Mu Jinyu watched Yun Ge leave with regret, speechless for a long time.
He felt quite speechless. How could he have such lofty ambitions to conquer the starry sea?
His wish was actually very simple. He just wanted his family to live a peaceful life, without so many dangers.
Unfortunately, this simple wish had always been hard to realize.
"Sigh..."
Mu Jinyu sighed, then turned and left the back mountain, returning home.
Only Mu Jinyu, with his Green Emperor's Wood Emperor Body, and practicing the Dragon-Elephant Prison Suppression Technique, could swallow more than five thousand pills, refine all of Tian Jian Chi's resources, and still come out unscathed.
Jian Ruyan glanced at Mu Jinyu, sipped her tea, and said, "Are you the third on the List of Outstanding Talents now?"
"Hmm?" Mu Jinyu was taken aback upon hearing this, then smiled wryly, "How did you know?"
Wen Rou smiled and said, "When we got out and saw you weren't home, we went out for a walk and heard others talking about you. They said you defeated the eighth on the list, and then the third. We didn't believe it at first, so we went to check, and it was true..."
As she spoke, Wen Rou looked at Mu Jinyu with admiration and said, "Little Mu, you're amazing! You became the third so quickly!"
Mu Jinyu felt quite pleased with Wen Rou's admiration, smiled modestly, "Not bad, but it's still not first, so it's just okay."
After that, the three of them continued chatting and drinking tea. Mu Jinyu also told them about his recent conversation with Yun Ge.
Wen Rou naturally supported any decision Mu Jinyu made, and Jian Ruyan didn't oppose either, encouraging Mu Jinyu that if he wanted to participate in the Hidden Dragon Conference, he should keep striving and strive for the luck of every sect's Heaven's Pride disciples, which would be more beneficial for his competition in the Hidden Dragon Conference.
After discussing these matters, Mu Jinyu also gave them some pointers on their cultivation questions before they went their separate ways to train.
Two days later.
Mu Jinyu was sitting in his room, quietly meditating, when he heard a faint knocking at the door.
Mu Jinyu woke from his cultivation, went out, and opened the courtyard door.
Outside the door stood an Inner Sect Disciple, holding a cloth bag, looking at him with a bit of fear.
"What's the matter?" Mu Jinyu asked.
The Inner Sect Disciple handed the cloth bag to Mu Jinyu and said, "Senior Brother Mu, this is your monthly reward for being the third on the List of Outstanding Talents. Please accept it."
"Oh?"
Mu Jinyu was a bit surprised when he heard this, and also recalled that Yan Ran had mentioned to him that being on the List of Outstanding Talents comes with substantial monthly rewards.
To encourage disciples to strive for the List of Outstanding Talents, strive for the Four Sects' Genius Ranking!
Thinking this, Mu Jinyu took the cloth bag leisurely, used his Divine Sense to inspect, and found that inside the bag were only fifty superior-grade spirit stones and a bottle of Second-Grade Elixirs.
Mu Jinyu felt a bit strange.
Was that all the superior-grade spirit stones he got for being third on the List of Outstanding Talents each month?
It was only a bit more than what he had gotten for winning first place in the Outer Gate exam.
As for the bottle of elixirs, he ignored it out of habit.
The Inner Sect Disciple noticed Mu Jinyu's confusion and explained, "Senior Brother, don't think it's too little. Superior-grade spirit stones are still quite precious. The fact that you got a total of forty-one from the Outer Gate exam was an exception. Generally, they wouldn't reward that many."
"Senior Brother, think about it. After becoming a disciple on the List of Outstanding Talents, you get fifty superior-grade spirit stones and a bottle of Second-Grade Elixirs every month without doing anything. Isn't that satisfying enough?"
"Also, as a disciple in the top ten of the List of Outstanding Talents, you get the privilege to train in Tian Jian Chi for a day. This reward is actually very generous."
Hearing this, Mu Jinyu also thought it made sense. These rewards might not mean much to him, but they were indeed substantial for other disciples.
Especially the reward of training in Tian Jian Chi, which made even him tempted. Naturally, the other disciples would be even more motivated.
Mu Jinyu thought about the fact that he could go train in Tian Jian Chi for another day, and figured even if he couldn't break through to the Ninth Layer of the Divine Transformation Realm within a day, he would be close by then. So he asked, "Can I go train in Tian Jian Chi for a day now, or do I need to wait in line?"
After all, the top ten on the List of Outstanding Talents all had the privilege to train in Tian Jian Chi. He wasn't sure about the specifics and assumed there might already be people lining up for it.
The disciple's expression turned peculiar when he heard Mu Jinyu's question, and after a moment of hesitation, he shook his head and said, "For the next three years, the top ten on the List of Outstanding Talents won't have the reward of training in Tian Jian Chi."
"Ah? Why?" Mu Jinyu was puzzled and then got a bit angry.
The disciple was startled by Mu Jinyu's expression and explained nervously, "Because... because Senior Brother, not long ago, you drained all the spiritual liquid in Tian Jian Chi during your training. Now there's no more spiritual liquid in Tian Jian Chi. It will take at least three years for it to recover to its former level..."
"Ah? How did that happen?"
Mu Jinyu found it unbelievable and felt like the disciple was pulling his leg.
When did he drain Tian Jian Chi during his training?
Thinking this, Mu Jinyu felt something was off. When his training ended, he was sent out by the formation in Tian Jian Chi without seeing its state.
Could it be that he really drained Tian Jian Chi?
The disciple saw that Mu Jinyu didn't believe him and understood that Mu Jinyu probably didn't see Tian Jian Chi's state before being sent out. He explained again, "I'm not lying, Senior Brother. After you left, two Supreme Elders personally inspected Tian Jian Chi and found that the spiritual liquid was completely dried up and couldn't be used for training. It will take three years to recover..."
"Is that so?" Mu Jinyu finally believed him. He felt a bit embarrassed afterward.
In the past, other top ten disciples on the List of Outstanding Talents would at least consume Tian Jian Chi's resources for ten days, but never drained its spiritual liquid. He just went in for three days and drained it all!
How terrifying! Was that necessary?