chapter 3

I was moved to discover that I had been Master’s most valued disciple all along!

The way of “theft” he had taught me was terrifyingly powerful. I would never curse him in secret again.

Within one month, despite my mixed spiritual roots, I reached the third level of Qi Refinement. The entire sect was stunned.

Shen Yuening’s jaw dropped. “Impossible! My little sister’s aptitude is so poor. How could her cultivation surpass mine? She must have taken some miracle pill.”

The teaching elder examined my meridians carefully. “Her spiritual power is abundant. She cultivated it herself.”

The disciples erupted into chatter.

“How did she advance so quickly without pills?”

“Junior Sister Shen must cultivate day and night. A few nights ago, I saw her meditating on Qi Refinement Peak when I got up to relieve myself.”

“So did I, except I saw her meditating outside the Medicine Hall. Why does she keep changing locations?”

I wiped away a guilty bead of sweat. “A change of scenery improves my mood, and a good mood makes cultivation faster.”

The truth was that one should never shear the same sheep every day.

After I stole the qi around Shen Yuening for several days in a row, she noticed something strange and asked Eldest Senior Brother about it. I stopped at once and began stealing from other disciples instead.

I drained yours, then yours. Yours, then yours.

The Wuji Sect ranked among the largest sects in the cultivation world. Even if I chose a different disciple every day, it would take more than a decade to complete one rotation.

No wonder Master had said there were so many people in the sect and that following one each day would eventually lead me to the Dao.

Master, I had achieved enlightenment again.

Once the others saw someone like me advancing, they became as excited as chickens with their tails on fire. Disciples began dropping into meditation everywhere, hoping their cultivation would soar overnight.

It became impossible to find a quiet corner to pee without stumbling over a senior brother meditating in the bushes.

For a long time, I lived in terror that they would discover I was stealing their qi.

Only after I reached the fifth level of Qi Refinement did I relax.

It turned out that everyone else truly did meditate with complete focus, ignoring every disturbance in the outside world.

Unlike me, they did not secretly watch every fellow disciple, envy everyone with better aptitude, and steal their qi.

No one would ever imagine that a person could steal the spiritual qi around them.

How was that any different from drinking someone’s bathwater?

Given enough time, I visited almost every disciple once or twice.

Even so, Shen Yuening remained my favorite. I faithfully drained her once every three days.

After all, before we entered the cultivation world, Father and his principal wife had ordered us sisters to love each other.

I never found another cave dwelling after mine was destroyed. Shen Yuening had claimed every vacant one on Lingxiao Peak to store her clothes and jewelry.

Eldest Senior Brother laughed helplessly. “Junior Sister Yuening is still childish. Please be patient with her.”

He said nothing about where I was meant to live.

I sighed, accepted the two spirit stones he offered as an apology, and built a thatched hut beside Shen Yuening’s cave.

Whenever someone passed during the day, I warmly invited them inside. Under their sympathetic gazes, I put on a brave smile.

“I lived in a broken hut as a child. This one keeps out the wind and rain. It is already wonderful.”

When the moon was dark and the wind was high, I pressed myself against the wall of Shen Yuening’s cave and sucked, sucked, sucked away with heartbreaking skill.

The good news was that I finally had cultivation.

The bad news was that I did not know a single spell.

I stared at a spell manual for ages and understood nothing. Eldest Senior Brother happened to pass and, with a sigh, informed me that I was holding it upside down.

Humiliated, I tore at my hair and crawled around like a vengeful ghost.

Was it my fault I could not read? Father’s principal wife had deliberately kept me ignorant because she feared I would outshine Shen Yuening.

Otherwise, with my magnificent intelligence, I would have ascended long ago.

Perhaps because I cultivated too diligently, Shen Yuening’s cultivation began to stagnate.

Eldest Senior Brother panicked. He feared he would have no explanation when Master emerged from seclusion, so he decided to help her adopt a spirit-beast egg as an aid.

It was my first time inside the Spirit Beast Pavilion. Thousands of eggs glowed with faint light in every color.

Any Wuji Sect disciple who reached Foundation Establishment could come choose a spirit beast with which they shared an affinity. Shen Yuening was a special exception.

I watched a senior sister from Alchemy Peak release her spiritual power. One egg immediately blazed with brilliant light.

It was the egg of a Tyrant Sky Tiger. As an adult, it could soar through the heavens and burrow through the earth, with a body as powerful as a Nascent Soul cultivator’s.

My eyes turned red with envy.

Shen Yuening eagerly sent out her senses. A gigantic egg responded with a flood of crimson light.

Eldest Senior Brother excitedly wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Junior Sister Yuening, this is the egg of a divine Vermilion Bird! Just as Master said, you are blessed with tremendous fortune.”

My eyes stopped being red and cycled through orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.

In short, I cried from jealousy.

Still, I was certain another divine beast had to be hidden among the eggs. I released all my spiritual power to search.

From one sunrise to the next and then to another, I emptied myself completely. Not one egg responded.

I stood there stiffly, eyes hollow, looking no different from a corpse.

An elder yawned and gave me a puzzled look.

“Why have you come to choose an egg so early?”

“Early is good. Some fool spent all day yesterday blasting spiritual power around. At least the dust has been blown off the eggs.”

I became furious. Thunderously furious.

As the heir to Master’s teachings, how could I allow a collection of insignificant eggs to humiliate me? It would disgrace him.

That very night, I sewed one thousand egg slings. Over the course of a hundred secret trips, I stole every egg from the pavilion.

Including the Vermilion Bird egg Shen Yuening was incubating.

I suspected Master had never tasted a dish called tomato and scrambled eggs.