Taigu City is more than two hundred kilometers away from Qi Yuan, and now it takes just over an hour by high-speed rail. Cliff Lake is located at the foot of Shangfang Mountain in the southern suburbs of Taigu City, where the scenery is pleasant and the water is clear.
At the lakeside at the foot of the mountain, there is a leisure resort called Chuanyue Manor. The name sounds a bit strange—sugar-coated haws on sticks, skewered lamb, but could there be skewered moon, too?
The name comes from the local famous scenery "Cliff Lake String Moon." There's a Xingchun Bridge in Cliff Lake, which has nine holes. It is said that on the eighteenth day of the eighth lunar month each year, at a specific spot on the shore, one can see a moon shadow in each hole of the bridge in succession.
Another saying suggests that the nine semicircular holes of the bridge, along with their reflections, look like nine moons lined up when viewed from afar.
Chuanyue Manor is a business controlled by Sorcerer Ye Hui of the Micro Realm Sect. Ye Hui is also a very capable entrepreneur in the area, but he usually keeps a low profile, so not many people have heard of him.
After Wu Yanjun was released from prison, he came to find Master Ye according to his master's last wishes. Ye Hui arranged for him to stay temporarily at Chuanyue Manor, and gave him the title of technical consultant in his enterprise, with a fairly decent monthly salary.
This was last month's affair. When Wu Yanjun first arrived at Chuanyue Manor, he was surprised by the name, feeling as if fate had a hand in it because, phonetically, it indeed sounded like "time-travel manor!"
The manor's main building is a six-story structure, equipped with standard guestrooms, conference halls of various sizes, and other facilities. Behind the main building, along the foothills, are several villa groups distributed according to the terrain.
Villa groups one to three are real estate projects that have been sold long ago, but property management is still handled by the manor, considered as standard hotel-style property. Groups four and five are tourism resorts, hotel projects.
Each villa group has a building equivalent to a reception desk, along with activity rooms and small self-service dining areas. There are corridors connecting the paths with each villa in the area and also with the main building of the manor.
Even on rainy days, each resident can stroll through the entire manor area via these corridors, enjoying the lake and mountain scenery from different angles.
It wasn't raining that day, so Wu Yanjun didn't take the corridor paths. He walked across the woodland grass to the entrance of the activity hall in group five, and tossed a small stone into the sky.
Beside him was a big tree, and a pomelo the size of a human head fell in response, its skin yellowed, caught steadily by Wu Yanjun's hand.
A young lady was sitting in the activity hall waiting for him, radiating youthful vigor and a beautiful appearance. Seeing him walk in carrying the pomelo, she couldn't help laughing: "Why do you always look like you're presenting treasures whenever we meet, always carrying something? That pomelo is not delicious, it's quite sour!"
Wu Yanjun: "It's not for eating. Peel the skin and put it in the car; it's a natural air freshener."
Young lady: "Quickly tell me what happened yesterday?"
Wu Yanjun: "My dear junior sister..."
The young lady interrupted him with a wave: "Don't always call me junior sister, it makes me wonder if I've time-traveled to the feudal society."
What does the term junior sister have to do with feudal society? Analyzing her thought process, it's probably because she often hears this term in costume dramas, and then connects period drama with feudal society.
Wu Yanjun: "Then what should I call you?"
Junior Sister: "Just call me by my name."
Wu Yanjun chuckled: "Last time when I went to the school to deliver something and shouted Yu Xuan downstairs, seven or eight people poked their heads from the windows, both girls and boys!"
Junior Sister: "Then call me by my full name, Ye Yuxuan."
The name Yu Xuan, including similar-sounding ones like Yu Xuan, Yu Xuan, Yu Xuan... etc., have a high repetition rate among her generation, resembling names like Tao, Wei, Qiang, Hong, Ai Hua, Wei Dong among her parents' generation.
Seeing that Wu Yanjun didn't respond, Ye Yuxuan stretched her neck and asked: "Xiaowu, have you noticed anything different about me today?"
Wu Yanjun scrutinized her: "You've become prettier and your skin looks better?"
Ye Yuxuan smiled with twinkling eyes: "Don't be superficial, look closer, this tests your observation skills."
Wu Yanjun suddenly realized: "You've promoted to Tier Two Scholar!"
This couldn't be seen at a glance; he was guessing. Ye Yuxuan happily replied: "Consider yourself clever. Indeed, I promoted last night. Now I'm like you, we're both Tier Two Sorcerers."
Upon hearing these words and seeing his junior sister's demeanor, Wu Yanjun was inexplicably reminded of a memory.
When he was in the second grade, he once passed by a first-grade classroom window. Inside, little kids brought him an inexplicable pride because he was already in the second grade and was no longer a first-grade student!
Promoting as a sorcerer is certainly a joyous occasion, and the way his junior sister spoke made it even more amusing, so Xiaowu also laughed happily and asked: "My suggestion was good, it worked, didn't it!"
Ye Yuxuan nodded: "It's truly an unexpected stroke of luck, I didn't foresee completing the ceremony this way, I really need to thank you this time!"
Far away in Qi Yuan, He Kao didn't know he was being tricked a bit by this senior-junior duo, as Ye Yuxuan had managed to complete the promotion ceremony from Tier One to Two of Micro-Entry Skill with his help.
If He Kao were present and heard these two talking, with his meticulousness and astuteness, he might deduce the general content of this promotion ceremony—
To promote from Tier Two to Three of Micro-Entry Skill, the ceremony requires personally crafting an item and substituting it for the original in public without anyone noticing. Therefore, to promote from Tier One to Two, it is probably about swapping an item so that it's indistinguishable to someone!