The Cat Lady Emperor walked in front, humming a little tune with her "little snake" perched on her head.

The cliff was steep, with vertical rock faces offering almost no footholds, reaching left was the vast South Sea.

Raging waves crashed against the rocks, and the splashed spray wetted the Cat Lady Emperor's sleeves.

Though this precipice was inaccessible to ordinary people, it posed no problem for the cultivators.

Even without using any tricky spells, with the Thousand Mechanism Pavilion's versatile knightly shoes for hiking, a 90° climb was nothing, they'd even manage a 360° trek.

The pair walked on like mountain goats for a while, then the Cat Lady Emperor suddenly turned her head and asked.

"Where are we actually heading?"

"?"

Li Yueqi, "What? You don't know the way, yet you walk in front?"

The Cat Lady Emperor giggled playfully, "Oh hey, I got carried away walking."

Li Yueqi, "..."

With a sigh, Li Yueqi gave up on reprimanding her troublesome disciple, knowing it likely wouldn't be effective; she'd just repeat the mistake next time.

"Hei Qu!"

Li Yueqi habitually raised her hand to call upon her companion, intending to scout the path ahead, but despite calling for a while, she got no response.

The Spiritual Snake Qinghe perceptively conjured a red brick, twining it around with its tail tip, handing it to Li Yueqi.

"The silly dog must've fallen asleep again, go hit him with the brick."

Feeling the weight of the brick in her hand was just right, Li Yueqi tossed it into the shadows.

Plop.

Like dropping into a pond, the brick vanished.

Moments later, Li Yueqi's shadow wobbled, and Hei Qu, wearing glasses and earplugs, emerged—reading a book.

Due to the cliff's verticalness, he almost tumbled into the sea, catching him off guard.

Bemused by Hei Qu's appearance, Li Yueqi asked, "What are you doing?"

"Preparing for exams... I'm aiming for Dragon Tiger Mountain." Saying this, Hei Qu flipped the book, showing Li Yueqi the cover of "Tongtian Talisman Explained."

"Huh, with those fluffy paws of yours, can you really draw talismans?" Qinghe teased.

Hei Qu glanced at Qinghe but, rather than his usual biting response, he gracefully put away his purely decorative glasses.

"There's no difference between Spiritual Sword Control and Spiritual Penmanship, talisman crafts... it's pointless explaining to someone who dropped out in middle school."

Truth stung like a swift blade, prompting Qinghe to grow anxious.

Qinghe, "Say that again?"

Hei Qu, "Heh, middle school dropout."

Qinghe started puffing, yet couldn't refute, as it was rightly deserved.

The school opened by Thousand Mechanism Pavilion embraced all, allowing anyone passing exams to enroll—though admission was loose, completion required rigor.

Repeating grades wasn't too harsh, but getting expelled necessitated waiting a lifetime to re-enter.

Qinghe wasn't stupid, just playful, with a mindset that passing the exams sufficed; he skipped classes five days a week, swinging in the classroom on weekends.

Thus, within a month due to excessive absences and damaging the door frame he was expelled, needing a five-year wait to retry enrollment.

Even being Li Yueqi's spirit pet offered no exceptions in this matter.

Besides him, expelled high-caste kids and misfits nearly formed a battalion.

To prevent them from causing trouble, the Six Sects gathered their sternest elders to supervise the administration.

Either through Dharma Body, or remotely controlling Thousand Mechanism Puppets, they took turns part-timing there.

If persuasion failed, their actual bodies descended to enforce order.

Had it ended there, fine—he didn't care for studies anyway, what's schooling got to do with him, just a cute little snake?

What Qinghe truly couldn't stomach was Hei Qu having graduated, not only graduated, but continually advancing.

"I'm soon triple-majoring, Sword Sect and Dragon Tiger Mountain, dual majors with Beast Taming Sect. If you drop out, don't talk to me without formal submissions."

Hei Qu put his glasses back on, ignoring Qinghe's intent for a showdown, then turned to Li Yueqi, "Did you need me for something?"

At a loss for words, Li Yueqi waved her hand, "No... nothing, continue your reading."

Hei Qu nodded and sunk back into the shadows.

Qinghe spat venomous smoke at the shadows, huffed, and ceased conversing, pretending to be a scarf motionless around Li Yueqi.

He's quite upset.

Li Yueqi felt somewhat exasperated.

While speechless, she raised her head to see her unlucky disciple, the Cat Lady Emperor chuckling at her predicament, showing amusement at the day's turn of events.

Seeing the Cat Lady Emperor's unfortunate behavior, she finally lost her composure, stepping forward she pinched her ear, "Laugh, laugh, laugh, you keep laughing, you even got expelled from kindergarten, what's so funny!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Pinch the ear if you must, but why use the powerful Vajra Finger technique?"

The Cat Lady glued to the cliff by versatile hiking shoes was yanked back and forth by Li Yueqi.

A village pretending to be a little snake wound tightly around the Cat Lady Emperor's head, swaying and giggling.

'Hmm, very energetic, this is how Beast Taming Sect should be.'

The Cat Lady Emperor's skin was tough as nails, her cries were loud but essentially unaffected.

Li Yueqi released her grip on the Cat Lady Emperor's ear and sighed again.

"Open the map, I recall a sea-connected cave nearby, let's shelter there first and plan the journey ahead."

"Oh." The Cat Lady Emperor instinctively reached for a little walnut, but after groping for a while, remembered she didn't need it anymore.

She lifted her wrist, lightly tracing a silver ring on her wrist with her right hand.