Qingyun Peak

Still, fallen leaves were nothing to worry about. If the tree did not volunteer them, people could always give it a little encouragement.

By shaking off a few leaves every now and then, the nutrient-rich Ten-Mile Peach Blossom Tree would soon grow new ones.

No harm done.

After handing out the peach-leaf pendants, Liu Yunan asked Baizhu, “How is the naming of your mountain coming along? Have you found a name everyone likes?”

Baizhu, who had been diligently following up on the task, immediately pulled a small notebook from the storage pouch at his waist and replied, “Elder Liu, so far, three names have received the most votes from everyone. However, ‘Qingyun Peak’ has many more votes than the other two.”

“Qingyun Peak? That sounds pretty good. Since it received so many votes, shall we go with it?” Liu Yunan said.

Clearly, though, he was not merely asking Baizhu’s opinion. As soon as he finished speaking, he turned around and used an amplification technique to ask all the new disciples once more.

Upon hearing his question, everyone immediately shouted their answer:

“Good!”

“Relying on the strength of the wind, I’ll rise to the azure clouds.”

That could be said to perfectly describe the feelings of every new disciple after experiencing twenty days of life as a cultivator.

Regardless of whether some individuals preferred other names, everyone agreed that this one was quite good.

With more than a hundred people, it was naturally impossible for everyone to have exactly the same preferences. But as long as everyone found a name acceptable, that was already more than enough.

Besides, the matter of naming the mountain had dragged on for twenty days—long enough.

Thus, no one objected when the final result was settled.

And so, the mountain where the new disciples lived finally received its official name: Qingyun Peak.

Meanwhile, construction of the houses on Qingyun Peak had reached its final stage. All that remained was to put on the roofs.

The roofing tiles were ordinary tiles purchased with funding from the sect.

Hu Liang had previously asked Village Chief Du of Xiushui Village to place an order for gray roof tiles in the county.

Once the supplier had finished making them, a special delivery brought the tiles to the village. Hu Liang then led several disciples in packing them into storage pouches and transporting them back to the sect.

For now, they were using ordinary mortal tiles. In the future, if the new disciples—or, as they should now be called, the disciples of Qingyun Peak—wanted to replace them with sturdier roofing tiles, they would have to refine the replacements themselves in the Artifact Refining Hall.

Of course, this applied to more than just roof tiles.

From now on, anything they wished to replace in their daily lives would require them to improve their cultivation and skills, earn spirit stones to purchase it, or make it themselves.

Improving their cultivation and abilities in order to improve their living conditions was something everyone in the Lingxian Sect agreed that newcomers needed to get used to.

After all, that was how they had come this far themselves.

And this afternoon was the day Qingyun Peak would be roofed.

By now, every disciple of Qingyun Peak had successfully drawn qi into their bodies, though they had yet to begin learning any spells.

Even so, their stamina and overall physical condition had already improved far beyond what they had been twenty days earlier.

As a result, their efficiency increased with every passing day.

By the afternoon, their speed at finishing the roofs was astonishing.

Before the sky had completely darkened, every house had been fully roofed.

Normally, newly constructed houses needed to sit for a while to dry, which meant the disciples of Qingyun Peak would have had to continue living in their thatched shelters for some time.

But this was the Lingxian Sect, after all.

That evening, the disciples of Azure Cloud Peak watched as Elder Hu—who had personally guided them through the construction of their homes—took out an object said to be an array disk. He placed it at the center of all the houses and infused it with spiritual power.

The next moment, they saw the buildings begin to dry before their very eyes.

Nor did the houses develop the cracks that came from being abruptly baked dry. They were no different from structures that had dried naturally in the open air.

Thus, that very night, the disciples of Azure Cloud Peak were able to move into the homes they had built with their own hands.

For people who had spent twenty days sleeping in grass huts, suddenly moving into houses with gray brick walls and green-tiled roofs—houses they had painstakingly built bit by bit themselves—the excitement was beyond words.

After dividing the courtyards and rooms by gender, everyone packed up their bedding from the grass huts and moved indoors.

While the disciples of Azure Cloud Peak eagerly made their beds in their new rooms, Lin Xiao, who was cultivating, received a system notification:

【Ding—Congratulations! The sect’s first disciple peak, [Azure Cloud Peak], has been successfully established. The reward has been distributed to the private treasury. Please check it promptly.】

【Every group needs a leader. Host, please select an outstanding Peak Master for Azure Cloud Peak as soon as possible, to take charge of all matters concerning the peak.】

Lin Xiao immediately checked what this reward was.

Upon opening the private treasury, before he had time to notice anything else, the first thing he saw was that his spirit stone count had increased by five thousand.

!

It had actually rewarded him with five thousand spirit stones!

Since when had the system become so generous?

Could it be that, aside from the spirit stones, there were no other rewards?

He promptly checked the private treasury again and found that this was not the case.

There were spirit stones, yes—but there were other rewards as well.

It was... a Grade-One spirit vein?!

Lin Xiao was utterly stunned.

Back then, after completing so many tasks, what had he received as rewards? Fragments of a first-rank spirit vein. He had needed to gather three of them before he could synthesize a single first-rank spirit vein.

But now, merely by completing the construction of a disciple peak—a task that had not even been issued by the system—it had proactively rewarded him with a complete Grade-One spirit vein...

And that was not all.

Lin Xiao continued reading. There was more.

It was an exceptionally clear mirror called the Trueheart Mirror.

He took out the Trueheart Mirror and examined it closely. Although it was remarkably clear, it was made neither of bronze nor glass. The mirror itself was silver in color, but its material resembled crystal.

The Trueheart Mirror was three meters long and two and a half meters wide—a fairly large surface.

It just had no frame, which made it look rather plain.

After returning it to the private treasury, he activated the appraisal function. A description of the Trueheart Mirror appeared beneath it:

【Trueheart Mirror: Rectify oneself and one’s heart; see clearly into one’s true nature. Only by understanding one’s own heart may one comprehend the Dao.】

It was unprecedentedly concise.

Perhaps Lin Xiao’s cultivation had grown stronger, and the system’s appraisal function now thought more highly of him. Its appraisal descriptions were no longer as detailed and straightforward as before.

Given how generous the rewards were this time—and because he had some thoughts about the description of the Trueheart Mirror—Lin Xiao did not argue with the system over it.

The sect already had the Heart-Questioning Path. The Trueheart Mirror’s function presumably would not overlap with it. Based on the system’s consistently commendable character, it would not be so underhanded as to give him something with a duplicate function.

Then he could reasonably infer from the appraisal results that this Heart-Rectifying Mirror might share the same origin as the Heart-Questioning Path—only it had advanced to a higher level.

Perhaps the Heart-Rectifying Mirror should actually be called the Dao-Awakening Mirror.

After giving it some thought, he decided that this Heart-Rectifying Mirror would make a fine tool for gaining insight into the Dao. Naturally, it had to be placed somewhere everyone could see it regularly—

somewhere people could pass by and look into it every day.

And so, the old standbys—the spirit stones and spirit vein—would have to take a back seat for the time being. Taking advantage of the night, he immediately carried the brand-new Heart-Rectifying Mirror to the mountain path at the entrance of the sect.