This cave differed completely from the one where the elf Scar lived. Not only was it cold, but it was also humid. The corridors were narrow, and navigating them would likely be a nightmare unless someone artificially widened the passages, which was evident from the mechanical marks on the walls.

  “Expanding these passages must have been a nightmare,” May said quietly.

  Going down there was a long journey, so working with equipment couldn’t have been easy.

  “Yes, you are correct.” Our clan spent a lot of its resources and time on it,” Xing Hao said, looking cognitively at La Xia. “But what one doesn’t do for the benefit of the sect.”

  La Xia just snorted, but didn’t comment on it.

  At some point, the cave ceased to be cramped and became tens of meters high.

  Finally, they arrived at their destination. It was a real Spiritual Qi River, not a fake one like the one in the Eastern Court.

  The river glowed with a light blue glow, illuminating the entire cave.

  “Amazing...” May said, delighted by the natural beauty of the cave river stretching for hundreds of meters.

  “Even after so many years, it’s still impressive...” La Xia said quietly, crouching down and dipping her hand lightly into the river water.

  Compared to what she saw here, the False Spiritual Qi River was just a small stream. May couldn’t even see the end of the river, which stretched into the unknown.

  “Let’s not waste any more time and get on with the test, otherwise we’ll be standing here for the rest of the day,” said Xing Hao. “You’ve already had tests in your Outer Court, haven’t you? The preparation here is the same.”

  May began to prepare. Xing Hao was right, it was no different from the fake river in the east. In order not to interfere with the test, she had to get rid of all the Qi energy from her body and then block her cultivation with an item so that it would not interfere with the test results. After all, they wanted to see her talent, not her cultivation stage.

  “Can I start now?”

  “Yes, but let me explain something first. Unlike the False Qi River you know, the density of Qi is much higher in the real one, so don’t worry if you start to feel uncomfortable at the beginning,” he said, looking into May’s eyes. "This is the river’s end, resulting in the weakest Qi. The closer you get to the source, the higher the density of Qi. At the place where the water flows out, the Qi is so dense that even the sect leader cannot reach it.”

  “Is the place where this river begins far away?” she asked.

  “Yes... We don’t know for sure, but it’s at least many kilometers up the caves. However, it’s not something you should worry about.”

  She still couldn’t get over the natural beauty of the river. The light coming from the water made the whole cave look like something out of a fairy tale, and she felt a rare shivering emotion from the concept of beauty.

  However, this was not the time for that. She took her first step toward the river and her feet sank into the water. The stone steps had been hollowed out to provide direct access to the river. She sighed deeply and submerged herself completely in the water, having decided that it would be better to do it right away.

  Water filled her lungs again, but she surrendered completely to the sensation and soon she could breathe again in the dense water. Soon she stopped trembling and could breathe normally again; the Qi energy that so densely filled the water allowed her to breathe as if she were in the air.

  “Go ahead.” She barely heard the voice coming from across the river. It was Xing Hao, who wanted her to continue her way.

  As in the Eastern Court, the river was marked. This time, however, there were lines at regular intervals on the bottom. About every meter or two. The more lines she crossed, the greater her talent would be.

  However, she immediately noticed the difference. She had only walked five or six meters, but she felt that the Qi energy had increased significantly. Not enough to be uncomfortable, but still, in the Eastern Court, it would be equivalent to forty meters.

  However, the original is unrivaled... Created by human hands and filled with Qi energy, the artificial river could not compare to this naturally created work of art.

  She kept walking. She didn’t want to prolong it any longer. She didn’t stop. She passed another line.

  “Twenty meters...” La Xia said quietly. “The minimum needed to get into Cloud Academy, even on the reserve list.”

  But May didn’t stop there and immediately passed another twenty. Unfortunately, she already felt a slight tingling sensation all over her body. She hadn’t felt anything like this in Eastern Court. This river was really something else.

  “She started to slow down,” commented Xing Hao.

  May finally decided that the pain was unbearable. She saw what happened to Wang Wang even in the fake river, she didn’t want to risk it herself and decided that this had to be enough.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  She stopped and began to back up. Finally, she came to the surface, where she began to desperately spit water out of her mouth, even throwing up. It was probably an even worse feeling than the submersion itself. On top of that, everything hurt.

  “Intriguing results,” said Xing Hao, and La Xia nodded in agreement.

  “What do you mean?” May asked curiously, still feeling uncomfortable after surfacing.

  “They’re good, just as we expected, but... slightly below the expected result,” said Xing Hao. “Oh, don’t take it the wrong way, your result still means that you are one of the most talented of the younger generation... But considering how close you are to the 6th stage of Qi Refinement, we expected something different.”

  May wasn’t bothered by this; on the contrary, she had expected this scenario. Her current cultivation level was not purely due to her talent, as was the case with the majority of other people. In fact, if it weren’t for the Thousand-Year-Old Ginseng Pill prepared for her by Scar, she would still be at the fourth stage, or perhaps, by some miracle, at the very beginning of the fifth stage.

  She knew her current level was slightly overstretched.

  “Cheer up, Junior!” La Xia suddenly said, thinking that May was despairing because of Xing Hao’s words about her talent. “It just proves how hard you’ve worked! Your stage is much better than your talent would suggest? That means you’ve worked ten times harder than others!”

  May wasn’t sad about it, just a little pensive. She had indeed worked hard, but not ten times harder.

  It is so kind of him to try to cheer me up.

  Every year, the Inner Court had about 15,000 candidates from all the Outer Courts for the Cloud Academy. The Inner Court had twice as many candidates. So it was not surprising that there was someone there with more talent than her. Her current talent was one in ten thousand. Statistically, there should be at least three new candidates with at least the same talent as her among the new candidates alone.

  Unlike them, however, May had something else: a system. Thanks to this, she had access to all kinds of pills and potions that no one else had access to, which she used all the time.

  “It’s time to go,” La Xia finally said. “There’s nothing left for us here.”

  ───── ??☆?? ─────

  They returned to the estate without saying a word. May knew that La Xia was curious about the subject of her conversation with Elder Hao, but he said nothing. She thought that he would probably want to consult with his superior, Ze Yun, first. The matter seemed urgent, especially since the two clans did not seem to be on very good terms with each other.

  However, May wanted to avoid conflict as much as possible. She was not interested in the sect’s internal politics.

  As soon as they returned, La Xia immediately left her.

  “There’s no point in continuing training today, go do whatever you want, Junior. It’s your free time,” he said, then hurriedly disappeared, leaving May alone.

  She just sighed. There weren’t many interesting things to do. So she went to the estate’s library, which was located in the east wing of the building. Unfortunately, she only had access to the first floor.

  There were only books of no value there, which did not concern any cultivation secrets. Such books were only on the second floor, to which she did not have access. More floors were available, and the higher up, the more hidden and potent the cultivation secrets in the books were. However, May did not belong to their clan, so she had to be content with the unexciting content of the first floor.

  She browsed through the titles and short descriptions of the books. Fiction books were not very popular in this world; they were generally considered a waste of time by cultivators. This made sense, given the culture of the world she currently found herself in.

  Unfortunately for her, most of the books were encyclopedias of mushrooms, lists of marsh frogs, or uninteresting accounts of the centuries-old genealogy of various clans from different sects throughout the region.

  She browsed the library for an hour and finally, with slight reluctance, picked up a book about stars. Astronomy had always interested her, but unfortunately, the book she picked up was written in such an inaccessible and metaphorical language that even a subject as interesting as astronomy became something to be pitied.

  I don’t know what I was hoping for. I won’t find out anything from this.

  She thought with a slight regret. In her previous life, she wasn’t familiar enough with astronomy to be able to determine her location in space. And even if she had had such an education, it probably wouldn’t have helped her anyway.

  The names of the stars were completely different, as was their relative position. Even determining whether she was still in the same galaxy was essentially impossible to determine.

  Of course, there is one very specific way to find out, but…

  “But you can’t afford it.” Minnie commented.

  She had asked about it before. However, even a simple confirmation that it was in the same galaxy as Earth cost tens of billions. And the question “How far away is Earth?” was even more expensive. What’s worse, there was no guarantee that Earth even existed, as she didn’t even know if it was the same world.

  The book itself described stars as “points shining in the sky that determine the connection of the destinies of all souls, connecting all times, interpretable through the sophisticated art of astrology.” To tell the truth, May had no idea what that meant. However, she knew that it was complete nonsense. Reading this book was an extremely irritating experience for her.

  She wanted to learn something about the world, not interpret the sophisticated metaphors of this book. She was so irritated by Li Lua’s book that she decided she needed to go for a short walk and get some fresh air.

  She went back inside to get warm after roughly ten minutes in the cold. She chose to go and search for something a little more entertaining.

  However, when she returned inside, she discovered a new individual in the library. This was an uncommon sight for May, as this figure was not dressed in the servant’s uniform of the estate. It was a girl about the same age as herself.

  May watched the girl who was currently reading a book on astronomy that she had left on the table. Her appearance was unusual; she was extremely tall for her young age, but at the same time she looked almost disease-strikingly thin. May’s first thought was that she probably had anorexia, but she quickly shook her head.

  She had fairly short black hair cut to her shoulders in a rather unsightly way. She looked up at May from her book, realizing she was not alone.

  “Hi...” May said awkwardly, not quite sure how she should address this mysterious girl.

  Ugh, since she’s here, she must belong to the clan... I guess I should have been a little more formal... But wait, La Xia said there were no young children in the Clan? Who is she?

  The girl did not respond to her greeting, however, and only bowed her head slightly. She seemed a little shy. Unfortunately, May was not the most sociable person either, so she did not know how to approach the conversation.

  So she decided to talk about the book she was reading.

  “Oh, you’re reading that tome on astronomy? It’s awful, I could barely get through it...” she said, trying to lighten the mood.

  The girl looked down with a slight sadness.

  “Li Lua is my absolute favorite author…” she continued, staring at the ground.

  May had no idea what to say to that.