She's Just My Apprentice

Li Shiwen's words heavily knocked at Qin Ran's heart. He understood very clearly what Li Shiwen was asking, but he couldn't think of how to respond to Li Shiwen's direct question, so he was stunned and felt nervous and afraid...

"Shiyin is very cute and I quite like her..." he ambiguously replied, "She's my only disciple after all!"

"Humph!" Li Shiwen let out a cold laugh.

As a man, as a brother, he had long felt that this master-disciple relationship was not quite that of a normal master and disciple. And now, seeing Qin Ran's manner, it further confirmed his suspicion.

He rode over to pull out the steel spear that Li Shiyin had thrown out, the spear still hanging with the Wolf King impaled on it. Holding up the Wolf King, he pointed it at Qin Ran and said word for word, "You better be careful!"

The threatening implication was undoubtedly revealed!

For other matters, other people, at other times, with Qin Ran's cowardly personality, he wouldn't even think of reasoning and would just look for an opportunity to secretly fix the person. But facing Li Shiwen's warning, he had no way to retaliate.

Because he had a guilty conscience.

At Dao Questioning Grand Hall, when he first saw Li Shiyin, what he thought of was the matter of dao companions instead of disciples. Afterwards, when he brought Li Shiyin back to Dan Peak, he had been repressing his own emotions every day.

Often, he wasn't even clear what he was thinking - whether he had brought a dao companion home or taken a disciple home.

But it was precisely because he was unclear, so it could be determined that his heart had never been clean.

He liked Li Shiyin, no matter what kind of like it was, he liked this simple, silly girl, otherwise he wouldn't have paid so much for her...

"What are you talking about?" But facing Li Shiwen, he could only pretend to be stupid, "I don't really understand..."

"What are you guys talking about?" At this moment, Li Shiyin flew over on her sword.

"Nothing!" The two men turned to Li Shiyin with a smile.

Li Shiyin looked at them suspiciously for a moment, knowing they were hiding something from her. But she was too lazy to care. She snatched the steel spear from Li Shiwen's hand, held up the Wolf King and flew back, circling around in the air to show off her battle achievements to the cavalry.

After a while, they went to clean up the battlefield.

They recovered all the arrows, and the wolf corpses that were intact were also collected up. This cavalry was well-trained, and they were very skilled in this kind of thing which they did often, so it didn't take them long to clean up the battlefield spotless.

Li Shiwen regrouped the troops and continued patrolling.

"Which direction are you guys going?" Qin Ran asked Li Shiwen.

"We have to patrol the entire outskirts of Hengduan Mountains," Li Shiwen said.

"We're going to Xuanqin..." Qin Ran said.

Li Shiwen recalled Li Shiyin saying they were going to Xuanqin to forge swords, so he asked Qin Ran, "What are you guys going to Xuanqin for?"

"To find Xu Zhiye to forge swords..." Qin Ran said, "Shiyin practices the dao of the sword, she needs a sword destined for her."

Oh, it was to forge swords for Shiyin. Li Shiwen then turned his horse around, leading his soldiers to take the master and disciple to the border.

Over a thousand cavalry marched towards the Xuanqin border. On the way, they drove away some scattered demonic beasts. By the time the sky was getting bright, they arrived at the border.

Qin Ran held Long Qiqi and walked at the very front with Li Shiwen. When they arrived at the border and looked over, they discovered a cavalry stationed not far away silently on the other side.

Over a thousand cavalry on this side, and over a thousand cavalry on the other side too. Morning light shot over from the horizon, the orange-red light caused the battle armors over there to vaguely glint.

"What's this?" Qin Ran asked Li Shiwen in puzzlement.

"I'm sending you guys over, the idiot over there was worried I would make trouble, so he's guarding against me!" Li Shiwen laughed and said, "A small problem, no bother."

Qin Ran nodded and called Li Shiyin over.

"General!" The Xuanqin soldiers asked their general, "What is Li Shiwen trying to do again this time?"

This general saw from afar that Li Shiwen was talking with Li Shiyin from a distance. He had interacted with Li Shiyin before so he recognized her. Seeing this situation, he vaguely guessed, "Don't tell me Li Shiwen is mobilizing the army to send his sister off!?"

"Truly extravagant!" He spat out a mouthful of saliva and scolded again, "At such a critical moment, why do these dainty young masters and ladies still come to Hengduan Mountains?"

After the siblings talked for a bit and bade farewell reluctantly, Qin Ran finally said to Li Shiwen, "The demonic beast riot this time is no small matter, it involves high-order demonic beasts, not something ordinary people can interfere with. You need to prepare to evacuate early."

"High-order demonic beasts? What exactly caused it?" Li Shiwen directly ignored Qin Ran's advice.

Qin Ran looked at him, shook his head, but considering Li Shiyin, he stretched out his hand to pull over the Wolf King from his horse.

"The ninth-order great demonic beast in the depths of Hengduan Mountains..." he said as he found a willowy catkin stabbed into the Wolf King's flesh and blood on top of its head. The catkin was no longer white, but blood red. He pulled it out and wrapped it in an air bubble to show Li Shiwen, "Do you see this willowy catkin? This is the root cause that led to the demonic beasts rioting."

"Willowy catkin? Ninth order demonic beast?" Li Shiwen found it hard to understand.

"This is a Demonic Weeping Willow that exists in the depths of the Hengduan Mountains. It erupts once every thousand years. If you look through the literature from previous dynasties, you may find some related information."

Qin Ran continued explaining, "And this time's Demonic Weeping Willow eruption is just the prelude now. The real large-scale bursting of the catkins hasn't started yet."

Li Shiwen received the catkin with an uncertain expression. He replied, "I'll look into it and verify."

"Verification is one thing, evacuating early is the key point. There are quite a lot of people near Hengduan Mountains." In Qin Ran's perspective, fleeing, safety, evacuation had always been the most important plan. He advised Li Shiwen,

"You haven't seen the effects of the catkins on humans yet, but it can almost be determined that there will be effects. After all, humans don't have anything special about them. Of course, even if the catkins have no effects on humans, the true demonic beast riot is still not something an ordinary human army can stop.

"So...evacuate the common people near Hengduan Mountains as soon as possible."

Qin Ran had advised so much, but in the end, Li Shiwen still only said, "I have my own considerations about this matter."

"Alright, however you want to deal with it specifically, I can't control that. I'm just making the situation clear to you," Qin Ran shook his head and turned his horse around to walk towards the border with Li Shiyin. He left Li Shiwen with one final piece of advice, "When you see the catkins, stay far away from them. The current catkins are still only at the initial stage. There will definitely be changes afterwards."

Li Shiwen held the air bubble containing the blood-colored catkin in his hand, watching the disappearing backs of Qin Ran and Li Shiyin. He suddenly shouted loudly, "Treat my sister well!"

Qin Ran felt complicated inside but waved his hand back with his back facing Li Shiwen.

"What were you guys talking about?" Li Shiyin asked Qin Ran with wide eyes, "Catkins, riot, demonic beasts and stuff."

There's a fool, Qin Ran didn't want to say who.

He looked at Li Shiyin helplessly. Her mother, Chase Wind, had hunted prey to the gates of Daosword Sect. When Li Shiwen came to Dan Peak he mentioned the demonic beast riot. Huang Feiyu had warned them. They as master and disciple had seen it with their own eyes when they took shelter in the depths of the rainforest. The riot of the wolf pack last night. All these were things they as master and disciple experienced together. But...

"Sigh!" He shook his head.

Long Qiqi looked at Li Shiyin. Her eyeballs rolled around. A human who was so silly and naive was just waiting for Long Qiqi to trick her right?

"Did you say you came out from Hengduan Mountains?" Qin Ran suddenly asked Long Qiqi.

"Hmm?" Long Qiqi came back to her senses, "Oh, yes!"

"Then do you know about the Devouring Demonic Willow?"

"No, I don't know!" Long Qiqi shook her head again and again.

Qin Ran frowned and looked down to ask her, "Really?"

"I also don't recognize the terms you humans use..." Long Qiqi said, "How would I know anything about some kind of Devouring Demonic Willow?"

Qin Ran's eyes narrowed. This snake was lying to him...