Chapter 68 The Old Friend

  "Tomorrow at Chen time, 31st war stage, Huang Luoyu, a disciple of Chaoxia Peak's outer door, will battle Duan Qiming from Yunhai Peak. Please have the disciples arrive on time for the battle; otherwise, they will be directly declared losers!"

  A low voice came out of the transmission talisman, which was the voice of the person in charge of the outer gate trial, Zhou Zhenren. It can be seen that Luo Yu's performance has finally attracted the attention of some true people on the chairman's platform.

  Luo Yu pulled out a palm-sized booklet from her storage bag, which was given by Chu Yang. It contained information about the 100 outer disciples participating in the third round of promotion trials, including their specialties, commonly used magic tools, and strength assessments.

  She put it away after receiving it and never took it out to check, subconsciously thinking that she would win four in a row. This booklet naturally had no use, but unexpectedly encountered Hou Yong, the number one ranked opponent, so she could only go all out for the fifth match, allowing only victory and not defeat!

  After flipping to the back of the booklet, Luo Yu saw the information about her opponent: "Yun Haifeng - Duan Qiming, skilled in earth and metal elemental spells, his magic treasure is the Xuantie Ruler, overall strength ranking 16th. Hmm, not very strong, should be able to quickly settle him." Luo Yu let out a breath, if she had encountered an opponent ranked within the top ten overall, she would have needed to carefully consider her strategy.

  "Knock knock knock——" The sound of knocking on the door came from outside the house.

  Luoyu woke up from her cultivation state, wondering who was knocking on the door.

  A few days ago, Luo Yu warned her familiar friends that during the competition, unless she took the initiative to summon them, they were not allowed to come to Taohua Garden to find her, so as not to affect her rest and adjustment. After all, with one game per day, a lot of spiritual power was consumed, and it would take several hours of meditation to replenish it. Of course, this was just the average person's cultivation speed. As long as she opened the Lingling disk, she could replenish it within an hour. At this time, Luo Yu's meridians had been refilled with spiritual power again.

  With a creak, Luo Yu opened the door and saw a woman in a yellow shirt standing elegantly in front of her, with eyebrows as clear as water and skin as delicate as the breeze.

  "Sister Li, you've come to see me!" Luo Yu was overjoyed, a big smile spreading across her face.

  "Luoyu, little sister—" Li Yanran's pretty face turned red as she slightly lowered her head. "But can you blame me for leaving without saying goodbye? I was momentarily confused and angry, so I moved away. Later on, when I calmed down, I didn't dare to come find you again."

  Li Yanran lifted her head, her eyes shining with tears: "I heard that you lost the martial arts competition and were seriously injured. I was so worried that I didn't care about anything else, and rushed to see you. But seeing that you're fine now, I can rest assured. I...I'll leave now——"

  Li Yanran turned to leave, but was pulled back by Luo Yu, who called out: "Aiyo, Sister Li, you've pulled me and now my heart aches a bit, maybe it's an internal injury acting up. Be good, help me into the house!"

  She covered her chest and gently rubbed it, making a silly face with her mouth open.

  With a snort, Li Yanran laughed, like a spring flower blooming: "Sister is being naughty again! If you really don't blame sister, I will naturally stay."

  "No worries! No worries! I'm just worried that sister will blame me, let's go inside!" Luo Yu pulled Li Yanran into the house.

  "You're still the same," Yanni said, looking around in a circle. "However, you've gained some weight, what's good about that?" She furrowed her brow, very worried.

  "Sister, don't worry about me, I'm fine like this." Luo Yu waved her hand, "Let's talk about you instead. I see your cultivation has reached the 9th layer of Qi Refining, and I haven't even congratulated you yet!"

  Li Yanran was stunned for a moment, her jade fingers gently stroking the corner of her forehead: "Recently, I got the favor of an inner sect master uncle, so my cultivation can quickly advance."

  Since she entered the Xiu Zhen realm, she has always been with Luo Yu, and she has always regarded herself as a sister, taking care of Luo Yu everywhere. It wasn't until they moved out of Taohua Garden that she realized how difficult it was to cultivate alone! She lacked spirit stones, had no gathering disk, her cultivation speed was slow, not to mention the matter of building a perfect foundation. The 200 low-grade spirit stones allocated to outer sect disciples in the middle stage of Qi Refining each year were far from enough for cultivation. After taking on the task of managing the Lingyuan Garden, she had limited spirit stones, and was often harassed by male cultivators, making her frustrated with responding every day.

  At this point, she finally understood that it wasn't her who was taking care of Luo Yu, but rather Luo Yu had been protecting her all along. The reason she never lacked spiritual stones before was because Luo Yu had opened the Spiritual Gathering Disk and they cultivated together; the reason she was never disturbed by anyone before was because she had a friend from the Huang family in Qingzhou, and now the twin sisters of the Huang family were famous, with the Huang family quietly rising to prominence. It seemed that Luo Yu's status was such that even if someone coveted her beauty, they didn't dare take action.

  However, since she left Luo Yu's protection, everything has changed. The Wang sisters have gradually distanced themselves from her. Ma Yunfei, who had previously saved her, no longer held back and actively pursued her. However, after being rejected multiple times, he became somewhat enraged and mocked her, saying that she was just a village girl with no background, low talent, and would never amount to anything without someone's support. He said that there were many female cultivators like her in the sect, and that many of his sisters-in-law fawned over him, but he didn't even bother to look at them. For five years, he had taken care of her and tried to win her favor, but she didn't appreciate it! Now that she was no longer under Luo Yu's protection and had pushed him away, with only a cultivation level of Qi Refining 5th Layer, Li Yanran would just have to wait for other outer sect disciples to bully her.

  Upon hearing this, Li Yan snorted in disdain. Everything she had was earned through her own efforts, when did she ever need anyone's protection? Ma Yunfei was just trying to intimidate her, hoping she would change her mind, but he miscalculated. Her heart only belonged to Song Ning, and other men were not even worthy of her attention.

  A month later, Ma Yunfei's words came true. She became more and more beautiful, and the number of people who coveted her grew. Some said they wanted to practice dual cultivation with her, while others wanted to take her as a concubine, but only within the sect's rules. Those male cultivators were just making empty promises or using flirtatious glances to size her up, which made her feel sick to her stomach and even more miserable than before she entered the sect. In reality, her current situation was not much different from when she was a child at home, where her parents had planned to marry her off to an old man as a concubine, leaving her with no way to resist and an uncertain fate. Now, she was only being ogled by people, but as long as she thought carefully and lay low, she could get through this difficult period safely. However, after being under Luo Yu's protection for so long, she found it hard to bear the feeling of living in uncertainty again, like having a bitter pill stuck in her throat. There were many female disciples within the sect who shared similar experiences, but not everyone was as intolerant as she was. Some people flirted with multiple male cultivators, while others chose one exceptional person for protection. Others had firmly set their minds on cultivating and only needed to get through this period before they could transform themselves completely.

  Li Yanran stayed in the sect all day, not even daring to go to Fang City, let alone the Yun Tian trial forest. A weak and unprotected beautiful female cultivator would often have her yuan yin stolen during outings. She had mentioned this several times before when she was friends with the Wang sisters.

  She thought of going back to find Luo Yu, but thinking of Luo Yu's deception towards her was like a fishbone stuck in her throat, and the pain of biting her red lips made her not believe that she couldn't survive without Huang Luo Yu.

  A person lived a humble life and cultivated, after her cultivation reached the sixth layer of Qi Refining, she disguised herself as an ordinary-looking female cultivator and joined a team to go to the Cloud Sky Trial Forest. Because of her low cultivation level, she was often ordered by her teammates to do dirty and exhausting work, acting as bait to lure demonic beasts. The hardships and dangers were truly indescribable, but when it came time to distribute the spoils, she received the least amount.