Chapter One: Heaven's First Floor

  Shen Shi's heart was unknowingly filled with a sense of unease, and his footsteps became lighter as he quietly approached. He saw Hai Xing crouching on the ground, hands supporting his cheeks, face gloomy, eyes fixed intently on something in front of him on the ground, but it was unclear what he was looking at.

  Shen Shi stretched his neck and glanced at the ground in front of her, only to see that except for a patch of sandy land, there was nothing else out of the ordinary, at most there was a clump of tender wild grass growing beside it, and apart from that, not even a single small ant could be seen.

  "Ahem", Shen Shi coughed twice behind her back.

  The starfish girl didn't move at all.

  Shen Shi Gan chuckled and squatted down beside her, saying: "What are you looking at?"

  The starfish grumbled, "I made an appointment with a sea turtle to meet today, but it hasn't arrived yet. I don't know if it's oversleeping or its legs are slow, how annoying!"

  Shen Shi burst out laughing and turned his head to look around, saying: "Turtle, are there any turtles on this island? I haven't seen any."

  The sea star turned around and stared at him, Shen Shi felt a little guilty, his laughter suddenly became smaller. The sea star said in a bad tone: "I don't know who said yesterday that they would come at dawn, and also boasted that others would not oversleep!"

  Shen Shi was taken aback for a moment, then shook his head decisively: "I absolutely didn't say you would oversleep, I just asked what time is better to come. Besides..." He thought for a moment, glanced at Hai Xing, and said in a low voice, "What you just said, isn't that 'boasting shamelessly'?"

  The sea star was taken aback, seemingly recalling something, then nodded and said: "Uh-huh, that's the word my grandfather taught me. Now, what took you so long? Do you know how long I've been standing here waiting?"

  Shen Shi's heart skipped a beat as he looked at Hai Xing's face, which had a hint of anger and frustration. It was clear that she had been waiting for him for quite some time and was getting impatient. He felt a pang of guilt in his heart, after all, yesterday when they made the appointment, he was full of confidence, but today he ended up oversleeping.

  But of course, he couldn't say that in front of the sea star. Looking at the angry expression of the red clam girl, if she heard the reason, she would probably turn around and leave immediately. Shen Shi's mind turned rapidly for a few moments, and in the midst of urgency, he didn't have time to think of another excuse, so he could only let out a long sigh, pretending to be heartbroken and disappointed.

  The sea star looked at him and frowned: "What are you doing?"

  Shen Shi was silent for a moment before saying, "Actually, I heard some bad news when I rushed here this morning, and my heart is heavy with sorrow, which is why I'm late."

  The starfish said "huh?" and looked curious, saying: "What's wrong?"

  Shen Shi let out a sigh and said, "You still remember those friends who came with me yesterday, right? There was one among them who is very close to me, his name is... Sun You." As he spoke, Shen Shi felt a slight pang of guilt in his heart and muttered to himself, "Sorry about this, just help me out for now," then cleared his throat twice, covering up the unnatural expression on his face.

  "We two were at Qingyujie Baihedang yesterday, but didn't find any good tasks. Things like feeding beasts, picking shells, and refining elixirs had all been taken by others. That's why we came to Hongxian Village together. At first, he also told me that he didn't like the task of peeling shrimp here and wanted to go back to Baihedang to take a look. But this morning I found out that he actually has a relative here who secretly took a quota for feeding beasts from one of the Ling Shou Temple's senior brothers."

  After finishing speaking, Shen Shi patted his own forehead and shook his head, saying: "When I heard about this matter earlier, my heart was indeed a bit uncomfortable. I thought too much for a moment and delayed some time, resulting in being late here as well. I'm really sorry, Haixing. In the future, I will definitely arrive on time."

  The starfish originally had some displeasure on her face, but as she listened, her expression gradually eased a lot. By the time Shen Shi finished speaking, she thought for a moment and suddenly sneered, saying: "Is your friend from an affiliated family of the Ling Xiao Sect?"

  Shen Shi was taken aback and said: "Yes, how did you guess?"

  The sea star stood up from the ground, stretched out her arms and arched her back, her clothes clinging to her body, subtly revealing a few curves, then suddenly smiled, her expression already bright and cheerful. She pulled Shen Shi up with one hand, laughing: "Alright, listen to me, the spiritual crystals we earn from peeling shrimp in our Red Clam Village may not be slower than theirs, at most we'll just have fewer human connections than them in Ling Xiao Sect later on, but that's nothing."

  Shen Shi became even more bizarre, following Hai Xing to the white beach on the edge of the village, and asked in pursuit: "Hai Xing, I didn't understand what you just said, what do you mean?"

  At this time, Haixing was holding the big shrimp cage in her hand, looking at it which was bigger than half of her body, but there was no sign of difficulty on her face, with a calm and composed appearance. Hearing this, she looked at Shen Shi for a moment, seemed to hesitate for a moment, then twitched her mouth and said: "You should know that the good tasks from Baihutang are usually issued by important halls within Lingxiao Sect, such as Dantang, Zhen Hall, and Lingshou Temple?"

  Shen Shi nodded and said, "Yes, what's wrong with that?"

  The seagull accompanied him to the beach, six or seven feet in front of them was the clear seawater, and the sound of the waves gently came over. The sea breeze blew, blowing her black bangs, dancing in the wind.

  The sea star casually placed the shrimp cage on the beach and said, "As long as you get these seemingly insignificant task quotas, you can first enter the eyes of these important halls. In order to do these basic tasks, the senior brothers and sisters above will naturally teach you some basic things, and at the same time, they will also recognize the predecessors in the door. Feeding beasts and refining elixirs are not short-term tasks, but long-term ones. As a result, the relationship with several hall predecessors has deepened again."

  The sea star gazed out at the distant horizon, smoothed her wind-blown hair with a hand, and said calmly: "As time goes on, when Ling Xiao Sect's important halls need to absorb new blood and update their ranks, will they think of these new disciples who have been here for several years? Not to mention personal relationships, which are close to them. When the Spiritual Beast Hall looks for someone, will it be a disciple who is familiar with spiritual beasts and knows their nature, or someone who has no knowledge of spiritual beasts at all? When Dan Tang recruits, will they choose disciples who know how to refine pills and recognize various medicinal materials, or those who are completely ignorant of pill refinement? These things can't be said with certainty by anyone."

  The smile on Shen Shi's face gradually fell silent, and after a while, he forced a laugh and said, "I didn't expect you to know so much."

  The sea star snorted and said disapprovingly, "These things are just the result of your human minds being twisted and turning in circles. Those vassal families have been following Ling Xiang Sect for hundreds or thousands of years, how many sons and disciples have they had under their sect? I heard Grandfather say that although the few elders of Ling Xiang Sect seem to want to change this situation now, these big and small matters are complex and difficult to change."

  Shen Shi shook his head and said, "So, the important tasks issued by the sect's halls will be given to these young masters from aristocratic families?"

  "Probably not a hundred percent, but seventy or eighty percent should be possible. Think about it, as long as you can enter the threshold of these important halls, if you have achievements in your cultivation, you will naturally receive all kinds of assistance and have a bright future ahead; even if you don't have the talent to cultivate and can't succeed, later on, even if you leave Ling Xiao Sect, you can still have close relationships with these senior masters within the sect. Even outside the sect, you can represent your family and do things for these halls, such as purchasing medicinal materials, searching for spiritual beasts, and so on. In short, there are many benefits."

  Shen Shi let out a wry smile and said, "A small whiteboard, a few insignificant tasks, yet there's so much going on behind the scenes. I truly didn't expect it." For a moment, his mood was somewhat melancholic, and he casually asked another question, saying, "Is every hall in Ling Xiao Sect like this?"

  The sea star thought for a moment and said, "That's not it either. There are also a few niche sects that even new disciples look down on, and the door is like a sparrow."

  Shen Shi was taken aback, replaying her previous sentence in his mind before saying: "Are you referring to 'a door can't be closed to a bird that has flown away'?"

  The starfish paused for a moment, "Oh" and said: "Did I say wrong, Munro Sparrow?"

  Shen Shi rolled his eyes and then slowly said one word at a time:

  "Not is, door - can - Luo - sparrow."

  Seaweed followed his words, muttering a few sentences under his breath, and then slowly said one word at a time like him: "Men, ke, luo, que... Haha, that's right!"

  Shen Shi looked at her smile and suddenly felt a lot better for some reason. He laughed and said, "You're right this time."

  The starfish clapped its hands, looking delighted, and it seemed that only now did she reveal a few points of girlish innocence, laughing and saying: "It's all my grandfather taught me, a big pile of strange words, but they sound pretty good." After finishing speaking, she seemed to suddenly think of something, hastily saying: "Oh dear, I've chatted with you for too long, you should hurry up and peel the shrimp, otherwise if we keep talking like this, you won't be able to kill many ghost face prawns today."

  Shen Shi also came to his senses, chuckled and walked over to the shrimp cage, picked up the sharp knife hanging from the edge of the cage.

  The sea star stood by, but couldn't help saying, "However, I think your friend is also not good. Leaving you behind to go to the Spiritual Beast Temple on their own, aren't you angry?"

  Shen Shi shook his head and said, "He did say something and tried to help me get a spot, but that senior who is familiar with his relatives said there's only one quota available, so he couldn't do anything."

  The star pouted, and his good-looking lips seemed even more beautiful with this hint of disdain. He said to himself, "Who knows? Anyway, those young masters from noble families have a better family background and more connections than ordinary people like you."

  "This is just how the world is."

  The sea star frowned and asked: "What is the way of the world?"

  He smiled slightly and didn't respond to her, instead reaching into the shrimp cage to grab a ghost-faced prawn with its claws out. Suddenly remembering their previous conversation, he turned his head and asked with a smile: "By the way, you mentioned earlier that there's still a Cold Qing Hall in Ling Xiao Sect that people look down on?"

  The sea star nodded and said, "Yes."

  "Which one?"

  Hai Xing Dao: "Shu Tang ah."

  Shen Shi thought for a moment, with a somewhat uncertain tone, and hesitated: "You're referring to that symbol-drawing..."

  The sea star waved its hand and said, "It's that useless Taoist priest who spends all day drawing talismans!"

  Shen Shi was at a loss for words and remained silent for a moment.