“Shen Ying, what are you doing?!” Lonemoon transmitted.

　　“Huh?” Shen Ying turned to face him.

　　“What do you mean ‘huh’?! Why did you roll over there all of a sudden?” You’re going to be found out by the invader!

　　“Er… I’m studying her.”

　　“…” Studying? You’re pressing up against her to study her? Lonemoon pursed his lips, but Shen Ying did not say anything more. She continued to study Shu Yi and chewed at her fruit at the same time. Yet, Shu Yi still did not seem to notice her. She sat cross-legged where she was. Until…

　　“Wait, Shen Ying!” Lonemoon shouted.

　　Perhaps Shen Ying got bored just staring at Shu Yi. She reached out with a finger and poked Shu Yi in the cheek, her head tilted.

　　It was then that Shu Yi reacted. She jumped and shouted, “Who are you?!” Since when did this person get so close to her? Why hadn’t she noticed before? She instinctively called out to her little system.

　　“001, what’s going on? Why didn’t you tell me that someone was approaching me?”

　　[Host, I didn’t sense her either. Perhaps this person’s energy level is too low. I had no way of detecting her either.]

　　Shu Yi took a closer look and found that there was not even a bit of spirit Qi in Shen Ying’s body. She was a mortal? But how did she get onto this spirit boat? Shu Yi frowned. “What do you want?”

　　“Er…” Shen Ying hesitated. Very seriously, she handed the fruit in her hand over to Shu Yi. “Do you want to this?”

　　Shu Yi glanced at the half-eaten fruit and her expression darkened. Did this woman just poke her just to ask whether she wanted to eat her fruit? Anger began to rise up in Shu Yi’s chest. She did not think that this sect would accept such a rude disciple. In a cool voice, she answered, “No!”

　　“Oh.” Shen Ying retracted her arm and took another bite out of the fruit.

　　The system sounded once again.

　　[Host, quick, take the fruit! That’s a thousand-year-old Red Mystic Fruit. You cultivation level will increase by one entire stage if you eat it!]

　　“What!” Shu Yi exclaimed anxiously. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier!”

　　[I just realized that too.]

　　Shu Yi’s expression changed. She could not miss out on a fruit that would help her to advance by one entire cultivation level. Taking a deep breath, she plastered a smile onto her face and turned to face Shen Ying. “Junior Sister.”

　　“Mm?” Shen Ying looked up at her.

　　“This fruit…”

　　Before she could finish speaking, Shen Ying lowered her head and chewed at the fruit at a rapid speed. In two seconds, the half-eaten fruit was no more. All that was left was its core. Shen Ying wiped her mouth and asked, “What’s the matter?”

　　“…” She was doing this on purpose, wasn’t she!

　　(╯‵□′)╯(┻━┻

　　[Host, quick! Ask her to leave the core for you. You can plant it in the system’s business city. For all we know, it will grow.]

　　Shu Yi regained her composure and said excitedly, “Junior Sister, this core…”

　　Crack!

　　Shen Ying tightened her grip on the core and caused it to break into two. She took out the seeds inside of it and stuffed them into her mouth. After breaking it down with her teeth, she swallowed them and looked at Shu Yi. “You want it? Here!” She placed the wet and broken core in Shu Yi’s palm.

　　Shu Yi: “…”

　　System: “…”

　　Why did Shu Yi feel like she was being taken for a ride?

　　“Master…”

　　There was no time for her to react. Yi Qing was already walking over with his gaze locked on Shu Yi. He was worried that Shu Yi’s confusion would turn into rage.

　　Shu Yi suppressed her anger, remembering that she could not lose her cool here. “Greetings, Supremacy Yi Qing.”

　　Yi Qing did not respond. Instead, he turned to Shen Ying and said, “Master, breakfast is ready. It’s time to eat.”

　　“Oh.” Shen Ying got to her feet and followed Yi Qing back into the ship’s warehouse. She was getting away…

　　Shu Yi’s expression darkened. Her eyes followed the two people. Finally, she understood what their relationship was. This new sword cultivator supremacy had a mortal as a master. She had heard of this before, but she did not know that this woman was the master. It was no wonder that she had a Red Mystic Fruit with her.

　　Just thinking about missing out on that half-eaten Red Mystic Fruit filled her gut with regret. If she had that fruit, it would be far easier for her to form a Nascent Soul. Her thoughts drifted to Zuo Shuming, who was on the floating peak opposite from them and her heart filled with hatred. No way! She had to beat Zuo Shuming as soon as possible, so that her original owner’s grievous energy values would drop. Otherwise, she would have failed her mission.

　　“System, what’s Original Owner’s grievous energy value now?”

　　[Grievous energy value: 65]

　　All of a sudden, Shu Yi felt threatened.

　　——————

　　The moment they returned to Gui Yi Sect, Shu Yi went into isolation. From time to time, Lonemoon would check in on her. He discovered that she was advancing at a rapid pace. She was almost in the middle-stages Golden Core cultivation. On the other hand, Zuo Shuming was still stuck in the late stages of Foundation Establishment. No matter how hard he trained, he showed no form of forming a core.

　　Lonemoon understood that he was just missing one opportunity, but that opportunity was taking a long time to appear. At first, they thought this trip to Yuan Yang City would help him to realize some new things. In the end, apart from angering Shu Yi half to death, Zuo Shuming achieved nothing else. This was the first time he was experiencing such a slow advance in his cultivation. If this were to carry on, Shu Yi might have already formed a Nascent before he formed his core.

　　Disciples probably needed to be beaten up in order to have breakthroughs. Lonemoon guessed that Zuo Shuming just needed to be beaten several times. Yet, Zuo Shuming was good at nothing but forming thicker skin each time he got beaten. In the past, he would collapse with just one blow from Lonemoon. Now, he was able to withstand several seconds of beating. Thus, Lonemoon hit and hit him until… he got tired. He could not help himself any longer. Finally, he threw Zuo Shuming into a sword array. This saved him a lot of effort. The ten-level sword array made its appearance once more.

　　Zuo Shuming endured a tough time in the sword array for several years before he finally got used to it. After all this time, he finally managed to emerge from it. Even his sword technique became better – he faintly resembled a proper sword cultivator now. Yet, his cultivation… still remained the same! Even with Little Biao’s scale inside his body, supplying him with endless immortal Qi, his cultivation remained stuck at the late stages of Foundation Establishment.

　　Lonemoon was trying to think of a solution for this Zuo Two Bucks when Tian Yi, the spawn of Satan, brought a piece of news to them.

　　“A sect competition?” Lonemoon asked.

　　“That’s right.” Tian Yi took one sip of his tea and nodded. “My Gui Yi Sect will hold one competition every ten years. There will be two main events – pill refinement and techniques. Of course, the main event would be the former. Brother Lonemoon, you’ve been in the Foundation Establishment stage for a long time. Why not give it a shot?”

　　Lonemoon thought about it for awhile. Zuo Two Bucks had been beaten by them too much, but he had not been beaten by others. Perhaps allowing him to join the competition would help him to realize something. “But… we’re sword cultivators.” Lonemoon probably had not taught Two Bucks anything about pill refinement. He guessed that Zuo Two Bucks would not even be able to make it past the first round.

　　“That’s no problem!” Tian Yi smiled. “Although the pill techniques are the main focus of my sect’s competition, given that Supremacy Yi Qing is participating, we’re changing this year’s style. The technique event will be equally split with the pill refinement event. What’s more, each Mountain Master will send one person who will make it directly to the finals. Don’t worry, Brother Lonemoon. I will send your name in. Just participate without worrying so much!”

　　“What?” Lonemoon pursed his lips. Why would he send his name in for no good reason? Lonemoon did not even want to participate. Didn’t Tian Yi himself have a whole group of disciples under his charge? “Heh heh… Thank you!”

　　“No worries!” Tian Yi smiled, satisfied with himself. “This is what brothers do!”

　　Who’s your brother!

　　Lonemoon sighed and said, “Brother Tian Yi… I have a request to make.”

　　“Brother Lonemoon, please go ahead.”

　　“Can you change my name to Zuo Shuming’s?”

　　“…”

　　Tian Yi stared blankly at Lonemoon. His expression was filled with confusion and indignance.

　　It caused even the hairs on the back of Lonemoon’s neck to rise.

　　Wait a moment!

　　Why are you looking at me so pitifully? And does your expression seem to say, “So you take Zuo Shuming as your real brother?”

　　I’m a proper businessman. Stop imagining so much!

　　Σ(°△°|||)