Honestly, the fact that my master had put up with me for eight years was way beyond what I'd expected.
I'd actually imagined that once she discovered what a complete waste I was, she'd be shocked and disappointed, kick me out of the sect, and then I'd roar defiantly, "Just you wait—I'll show you all!" and awaken some system...
Wait, what? I'm just some poor bastard screwed over by Heaven's Will? Yeah, dream on.
Yana casually tossed out a pure white token and said coolly, "You're in complete charge of this matter."
"Uh... what?" I reflexively caught the jade token but couldn't find words.
Master, you're picking a direct disciple here, right? Could you maybe put a little thought into it? Some decisions shouldn't be made by flipping a coin!
Seeing me standing there like a wooden post, Yana raised her eyebrow. "Got a problem with that?"
My mouth twitched. "It's not that, it's just that taking on disciples is a big deal..."
"I trust my good disciple's judgment. Off you go." Yana waved dismissively, seemingly casual, but with a gentle force that pushed me several hundred meters away from the pavilion.
I stood there disheveled in the wind, staring back at the pavilion for a long moment, speechless. Finally, I steeled myself and headed down the mountain to complete my master's assignment.
After I turned away, Yana became thoughtful, but in the end, she said nothing.
A shimmer of water-like ripples appeared before her. She stepped into it and vanished without a trace.
.---.
On the way down the mountain, though I appeared calm on the surface, my heart was heavy as lead.
Without a doubt, this task from my master was basically asking me to dig my own grave.
After all, comparisons were the thief of joy. Bring back some junior brother or sister, and with Yana's incredible resources backing them up, they'd be soaring past me in no time. And then…
"What! You can't even measure up to a disciple who just joined? What have you been doing all these years? Training like a dog? What's the point of keeping you around!"
I could already picture it. As the senior disciple of Heavenly Jade Peak who'd been stuck at Level 1 for years, I'd probably be packing my bags soon enough.
You had to understand… among my peers, even the worst-qualified outer disciples with the fewest resources had completed Level 2 a year ago.
After all, Celestial Gate was the most elite sect within a thousand miles. Could anyone who got in really be a waste?
Wait... waste!
I felt a flash of inspiration and clapped my hands together.
If I bring back some incredibly talented genius, I'll definitely get completely outclassed.
But Master gave me the authority to choose. Why should I make things harder for myself?
What if I do the opposite and pick a complete waste instead?
Wouldn't that make me look not quite so pathetic by comparison?
Before transmigrating, I had played plenty of games, so I deeply understood one principle: It's all about making the competition look worse.
Your game has problems? No worries, as long as some other game's developers pull even shadier moves, they'll draw most of the fire, and you can rest assure. Players might even curse out those other developers' entire families, then come back and call you industry conscience.
How perfect would that be?
Sure, this wouldn't solve my fundamental lack of strength, but it could handle the immediate crisis.
As long as my master poured all her disappointed in your lack of progress feelings onto the new disciple, I'd be temporarily safe. At least until that poor soul got kicked off Heavenly Jade Peak. Knowing Yana like I did, I could probably buy myself a few more years.
Having figured it all out, I felt like I was glowing with wisdom.
With this in mind, I decided to keep my eyes peeled and find a real treasure at the Immortal Selection Assembly.
...
"Get lost! What's a waste with defective spiritual roots doing here causing trouble! Is the Immortal Selection Assembly someplace you belong?" A middle aged man's voice boomed, rough and impatient, but those three words defective spiritual roots successfully caught my attention.
I looked toward the sound and saw a thin girl standing before the burly man. She had long silver-white hair and kept her head down. With the awkward angle, I couldn't make out her face clearly, but somehow I sensed she had a unique quality about her.
The middle aged man made no effort to hide his disgust for the girl. Not only was he pointing at her, but he tilted his head back as if he wanted to lecture her through his nostrils, the picture of arrogance. A perfect display of cultivator superiority.
To those high and mighty cultivators, mortals were a different species entirely, as weak and insignificant as ants. Even the weakest cultivator could obliterate any mortal.
Sure, this burly guy only had low grade spiritual roots himself. His talent was trash, and he'd barely gotten one foot into Level 1. In the sect, he was just a menial worker everyone picked on.
But so what?
Compared to mortals, he was in a completely different league!
He was proud!
His commotion drew quite a crowd of onlookers.
"Well, well, if it isn't the waste girl who got kicked out of the Xiao family! How many Selections have you wandered around attending lately? Still won't give up?" A sneering man with upturned eyes recognized this famous poor girl, his words dripping like venom. Anyone could see he'd cultivated a mastery of sarcasm.
"Delusional idiot!"
"Hit the wall and still won't turn back, absolutely shameless."
"You think you deserve to cultivate?"
...
Hearing the cold mockery around her, Xiao Sumin couldn't help clenching her rough cloth clothes, leaving red marks on her pale skin.
The Xiao family was one of the four great houses of the Great Wilderness Dynasty. She'd once been the family's great hope, but when tested, she turned out to have defective spiritual roots. Many family members who'd envied her seized the chance to kick her while she was down, leading to her being ruthlessly expelled from the family as worthless.
Now at the end of her rope, this Selection Assembly was her only hope, her final struggle against an unfair fate.
Unfortunately, she'd lost. Lost completely.
As expected, with her defective spiritual roots, she was utterly useless and couldn't accomplish anything.
Just as Sumin felt the world held nothing but despair and darkness, she heard a warm voice.
"Excuse me."
As someone who'd lived two lifetimes, I instinctively couldn't stand watching a bunch of people gang up on a young girl.
What were they all doing, stuffed and bored out of their minds, gathering around to gossip? Did they have to drive someone to a breakdown to satisfy their twisted psychology of watching drama unfold?
More importantly, my goal for this trip was to find some waste of a junior disciple to take back as contrast and temporarily secure my position as senior disciple.
Now that I'd encountered someone rumored to have defective spiritual roots, a legendary failure, how could I possibly contain myself?
Defective spiritual roots! That was defective spiritual roots! Unable to absorb or store spiritual energy, no matter how hard they tried, they could never cultivate.
Was there any more ideal waste candidate than this?
I stepped forward and finally got a good look at the girl's face.
She was petite, heartbreakingly thin from long periods of wandering, but I could tell she had a beautiful face and skin white as snow, a real beauty in the making. Especially those dark green eyes, which rivaled the most brilliant gems. With a few good years of care, she'd definitely be a breathtaking stunner.
Our gazes briefly met.