“In my heart, my sister is a princess, but she lives in poverty just like me. A few months ago, after my sister heard that Bright Heart Academy was recruiting students, she had always wanted to come in her heart, but she didn’t want to tell me about it, she was afraid that I would worry. The only thing I could do for her was to sell everything in the house and accompany her here for the selection process.” There was an extremely loving tone in the youth’s voice, as if his sister wanted the stars in the sky, he would go and find a way.
“What if your sister fails the selection? There’s nothing left at home?” When Ning Cheng asked this question, what was on his mind was surprisingly not about this youth and his sister participating in the selection. He thought of him and Ruo Lan, when he had also left everything at home to follow his sister Ruo Lan to Jiangzhou in order to take care of her.
How similar was this youth to him?
Hearing Ning Cheng’s question, this youth said with certainty, “As long as someone is chosen, my sister will definitely be chosen, no one is better than my sister.”
Ning Cheng did not refute this youth, a person who loved and cared for his sister so much would only resonate with him by saying such things and would not arouse his disgust at all.
“This time, my sister will definitely be chosen to enter the Bright Heart Academy, and my helping her to get this pair of beaded flowers back might be the last thing I can do for her. Therefore, I ask that you can grant me. Although I don’t have many gold coins, I will try to give you as many as I can.” The youth’s tone had taken on a pleading tone. He was obviously not a fool and knew that once his sister was chosen to enter the Bright Heart Academy, then she would no longer have anything to do with him.
Ning Cheng didn’t say anything else, he just took out the pair of beaded flowers and handed them to this youth and said, “I also love my sister very much, so you can give this to your sister. It is your sister’s happiness to have a brother like you.”
After giving the beaded flowers away, Ning Cheng sighed in his heart, he suddenly envied this youth a little. At least his sister could still see and was still under the same sky.
“Ah ……” The youth did not expect Ning Cheng to be so kind at all, he had even lost hope, and yet Ning Cheng gave him the bead flower.
It took him a while to react and he hurriedly went to take out the gold coins. Ning Cheng waved his hand and said, “I don’t want your gold coins, to me gold coins are simply something superfluous. The reason I gave you the bead flower is because I also have a younger sister who also likes this kind of bead flower ……”
“Ah, this, this ……” The young man was simple and he knew that this was taking away someone’s love. Is his sister a sister and someone else’s sister not a sister? However, he could not give back the bead flower to Ning Cheng, and for a while he was actually torn.
“Why don’t we have one for each of us? You give one to your sister too.” The youth hesitantly took a beaded flower and handed it to Ning Cheng.
Ning Cheng pushed it away and said, “No need, this bead flower was originally a pair, so it’s better not to split it up. Moreover, I may never see my sister again in this lifetime. If the bead flower is kept on me, it will only add to my sadness, so just give it to your sister.”
This youth was not good with words and did not know how he should go about comforting Ning Cheng.
Ning Cheng smiled faintly, “Enough about the pearl flower, what did you say earlier that you knew about the competition between the five-star academies in the Hua Continent? And what do you mean by pulling out the top spot?”
When the youth saw Ning Cheng take the initiative to digress, he panted and hurriedly put away the bead flower and explained, “I heard that in order to raise the strength of the lower continents, the higher continents of the Yixing Continent decided to support a six-star academy up in the Huaxing Continent. This six-star academy will become the only six-star academy in the three lower continents. However, there are five five-star academies in the Hwa Continent, so it would be a question of which five-star academy to support to advance to a six-star academy.
For the sake of fairness, the people of the Higher Continent of the Yixing Continent decided to choose through a competition. All five five-star academies will send their most outstanding disciples to compete, and the academy with the most outstanding results will be supported to become a six-star academy, while the remaining four five-star academies will be at the disposal of the six-star academy.”
The youth scratched his head with some embarra*sment as he spoke, “All of this was told to me by my sister, and also by someone from the Brightheart Academy. In fact, for students recruited by the Brightheart Three Star Academy, there would also be a selection process, and only the most outstanding and core disciples could be chosen to go to the Huazhou Continent. After arriving at the Continent of Transformation, those five-star academies will continue to screen once more.”
“I understand, thank you.” Ning Cheng nodded, he finally understood what was going on, it looked like the three star academy that was selecting disciples was not the Ming Xin three star academy alone. Last time, the Meteoric Star Five Star Academy had deliberately come to select disciples, perhaps by selling favours to Lian Hao Yan, the number one expert in the Ping Continent, and then selecting some outstanding disciples away in advance.
The youth seemed to feel that the two questions he had answered were not enough to repay Ning Cheng for the bead flowers he had given him, so he added another sentence and said, “Big brother if you are here for the Ming Xin Academy selection, you need to go to Ming Pu Square on the outskirts of Ming Xin Academy to test your spiritual roots first before you are eligible to enter the academy inside. My sister and I will go for the test tomorrow, and in half a month’s time, the Ming Xin Academy’s official intake of students will begin.”
Ning Cheng thanked him one more time and prepared to leave to find a place to stay first.
However, the youth handed the handkerchief in his hand to Ning Cheng, “This portrait is yours, so I’ll return it to you.”
Ning Cheng cried and laughed as he pushed the handkerchief back, “I don’t need it, so I’ll leave you here, good luck to both your brother and sister, they will both be selected to enter the academy.”
He was someone who had been in love, so of course he would not be as thick-headed as this youth who casually asked for a woman’s handkerchief.
All the way until Ning Cheng walked out a good distance away, the youth was still murmuring in the same place, “This man is really a good person.”
Ning Cheng was not an indiscriminate good person, he saw a reflection of himself in this youth, which made him take the initiative to give up the two beaded flowers.
At this moment, Ning Cheng was instead looking for a place to stay in Nan Yuan City, he was going to go to Ming Pu Square after he found a place to stay and see if he could test his spiritual roots.
Ning Cheng knew very well that it was definitely not that simple to meet An Yi. An Yi was inside Ming Xin Academy, and without someone to take him, he would definitely not be able to enter Ming Xin Academy. If he wanted to see An Yi, he could only wait for the Ming Xin Academy to recruit students and go in to see if he could fish in troubled waters.
The inns in Nan Yuan City had long been filled up, but Ning Cheng still found a place to stay at a place far away from Ming Xin Academy and paid nearly ten times the price.
Finding a place to stay, Ning Cheng did not stay in the place where he was staying. He had many things to do this time in Southern Plains City apart from seeing Anyi. The main thing was of course the refining of the Seven Obsidian Ice Needles and the search for the True Condensation Pill.
Whether it was refining the Seven Obsidian Ice Needles or exchanging the Golden Cicada Fruit for the True Condensation Pill, Ning Cheng did not dare to be careless.
……
The Flying Swallow Pill Pavilion belonged to one of the three major pill shops in Southern Plains City. However, the location was relatively remote, at the edge of the northern city of Southern Plains City.
The Southern Plains City was now full of people, and even though the Flying Swallow Pill Pavilion was remote, there were still many cultivators coming and going.
Wearing a face-covering cultivator’s hat and carrying a black parcel, Ning Cheng walked into the Flying Swallow Pill Pavilion. In Southern Plains City, it was not uncommon to see people dressed like him.
Some people really did not want to be recognised by others, while others were deliberately pretending to be profound. To Ning Cheng, whichever it was, the more such people there were, the better, at least he didn’t look so out of place.
“I want a bottle of Qi Returning Spirit Liquid.”
“Give me a bottle of Little Returning Spirit Liquid.”
……
As soon as Ning Cheng entered, he heard all sorts of noisy voices. Most of them were requests for various spirit liquids, while some were for pills, and some were bargaining.
Compared to Cang Le City and Mango City, Nan Yuan City was considered more regulated, at least it did not call pills pills pills.
After listening for half a day, Ning Cheng already had a rough idea of some of the prices. A bottle of Returning Qi Spirit Liquid was ten Qi gathering stones, which could only restore part of a cultivator’s True Qi at the early stage of Qi gathering. The Little Returning Spirit Liquid was a spirit liquid for healing injuries, and the price was also ten Qi gathering stones, which could also only heal some ordinary injuries.
As for the spirit liquid that was a little more effective, the price was skyrocketing. Ning Cheng walked towards a fellow who had just finished working and asked, “May I ask if there are any higher grade elixirs for sale here?”
Ning Cheng was very careful, he had seen that most of the pills for sale here were spirit liquids and pills, and he already had some doubts about whether he could purchase a True Condensation Pill in Southern Plains City.
“Advanced pills? What kind of pills do you want? A Qi Returning Pill? Revive Spring Dan? Restoration of Truth Pill?” The fellow instead stared at Ning Cheng and asked. After asking, he then said with extreme pride, “Pills that our Flying Swallow Pill Pavilion cannot purchase, you cannot purchase them even in the rest of Southern Plains City. Of course, if you purchase a high grade elixir like the Restoration of Truth Pill, you will need proof of identity, otherwise it will not be sold.”
The Restoring Truth Pill was only a pill to restore the true essence of an early stage Condensing Truth cultivator, and even this kind of pill required proof, then wouldn’t a somewhat more precious pill like the Condensing Truth Pill be even more difficult to buy? Ning Cheng had now figured out that in a place like Southern Plains City, it was not possible to buy pills just by having spirit stones and spirit herbs, so it was fortunate that he had not taken any chances.
He said in a slightly exaggerated manner, “According to this statement of yours, wouldn’t I have to bring in my family tree to buy a True Condensation Pill and a Yuan Building Pill?”
The surrounding cultivators all laughed loudly when they heard Ning Cheng’s funny remark.
The fellow, however, did not care and said, “You should all be foreign cultivators, and many of you do not understand the rules of my Southern Plains City. The pills in my Southern Plains City are not easy to come by, so of course they should be sold in real terms. I won’t say anything about such elixirs as the True Condensation Pill, even our Flying Swallow Pill Pavilion doesn’t sell them, and as for the Yuan Building Pill, I’m afraid you can’t even buy it in the whole Ping Continent.”
“According to you, if I found a bunch of Golden Cicada Fruits, I wouldn’t be able to get a True Condensation Pill just the same?” Someone hemmed and hawed and helpfully asked the sentence that Ning Cheng wanted to ask the most.
The mate still said unhurriedly, “If you can really get the Golden Cicada Fruits, you don’t have to worry about the True Condensation Pill. With our Dan Pavilion pulling the strings, the dan masters from Ming Xin Academy and Ming Yi True Kingdom will definitely help refine the pills. Of course, the payment for the alchemy of pills would be nothing less.”