Below the post, dozens of replies had already piled up:

“Holy crap! He actually went in!”

“A lone man and woman, sharing a room!”

“Big boss Xuan Buyan is a legend! This angle is incredible!”

“It’s solid evidence! If nothing happens after this, I’ll donate all my contribution points to the Divination Court!”

On the light screen, several clear, dynamic spirit-images were displayed. 

Bai Ling was standing outside the door of the Listening Bamboo Pavilion. Xiao Che opened the door with an awkward expression.  then the two of them walked into the small courtyard, one after the other.

The photographer’s technique was superb, and the angles were tricky. They captured Bai Ling’s reproachful expression and Xiao Che’s look of distress with perfect clarity, making the atmosphere feel incredibly intense.

Xiao Che: “…”

Bai Ling: “…”

Time seemed to freeze.

Xiao Che stared at the post, his mind feeling numb as a rush of heat surged straight to his face.

*This is bad… Even jumping into the Yellow River wouldn’t wash me clean now!*

Bai Ling was stunned at first. Once she processed the content of the post and those heated comments, two clouds of crimson bloomed on her fair cheeks, spreading all the way to the tips of her ears.

In those soft, charming eyes, a wave of shame and annoyance instantly swelled.

“Xuan… Bu… Yan…!”

She squeezed the name through her teeth, her chest heaving with rage.

She suddenly looked up at Xiao Che, flames dancing in her beautiful eyes.

“Xiao! Che!”

“Senior! Calm down! It’s a misunderstanding! A massive misunderstanding!”

Xiao Che jolted, waving his hands frantically. “This is pure rumor! That Xuan Buyan wrote a bunch of nonsense! Aren’t we just talking about serious business here?”

“Serious business?”

Bai Ling laughed out of pure anger, her pink neon dress fluttering with her movements, tracing startling curves. “Right now, the entire Academy thinks we are talking about ‘not-so-serious business’!”

Her eyes were so full of indignant rage that they practically spat fire. “Tell me, what do we do now?”

Seeing her chest rise and fall as she maintained a “you’re not leaving until I get an explanation” stance, Xiao Che knew that if he didn’t give her an account today, it wouldn’t just be a matter of debt anymore.

He steeled his heart and slapped the stone table. 

“Senior! This matter started because of me! I didn’t handle things well and let it implicate your reputation!”

He took a deep breath, a pained expression appearing on his face.

“How about this: to compensate for the damage to your reputation, I… I will voluntarily compensate you with one thousand… no, five hundred contribution points! As a gesture of apology! Please, Senior, you must accept it to appease your anger!”

Bai Ling was in the middle of her fury, and hearing “contribution points” only made her more annoyed.

“Contribution points? Who wants your contribution points! Is this a problem that points can solve?”

“Then… how about a little more?”

Xiao Che felt his heart bleeding as he tested the waters. “How about… You name a number, Senior? As long as I can do it…”

Bai Ling glared at him, her chest heaving slightly. Her indignant appearance actually possessed a unique sort of charm.

Seeing her silence, Xiao Che gritted his teeth and went for broke.

“How about this! Didn’t you say before that you wanted us to break into the top fifty of the Heavenly Pride Ranking within a month?”

He straightened his back, putting on an air of total commitment.

“I guarantee it! Within a month, I will definitely break into the top fifty! I’ll bring glory to our Tianshu Court and use that to apologize to you. Will that work?”

Bai Ling’s indignation was mostly suppressed by these words as she looked over in shock.

Her eyes widened, looking at Xiao Che as if he were an idiot.

“Are you crazy? You’re only at the first layer of Foundation Establishment! Those in the top fifty are all monsters at the ninth layer or even the Great Circle! Do you want to die?”

She wanted to motivate them, but she didn’t want to drive anyone to their death!

*This stupid Junior, how can he be so reckless!*

Xiao Che, however, acted as if he had caught a life-saving straw, his gaze “determined.”

“To apologize to you, Senior, I am not afraid of danger! Truly! You must believe me!”

Looking at his “prepared to die” expression, the fire in Bai Ling’s heart dissipated by more than half.

It was replaced by a sense of helplessness and a trace of… a tiny flicker of emotion she hadn’t even noticed herself.

*This fool…*

She glared at Xiao Che, but the shame in her eyes had mostly faded.

“…Who asked you to go risk your life!”

She turned her head away, her voice softening.

But as her gaze swept over that post—which was still being bumped up with increasingly outrageous comments—the small spark of anger she had just suppressed flared up again.

The key was that this mess couldn’t even be clarified: the more they said, the more confusing it would get.

The blush on her face hadn’t faded as she gave Xiao Che an indignant look and bit her lower lip.

“Listen, the previous one thousand one hundred and fifty points, plus this time… this reputation loss fee, let’s just call it a thousand points. That’s two thousand one hundred and fifty points in total.”

Bai Ling extended a slender finger and tapped it on the table in front of Xiao Che.

“I’ll give you one month. Within one month, you must pay it back in full.”

Hearing this number, Xiao Che felt his heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys all twitch in unison.

*What a disaster. In my past life, I worked myself to death as a corporate slave. Who would have thought that after transmigrating to cultivate Immortals, I’d still have to work as a debt slave for a ‘goddess’? Who would want this kind of fortune!*

But he didn’t dare say no. He could only force himself to straighten his back a bit more.

“Alright… Understood, Senior! Within one month, I will definitely pay it all back!”

Seeing him agree so readily, Bai Ling’s expression cleared slightly, though her face remained stern.

“The Heavenly Pride Ranking, look at it yourself!”

She glanced at the flashing jade token and couldn’t stay any longer. She turned and walked quickly toward the courtyard gate. Her pink figure, carrying a breeze of indignant embarrassment, soon disappeared.

Xiao Che slumped onto the stone bench, looking at the post that had completely exploded into a massive thread, staring at the sky speechlessly.

“This life… is impossible to live.”

He clicked off the “Exchange Area” with an FX!Kacha!, out of sight, out of mind.

“Whew… finally some peace.”

He rubbed his temples, reopened the interface, and directly found the “Heavenly Pride Ranking.”

His gaze skipped straight to the ninety-fifth position.

“Zhou Tong, Disciple of the Sword Court, ninth layer of Foundation Establishment. Title: Fast Sword. Proficient in ‘Nineteen Swords of the Gale’ (Mysterious Grade, Low Rank). Sword strikes are swift, and angles are tricky. Recent three-month record: seventeen wins, three losses.”

There were a few comments below:

“Whatever you do, don’t blink when fighting him!”

“The sword is truly fast, but the strength is slightly lacking. Maybe there’s a chance if you tank it head-on?”

…

Xiao Che stroked his chin.

“A fast sword… then we’ll see who is more accurate.”

Xiao Che looked at the words “ninth layer of Foundation Establishment” and did a silent conversion in his mind.

According to the Academy’s grades, Qi Condensation was the “Yellow Class,” early Foundation Establishment was the “Mysterious Class,” mid-stage was the “Earth Class,” and late-stage was the “Heaven Class.”

Only after Core Formation could one graduate.

***

NOTES

Session Glossary Updates (Memorized):

– 聽竹軒 = Listening Bamboo Pavilion

– 玄不言 = Xuan Buyan

– 天樞院 = Tianshu Court

– 天驕榜 = Heavenly Pride Ranking

– 周通 = Zhou Tong

– 疾風十九劍 = Nineteen Swords of the Gale

Footnotes:

TN1: Great Circle (大圓滿): Also known as the Peak or Perfect stage of a cultivation realm, just before breaking through to the next major rank.

Translator’s Note: Frenadro Steph, here. This chapter leans into the “debt-trap” comedy trope common in modern cultivation novels, contrasting the high-stakes world of the Heavenly Pride Ranking with the protagonist’s mundane financial struggles.

Ink Hub, Frenadro Steph, your translator. Enjoy, and drop feedback; it sharpens the blade.