I have a high-risk profession in the cultivation world.

Mu Yunqiu tenderly wiped the sweat from her daughter's cheeks and fed her two pills.

Xiaoyan is good in every way, but sometimes she is too strong-willed and pushes herself too hard.

When Lin Muyan was a little dumpling, she awakened a wood spirit root that was not good at killing. At first, the teacher taught her some healing methods. She could never beat other children her age, so she begged the teacher in the valley to teach her every day. She insisted on becoming a wood-type cultivator who focused on attack.

At such a young age, calluses had already formed on her palms. While others would relax with friends after their classes or pester their mothers to play, Lin Muyan never did.

……

"The champion will be decided in a few days, right?" Chu Chenmu asked casually when Luo Suichen returned to his room that evening.

Luo Suichen nodded, sat down on the low couch, applied medicine to his wound, and replied, "Yes, the top 20 have been selected today, and I estimate there will be at most four or five more days."

Chu Chenmu nodded and walked to the low couch. He skillfully took the medicine bottle from Luo Suichen's hand and applied medicine to the wound on his shoulder.

"Why isn't it healed yet?" This wound was left four days ago during Luo Suichen's group stage match. At that time, the two of them were covered in countless wounds, and it was hard to say who was more disheveled. Chu Chenmu felt extremely distressed and wished he could rush onto the stage and take Luo Suichen's place.

Today, only two wounds remain on Luo Suichen's shoulder and arm. Seeing that Luo Suichen was having difficulty applying the medicine, Chu Chenmu helped him with the wounds on his back for the past few days.

Receiving his master's concern again, Luo Suichen smiled contentedly. Actually, he was almost fully recovered and it no longer affected his movements. If he were to properly nourish himself with wood elemental power, he would be lively and energetic tomorrow. However, he liked being taken care of by his master, so he let his wound heal slowly, since it wouldn't matter anyway.

"It's almost healed, it doesn't hurt anymore, Master, look—" Luo Suichen said, raising his arm to wave it. Chu Chenmu grabbed Luo Suichen's wrist. This kid, the wound is still so long, how could it not hurt? He must just be enduring it so as not to worry him.

"Stop fooling around." Chu Chenmu glared at Luo Suichen, who was really a handful.

Despite being scolded, Luo Suichen laughed even harder, looking up at his master with some pride as he recounted the rumors he'd heard outside that day: "Master, the results were released today, and quite a few people are saying that A-Chen is the dark horse of this year's Spiritual Cultivation Alliance!"

“Ah Chen didn’t embarrass you.”

Chu Chenmu smiled faintly and shook his head helplessly. Who would praise themselves as a dark horse? However, even he did not expect Luo Suichen to have reached this point. The person he fought four days ago was not an exaggeration to say that he had the potential to win the championship, but Luo Suichen actually won.

"Master, there is something else that is quite strange."

Chu Chenmu cast a curious glance at him.

"I haven't seen some of the people who lost the competition a while ago. It feels like there aren't as many people in Echo Valley as there were at the beginning."

Chu Chenmu rarely went out, only going to the scene when his three disciples had competitions. He didn't notice these things and didn't take them to heart. "Perhaps everyone from some sects had already finished their competitions and left for other matters."

Luo Suichen nodded and remained silent, still holding back something else on his mind.

The disciples of Wuji Sect all live together, so they must have contact with each other regularly. Eight days ago, he passed by the corridor and unintentionally smelled the same scent he had encountered at the inn on the way to the far north.

No disciples from other sects would pass through that corridor, so the smell must have come from a disciple of that sect.

He had only returned to his room at night for the past few days. After searching secretly for several days, he focused his attention on the outer disciples accompanying Wanjun Peak and asked them indirectly. Today, he received the accurate answer.

That familiar smell was the scent of spiritual soil and nutrient solution mixed together in the spiritual plant garden of Wanjun Peak. Disciples who worked there for a long time would get it on their bodies.

Wanjun Peak Spirit Plant Garden... If he remembered correctly, in his previous life, this spirit plant garden was managed by the current acting sect leader, Li Chenglin.

But what were Li Chenglin's intentions in sending people to follow Chu Chenmu?

He asked casually, "Master, what kind of person do you think Uncle Li Chenglin is?"

Chu Chenmu found it strange. Luo Suichen was not one to gossip, so why was he asking about his uncles and aunts today?

"My senior uncle treated me very well. When he came to visit me when I was young, he would always bring me some novel things and he was never harsh on me." He quickly recalled the things about Li Chenglin from the original owner's memories and answered Luo Suichen.

In the original owner's memory, every time Uncle-Master Li Chenglin visited him, he would bring the most fashionable things among his peers down the mountain, and he would always advise his master not to be too strict, so that the original owner could relax a bit.

Luo Suichen was even more puzzled upon hearing this. Strange, could it be that he was really afraid that Chu Chenmu would encounter danger while traveling abroad?

He didn't get the information he wanted from Chu Chenmu's words, but he could roughly deduce that the two had a good relationship. After thinking about it, he decided not to tell Chu Chenmu about it. If it aroused suspicion, it would only worsen the relationship between Chu Chenmu and Li Chenglin. Now that Li Chenglin was the acting sect leader, it was better to avoid trouble.

He really didn't trust his master's shrewdness. He was afraid that as soon as he spoke, Chu Chenmu would fly to Li Chenglin and ask for an explanation.

If Li Chenglin is petty, it's hard to guarantee he won't cause trouble for Chu Chenmu.

……

No one in this spiritual cultivation alliance has been more successful than Chu Chenmu. Of his three direct disciples, one, who was only at the early stage of the Golden Core realm, successfully advanced from the arena battle and even entered the top 100; his two Foundation Establishment disciples, Su Chengdian and Luo Suichen, ranked seventh and ninth respectively.

Besides these, the most eye-catching are the Buddhist disciples of the Brahma Sound Pavilion.

The Buddhist disciple appeared with his face covered by a curtain, and throughout the entire competition, no one was able to break through the curtain to allow everyone to see his true face. He entered the top 20 of the Golden Core stage with almost no suspense, but then announced his withdrawal from the competition and has not been seen for the past few days.

Su Chengdian had already cried out in everyone's ears several times. He hadn't expected that the Golden Core advancement Huaisu mentioned a few days ago was such a strong one. He had thought that, like his senior sister, it was something that had just been achieved not long ago.

Chu Chenmu spent the whole day holding the brocade used to announce the rankings, looking at it with great delight.

Strangely enough, he hadn't heard Yan Jian'an's name mentioned in the competitions these past few days. It seemed he had really been brought in as a substitute, and hadn't even had a chance to participate.

This year's Spiritual Cultivation Alliance is a bit strange. According to previous years, if all the competitions are over today, the next day is usually the day to return home, and some sects have even left today. But this year, a banquet was held. It is said that the Valley Master of Echo Valley accidentally obtained some thousand-year-old spiritual tea and wanted to share it with all the sects.