Why do you say that? Though, if you're right, then defending her title is actually a much better idea. The discount on ingredients alone could dramatically accelerate her progress. Heck, they might even offer her a job there that would include easy access to massive amounts of ingredients. Since even her failures would likely be better than most people's successes, it wouldn't even be a losing deal for the shop. Of course, the shop could only do that if they had extremely strong backing. Otherwise, they'd probably be forced to hand her and her recipes over to a major faction.
The "privately take it back up" part is because she's realized how out there her ability in alchemy is compared to her peers even if she thought it was average and she knows if she shows too much value she could be targeted for kidnapping since the bigger powers wouldn't care about offending the Nine Jade Palace even if they did want to keep her. She's showed some skill, but not the full amount. As I think you said in another thread-1 pill master can make an entire army of elite warriors with their abilities and resources, which would encourage other factions to try and kidnap her and force her to aid them while she's too weak. It's similar to other stories of various MC's and characters hiding the true extent of their power since they know they'd be a target if it got out. While her master and friend would go to bat for her in the 9 jade palace, they probably don't have enough power to ward off all rival factions if they decide they *really* want to have her, not to mention Miaoru/the Zhous may get the idea to try and marry her off to whatever factions gives them the best deal Edit-I hope she does get the idea to buy and resell the ingredients at a profit to the wheel, though she may not have the money for it now since she bought the space bag and portable stable, so that may wait until she gets more money from beating other challenges
Well, if nothing else, she's getting a ton of free pills, but I wonder if she's getting paid for each victory too. Honestly, there's no need to kidnap her. They can just approach her normally and recruit her. Her status within her sect is well known after all, and a willing sect member is worth a heck of a lot more than an unwilling captive, especially in the long run. The only real problem is what her current sect might do to her loved ones. As for her "family" getting the idea to marry her off, they already have. It's been mentioned several times.
The kidnap part would be to ensure they got her rather than an opposing faction and they could "ask" for recruitment permission after they've captured her (like that cruel "make a girl pregnant to force her to marry you" trope that pops up sometimes among villains to try and trap a female character they are lusting after)
I can't help but think that ditching was a mistake. The discount alone would have made it worth the trouble. Add in all the rare pills and the points to pay back her debt and it just doesn't make sense to not show up. He really needs to up his game with the first round if they're going to keep this format. Writing the answer down as soon as you find it is basically the same as telling your opponent where one of the answers is. That aside, why does she even care about runes? Doesn't she already know formations? Or is she hoping to use her knowledge of formations to make the runes more reliable?
Personally, I would have gone for the simpler, "I make a defense talisman. You make an offense talisman. If your talisman breaks mine, you win. If not, I win." Well, assuming that the talismans could be activated remotely, or adequate defense provided in some other manner so as to prevent accidents. I'd also say that the MC lost since she had to use four talismans. Still, I can understand why they'd pretend otherwise under the circumstances. I'm not clear on why this would make rune carvers necessary though. Air drawn runes don't last, thus giving up the main advantage of runes. Or are runes that much stronger than normal magic? So, what happens if she refuses to marry the guy? Does the groom's sect kidnap her? Kill her? Or get super pissed at her sect and start making things difficult for them? It doesn't seem like she's planning to run or hide in another world. I also can't see how her ramping up her value would actually make it harder to sell her off. I'm also curious how they expect the Great Elder to react to them selling off one of the most promising disciples in the sect that she has granted her personal protection to. Do they really believe that the she won't kill a few of them, starting with the sect leader's wife?
Having read ahead, the potential groom and his family aren't idiots doing the Spoiled Young Master and loot pinata family routine. They are rational politicians like those in FMOC. As for ramping up her value, it's an attempt to make it too embarrassing to sell her off with the whole "not letting fresh water flow to your neighbor's fields" thing. Selling off your best talents to other people is basically publicly announcing weakness and internal disorder.
The rune "competition" seems a bit off kilter, but it was in good fun so it's acceptable to let it slide. I don't know if she actually "won" anything there, other than getting the runecarvers back in business and motivated again, and I imagine the heaven wheel will give her some more points in that regard. I agree she would be better served in eliminating the debt by absolutely abusing that discount and reselling things, though maybe she's worried it would attract too much attention (though it isn't like she's not doing that anyways) with people wondering what she's doing with all the herbs I imagine the "aircarving" thing will be used like some hand seals or energy marks in other series as a combat formation type thing-setting up impromptu runes/formations to have specific effects, and it would let the runecarvers fight with their specialty since not all of them will be multidisciplinary like she is. It probably won't be sold to people since they wouldn't be able to use it unless they are runecarvers themselves
I think her goal was actually in the first round. She wanted to read their books. Well, that and the points, but she could have gotten those at the medical competition even more easily.
That's true, getting to read the books would have been a useful goal for her, helping give her a baseline of her world's standards to compare to
Not sure, the release rate has been a bit erratic for this one, sometimes it's one every day/few days, then nothing for a while and a few chapters at once
C128: "If they do not want her, then just give her to us, the Amethyst Phoenix Pavilion, for free!” If she's serious about that, then she should just go talk to the MC about it. So long as the APP can get her master and servants out of her sect, she might actually say yes. C129: It would seem that it would have been better to keep her head down. Well, unless she's planning to win in the main competition. Then ramping up her value like this ahead of time isn't a bad idea. That aside, I still think she should have shown up for the third day of competition at the pharmacy. So much training potential, fame and money just flushed down the drain. C130: I wonder why he waited until she was tired. If he really cared which of them was stronger, then he should have gone up first, or at the latest, second. Going up third is just him trying to bully her.
I actually hope she does move somewhere else, they really are treating her like **** over at Nine Jade Pavilion. I think what the one guy in 128 said was right-she's trying to show she's strong enough to forcibly have a say in her future instead of just being a pawn for the Zhous. The question though is if this prospective fiance is the male lead or not. He (130 Yu guy) may be being use as a probe of her real capabilities-if she can win against him while tired it shows she's even stronger than they thought
C133: What exactly is it that the crazy girl thinks the MC is trying to accomplish that she keeps saying the MC is using crazy girl's cousin, even though crazy girl knows that the MC has no interest in marrying said cousin? C134: I wonder what the price for his help will be, and if she'll be willing to pay it. C135: "Was the scar on" I assume "his face" comes next, but what comes after that? Did she forget that the guy she's looking for views the guy she asked for help as an enemy? Did it not occur to her that the feeling might be mutual? Did she accidentally pick up the idiot ball? Hopefully he wasn't hiding his cultivation level from the sect as a matter of survival, or she may have just f'd him over royally. Though, asking about him at all might have also f'd him over royally regardless. If there is a male lead, then I expect it to be the guy she was looking for that rescued her a few years back.
I would think he (knife guy) would be ML too. And we'll see what if anything happens since she asked about him, seems likely he's either there as a spy/for a goal or part of some secret portion of the sect
"She finished all the books in the Heavenly Ascension Pavilion as well as various books she exchanged for in the Heavenly Wheel." Most of the books in there were still intact right? Just how old is she in terms of actual time lived that she was able to read that many books? Or am I misremembering the scale of that book vault? "the first person to really care for her like a brother was an outsider." That's not true. There's her servants, her master, her friend, and (to a lesser extent) her friend's grandmaster. None of these people were outsiders. Or does she strictly mean an older brother and not a teacher, master, concerned elder, eternally loyal servant or little brother? “Senior Uncle An, maybe some other people can give in, but I can’t." I know this is a popular sentiment in these stories, but people who actually try to live like this will generally not be popular and will have a much harder time achieving success if they can manage it at all. I'm not saying that she should go along with this plan. She shouldn't. But never giving in to anyone no matter what is a good way to die young in a cultivation world. Well, if we ignore plot armor anyway. "Doesn’t that mean I troubled him when I mentioned him to the Alioth Star Lord?" She's only realizing this now? I thought she was supposed to be fairly astute? Or does her brain just shut down when it comes to this guy she barely knows? Why would it be a problem for Jia Yan to be interested in Xie Lianzhen? They're not related at all. The MC should be happy to have a willing competitor. Though, not super happy since Jia Yan obviously doesn't have much hope of achieving her desires. Am I the only one that thought Mr. Mysterious might turn out to be the prince?
@jacobpaige The author will probably handwave it as "she read fast" or whatnot. It is odd she's forgetting her male friend in the sect that she's been buddies with the whole time, though I guess she's really soured on almost anything related to the sect since she really doesn't like it-that may be her blinders on for that reason. There is another story with a character that has a dao of "always forward, never falling back" and it's actually acknowledged as having strengths of endurance and tenacity but also glaring drawbacks like if he *has* to retreat/hold back for whatever reason he's going to be in for a world of pain. Plot armor has saved them at least once though they aren't the MC of that story She does seem to have her mind short circuit a bit whenever he is involved, and it has been noted in the story. Let's hope she realizes it and acts to make sure it doesn't happen again
I wonder how long they'll give him before his next fight, and if this series will ever actually release according to its stated schedule.
I think it said at least an hour of rest between fights, and I wouldn't hold my breath on consistent release Something I'm puzzled about is when did they become harpy barbarians? I don't remember them being described as having wings, only having horns. I guess it's just a random animal barbarian or something? Or did I miss a reference to them having wings?