Chapter 20: The Moment of Glory Approaches-Todos são bajuladores, a pequena aprendiz é um cachorro de verdade(Segurando as mãos sob as luzes dos fogos de artifício)

After receiving confirmation, Feng Xi bounded over to show off to Jun Wen.

"Fifth Senior Brother, the Sky Scar Secret Realm is opening soon. How are you planning to get there?"

Jun Wen curled his lip. "How else? By flying sword, of course! The other three sects will all be arriving by flying ship, but our Master is such a miser, he’d never be willing to spend the spirit stones!"

Although the Xuantian Sect had recently unearthed a high-grade spirit stone mine, their past debts were so vast that their living conditions had only improved by a tiny margin. A flying ship was completely out of the question.

Feng Xi sighed upon hearing this. "True, our Xuantian Sect is still too poor. Fifth Senior Brother, I’ll hitch a ride on your flying sword then!"

Jun Wen looked troubled. "Little Junior Sister, my cultivation is limited. It would be fine for a short distance, but the Sky Scar Secret Realm is three days away from our sect. It’s already exhausting for me to travel alone, let alone carrying you. How about I find a few others to take turns carrying you instead?"

Feng Xi looked at him with a gaze of utter disappointment. "Fifth Senior Brother, you’re just too weak! You really need to cultivate harder, or the gap between you and me will only keep growing!"

Jun Wen: "..."

Could you please have a clear and accurate perception of yourself? I’m already at the third level of Foundation Establishment, while you’re still at the Qi Refining stage and can’t even use spiritual energy easily—where do you get the courage to say that?

As Jun Wen was grumbling internally, Feng Xi sighed again. "Fine, I originally wanted to tag along on your sword, but since you’re too weak to carry me, I’ll reluctantly let the Golden-Haired Suanni carry me instead!"

Jun Wen’s first reaction was that Feng Xi was talking nonsense. The Golden-Haired Suanni hated her guts; it would be lucky if it didn't stomp her to death, let alone serve as her mount. Furthermore, that "living ancestor" held a transcendent status in the sect—forget about being a mount, everyone was just thankful if it didn't cause any trouble.

Feng Xi guessed his thoughts, stood with her hands behind her back, and tilted her head up. "You think I’m bragging? If you don’t believe me, go ask Master."

Jun Wen did ask, and upon receiving a definitive "yes," he fell into a daze. It was actually true? How could his Little Junior Sister, clearly a weakling, always manage to do things that left everyone’s jaws on the floor?

At this moment, Feng Xi said with a look of disdain, "Actually, I didn't even want the little golden fur-ball as a mount. Aside from being ugly, it isn't very bright, and riding it would only lower my sense of style. But it kept begging me shamelessly, and I’m just too soft-hearted, so I had to agree..."

Jun Wen: "..."

Would it kill you to stop showing off?!

After gloating for a while, Feng Xi turned to serious business. "Fifth Senior Brother, the secret realm is about to open. Why haven't the First Senior Brother and the others returned yet?"

Jun Wen explained, "The Sky Scar Secret Realm is only open to cultivators below the middle stage of Foundation Establishment, and everyone only gets one chance to enter. The First Senior Brother and the others have already been there."

In the Northern Region's cultivation world, cultivation is divided into the Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, and Spirit Severing stages... Each stage is divided into nine levels. Using Foundation Establishment as an example: levels one to three are the early stage, four to six are the middle stage, and seven to nine are the late stage, with the ninth level being the Great Perfection.

At this point, Jun Wen’s tone became a bit dejected. "The disciples who have joined the Xuantian Sect in recent years have mediocre talent, so there aren't many Foundation Establishment disciples who meet the criteria. The remaining spots can only go to the Qi Refining disciples. I suspect our Xuantian Sect will end up at the bottom of the rankings again. The session that the First Senior Brother participated in was our best performance—we actually took third place. It’s a pity I missed out on that one..."

Feng Xi interjected, "Fifth Senior Brother, after all that talk, what exactly is this Sky Scar Secret Realm?"

"Legend has it that the Sky Scar Secret Realm was formed by the palm print of a great power. The spiritual energy inside is extremely dense, and many rare spiritual plants grow there. During the competition, the rankings are determined by converting the quantity and grade of the spiritual plants into points..."

Once Jun Wen finished, Feng Xi asked curiously, "Fifth Senior Brother, who is this 'great power' you mentioned?"

In the cultivation world, individuals with exceptional power are called "great powers." To think a palm print could become a secret realm—that was incredible!

Jun Wen shook his head. "I don’t know about that. In any case, it must be someone truly extraordinary."

Feng Xi had only asked in passing and didn't pursue it further when she saw he didn't know. As they chatted, the conversation drifted to the Hunyuan Sect. Feng Xi sighed, "Fifth Senior Brother, we’ll definitely run into people from the Hunyuan Sect at the secret realm. If they give me a hard time, you must help me!"

Jun Wen glared at her. "Isn't that obvious? You’re my junior sister; if I don't help you, am I supposed to help the people from the Hunyuan Sect?!"

Feng Xi thought to herself that one could never be sure; after all, if the "sycophant" attributes were triggered, there was no telling what he might do. So, she had to take precautions.

"Fifth Senior Brother, Shen Zhilan is very beautiful. I’m afraid you’ll be bewitched by her."

Jun Wen was so angry he laughed. "Am I that shallow?"

Feng Xi nodded. "You are."

Jun Wen: "..."

"Fifth Senior Brother, I know you’re very curious about Shen Zhilan, so I drew a portrait of her for you. Take a look!"

Jun Wen said he didn't want to see it, but he still took the sketch Feng Xi handed over. After all, Shen Zhilan had been very prominent lately, and everyone had a bit of curiosity.

The sketch depicted a young girl in a white dress who was... picking at her toenails.

Jun Wen: "..."

Feng Xi handed him another one. "Fifth Senior Brother, this one is even better."

Jun Wen took it and saw the girl in the white dress was... picking her nose.

Jun Wen immediately felt a wave of nausea and almost threw up. For someone with a slight obsession with cleanliness, no matter how beautiful the girl in the drawing was, he couldn't feel any attraction. From then on, whenever Jun Wen saw Shen Zhilan, he would think of either toenail-picking or nose-picking. Forget admiration—he wanted to vomit just looking at her.

Seeing the effect was good, Feng Xi left with great satisfaction. *Hmph, there is no such thing as love at first sight; it’s nothing more than lust at first sight.*

She hummed a little tune as she walked back to her courtyard. Near the entrance, she spotted a wooden sword on the ground. Perhaps the woodcarver’s skills weren't great, as the blade was uneven and bumpy.

"Who is so lacking in civic virtue? Why are they littering everywhere? Whatever, I’ll take it to the dining hall to be used as firewood when I go to get food!"

Muttering to herself, Feng Xi picked up the wooden sword and tucked it into her storage ring. This storage ring had been given to her by Xiao Baidao; although its grade wasn't very high, it was much better than her previous storage pouch.

However, when she went to the dining hall the next day, she forgot all about it. Over the next few days, she began preparing for the trip to the Sky Scar Secret Realm and forgot the matter entirely.

Soon, the day of departure arrived.

Xiao Baidao felt both expectant and worried. He was expectant because they might be able to pull off a "wolf in sheep's clothing" scheme according to his precious disciple's plan—even though they had just dug up a high-grade spirit stone mine, they were still short on money! He was worried because they would likely end up in last place among the four major sects again based on pure strength. For a man who valued his reputation, this was sheer torture.

There was another person—no, beast—whose mood was much like his. That was the Golden-Haired Suanni. On one hand, it felt it was beneath its dignity to serve as a mount for a little girl; on the other, it was looking forward to seeing the outside world again.

Feng Xi, however, was bouncing around, incredibly happy! Because her moment to shine was finally arriving! Although she was dying to jump onto the Golden-Haired Suanni's back to show off, she voluntarily suggested waiting until they were outside the sect gates to maintain her "well-behaved and sensible" persona.

She waited and waited, and finally, they reached the sect entrance. Feng Xi excitedly stepped over the high threshold of the gate, and then... *splat*, she fell flat on her face!