“Oh… so it was like that.” Virus mumbled with shining eyes, thinking about this whole situation and the opportunity present in front of him.
But afterward, processing the Martial Contest, he casually inquired about it as he wanted to gather further information related to it, “Why would the Inferior and Normal disciples participate too? I mean… there isn’t any point in them participating, right? Because they will lose anyway… unless… there are prizes specifically prepared for them.”
Listening to Virus question and almost get to the answer all by himself, Astes spoke, “That’s right… though they won’t be able to aim for the top rankings, there are great benefits for them too, with the most important one being that the top three disciples of each section will be upgraded to be a higher section disciple. For example, the top three of the Inferior Disciples will become Normal Disciples, while the top three of the Normal Disciples will become Superior Disciples.”
“Oh, I see… so that’s why… and like that, those disciples will also be able to take a glimpse of more powerful disciples fighting with each other, which would benefit them greatly…the sect truly has great insight by making the contest this way…” Virus voiced analyzing the contest a little further.
By this point, they had already walked to the second floor as she stopped in front of a door, uttering, “This room is for you two, if she was your servant, then we could’ve given her another room if you requested, but since she’s family, there is no need for that.”
Then taking a glance at the golden beauty, she asked, “That’s fine, right?”
Hearing the question, Bella replied without any hesitation, “Of course! I would always stay by Mas… by big brother’s side! I won’t ever budge from his side in the least!”
Listening to her words, Astes was a little suspicious of what she was about to say, but forgetting about it, she looked back at Virus and probed, “Anyway, do you have any other question?”
“Yes, when are those two contests you mentioned?” He asked.
“They start in two days…” She replied, then finally unable to tolerate any longer, she voiced, “I’m your senior apprentice-sister, so you should call me that!”
Hearing this sudden change of subject, Virus was surprised because talking like this and calling others ‘you’ was the normal way of talking on his Earth, but this Earth seemed to care too much about titles, so he decided to ask a question, “What does ‘Senior apprentice-sister’ mean exactly?”
It wasn’t that Virus was unaware of the meaning of the word, it was just that each word will have a relatively different meaning in each location influenced by the culture of that place in the long term, so he wanted to know the exact meaning of the word, for example, if the word ‘senior’ in ‘senior apprentice-sister’ meant ‘older and more experienced’ or something else altogether.
Astes was confused by his abrupt simple question, but nevertheless, she replied, “The word apprentice-sister obviously means that we are from the same sect and the same martial family of the Sky Silver Sect, and the word senior means that I’m older than you in the sect as I was here long before you… this is what the word ‘senior apprentice-sister’ means to me.”
Listening to her description, Virus nodded his head as he decided to call her ‘Senior apprentice-sister’ as she had asked, but he couldn’t stop himself from teasing her a little bit to be entertained, so he said, “Okay, I will call you that, but without the word ‘Senior’ in it, since it makes you seem like an old person… is that fine, apprentice-sister?”
Astes was happy hearing the first part of his words, but when he began the second part of his sentence, she began to have mixed feelings inside.
At first, she felt angry because he said he wouldn’t use the word ‘senior’ which was a kind of disrespect to their relationship, but then, he said he didn’t want to call her that because it made her feel old which meant he was saying it out of good will and she kind of… liked it, because which girl would want to seem old.
Even one of her main purposes by cultivating was because she didn’t want to get old and stay young as long as possible, so how could she like to be called old.
Thus, she was struck speechless, unable to respond to Virus’ previous statement.
Virus, on the other hand, seeing that he had succeeded, smirked and said, “Silence is a sign of consent and acceptance… so it’s decided then… okay, apprentice-sister, I have another question for you now… how can someone sign up in the contests?”
She was still having mixed feelings and processing Virus’ previous words when Virus took that as a sign of consent which quite annoyed and frustrated her to be honest, but she didn’t say anything in the end, and just replied a little absent-mindedly, “You just need to go to the elder who is in charge of signing up… “
“Oh… and who and where is that elder exactly?” He inquired further.
“The elder in charge of signing up for both of the contests is the elder in charge of the library of the Normal Disciples’ section… ” At first, she was explaining and clarifying the situation without much thought, but by the end of her sentence, a thought suddenly struck her which shocked her quite a bit as she asked, “Don’t tell me… you want to participate in one of the contests?”
“Of course, what’s wrong with me participating in the contest, is there any rules stating that I can’t?” Virus responded.
“Are you seriously asking that? Are you crazy??? You’re just a mortal being without any qi right now… so how can you participate in any of the contests… the Martial Contest itself is obviously for those who are already cultivating qi… but you… even taking the last place would be hard for you because you will probably die immediately.” She began explaining the obvious in a tone as if she had just heard the most absurd thing in the world.
Then, she continued completely frustrated, like she couldn’t believe he didn’t even understand something as basic as that, “And… let’s say you’re not going to participate in the Martial Contest… but in the Alchemy Contest… but even in that, what matters is the qi! Both contests need some cultivation base for you to have a chance to stand out… but you have neither… so why are you going to participate in any of them? To lose? Or to lose your mortal life? Just forget about it… because you have nothing to gain out of it too as you are already a superior disciple… “
“Is apprentice-sister that much worried about her apprentice-brother?” Virus inquired with a serious face while grinning evilly inside.
Listening to question, Astes froze for a short moment, but understanding what he meant, she lashed out at him in a louder voice, “Who was worried about you! I’m just saying because you are my junior apprentice-brother… if you want to lose your puny mortal life… then just go ahead and participate!”
