When he first joined the sect, Jiang Beiran had already gotten to know about the 24 orders of the Sect of Returning Hearts. Among them, the Order of Blue Heart, which featured the study of Go, was the one he was most attracted to. This was because he had gained a considerable number of [Go Playing] points back when he was in the mine.
During the two months he spent in the mine back then, the easiest options at the beginning all increased basic attribute points like strength or physique, but since the start of the second week, there were new rewards, namely [Basic Skill Points].
These included artistic ones like Music Playing, Go Playing, Calligraphy, and Drawing, as well as technical ones like Alchemy, Forging, Poisonous Magic, and Tailoring. Later on, there were more skills such as Formations, Medicine, Winemaking, and so on.
And among these skills, [Go Playing] currently had the highest points for Jiang Beiran.
Sticking to his initial intention, Jiang Beiran, who had passed the test, sought out the Order of Blue Heart according to the sect map that was handed out to everyone at the time of initiation and applied to enter the order.
To enter the sect, one needed to take a test, and naturally, it was the same for entering the order. There were two tests to take in the Order of Blue Heart. One was sparring between disciples, and the other was a game of Go between disciples.
Jiang Beiran had three options pop up in front of him at the beginning of the first sparring match.
[Option One: Defeat your opponent with ease. Reward for completion: Spear of Eight Trigrams (Black Grade Low Tier)]
[Option Two: Cut the opponent some slack. Reward for completion: Gilded Bell of Plum Blossom (Yellow Grade High Tier)]
[Option Three: Suffer a crushing defeat and step down. Reward for completion: Random basic skill point +1]
Jiang Beiran, who had been mentally prepared, directly chose Option Three, and then was sent flying out of the ring by his opponent with a single slap after showing all sorts of weaknesses. During the time, he also garnered a lot of disdainful laughter.
But during the game of Go, no options popped out from the system, which was rare.
In the previous series of summaries and conclusions he made, Jiang Beiran found that options would only pop up from the system at critical moments, and the lack of options meant that the decision was irrelevant and would not have too much impact on the future.
'So, it doesn't matter if I win or lose?' Jiang Beiran couldn't help but be a little puzzled.
It was not until he had entered the Order of Blue Heart with his relatively excellent level of Go playing that Jiang Beiran realized that the Order of Blue Heart's so-called study of Go puzzles was actually just the icing on the cake. It was nothing too substantial.
It was like, as a student, if you had excellent grades in Chinese, Mathematics, and English, and could play the piano on top of that, then the teacher would praise you for your versatility.
But if you could only play the piano very well, yet your grades for Chinese, Mathematics, and English were a mess, then the teacher would ask you to put other things aside and focus on improving your grades first.
In the Sect of Returning Hearts, the equivalent of Chinese, Mathematics, and English would naturally be martial arts.
And because of this very reason, after Jiang Beiran had entered the Order of Blue Heart, there wasn't even have a master who wanted to take him as an apprentice, which led him to eventually become a named disciple of the Order of Blue Heart. That's right. He became someone who was only a disciple in name and had nothing else.
But Jiang Beiran did not care about this. After all, the system clearly meant to tell him that as long as he found a mentor, there would be risks, so there was nothing bad about only being a named disciple. Anyway, he had decided upon his own cultivation route, which was to constantly look for opportunities to trigger the option, thus pulling up the basic attributes. Although only earning one point at a time seemed a bit pathetic, those few points added up, and he would eventually soar high one day!
Seeing that Jiang Beiran revealed a bitter smile, Lu Bogui, who knew he had said the wrong thing, hurriedly raised his glass and said, "Right. I almost forgot to say happy birthday to you, Brother."
"Many thanks, Brother." After thanking him, Jiang Beiran raised his glass and clinked it against Lu Bogui's.
Satisfied and full of wine and meat, at the entrance of the canteen, Lu Bogui patted Jiang Beiran's shoulder and said, "Then I'll go back to my mentor's place first to report back."
"Alright. Take care, Brother." Jiang Beiran bowed with a respectful expression.
With a wave of his hand, Lu Bogui turned and left gracefully, while Jiang Beiran continued his afternoon shopping time.
In the evening, Jiang Beiran, who had triggered five more options, returned to the Order of Blue Heart. However, he found a pretty female disciple standing at the entrance of his hut.
At the same time, Liu Zijin also noticed Jiang Beiran, who was walking towards her. She hurriedly approached him, bowed, and greeted him, saying, "I am Liu Zijin of the Order of Water Mirror. Greetings, Brother Jiang."
The girl in front of him was very good-looking. Her beautiful eyes lingered, and a smile lit up her peach-like cheeks. As her mouth opened and closed, her breath was like the scent of an orchid, and she was indescribably gentle and lovely.
'The danger level is very high!'
According to Jiang Beiran's experience of encountering beautiful Sisters in the past five years, it could be said that simply passing them by on the streets was enough for a reward option of Black Grade and above to pop up in the system, and the Sister in front of him was the best-looking one Jiang Beiran had encountered in all this time.
Although somewhat surprised that the system didn't give him options this time, Jiang Beiran immediately joined his hand in a salute and said, "Sister, I'm afraid you've mistaken me for someone else. My surname is Wang."
"Wang...?"
While Liu Zijin was looking lost, Jiang Beiran had already saluted her once more with his hand and walked forward, passing her.
But before Jiang Beiran could walk away, Liu Zijin caught up, unrolling a scroll in her hand. "It can't be a mistake. Isn't it you in the portrait, Brother?"
'D*mn! Who is it that has managed to capture a tenth of my handsomeness in drawing? The person must have quite a bit of skill,' he thought to himself.
Looking at his own portrait on the scroll in Liu Zijin's hand, Jiang Beiran had to explain again, saying, "There are many disciples in the Order of Blue Heart. It's normal to have a few that look alike, but my surname is really not Jiang. I hope that you can find this handsome Brother in the portrait soon, Sister."
At that moment, a male disciple came over and shouted to Jiang Beiran, "Brother Jiang, Etiquette Master Cheng asked me to come here and call you over to play a few games of Go with him."
After he finished speaking, he noticed Liu Zijin beside them. She was still in a state of confusion. His eyes widened immediately and his mind was instantly filled with the two words, "very beautiful."
Hearing the male disciple shout out the two words "Brother Jiang," Liu Zijin was first stunned, then immediately stood in front of Jiang Beiran and said, "You are indeed Brother Jiang!"
Jiang Beiran smiled and shook his head as he replied, "No, Sister, you heard wrong. He called out for Brother Wang."
"No, he didn't!" Liu Zijin said, then looked at the male disciple and asked, "May I ask if he is Jiang Beiran, or Brother Jiang?"
As soon as the male disciple heard Liu Zijin asking him a question, he immediately replied energetically as if he was high on drugs, "Yes! That's him, Jiang Beiran, Brother Jiang, the one and only."
After lamenting in his heart that the junior disciple was still too young to understand how scary such a beautiful woman was, Jiang Beiran put up another smile and said to Liu Zijin, "Alright, it's me. I was playing a little joke just now, Sister."
After hearing this, Liu Zijin covered her mouth and laughed, saying, "I see, Brother Jiang. You are really interesting."
'Ha?'
Jiang Beiran was a little dumbfounded. He had thought that even if Liu Zijin didn't turn to leave directly in anger, she would have questioned him angrily, then he would have an excuse to bail out.
But what he didn't expect was...
'She really seems to just find me humorous?'
Knowing that he couldn't escape this, Jiang Beiran first said to the male disciple, "Go and tell Etiquette Master Cheng that I'll be right there."
"Okay." The male disciple nodded but had no intention of leaving at all, his eyes glancing at Liu Zijin from time to time.
'Alas, the young man is not worthy to be taught.'
After lamenting in his heart, Jiang Beiran once again looked at Liu Zijin and asked, "Why have you come to the Order of Blue Heart to look for me, Sister?"