Chapter 100: Is It Reasonable for Me, the Grandmaster?
Ye Ling could hear the commotion outside clearly, yet he remained completely unperturbed.
Those cultivators had indeed started fighting, but there was no real killing intent. At most, it was still at the stage of "roughing each other up."
If they had truly unleashed lethal moves, he wouldn't have dared to sit there any longer. Getting caught in the crossfire for no reason would have been a ridiculous way to get injured.
In the end, he simply wanted to see what kind of people this world had—to find out whether saving them earlier had been worth it.
In fact, the moment he sat down, his realm had already advanced on its own, smooth and unstoppable. What remained for him now was to stabilize his cultivation.
If things truly turned urgent, he could step in at any time.
Entrusting his life entirely to Leng Qingqiu would be far too carefree.
After all, he carried the Nine Heavens Jade Pendant. That thing was practically a disaster magnet.
It wasn't that he underestimated Leng Qingqiu. It was just that even he found the calamities drawn by the Nine Heavens Jade Pendant hard to handle. Expecting her to shoulder that would be unreasonable.
In that sense, the people outside were effectively taking the blows for him.
When he sensed Elder Wang and the others arriving, he relaxed further and focused on consolidating his cultivation.
At the same time, he began examining his newly obtained weapon—the Examiner's Judgement Brush.
[Mission Complete]
[Mission Reward: Examiner's Judgement Brush (High-Grade Spirit Artifact)]
As he activated a Calming Mind Talisman, the gratitude from those around him directly fulfilled the System's assigned mission.
[Examiner's Judgement Brush (High-Grade Spirit Artifact)]
[Description: With a three-inch brush tip, judge a seven-foot man!]
[Ability ①: Examination — Set a test based on the enemy's area of expertise. Those who pass suffer no consequence. Those who fail must withstand the host's full-power strike.]
[Ability ②: Master's Authority — Before answering the question, the enemy may not attack the host. Likewise, the host may not attack the enemy.]
[Note: A causality-based weapon that ignores the enemy's cultivation level (limited to the Cultivation World).]
After fully understanding the abilities of the Examiner's Judgement Brush, Ye Ling nearly leapt to his feet in excitement.
This was a one-versus-many divine tool.
And it was only classified as a Spirit Artifact? That was seriously underselling it.
Then again, thinking of divine items like the Heavenly Fate Eye · Fragment, he felt it was only natural. Anything produced by the System was bound to be powerful.
If he had possessed the Examiner's Judgement Brush earlier, he could have used Examination on You. Under the rules of causality, You would have been forced to finish the questions before being able to continue attacking.
True, the drawback was that the questions had to be drawn from the opponent's area of expertise. But as long as he made the test long enough, the other party would be trapped in an endless sea of questions.
And Master's Authority only restricted him from attacking during the process. It never said others couldn't.
In other words, he could initiate Examination, lock the enemy in place, and then let his teammates bombard them freely.
The combination was flawless.
On top of that, the Examiner's Judgement Brush reduced his consumption of True Qi and Mental Force by twenty-five percent. It suited Ye Ling perfectly.
New equipment deserved to be shown off.
With that thought, Ye Ling prepared to rise and deal properly with that shameless woman.
It wasn't just about venting anger for Leng Qingqiu and the others. More than anything, he genuinely couldn't stand it.
How could someone so brainless hold office?
In his previous life, he had seen plenty of fools like that climb to positions of power. Even so, encountering one in person still made his stomach turn.
Just as Ye Ling was about to withdraw from his meditative state, a voice stopped him.
"Grand-disciple… no, that makes me sound old."
"You brat… tch, that still feels old."
"Forget it. I'll take the loss and just call you Ye Ling."
The voice of the Nine Heavens Immortal Maiden's avatar echoed through Ye Ling's sea of consciousness.
"Grandmaster, what instructions do you have?"
Ye Ling jolted.
Five minutes… no, two Jade Pendants counted as ten minutes for her. But even ten minutes had long since passed.
Why could she still appear?
"You're wondering why I can still come out, aren't you?"
"…"
"Silence means yes."
"Grandmaster, please stop messing with me."
"You're carrying the Jade Pendant so close to your body. I'm not so useless that I can't even send out a sliver of divine sense."
"…Alright. I'll accept that explanation."
"Relax. I won't be able to come out again for at least twelve hours."
"Phew…"
"But don't relax too much, because—"
The avatar paused, then added in a faintly sinister tone,
"I can actually come out on my own."
"…"
"Don't go quiet on me. Fine, fine, I won't scare you anymore."
Perhaps she had been silent for too long. There was a hint of excitement in her voice, though it also carried a trace of something nostalgic.
"Grandmaster, if you have instructions, just say them. If not, I still have matters to handle outside."
At this point, the conflict beyond was practically Ye Ling's excuse.
For some reason, both physically and mentally, he instinctively avoided provoking the Nine Heavens Immortal Maiden—even if she was only an avatar.
In his spiritual perception, she felt like his natural nemesis, perfectly countering him.
The worst part was, if she were an enemy, he could at least muster the will to fight and use that resolve to suppress his fear.
The best way to overcome fear was to face it.
But this person… was his Grandmaster.
To be fair, the reason he could live so freely now was because of her—indirectly, perhaps, but still.
Without her, there would be no Heavenly Gate, and certainly no Bai Yiyi and the others. Basic respect was only proper.
"Outside? Just a bunch of small fry. Why bother with them?"
Even so, the avatar shifted to the real topic.
"First, you must not tell Yiyi and the others about my existence."
"Understood?"
"Understood! Completely understood!"
So Grandmaster had been watching over Master and the others all these years.
Ye Ling let out a quiet sigh of relief. Fortunately, he had always conducted himself like a proper gentleman and never done anything outrageous.
"Second, don't carry the Jade Pendant with you when you go out."
"…"
"You're still too weak. You can't handle the calamities brought on by my fate."
"???"
"Oh? You didn't know?"
There was a trace of playful amusement in her voice.
"I was born under a baleful star. Even if I don't go looking for trouble, trouble comes looking for me. Even as an avatar, I still carry that destiny."
"You're not like my other disciples. They have the strength to deal with it. You don't. So don't take the Jade Pendant with you when you go out. Otherwise, you're likely to run into disasters you can't handle."
Ye Ling was stunned.
So that was why the Nine Heavens Jade Pendant attracted calamity?
And listening to her description, he increasingly felt that the Nine Heavens Immortal Maiden was the real Long Aotian… no, Long Jiaotian.
Wasn't that how protagonists were supposed to be?
Drink tea and end up in a fight. Go for a foot soak and end up in a fight. No matter where they went, chaos followed.
He had thought he was the protagonist.
Turns out, Master, you're the real one.
My respects.
Ye Ling immediately understood and hurriedly said, "I understand. I'll leave the Jade Pendant with Master and the others from now on."
"You're just going to believe me like that?"
The avatar sounded almost disappointed.
"I even prepared a bunch of examples to prove it."
"…"
It seemed Grandmaster really had been silent for far too long. She was itching to talk.
Ye Ling was speechless and chose to pretend he hadn't heard.
"Sigh… If you don't want to hear them, then forget it."
The avatar seemed to realize she was rambling. After a brief pause, she continued,
"Lastly, remember this. I'm giving you ten years to ascend to the Immortal Realm and come find me."
"Grandmaster, you really think highly of me."
Ye Ling's face fell.
Ten years to become an immortal?
Grandmaster, are you messing with me?
"With your talent, ten years is more than enough. You might not even need that long."
The avatar showed no intention of letting up.
"And not just you. You're bringing your Masters with you when you ascend. If you're late—"
"Uh…"
"Then don't bother coming up."
"…"
"Don't think I'm pressuring you. Pressure creates motivation."
She seemed to recall something and added,
"I've let them play around in the Lower Realm for more than a decade. It's about time they came up so I can have some fun."
"With their talent, if they had focused on cultivation, they would have come up long ago."
If those words were spoken in public, they would probably shake the entire Cultivation World.
It seemed Bai Yiyi's habit of making bold claims really did come from this person.
Ye Ling braced himself and tried one last struggle.
"I'll certainly do my best, but Master and the others…"
"Relax. I've calculated it. They'll ascend together with you."
"…"
Suddenly, a thought flashed through his mind.
"By the way, Grandmaster… I remember hearing that it took you several thousand years to cultivate to immortality, right?"
Under the weight of the pressure, he recalled what Ai Yueli had once said about the Nine Heavens Immortal Maiden.
"Master has dominated the Cultivation World for thousands of years…"
In other words, if even the Nine Heavens Immortal Maiden had cultivated for millennia, what was wrong with him taking his time in the Lower Realm?
"Oh? That?"
The avatar was completely unruffled.
"Yueli told you that, didn't she?"
"Yes."
"But she didn't tell you that I had already become immortal long before that."
"???"
"In truth, I became immortal after only a few years of cultivation. I simply chose not to ascend and stayed in the Cultivation World."
"Grandmaster, I may be new to cultivation, but don't try to fool me."
Ye Ling flatly refused to believe it.
"A Great Ascension cultivator can remain in the Lower Realm for at most five hundred years. After that, they're forcibly drawn up to the Immortal Realm."
That was exactly how the Heaven-Defying Demon Emperor had left. Ye Ling remembered that history clearly.
"Automatic ascension does happen," the avatar said lightly. "But I severed the Ascension Ladder."
"???"
"After that, the Immortal Realm forcibly sent down two Immortals."
"You killed them?"
"Must everything be about killing?" she scoffed. "I just beat them up and threw them back."
"Threw them back?"
"I punched a hole straight through the Immortal Realm's space and sent them up. Was that so difficult?"