After Huang Feiyu left, Qin Ran reinforced the restrictions at the bottom of the lake overnight, and set up formations in the confirmed areas at the bottom of the lake to limit them and prevent the spiritual veins from being broken again.
The next morning, Qin Ran was reading by the lakeside, continuing to study the Guardian Mountain Formation, when Su Changqing and Bai Ruoxi came to find him again.
"Every time I see Brother Qin, Brother Qin is reading. Brother Qin is really studious." Su Changqing praised, "It is indeed a model for us juniors to follow."
"No such thing, I'm just reading some miscellaneous things to pass the time." Qin Ran put away the book and replied.
Bai Ruoxi stood at the edge of the lake pit and looked into the lake. She discovered that the pit was much bigger than it had been a few days ago, and it was starting to look something like a lake.
She said, "Your lake is coming along quickly."
"Fellow Daoist Bai has been a great help." Qin Ran said with a smile.
That day, Bai Ruoxi had a great battle with Li Shiyin, with white feathers and stars flying everywhere, doing a lot of work to open up this lake pit. Plus Huang Feiyu's explosion yesterday, this lake was really starting to take shape.
"Hmm..." Bai Ruoxi laughed softly, then pointed to the cat climbing frame by the lake and asked, "What's that thing?"
"A cat climbing frame." Qin Ran answered.
"What?" This thing didn't exist in this world, so Bai Ruoxi really didn't understand.
"Something for Chasing the Wind to play on."
After Bai Ruoxi finished asking her questions, Su Changqing finally looked at Qin Ran and asked, "Is Brother Qin ready?"
Qin Ran tidied his collar and stood up, smiling as he said those words himself: "Always ready."
"Then let's go!"
"Just us?" Qin Ran was surprised.
"There are three other fellow daoists waiting for us at the Master Peak." Su Changqing said. "This time we're going to the land of immortal legacy to look for the Devouring Demon Willow, so not too many people should come."
"I see, that saves me some effort." Qin Ran nodded, then went to the edge of the lake pit and called down to Li Shiyin at the bottom, "Shiyin, I'm going out for a while, it may take some time, so take good care of Chasing the Wind and Long Qiqi."
"Ah?" Li Shiyin was startled. Gripping her sword, she turned back and looked up at Qin Ran, "Going out again? Aren't you grounded?"
Qin Ran's face was suddenly covered in black lines.
"Don't cause trouble!" He warned again.
"How long will you be gone?" Li Shiyin asked in a loud voice.
"About ten days!" Qin Ran said.
In fact, he didn't know how long this trip would take, because they were going deep into the Hengduan Mountains, to the real land of immortal legacy, to look for the legendary Devouring Demon Willow.
When would they be back? Qin Ran didn't even know if he could come back...
So he said a rare goodbye to Li Shiyin.
"Oh!" Li Shiyin nodded. A woman's sixth sense told her that something felt off about Qin Ran.
"Goodbye!" Qin Ran waved again to say farewell, taking one last look at Li Shiyin, Chasing the Wind, and Long Qiqi, before turning away. With misty water swirling around him, he flew up into the sky.
Watching her master leave with Su Changqing and Bai Ruoxi, Li Shiyin frowned and asked Long Qiqi next to her, "Don't you feel like something is wrong?"
"Qin Ran flew away?" Long Qiqi asked.
"No..." Li Shiyin shook her head. "Master, it seemed like master was saying goodbye."
"He's going out and leaving us, isn't that goodbye?" Long Qiqi said. "Could it be that he can't bear to part with you? Not even for a moment?!"
"Hmph!" Hearing Long Qiqi's teasing tone, Li Shiyin's face immediately turned red. She glared angrily at Long Qiqi and scolded, "What are you talking about?!"
"I didn't say anything..."
Compared to Li Shiyin's intuition, the cat Chasing the Wind on the cat climbing frame was even more conscious. He licked the fur on his paws as he watched Qin Ran's departing figure, his eyes gradually becoming deeper.
The distance from Dan Peak to Master Peak was very short. As Golden Core cultivators, it took Qin Ran and the others only a moment to reach Master Peak Plaza.
At this time, there was a cloud ship at Master Peak Plaza with three cultivators waiting for Qin Ran's arrival.
After landing, Su Changqing took the initiative to introduce, "Brother Qin is here. Brothers Jian and Qi, you are all fellow disciples of the Sword Sect, so you must be very familiar with each other. Let me introduce this junior brother to Brother Qin. This is Brother Chu Batian from the Qi Method Institute of Lingnan Immortal Sect. He is a qi cultivator with formidable strength..."
He introduced with a smile, then turned back to look at Qin Ran, intending to introduce Chu Batian. But he discovered that Qin Ran was holding his head with a uncomfortable expression, and he couldn't help but be startled. "Brother Qin, what's the matter?"
Bai Ruoxi was beside Qin Ran, covering her mouth and giggling. She knew what was going on. Qin Ran had been in the same state after the last ride on the cloud ship.
After flying for a while, Qin Ran was barely holding it in, but still felt a bit nauseous. To save face, he couldn't say he was afraid of heights. He could only force a smile and endure it to greet the qi cultivator called Chu Batian, "Greetings, Fellow Brother Chu!"
Seeing Qin Ran's reluctant appearance, Chu Batian took an instant dislike to him and just nodded slightly without returning the greeting.
Seeing that the team was already in discord before the mission had even started, Su Changqing sighed inwardly. This team was not easy to lead.
His eyes turned, and he suddenly saw Bai Ruoxi covering her mouth and giggling while glancing at Qin Ran from time to time. He took note and went over to Bai Ruoxi to whisper, "What is Junior Sister laughing about?"
Bai Ruoxi whispered a few sentences in his ear.
Su Changqing was immediately shocked, looking at Qin Ran with a bizarre expression. In all his years of cultivation, he had seen all kinds of bizarre things, but this was the first time he had heard of something so strange about Qin Ran...
How odd!
He couldn't help but sigh.
The six people boarded the cloud ship. Su Changqing took the helm as the temporary team leader. He took out a mid-grade spirit stone and placed it on the disk. After the disk swallowed the spirit stone, he pinched the incantation seals and manipulated the cloud ship to fly out of the Sword Sect.
There were six people on this cloud ship - three from Lingnan Immortal Sect: Su Changqing, Bai Ruoxi and Chu Batian; and three from the Sword Sect: Qin Ran, Jian Yuanjie and Qi Yun.
Their purpose on this trip was to go deep into the core of the Hengduan Mountains to find the Devouring Demon Willow that was about to ascend.
Of the six people, the three from the Sword Sect, Qin Ran and Jian Yuanjie, were well-read and knowledgeable about the Hengduan Mountains, serving as guides; while the three from Lingnan Immortal Sect had higher status and stronger combat power, and were in charge of operations.
As soon as he boarded the cloud ship, Qin Ran immediately found an isolated corner and sat down cross-legged to meditate.
The cloud ship flew swiftly, and soon Su Changqing called out to him, "Brother Qin, wake up, we have to get off now." Only then did he come to his senses.
Qin Ran opened his eyes and looked around. He found they were above the primitive forest, with white fog and thunder and lightning flashing ahead. Even with excellent vision from his mystic arts, he still couldn't see clearly.
He knew in his heart that they had reached the edge of the core area of the Hengduan Mountains.
This was the limit of how far they could fly. They had to descend into the primitive forest below and carefully proceed on foot from here.
The six of them disembarked from the cloud ship, and Su Changqing put away the cloud ship. They descended like birds into the primitive forest, looked around, then unanimously gazed toward the misty area ahead...
They all knew that this adventure had officially begun.