Although the little apprentice sister is weak, she can fight

As Li Jianshan spoke, he stood up straight with his hands behind his back, looking condescending.

He entered the sect a year earlier than Shen Qiao, and his current realm is just the early stage of the Forget Dust Realm. After four years of Forget Dust, his aptitude is considered average.

Anyway, it's better than Shen Qiao, who only learned it in three years.

"According to the rules of the Tianxing Sect, outer disciples who place last in the annual assessment for two consecutive years will be expelled from the sect. I remember you placed last last year, right?"

Oh, she almost forgot, when she was fighting with Zhu Yu, the guy in front of her had accepted a bounty mission and went out, so he was not there.

It looks like he just came back?

"It's okay, Senior Brother Li. I still have one chance, so I won't be kicked out."

Li Jianshan frowned and looked at Shen Qiao, and continued to advise her earnestly.

"Junior sister, your talent is mediocre. I can't bear to see all your hard work go to waste, so I'm giving you a way out. Don't miss the opportunity and get kicked out. Then I, your senior brother, will be unable to help you."

At this point, Li Jianshan took another step closer, deliberately bending down to look at her pale little face. "Besides, our spiritual roots are compatible. As long as you agree to this, it will be beneficial to both of us, isn't it?"

Now that there was no one around, Li Jianshan became even more presumptuous, especially when he saw Shen Qiao didn't dodge or evade, he thought she was really shaken.

He sneered in his heart. In fact, dual cultivation was just a cover. When he had enough fun with her, he would just give her some spirit stones and let her fend for herself. If she was obedient, perhaps he would be merciful and send someone to take her home, and keep her in his house as a plaything.

After all, although this little loser's cultivation is average, she is really pretty and charming, especially this sickly body, which makes people feel pity for her unconsciously. It is really not his style to just let her go.

"Brother Li said something wrong."

Li Jianshan came back to his senses from his fantasy and was looking at Shen Qiao's half-smile.

Puzzled, he lowered his head as Shen Qiao gestured, only to find that he had been "stuck" to the spot by a piece of ice crystal without him knowing when.

The biting cold quickly spread up along his ankles, and it seemed that he was about to freeze him into an ice sculpture.

Li Jianshan was visibly panicking. He struggled to pull his legs out while yelling, but because of his excessive struggle, he fell face down into the mud. "Junior sister...Junior sister, save me!!"

Shen Qiao rubbed the ice crystals on his fingers, ignoring his pleading hand. "If I were mediocre, how could I have allowed my senior brother to be in such a state of disgrace?"

Li Jianshan was shivering from the cold. The sun was shining brightly, but he was shivering all over. His wrinkled face had turned pale from the cold, and he couldn't even speak clearly.

"I see that I only call you senior brother because you are over fifty years old, but it is wrong for you to take advantage of your age." Shen Qiao slowly squatted down, still with an innocent look on his face.

"I remember... Master Chef seems to be coming to the medicine garden tonight to cool down the ice grass. Why don't you help me stay here? After all, Senior Brother can't leave, right?"

Li Jianshan raised his head tremblingly, looking so scared that he wanted to cry but couldn't. Unfortunately, before he could beg for mercy, he was completely frozen in the ice and fell to the ground.

This temperature won't kill Li Jianshan, but if he wants to run wild again in the future, I'm afraid he won't be able to do it.

Shen Qiao clapped his hands and stood up. "Take a good rest, Senior Brother Li. I have something else to do, so I won't stay here to watch the show."

Li Jianshan saw that Shen Qiao really left as he said, and his eyes completely changed from panic to fear.

However, this thin layer of ice actually froze his spiritual veins, making him unable to use even a trace of spiritual power. He could only remain in the same place with his face on the ground and watched Shen Qiao gradually walk away.

It was already evening when Shen Qiao returned from the medicine garden. He went to register the tasks completed today. As soon as he arrived at the outer disciples' residence, he saw a woman standing at the gate.

Shen Qiao had met this person once. She was Senior Sister Wang who was now in a relationship with Li Jianshan.

It has been three or four years since this person was selected into the sect. Now, his realm is still stuck at the Great Perfection of the Out-of-Body Realm, just like Shen Qiao. I heard that he has been at the bottom once. No wonder he fell into Li Jianshan's trap.

Wang Yu'an saw Shen Qiao coming back from a distance, and hurried over to ask anxiously,

"Junior Sister Shen, did you just come back from the medicine garden? I...I have something I want to ask you."

Shen Qiao nodded, "That's what Senior Sister said."

"Have you met...Brother Li?"

really.

Shen Qiao seemed to sigh, "I saw it. Is that all you wanted to ask, Senior Sister?"

Wang Yu'an counted on her fingers nervously. She and Shen Qiao didn't really have much friendship. When she saw Shen Qiao ranked last in the assessment, she even felt lucky.

Now that Shen Qiao defeated Zhu Yu with a sword, she always felt inferior to Shen Qiao every time she saw him, and felt awkward and uncomfortable all over.

"Nothing... nothing, thank you." After saying this hurriedly, Wang Yu'an turned around and wanted to leave.

She didn't dare ask any more questions, for fear that this appearance would make Shen Qiao look down on her even more.

"Sister, aren't you going to ask what Senior Brother Li said?"

Wang Yu'an paused at this, and clenched his fingers nervously. After he had calmed down, he turned around and looked at Shen Qiao again, "Junior Sister, what do you mean by this?"

Shen Qiao looked at Wang Yu'an's expression and thought she must know what kind of person Li Jianshan was. "Nothing, I just think that Senior Sister shouldn't waste her prime years on a despicable person."

Wang Yu'an felt as if a heavy weight had finally fallen from his heart. "I don't understand what Junior Sister means."

Shen Qiao looked at her evasive gaze and said, "So-called dual cultivation can indeed increase one's power, but that only applies when both parties are at the same realm. If there is a gap between their realms, dual cultivation will not achieve the purpose of 'increasing one's power'."

"You're talking nonsense!" Wang Yu'an seemed to be a little defensive. She looked at Shen Qiao with her watery eyes full of resistance.

Shen Qiao did not rush to refute, but just looked at Wang Yu'an indifferently.

"You lied... Senior Brother Li... He didn't say that..."

His voice became increasingly hoarse, and the last few words were drowned out by sobs.

"As long as...as long as I can break through the realm, I won't be driven down the mountain...I can't be driven out like this...My family...My family is still waiting for me..." Wang Yu'an spoke incoherently until his throat was torn and he could no longer speak.

Her family was poor, and their families had been farmers working for the rich for generations. They finally had a monk with potential like her, and the whole family was counting on her to help them rise to prominence, so that at least they wouldn't have to live under the yoke of others.

In order to support her practice, the family spent almost all of their savings on her. Her parents would send her letters every month to ask about her situation, and their earnest expectations for her were evident between the lines.

Such expectations made her dare not relax at all, but even if she practiced day and night and studied all the time, she still could not break through the bottleneck.

She didn't dare to think about her parents' disappointed eyes. The pressure almost crushed her.

There is still half a year left before the year-end assessment. She can't wait, she really can't wait!