Chapter 32: The Strange Existence in the Ring

Xiao Ran returned the salute with clasped hands and said, "I've seen you, little sister."

"Alright, let's have dinner first. You young people chat among yourselves; I'll go back to my room to rest a bit and skip dinner." Yan Buji said with a smile.

"Father, your illness still isn't better?"

"It's nothing, just feeling a bit tired today."

Xiao Ran, feeling embarrassed, said from the side, "I've really troubled you, Uncle."

"What's the matter?"

Yan Buji turned and left, not caring that they were alone together.

To be honest, Yan Buji doesn't believe in the very foolish phrase "love at first sight."

Just like those moving things, they are nothing more than needing deliberate effort.

Therefore, the Confucian saying "What arises from emotion stops at propriety" made Yan Buji marvel at how sages differ; facing one's desires directly reveals what one truly ought to do.

People often can't figure out what they want because they want everything.

Yan Buji is different; he knows what he wants, so everything else can be discarded.

Although Xiao Ran appeared today, it won't affect my plan. The Spring Literary Assembly is only a little over ten days away; this time would be better spent discreetly investigating the people and events at the assembly.

To him, even if ultimately exposed, it wouldn't matter.

Wealth, fame, status, power—what do they have to do with the Immortal Dao for me?

"However, we can't just ignore this Xiao Ran; his sudden arrival is rather suspicious. But now is the critical moment to wrap up all our arrangements; we must handle both the retreat routes for success and failure."

Yan Buji returned to his room and began carefully examining his plan blueprint.

And on the other side.

After finishing her meal, Yan Xirou curiously sized up Xiao Ran, whose face flushed red from being stared at; he clasped his hands and asked:

"Little sister, why have you been staring at me?"

"Ah... sorry, because I have no relatives; you're the first one my father personally acknowledged, so I'm a bit curious." Yan Xirou said with a smile.

"Actually, we share no blood relation; years ago my father and your uncle were orphans living together, but they went their separate ways after growing up." Xiao Ran said.

"Then what about your uncle now..."

"He has already passed away; I came here only to stay at your place for a while, and I'll naturally leave when the time comes." Xiao Ran hurriedly said.

Yan Xirou quickly shook her head: "I'm not trying to drive you away; it's just us at home, and I still have school. Father would surely feel lonely and alone by himself, so it would be nice if cousin could keep him company."

Xiao Ran looked at the innocent and pure Yan Xirou, and his heart instantly felt overwhelming warmth.

Indeed, as Uncle said, little sister truly is a gentle and virtuous girl.

【Hehe, gentle and virtuous? Brat, you probably don't know this woman is already a spoiled good-for-nothing, right?】

Xiao Ran suddenly heard a voice in his mind, and his expression changed instantly.

Xiao Ran's face remained unchanged, but he angrily cursed in his heart: 【Old thing, what nonsense are you spouting?!】

【Hehe, the Tide-Yin Chanting Body is an excellent dual-cultivation furnace. They've had their primordial yin sucked out, yet still appear pure and spotless.】

Xiao Ran looked at Yan Xirou, took a deep breath, clasped his hands, and said, "Little sister, I'll go rest first; see you tomorrow."

"Oh, okay, cousin, goodbye." Yan Xirou said with a smile.

"Goodbye."

Returning to his room, Xiao Ran frowned and silently asked: 【Old thing, what exactly do you mean?】

【Hehe, the Tide-Yin Chanting Body is a top-tier furnace in the cultivation world, beloved by countless cultivators. By absorbing their innate primordial yin, one can greatly advance one's power. The higher the cultivator's level of the Tide-Yin Chanting Body, the greater the progress—do you understand what I mean?】

Xiao Ran froze: 【Harvesting yin to supplement yang?】

【More or less... although this woman has been repeatedly harvested, she hasn't lost much primordial yin; if you do as I say, you'll surely break through the mud pellet and enter the first level of Qi Refining right now!】

Xiao Ran hesitated not, and righteously refused: 【I'm not that sort of heretical demonic cultivator.】

【Hmph, pretending to be a gentleman, you don't want to avenge your father? Know this: in the world, virtue and integrity are false; only reason and strength are true! If you had listened to me back then, how could your Xiao clan have been wiped out overnight by those Xuan Kun Dao cultivators?】

Xiao Ran gritted his teeth and clenched his fists: 【Although I have the grudge of a ruined family and lost kin, I don't have zero principles! If my power came from crooked evil ways, how would I differ from those Xuan Kun Dao cultivators?】

【Hmph, brat, your mouth is still tough!】

Xiao Ran ignored him and asked: 【My uncle seems extraordinary as well, old thing—what do you make of him?】

【This person's mundane martial arts have reached the peak; if he took one more step to reach the Heaven-Man Realm spoken of by mundane martial artists, he should be able to break through the mud pellet and count as a first-level Qi Refining cultivator. However, the path of martial arts is cut off; if he doesn't switch to the orthodox cultivation, he'll remain at most a first-level Qi Refining practitioner for life. As for the two internal arts he practices—one heretical, one demonic—they look somewhat familiar, but I don't know how this person could possess such heavenly talent on the martial path and still cultivate both.】

Xiao Ran widened his eyes; it's not like he hasn't seen martial artists—his father, in life, was a top-tier expert at the Heaven-Man Realm in mundane martial arts, and he'd been exposed to it since childhood. Yet from Yan Buji's person he sees no trace of a grandmaster peak expert, not even a difference in aura from an ordinary person; how could the old thing call him a supreme expert about to reach the Heaven-Man Realm?

Speaking of which, the old thing in his mind is the strange existence within the ring memorial his mother gave him when he was young. Initially Xiao Ran wanted to train martial arts alongside his father, but after years of practice he made no progress and was about to give up; who would have thought that recently his family suffered a drastic change, and for some reason a godlike figure suddenly struck and slaughtered his entire household!

Had Xiao Ran not been outside the city at that time, he likely wouldn't have escaped his clutches.

Afterwards, the strange existence within the ring awakened, saying it would help Xiao Ran take revenge and aid him in ascending the Immortal Dao.

Regarding this, Xiao Ran's initial excitement gradually turned into doubt; he didn't understand why his mother's ring contained an old man, but now that his family is ruined and his kin lost, he has no other recourse.

Coming to Lin Shan Cheng was naturally also at the old thing's suggestion.

【Old thing, let's not worry about other matters for now; you had me come to Lin Shan Cheng—what exactly is it for?】

【Do you know Huang Songshan?】

【It's the mountain where Lingshan Academy is located.】

【That's right; a thousand years ago, a cultivator on Huang Songshan closed off again for training and left behind a cave abode—I want you to go train there for a while!】

【Cave abode?!】

Xiao Ran staggered, doubtful: 【What treasures could be in that cave abode? I'm not even a cultivator yet—how am I supposed to train?】

【There should still be some little trinkets left; if not, they're surely on someone at Lingshan Academy.】

【You seem quite familiar with that cultivator?】

【Hehe, brat, no need to butter me up. That cultivator on Huang Songshan is now an elder of the Profound Heaven Dao, and he bears a grudge against me—did you get that?】

Xiao Ran fell silent for a moment: 【Then why do you dare go to the cave abode he left behind, unafraid of him noticing?】

Old man lets you go, naturally you need not be afraid; as long as you go to the mountaintop, this old man will naturally tell you how to open it!