The death of the Divine Soul Avatar had a significant impact on Qin Ran.
Each avatar's death was real; every time a Divine Soul Avatar perished, it meant Qin Ran had truly died once.
When the last avatar in Zhican Valley dissolved into points of light, he was setting up a formation outside the gates of Dao Sword Sect. The irresistible pain and weakness caused him to fall straight from the sky.
He crashed into the mud, struggled for a long while, and managed to get up pathetically, sitting weakly on the muddy ground.
The divine soul of the avatar was separated from his original body's divine soul, and when this part of the divine soul completely vanished, it was like losing a limb from the body.
To put it more concretely, a part of his internal divine soul was now completely empty.
Qin Ran sat in the mud, lacking both strength and spirit to move. He didn't bother struggling, just sitting there.
At this moment, like entering a state of profound contemplation, he began to ponder about the universe and life.
He wondered why he had come to this world. What exactly had brought him here? What was his purpose in this world? What was its meaning?
How vast was this world? What were the limits of cultivation?
He wondered why he was trying so hard to help the Dao Sword Sect.
His missions to the Boundless Sword Sect and infiltrating Zhican Valley were both life-threatening, yet he fearlessly undertook them. Like the diplomats of the Spring and Autumn Period who traveled alone to persuade various lords, facing entire nations by themselves.
He had been helping Dao Sword Sect with complete disregard for his own life, desperately seeking that sliver of hope for them.
Why?
That wasn't his true nature!
"I should have just run away!"
He lifted his head to look at the sky, to the place where he had fallen from, where his formation patterns were still glowing.
The sky?
"When did I stop being afraid of heights?" he suddenly wondered about this question.
He didn't know, perhaps it was because he had flown so much that the high altitude no longer made him sick;
Or perhaps it was because this other world was no longer foreign to him - he had found a home in this world, he was no longer an otherworldly visitor. This world no longer made him feel repulsed, nauseated, or rejected.
When he thought back to that sky vortex that had pulled him into this world, it didn't seem so frightening anymore.
Dao Sword Sect, Dan Peak, Li Shiyin, Li Shiyin...
Li Shiyin - just thinking about her made his heart wander in warmth and sweetness.
Though covered in mud and in a mess, he smiled at the sky.
His smile was warm and radiant from the heart.
Dao Sword Sect, Dan Peak, Li Shiyin, Chasing the Wind, Long Qiqi, Tian Wenjin, Lu Junxing, Dong Zhongyuan...
He understood something.
His home, his family, his friends were all here... so why did he need a reason to protect this place?
He was very afraid of death, but if he lost them, how would that be any different from dying?
"Master?!"
His silly disciple suddenly flew out from the sect looking for him.
Li Shiyin had been teaching sword techniques to ordinary disciples along with other elite disciples, but somehow she thought of her master. Once she did, she came out to look for him.
She called out while searching, and after quite a while, finally found Qin Ran in the mud.
"Master!" She flew down anxiously and worried, "What happened to you?"
She landed beside him, crouched down, and carefully examined him up and down.
Qin Ran grabbed her restless hands, held them to his chest, looked at her, and shook his head with a smile, saying, "I'm fine, just a bit tired."
"Master~" Li Shiyin heard this and hugged him sympathetically.
At this moment, she deeply hated herself, because she realized that besides fighting, she seemed incapable of doing anything else, unable to help her master in any way.
"Master, I'm sorry, I'm too stupid," she said tearfully.
Qin Ran hugged her back, gently patting her back, and smiled, "No, you're not stupid. You're Li Shiyin, the prodigy of Dao Sword Sect, you're the peerless female sword immortal of Dan Peak."
"No..." Li Shiyin shook her head repeatedly, "I'm not."
"You are." Qin Ran buried his dirty face in Li Shiyin's hair, inhaling her fragrance, and sighed, "I've done what I could. Now it's your time to shine, my sword immortal."
Li Shiyin raised her head and asked, "Master, is everything finished at Zhican Valley?"
"Yes!" Qin Ran nodded, somewhat boastfully, "Your master turned Zhican Valley upside down, reduced their fighting force by half, and they'll never return to their former glory. Isn't your master amazing?"
His tone matched exactly how Li Shiyin would brag.
Li Shiyin immediately noticed that Qin Ran was imitating her, and she smiled, nodding repeatedly: "Amazing, my master is definitely amazing! Master is the most amazing!"
She hugged Qin Ran tightly, gently swaying.
"But Zhican Valley will still come, so there will still be war." Qin Ran leaned on Li Shiyin's shoulder, swaying with her, and asked, "You'll protect your master well, won't you?"
"Of course! I am master's sword!" Li Shiyin said with a smile in her eyes, "Where master is, I am! If Zhican Valley dares to come, watch me cut them down one by one, leaving none alive."
"Now that's my sword immortal!" Qin Ran lay in Li Shiyin's soft, fragrant embrace and said softly, "Don't call me master anymore, you should call me husband."
Li Shiyin pressed her face against Qin Ran's hair and called out softly: "Husband!"
"Wife~"
"My lord?"
"My lady!"
After cuddling on the ground for quite a while, Qin Ran finally remembered the important matter at hand and asked Li Shiyin to help him up.
"Go find Yan Yi and have him arrange for some disciples who know how to set up formations to come help me," he told Li Shiyin. "I can't muster any strength right now. But this formation is crucial, and time is pressing."
Seeing Qin Ran's weak state, Li Shiyin felt heartbroken and hesitated, "Husband, why don't we skip this formation? I'm strong enough, I can defend Dao Sword Sect without formations."
"Strong my foot!" Qin Ran said irritably, "Zhican Valley still has over five hundred Golden Core cultivators, plus the Boundless Sword Sect. You might be strong, but how many can you fight? Not to mention the Nascent Soul and Spirit Formation cultivators. Are you going to use your hard head to fight them?"
Li Shiyin weakly replied, "Well, that's not impossible."
"We will set up three barriers at Dao Sword Sect. This formation is the first barrier, the mountain protection formation is the second barrier, and Lu Junxing's River and Mountain Sword Assembly is the third." Qin Ran carefully explained the importance of this formation to his silly wife, "Zhican Valley's strength still surpasses ours on paper. How do we fight when we're weaker?"
"I know this one - it's about momentum and mindset," Li Shiyin answered. "And since we're protecting our own sect, we're united with it, so our mindset will definitely be better than Zhican Valley's."
"Wrong!" Qin Ran rejected Li Shiyin's answer, "This is war, not individual combat.
In war, there's no such thing as the few defeating the many or the weak defeating the strong - there's only the strong bullying the weak, the many overwhelming the few. Even when the few seem to defeat the many, it's actually still about overwhelming numbers."
Li Shiyin shook her head repeatedly, not understanding.
"When the enemy outnumbers us, we need to find ways to scatter them and defeat them one by one.
For example, if the enemy has twelve people and we only have five, we need to find a way to split the enemy into three groups of four. Then our five people can overwhelm their four, turning the tables to where we have the numerical advantage."
Qin Ran explained to Li Shiyin, "Compared to the individual combat you excel at, it's like when you face a stronger enemy, you need to find their weaknesses and use your strengths to attack those weaknesses.
The principle is the same - avoid the enemy's strengths, use our advantages to exploit their weaknesses."
Li Shiyin seemed to half-understand.
"The formation I'm setting up is called the Divine Ghost Eight Trigrams Formation, primarily defensive in nature. But I'll leave eight entrances as living gates... you should understand the principle of surrounding on three sides while leaving one open."
Qin Ran continued, "These eight entrances will divide the enemy into eight parts. Once they enter the formation, we can concentrate our forces to attack one section, achieving the effect of overwhelming numbers.
Trading space for time, trading space for power."
"Ah!" Li Shiyin gave up. She covered Qin Ran's mouth with her hand and said, "Stop explaining, I'll go find people to help you set up the formation.
Just tell me directly what to do later, husband."
Qin Ran glared at her and said, "You're hopeless!"
Li Shiyin, though not entirely justified, retorted defiantly, "So what if I'm silly? My husband is very smart! Do you have a problem with that?"
"That's all the cleverness you've got," Qin Ran replied helplessly.
"Hmph!" Li Shiyin had a smug little expression on her face.
"Can you stand steadily now?" she asked Qin Ran again. "I'll go find someone to help you."
"Go ahead, go ahead!" Qin Ran had recovered his strength by now; the refractory period was over, and he could walk, jump, and fly again.
"You won't fall again, will you?"
"I won't!"
"Really?" Li Shiyin cautiously let go of her hand, looking worried that Qin Ran might fall.
Qin Ran glared at her, refusing to answer further.
Li Shiyin giggled, took a light leap, and flew into the air.
Before she entered the sect, Qin Ran remembered something and hurriedly called out, "Remember to bring that fellow Chasing the Wind here too!"
"Yes, husband!"