Ming Jiu laughed a merry laugh, regarding Le Fang Lin with scrutiny. "No need to be so reserved," he said with a chuckle. "I'm great at helping," he insisted.

Le Fang Lin remained silent. "Well," she said, eying this senior brother of hers. "If you don't mind me imposing," She gave a customary bow. "I'd like to trouble senior with a few question," she said, raising her head.

She would not turn away the help that practically came knocking at her door. That would be foolish.

***

"Wait, you have a wind spiritual root, too?" Ming Jiu said, taken aback, after hearing Le Fang Lin's concerns.

Le Fang Ling felt awkward at his reaction. "Well, yes, technically," she said, trying to avoid giving a direct answer. She wanted to keep the fact that she had a five elements spiritual root a secret. It would indirectly announce how slow her pace of cultivation would be in the future. It would take her years to masters all five elements.

Since she'd decided to cultivate one type of root at a time, wind had been her first choice, considering that the Vermilion peak had suitable spiritual energy and profound qi for wind based cultivation.historical

There was also a sacred treasure buried six foot under the ground.

"And you want to visit the town for required artifacts?" A doubtful voice called her back from the awkwardness. He must've assumed that she'd come here with the necessary essentials. "And you want me to recommend you some books before you go do that?"

Considering Le Fang Lin was basically an elite from a Noble family, it was a given that she'd have everything provided.

"I came here without a plan," she hurriedly said, trying to justify her lack of basic necessities. "Also, Grandmaster Lan appeared unannounced, bringing me here .. Not that I'm complaining, but I definitely need to get myself the weapons and artifacts." She balled up her hands, tight. "I would also like to take my time learning about this place," she said, slowly releasing her tension.

Her father was coming, which meant her good for nothing brother would too. She knew Le Zuan was coming to check on her, not for the tournament. It must be a ruse, just so he could visit.

She could still hear Lilith saying, Do not trust that guy, no matter what! A warning, before she'd left the dimension.

"Why would you need a sword, this early?" Ming Jiu inquired. "From what I saw this morning, you were good at close combat, and your qi manipulation was also exceptional." He looked at Le Fang Ling with admiration.

Following the instructions from Elder Lin, he had rewound his memory and tried to see why Le fang Ling won the match despite being considerably weaker than Song yang.

The reason was quite simple.

Going back in to the basic that most of the people tended to forget after learning big ass techniques and martial arts.

The invisible shield of qi around her body was strong enough to absorb the impact of the sword and even repel the sharp thrust of the sword from Song Yang.

She was heavily disadvantaged considering she was doing hand to hand close combat while Song Yang had upper hand in both close and long ranged attack.

It was bound to weaken, deplete and disappear with time but weirdly, Le Fang Ling did not only deplete her qi but was able to keep it consistent without fluctuating a bit.

It was something even he himself could not do.

In his eye, she had already become a prodigy that was a natural born genius at qi handling and manipulation.

It was her consistency that he was worshipping.

Le Fang Lin rubbed the back of her neck. "I know I'm good, but it is pretty average." She'd practiced by rote, for two days and nights, of course she was good at it. If she'd failed at even this, she'd be an utter failure of a cultivator.

But as of now, she had yet to cultivate with yin-based spiritual energy. Although cultivating at night helped her a lot to strengthen her yin essence, that was still less as compared to the amount of yang essence she absorbed.

She had to thank An Cheng for showing her the cave at the back of the sect that had the pebble sized spirit stones.

The qi she absorbed form them only contributed to 0.1% of her total qi absorbed but, it was still better than having nothing at all.

Big or small, a spiritual stone was still important.

It would have been a different case if she was to use the big treasure hiding underneath but well, she was not bold and foolish enough to think about doing something as scandalous as stealing it for her personal use.

She did not want to break the trust that AN Cheng had kept in her when she showed her that.

"I have no much experience in using swords so, I need to get one as soon as possible if I do not want to stay behind the other people," she looked at Ming Jiu with eyes full of determination.

"Sister, you are new at all of this and the fact that you have such a precise and sharpened control over qi is a great achievement in itself," Ming Jiu shook his head and sighed.

'Exactly, that's the only thing I can do and it is not enough!' Le Fang Ling wanted to shout in his ear but controlled herself.

"You do you, junior sister. All I can say isyou should not push yourself too much." Ming Jiu shrugged his shoulder as he advised her. That was all he could do after all.

"I will try not to do anything that disappoints the people who are invested in me." Le fang Ling promised.

"Hmm," Ming Jiu handed her the scrolls that he was holding for her and nodded his head solemnly.

With a bow she bade farewell to Ming Jiu who went to the higher levels of the library while she headed towards the Elder of the Library to get permission to leave the sect for a few hours so that she could visit the town at the feet of mountain.

"That was one long talk," Nagina's voice echoed in her head, who was patiently waiting for her to return by the entrance of the sect gate.

"Haha, sorry. I am almost done here." Le fang ling gave an apologetic laughter as she answered the voice.

"I will get to you soon after I am done getting these books and of course the permit." She hurried towards the front desk where an old man with a long white beard was reading a scroll while softly stroking his long beard as if it was a given for him to do so.

'Looks shiny,' she wondered if the continuous stroking for decades was the secret to the healthy hair on his chin.

.

"Alright, make it soon." Nagina cut off their connection as she felt the piercing and hungry gazes of the gate keepers at the entrance.

'Defense -10'

She was once again enlightened with the fact why her defense was -10.