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Chapter 24: An Unexpected Reward

Translator: Minotauruz

Jun Xiaomo did expect that her stroll around the Sect’s premises would result in an additional wager. With that, she now had a total of two wagers with others.

One wager was with her mother – if she was able to attain the ninth level of Qi Mastery before she was nineteen years of age, then she would think of a way to rescind the marriage arrangement with Qin Lingyu, and her parents cannot stand in her way. That said, her mother did not expressly agree to this wager, and had left it to Jun Xiaomo’s father to decide whether to accept the wager proposed by Jun Xiaomo.

At the same time, Jun Xiaomo knew that her father has never had a good impression of Qin Lingyu. Therefore, she was ninety percent confident that she would be able to convince her father to agree to this wager.

The second wager was the one she had locked in today – if she beat Dai Yue at the upcoming Mid-Tier Inter-Sect Competition in two years’ time, then Dai Yue would have to agree to one condition of hers, no matter what it was. Conversely, if she lost to Dai Yue, she would have to agree to one of Dai Yue’s condition instead.

“These two wagers are both related to my strength and prowess too.” Jun Xiaomo sighed. Surprisingly, Jun Xiaomo was not worried about these wagers; she was instead filled with determination and fighting spirit. The despondence which Jun Xiaomo had left home with had now completely dissipated, and in its place was now a willpower to overcome all odds. Adversity is the best motivation – Jun Xiaomo was absolutely clear of this. Therefore, even if she ended up losing both wagers, she would not regret it one bit.

That was because she knew that she would not continue to fail.

Having thoroughly contemplated these matters, Jun Xiaomo mentally shelved them for the moment, and consumed the two recovery medicinal pills given to her by Yu Zhuolian.

These two recovery medicinal pills given to her by Yu Zhuolian were exactly the same as the one given to her by Yu Zhuolian at the start, and these pills could swiftly heal all of the injuries sustained by Jun Xiaomo. Because Jun Xiaomo had not thoroughly pursued the matter with Dai Yue, and Qiu Laifeng and Dai Yue were Yu Zhuolian’s guests to begin with, therefore Yu Zhuolian felt guilty and responsible for indirectly contributing to Jun Xiaomo’s injuries.

As a result, Yu Zhuolian gave Jun Xiaomo two fourth-grade superior recovery medicinal pills which bore quick results and carried no side effects.

Jun Xiaomo did not stand on ceremony either. She graciously accepted these two medicinal pills after thanking Yu Zhuolian. It was a fact that Yu Zhuolian had invited that troublemaking mother-daughter duo over. Furthermore, Yu Zhuolian had not blown up this incident because she had expected her guests to mitigate the situation out of respect to her. However, not only did her guests ignore her good intentions, they even reacted in such an unruly manner as though they were the ones who had been disgraced and humiliated.

Therefore, since Yu Zhuolian wished to compensate Jun Xiaomo using these three recovery medicinal pills, she graciously accepted them.

Besides, the current Jun Xiaomo needed to recover as soon as possible. The amount of time she had for cultivation was invaluable, and she absolutely could not afford to waste any time lying in bed in recovery.

The fourth-grade superior recovery medicinal pills were truly effective. These two medicinal pills not only fully healed Jun Xiaomo from Dai Yue’s attack, it even fully healed all of the lasting injuries incurred by Jun Xiaomo when she crippled her own cultivation.

At this moment, Jun Xiaomo felt as though she had been thoroughly renewed. All the pain and weariness accompanying her injuries had dissipated, and she was instead rejuvenated with such vigor that she could practically cultivate for the next three days and nights without any rest.

Of course, this were but a fleeting thought. Jun Xiaomo was well aware of the concept of striking a balance between work and rest; and cultivating too hard could be counterproductive. In the pursuit of strength, one must always maintain a clarity of mind and act according to one’s means. Otherwise, the consequences can be unimaginably dire.

Once Jun Xiaomo had ascertained that all of her injuries had been fully healed, and her meridians and Dantian were also unaffected, Jun Xiaomo once again began to meditate, persevering in her pursuit to transform the rest of her true energy to spiritual energy and dispersing them to form the outer cycle.

“Eh? That’s strange.” Jun Xiaomo did a double take when she felt that the rate in which true energy was being transformed back to spiritual energy had seemed to increase.

Suppressing the joy in her heart, Jun Xiaomo roused from her meditative state, and looked at the sky outside while she calculated the time.

After determining what time it was, Jun Xiaomo once again entered her meditative state, cultivating her refinement technique wholeheartedly.

Two hours...four hours...six hours...

As a whole night passed, Jun Xiaomo finally opened her eyes, and one would be able to tell that her eyes were now gleaming with joy.

The true energy transformation speed had indeed increased! In the same amount of time, she only managed to transform less than one-thousandth of all her true energy, while today she managed to transform three-thousandth of the same!

Even though three-thousandth were still miniscule, this did not discourage Jun Xiaomo at all. So long as it were possible to increase the rate of transforming true energy, then eventually she would be able to discover the key to such an increase and adjust her own cultivation speed!

Elated, Jun Xiaomo adjusted her emotions and composed herself, before carefully considering the potential factors which might have caused such an increase in true energy transformation speeds.

“The cause...the cause... That’s it! The only thing that can be considered out of the ordinary would be my encounter with Dai Yue. During this encounter, Dai Yue struck me once, and I consumed some recovery medicinal pills given by Yu Zhuolian.”

Jun Xiaomo knitted her brows while thinking aloud, “Which is it that caused the increase? Was it that strike from Dai Yue; or the recovery medicinal pills?”

As she contemplated the possibility of the former causing an increase in her true energy transformation speed, which in turn translated to a constant need to get hurt, Jun Xiaomo’s body involuntarily tensed up slightly. Wouldn’t this be a form of self-abuse then?

At this moment, Jun Xiaomo recalled to mind the fact that Nineform Spirituo-Demonic Refinement Technique’s first requirement was the crippling of one’s own cultivations. If now it also required people to beat her up in order to increase her Qi Mastery levels, then would it not be more appropriate to call this the “Nineform Spirituo-Demonic Self-Abuse Technique”?

Jun Xiaomo smacked herself on the forehead and abandoned this line of thinking. Then, she considered the other possibility – recovery medicinal pills.

Truth be told, Jun Xiaomo had hoped that it was not recovery medicinal pills which had increased the speed of true energy transformation. From Jun Xiaomo’s experience, it was never a good thing to increase one’s cultivation through the aid of medication. Not only would this develop a form of reliance, such cultivation methods always improved only the form, not the substance. Worse, these medicine-reliant cultivators would invariably find their cultivation progress plateauing after a certain stage.

This was the importance of laying a good foundation for cultivation. The firmer the foundation, the stronger the cultivation base, and the smoother the cultivation path ahead.

Therefore, Jun Xiaomo would very much prefer to rely solely on her own diligence.

Forget it. These are mere conjecture. I need to put these theories to test instead... Jun Xiaomo thought inquisitively.

But, those two fourth-grade superior recovery medicinal pills had already been consumed by her, and she would need to acquire more if she wished to put her theory to the test. And these medicinal pills were not cheap like cabbage to begin with.

Jun Xiaomo was truly distressed at this moment.

She rubbed her temple, deliberating whether she had to ask her mother for one more of these pills...

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Liu Qingmei discovered that Jun Xiaomo had really changed. In the past, her daughter would practice cultivation not of her own volition. After all, sixteen years-old ladies were all quite playful and outgoing. Therefore, Liu Qingmei and Jun Linxuan would always have to compel Jun Xiaomo to practice cultivation by laying down rules and regulations for her.

Furthermore, apart from the time spent cultivating, her daughter would spend most of her time around Qin Lingyu unless Qin Lingyu were not at the Sect.

But the present Jun Xiaomo was like a completely different person. Not only had she stopped obsessing over Qin Lingyu, she was even diligently practicing cultivation without any prompting from her parents!

To a certain extent, Jun Xiaomo even seemed to have achieved too much self-actualization.

Look! She’d only just finished her dinner, but she’s already run back to her own room to practice her cultivation! Liu Qingmei shook her head in exasperation. Her heart was both satisfied and a little bit upset at this moment.

Is she’s doing this because she cannot accept the reality that her cultivation had fallen to the first level of Qi Mastery? Liu Qingmei thought further, deeply fretting the possibility of what she had just contemplated.