Flash Forward!

Bai Ling swung her foot down on her opponent with no mercy. The arc from her kick left a blaze of fire behind it.

Her opponent, who was confident in the past step back in horror and Bai Ling's prowess.

"Stop!" Instructor Ding Ji stopped the fight between the two girls. He walked between the two before announcing the winner. "Bai Ling wins!"

The crowd cheered for Bai Ling as she cooly bowed to her opponent a teacher.

[Why are you acting so cool? These opponents are pebbles in your shoes. You should be ashamed for even fighting with them.]

It was now six months into the future. Bai Ling was now at the fourth stage of the Martial Ascendant realm.

Xiao Bao, the name she gave the phoenix, was grumbling about the fight. Bai Lignlong surpassed her peers and was close to breaking through to the last stage of Martial Ascendant. Despite this, she hid her real strength and struggled against them in the assessments for class.

So whenever she fought with them, Xiao Bao looked down on her.

"Xiao Bao, I have to keep up appearances. You know I am being watched by that witch." Even though Bai Ling wanted to show off as much as the next teenager, she knew she couldn't.

[I told you that's not my name!]

"You won't tell me your name anyways." Bai Ling shrugged at him in her head and walked off the stage.

Ever since Madam Fu found out that Bai Ling could cultivate, she sent men to assault her. Women to kill her and all of the works. Bai Ling defeated them all with the help of Xiao Bao, and after the last two came close to succeeding, Xiao Bao told her to hide her cultivation.

All of these were about three months ago. Now that everything was easing up and Bai Ling was gaining more supporters, Xiao Bao urged her daily to start preparing herself to leave.

He argued that this place had nothing else to teach her. In the six months since Bai Ling started cultivating, she read every book in the library. Coupled with her amazing memory, she remembered everything she read.

[Forget it! When are we going to the market? You have been trying to refine the Chi Gathering Pill for so long and finally succeeded. Try to sell it .]

"I told you, I want to make nine more. That way, I could make a huge profit and leave it as reserves." Xiao Bao saw the greed in her eyes and shook his head. She was starting again.

One thing about Bai Ling that drastically changed in the last six months was her love for money. That was why whenever there was an assessment, Bai Ling would place first unwittingly. First place got a cash prize. Bai Ling realized that money was the only thing that wouldn't betray her.

[Knowing her pattern, Madam Fu is going to send someone to you again. When are we going to leave this place?]

"Soon, they have the ingredients and resources to make a few of the more difficult pills. After we craft a few more, we can think about leaving then. Besides, we won't have to worry about the old witch after I advance two more levels."

Bai Ling wanted to get rid of Madam Fu. It would be foolish to leave the jealous woman alone after her multiple attempts at killing her.

She had been asking Shi Jing to find out who is Madam Fu's most trusted people. Shi Jing was to report to Bai Ling about anyone who visited Madam Fu directly.

[Even if you advance a little more, you still need subordinate.]

Bai Ling never thought about this. Even if she could match Madam Fu's cultivation, her people wouldn't allow Bai Ling to leave if she killed her.

[You didn't even think about this? You need to leave the academy and experience the world soon.]

"You're right." Bai Ling had to think about her future. Staying at Blackbird academy would get her killed sooner or later. Now that she has decided to leave, she had to make a plan.

She was indebted to the Pavillion for taking her in. Since Bai Ling hadn't paid her debt, they wouldn't let her walk away after gaining from them.

"To gain a following, we need money." The plan to sell her pills had to move up. "Looks like we will be going to the market soon."

[It's about time.]

For the past six months, along with her cultivation level, Bai Ling has been learning different skills. She read books on herbs and pills meant for doctors. She also read books about making weapons. Bai Ling started to put into practice what she learnt.

When Bai Ling started to make pills, she discovered that it came easily to her. The pill recipes she had were common, but when she made the pills, the quality was higher than the ones made by her peers.

She was not the best pill master, but she was a promising seedling. If she continued working on levelling up, she would stand at the top of the continent in the future.

After talking with Xiao Bao, Bai Ling went back to the pill room. For the whole night, Bai Ling tried crafting of the pills again. In the end, she only managed to churn out two.

"At this rate, we won't get enough pills before we can go out." Since she came to the academy, her movements outside were restricted. It wasn't until she became a top student that she got a little freedom.

Students were only allowed to go out at the end of the week every two weeks. Bai Ling had to sell the pills on this outing, and she only had three days before they left.

[Why are you so worried? You could sneak out.]

Bai Ling paused and thought about what Xiao Bao said. She smacked her head, feeling a bit like a fool.

"This never happened...."