While they ate, Fatty Qu filled her in on what happened during their test. Especially for the Spirit Master selection. Their battles were a sight to behold, and even she felt the second hand excitement just by listening to it.

“You all seem to have advanced by a rank. How did that happen?” She asked with curiosity.

“This is the result of cultivating in the cultivation tower inside the inner sect.” Wei Zi Qi explained, “Everyone who enters the inner sect has a free chance to go into the cultivation tower. The spirit energy in the tower is extremely dense, especially so in the spirit pond below. We soaked in there for a few months and advanced in rank.”

“Not bad. Aside from the Spirit Pool, we also obtained a free chance to temper our bodies. The process was so simple that it really caused others to cry.” Fatty Qu said.

“Temper your bodies?” Sima You Yue inspected Ouyang Fei’s body, and it seemed that he had truly become quite a bit stronger, “How did you temper your bodies?”

“We used the blood of some unknown animal. In any case, there was a smell of it. Our tutors tossed us into a blood lake and, who knows what blood it was, but the moment it came into contact with our bodies, damn. It was so painful we almost died.” Fatty Qu complained.

“Fatty Qu, cut the crap. We went in as a group and you were the happiest of them all. You were even singing inside there.” Bei Gong Tang said.

“I was happy, yeah, but it still hurt!” Fatty Qu said.

“Fatty, you have the thickest skin of them all. If it hurts even for you, won’t it hurt others even more?” Sima You Yue teased.

“No way? There were some who directly fainted from the pain but it seemed to correlate to their level of cultivation.” Fatty Qu said, “It’s a pity that you weren’t there. Otherwise, you would have been there to experience this with us.”

“Isn’t that blood lake open 24/7?” Sima You Yue asked.

“It isn’t.” Sima You Lin said, “That blood lake only opens once in ten years. It only opens when new recruits enter the inner sect. It’s closed all the other times. It’s only for the new students.”

So he was basically saying that, once the opportunity was past, it would never come again.

“You’re fully dependent on lightning to temper your body now, so why bother thinking about this?” Sima You Ran laughed.

“Hehe, that’s true.” Sima You Yue chuckled.

After going through Crimson Flame’s two rounds of tempering along with the few terrifying lightning tribulations, she could feel that she had gotten much stronger. She was only afraid that the average tempering would have no use for her anymore.

“You Yue, are you really able to command lightning tribulations now?” Fatty Qu thought about how she had the top grade purple lightning in her body, and felt like it was rather inconceivable.

Sima You Yue raised her eyebrows, “Do you want to try?”

“No, no.” Fatty Qu quickly waved his hands. His little body might get burnt to ashes with a single bolt of lightning.

“Fifth Bro, when do you plan to return to the sect?” Sima You Ran asked.

“Soon, I guess.” Sima You Yue brushed the marinade onto the roast pork. As it hit the pan, it released a sizzling sound.

She was either running about outside, or kept inside the sect. It had been a long time since she got to accompany Sima Lie.

“Anyway, the holidays just begun. I’ll stay at home to accompany Grandfather for a bit. Grandfather, what do you think?” She smiled at Sima Lie.

“Of course I would be happy if you stayed at home to accompany your Grandfather. However, I know how anxious you are to cure your younger brother. If you are able to quickly return to the inner sect, you should.” Sima Lie said, “In any case, we have a lot of time. It’s the same if you are able to accompany me in the future.”

Sima You Yue thought about it. He was right. Grandfather’s age in the ancient primordial lands was actually not old at all. He had a lot of time left.

“Then, I’ll look for Vice Principal and Teacher Ge tomorrow.” Sima You Yue said, “Oh right, is there any news on Senior?”

“We don’t know about his situation, but we heard news of someone else’s.” Wei Zi Qi said.

“Whose?”

“Nalan Lan.”

Sima You Yue’s hand jolted. She continued to roast all the things that she had in her plate before asking, “How did you obtain news of her?”

”

“The last time, the Sage Pavilion had some giant meeting for whatever Holy Sons or daughters. It seemed that they gathered all the Holy Sons and Daughters from the outside. At that time, many came in from the inner regions. Nalan Lan was among them.” Bei Gong Tang said.

“You mentioned before that she came here based on some physique or another. It’s said that people with those kind of physiques have talent better than average. In just ten years, she advanced from someone who wasn’t even a Spirit Saint, to an advanced ranked Divine King. It’s said that she’s only one step away from advancing to Divine Overlord.” Fatty Qu said, “But I never thought that a person like her would have that kind of physique. What a waste.”

As Sima You Yue heard the news about Nalan Lan, she recalled the time that she had almost fallen into Nalan Lan’s trap in Saint City, and almost lost her life. At that time she had cleaned up Li Mu and that array master. It was a pity that, after she got off Dragon Reflection Mountain, Nalan Lan had already been taken to the Ancient Primordial Lands.

“You guys saw her? Did she see you, then?” She asked.

“Don’t think so.” Wei Zi Qi said, “At that time, we were in a private room in the memory restaurant. We heard their voices when they came in from the main hall, and opened a crack to watch them.”

“Are they still around?”

“They’re already returned to the central regions. The sage pavilion’s event already concluded a month ago.” Sima You Le explained.

“A pity.” Sima You Yue said with regret, “If she were still around, I’d be able to look for Uncle Jiu and talk about what happened that year! However, we’re in the same continent, so meeting her is only a matter of time.”

They ate and drank till really late, andSima You Ming and the others had to return to the inner sect in the morning of the second day.

It was rare for Sima You Yue to have the opportunity to sleep in. She went to the sect after spending a bit of time with Sima Lie. She went to look for the vice principal first to let him know that she had returned safely before she went to look for Ge Lang.

Ge Lang was rather surprised to see her appear, but that surprised turned into joy, “You’re finally back. If you tarried any longer, that guy would’ve killed his way to the Ninth Star Ocean.”

Sima You Yue knew who he was talking about. He was definitely referring to Xu Jin. He was the only one that Ge Lang would refer to in that way.

“Didn’t you give me a year’s time? Why is he so anxious?” Sima You Yeu casually asked.

“Didn’t they say that the Ninth Star Ocean was rather tumultuous recently? He was afraid that something happened to you.” Ge Lang said, “However, it seems that our worries were for nothing.”

Sima You Yue smiled silently.

“When do you plan to go to the inner sect?” Ge Lang asked.

“Within the next two days.” Sima You Yue said, “I have nothing much to do here anyway, so it’d be best to head to the inner sect soon.”

“Sure, I’ll leave it to you to contact him.” Ge Lang said, “You lost out on a lot of opportunities because you didn’t enter the inner sect with them. However, seeing you now, it doesn’t seem like you’re any worse than they are, so it doesn’t matter if you got those things or not. However, there will be three conventions soon. You can participate in that.”

“Three conventions? What conventions are those?”