The next day, as Qin Ran was inspecting the Zhu Guo in the greenhouse, Li Shiyin suddenly ran in and asked him, "Master, where did Chasing the Wind go?"
"That guy is like a wild man, as if someone's always poking him with a needle at home. He can't stay still for a moment. How would I know where he went?" Qin Ran replied casually.
The Zhu Guo had been planted for two years now, and under Long Qiqi's careful care, it had grown lush with stems and leaves. But it showed no signs of flowering, and Qin Ran was trying to find out why.
"Sigh!" Li Shiyin let out a breath. "I don't really care where he went. But he took Ping'an with him."
"Took Ping'an?" Qin Ran shook his head and smiled. "No need to worry about that. Those two little troublemakers together - we should be thankful if they don't bully others. What's there to worry about?"
Although Chasing the Wind seemed simple-minded, once he reached adulthood, he would conservatively be a level seven beast, equivalent to the battle power of a cultivator in the early Nascent Soul stage.
He was currently in his sub-adult phase, but with some mystical abilities learned from Ao Yi, the Dao Sword Sect's guardian beast dragon, he had about the battle power of a Golden Core cultivator.
In this Land of Immortal Legacy, there weren't many Golden Core cultivators to begin with, and even fewer who ventured out. Chasing the Wind was practically invincible outside the mountain.
"I'm afraid Chasing the Wind will be a bad influence on Ping'an," Li Shiyin sighed.
She stood next to her master, imitating him by reaching out to stroke the leaves of the Zhu Guo.
Qin Ran thought for a moment and realized she had a point. Li An was born with sword energy, already a bit of a troublemaker. If he spent his days being led around by the lawless mountain king Chasing the Wind, there was no telling what kind of person he'd turn out to be.
"That's true," he said. "Find a chance to bring them back. But more importantly, focus on teaching Li An to control his sword energy, so he can go down the mountain sooner. Infants should grow up in a normal family environment, otherwise they might develop psychological issues."
"Yes. I'm doing my best to teach him, and he's making progress. He should be able to freely control his sword energy soon," Li Shiyin responded.
She turned to look at her master and noticed his expression wasn't great. She asked, "Is there a problem with the Zhu Guo? You look worried, Master."
"Actually, it's growing well..." Qin Ran sighed, "But it's showing no signs of flowering or bearing fruit."
"Flowering?" Li Shiyin looked at her master's face, pondered for a moment, and then ventured, "Master, is it possible that... this Zhu Guo simply hasn't grown up yet? That it's not time for it to bear fruit?"
"Huh?" Qin Ran was taken aback. He looked down at the Zhu Guo, which was less than a meter tall, and fell into deep thought.
It seemed he had not only become weak, but his mind wasn't working well either.
Could it be...
Was there a side effect to the infinite avatar ability of the Nine Extremes Primordial Spirit Demon Devouring Skill?
Within the great protective array of the Dao Sword Sect, Chasing the Wind, carrying a naked Li An on his back, was shouting towards the kaleidoscopic darkness in the sky: "Big Brother... Big Brother..."
Li An, sitting on his neck, raised both hands and imitated him, also shouting: "Big Bwo... Big Bwo..."
They shouted for quite a while. The darkness churned, and something awakened from within. A majestic black dragon head emerged from the darkness, appearing above Chasing the Wind and Li An. With sleepy eyes, it asked, "What's all this noise about?"
"Wow!!" Upon seeing the majestic black dragon head, Li An found it incredibly cool. He became extremely excited, babbling "Ya ya" and constantly patting Chasing the Wind's tiger head.
Ao Yi sensed him and opened his sleepy eyes a bit more, revealing a pair of soul-stirring dark golden vertical pupils. Seeing this infant wrapped in sword energy, he asked Chasing the Wind, "Who is this?"
"Big Brother, this is my new little brother!" Chasing the Wind said proudly, quickly introducing him to Ao Yi. "I brought him specially to meet you... Born with sword energy, isn't he amazing?"
Ao Yi looked at Li An. He recognized the sword energy around him - it was the sword energy of that girl from Dan Peak with extremely high sword talent.
"What's his name?" he asked.
"Ping'an..." Chasing the Wind replied, "Li An!"
So he's also surnamed Li...
Ao Yi pondered for a moment, then suddenly flicked his tail from within the darkness, sending out a pitch-black scale that fell in front of Chasing the Wind. He said, "Consider it my welcoming gift to him."
"Hehe!" Chasing the Wind quickly opened his mouth to catch the millstone-sized black dragon scale, muttering to Li An, "Another one."
Before coming to the protective array, he had already taken Li An to Master Peak to meet Lu Junxing and Dong Zhongyuan, and had already secured two welcoming gifts for little Li An.
"Thank you, Big Brother!" He raised his two front paws, bowing to Ao Yi in a rather human-like manner. "May you become a full dragon soon!"
"Big Bwo... Dwagon!" Li An, on Chasing the Wind's back, also cupped his hands adorably towards Ao Yi.
"Alright!" Ao Yi, still not fully awake, couldn't be bothered with these two jokers. He said, "If there's nothing else, you may leave now... This old one needs to sleep."
"Yes, Big Brother. Sorry to disturb you. We'll be on our way!" Chasing the Wind said with a smile. Having obtained another gift, he pranced away on his four paws, extremely happy, heading out of the array.
He taught Li An, "Say goodbye to Big Brother."
"Big Bwo... Bye-bye..." Li An said unclearly.
Ao Yi watched the departing Li An with half-closed eyes, thinking to himself: "Another seedling with good sword talent, and even better resources. The Dao Sword Sect is bound to prosper! The Dao Sword Sect is bound to prosper indeed!"
Chasing the Wind took Li An outside the array and began calculating with him: "Senior Brother Lu carved a sword energy origin into your bones, saying it was to forge your sword bones; Senior Brother Dong gave you a jade pendant that nurtures your foundation; Big Brother Ao Yi gave you a dragon scale, which will be material for forging your life-bound sword in the future."
"Ya ya..." But Li An didn't understand anything, just laughing and making strange noises.
"Where should we go now?" Chasing the Wind stood outside the array, looking into the Dao Sword Sect. "Shall we go play in the Mountain and River Sword?"
He shook his head, "You're still too young, you can't withstand Senior Brother Lu's sword energy."
He looked around and suddenly spotted Sword Peak, towering into the clouds. Remembering he had a few good friends up there, his eyes lit up and he smiled, "Let's go to Sword Peak. Your Aunt Tian Wenjin is there. Aunt Wenjin values relationships, she'll definitely like you and give you lots of treasures. We can also find Senior Brother Liu Baixuan, he's the head disciple of Sword Peak, he won't be stingy..."
With that, he stepped on the wind and flew towards Sword Peak.
On the way to Sword Peak, he spotted Qi Peak. His eyes rolled as he said to Li An, "After we leave Sword Peak, let's go ambush Qi Peak... Qi Peak doesn't get along with your aunt, so we'll go beat them up..."
He calculated in his mind that Li An was just a baby, so he wouldn't be held responsible for such mischief. Qi Peak would have no way to complain... They couldn't possibly say they were beaten up by an infant!
But he didn't consider...
If they really did go ambush Qi Peak, Li An wouldn't be held responsible. But who would be?
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