Qin Ran brought Li Shiyin down the mountain. Halfway down, he asked Li Shiyin, "Who is Zhao Yaqing?"
"She is the legitimate daughter of the Zhao family in Xuanqin," Li Shiyin replied.
"And what is the Zhao family in Xuanqin?"
"Zhao Yaqing's grandfather..." Li Shiyin thought carefully. She wasn't very sure about this. "I think her grandfather was the Prime Minister of Xuanqin... or was it the Imperial Tutor? I can't remember clearly."
"The Imperial Tutor..." Qin Ran understood. He fell silent in thought for a moment. Zhao Yaqing was the legitimate daughter of an official family, an inner disciple of the Cloud Heaven Sect, with a guardian by her side. On top of that, she was very scheming. No matter how you looked at it, she did not seem like the kind of person who would reminisce with the silly Li Shiyin for no reason.
Well, actually, if you look at Li Shiyin's background, she's not worse off than Zhao Yaqing.
The daughter of a prestigious family, personal disciple of the Dao Sword Sect, master an alchemist... Her resume wasn't any worse than Zhao Yaqing's.
Without saying anything more, Qin Ran felt wary and vigilant in his heart about Zhao Yaqing's ulterior motives.
Having finalized the sword forging arrangements, the main purpose of this trip was already half accomplished. As long as he could exchange the medicinal pills for the treasured sword in five days, the trip would be perfectly successful.
So Qin Ran relaxed a little and took Li Shiyin to appreciate some of the unique natural scenery around the volcano and experience the peculiar culture of the sword forging town for a bit.
The sky here was red, the land was black-brown lava, and the air was scorching hot currents.
Yet the flora here was as lush as a primeval forest, mostly shrubs, with the occasional coniferous or leafless tree...though none grew very tall. The fauna was mostly insects, with the occasional small mammals like foxes and rats.
Master and disciple walked slowly, chatting about random things. Li Shiyin picked flowers, chased snakes, and picked up one oddly shaped piece of lava rock after another.
After they returned to the sword forging town, they wandered around taking in the sights.
The unique natural landscape here existed because of the volcano, while the strange culture of the town relied on Xu Zhiye.
It was because many people came looking for Xu Zhiye to forge swords that this town appeared at all.
The "sword forging" in the name referred to the sword forging of master Xu Zhiye.
The sword and forging cultures were very prosperous in the town, with sword emblems and weapon shops everywhere, whether or not they had anything to do with Xu Zhiye. But they all used Xu Zhiye's name. There were also shops selling sword techniques and forging methods. In short, it was a lively place.
In particular, there were no locals here. Everyone had come from all over, each speaking in their own accent, which was quite amusing.
As master and disciple walked along eating, when it was evening and time to return to the inn, they didn't need to eat at the inn anymore and went straight back to their rooms.
Qin Ran went to check Li Shiyin's room again to make sure there were no strange magic arrays, tools, or medicines that had mysteriously appeared. Confirming there was nothing suspicious, he returned to his room to fetch Long Qiqi and brought her to Li Shiyin, telling her, "Starting tonight, I will be refining pills, so the less time spent on that, the more preparation I can make. It will probably take me three days. During this time, keep an eye on Long Qiqi... No, keep an eye on your own safety. Don't get into any trouble!"
Li Shiyin looked at Long Qiqi. She didn't like Long Qiqi, so she was very reluctant, but still replied, "Yes, Master!"
"Remember what I said. The immortal cultivation world is dangerous and unpredictable. No one can be trusted. When you're outside, always be extremely cautious!" Qin Ran gave Li Shiyin a final meaningful look and exhorted, "Protect yourself!!"
"I will," Li Shiyin nodded.
Qin Ran took a deep breath, seeming to want to say more, but in the end said nothing. He turned and walked straight out the door. He lingered for a moment outside before leaving without going back in.
These three days would be a test for Li Shiyin. In fact, the purpose of this trip to forge a sword was to forge Li Shiyin's personal sword, and at the same time, forge her heart sword!
The immortal cultivation world was never short of geniuses, even top talents like Li Shiyin. But there were few geniuses who could survive and reach the peak.
As Li Shiyin watched Qin Ran walk out the door, she could sense the deeper meaning behind her master's words, but...
"Master is too cautious. He lives too prudently. That's not good," she thought, shaking her head slightly. "He's overly cautious."
Qin Ran had left Long Qiqi sitting limply in a chair, still unable to move her whole body, only her facial features.
This snake demon was no ordinary snake demon. Putting everything else aside, just her depth of mind already set her apart. At least she was on a completely different level from Li Shiyin.
Seeing the casual look on Li Shiyin's face, her long, thin snake eyes immediately lit up. She knew this was a chance for revenge...for escape!
Well, it wasn't that she didn't want revenge, just that this silly girl...
She would probably never forget in her whole life the experience of being held by the tail and spun around wildly by Li Shiyin in a frenzy.
But why not try other methods, since she clearly couldn't win in a test of strength?
After all, raw power was never what her snake clan prided themselves on!
"People often talk about snakes and scorpions, speaking of their extreme venom..." she opened her mouth to speak. "But from my understanding, neither snakes nor scorpions are poisonous. Only the human heart is the true poison."
Li Shiyin was sitting on the bed fiddling with the clothes she had bought today when she heard Long Qiqi's words. She gave a mocking laugh. "You, a mere snake spirit, commenting on humans?"
"You humans, precisely because you are human, do not understand humans. That is called not seeing the forest for the trees. It is exactly because I am a snake that I understand humans more clearly," Long Qiqi retorted.
"Humans don't understand humans, but snakes understand humans?" Li Shiyin curled her lip disdainfully. "What kind of nonsense logic is that?"
"I am a snake, but now I am a demon—demons take human form. So although I was once a snake, now I am human. Having been both snake and human, I understand humans well enough," Long Qiqi explained smoothly.
"What? What are you talking about?" Long Qiqi's rhetorical twist left Li Shiyin confused. She suddenly felt Long Qiqi's words made some sense.
"Humans are the most poisonous creatures in the world!" Long Qiqi stated her thesis again. "Even more poisonous than I am!"
"Hmm..." Li Shiyin frowned in thought. She didn't know where she had lost the thread, but they had ended up here somehow.
She put the clothes down and stood up, wanting to refute Long Qiqi but not knowing how. She looked at Long Qiqi, then realized—this was just the defeated captive talking!
"So what if humans are the most poisonous?" she asked coldly with a mocking smile.
"Oh, nothing much..." Long Qiqi also smiled. "I just hope you bear in mind what your master said—to be careful and stay safe!"
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
e vast world of cultivation, where he becomes the master of the Heavenly Ruins Sacred Hall, a dying old man with barely a tenth of his former cultivation remaining. He is immediately confronted with a deadly crisis: his subordinates have rebelled, and his protectors are forcing him to abdicate. At the critical moment, the system descends from the heavens: [Ding! The host has been detected facing a life-or-death crisis. The system is now officially activated!] [As a gift, you have received the Supreme Beginner’s Pack and awakened the ultimate cheat: ten thousand years of pure cultivation essence every second!] Yin Tianjue: “Wait… ten thousand years of cultivation every second? That’s six hundred thousand years a minute, and in one day… I can’t even calculate it. Either way, I’m already invincible!” You’re a peerless prodigy rarely seen in ten thousand years? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re an undying ancestor who has guarded a sacred land for countless ages? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re the strongest chosen one, blessed with heaven-defying destiny? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. From this day forth, I have only one thing to say: “I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. Now, how exactly are you supposed to deal with that?”
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)
