The backdrop can also be propped up.

Chapter 28 Going up the mountain

As dawn broke, Ayaka's biological clock, dictated by her upbringing as a maid, made her the first to wake up.

Caihua quietly got up, rolled up her mat and blanket again and put them aside. She then took out her toiletries from her bag, followed the sound of water to a stream, wet a towel on her face and patted it, then scooped up some stream water with a bowl, drank a mouthful, and spat it out.

After washing up, Caihua took out a steamed bun and took a couple of bites. Seeing that Wen Meiying and Wang Li were still asleep and fast asleep, Caihua ignored them and continued climbing the mountain while still eating her bun.

Little White was still wrapped around Caihua's neck, sleeping with its head drooping and resting on Caihua's chest, swaying back and forth with Caihua's steps.

Because of Hong Lanying's presence, Yuling Mountain, where Huaiyu Sect is located, is virtually free of poisonous or ferocious wild animals. The only danger lies in the medicinal herbs grown in Fangyuan City. Therefore, there's no need to worry about something suddenly jumping out and biting you to death while you're walking around.

Since it was early morning, if you looked closely, you could see that the plants were covered with glistening dewdrops.

Although it was just dawn, the birds had already begun to sing, their voices melodious and varied, quite pleasing to the ear. There were many exotic flowers and trees along the roadside. Caihua had never seen these plants in Chuiyang City. She had only heard some rogue cultivators complain about the appearance of the herbs when they mentioned how difficult it was to buy them in the border villages. She never expected to see them all here.

Caihua squatted down and curiously touched the flowers and plants by the roadside, wondering what kind of expression those rogue cultivators would have when they saw this.

Suddenly, Ayaka smelled a domineering fragrance. Turning her head, she saw a tree with a few small white flowers interspersed among its lush green leaves. The fragrance of the flowers was so strong that just one whiff was enough to make one feel intoxicated.

When Caihua got tired, she walked up to the tree with white flowers and reached out to reach the flowers on the lowest branch, but because she was too short, she couldn't reach them and gave up.

Because he was inside Ayaka's body, and his sleep schedule was forced to match Ayaka's, Lu Renkui slowly yawned within Ayaka's consciousness space. His first question to the system WQBYRZM was: "Where is Ayaka now?"

"See this tree? It's a road sign halfway up the mountain, haha." System WQBYRZM realized there was no danger last night. Although she had plenty of energy to sustain herself, she felt she should use it sparingly, so she went into hibernation.

At this moment, System WQBYRZM sleepily opened the task panel and began diligently reading the original plot related to Huaiyu Sect. Although "The Legend of the First-Rank God" was written from Jing An's perspective and may differ from reality in some ways, the more objective parts can still provide an understanding of what kind of sect Huaiyu Sect is.

While Lu Renkui and System WQBYRZM were still half-asleep and trying to figure out the plot related to Huaiyu Sect, in Chuiyang City, System 0814 excitedly woke up Cheng Menqin, who had only slept for three hours and was inside Wang Fenglang's body.

System 0814 informed Cheng Menqin that their task progress bar had changed, increasing from 11% to 15%.

"Haha, all our training of Mo Xing over the past month has paid off. We've pulled away from third place again." System 0814 looked triumphantly at the task panel—he had finally pushed the task progress bar forward, narrowing the gap with first place a little further.

"What exactly did 0733 pick up this time? It's already risen to 35% so quickly. But it's okay, it's already at 15%, it's bound to have a big surge later, and surpassing the number one spot will be just around the corner. Wait a minute, the third place has caught up again?! Who is this third place?! How can they be chasing after us like this?"

Cheng Menqin looked at the 15% progress on the task panel, and the furrowed brows he had been keeping for the past month finally relaxed a little. He hadn't slept well for the past month, spending his days searching for people as soon as he opened his eyes, and even when he closed them, he was still speculating about who Melissa would find to be the protagonist. Then he would worry about the task panel that he wasn't going to touch at all. But now it was all good. Mo Xing was finally at the Great Perfection of Foundation Establishment and was about to form his core, taking another step closer to becoming someone who would have a significant impact on this world.

The next step is to have Mo Xing participate in the cultivation world's major competition, or find a powerful sect and get him into it. The Wang family seems to have connections with the Huaiyu Sect, so maybe we can try to get him into the Huaiyu Sect.

In the Demon Realm, Melissa, who was inside Zhang Chengmian's body, had just finished taking a bath, and Ma Meiyun came over to change her clothes.

Melissa casually asked, "How's your practice of the secret manual I gave you coming along?"

Ma Meiyun lowered her head and replied, "Your Highness, I have now broken through to the Qi Refining stage, but I am still some distance from the Great Perfection of Foundation Establishment."

"Very good." Melissa nodded in satisfaction—in fact, she had been woken up early by the excited system 0733 to check the mission progress. Judging from the increase in progress, Ma Meiyun's strength was not as weak as Ma Meiyun said. She said that she was still some distance away from the Great Perfection of Foundation Establishment, but in reality, she should already be at the Great Perfection of Foundation Establishment, and might even be able to break through to the Golden Core realm.

However, Melissa didn't mind Ma Meiyun's concealment. According to the original plot—although written from the perspective of the original male protagonist, Jing'an—it can be seen that Ma Meiyun is a rather loyal and affectionate person. Concealing her strength slightly to prevent it from attracting her master's attention is within Melissa's tolerance.

In the original story, I remember there was a place on the edge of the Demon Realm and the Spirit Realm, where there was a secret realm. Melissa thought to herself, but that secret realm would take a long time to open. Before that, she should find some secret manuals that were within the scope of the Heavenly Dao of this world and give them to Ma Meiyun to cultivate. This would also help her shorten the distance between herself and the number one.

Perhaps this is one way to do it... An idea popped into Melissa's mind.

“My clan needs a few people to infiltrate the spirit realm to help the demons,” Melissa said to Ma Meiyun.

"Go check out the spirit world. Maybe we can stumble upon some plot points. After all, there are too few plot points in the demon realm, and they're not very important. Most of them are about emotions and aren't very useful. It's better to try our luck in the spirit world. Although it's dangerous, the progress will probably be quite fast," Melissa thought.

"The Huaiyu Sect is currently recruiting. Take the Concealing Jade, change your face, and conceal your demonic markings. Go try your luck around the Huaiyu Sect." Melissa gave Ma Meiyun clear instructions.

Ma Meiyun accepted the task given to her by Melissa.

In the Spirit Realm, on Rain Spirit Mountain of Huaiyu Sect, Caihua had sat down to rest for the tenth time, absorbing the surrounding spiritual energy to nourish her body.

Little White was still wrapped around Caihua's neck, occasionally rubbing its head against Caihua's face. Occasionally, it would peek out to smell the delicious spiritual food that a beautiful female fairy had brought for it.

Another breeze blew by, and Ayaka felt that the heat in her body had lessened considerably, but her legs were still very sore.

Caihua stopped absorbing spiritual energy and began massaging her legs. After finishing, she ate the food that another female elder of the Huaiyu Sect had brought for her and Xiaobai. Looking up at the mountain, she wondered how much longer she would have to climb to reach the sect's gate.

Footsteps and panting came from behind. Caihua turned around and saw Wen Meiying and Wang Li, who were panting heavily as they climbed.

Both of them had been pampered at home since childhood, and it seemed to be their first time hiking up a mountain. The fact that they were able to climb so fast was beyond Ayaka's expectations.

Wang Li and Wen Meiying's hair wasn't as neat and tidy as it had been when they first arrived. A few strands of hair fell down, making it look somewhat messy.

The two of them stopped in front of Ayaka, not caring about etiquette, and gasped for breath with their mouths open and faces flushed.

Caihua greeted them—on the way, Chongxiang had told her that from now on they were all disciples of the Huaiyu Sect, with no distinction of rank. So Caihua's greeting was sufficient.

Ayaka intended to remain seated, but Wen Meiying suddenly rushed towards her through gritted teeth, asking haltingly, "How...how could you...run away? That's so unfair."

“?” Ayaka was a little confused.

"You should... wake... us both up and let's go together." Wen Meiying took a deep breath after every two or three words. Caihua was really worried that he would suddenly faint halfway through his speech.

"Have you two eaten?" Not knowing how to answer Wen Meiying's question, Caihua chose to skip that question and instead asked the two of them if they had eaten.

Wenmei Xiangxiang then realized something, took out another half steamed bun from her body and wolfed it down, while Wang Li was panting heavily. She had just walked up to Caihua and sat down, not caring at all whether the ground was clean or not. She sat there panting heavily, and didn't even have the strength to speak.

Wen Meiying and Wang Li looked really bad, so Caihua decided to wait until they recovered before leaving. After all, she was genuinely worried that if she didn't keep an eye on them, they would die on the way.

"Wow, you three climbed so fast! Everyone else is still on the first platform, and you're already halfway up the mountain." A woman's voice came from below. Caihua peeked over and saw that it was the immortal who had brought her breakfast that morning. She quickly stood up and returned the greeting: "Caihua greets the immortal."

"Oh dear, why are you bowing? You haven't even become an apprentice yet, how can you be so old-fashioned at such a young age?" Lin Yuqing saw Caihua about to bow to her and quickly came over, patted Caihua's head, and told Caihua to straighten up.

Upon seeing Lin Yuqing, the three children were a little nervous. Wen Meiying and Wang Li, who were still panting, stood in front of Lin Yuqing with Caihua, despite the soreness in their legs.

Seeing that she was making the three children too restrained, Lin Yuqing headed up the mountain, waving as she went: "I'm going back first. If you two run into trouble on the way, just shout 'Juchi is here' towards the forest, and what you need will come out of the woods. Keep climbing, I look forward to seeing you again."

After saying that, Lin Yuqing made a gesture in the air and conjured up her weapon, the Pearl Sound Pipa. She held the Pearl Sound Pipa and played it twice. Then, clouds gathered beneath her feet and carried her up the mountain.

The three children watched Lin Yuqing's departing figure on the clouds, their little faces filled with envy.

Wen Meiying was thinking that he would be the first to learn how to ride the clouds.

Wang Li wanted to become the disciple of this beautiful female immortal, because she loved beautiful things the most.

Caihua wondered how much this cloud could carry. If it could carry a lot, she wouldn't have to carry her own packages; she could just throw them onto the cloud. She could also send things to her mother and Caiyue.

After the three children rested for a while, Caihua saw that Wen Meiying and Wang Li's complexions had almost recovered, so she turned around and started packing her bags.

After tidying up, Caihua looked up at the mountain and saw Wen Meiying and Wang Li rushing up the mountain.

Caihua first slung her pack over her shoulder, preparing to follow Wang Wen and the other man up the mountain, when she heard a little boy's tearful cry coming from the woods to the left of the road: "Is anyone there? Someone help me, help me!"

Hearing the shout, Ayaka carried her bag and walked towards the source of the sound—after all, she had Xiaobai, and if anything unexpected happened, as long as it wasn't fatal, she could ask Xiaobai to call for help.

Then Ayaka saw the little boy who had twice tried to eat early and had been caught by the teacher each time, sitting under a tree with red flowers, crying.

"What's wrong?" Ayaka asked.

Nolan saw that someone had come looking for him and became agitated. He grabbed Caihua's sleeve and said, "I, I, my leg is tangled in thorny vines, help me, help me!"

Because Nolan was holding her back, Ayaka couldn't see where Nolan was injured. Finally, Xiaobai slapped Nolan's face with its tail, which calmed Nolan down a little.

Ayaka broke free from Nolan's grasp and went to see what was holding him captive.

As Nolan said, the dark green vines covered in thorns were wrapped around Nolan's right leg, leaving several bloody scratches.

Ayaka didn't reach out to grab the vines—after all, so many thorns looked painful, and there was nowhere to start—she first tentatively poked one with a finger, but unexpectedly, with just that light poke, she broke her skin and bled.

Ayaka looked troubled—there were no scissors or other sharp objects in her package. Firstly, she had never thought of needing to cut anything, and secondly, she usually wouldn't get tangled in strange things while walking on the main road.

"How did you get like this?" Ayaka couldn't help but ask, her hands still stinging slightly despite the cloth wrapped around them.

Nolan was on the verge of tears: "I was tired from walking the main road, so I thought I'd find a shortcut. I actually found a small path, tried walking a couple of steps, and found it was much faster than going straight up the mountain. I kept walking along this path, but who knew I'd get tangled up in these red flower vines?" If only I hadn't tried to save energy by taking the shortcut. Nolan thought to himself, crying.

Ayaka tried to pull the vine with her hand wrapped in cloth, but the vine was wrapped very tightly. Ayaka pulled hard, but only Nolan was hurt.

After her ears were overwhelmed by Nolan's agonizing screams, Ayaka gave up. She thought there was no way out, but then she remembered what the beautiful female elder had said.

"If you encounter a problem that you cannot solve, shout 'Juchi is here!'"

Ayaka raised her head and shouted at the angel, "Ju! Chi! Is! Here!"

Then, to the astonishment of the two children, a green light appeared, and Fang Yuancheng walked out of the green light with a bewildered look on his face, asking, "Who called me here?"