognition Ranking. The testing rules were indicated below each ranking.
Mo Qi read them one by one. The so-called silk extraction was the number of silks extracted from the cocoons of the Northern Sea Ice Silkworm. The Northern Sea Ice Silkworm cocoons contained thousands of silk threads, among which were a thousand impurity threads, intertwined with normal threads. Separating all these impurity threads was extremely difficult.
The more silk was separated, the more the Northern Sea Ice Silkworm's efficacy could be utilized. Most Northern Sea Ice Silkworm silks extracted contained impurities, and it depended on the amount of impurities.
Therefore, the Silk Extraction Ranking actually tested the tester's ability to separate medicinal impurities.
This ability was not related to cultivation. It wasn't that the higher the cultivation, the stronger the ability to separate impurities. It often related to the tester's meticulousness and the refinement of their divine power.
It was also greatly influenced by talent.
The Fire Control Ranking tested the alchemist's ability to control heat. In the alchemy process, simply using natural fire was insufficient. It had to be augmented by the alchemist's divine power to control the appropriate heat and refine higher-quality pills.
The testing method was to use divine power to augment and roast firefly pupae. If the heat was too high, the pupae would easily be scorched. If the heat was too low, the almost invisible thin film on the outside could not be removed, significantly affecting the medicinal efficacy. To date, no one had been able to completely remove the impurities without affecting the pupae's integrity. A few pills were made using scorched firefly pupae, and most alchemists used substitutes when firefly pupae were required. In both cases, the quality of the pills would be affected, depending on the alchemist's choice.
The Herb Recognition Ranking tested the tester's ability to recognize herbs. Inside, there was a stone stele that would periodically display an herb, testing the tester's ability based on the number of herbs they recognized.
At this moment, strings of names were displayed on each ranking. As people continuously challenged the Hall of Medicine Testing every day, the names on each ranking were constantly changing. Only the top five on each ranking remained very stable, never changing.
Since he was here, Mo Qi entered with the intention of just playing around.
Inside, countless spirit stone steles stood side by side on both sides, with a long corridor in the middle. At this time, there were only a few challengers scattered around. Mo Qi, fearing that he might attract attention, walked straight inside and chose the innermost stele for testing.
Testers had to first write their names on it using spiritual power. He couldn't help but mock himself. So, the spiritual power he had just acquired was for him to come and play.
He thought for a moment and decided not to write his real name, lest the test results be too embarrassing. So he wrote, "I'm just playing."
He chose the herb test first, and even found it amusing. He had no knowledge of herbs, so why was he testing?
Except for when he was a child and his mother took him up the mountain and told him what honeysuckle, plantain, and mugwort were, he hardly recognized any medicinal herbs. Why was he testing? Oh, right, he was playing. Maybe plantain would appear later?
At this moment, the stele began to display herb images, with the words "Unrecognized" written on it.
For the next herb image, he again wrote "Unrecognized." He wrote "Unrecognized" countless times and felt a bit tired, wanting to stop.
But the stele kept changing herbs. He skipped over them until, at one point, the word "Empty" appeared on the stele.
Mo Qi chuckled. He hadn't scored a single point, had he?
He wanted to end the test but felt that silk extraction was quite fun, so he decided to play some more. He then chose the silk extraction test.
At this moment, a bell rang in the great hall. It was dull, low, and carried a sense of dejection.
Everyone looked up in unison, their faces filled with surprise and unease. No one had ever heard that bell, nor did anyone know what it signified. In fact, many people only realized there was a bell at that moment.
Simultaneously, someone exclaimed in front of the stele rankings, "A Shame Ranking has appeared!" Not only had a Shame Ranking appeared, but the Shame Ranking also displayed a line of striking text: "I'm just playing: Empty."
It was no wonder he was surprised, because in the twenty years since the founding of Lingxiao Sect, the Shame Ranking had never appeared, and the bell symbolizing shame had also rung for the first time.
This bell also alerted the sect leaders of the six peaks and the main peak, Shaoxia Peak, including the Sect Master, Wu Fan.
Upon hearing the bell, Wu Fan naturally knew what had happened. His mouth twitched, and he immediately transmitted a message to Geng Xu, "Go to the Hall of Medicine Testing and see who it is. Don't be too harsh on them. This is just a test, but you must tell all testers that they shouldn't try anything lightly without confidence. Also, remember this person's name and never allow them to enter the alchemy gate."
Geng Xu received the order and departed.