Shen Yue woke on her first morning at Tranquil Peak feeling better than she had in her entire life.

  The small guest room Lin Feng had prepared for her was simple—just a wooden bed, a desk, and a window overlooking the courtyard. But the spiritual energy here was so dense that a single night's rest had advanced her cultivation more than a month of intensive training back at the sect.

  She stepped outside to find her new master already awake, watering his tea trees.

  "Good morning, Master," she said, bowing respectfully.

  Lin Feng turned and waved. "Oh, good morning! Just call me Lin Feng. 'Master' feels too formal. Did you sleep well?"

  Of course he wants me to call him by name, Shen Yue thought. He's testing my humility, making sure I don't become arrogant just because I'm his disciple.

  "I slept wonderfully, Master," she said, deliberately ignoring his request. A true disciple would never be so presumptuous as to address their master casually!

  Lin Feng sighed but didn't push the issue. "Well, I suppose we should start your training. Though I'm not sure what I can teach you. What's your current cultivation level?"

  "I'm at the seventh level of Qi Refining, Master."

  "Oh! That's higher than I was when I started here," Lin Feng said cheerfully. "You're probably more talented than me. But let's see... why don't you show me your cultivation technique?"

  Shen Yue sat in the courtyard and began to circulate her qi according to the Azure Sky Sect's basic technique. She'd practiced this method for five years, but she'd always struggled with the third meridian pathway—it felt blocked somehow.

  After watching for a few minutes, Lin Feng scratched his head. "Hmm, I think I see the problem. Your qi flow is taking a slightly inefficient path through your third meridian. Try adjusting it about... two degrees to the left? Like this."

  He made a gentle gesture in the air, and Shen Yue suddenly felt her understanding of qi circulation shift. The "blockage" she'd struggled with for years wasn't a blockage at all—she'd simply been approaching it from the wrong angle!

  She adjusted her technique according to his guidance, and immediately her qi began flowing ten times more smoothly. The efficiency increase was staggering!

  With just a casual observation, he identified and fixed a flaw that my previous masters never even noticed! she thought in awe. And he called it 'slightly inefficient'—but this changes everything!

  [Teaching Session Complete!]

  [Your disciple has gained enlightenment from your guidance!]

  [Reward: Your own understanding of qi circulation has deepened. +500 Seclusion Points]

  Lin Feng felt a warm sensation in his dantian. "Oh, that's interesting. The system says teaching you actually helps me too. That's nice!"

  He didn't realize that what he'd just taught Shen Yue was a qi circulation method that even Nascent Soul cultivators would pay fortunes to learn. His own cultivation was so advanced that he could perceive the optimal pathways through any technique at a glance.

  "Now then," Lin Feng continued, "I usually spend my mornings cultivating, then tend the garden, and study alchemy in the afternoon. You're welcome to join me for any of these activities. Oh, and help yourself to the tea and vegetables—I always grow more than I can eat."

  Shen Yue's eyes widened. The tea that granted instant enlightenment? The vegetables that contained boundless spiritual energy? He was offering them to her casually, as if they were ordinary refreshments?

  This is another test, she realized. He wants to see if I'll be greedy and take too much, or if I'll show restraint and only take what I need.

  "Thank you, Master. I'll only partake of what is necessary for my cultivation. I won't waste your precious resources."

  Lin Feng looked confused. "Waste? There's plenty. Seriously, the vegetables keep growing faster than I can harvest them. If you don't help me eat them, some will just rot."

  Of course, what he didn't know was that his "vegetables" were immortal spirit plants that never rotted and only grew more potent with age. The "extra" vegetables he was worried about were each worth more than most sects' entire treasuries.

  Over the following weeks, Shen Yue settled into life on Tranquil Peak.

  Every morning, she'd cultivate alongside Lin Feng. His mere presence seemed to stabilize the spiritual energy around her, making breakthroughs incredibly smooth. Within two weeks, she'd advanced from the seventh level of Qi Refining to the ninth.

  When she expressed amazement at her progress, Lin Feng just smiled. "The spiritual energy here is quite thin, so you must have good natural talent. You're doing well!"

  Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

  Shen Yue wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. Thin spiritual energy? She could barely breathe without absorbing enough qi to make lesser cultivators explode! But his modesty was clearly a lesson in humility.

  In the afternoons, Lin Feng would teach her alchemy. He'd show her how to identify herbs (many of which were growing in his garden), how to balance their properties, and how to control spiritual fire.

  "I'm still learning myself," he'd say modestly, "but I can show you the basics."

  The "basics" he taught her were actually supreme alchemy principles that most alchemist grandmasters spent lifetimes trying to understand. By the end of the first month, Shen Yue could refine middle-grade Qi Refining pills with ease—something that should have taken years of study.

  One day, as she successfully refined her first batch of Foundation Establishment pills, she turned to Lin Feng with tears in her eyes.

  "Master, I don't know how to thank you. In just one month, I've learned more than I did in five years at the sect. Your guidance has transformed my entire cultivation path."

  Lin Feng looked embarrassed. "Really, I haven't done much. You're just a talented student. Actually, I should be thanking you—the system gives me rewards every time you make progress, so you're helping me cultivate too!"

  He's so humble that he credits me for his own teaching genius! Shen Yue thought, her respect for her master growing even deeper. And he speaks of the 'system' as if it's some ordinary tool, when clearly it must be an ancient cultivation inheritance or divine artifact!

  That evening, as they sat drinking tea and watching the sunset, Shen Yue gathered her courage to ask something that had been on her mind.

  "Master, why did you choose to live in seclusion? With your abilities, you could easily become the sect master of any major sect, or even establish your own."

  Lin Feng was quiet for a moment, staring at his tea. "When I first started cultivating, I was weak and reckless. I nearly died in a beast tide because I got greedy and took risks I shouldn't have. The cultivation world is dangerous, and I realized that the only way to truly be safe is to grow strong slowly and carefully, away from conflicts and competition."

  He looked up at the darkening sky. "Maybe one day, when I'm truly strong—like, Nascent Soul realm or something—I'll venture out again. But until then, I'm happy here. It's peaceful. Safe. I can cultivate at my own pace without worrying about sect politics or resource competitions or demonic cultivator attacks."

  Shen Yue felt her heart clench. Such profound wisdom! He'd experienced setbacks in his youth and learned from them. Rather than letting pride drive him to prove himself, he'd chosen the path of patience and steady growth. And his casual mention of "Nascent Soul realm"—a level that most cultivators could only dream of—showed how high his aspirations truly were.

  When he finally does emerge from seclusion, she thought, the entire cultivation world will tremble.

  "Master," she said softly, "your disciple understands. I'll guard your secret and train hard so that one day, I can be worthy of your teachings."

  Lin Feng smiled. "You're already worthy, Shen Yue. Don't put so much pressure on yourself. Just cultivate steadily and safely—that's all that matters."

  In the distance, Xiao Hong clucked approvingly from her roost, her phoenix eyes gleaming in the twilight.

  [Fifty-Two Days of Teaching Complete!]

  [Your disciple Shen Yue has reached Foundation Establishment Realm!]

  [Reward: 10,000 Seclusion Points, Teaching Skill upgraded, Pill Refinement Mastery]

  Lin Feng nearly spat out his morning tea when the notification appeared.

  "You broke through to Foundation Establishment?! Already?!"

  Shen Yue, who was sitting in meditation in the courtyard, opened her eyes and smiled. "Yes, Master! Thanks to your guidance, I was able to perceive the pathway clearly. The breakthrough was as smooth as flowing water."

  Lin Feng shook his head in amazement. "Incredible. It took me fifty years to reach Foundation Establishment, and you did it in less than two months. You really are talented!"

  What he didn't realize was that HIS fifty years had actually resulted in him reaching Void Transformation Realm—the system had simply misled him about his progress. And Shen Yue's "rapid" advancement to Foundation Establishment in two months was actually quite ordinary, even slow—except that she'd started at Qi Refining and had also completely reconstructed her foundation to a perfected state in that time, which should have been impossible.

  "Now that you're at Foundation Establishment, you'll need a proper technique for this realm," Lin Feng mused. "Let me see what the system shop has..."

  He browsed the shop and found something listed as "Basic Foundation Establishment Manual (1,000 points)."

  "Hmm, 'basic' but it's quite expensive. Must be decent quality. Here, Shen Yue, let me purchase this for you."

  He bought it, and a jade slip appeared in his hand. When he handed it to Shen Yue, her hands trembled.

  The moment she touched the slip, information flooded her mind. This wasn't a "basic" manual—it was the legendary Celestial Foundation Scripture, a heaven-grade technique that had been lost for ten thousand years! Cultivating this method would give her a foundation stronger than almost any other cultivator in history!

  "M-Master... this is too precious!"

  "Nonsense," Lin Feng said, waving his hand. "What's the point of having resources if I don't share them with my disciple? Besides, the system gave me plenty of points. Don't worry about it."

  Shen Yue clutched the jade slip to her chest, tears streaming down her face. Her master had casually given her a treasure that sects would wage wars over, as if it were nothing.

  I will train harder than ever, she vowed silently. I won't let Master's kindness go to waste!

  That night, in the Azure Sky Sect's main hall, an emergency meeting was being held.

  "Shen Yue has been missing for nearly a week," the Mission Elder reported grimly. "The three demonic cultivators who attacked her group were found dead in the Demon Suppressing Forest, their bodies burned to ash by what appears to be phoenix fire."

  The Sect Master frowned. "Phoenix fire? Impossible. There are no phoenixes in this region."

  "Nevertheless, the evidence is clear. Moreover..." the Mission Elder hesitated. "The scouts report that there were signs of a spatial distortion in the area where she vanished. She may have been transported elsewhere."

  "Could she still be alive?" the Grand Elder asked.

  "Unknown. We can only hope that wherever she ended up, it wasn't somewhere even more dangerous."

  What none of them knew was that Shen Yue was perfectly safe, happily cultivating on Tranquil Peak, advancing at a rate that would make immortals jealous, under the guidance of a "master" who thought he was just an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator sharing his humble home.