Hearing that the swarm was called Phoenix Wing Tiger Head Wasps, Chasing the Wind was as happy as a kid weighing several thousand pounds. He laid by the beehive for several days straight, and didn't go out to mess around at all.
Those who didn't know thought he was being lazy over there. Those who did know all knew he was hatching larvae.
After planting the beehive, Qin Ran didn't care much after that. Other than making blood sacrifices every day, everything else was being taken care of by Chasing the Wind and Liu Xiaozhi. As for Qin Ran himself, he had more important things to do these past few days - going to work!
It's not an exaggeration to say he was going to work.
This guy only wandered over to the Chief Alchemy Hall at 10 AM every day. He would look around here and there, play enough, then pick up a book and sit down in the main seat to read for the entire day. The moment it struck 5 PM, he would promptly get up and leave work.
This Chief Alchemy Hall elder... gave off the feeling of a corporate veteran who clocked in and out, wandering around with a teacup not doing proper work, going "huff huff huff" while drinking tea and spitting out tea leaves.
On June 18th, Feng Feiyan gave him an account book and said the trip to Zhican Valley was coming up in a couple days.
Qin Ran nodded and accepted the account book. He flipped it open for a look - inside were listed the spiritual medicines and elixirs that needed to be purchased this time, as well as the spiritual stones required for each elixir and spiritual medicine, and the total amount of spiritual stones needed.
He looked through carefully, then took out a pen and made some edits, before signing his name. Only then did he go find the Chief Finance Elder to retrieve the spiritual stones.
It was another day of slacking off. The moment it struck 5 PM, Qin Ran promptly got up to leave. But this time, he stopped at the door. He thought for a bit, and didn't directly return to Dan Peak. Instead, he took a detour to the Sect Leader's residence.
Since everything was already clear, there was no need to keep up this act. He should just lay his cards on the table. After all, he hadn't wronged the Dao Sword Sect one bit. Now that he had taken on this hot potato, and was about to head to the chopping block, he should at least get some benefits first.
"Sect Leader..." Gu Yueming was already seated cross-legged on a cushion, with his eyes closed, maintaining a cultivation posture. Qin Ran walked up and bowed with cupped fists, saying, "I will be heading to Zhican Valley the day after tomorrow. This trip is for the sake of all the sect disciples' cultivation, please excuse the trouble."
"There's no trouble to speak of. This is for the sake of the entire sect. I appreciate you undertaking this." Gu Yueming replied.
"(This isn't about whether it's troublesome or not. It's about life or death.)" Qin Ran laughed. "Before leaving, there are two matters I'd like to ask the Sect Leader for help with."
"(Before dying, I still have two last wishes.)"
Gu Yueming naturally understood Qin Ran's hidden meaning, but he was surprised that Qin Ran had come to ask for benefits so directly. He opened his eyes to look at Qin Ran, and nodded. "Tell me and I'll see what I can do."
"(I'll help if I can.)"
"There are still two children without identity tokens on Dan Peak. I ask that the Sect Leader help make one for them." Qin Ran said.
"That's easy... it's the snake demon and Profound Darkness Spirit Tiger right?" Gu Yueming said. He had tacitly permitted Qin Ran to raise the Profound Darkness Spirit Tiger.
As he spoke, he took out two identity tokens and asked Qin Ran, "Tell me their names."
"The snake demon is Long Qiqi, and the Profound Darkness Spirit Tiger is Chasing the Wind. Treat them both as my disciples."
Gu Yueming imbued his magic as directed and carved the identity information. Then he handed the identity tokens to Qin Ran and said, "Use blood to refine them."
Qin Ran respectfully accepted the tokens. He continued speaking about the second matter:
"That Profound Darkness Spirit Tiger doesn't have a Natal Armament yet. Before leaving, I'd like to leave behind the main materials needed to forge his Natal Armament."
"His mother died by the hands of sect elders three years ago. I'd like to know who still has remains... After all, nothing is better than the blood and bones of loved ones for a Natal Armament."
Upon hearing this, Gu Yueming raised his head, his profound gaze fixed on Qin Ran's eyes. Qin Ran calmly returned his gaze.
Silence filled the residence.
After a long while, Gu Yueming averted his gaze. He took out a box from his Universe Bag and handed it to Qin Ran, saying, "No need to go through so much trouble. That Profound Darkness Spirit Tiger barely managed to kill several elders combined. I also helped, and obtained this portion in the end. I'll give it to you."
Qin Ran respectfully accepted the box and opened it. Inside were a pair of dark gold, jade-like eyeballs with vertical pupils. When he looked at these eyeballs, the pupils also looked back at him. No matter where he looked, those vertical pupils followed his gaze, sending chills down his spine.
He closed the box, bowed to Gu Yueming again, and said, "Thank you, Sect Leader."
"Mm." Gu Yueming closed his eyes and asked, "Anything else?"
"No."
"You may go."
Qin Ran turned and left.
After Qin Ran had gone far away, Gu Yueming opened his eyes again and sighed. "What a smart child. A pity!"
"Intelligence is always a good thing." Another voice suddenly sounded, speaking to Gu Yueming. "He clearly understands his own position, clearly understands what he's doing, yet still took on this role and responsibility. This shows that he knows what to do, and also shows that he won't die. There's no need for pity."
"I hope so."
Qin Ran returned to Dan Peak with the benefits obtained from the Sect Leader. The first thing he did was call Chasing the Wind over to give him the identity token, laughing as he patted his big head. "From now on you're an official member of Dan Peak."
Chasing the Wind accepted the identity token in his big paws and took a look. He was rather unhappy to discover it only marked him as an Inner Sect Disciple.
As expected, Li Shiyin noticed right away and came over to mock him. "Haha, just an Inner Sect Disciple! Chasing the Wind, from now on you have to call me Senior Sister!"
"No." Chasing the Wind shook his head and sneezed to show his disdain.
"The previous batch already went through the outer sect examination, so Chasing the Wind counts as a disciple of the next batch." Qin Ran helpfully reminded. "In that case, Chasing the Wind might become the senior brother to all disciples of this batch."
"Wow! So amazing..." Li Shiyin's eyes went wide with excitement as she eagerly asked, "Will there be a Divine Prodigy Ranking for the next batch of disciples? If you're not first place on the Divine Prodigy Ranking, don't come back to Dan Peak. I'll be too embarrassed."
"Of course I'll be first place..." Chasing the Wind arrogantly declared, another silly child infected by Li Shiyin.
"There should be a Divine Prodigy Ranking every batch..." Qin Ran said.
At this time, Long Qiqi walked over. Qin Ran also gave her an identity token.
Long Qiqi looked over her own token, her expression quite animated...
She, Long Qiqi, was just an extremely ordinary snake demon. Yet she could join a human sect, and an extremely orthodox one at that.
She felt a little unreal, like it was a dream.
"Why am I a disciple?" She asked Qin Ran, somewhat dissatisfied.
"What did you want to be instead?" Qin Ran asked back. "Chore Disciple? Outer Sect Disciple?"
"Can't I be an elder?" Long Qiqi mumbled.
The clever Chasing the Wind understood at this point. He hurriedly called out to Long Qiqi, "Quick, call me Martial Brother!"
Long Qiqi shot him a white-eyed glare.
lities. One day, Qi Yuan was buying groceries when he unfortunately came face-to-face with a monster. Just when he thought he was going to die on the spot, he suddenly heard the monster's thoughts... "This aura, he's definitely not an ordinary master!" "So terrifying, so terrifying." "A fight with my back against the wall, I can't take it anymore." Qi Yuan: Ah, no one told me that my awakened ability isn't telepathy, but rather the stronger my enemies imagine me to be, the stronger I truly become. PS: Zhou Hai in the first chapter is not the protagonist.
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
