Chapter 24 (Part 2)

When he was in Houtu City, Lu Yan had barely suppressed it and controlled his realm at middle-stage Golden Core. After arriving in Baiqiu City, in order to deal with the strange illness “Huangliang,” Lu Yan had not stopped at all. The spiritual energy required to refine automatic pill furnaces was still manageable. The main problem lay in the spirit plant space. This sort of space came from the experience Lu Yan had gained cultivating spirit seeds on Qionggu Peak when he was very young. Spirit stones supported the Spirit-Gathering Array, and if someone outside guided the Spirit-Gathering Array’s operation, the spirit seeds would mature faster. For the sake of efficiency, Lu Yan could only keep circulating spiritual energy without stopping.

It was not only Lu Yan who had a spirit plant space. The Repair Department, Medical Valley, and even Ying Sanliang and Yuan Chi each had one space and were helping ripen them.

Under these circumstances, Lu Yan’s dantian had practically become a vortex. A breakthrough was within expectations.

The only people here who were one major realm higher than Lu Yan were Ying Sanliang and Meng Ke.

Meng Ke himself was so busy the days and nights had blurred together. On top of that, he had only recently broken through to Nascent Soul and had little experience, so it was only natural that he could not see it.

Ying Sanliang was different. He had stayed in Nascent Soul for more than a hundred years. The aura from when Lu Yan had just broken through could not be hidden from him at all. Ying Sanliang calculated it. In only seven days, he had gone from middle-stage Golden Core to Golden Core Perfection.

When something was abnormal, there had to be something strange behind it!

Seeing that Lu Yan was not speaking, Ying Sanliang tugged the wine pouch from his waist and gloomily took a mouthful. “You don’t have to say it if you don’t want to, but you have to give me a straight answer. Is it harmful to you?”

Lu Yan pressed his lips together.

Whether it was harmful or not, Lu Yan did not know either. He was also waiting. Waiting for that invisible hand to reveal itself. Before that, Lu Yan would not just sit and wait for death.

So Lu Yan answered, “Don’t worry. It’s fine.”

The pills had already been developed. The automatic pill furnaces had begun working. The Repair Department coordinated with Medical Valley to distribute the pills.

With the threat of the strange illness gone, Baiqiu City was full of joy. During the day, there were no longer blindingly bright lamps lit everywhere, and even the dark circles under everyone’s eyes from lack of sleep had vanished.

The entrance to the Repair Department was piled high with fruits and vegetables. They were all worthless things, and the common people dropped them off and ran. No one knew who had thrown in a big goose, but it chased people around and bit them, looking extraordinarily mighty and spirited.

Later, that goose was stewed. It was very fragrant.

The little girl Lu Yan had saved on the street on the first day after he arrived flew over like a little lark, chattering all the way. She stopped in front of Lu Yan and revealed a well-behaved smile. “Immortal big brother!”

Perhaps it was some kind of fledgling attachment, but the little girl often ran to Lu Yan’s side. Sometimes she brought a few pastries her grandmother had made, hopping and skipping along without seeming to mind the distance at all.

A Repair Department disciple teased her. “Little girl, what did you come to deliver this time?”

The little girl was carrying a bundle on her back. Hearing this, her eyes curved. She took the bundle down, raised her hands, and handed it to Lu Yan. She said earnestly, “This is cloth Grandma and I asked from family after family. We made it into a hundred-family robe. I helped too!”

Lu Yan crouched down. The little girl opened the bundle, and inside, a hundred-family robe sewn from all kinds of scraps of cloth was folded neatly. The little girl pulled out one corner and pointed at the crooked little bird embroidery on it. “Immortal big brother, I embroidered this. Is it pretty?”

The embroidery truly could not be called pretty. The little bird looked more like an underdeveloped chick. But Lu Yan still praised it. “It’s really pretty!”

There were only two days left until Medical Valley’s ceremony for handing over the position of master. The Baiqiu City strange illness incident had already passed, which meant they would soon leave and set out for Medical Valley.

Before that, Lu Yan needed to use the Repair Departments spread throughout the Central Continent to send out the Clear Spirit Pills and the automatic pill furnaces, just in case.

Lu Yan waved his hand and sent out several talismans. Golden streams of light vanished into the sky.

Meng Ke had finally changed into a fresh set of clothes. He asked, “Who are you sending messages to?”

Lu Yan clasped his hands behind his back and said, “The sea, land, and air brothers freeloading on my mountain.”

Divine Creation Sect, Qionggu Peak.

Xuncang was leisurely starting a fire to roast a rabbit. After ten years of living together, He Nian had grown bolder and bolder, and he was roasting fish beside Xuncang.

Jiao Ruyan, the Merfolk who was somewhat related to fish, had transformed into his original form and was soaking in the water, directing He Nian. “Turn it over, turn it over! You’re burning the fish!”

He Nian’s face darkened. “Even when it’s burnt, I’ve never seen you eat one bite less.”

They were born from the same root. Why be so eager to fry each other?

Xuncang’s divine sense stirred. He reached out and caught a stream of golden light, which turned into a letter and unfurled before him.

At the same time, He Nian and Jiao Ruyan also received letters.

“Locate me. Urgent matter. Come quickly. Lu Yan.”

After living with Lu Yan for a long time, the sea, land, and air brothers understood what “locate” meant. All of them had Lu Yan’s divine sense mark and could use the marks to weave a route by special means, thereby guiding them in Lu Yan’s direction.

He Nian no longer cared about the fish he was roasting. He said, “Looks like the little ancestor really is in trouble. I can fly, and Xuncang has cultivation to rely on. Dead fish, what are you going to do?”

Hidden-Edge Cranes were known for their speed. Xuncang was a three-thousand-year-old demonic monster. Only Jiao Ruyan was neither here nor there.

Jiao Ruyan blinked. “How about I… swim over?”

Water was still Merfolk territory, right?

Xuncang was too lazy to pay attention to their bickering and directly pointed at Jiao Ruyan. “Make yourself smaller and let the fat bird carry you in his beak.”

Jiao Ruyan: “???”

No, a bird carrying a fish in its beak? Would he still be alive afterward?

He Nian slowly revealed a smile of sudden enlightenment. “That works…”

An hour later, the sea, land, and air brothers avoided the ordinary people and landed in the Repair Department’s courtyard.

Lu Yan had specifically sent everyone else away. He was the only one left in the courtyard. Lu Yan could not help letting out a sound of surprise. “Jiao Ruyan, your look is pretty unique.”

Jiao Ruyan had truly been carried in He Nian’s beak the whole way over. His back was wet, covered entirely in He Nian’s saliva. After landing, he returned to his original size, moved away from He Nian in disgust, rolled his eyes back until only the whites showed, and denounced him with sharp teeth and a sharp tongue. “Fat bird, have you never stopped wanting to eat me?”

He Nian transformed into human form, wiped the saliva from the corner of his mouth, and said disdainfully, “Don’t flatter yourself. Are you as tasty as a black snow fish?”

Jiao Ruyan gave him dead-fish eyes. “If you have the nerve to make excuses, then have the nerve to stop wiping your drool!”

Xuncang, a very elderly demonic monster, did not even bother with them. He walked straight to Lu Yan’s side and said with a dark face, “If this isn’t a life-or-death emergency, I’m not serving.”

Lu Yan motioned for the bird and fish over there to stop arguing first. He roughly explained what had happened in Baiqiu City and the symptoms of “Huangliang,” then assigned eachdemon race a task. “He Nian, Hidden-Edge Cranes have always regarded speed as supreme. I want you to take your clansmen and deliver these things to every Divine Creation Sect Repair Department, where they must be received personally by the manager.”

It was a storage space. There was nothing else inside, only layers of little storage pouches divided up like nesting dolls. Each little storage pouch contained an automatic pill furnace and its refining method, including the arrays and a set of class notes, as well as the detailed pill formula and a letter regarding “Huangliang” and Baiqiu City, instructing every Repair Department disciple that they absolutely had to take it seriously.

The Repair Department managers had been taught by Lu Yan over the course of ten years. They would definitely be able to hand in a perfect answer sheet.

He Nian, director of the Divine Creation Sect Express Management Office, nodded heavily. “I’m familiar with this job. Little ancestor, when I handle things, you can relax!”

“And Jiao Ruyan.”

Because his back had been soaked with saliva, Jiao Ruyan had, for once, changed into men’s clothing. His sea-blue hair was tied high. He replied, “Yes, ancestor, tell me.”

Lu Yan gave Jiao Ruyan a spatial ring and said, “I want you to grind the pills inside into powder and release them into the rivers. Better too much than too little. I hope that every well in the mortal world will carry the pills’ medicinal power.”

Merfolk were the sovereigns of water. Jiao Ruyan solemnly accepted the spatial ring. He seemed to have sensed something, and his fist clenched hard. “I’ll definitely get it done!”

After He Nian and Jiao Ruyan left, Lu Yan looked toward the wolf king. “Xuncang…”

Xuncang stroked his chin. Three thousand years of life made it very easy for him to perceive Lu Yan’s intentions. He gave a smile that was not quite a smile and asked, “Humans are the leaders of all spirits. The Buddhists say saving one life is better than building a seven-story pagoda. Little Bupo, are you giving merit away for free?”

Demonic Cultivators truly and genuinely acted against heaven, and merit could make a Demonic Cultivator’s path smooth and open.

Calling it smooth and open was thinking too small.

Xuncang thought back to two hundred years ago. At that time, the previous sect master of the Divine Creation Sect had just failed his tribulation, and for some reason, Daoist Yiwen had sought him out to challenge him. What he wanted was a strand of wolf fur from Xuncang’s tail that contained a bit of his essence soul.

Daoist Yiwen’s condition had not been very good. Xuncang did not like dealing with human cultivators, but Daoist Yiwen pressed him step by step and defeated Xuncang with a decisive stance. The wolf king had never been a demonic monster who could not afford to lose. After plucking a small tuft of fur from his tail, Xuncang asked, “Why must you have this little bit of fur?”

Xuncang had told Lu Yan about this before, but at the time, what he had told Lu Yan was, “Heaven’s secrets cannot be revealed.”

Back then, Daoist Yiwen’s head of white hair had drifted in the wind. His still-intact eye was red, staring fixedly at that little tuft of white fur. His true answer had been, “Xuncang, in the future, you ought to thank me. This is your, and also our, only chance of ascension.”

Later, the wolf king’s tail fur was made into a brush, which Daoist Yiwen gave to Lu Yan when he had just entered the sect. Lu Yan later named it the Buwang Brush.

Xuncang would never take back something he had given away, but when he met Lu Yan for the first time, the desire in his heart to reclaim his tail fur had overwhelmed his principles like a flood breaking loose.

In order to understand the reason behind that situation, Xuncang had agreed to Daoist Yiwen’s suggestion and temporarily remained at the Divine Creation Sect.

A chance of ascension.

Xuncang hid his emotions.

Lu Yan looked at Xuncang’s unusual reaction and raised his brow slightly. In an instant, his expression returned to normal. He took out another storage ring and said, “Xuncang, help me deliver this spatial ring to my Martial Uncle Yizhu at Guanglin Studio in Luoyan City.”

Xuncang took the ring and casually tossed it twice. “Anything else?”

“Yes. I want to ask you to stay in Luoyan City for a few more days. At least until after Medical Valley’s master handover.” Lu Yan’s shoulders relaxed, and his eyes were bottomless. The corners of his lips curved upward as he said, “My Martial Uncle Yizhu cannot leave Luoyan City at will. If one person comes looking for you, no matter what it is, please be sure to agree to it.”

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