The steward senior brother didn’t even lift his head. “Newly admitted disciples are temporarily not qualified to receive resources from the Medicine Hall. You’ll have to wait a while, hunt some demon beasts, and exchange demon cores for them.”

He wasn’t deliberately making things difficult; the Sword Sect’s resource allocation was strictly regulated. The elders’ personal disciples could use their jade tokens to claim ten spiritual plants each month, inner sect disciples could claim seven, and outer sect disciples could claim three.

As for new disciples, they only received the resources distributed monthly by the sect and had no right to choose spiritual plants themselves. If they truly wanted to exchange for specific plants, they could only hunt demon beasts during the new disciples’ trial and trade demon cores for them.

Emma Sullivan was wearing the light blue gauze dress that only new disciples wore, so the steward naturally took her for a newcomer.

Emma Sullivan pushed the jade token forward again, reminding him, “Senior Brother Reed, take another look.”

“?” How did this new disciple know his surname was Zhu?

Senior Brother Reed finally deigned to lift his eyelids and glanced at the girl in front of him. Sure enough, she was wearing the new disciple’s uniform. His gaze finally landed on her face.

Fu—Emma Sullivan junior sister?

His eyes widened in surprise. “Emma Sullivan junior sister, why are you dressed like this?”

Something as embarrassing as repeating a year was best kept secret.

Emma Sullivan didn’t answer, only urging him, “Please, Senior Brother Reed, hurry and get me the spiritual plants I need.”

Seeing how urgent she was, Senior Brother Reed didn’t have time to question her attire and took the jade token to fetch her medicine.

“Junior Sister Sullivan, you came just in time. There are only three snow ying herbs left, and I packed an extra elm fruit for you. See if there’s any problem.”

Senior Brother Reed handed over the items Emma Sullivan needed and took out the register to record the spiritual plants she received.

“Wait—” Emma Sullivan stopped him.

“Record it under my third senior brother’s name.”

Without pausing, Senior Brother Reed wrote down the name of Emma Sullivan’s third senior brother, William Thompson.

After putting away the spiritual plants, Emma Sullivan returned to her residence to bring some pills that could restore spiritual power and heal injuries.

Her third senior brother had been so badly injured his face was ruined—he must have suffered greatly!

After preparing everything, Emma Sullivan got ready to go down the mountain.

She flew down on her sword at great speed. When she reached the foot of the mountain and looked back at the towering green Zhen Mountain, Emma Sullivan felt as if she’d forgotten something.

Never mind, finding third senior brother comes first!

This was Emma Sullivan’s second time leaving the mountain, and she was curious about everything. But she hadn’t forgotten her most important task: delivering medicine to her third senior brother.

She smoothed out the paper crane and carefully studied the map on the back. Suddenly, inspiration struck—she remembered what she’d forgotten.

She’d left in such a hurry that she forgot to ask David Carter for leave.

If Senior Brother Carter couldn’t find her in class, would he think she was skipping?

But she’d already been flying for two or three hours and was now thousands of miles from Zhen Mountain. Going back would waste too much time.

Right—the paper crane.

She could do as her third senior brother did and send a message with a paper crane.

Emma Sullivan rummaged through her storage pouch, found brush and ink, wrote down her trip down the mountain, dried the ink, and in no time folded a paper crane.

“Spirit-folding art, life and form as one!”

Emma Sullivan infused the paper crane with a strand of spiritual power. The once lifeless crane seemed to come alive, flapping its wings and circling affectionately around her fingertip.

“Go!” At her command, the little paper crane turned and prepared to fly toward Zhen Mountain.

“Wait, come back!”

The little paper crane hesitated in place, wobbled a bit, but finally flew back to Emma Sullivan’s side, happy as could be.

Emma Sullivan petted its head like a kitten, and a surge of even stronger spiritual power flowed into the crane.

She’d only ever used the spirit-folding art within Zhen Mountain before—a small amount of spiritual power could keep the crane going for half a day. But now she was thousands of miles away and wasn’t sure if that would be enough.

So Emma Sullivan infused it with another surge of spiritual power.

The little paper crane became noticeably more lively and energetic, its wings flapping tirelessly as it circled around Emma Sullivan, reluctant to leave.

“All right, you should go now.”

Emma Sullivan’s voice was clear as jade, yet it carried an irresistible command. The moment the little paper crane heard her, it could only obey.

Emma Sullivan had been flying for a long time and had spent a lot of spiritual power on the paper crane. Now, feeling a bit depleted, she decided to find a place rich in spiritual energy to rest.

Surrounded by dense forest, Emma Sullivan wandered without knowing where she was, so she climbed a tree to get her bearings.

“There’s more spiritual energy to the east. I’ll go that way.”

Back in the forest, Emma Sullivan didn’t bother distinguishing east from west. She only needed to sense where the spiritual energy was strongest to know which way to go.

Chapter 8: Drawing the Sword

The wind was gentle, the clouds thin.

A shrill voice shattered the forest’s silence.

“Kid, hand over the Sword Tomb map, and maybe we’ll let you die quickly!”

Emma Sullivan froze, immediately concealing her presence. She lay flat on a lush, leafy branch, perfectly hidden.

To run into something like this on her first day down the mountain—so annoying!

The people below hadn’t noticed a thing. There was now one more person in this silent forest.