Judging worth by strength is the most natural principle in the world.
At least, it holds true in the Dao Palace.
And there are few places on the Tianheng Continent where it doesn't.
The woman with the neat ponytail softened her expression. Standing across from this member of the Chu family and her smiling face, she looked almost aggressive by comparison.
She turned and tossed out a single line: "My name is Mu Hanmei."
Mu Hanmei. Wangshu silently repeated the name, watching her retreating figure as she activated her Gift of Genius.
Her talent was at the level of a violet-grade spirit seed, somewhere between mid-tier and top-tier violet.
Wangshu followed her out into the courtyard of the dormitory, where the other two girls also emerged.
The courtyard was small, so any contest here would have to be a sparring match of the "touch and stop" variety.
Wangshu nodded to herself. That was fine.
She'd rather keep things on good terms with her roommates.
She turned to look at the other two. One wore a two-piece light green dress, fresh and pretty. The other was in soft cotton long sleeves and trousers, with a pair of particularly large eyes that made her look utterly endearing.
Before long, the big-eyed roommate spoke up: "I'm Wei Xin. How do we compete, though? There's not much room here."
Wangshu laced her hands behind her back with a faint smile: "To be honest, I've got my eye on the master bedroom. I'm willing to take on all of you at once. If I win, I get the master bedroom. If I lose, I'll voluntarily drop out of the competition for it and take whatever room is left after you've all picked."
Wei Xin and Gu Chaoge exchanged a glance, and both could see the surprise in each other's eyes.
This Chu family member… she sure was arrogant.
She was basically saying she was confident of victory, against three opponents at once.
Win and get the best room. Lose and get the worst.
Mu Hanmei gripped the sword hilt at her waist, staring at Wangshu with a cool gaze: "How do you want to fight? Weapons or not?"
Wangshu kept smiling: "Either is fine."
With a sharp ring, Mu Hanmei drew her sword without a second's hesitation and swung it in a downward arc.
Wangshu dodged with a nimble tilt of her head, the fierce blade passing a full inch from her cheek.
Her smile never wavered.
Gu Chaoge flipped up her skirt: "Let's go too."
Wei Xin: "Yeah!"
They refused to believe it. Someone this arrogant needed to be put in her place!
Facing the stabbing sword light, Wangshu slipped past it at a tricky angle, closing in instead of backing off. She softened the force of Mu Hanmei's counter-attack with fluid movements, then struck with the edge of her palm at the tiger's mouth of Mu Hanmei's right thumb.
With a clatter, the sword actually flew out of her hand.
For the first time, surprise flickered across Mu Hanmei's cold features.
As Wangshu brushed past her shoulder, the corner of her mouth curled up slightly.
That look she'd taken with her Gift of Genius earlier had already told her something.
Though the Gift of Genius was theoretically only capable of sensing Dao resonance and the creations formed from it, she could still glean things from the depth of fortune in various spots.
In her eyes, the color of fortune was a pale gold. When a spot was practically glowing with gold, it couldn't be weak, right?
Just now, Wangshu had noticed that Mu Hanmei drew her sword with her right hand, yet the fortune level in her left hand far surpassed her right.
This turned out to be a rare left-handed sword cultivator.
Since it wasn't her dominant hand, it was only natural that Wangshu, having spotted the flaw, could knock the sword from her grasp.
After all, Wangshu was also a sword cultivator herself, and highly skilled at it at that.
Wangshu kicked up the fallen sword, caught it in her hand, and spun around to face the other two.
As for the roommate in the dress, Gu Chaoge, judging by her moves, Wangshu could tell she was a textbook product of family academy training. Whether attacking or defending, she made every move following the standard patterns the teachers had drilled into her.
Not that Wangshu had any trouble recognizing it—she'd spent a few years in a family academy herself, and she knew exactly what they taught there.
Wangshu deliberately left an opening, and sure enough, Gu Chaoge lunged in close.
Without using the sword, Wangshu hit her hard in the shoulder with her elbow. Gu Chaoge winced and tried to retreat, but Wangshu suddenly gave her a playful wink. The girl froze for a moment, and Wangshu used the sword to flick a hairpin out of her hair.
The last one, the big-eyed girl... Wangshu didn't quite know what to say.
Her awakened talent clearly wasn't combat-oriented, and she didn't seem to have received much systematic martial training either.
She came at Wangshu with kicks and punches—a flurry of ferocious effort.
At first, Wangshu was genuinely taken in. She kept her distance and observed cautiously for a couple of moves, but then she saw the problem.
This girl… you're not defending at all? All open gaps.
Realizing she was facing a complete novice, Wangshu stopped wasting time. She easily sidestepped a little fist, twisted the girl's arm behind her back, and deliberately pressed the sword in her hand against the adorable girl's neck, lowering her voice: "Still want to fight?"
The sword belonged to Mu Hanmei; from how she carried herself, Wangshu knew she was a proper sword cultivator who must have practiced through cold and heat over many years.
A personal sword like that naturally carried its own chill and sword-qi.
Wei Xin felt the goosebumps rise one by one along her spine, thinking Wangshu was serious. She shot both hands up and said with a pained face: "I-I-I give up, I give up... I'll take any room, I swear."
Wangshu laughed behind her back and lowered the sword: "I was just scaring you."
"Ah!" Wei Xin spun around, shooting her an accusatory glare.
You're this pretty and you still pull pranks?!
Wangshu returned the hairpin to Gu Chaoge, then came back to Mu Hanmei.
Meeting her complicated gaze, Wangshu held the sword out with both hands, curved both corners of her lips in a soft smile, and said earnestly: "Thank you for yielding."
This girl seemed ice-cold on the surface, yet she had her own integrity when it came to combat.
Mu Hanmei froze for a moment, not knowing how to keep up her cold expression. At last, she took the sword back awkwardly and turned her head away, saying flatly: "Even if I'd used my left hand, I might still have lost to you."
From the very first round of their fight, she had known that Wangshu was equally skilled in the sword, with a unique style all her own—as if guided by a true master.
Mu Hanmei thought it over, then asked: "Who taught you your swordsmanship?"
That kind of dominance and effortless control, carrying its own sense of authority.
Wangshu straightened her body at that moment, her dark eyes deepening. Her smile hadn't changed, but everyone could tell she had become more serious.
Wangshu said: "The one who taught me swordsmanship is named Chu Daixi."
Not the clan head of the Chu family.
Not her mother.
Chu Daixi.
If one day, her swordsmanship earned her recognition, she would never hesitate to tell anyone who asked that the one who taught her was named Chu Daixi.
She was determined to let her mother's swordsmanship shine across the Dao Palace.
When Mu Hanmei heard that name, she knew it belonged to the clan head of the Chu family—a swordsmanship grandmaster who had awakened the Eighteen Immortal Swords talent and stood at the absolute pinnacle. She gripped the sword in her hand tightly, and her eyes blazed with intensity: "I hope one day, you'll fight me with all your strength, using your sword."
"Alright." Wangshu nodded.
And so, the room assignments were settled. Wangshu took the largest master bedroom at the back, while Mu Hanmei took one of the front rooms. The left and right side rooms were similar enough, but Wei Xin let Gu Chaoge pick first.
"Hehe, I think any place is the same to me."
She'd been selected through the regional Dao Academy path, and her previous dorm had housed eight people in much worse conditions.
So Wei Xin genuinely had no preferences.
Wangshu stepped into the master bedroom, casually tossed her palace bell onto the table, and opened the round window for some fresh air.
The Pine Court was planted with pines, and the green treetops of every courtyard poked above the walls. A short distance away stretched a pine grove, wrapped in faint wisps of spiritual mist.
Straight as an arrow, unbending and unyielding. Wangshu thought to herself that she truly did like Pine Court.
Wangshu's fingers tapped lightly on the window frame as she mused that after winning three against one just moments ago, she had gained another strand of Dao resonance.
This confirmed her suspicion—it wasn't necessary to defeat someone of higher Creation rank or cultivation to earn Dao resonance.
Against opponents at a lower Creation level, one could win by sheer volume.
However, this "volume" probably came with some caveats. Wangshu suspected her roommates each had their own unique strengths, which was why the genius force acknowledged them.
So... in the future, when facing people stronger than me, I should play innocent, play weak?
And when facing people weaker than me, I should act arrogant, act dismissive?
Wow, looking at it that way, I sound so insufferable!
Wangshu laughed at her own thoughts.
Turning back to the window, she finally had a moment to pick up the palace bell and examine it closely.
The palace bell was a magical instrument. After being blood-bound, it could be controlled and inspected using spiritual awareness. What the bell introduced in detail was the same wall-signing system the former Hall Master had mentioned.
Every disciple of the Dao Palace had a corresponding plaque, which belonged to the same set of magical instruments as the palace bell.
"Wall-signing" meant accepting a challenge.
A challenge in the Dao Palace wasn't as simple as standing outside someone's dorm and shouting "Come fight!" It had to be done properly.
One had to formally deliver a letter of challenge.
Fights without a challenge letter were purely for personal entertainment or settling private grudges—they weren't recognized by the Dao Palace and had no effect on rankings.
Each person had only ten challenge letters per month. Once used up, just as the Hall Master had said, their plaque would automatically lock—closed for business.
They couldn't challenge others, and couldn't be challenged.
What stood out most to Wangshu about this challenge system was one particular rule:
—Those below may challenge those above, but those above may not challenge those below.
Although the Dao Palace didn't care about family background or nationality, it did have a strict hierarchy. The palace had four courts: Heaven, Earth, Mystic, and Yellow, with Heaven at the top and Yellow at the bottom.
So obviously, students of the Yellow Court were the "below."
At the Heaven Court, there was a seat system—the so-called hundred seats referred to the ranking among Heaven Court disciples.
Without entering the Heaven Court, one naturally had no seat at all.
So "those below may challenge those above" was easy to understand: lower-court disciples could challenge upper-court disciples, and lower-seated disciples could challenge higher-seated disciples.
As long as a challenge letter was delivered, "below challenging above," the above party had to accept.
Conversely, the above naturally couldn't send challenge letters to those below.
Once someone below successfully challenged someone above, their positions would be instantly swapped.
Wangshu's first reaction to this rule was: Who could even sleep well in this palace?
Thankfully, newly admitted disciples had a newcomer protection period.
Her fingertips tapped lightly on the table as Wangshu pondered. She needed to make good use of this one-month plaque-lock period to raise her strength as quickly as possible.
Wangshu suspected that once the lock was lifted, her days were about to get "interesting."
The Chu family's seal of authority was still unresolved. A wave of people coveting the Chu family's power and position would surely come probing her way;
Those who saw the crimson tassel of the Order Leader hanging at her waist and thought, "Who does she think she is? Let's see what this is about," would naturally send her a couple of challenge letters to test the waters;
Then there were those who hated her, those with grudges against the Chu family, those who'd use this challenge mechanism to settle scores publicly...
Her days were really looking up ahead.
Wangshu smiled softly and moved on to the palace bell's second function—the "savings card."
All cultivation expenses in the Dao Palace didn't accept spirit stones. Everything was calculated in contribution points, the palace's exclusive currency.
The palace bell was the instrument for storing and settling contribution points.
In the Dao Palace, entering various cultivation grounds cost contribution points, exchanging for advanced techniques and spells cost contribution points, attending lessons by specific Order Leaders cost contribution points, and... yes, delivering a challenge letter also cost contribution points.
That's right—challenging someone cost money!
You couldn't just do it for free; that would be harassment.
Wangshu did a rough calculation and found the Dao Palace had shockingly high expenses.
With hopeful anticipation, she checked her contribution point balance on the palace bell.
One hundred.
...What?
Is this really enough?
She just saw that sending one challenge letter cost a hundred contribution points.
She never expected that her first challenge upon entering the palace would be poverty.
Wangshu clicked her tongue twice in imitation of her sister, then continued studying the palace bell with keen interest.
The bell's third function was chatting.
Yes, this advanced magical instrument actually had a friend system, and it could even send messages like communication talismans.
But—here came the Dao Palace specialty—it cost money!
Ten contribution points per message.
Doing a quick mental calculation, her monthly living allowance only covered ten messages.
Even at the Chu household... she'd never been this extravagant with her words.
After getting a general handle on the bell's functions, Wangshu hung it back at her waist and went to find her sister.
Plum Court, Number Seven.
Wangshu successfully reunited with Chu Qinghe. She'd gotten her dorm assignment and even secured the master bedroom.
Wangshu raised an eyebrow and asked, "Did Sister also have to fight for it?"
"Fight for what?" Qinghe blinked, confused. "I paid for mine."
Wangshu stopped.
"I gave each of them a thousand spirit stones. One of them wouldn't budge, so I bumped her to three thousand, and she agreed right away."
Wangshu laughed.
Ah, so "big sister" meant "big-spender sister."
Their next destination was supposed to be the dining hall. But both of them had stored food supplies in their bracelets, and Qinghe said there was no rush to eat—first, they should go to the Yellow Court Affairs Hall.
"What for?" Wangshu asked.
"To collect our Yellow Court disciple allowances," Qinghe said casually.
Wangshu nodded. That made sense, but was it really that urgent?
When they arrived at the Affairs Hall, Qinghe found the person in charge, and the two of them each received five hundred spirit stones, a bottle of wound-healing balm, and a bottle of essence-restoring pills.
The rest of the allowance included a monthly one hundred contribution points, which had already been credited to their palace bells.
There were also two free consultations at the Spirit Medicine Pavilion.
Since neither of them had fought hard enough to need the pavilion yet, that could wait for later.
The supplies were collected, but Qinghe didn't leave.
Wangshu shot her sister a suspicious look as she watched Qinghe lean over the tall counter of the Affairs Hall with an expectant expression.
"Hallkeeper, do you have... a service for exchanging contribution points?"
The hallkeeper, hiding behind a book, slowly revealed a pair of puzzled eyes.
Qinghe rubbed her hands together and chuckled. "I mean, can I trade spirit stones for contribution points? I don't mind if the exchange rate is a bit high."
A hundred contribution points a month wasn't nearly enough—she'd used them all up just sending her sister ten messages.
That wouldn't do.
Qinghe's first instinct was to convert spirit stones into contribution points.
Wangshu's look at Qinghe was equally colorful. Sister, you've truly mastered the art of in-game top-ups.
She thought for a moment, then turned around, also leaning on the counter, staring at the hallkeeper with bright eyes.
Yeah, right.
So... you really can't recharge?
The hallkeeper tossed aside the book and nearly laughed in exasperation.
Every year, the Dao Palace recruited a few "talents."
Yes, this attempt to buy contribution points with spirit stones wasn't unique to them.
It happened every single year!
"Shoo, shoo, shoo." The hallkeeper waved them away like chasing off chicks. "If you want contribution points, go to class, take on palace missions, or work for them. Trading spirit stones? Not a chance!"
Another young man was still standing in the Huang Academy Affairs Hall and had witnessed the entire spectacle unfold. He rolled his eyes, then stepped forward and said, "If I may, both of you, please hear me out."
Chu Qinghe turned her head and stared at him. "What, do you happen to have a way to exchange contribution points?"
Shang Yin: "...That I don't have, but I do have something else of value."
The steward picked up the ledger again, his gaze following the three as they walked out of the hall.
The Shang family had started again.
Outside the door, Chu Qinghe tilted her chin up and spoke with an air of condescension: "So what's this good thing you've got? Let me take a look."
Ha. The Shang family just loved this kind of attitude.
They'd already realized back inside the hall that these two were a pair of fat sheep to be fleeced.
Shang Yin said mysteriously, "I've got here an intelligence jade slip on the twelve Seal-Bearing factions..."
Chu Qinghe dismissed it immediately: "That's it? I've read that ages ago."
Shang Yin straightened his back and smiled calmly: "Mine is the upgraded version. It details the spirit-seed rankings each Seal-Bearer has put forth, their future potential, and — oh, on top of that — it covers the much-awaited Palace Night Banquet for each cycle, with a full record of how each nominee performed at the banquet."
Wangshu stared at the stack of intelligence slips in his hand, feeling something was off: "That intelligence of yours — is it one set or two?"
Shang Yin's smile widened as he spread his hands and introduced each one: "Now, if you want the basic edition on Seal-Bearer nominations, that's this one. If you want the advanced edition, that's this one. And the Palace Night Banquet intel is this one."
Palace Night Banquet? With how brilliantly she'd performed at that feast, the outside world must be singing her praises, right?
Chu Qinghe grew interested and waved her hand generously, with an air of bravado: "How many spirit stones? I'll take it all!"
Shang Yin wore a professional salesman's smile: "No spirit stones — I want contribution points. Basic edition, two points. Advanced edition, five points. Banquet intel, five points."
What! No spirit stones?
"Do you have any idea how valuable contribution points are and you're asking for those?" Chu Qinghe frowned.
Well, of course he knew — that was exactly why he'd targeted them.
Shang Yin tucked the jade slips away and feigned displeasure: "Well, then, are you buying or not?"
"How do we know whether your intel is even real?" Wangshu looked up and said.
Shang Yin rang the palace bell at his waist to prove his identity: "I'm from the Shang family."
The Shang family's intel was famous far and wide.
If you dare to buy, then buy.
The Shang family, huh.
Chu Qinghe reached out to unclip her own bell and bit out through clenched teeth: "Fine, I'll buy!"
I want to see just what this is all about!
