Yan'Er

Lu Qingyun was taken to the Iron Tower and he found himself in a confinement. He did not feel like he was a prisoner, at least not yet as his meals were excellent and he had an access to a small library in his cell. Even his cell had many rooms and was spacious.

 The elder had introduced himself as Elder Ouyang and told him that he would be talking to him in a month time when the testing of the new protégés was over. In the meantime he should cultivate and read as much as possible.

 "Do not worry," Elder Ouyang said to him. "There are other newly initiated protégés that are in the Iron Tower as well. You should use the time to cultivate and be ready to meet the grand elders in a matter of days."

 Lu Qingyun asked curiously, "The grand elders? I need to meet them?"

 Elder Ouyang smiled as he explained patiently, "The next round of selection will be done by the grand elders." Then he pointed at the manuals that were on the shelves. "You should spend some time to read up on the histories of the Heavens Ridge Villa. Some wacky grand elders may choose to test you on it."

 Seeing the perplexed look that was on Lu Qingyun, he added with a wry smile. "There are six main martial halls in the Heavens Ridge Villa and each of the grand elder has their own preferences. Some may prefer protégés to be good with the swords and some may prefer protégés with a good aptitude on spirit sense. Therefore if you are able to get selected by them, you will be a core protégé. If not…"

 Elder Ouyang paused briefly to smile before adding, "If not, you will be assigned as a general protégé. There is no need for me to spell out to you how normal a general protégé is, am I right?"

 Lu Qingyun nodded as he finally understood why he was taken to the Iron Tower. Although he had been accepted as a protégé but there was still another round of selection. In order to become a core protégé, he had to impress the grand elders first.

 He thought, "Since there are six martial halls, does it mean that I have six chances? That seems to be quite a high chance to be selected as a core protégé."

 Although he was not a good martial fighter or a talented cultivator but he was a good scholar. There was no knowledge that could escape from him and his aptitude to learn new knowledge was impressive. At least, that was what he felt that it was something that he was excellent at and was confidence of handling.

 So he began to read the scrolls that were in his cell. 

 The Heavens Ridge Villa has a history of less than five hundred years and it is considered to be a young cultivation sect when compared to most of the celestial clans that are thousands of years old. The founder and matriarch of the Heavens Ridge Villa was a Great Saintess Yuhuan who had styled herself as Fairy Jade Light.

 No one really knows her background but the fact that she is a saintess and a Seventh Realm Expert is impressive enough.

Moreover the title of 'great' saintess is exclusive to those celestial cultivators who have attained to the upper tier sacred saint level and they are one step to being able to ascend as immortals.

 Although the Heavens Ridge Villa is the smallest and youngest powerhouse in New Empyrean City, it has a powerful presence due to the fact that the cultivation sect's founder the Fairy Jade Light is a great saintess.

One must know that many of the cultivation sects that are in New Empyrean City are mostly at the second and third tier. The main reason why these cultivaton sects are second and third tier are because they could not produce a single cultivator that could reach the seventh realm.

Even the Heavenly Fragrance Villa, a first tier celestial clan that holds dominant over the entire Heavenly Fragrance Divine Realm was said to have only one seventh realm expert.

 This was something that the protégés of the Heavenly Ridge Villa were extremely proud of and in no time, the Heavens Ridge Villa was propelled as one of the four prominent cultivation sects of New Empyrean City.

 Lu Qingyun muttered as he read the histories of the Heavens Ridge Villa, "This Fairy Jade Light must be a monstrous talent…"

 Just as he was about to continue his read, there was a stir in his cultivation core and he was startled.

 The Golden Roc Flame was burning furiously within him and had suddenly danced out to form the image of a little girl that was around five.

 This startled him as he muttered, "The Golden Roc Flame has become a sentient flame?" This was an extremely rare occurrence and Lu Qingyun had never expected that it would happen to him.

 For a spirit entity to gain sentient, it was more valuable and precious than any ninth rank spirit entity. If the spirit entity was already at the ninth rank, its growth and aid to the cultivator was extremely precious!

More precious than any wondrous herbs that could enhance the cultivator growth…

 He was instantly delighted as he said to the little girl, "Don't be afraid. I am your master."

 The little girl blinked her eyes and stammered, "Mas…ter?"

 Although she was talking to him, her eyes were already looking wildly at her surrounding and there was a playful look on her countenance.

 Lu Qingyun smiled, "That's right. You and I are one body and soul. I should give you a name. How about Lu Yan'Er?"

 The little girl was delighted. As she shared the same link as him, it did not take her long to understand the significant of having her name.

 She asked, "Can I play around?"

 Lu Qingyun smiled, "Sure you can. But you must promise me never to come out if there are others around. It is because I don't want others to see you."

 The little girl took only a moment to understand speech and she was already quite proficiency in replying, "Why not master?"

 Lu Qingyun smiled, "Because there are many bad guys around and they may have bad intentions."

 There was actually no need for words because Yan'Er was linked to Lu Qingyun's soul and she was part of him. When he had said that there may be bad guys around, images of various consequences had popped up in his mind and Yan'Er was gasping panicky, "There are so many baddies around…"

 Lu Qingyun was startled, "You can actually know what I am thinking?"

 Yan'Er nodded as she chuckled, "Master and I are one so of course I can know what is on your mind."

 Lu Qingyun muttered weakly, "That is bad…"

 Yan'Er asked curiously, "Why is it bad?"

 Suddenly Yan'Er was flushing, "Why is it that I am seeing images of so many beautiful big sisters that are undressing?"

 Lu Qingyun slapped his forehead to vanish the images as he forced out a weak smile, "That means no more wet dreams for me. That's why it is bad…"

 From now onward, he was going to be a mental eunuch…

 "What did you just say?" A beautiful and alluring voice asked softly.

 Lu Qingyun was startled as he quickly turned to the direction of the beautiful voice.

 An extremely alluring maiden that was dressed in black was looking and smiling at him from the corner of the cell.

 Lu Qingyun was startled. He had recognized her and she was none other than Celestial Meixue. He muttered, "Celestial Meixue?" She was not wearing any veil this time so he could easily recognized her even though he had only just a glimpse of her.

 She knitted her eyebrows as she laughed softly, "So you've managed to recognize me after all."

 Lu Qingyun smiled awkwardly. He did not want to tell her that he had caught a glimpse of her so he said instead, "How did you get in here?"

 She smiled as she looked at the cell, "The spatial laws here may be able to hold the likes of you but do you think that it is able to hold a mighty golden celestial like me?"

 Lu Qingyun could not help giving a smile when she had used the word mighty on herself, "Indeed, indeed. A mighty golden celestial like you won't be restraint by the spatial space here."

 Then she turned to look at Yan'Er, "It seems that you have a sentient spirit entity. You are really so fortunate."

 Yan'Er stared at her and asked, "Hello, I am Yan'Er." For some unknown reason, Yan'Er felt herself drawing to this big sister here.

 She returned a smile to Yan'Er, "Hello Yan'Er. I'm Qin Keqin."

 Lu Qingyun was stunned as he stammered, "Celestial Meixue? Celestial Keqin? You are not Celestial Meixue?"

 She gave an affectionate smile as she said coolly, "What kind of a host are you? Why don't you invite me to sit down first before you throw a question at me?"

 Lu Qingyun muttered weakly, "Yes, yes. Please have a seat."

 She giggled softly, "Then I shall not be polite and be your guest. Even if you regret it, it will be too late to drive away this malevolent star later."

 Lu Qingyun was smiling awkwardly as he thought, "How can you be a malevolent star? I wish that you will stay as long as you can. I wonder if she is attached…"

 Yan'Er was staring at him with her big eyes, "Master, what are you thinking…"

 Lu Qingyun snapped out of his trance all of a sudden as he suddenly remembered that Yan'Er was able to read his thoughts…

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Author Note:

1. Please help to support this book. It is selected for premium when it has only 20 chapters (winning the dec competition) but I have pushed back the calls to lock the chapters until Chapter 61 so that the readers can read for free more chapters.