Chapter 23: 23: The Sheer… Sheer And Utter Power Of A Silver-Tongue

It was cold... 

Lin Songmei pulled her coat a little tighter around herself, pausing her video and squirming like a worm to get closer to Yan Mingqing. Mingqing was still absorbed into her bricklaying game, but Songmei still wanted to be near her, Mingqing was a human heater after all! It’d be a complete waste to not utilize it. 

As for Mingqing, she didn’t mind, she was used to the heat-seeking human worm that was Songmei. 

Laying on the ground, half plastered across Mingqing’s legs, Songmei unpaused her video, continuing to watch the special spotlight episode that the Daoist Times had come out with. 

[As this is the first episode of our four episode mini-series, us hosts will give a brief overview on the structure that will be used.]

[To begin, we’ll give a brief reminder and overview of the sect for those who haven’t been following the news.]

It was at this moment that the other anchor interrupted with a joke. [If you haven’t been following the news, in this era? You must’ve just come out of a 150 year secluded cultivation session!]

Watching the original co-anchor laugh as if her colleague's joke was the funniest in the world, Songmei felt her heart clenching like a demon that was gripping its most valuable possession. After the joke though, the female anchor continued on with the explanation as if it had never happened. 

[After the brief overview of the sect, we’ll then jump into the new direct disciples taken in by the sect. Including a small blurb written about the disciples background provided by the sect, and a small quote regarding the disciple from each of their masters.]

[Following this, we’ll be providing a small update on each of the sect’s as a whole. Depending on the sect this might be a new elder, an update on their rising stars, or something else completely. You’ll have to watch to the end to find out!]

Songmei nodded along, hugging Mingqing’s legs while focusing. Even with the bad jokes, the quality of this show wasn’t bad, they really deserved their position as one of, if not the top cultivator news agencies. 

[Now, let’s begin. The Starlight Lake Sect is one of the four largest sects in the world, being the dominant sect of the Northern Continent.]

With a beautiful picture of the sect on screen, Songmei admired it, the pictures would change every few seconds as the anchors continued delivering the news. As she watched, a glimmer appeared in Songmei’s eyes, there were pictures from every season! Songmei hadn’t even been there for a month yet, so these pictures were foreign yet charming. 

[The Starlight Lake Sect focuses on water-based cultivation techniques, splitting into two main categories, winter cultivators and summer cultivators. However, as you know these categories mostly refer to how cultivators bring out their unique aspect and understanding of water. Beyond water-based cultivation techniques though, as the hegemonic sect of the Northern Continent, they have a vast library of other cultivation techniques at their disciples’ free-browsing.]

Songmei wasn’t learning a lot, she already knew all of this, but it didn’t hurt to pay attention. Looking over at Mingqing, Songmei also realized that she had put aside the bricklaying game and was also listening. 

Pause. 

“You want me to turn up the volume?” Songmei asked, rolling over on Mingqing’s legs to get a better view of her face. 

“No it’s fine,” Mingqing reassured, pushing Songmei’s hair out of her face, “You can just watch, I can hear and see just fine no worries. Also feel free to keep commenting about the video, no need to murmur it under your breath either, we can just talk about it while watching, no?”  

Songmei gave a nod in response while rolling back to her original position on Mingqing’s legs. She was impressed at Mingqing’s ability to have words continue to flow out of her mouth. It was like a cornucopia! Never-ending... 

Unpause. 

[The direct disciples we’d like to start with are Lu Qiang and Cai Yufei, both disciples of Elder Wu Sen, the head of Starlight Lake’s Disciplinary Bureau.]

With the images of those three being shown on screen, Songmei couldn’t help but comment on them. “They chose a really good picture of Elder Wu Sen and Lu Qiang. It’s a shame the picture of Cai Yufei is... absolutely atrocious.” 

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Opening her mouth to reply, Mingqing instead gave a nod as the speaking from the video picked up once more. 

[Lu Qiang and Cai Yufei both have... relatively average backgrounds. Lu Qiang is the only child of two cultivators, a normal cultivating family through and through. Cai Yufei on the other hand is the oldest child out of five children in his family, a fairly rich cultivating family.]

“Remember when he first told us that?” Mingqing asked, running her hand through Songmei’s silky silvery-white hair. “It explained so much... like, no wonder that stick got shoved so far up his ass...” 

“Truly,” Songmei agreed, raising the screen a touch so that Mingqing could have a better view. 

[Elder Wu Sen had a few brief comments about his new direct disciples.]

The quotes flashing on screen, Songmei read along as the anchors read them outloud for listeners who were listening to the episode as a podcast. 

[Cai Yufei... He’s very disciplined. With his passion for not only improvement but also order, Cai Yufei reminds me of my own younger self. I’ll make sure to support him diligently. Make no mistake, I will ensure that he has fair treatment and gets the resources he needs, matching his drive.]

[Lu Qiang, on the other hand, is an individual that is a fair bit different. He has a single-minded drive to improve himself while being very kind-hearted and fair. Already, he has reached an unbelievable level of fitness for someone who’s never cultivated. I will make sure to support him diligently as well. 

Songmei didn’t know what to think, the quotes felt a little empty; yet, they were also immensely important.

“Is Elder Wu Sen’s words that Lu Qiang has a single-minded drive to improve himself just based on the fact that Lu Qiang sucks at school...?” Mingqing pondered out loud, tapping Songmei’s head like a desk without even realizing it.

With the images of Elder Wu Sen along with his two disciples disappearing off the screen, the male anchor continued on, explaining that they’d do some more discussions about the disciples and master after highlighting the other two disciples. 

Shrugging at the reasonable sounding explanation, Songmei and Mingqing’s jaws both dropped as the next set of pictures came on screen. 

Their pictures were fine, Songmei’s was of her in some nice clothes, some light makeup, and her hair done, with Mingqing’s being quite similar. 

But... their master... 

Was that even Liu Xueli?

It looked so... different, so... youthful. 

Not in a rude way, of course, but still! 

In the picture, Liu Xueli seemed to be a different person, like a battle-hardened cultivator that seemed to give off an untouchable aura, as if invisible energy was cascading in waves out from her. At the same time, her beauty was... aggressive? If that even was a way to describe it, it was just so different from her usual casualness. Her eyes were sharp, her hair was blowing in the wind behind her as a massive icy landscape stretched out behind her. 

“That... That’s...”

“Yeah... I’m in disbelief too...”