Every month, it was time for the Dao Sword Sect to come to Dan Peak to collect pills.
Last month, it was another butler from the Butler Hall instead of Jian Yuanjie who came. Qin Ran didn't recognize him and didn't care. He thought Jian Yuanjie had died and the Dao Sword Sect had arranged a new pill butler. He just prayed that this new butler could last longer and be seduced by the "evil" forces outside the sect later.
But at noon today, when Qin Ran was refining pills in the pill room, he suddenly heard a familiar voice from outside the research building: "Junior brother, are you there? Senior brother has come to check the pills."
This familiar voice scared Qin Ran. He rushed out of the research building in a few steps and came outside to see the person who had just walked across the small bridge. It was...Jian Yuanjie!
"Jian... Elder Brother Jian?!" He even stammered.
In the Land of Immortal Legacy, in the fog, under the horror of the Devouring Demon Willow and its catkins, even someone like Su Changqing had died. How could someone like Jian Yuanjie still be alive?
It really was that good people die young while evils last for a thousand years!
"Junior Brother Qin!" Jian Yuanjie greeted Qin Ran with a bow and said with a smile, "Long time no see!"
Qin Ran calmed his agitated mood a little and exclaimed, "I didn't expect you to still be alive, elder brother!"
"Alas..." Jian Yuanjie shook his head and sighed, "Just barely surviving, luckily not dead yet."
Looking at Jian Yuanjie, Qin Ran hesitated for a moment before asking, "Then how did you escape from Elder Brother Su Changqing and Sister Su when they chased me and others to kill in the Land of Immortal Legacy?"
Jian Yuanjie was stunned and asked in confusion, "Did Elder Brother Su Changqing and Sister Su chase us to kill? I really don't know about this!"
He asked back, "Did they chase you to kill, junior brother?"
"They chased me from the Land of Immortal Legacy to the Hengduan Mountains, and further chased me out of the Hengduan Mountains to a city in North Chu... Fortunately, when the catkins of the Devouring Demon Willow erupted greatly, Elder Brother Su was also busy escaping, otherwise I would have been dead for sure." Qin Ran said half truthfully.
"That Elder Brother Su is the so-called Seed of Dao, said to be able to achieve the Dao. Junior brother, you were actually able to escape from him, I admire you!" Jian Yuanjie exclaimed,
"After I escaped from that valley, I got lost in the fog and wandered around in the fog... Until I met the white catkins falling to the ground, killing countless creatures. It was a flash of inspiration that made me bury myself underground, and that was how I narrowly survived."
Qin Ran suddenly burst into tears, feeling that heaven was unfair, and said,
"When Elder Brother Su tried to kill me, he said he had already killed Elder Brother Jian. I was heartbroken then and wished I could kill Elder Brother Su with my own hands... Unfortunately, my strength was insufficient to defeat the two elders, so I could only run away...
"Fortunately elder brother didn't die!"
Jian Yuanjie didn't know Qin Ran actually cherished him so much and was moved: "I didn't expect my position in junior brother's heart to be so important...
"It's a pity that this Elder Brother Su has done all evil and committed monstrous crimes... But he really didn't chase me to kill."
Qin Ran shook his head and sighed again.
He couldn't understand why Elder Brother Su didn't kill Jian Yuanjie. For Elder Brother Su, it would have been an effortless thing.
In fact, the real situation at that time was that Elder Brother Su thought someone like Jian Yuanjie wouldn't survive for too long in the fog, plus there were the catkins. He didn't think Jian Yuanjie could survive at all, so he didn't bother to pay attention to Jian Yuanjie and focused all his mind on tormenting Qin Ran instead.
If Qin Ran had known the truth, he would have definitely revived Elder Brother Su just to give him a good beating, and then told him to kill Jian Yuanjie.
The two crafty men shed fake tears and pleasantries outside the research building for quite a while before Qin Ran led Jian Yuanjie into the building to check next month’s pill offerings.
"Junior brother, now that you have formed your golden core, you should start refining some pills that Core Formation stage cultivators can use." Jian Yuanjie said to Qin Ran while checking the pills.
"That's right..." Qin Ran nodded, "I have been studying the Coalescing Element Pill recently and have started to try refining this kind of pill."
"Once I successfully refine some, I will contact elder brother for mass production after I become proficient." This referred to him not daring to go to Linxian City anymore because he had attracted the attention of the Fate Organization by selling high quality Coalescing Element Pills.
"Then junior brother must focus..." Jian Yuanjie said, "Elder brother has always trusted junior brother's pill refinement skills. It would put elder brother's mind at ease a lot more to use the pills refined by junior brother. I always feel uneasy using the pills from Zhican Valley and other outside sources."
Qin Ran glanced at Jian Yuanjie. Why did he feel that this guy didn't seem to trust Zhican Valley's pills too much either? He kept urging him to refine pills. He would rather use his pills than Zhican Valley's pills.
Could it be that this guy was not Zhican Valley's insider?
The two crafty men chatted some nonsense while checking the pills. They quickly finished checking and walked out of the research building.
Jian Yuanjie looked at Sword Washing Lake and smiled, "This lake has finally been dug. It really looks beautiful and fits Dan Peak well."
"Whether the lake looks beautiful or not, it was dug by my disciple... " Qin Ran said, "It was just to temper her foundations after all."
"Is it called Sword Washing Lake?" Jian Yuanjie had seen the name when he came.
"Yes. My disciple practiced her swordplay at the bottom of the lake and opened up the lake with her sword qi." Qin Ran replied. "It is indeed the Sword Washing Lake."
"Sword qi? What amazing talent!" Jian Yuanjie exclaimed. "If Chief Liu knew about this, his face would turn green with anger."
"I'm not a sword cultivator after all, so I still limited her potential..." Qin Ran said.
As they walked, Jian Yuanjie suddenly saw the willow branches by the lake and cried out in surprise: "That's the Devouring..."
"Those are just ordinary willow branches!" Qin Ran smiled and said, "Planting some willow branches and trees by the lake also makes it look better."
Jian Yuanjie took another two looks at the willow branches and nodded, "They are indeed just ordinary willow branches. Elder brother is seeing things."
"Having heard of the monstrous crimes committed by the Devouring Demon Willow recently, it's hard for me to remain calm when seeing willow branches..." he added, "I'm making junior brother laugh."
"I'm also terribly frightened..." Qin Ran said, "After that incident, I still haven't had a good night's sleep until just recently. "
... Did cultivators, especially those at the Golden Core stage, really need sleep?
Jian Yuanjie also saw the old ginkgo tree in front of the wooden house, and exclaimed in surprise, "Wow, this ginkgo tree actually didn't die and survived the catastrophe."
"That old tree has developed wisdom and might have become a demonic beast already. It probably just narrowly survived under the protection of previous seniors of our sect." Qin Ran said.
"Indeed..." Jian Yuanjie nodded while looking at the cat tree and scratching posts that had the shape of Qin Ran's face on them, then laughed and asked, "What are those things?"
"Some toys made as pranks by my disciple..." Qin Ran explained to Jian Yuanjie in detail about Li Shiyin and Zhuifeng's evil ideas.
"Where is your spirit tiger from Yellow Springs?"
"Out playing."
The two chatted all the way. Qin Ran sent Jian Yuanjie to the stone path at the original exit of the forest—now it was just a stone path without the forest—pretending to still be as respectful as brothers as before.
"Goodbye, elder brother!" Qin Ran waved goodbye.
Jian Yuanjie waved and quickly left Dan Peak.
After Jian Yuanjie's figure disappeared, the smile on Qin Ran's face also vanished. He hurriedly turned back to check the situation of the Devouring Demon Willow...
He was going to use the Devouring Demon Willow as one of the bases to set up the grand mountain-protecting array. Originally he could slowly wait for the Devouring Demon Willow to recover before setting up the array, but now, it seemed he couldn't wait any longer.