The Secret of the Study

At Dan Peak, by the shore of Sword Washing Lake, under the Devouring Demon Willow tree, on a warm spring day with a gentle breeze, Qin Ran lounged in a reclining chair, reading an alchemy manual.

The damage caused by separating one-tenth of his Divine Soul was greater than Qin Ran had imagined. For several days, he couldn't muster any energy. Alchemy, cultivation, managing the medicine hall - he had put all these tasks aside, entering an ultimate slacking mode.

Every day he just listlessly read books and slept, at most cooking a little something to eat. He was quite similar to Long Qiqi in this regard.

As he nestled in the chair reading, a small child was hanging from a willow branch behind him, sprawled across the back of his chair, reading along with him.

The soft spring breeze rippled the lake's surface, gently swaying the willow branches. The little one swung back and forth with the wind.

"Do you want to learn alchemy?" Qin Ran suddenly asked.

Liu Xiaoji looked around and, seeing no one else except the buzzing phoenix-winged tiger-headed bees, realized the question was indeed directed at him.

"I can learn alchemy too?" he asked in return.

It's worth noting that he was just a tree, without Dan Fire or Dan Water, without hands or feet... A tree practicing alchemy seemed too strange.

"You can," Qin Ran confirmed.

His avatar, who had accidentally ended up in the Celestial Sea Domain, had demonstrated on the ship how to refine pills using only the Divine Soul.

Liu Xiaoji considered this, then shook his head, "I'd rather not."

For him, focusing on cultivation and increasing his power was the main priority. He was just a tree, already slow in cultivation, so he had no time for such odd pursuits.

"What a pity," Qin Ran sighed.

If Liu Xiaoji had learned alchemy, he could have split into millions of avatars later, with one person... one tree practicing alchemy, enough to supply the entire Dao Sword Sect.

Bored, Qin Ran teased Liu Xiaoji while half-heartedly reading his book.

Just then, there was a sudden disturbance in the Guardian Mountain Formation. Both Qin Ran and Liu Xiaoji immediately looked towards the source of the disturbance.

One was the formation master, the other the core of the formation - no movement in the array could escape their perception.

They saw a white-robed sword cultivator using a token to open the formation's mist, flying in from outside on a sword. It was, of course, Dan Peak's silly disciple, Li Shiyin.

After entering the formation, she hovered in mid-air, scanning the surroundings. Spotting Qin Ran, she flew straight over.

"Master, I've completed the investigation," she said, neatly putting away her sword and crouching beside Qin Ran's chair, looking obedient as she reported in a low voice.

Not having seen her for several days, Qin Ran had missed her dearly. He reached out to gently stroke her hair, smiling as he asked, "Did you find any problems?"

"No," Li Shiyin shook her head.

"You've worked hard," Qin Ran said, stroking her silky hair and pinching her cheek, which felt as soft as ever.

"Hehe!" Li Shiyin giggled stupidly. "It wasn't hard."

Seeing his silly disciple like this, Qin Ran also smiled, but his narrowed eyes looked fox-like. He asked with a mischievous grin, "Really not hard?"

Her master's expression made Li Shiyin sense danger. She grew alert, leaning her little head back to avoid her master's wolfish paw, asking, "Master, what are you up to?"

"Don't you remember what I said?" Qin Ran replied, "I told you to compile all the information you found into a dossier and submit it to me. Now that you've finished investigating, where's the compiled dossier? So, now, immediately, go and compile a dossier!"

"Ah?!!" Li Shiyin's eyes widened, "Master, you can't be serious?!"

"Go quickly..." Qin Ran urged, "If too much time passes, you might misremember things."

"Master~" Li Shiyin raised her hand, grabbing Qin Ran's sleeve and shaking it, pouting as she wheedled.

Qin Ran cupped her face in his hands, giving it a good squeeze as he laughed, "Go on!"

"Hmph!" Li Shiyin wrinkled her little nose as she stood up. "Mean master!"

But before she left to write the report, she saw Zhang Junyi walking out of the greenhouse. She looked at him a bit longer, her eyes showing a hint of pity.

Zhang Junyi felt Li Shiyin's gaze and looked back, but only saw her retreating figure.

He didn't know why Li Shiyin had looked at him, nor did he have the right to know. He glanced at Qin Ran, saw that he wasn't paying attention to him, and then pulled out a book from his pocket, leaning against the house foundation to read.

His house was still at the foundation stage these days, so he looked a bit disheveled.

But he didn't seem to notice at all, engrossed in his book. The book in his hand was a detailed guide to human meridians and acupoints - the one Qin Ran had given to Li Shiyin earlier but she hadn't used. Qin Ran said he was lending it to Zhang Junyi to help with his cultivation, but he only had seven days. After seven days, he had to return the book.

So to aid his cultivation, Zhang Junyi had to memorize the meridians and acupoints from the book as quickly as possible.

Qin Ran secretly glanced at Zhang Junyi reading in the dirt pile and shook his head with a smile.

This was probably... what they called raising a son in poverty?

Li Shiyin spent most of the day recording all the information she had found about Zhang Junyi. Although it wasn't systematic, she managed to write down everything.

In the evening, she found Qin Ran in the study and handed him Zhang Junyi's information.

"Ah, Master, his life has been so hard!" she sighed.

Qin Ran opened the file to read and discovered that what Zhang Junyi had told him that day was actually true.

"Master, you should be nicer to him..." she advised, noticing how differently her master treated Zhang Junyi compared to her. "He's had such a pitiful journey."

"What's that got to do with me? He's not my disciple," Qin Ran said teasingly to Li Shiyin as he continued reading.

"Oh, Master! I'm trying to talk to you about something serious!" Li Shiyin only disliked others calling her 'Master', but she could see clearly that her master intended to groom Zhang Junyi as Dan Peak's successor.

"You should stay out of these matters," Qin Ran said, shaking his head with a smile. "Master knows what he's doing."

Li Shiyin angrily ruffled Qin Ran's hair, messing it up thoroughly, before turning and leaving the study.

Qin Ran read through Li Shiyin's disorganized report, then pulled out a blank dossier and began recording chronologically, starting from Zhang Junyi's ancestors eighteen generations back, all the way to his arrival at the Dao Sword Sect to become a disciple.

After finishing, he compared it with the original report once more. Confirming there were no mistakes, he made a pulling motion towards the bookshelf beside his desk, revealing a hidden space in mid-air. The space was small, containing a few dossiers.

The topmost dossier was titled "Anti-Tushan Youyou Plan".

He placed Zhang Junyi's dossier inside, shuffling the files within. A few other titles became visible:

"Anti-Chasing the Wind Plan", "Anti-Liu Xiaoji Plan", "Anti-Li Shiyin Plan"...

"Master, where did Chasing the Wind go?"

The next day, as Qin Ran was inspecting the Zhu Guo in the greenhouse, Li Shiyin suddenly ran in and asked.