Immortal Ascension Tower 34 BEGINNING HER MORNING ROUTINE

It was barely five in the morning in the western continent; a shallow veil of darkness loomed atop its lands, awaiting for the sun to rise and dispel it. Within a conspicuous mountain chain lay an even more conspicuous castle, with walls stretching for miles on end and tall enough to instill fear in the heart of any invader. There were a total of seven layers of such walls, in between which were six rings of households and structures, as well as an ample amount of forests, hills, and even some large rivers converging into even bigger lakes.

That unimaginably big castle was none other than the renowned Mysterious Light-Shadow Sect, a Sect that had been erected barely one thousand years ago, and yet had grown to become one of the most influential powers of the whole western continent.

In the outer-most ring of the Sect, the sixth ring, was located the Vacant Sect, a space in which Vacant Disciple would take residence in in great number, with the amount surpassing several millions of disciples. There were thousand of wards, each housing dozens, hundreds of huts, and among the wooden cabinets was an especially peculiar one; mainly, the 5th located in the 742nd ward. The owners of this hut, which was not only remarkable due to its external appearance and size but also because it was the only inhabited one in a range of a mile, were currently threading a paved road.

"Hey, brother... where are we going exactly?" Xiao Wu asked as she examined her surroundings: the two of them had been walking nonstop for roughly half an hour already, and yet the youth showed no signs of wanting to stop anytime soon.

"You'll see when we get there!", was what Cheng Hao had answered time and time again before. This time around however, he seemed to have found something satisfying enough and stopped in his steps. He looked around and, finally, pointed at a rather tall structures standing out in between the sea of trees by the sides of the road, "There. Let's make our way there for now!"

Xiao Wu thought of complaining, but ultimately sighed. After rubbing her eyes and thanking the heavens for not having the weak constitution of a cultivationless child anymore, the purple-haired girl reluctantly followed behind the golden-eyed youth with a yawn. The reason they were out here was because Cheng Hao had insisted for her to practice some kind of technique. For that reason, he had suddenly woken her up at half past four in the morning and had told her to quietly prepare and then follow him. After following his instructions and spinning the Pseudo-Core within her consciousness a few times, the Spiritual Energy it had gathered during its natural rotations during the night had actually acted as fuel for her tired body. This surprised her to no end: to think that after barely sleeping for six hours or so, she only felt slightly tired...

Afterwards, she had brushed her teeth, washed her face, and finally changed herself, from the mundane clothes she had used to sleep to the Sect's clothing.

The clothing for Vacant Disciples were fairly simple: they comprised of a plain, black robe with a single stripe going from the right shoulder to the left ankle. At some point in the middle, that stripe would also begin to fade into the black, giving it a mysterious appearance of a light merging with the shadows. Xiao Wu had asked her big brother whether there was any kind of symbolic meaning behind it, only to receive Cheng Hao's uninterested reply: "Maybe somebody spilled some white paint on his robes and launched a new fashion?"

The robe also had a hood that could be used to conceal one's face, plus a pair of strings from which they could hang their Heaven&Earth Pouches, one beneath and one above the cloth. In order to avoid any surprises, the two children were both wearing their hoods and had hung their pouches from the piece of string hidden below the robes.

Before they could leave though, Cheng Hao had been forced to wait for Xiao Wu as she wished to apply some makeup before going out. It was not common eyeliner, foundation or lipstick used to embellish oneself, rather it was so as to make her looks more masculine. To go along with her 'Xiao Li' persona, she had also tied her long blue-purplish hair into a long ponytail.

Cheng Hao did not ask the reason she had decided to dress and act as a male. It probably had something to do with her past. Although there was no such rule in the Xiao Clan where it would deny the spot of Clan Head to females, maybe it was something along those lines? Anyways, it was not tactful of him to bring up a past she might be trying her hardest to forget. Furthermore, he was rather open-minded. He had traveled with companions with much worse habits than cross-dressing. Plus, he also couldn't deny to have also dabbled in it a bit himself due to 'reasons'… but that's another story for another day.

At the same time, he could only stare at her with an intrigued gaze: Xiao Wu's bloodline was exceedingly pure, so much more so than Xiao Lan's. Only that could explain her talent, which even surpassed her ancestor! Of course, Cheng Hao had helped her a bit and brought out the full power of the legacy within her blood thanks to her Martial Ways. However, even had he not done so and had left alone, it would still have been one tier higher in quality than even THE Xiao Lan.

The knowledge that the aging process would be stopping unconditionally at the Ageless Realm was flawed, as that only applied to humans and beings of relatively less pure bloodlines. With Xiao Wu's blood legacy being so great, it could only mean her father and mother had been if not close family, at least part of the same main Xiao Clan branch. Only that would allow Xiao Wu's blood purity to spike to such a level. Basically, inbreeding, a pretty common usage within noble Clans of high standing. And yet, even so, Cheng Hao doubted the purity of one's blood would reach such heights. There had to be more left unsaid…

Anyways, what that all would amount to would be that, if Cheng Hao's big plan of achieving Ageless Realm by thirteen succeeded, the girl wouldn't stop aging as most other humans would. That would only happen automatically after she reached twenty-five years of age, the moment the cells in her body would usually begin to show signs of degradation: this was an innate mechanism of the most ancient Primordial Beasts in order to make the most out of their human form. After all, in battle, would having the body of a child possibly be better than having one of a fully developed adult?

Also, thanks to her bloodline as a descendant of a Primordial Beast, her hair wouldn't turn a silvery-white like it usually should, but would instead retain its appearance without being subject to change. On the other hand, Cheng Hao would instead end up as an eternal silver-haired, thirteen-year-old child as soon as he stepped into the Ageless Realm. Neat.

After walking for about a hundred meters more, Cheng Hao finally stopped. He turned around and asked, "Do you remember the way up to here?"

The girl nodded: after all, they had been following the road all this while, if she were to lose herself she might as well give up on cultivation right there and then! The boy smiled and removed the hood as he pointed to the structure from before: an abandoned stone tower, "Every day, for a month, you will run here before dawn breaks and sit on that tower. You will then be sure to absorb the very first virgin sunlight of the morning following this scripture," Cheng Hao raised his left hand and poked the girl's forehead with his index and middle finger. Immediately afterwards, the girl's complexion paled slightly as a huge amount of information was forcefully engraved in her brain. It took her a few breaths before she could stabilize herself again.

"I will be expecting for you not to skip too many days of this morning routine. In fact, you should make into your habit! Because not only will it make it increasingly easier to practice a magnificent skill in the future, but also because, trust me if I say this, if you skip a single day you won't get to eat for a week!" Cheng Hao smiled mischievously.

"But brother" she argued, her snickering hidden beneath the shadow of her hood, "Wasn't I the one who was preparing the food to begin with?"

"..." Cheng Hao's smile froze as he realized that what the other had said was true... He straightened himself up and coughed twice to clear his voice.

"Ahem, I meant... That as soon as you skip, you will have to wash the clothes for a week!"

"But brother," Xiao Wu innocently pointed out, "aren't I the one washing the clothes and cleaning the house to begin with?"

"... What about house chores?"

"Also me."

"….."

"...Ahem!" Cheng Hao coughed drily, "Regardless of all that, I hope you understand that the stakes are high! Dawn at this period of the year usually comes at around five to six in the morning. Until you have learnt how to figure out the exact hour from looking at the changes of the heavenly bodies in the sky and the shadows on the ground, you will be able to discern the time from the water clock in the hut!"

Xiao Wu nodded. Then, she asked a question about a concern she had had for a while, "But brother, why should I have to run all the way here first thing in the morning? Wouldn't it be easier to simply cultivate in our courtyard?"

Cheng Hao shook his head, pointing at the walls of the Sect, "What do you see?"

"Uh... A wall?" The girl replied matter-of-factly.

"Good enough." The golden-eyed youth motioned for her to climb up the tower, "Then, what about up here? You understand now, right?"

Sure enough, as soon as they reached the top, Xiao Wu finally understood the reason: surprisingly, Xiao Wu's stark remark had actually nailed the matter head-on!

Be it because the tower was on relatively high ground compared to the outer walls or some other unknown reasons related to the terrain, atop this building in particular she could actually manage to catch a glimpse of the horizon that should have been hidden behind the Sect Walls!

If she had correctly interpreted Cheng Hao's 'Virgin Sunlight' to be the very first rays of light to hit the land in the morning, then she doubted they would be able to find many more places like this in the whole Vacant Sect where she would be able to catch them. This was due to the sheer height of those walls and the lucky coincidence of there being a tower somehow on a higher ground than the walls themselves.

"Well, I'll go back to the hut now! Let's have breakfast together there as soon as you're finished." Cheng Hao waved his arm, then descended the ruined tower and walked off. As soon as he disappeared from her line of sight, his direction changed abruptly as he rotated his Pseudo-Core and shot towards the tall walls of the Sect! It was almost morning, but the sky was still dark enough for most low-level cultivators to be unable to spot him at such a distance, but he still chose to hide his features with a hood as an extra precaution.
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