His Highness the Crown Prince Always Wants to Marry Me

Chapter 387: How to Deal With This Matter?

Leaving the area where the Golden Phoenix Flower was, Yu Qing Qian headed forward and continued deeper.

Following this, she used different methods to make contracts with five king-level bloodline demonic plants, and similarly found five spiritual plants at the places where the demonic plants were contracted, and even a king-level Thousand-Petal White Peach spiritual plant was dug up in the deepest area.

With three days left before the challenge of the Red Peak, Yu Qing Qian walked out of the secret ground.

As soon as Yu Qing Qian left the secret ground, the pupils of the Red Peak paid close attention to her, and the moment she returned to her residence, there were many pupils who wanted to visit her, all for the spiritual plants in her hands.

Luckily, Yu Qing Qian put up a sign for seclusion as soon as she returned to her residence, which saved her a lot of harassment.

Two days later, Yu Qing Qian tamed all the contracted demonic plants, sorted out the spiritual plants she had dug up, then ran to find Che Tong Tong.

At the same time, in a meeting hall of the Holy Academy, two people were sitting at the top main seats and the Headmaster, as well as the other seven Honoured Chiefs, were sitting below.

Suddenly, a piece of news came and the Headmaster felt a bit dumbfounded, not knowing whether to cry or laugh.

“Headmaster, what’s the matter?” A Honoured Chief couldn’t resist but ask curiously when he saw the strange expression on the Headmaster’s face.

The Headmaster showed the message in his hand to the several people with a smile, “In a secret ground used by the Red Peak to contract spiritual plants, all the king-level demonic plants in it had disappeared, and almost one tenth of the spiritual plants inside were also taken, so the pupil guarding the secret place reported it.”

The several Honoured Chiefs who read the news were also speechless—this Yu Qing Qian could truly toss and turn.

“All the king-level demonic plants had disappeared? Are they dead or?” A woman in green clothes wearing a veil asked, sitting in a main seat.

Based on the news that had been circulating in the Red Peak, plus his own judgement, the Headmaster replied: “If my guess is correct, those demonic plants should’ve been contracted by Yu Qing Qian.”

The cyan-clothed woman pondered for a moment, but still couldn’t find any impression of Yu Qing Qian, “Who’s Yu Qing Qian?”

“Shi’shu¹ has only just left seclusion, so you don’t know. This Yu Qing Qian is a new pupil recruited under an exception this year. All three of her talents are excellent, and not long ago, she advanced to Spirit King at the age of sixteen. Her healing talent is even more devilish.” The Red Peak’s Honoured Chief added with a smile.

There was a trace of surprise in the beautiful eyes of the cyan-clothed woman. She obviously didn’t expect that Yu Qing Qian’s talent would be excellent in all three categories, but this wasn’t what she was most interested in.

Her eyes fell on the Headmaster and she asked with a definitive tone: “Can she form contracts with demonic plants?”

“Yu Qing Qian used holy points to exchange for the incomplete Demonic Plant Contracting Method, and not long ago, she entered a secret ground to train, then news continued to come from pupils who entered the secret ground. It’s said that Yu Qing Qian can not only form contracts with demonic plants, but also has the talent to sense the location of spiritual plants.” The Headmaster said truthfully.

The cyan-clothed woman pondered for a while, then said with some interest: “If she can really make contracts with demonic plants, then that means that the king-level bloodline demonic plants might’ve been contracted by her, rather than dead?”

“Mm, that’s very likely.” The Headmaster knew this shi’shu had always been very interested in pupils who could form contracts with demonic plants, and continued with a smile: “Whether Yu Qing Qian can form contracts with demonic plants or not, we’ll find out in the challenge of the Red Peak this time. After all, shi’shu, the two obstacles you set up are related to demonic plants.”

The cyan-clothed woman nodded: “Mm.” It was obvious that she was already interested in this matter.

“To the two shi’shu, Headmaster, Yu Qing Qian dug up nearly one-tenth of the spiritual plants in the secret area and brought them out to trade, and even made the secret ground depleted of king-level demonic plants, how should we deal with this matter?” The Honoured Chief of the Red Peak asked after thinking.

The Headmaster asked with a smile instead: “You’re the Honoured Chief of the Red Peak, what is your opinion?”

¹this is not her name. I actually don’t know how to translate this to English. Yes, there are translations that would translate it to ‘martial uncle’ or ‘master uncle’ because the 叔in shi’shu (师叔) is usually translated to ‘uncle’ in modern terms. HOWEVER, historically and traditionally (based on a quick Baidu search) 师叔 in xian’xia and wu’xia stories is actually not a gendered term. Both men and woman can be called 师叔. The 师叔 would be one’s Master’s junior brother/junior sister (e.g. if Yu Qing Qian’s Master, Gu Yan, had a junior brother/junior sister, that person would be YQQ’s 师叔. Also, remember how junior sister/junior brother isn’t necessarily related to age in this Academy, but actually how early/late you enter the Academy? Well, that’s the same in this case. This junior might be older than Gu Yan, but might’ve entered the sect/academy/recognised the same Master LATER than Gu Yan). From memory, I’ve also seen this 师叔 used to address males and females in modern day as a form of respect, particularly someone of high scholarly status, such as some professor at a university. Yes, you might also see 师姑 (shi’gu) used to address a Master’s junior sister or senior sister in xian’xia/wu’xia stories, but this one is specifically female, while its counterpart is 师伯 (shi’bo) for senior brothers, and in that case, stories that use those terms might dedicate 师叔 as solely for the junior brother. It could also just depend on the character’s way of address.

Random Note: If you haven’t guessed already, yes, this is the Ancestor I’ve been using the pronoun ‘they’ to represent – the one interested with demonic plants that YQQ wants to become the disciple of.

Not that important, but I’ve been wanting to write this for a while as an fyi. The previous times, there has actually been no specification of the Ancestor’s gender. I have been avoiding using any he/she pronouns until now because whenever Feng Chen or Yu Qing Qian spoke of this Ancestor, they used the word 他 (ta). For translators who haven’t read this story already, they might have actually translated it to ‘he’ (for me, I’ve read this story already hehe). But ‘he’ is technically correct. However, 他 is also a gender-neutral term. Plus, it doesn’t matter in speech, because 他，她 and 它 (he/she/it) is the exact same pronunciation.

Interestingly enough, when I went on exchange to China, while mentioning this 他，她 and 它 in passing, an international student in my class asked why we don’t use 它 (ta, meaning ‘it’, used to refer to animals and things) as a gender-neutral term instead, and we had to use 他 which is typically for men in modern times (I don’t know about it’s etymology historically). I think my teacher at the time couldn’t actually answer why, and I think she just said language just didn’t developed that way in society. Which is fair, since I sometimes think about how language developed based on how people use it and society as a whole. E.g. I remember seeing how ‘y’all aka ‘you all’ has, I believe, now been officially recognised in some sort of dictionary when previously it wasn’t a word.