Chapter 70: A Good Older Brother

As the crowd dispersed, the rat crouched in front of Xiao Fan, motionless.

After a while, as if receiving some command, it suddenly darted into a nearby alley.

Only after the rat vanished from view did Xiao Fan turn back.

He planned to return, or else his brother and parents would grow suspicious.

‘Tending Spirits, Nourishing Self…’

He had seized the rat’s spiritual essence, which was why it obeyed his commands without question.

‘Tending Spirits’ was exactly what he had just done.

What would ‘Nourishing Self’ feel like?

That sensation was hard to describe in words.

It was like a vital part of himself had been replenished, or rather, strengthened by the infusion of spiritual essence.

After absorbing a trace of the rat’s spiritual essence, he felt his spiritual power flow more smoothly, and its nature had undergone an extremely subtle change.

Unfortunately, that trace was far too weak; the changes he could perceive were minimal.

Suddenly, a mosquito flew past his eyes.

Xiao Fan’s mind stirred, and in an instant he seized its spiritual essence—the resistance was negligible.

But the spiritual essence he gained was also extremely faint, nearly imperceptible, perhaps only one ten-millionth of what the rat had provided?

‘…’

Sigh~ If he only seized the feeble spiritual essences of snakes, rats, insects, and ants, when would he ever see a noticeable change? He idly crushed the mosquito and continued thinking.

‘I’ll need to find larger beasts—preferably primates.’

In truth, if judged purely by the abundance of spiritual essence, human Qi Refining cultivators would be ideal.

He deeply revered the Cang race, and his perception had indeed twisted somewhat, but he hadn’t grown bold enough to kill.

To lose all spiritual essence, to have one’s life and fate entirely in another’s hands—that was worse than death.

‘For larger beasts, I could go outside Xuanjian City, or to the exotic beast observation park where I used to work?’

The spiritual essence of exotic beasts might even be stronger than that of ordinary animals.

He was pondering this.

Boom! Suddenly, a sword streaked into his vision—its light was cheap, its aura and thunderous blade patterns visibly damaged.

Looking up, he saw a youth with dyed yellow hair and a nose ring riding the sword, followed by several thin youths with hair dyed in various colors.

‘If you don’t want your pact beast hurt, come with us.’

The gang leader, standing on the shoddy sword, shook the gray rat he held in his hand.

Pact beast? Xiao Fan’s eyebrow twitched; he coldly said, ‘Get lost. I’m not in the mood to deal with you.’

This startled the gang leader—was this some disguised powerhouse? ‘I’ve seen him before—he’s a student from No. 3 High School,’ one of the henchmen suddenly said.

A student! The yellow-haired leader’s courage surged.

He’d heard this year’s No. 3 High School had produced a pseudo-Foundation Establishment cultivator, but that was no match for him—he had undergone true Foundation Establishment using Foundation Establishment Spirit Elixir.

‘Hand over your beast-taming technique, or you won’t leave alive!’

Right there in broad daylight, someone dared to be so brazen.

Yet passersby acted as if they saw nothing—flowing past, not a single glance toward Xiao Fan.

He’d actually stumbled into such a clichéd scene.

Xiao Fan touched the black ring on his hand.

With this, paired with the Profound Heaven Battle Art, he should be able to fight back—after all, these petty thugs couldn’t possibly have real combat strength.

At the same time, an unstoppable thought surfaced in his mind.

‘If I seize their spiritual essence, isn’t that what they deserve?’

Once the thought arose, it could not be suppressed.

He was already imagining how a human’s spiritual essence compared to a rat’s.

Both sides, like fools, ignored one crucial fact.

To fight here, in plain sight? Could he bear the consequences? ‘Refuse the cup of wine, and take the cup of punishment!’ The yellow-haired thug grew impatient, lunging to grab Xiao Fan.

Just as Xiao Fan summoned his spiritual power to act, a powerful hand moved faster—snatching the yellow-haired thug by the collar.

A towering figure stood like a wall before Xiao Fan.

‘You want to steal from my brother?’

In that instant, as if a veil had been lifted, passersby finally noticed what was happening.

Huh? These thugs had lost their minds? Robbing someone in broad daylight? The yellow-haired thug, seeing the fury in the man’s eyes and the unmasked, overwhelming aura, nearly wet himself.

Was he really that stupid? Robbing someone on the street? Behind Xiao Ming, Xiao Fan was momentarily dazed.

‘I just… actually wanted to seize their spiritual essence?’

…

…

Across the street, Huo watched the farce.

If Xiao Ming hadn’t intervened just now, what would the outcome have been? With Xiao Fan’s current methods, those thugs stood no chance—even if one of them was Foundation Establishment.

Would he have seized all their spiritual essences? Then the matter would have plunged into an irreversible abyss.

Once certain things begin, they can never be stopped.

But because Xiao Ming had been watching his brother’s condition, this scenario never occurred.

What a good older brother.

Yet… that old Cang creature’s methods are becoming increasingly unhidden.

‘Are you so confident you can handle me?’

Huo seemed to recall something, smiled, and vanished.

…………

【The building damaged by the battle of a Void-Return Grand Master has now been fully repaired. Our reporter will take you inside the construction team…】

The TV broadcasted the news.

Chi Jiuyu lay on the right high-back sofa, her head resting on one armrest, her legs dangling over the other, swaying gently.

In her hand, she held her phone, occasionally chuckling.

She wasn’t scrolling through interesting posts on the Spirit Net as usual—instead, she was eagerly reviewing the messages her senior sister had sent last night.

Senior Sister Who Never Gave Me the Book: ‘Our Master went night market shopping with you?’

Senior Sister Who Never Gave Me the Book: ‘Impossible! Absolutely impossible!’

Senior Sister Who Never Gave Me the Book: ‘Did you leave the sect just to fetch Our Master out of seclusion?’

Senior Sister Who Never Gave Me the Book: ‘I just did a divination—I couldn’t read your fate. I’ll assume you’re not lying.’

Senior Sister Who Never Gave Me the Book: ‘But I still don’t believe you. Unless you send me a photo as proof.’

Such a crude baiting tactic—even if I saw it, I wouldn’t reply.

Scrolling further, it was clear the other side had grown increasingly agitated.

Senior Sister Who Never Gave Me the Book: ‘Reply!’

Senior Sister Who Never Gave Me the Book: ‘Stop playing dead fish!’

Senior Sister Who Never Gave Me the Book: ‘/angry’

Then came a voice message lasting dozens of seconds.

Laughing so hard—you think I’ll listen? Even without listening, Chi Jiuyu could imagine its content.

After another fifteen minutes, a new message arrived—again a voice message, but shorter.

‘I just asked my senior uncle—you really did go to fetch Our Master out of seclusion.’ Her tone grew more excited, ‘Senior Uncle even told me to focus on the rotation duty and not come find you! You two master and disciple are in cahoots, colluding… ah—!’

The voice cut off abruptly. No further messages followed.

Please collect and follow!! (End of Chapter)