Chapter 60 (1/2)

Elder Formation nodded at her newest disciple. Ruby was growing quite quickly, and her foundation wasn’t being rushed either. If it weren’t for Kid Vremya’s existence, Elder Formation would’ve been extremely satisfied with her current disciple. However, Kid Vremya did exist, and she couldn’t even kill him in secret unless she wanted to face Rachel’s wrath. Recently, Rachel had been acting crazy, declaring war nonstop while personally heading out to battle. If it weren’t for the fact soul-seed experts could live up to ten thousand years, Elder Formation would’ve suspected Rachel was having a midlife crisis. The sect leader was only over a thousand years old, still too young to be experiencing one of those.

“Do you think I can defeat Vremya?” Ruby asked. Her head was bowed, but her eyes were rolled upwards to take a peek at her master’s face. “I worked extremely hard this year.”

“You did work hard,” Elder Formation said with a small smile. The girl had reached the third stage of qi condensation starting from scratch. Unfortunately, the heavens were unfair. Kid Vremya was a genius beyond measure. Even if he slacked off and did nothing for a whole year, he was still at a higher rank of cultivation than Ruby. “We’ll see if you can defeat him at the newcomer-promotion contest. Even if you lose to him, you should still be second place. That’s more than enough for you to be promoted to an outer disciple.”

“I’m not going to lose!” Ruby said and pouted. Why was her master talking about her defeat as if it were already going to happen? She worked hard and cultivated in her cave the whole year. She even gave up on playing with dolls and reading picture books! Of course, she still had to read the textbooks required for her studies, but her arrogant neighbor had to do that too. The time they had to cultivate was equal, and she was sure Vremya was wasting more time than her. She worked harder and studied harder; if the world was fair and just, then she would win. Her victory was practically guaranteed!

“Take this,” Elder Formation said and handed Ruby a bracelet. “Since you’re still at a low level of cultivation, it’ll double your current amount of spiritual energy. With this, you’ll be able to perform twice the number of attacks as usual during a fight. If I give you any more than this, the sect will count it as an unfair advantage.”

“Thank you, Master!” Ruby said and put the bracelet on. Her eyes glinted as she admired her wrist. “I won’t let you down!”

Elder Formation smiled on the outside but sighed internally. Hopefully, her disciple’s enthusiasm would remain after being defeated. “Let’s go to the competition grounds, shall we?” She pulled a wooden flute out of her bag and blew on it. A moment later, a large crane descended from the sky. With a wave of her hand, Elder Formation whisked Ruby onto the crane’s back before hopping on herself.

It didn’t take long for the crane to fly to the competition ground. It wasn’t a very large venue. In the first place, there weren’t that many newcomers. Every year, half of them would be promoted to outer disciples. New disciples would come in every three years. If the newcomers weren’t promoted by the age of ten, they were removed from the sect. Previously, they would just be expelled, but since the Moon Lotus Sect apparently now had two vassal sects, those who weren’t qualified to become outer disciples were going to be placed into the vassal sects instead.

Elder Formation swept her gaze over the venue. Unsurprisingly, most of the elders were in attendance. Even Rachel was there. However, the person they were all looking forward to seeing the most was not. The crane landed near the elders, and Elder Formation waved her hand, whisking Ruby off into the distance with the rest of the newcomer disciples. “Is Vremya not here yet?” Elder Formation asked upon approaching the elders.

“He hasn’t shown up,” another elder replied. “I wanted to know how far he had gotten in his cultivation. Did you know he hasn’t shown up even once to the skill pavilion?”

“He hasn’t entered the main pavilion either,” another elder said, shaking her head. “There’s another disciple that completes all his chores for him. She accepts missions with his token and collects his allotted spirit stones for him as well.”

“I haven’t seen him in the cafeteria either,” a third elder said. “I paid careful attention to all the newcomers, but none of them are taking any extra food. If he’s eating, he’s finding his food elsewhere.”

A strange expression appeared on Elder Formation’s face. “Is he dead? Did he suffer an accident inside of his abode?”