Traditional Art

"I had a friendly exchange with Senior Devouring Demon Willow, and we fully exchanged views and reached a consensus on solutions in all aspects..."

In the living room of the small wooden house, after Qin Ran activated the isolation array, he briefly told a few people about the things between him and Devouring Demon Willow.

...As for whether Devouring Demon Willow is still alive, it was inferred by them, and had nothing to do with Qin Ran. Qin Ran did not violate the Divine Soul Blood Pact.

"So..." Tushan Youyou hugged her chest and leaned against the window, asking Qin Ran, "Are you in cahoots with Devouring Demon Willow?"

"What collusion? You make it sound so unpleasant!" Qin Ran sat in the long wooden chair in the living room, holding a cup of hot tea in his hand, and said, "We have reached a peace agreement and engaged in friendly cooperation, paving the way for his and Dan Peak's future development."

"How dare you cooperate with someone like Devouring Demon Willow?" Tushan Youyou sneered when she heard this and said, "Aren't you afraid of death?"

"Senior is a ninth-rank demonic beast. It is my greatest honor to be able to cooperate with him. Why not?" Qin Ran replied.

Long Qiqi sat cross-legged on the floor, leaning on the coffee table. She looked at Qin Ran and always felt that Qin Ran was a little strange today. His tone of speech was false and vague, and he didn't say anything of substance no matter how much he talked.

She suspected that Qin Ran had already been possessed or controlled by Devouring Demon Willow. After all, Devouring Demon Willow was a demonic beast and could not speak human language.

She quickly signaled to Tushan Youyou by the window with her eyes, "This may not be Qin Ran".

Tushan Youyou received Long Qiqi's signal and asked, "Are you Qin Ran?"

"Ah!" Long Qiqi patted her head helplessly. Why did she ask it directly? She shouldn't have confidence in demonic beasts when it comes to intrigue, even if it was a fox spirit.

"Of course it's me." Qin Ran said.

"How to prove it?"

"Chasing the Wind can prove it."

Tushan Youyou looked at Chasing the Wind. Chasing the Wind nodded and said, "It's indeed Dad."

In fact, Tushan Youyou also felt that there was something wrong with Qin Ran. She looked at Qin Ran a few more times, thought about it, and asked, "So what deal did you guys make?"

"Can't say." Qin Ran shook his head.

Tushan Youyou thought to herself that she probably shouldn't ask about the affairs of a rank 9 demonic beast.

But Long Qiqi's eyes condensed. She noticed something wrong. Can't say, it means being forced not to say. She no longer believed in Tushan Youyou, and asked by herself, "How much strength does Devouring Demon Willow have left now?"

"Unknown."

Long Qiqi guessed Qin Ran and Devouring Demon Willow's situation based on her own sinister thoughts, and got some clues. She asked again, "If Sister Youyou wanted to challenge Devouring Demon Willow, what are the odds of winning?"

Qin Ran looked approvingly at Long Qiqi, knowing that the little girl had grasped the way to break the situation.

He answered, "YouYou's strength is indeed strong, but for Senior Devouring Demon Willow, she still does not pose a threat to life."

Long Qiqi immediately understood. Can win, but can't kill. She asked again, "What about Chasing the Wind?"

"Can't say." Qin Ran shook his head again and again.

...Chasing the Wind has the ability to threaten Devouring Demon Willow's life.

Long Qiqi asked Qin Ran some trivial details in a roundabout way. Qin Ran also answered Long Qiqi as much as possible without triggering the Divine Soul Blood Pact.

The two said a bunch of incomprehensible words, leaving the other three people looking at each other, not knowing what they were talking about.

After a while, Qin Ran got up and went out, saying, "I'll go see how Senior Devouring Demon Willow is doing."

The four people in the living room sat down. Li Shiyin looked at Long Qiqi and hurriedly asked, "Qiqi, what exactly is going on?"

"Qin Ran made some deals with Devouring Demon Willow and reached some agreements. In these agreements, at least one is that he cannot reveal Devouring Demon Willow's true situation. If he does, Qin Ran may suffer some kind of harm."

Long Qiqi shared her analysis with them and continued, "But I got some useful information from the exchange just now."

"Agreement..." Tushan Youyou said, "It should be a Divine Soul Blood Pact."

"Divine Soul Blood Pact?" Long Qiqi had never heard of such a thing due to her cultivation level and knowledge.

So Tushan Youyou explained to her what a Divine Soul Blood Pact was, and finally added, "With Devouring Demon Willow's strength, isn't it very unfair for Qin Ran to sign a Divine Soul Blood Pact with him?"

She still didn't know that Devouring Demon Willow was stronger at splitting spirits, otherwise she would be more worried.

"With Qin Ran's personality, he won't suffer such a loss." Long Qiqi shook her head. She didn't know if she was praising Qin Ran or not.

"From the exchange just now, I got some information," she continued.

"First, Qin Ran is not in danger for the time being, but it may not be so in the future; Second, Qin Ran cannot take action against Devouring Demon Willow, but he did not say we could not take action. According to my analysis, Qin Ran is implying that we should take action to eliminate Devouring Demon Willow."

"With just that little willow branch..." Li Shiyin wondered, "Chasing the Wind can slap it to death with one paw. What's so amazing about it?"

"That's a rank 9 demonic beast, equivalent to a united path cultivator! How terrifying is a united path cultivator?" Long Qiqi looked at Li Shiyin and scolded, "There may be countless backups, how can it be easily killed? Lingnan Immortal Sect has been plotting for many years, and has not completely eliminated it."

"We still have to plan this matter carefully!"

Qin Ran went out alone and came to Devouring Demon Willow's side. He took out his Dao fruit and spread it in front of Devouring Demon Willow, and jokingly asked, "Senior Willow, the Dao fruit is here, how do you want to take it?"

The branches of the slender willow in front of him swayed, the willow tip bent, and lightly tapped the Dao fruit. Then the Dao fruit turned into a liquid and flew up with the willow branch, eventually merging into the willow branch.

This Dao fruit originally belonged to Devouring Demon Willow anyway, so absorbing it was a natural thing.

After absorbing the Dao fruit, visibly, the slender willow by the lake grew taller and bigger, and in the blink of an eye it grew from waist-high of Qin Ran to even taller than Qin Ran. Its trunk also thickened to the size of a baby's fist, and the yellow buds on the branches grew into tender yellow leaves.

"Congratulations, Senior!" Qin Ran said.

The willow tree swayed its branches and leaves, also appearing cheerful.

That night, the study lights were on. Qin Ran transcribed the first layer of the Nine Extremes Primordial Spirit Demon Devouring Skill onto paper, and studied every word carefully on the paper.

He made detailed lists on paper of the various meanings of each word, multiple interpretations, different origins, and so on. He was treating this demonic skill as a classics to do academic research.

Contrary to Liu Daoji's expectation of eager anticipation, Qin Ran was in no hurry to cultivate this primordial spirit skill. Instead, he calmly started researching it, and even had no intention of cultivating this skill at all.

How careful and cautious was Qin Ran? Where would he casually cultivate other people's skills? It is known that after killing someone, he didn't even dare to lick the package, for fear of learning the other's skills and being found out.

He had no intention of cultivating this skill, only the intention to research this skill...

And for him, an experienced skill scavenger for many years, researching skills was a proper professional job!