Li Nanzhu was somewhat at a loss for words. She couldn't help but ask, "What exactly did your master see in you back then?"
"Well..." The man suddenly became bashful. "It’s because I stewed the spirit tortoise he had been raising for three hundred years and turned it into soup..."
The air suddenly went still.
"You... you stewed your master's... spirit tortoise?" Li Nanzhu asked, emphasizing every word.
"The taste wasn't bad," the man said, smacking his lips as if reminiscing. "It was just a bit tough..."
Li Nanzhu suddenly felt that, compared to this guy, the trials she had experienced didn't seem quite so twisted after all.
"So," she sighed, rubbing her temples, "your master tortured you because of that?"
"How could that be!" The man had an 'you're so naive' expression on his face. "It was because, while making the soup, I also threw the 9-turn spirit ginseng he had been treasuring into the pot with it..."
Li Nanzhu: "..."
"Then he told me to replant one," the man continued. "In the end, I roasted the seeds to eat with my wine..."
Li Nanzhu didn't even know what expression to make anymore.
"Finally, he really had no other choice," the man shrugged. "He threw me into the Immovable Wisdom King Array, and then I blew the array up."
Li Nanzhu suddenly felt a surge of sympathy for this "master" she had never met.
"Wait," she suddenly realized something. "Then the trial you gave me—"
"An improved version!" The man puffed out his chest proudly. "My master's version was too old-fashioned, so I added a little... creativity!"
Li Nanzhu took a deep breath, trying her best to stay calm. "So... the trials the others experienced were like this too?"
"The others?" The man tilted his head, tapping his chin with his folding fan. "Oh, you mean the few people who came in with you? They just went through the motions. They counted some sand, recited some scriptures, and then had a few fights. When the time was about up, I gave them a few things and tossed them out."
"..." A vein popped on Li Nanzhu's forehead. "Then why did I—"
"Because you're special!" The man suddenly leaned in close, so close that Li Nanzhu could count his eyelashes. "The first moment I saw you, I felt it—this girl has freakish potential!"
"Oh, thank you so much!" Li Nanzhu's fist clenched again.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! A gentleman uses his tongue, not his fists! Look at this peerless face of mine. How could you bear to lay a hand on it?!" The man instantly retreated even further from Li Nanzhu, fearing she might actually hit him.
Seeing this, Li Nanzhu's temples throbbed. This narcissism was truly something else. However, she planned to set all that aside for now because she had a more important question to ask.
"So, why did you bring me here to meet you?" Li Nanzhu asked seriously. In the original text, Cang Dongqing never met this man and never came to a place like this; she had simply obtained a jade slip containing ancient alchemy methods.
Seeing Li Nanzhu turn serious, the man also put away his playful expression and said very solemnly, "Because you're truly a freak."
Li Nanzhu: "...I’m leaving."
"Wait, wait, wait! Don't go! I'm serious!" The man quickly blocked Li Nanzhu, fearing she would really run off. Seeing that Li Nanzhu had no intention of entertaining him, he finally sighed.
"Alright, alright. I really lose to you, little girl."
Li Nanzhu's inner self was practically blooming with joy. As expected, the tactic of 'playing hard to get' worked everywhere. She had just used it successfully. But before she could ask anything else, the man's next sentence completely stunned her.
"You are the successor I personally chose. Naturally, I had to bring you here."
"Successor?!" Li Nanzhu's pupils shook. Was this right? Was this plot right? This wasn't right at all!
Seeing Li Nanzhu's expression, the man finally regained his confidence. He snapped his fan open, concealing the lower half of his face. "That's right. You are about to receive my inheritance. How about it? Surprised? Shocked? Aren't you touched?"
But Li Nanzhu frowned deeply. The plot deviation was too great now; she wasn't sure if this was just another round of trials.
"What's wrong, little girl?" Seeing Li Nanzhu's shifting expression, the man thought for a moment and tapped her on the head with his fan. "This isn't an illusion. I'm truly and sincerely going to give the inheritance to you. Don't just stand there like an idiot."
"Are you sure you didn't choose the wrong person?" Li Nanzhu still wanted to double-check.
"How could I possibly choose the wrong person? I've lived for so many years; how could I get something like this wrong!"
"Then what about Cang Dongqing?" Li Nanzhu didn't intend to let this question slide easily. Since it involved the original story, she had to clarify it so she could judge her next steps.
"Cang Dongqing? Who's that?"
"The female cultivator in white, the one with a metal spiritual root."
"That little girl?" The man seemed to remember. After a moment of thought, he said, "Her? She's quite good, but I didn't plan on choosing her."
"...Why?" Li Nanzhu pursed her lips. Although she knew asking this might not be appropriate, she really wanted to know the reason—what exactly had changed his mind.
"Hey, why do you like to get to the bottom of everything so much?" The man sighed helplessly, tapping the fan against his palm. "Since you want to know so badly, I'll answer you once and for all, alright?"
As he spoke, he suddenly turned and waved his sleeve. A water mirror appeared out of thin air inside the bamboo hut, showing the image of Cang Dongqing. She was sitting cross-legged in meditation, her body surrounded by a faint golden light.
"See that?" The man pointed at the golden light in the mirror. "This little girl's fortune is off the charts. Even though there were clearly no rewards in the trials I gave her, she somehow stumbled her way into getting a foundation establishment pill on her own."
Li Nanzhu's heart sank. As expected, even if she had taken the items from the alchemy room in advance, she couldn't stop the other from reaching Foundation Establishment? This heroine's halo was truly too powerful.
"Now look here—" The man tapped his finger, and the scene switched to Cang Dongqing in the same setting as Li Nanzhu's first trial, the Immovable Wisdom King Array. "She didn't need to think at all. With a casual touch, the restriction was automatically dispelled."
Li Nanzhu: "..."
As expected of the heroine. Something that had tortured her for so long was resolved by the other girl with a simple touch.
The screen switched again, showing Cang Dongqing's performance in other evaluations. Although her subsequent tests were different from Li Nanzhu's, she inadvertently found the correct answers every time, without even needing much thought, walking directly to the final stage.
The man waved his fan, and the water mirror vanished instantly.
Li Nanzhu thought about her own experience of being tortured half to death in the darkness and suddenly felt a bit unbalanced. "So she didn't experience any of those twisted trials at all?"
"Of course not!" the man said righteously. "She gets rewards just by walking around. My trials were practically non-existent for her!"
Li Nanzhu: "..." That damn heroine's halo.
"It was too easy," the man continued, shaking his head. "So easy that these assessments I set up lost their original meaning. Why would I want a successor like that?"
But if that were the case, Li Nanzhu pursed her lips, why did he choose Cang Dongqing in the original story?
Opening her mouth, she finally voiced her guess. "If I wasn't here, would you have chosen her?"
"Yes," the man didn't hide it at all. "She not only has immense fortune but also exceptional talent. It's as if the heaven's path is chasing her down to spoon-feed her. Moreover, she is currently in the Qi Condensation stage, so her future path hasn't been fixed yet. Even with a metal spiritual root, she would have been my best candidate."
"What about the others?" Li Nanzhu asked curiously.
"Them?" The man fell into thought. "The other icy girl, ice spiritual root, is naturally incapable of following this path. As for the rest..." He tapped his palm with his fan again. "One refinery master has his own inheritance, don't want him. One thunder spiritual root guy is too reckless, don't want him. One who plays the flute nearly deafened me, don't want him! One is too old, don't want him. One is already in the Golden Core stage, what is he even doing here, don't want him. And there’s one who, although a fire spiritual root, seemed to have no brains when I observed him earlier, so I don't want him either."
Li Nanzhu's mouth twitched. Fine, she finally understood why he chose Cang Dongqing in the original text.
It turned out he simply had no other choice. Cang Dongqing was the best candidate available, and now, her appearance had actually modified the plot.
"What about the words on the light gate?"
"Oh, those," the man raised an eyebrow. "I just wrote them randomly. Everyone has to face a trial once they enter anyway. Whoever passes would eventually end up here."
Li Nanzhu: "..."
The plot misled her!
"Then what if..."
The man closed his fan and lightly tapped her forehead. "Little girl, the most forbidden thing on the path of cultivation is the word 'if'. If you keep thinking about 'if I had chosen another path' or 'if I had made a different choice back then,' you won't be able to move forward."
He turned toward the bamboo window, gazing at the sea of clouds outside. "Cang Dongqing is indeed gifted and favored by fortune. But do you know why the inheritances left by ancient experts often involve layers of trials?"
Li Nanzhu thought for a moment. "To filter for the right successor?"
"More than that." The man turned around, his eyes flashing with wisdom. "It’s also to make the successor understand that there are no shortcuts on the path of cultivation."
He slowly walked back to Li Nanzhu. "Cang Dongqing has it too easy. Everything she gets comes to her without effort. With such a mindset, how could she inherit the essence of my branch's dao of alchemy?"
Li Nanzhu said pensively, "So you chose me because..."
"Because you know the taste of struggling to survive." The man's voice suddenly softened. "The focus you showed while counting water drops in the Immovable Wisdom King Array, the wisdom of finding another way before the star platform, the keen perception in the stone room..."
He paused, a flicker of admiration in his eyes. "Most importantly, that resilience you maintained even in a desperate situation. That is the mindset most needed for alchemy cultivation. Did you really think the stages I set up were for nothing? They were all filters for you all. Only those who truly pass the screening are qualified to be my successor."
Li Nanzhu's heart shook. She had never thought that her various struggles after transmigrating would become the reason for being chosen. But then she realized, "Wait, you've been monitoring me?"
"How can you call it monitoring?" The man looked innocent. "It's called... caring about my future disciple's growth~"
Li Nanzhu: "..."
"Besides," the man suddenly leaned in and said mysteriously, "it wasn't just because of those conditions! Do you know what moved me the most, most, most of all?"
"What?"
"When you were cursing me for being a freak," the man's eyes lit up, "that look of gritting your teeth while being forced to continue... it was so interesting!"
Li Nanzhu: "..."
She really wanted to take back her feelings of being touched just now. So this person's standard for choosing a successor was whether they could provide amusement?
"So," Li Nanzhu sighed, rubbing her temples, "you think she's too successful, while I’m more miserable?"
"How can you say that?" The man looked hurt. "It's called... uh... teaching according to the student's ability! Yes, that's it!"
Li Nanzhu sneered. "And what if I had passed the trials as smoothly as she did?"
"Then I would have increased the difficulty!" the man said as if it were a matter of course. "Until you showed that expression like you wanted to kill someone~"
Li Nanzhu: "..."
Seeing Li Nanzhu's dark expression, the man quickly stepped back and snapped his fan open to hide his face. "Don't be angry~ Isn't your master praising you?"
"Praising me?" Li Nanzhu gritted her teeth. "Praising that the way I grit my teeth is interesting?"
She suddenly really wanted to smash the jade slip on the table into that punchable face.
"Alright, alright," the man suddenly turned serious. "I'll tell the truth. I chose you because..."
Li Nanzhu pricked up her ears.
"You're quite like I was when I was young~" The man winked. "Just as... uh... lively and cute~"
Li Nanzhu ground her teeth. Why did she feel like not a single word out of this person's mouth was true?
He was a pure lunatic!
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