The Green Radiance Minor World was rife with patriarchal norms.
For instance, the current lords of the Four Great Cities were all male cultivators, not due to a lack of talented female cultivators, but because the position of City Lord was passed down from father to son, not to daughters.
Another example was that female cultivators in the Divine Temple could, at most, reach the position of Divine Maiden in their lifetime. Female slaves were sacrificial offerings, and Divine Maidens could also be sacrificial offerings. Only a Divine Maiden who presided over the Winter Solstice Festival had the qualification to reside permanently within the Wood Spirit Pagoda of the Central Region Divine Temple.
Saint Sons, however, were different. All Saint Sons fought and competed against each other, able to continuously advance to become Divine Messengers or even Divine Masters of the Divine Temple.
Therefore, the period before the Winter Solstice Festival each year was when the competition between Saint Sons and Divine Maidens was most intense.
As the most popular Saint Son and the earliest to enter the Divine Temple, Ning Changchao immediately noticed the newly arrived White Divine Maiden.
Envoy Cui, the most trusted by the Divine Master among the three Divine Envoys, personally escorted her to her residence. She hailed from Anyang Village, which had produced three Divine Maidens. Coupled with her unrestrained and stunning beauty, it was hard for him not to notice her.
Ning Changchao's smile deepened, and he said with a hint of self-satisfaction, "Miss Bai, don't be too quick to refuse. Let me finish speaking."
Bai Shengyi raised her eyelids and looked at him expressionlessly.
Perhaps due to the lingering effects of the scumbag Qin Zhao, she found the word "Chang" extremely annoying.
The smile on Ning Changchao's face froze, nearly breaking.
However, he quickly regained his composure and said with a beaming smile, "Miss Bai, you've arrived at the Divine Temple the latest. You probably don't know what the Divine Temple's selection trials will assess, do you? I've already inquired thoroughly. With my current high-grade spiritual root, I can handle this selection trial with ease. You won't lose out by cooperating with me."
In the Green Radiance Minor World, spiritual power and spiritual roots were tested for the wood element only. However, the classification of spiritual roots still followed the grades of Extreme, High, Medium, and Low.
In other words, Ning Changchao possessed a high-grade wood spiritual root.
"Master, I recall Divine Envoy Cui mentioning that his spiritual root is only high-grade, right? This fellow doesn't seem very useful, but I didn't expect him to be capable. Why don't you cooperate with him?"
Qing Meng Vine watched the unfolding spectacle with great interest.
"Little Vine Leaf, I think your eyesight and hearing need further training. This kind of person talks endlessly without getting to the point. Do you think cooperating with him won't lead to betrayal?"
Ning Changchao had been talking for a long time without revealing what the selection trials would entail, clearly having planned everything meticulously.
Bai Shengyi couldn't be bothered to waste any more time with him.
She patted the vine leaf on her wrist, raised her head, and said indifferently, "I'm sorry, I prefer to be alone."
Ning Changchao's face completely darkened.
After saying all that and inviting her for the second time, he was still rejected?
"Don't regret this," Ning Changchao said unhappily.
Before Bai Shengyi could reply, a youth walked out from the side, grinning mockingly. "Oh, for goodness sake! Ning Changchao, you can't invite someone, so you resort to threatening them! You're truly something!"
He said this while giving Ning Changchao a thumbs-up with a smirk.
Ning Changchao's anger flared even more at his words, and he glared hatefully at Bai Shengyi and the youth.
"Divine Maiden Bai, so you were in league with Second Brother all along? You should have said so earlier. Why string this Saint Son along and waste my time?"
Ning Changchao's words were undeniably malicious.
If Bai Shengyi had truly been a naive young girl just stepping into the world of cultivation, she would likely have been so angered by his slanderous words that she would have cried.
The Saint Son called Second Brother, Yao Er, spoke up, "Ning Changchao, can you show some respect towards a young lady? Do you really think this Divine Temple belongs to your Ning family?"
His words, however, implied an acknowledgment of his relationship with Bai Shengyi.
Bai Shengyi's gaze turned cold.
As Ning Changchao and Yao Er were arguing back and forth, a clear and resonant voice interrupted them with cold, yet powerful, authority.
"I said, I prefer to be alone."
Her calm, unhurried tone made her impossible to ignore. Ning Changchao and Yao Er instinctively paused. They quickly exchanged a glance and were about to continue.
However, as soon as they opened their mouths, both were violently pushed aside by an invisible force!
"Bang!"
Ning Changchao fell backward onto the ground, followed by Yao Er, who toppled down and collided head-on with him.
Yao Er was stunned and immediately tried to get up, only to find a immense and powerful pressure pinning his back, preventing him from moving an inch.
Ning Changchao felt it too.
Both were dumbfounded and subconsciously looked towards the female cultivator not far away.
They saw her curve her lips into a playful smile, her beautiful face blooming like a flower, yet her lips uttered chilling words.
"Scram!"
With those two words, Ning Changchao and Yao Er's bodies, as if bound together like a cylinder, began to roll across the ground.
By the time they finally stopped, Bai Shengyi was nowhere to be seen.
"Get up!" Ning Changchao irritably looked up to push Yao Er, but Yao Er happened to lower his head...
"Good heavens! Ning Changchao, Yao Er, you two are actually... like this?"
For some reason today, three out of the five Saint Sons had come to this place.
That Saint Son, with a finger in his mouth, looked so shocked his mouth couldn't close. He hurriedly turned around, "My goodness! Quick, I need to tell Han Bei and Zhao Xiaocao! This is too exciting..."
Seeing the other person disappear, Ning Changchao finally reacted.
"Yao Er! Get up... Ugh!" Ning Changchao shoved Yao Er away, jumped up from the ground, and stepped on his mouth with his sleeve in utter disgust, wishing he could turn back time.
Yao Er looked at Ning Changchao's disgusted expression, his face ashen, and also began to gag.
Both of them vomited until their stomachs were empty, yet still felt utterly uncomfortable. They hastily retreated to their respective rooms, wishing they could wash their mouths a thousand times over.
"Now, no one will bother me anymore." Bai Shengyi moved to a different spot to bask in the sun, absorbing spiritual energy to nourish the injuries within her body.
Qing Meng Vine said, "They should be taught a good lesson! Especially that Second Brother, he's truly disgusting. Does he think everyone can't tell he's instigating things?"
"He's probably used to doing that in the Divine Temple," Bai Shengyi wasn't surprised. What concerned her was something else. "Has the fluffy spirit beast in my sea of consciousness woken up?"
"No," Qing Meng Vine whispered. "Big Brother and Er Gou haven't woken up either."
Bai Shengyi frowned deeply. As for the Moon Crescent Cat, because there were too many uncertainties in the Cosmic Minor Realm, she had signed a contract with it, allowing it to temporarily reside within the contract space.
But the Reincarnation Brush was connected to her life essence. Logically, since she had woken up for so long, and her strength had recovered seventy percent, and the spiritual energy within the Reincarnation Brush's main body had also returned to normal, its consciousness should have awakened. Yet, there was no movement whatsoever.
She couldn't help but think of the numerous wounds on her body when she woke up.
"I remember my internal injuries weren't severe at the time, right?"
Qing Meng Vine nodded affirmatively.
Bai Shengyi unconsciously rubbed the vine leaves, her gaze deepening. If it were just a space rift she had accidentally squeezed into, given how severe her external injuries were, she shouldn't have had no internal injuries. Therefore, it could only be that after she fell unconscious, the Reincarnation Brush had done something to protect her.
Bai Shengyi's expression was complex, and she said softly, "If only I could find the whereabouts of the new Divine Fire."
She hadn't expected that, after just one night, she would actually hear about the whereabouts of the Divine Fire!
"The location for this selection trial is Tianhong Mountain."
Early in the morning, Divine Envoy Cui summoned all the Divine Maidens and Saint Sons. Bai Shengyi also saw the other Divine Maidens for the first time.
They were all dressed in neat white robes, covering themselves completely, and wore white veils over their faces.
At a glance, Bai Shengyi almost couldn't tell them apart.
One Divine Maiden exclaimed in surprise, "Tianhong Mountain? Divine Envoy, isn't that where the Divine Fire descended?"
Except for Bai Shengyi, who knew nothing, the others also looked astonished, even a little somber.