Second Time

Chapter 62 - Apprentice

Cai Fei sat on top of the central pavilion, looking down at the mountain, deep in thought.

"An apprentice, huh?"

Cai Fei's regular duties involved the peak's arrays. An apprentice would have to learn how to refine the outer and inner disciple tokens, grant people temporary approval, and create some simple arrays by request.

"What kind of person would I want as an apprentice?"

Naturally, they had to have some talent in arrays. Or, did they? Would teaching someone with no talent be more useful than teaching someone with talent? Teaching someone with talent was easy, but to teach someone without talent, she would need to hone her understanding to the sharpest degree.

Cultivation didn't matter too much. Given the quality of the cultivation environment on the main peak, Cai Fei believed anyone would be able to reach Spiritual Manifestation. Arrays could also be set up by anyone using spirit stones. The only consideration would be how close the apprentice was to the end of her lifespan.

Then, maybe personality mattered most. Someone cold, yet devoted? Someone warm and playful and eager? She thought of Shao Yue's disciples and considered which of them she would most prefer teaching.

"Jiao or Qiuhua," Cai Fei decided. "Seriousness is important. Between the two of them... Qiuhua is best."

'Someone like Qiuhua' was a better start than she'd had a while ago. She couldn't actually teach Qiuhua, for a variety of reasons, but at least she had some sort of goal.

"I guess I'll go wander around." Cai Fei stood up and looked between the inner and outer areas. "The outer area will have more people."

She waved her hand, a pair of butterfly wings appearing from her back. She flew off to the outer area.

There was no way for Liezhu to possibly produce enough silk to dress everyone in Rainbow Mist Peak with it, so all the outer and inner disciples had uniforms made from normal material, though the style matched the uniforms the direct disciples wore.

The outer disciples had no embroideries, while the inner disciples had designs of auspicious clouds on their skirts. Everyone could dye their uniform whatever colour they wanted. Although Shao Yue certainly wouldn't care, the disciples as a whole avoided choosing red as a show of respect. Most chose to copy the colour of whichever direct disciple they liked best.

In a certain sense, Cai Fei approved. In her mind, Shao Yue looked the best in red. Anyone imitating her would fall flat.

Cai Fei glanced at her own uniform. "Maybe I should look for people wearing dark blue?"

Cai Fei's main form of attack in the tournament had been her arrays, so anyone copying her colour would likely have some interest in arrays. She could also keep an eye out for disciples wearing white, which Qiuhua wore, but Chunhua also wore white so that wouldn't be the best indicator.

When Cai Fei landed, she didn't immediately attract attention. Her closed meridians meant she didn't give off a powerful aura. Only when people actually looked at her did they realize who she was, the butterfly design on her skirt leaving no doubt.

"Greetings to Vice-Master!" someone called out, bowing deeply.

That caused others to realize and soon everyone in the area had called out and bowed.

Cai Fei was a bit taken aback. "A-ah, yeah, keep working hard."

Am I the Vice-Master? I guess so.

She hadn't interacted with people who would call her that in her entire time in the Immortal Steel Sect. The direct disciples all called her by name.

As she started to wander, everyone would call out to her and bow. It was a really weird feeling. She had never been an important person. She'd grown up in an average household. Even her renown as Shao Yue's alchemy apprentice in Jade Garden City wasn't the same, that was her borrowing Shao Yue's reputation.