A few moments later, Su Li saw a red and a green light flying away from the peak. As she gazed, Fan Zisang appeared at the entrance of Yunxia Hall.
He stepped into the hall with an undetectable seriousness buried under his gentle face. He smiled at Su Li and Jin Ying, “It’s been more than half a month since you came to the sect. Have you ever thought of going back to your hometown?”
Jin Ying’s bright eyes shone up immediately, and she instantly nodded, “I miss my mother. Senior Fellow Apprentice, is it real that we can go to visit our homes?”
In the past few days, her waitress had instilled some common sense of the cultivation circle into her mind. The children with immortal latency could typically, as far as she knew, go down the hill only when they finished the practice. It would be uncompliant with the rules if they went down the mountain after less than half a month since joining the sect.
Fan Zisang nodded with a smile, “I’ll go with you, so no worry is needed.”
“Great!”
She almost jumped up out of joy, for she was a straightforward person. The care from Fan Zisang these days simply caused her dependence.
Looking at the bright smile of Jin Ying, Fan Zisang felt a moment of relaxation. He turned his head to Su Li, who did not say a word, “What do you think, Junior Sister Apprentice?”
Su Li’s gaze flickered slightly. At the moment when Fan Zisang spoke it out, she understood Wang Yu’s good intentions, so she nodded her head gently, “It’s your call, Senior Fellow Apprentice.”
After hearing the answer of Su Li, Fan Zisang was very helpless. Being associated with her for half a month, he became accustomed to her cold character, and he continued,
“I checked the compass, and your hometown is much closer than Jin Ying’s. Our first stop would be Tiehe Village. Let’s get started.”
They both echoed. Fan Zisang didn’t give them the time to prepare and took them straight out of the sect. It was no more than five minutes after Wang Yu’s departure.
When Yue Lin learned the news, the grand hall of Danxia Mount was already empty. Standing in front of the grand palace, she took a deep breath and sneered.
“Fan Zisang, don’t assume that I have no idea that you are the personal disciple of that slut, Wang Yu. However, … My strength and foundation are not comparable to those of you with a poor background. In the Shattered Spirit Secret Realm tryout, I will let everyone know that you are not in much of a position to compete with me with your petty cultivation!”
With a heavy cold grunt, Yue Lin looked stern. Then, she threw out a piece of silk and struck the exquisitely carved rockery on her side into stone dust. She felt a little better and left in the stares of many handyman disciples, who kept quiet out of fear.
—
Fan Zisang drove his flying magic treasure to the barren place with Su Li and Jin Ying. Jin Ying was sitting beside Su Li. She touched the cloud-like magic treasure under her body from time to time, full of longing and curiosity in her eyes.
Fan Zisang found it funny and explained, “This magic treasure, Feiyun, is an exclusive flying magic treasure of Huajian Sect. It can be divided into two grades: the top grade and the low grade. Practitioners in Zhuji Realm can fly fifteen hundred kilometers per day with the low-grade Feiyun, while practitioners like our master can fly three thousand kilometers per day with the top grade Feiyun!”
“Wow, that’s awesome!”
Jin Ying’s eyes were shining, for it was rare for her to see a precious horse traveling five hundred kilometers in one day in the secular world. She had never expected that, in the cultivation circle, any flying magic treasure could surpass it.
Su Li listened alongside but didn’t show any expression. There was a faint memory about Feiyun flashed through her eyes…
Hua Yan’s talent was not extraordinary, but her mind was. She entered the circle by studying flowers. After she reached Jindan Realm, her cultivation speed was not much slower than that of Su Li who had a heaven-typed spiritual root.
She still remembered that Hua Yan mentioned breeding a unique variety of spiritual cotton during a meeting of theirs. The fruit of the spiritual cotton would be a natural flying magic treasure. With a slight modification, it would be ready to be used so that a lot of money for purchasing the flying sword could be spared for their disciples. They could even make a profit from it.
At that time, Hua Yan asked her to give a name for the spiritual cotton, and she said the word “Feiyun” inadvertently. She never expected that Hua Yan not only succeeded in breeding the spiritual cotton but also took her advice to name it “Feiyun”.
Cultivators didn’t value affection. Although she shared the same passion with Hua Yan at that time… Time could change everything. She was not sure whether Hua Yuan at present remained the same person in the old days, whether she would despise her based on her cultivation level, or even betray her…
Therefore, she never planned to visit Hua Yan, even if she knew that she practiced in isolation in the forbidden place at the back of the mountain. However, she was touched by hearing the word “Feiyun”.
“Perhaps, everything is not as bad as I presumed.”
Turning her head back, Su Li looked at the clouds falling behind her. The figure of a female practitioner in a Taoist robe with a graceful temperament emerged in front of her.
“Master, how are you doing?”
In the twinkling of an eye, a day and a night passed. Fan Zisang didn’t stop driving the flying magic treasure until they finally saw the outline of Tiehe Village at dusk of the next day.
Seeing the small village with the smoke from kitchen chimneys below, Jin Ying blinked. Was this the hometown of her junior sister apprentice?
The talent of the junior sister apprentice was better than hers. She hadn’t expected that she came from an unenlightened mountain village, which was quite different from her imagination.
Fan Zisang made sure the location with the positioning compass, and nodded, “Here we are. Let’s land first.”
As he said so, Feiyun was accelerated to dive down.
After the previous event, the villagers in Tiehe Village apparently had learned something about the cultivation circle. When some villagers saw Feiyun, they shouted immediately,
“Look, look! The immortals come again!!”
“Sorry? The immortals come again?!”
The old village head was slightly pleased to hear this, and he was about to go out with his cane. But there was a figure much faster than him. It was Li Yuehuan who had failed in the previous selection.
“This time, I will definitely be selected. Even Su Li can enter the cultivation circle, how can I be defeated by her?”
Li Yuehuan stared at the slowly-descending cloud from the sky with her hideous eyes, which frightened Li.
He sighed secretly and followed her with his cane. Since the last visit of the immortals to their village, this child seemed to be possessed. She did nothing but dreamed of going to the cultivation world and becoming an immortal.
No one would know what she would become if she failed this time.
“Junior Sister Apprentice, is that your home?”
Fan Zisang pointed to a low earthen house and asked. As Su Li nodded, he landed without hesitation. He was also originated from a mortal family, so he didn’t feel disgusted.
Huang was gathering his sweet potatoes in the field. Although he had heard the villagers shouting, he was alone and had no interest in joining the party. But when he looked up and found the cloud landing right at his door, he couldn’t help being stunned.
After the cloud faded away, two young girls with exquisite appearances and a gentle young man appeared.
“Li?!”
Huang exclaimed. Without saying anything, he put down the hoe and ran back to his house. A worried expression appeared on his face. Shouldn’t Li be practicing in the sect now? Why was she sent back?
Li Yuehuan, the fastest runner, also noticed Su Li. She froze for a second and then saw a different young man, who was more flawless than the one from last time. She got excited.
Su Li must’ve been expelled from the sect by making mistakes!
Here came her chance!
Thinking of this, she ran faster.
Seeing that all the villagers gathered, Fan Zisang stayed calm. He had seen this before when he found the children with immortal latency after being promoted to be the inherited disciple.
When he saw a panting girl who arrived firstly, and joy of reunion with his junior sister apprentice on her face, he eased up and smiled at Li Yuehuan out of sympathy.
Li Yuehuan felt extremely flattered. Regardless of the other villagers coming behind her, she immediately knelt and shouted,
“I am Li Yuehuan. Please take me to the mountains to practice and enter the cultivation circle!”
Seeing that Li Yuehuan had already knelt, many children in the village, who came later, got pissed off for being slower and giving Li Yuehuan the opportunity.
Fan Zisang looked stunned for a moment and comprehended them suddenly. She was not happy for the reunion with Su Li as he anticipated, but mistakenly thought that he was as an inherited disciple who came to find more children with immortal latency.
He was about to explain the purpose of the visit, but Li Yuehuan was so impatient and pointed to Su Li,
“Su Li, she has been a jinx from her childhood. As dumb and clumsy like she is, there’s no place for her kind to stay in the sect. She deserves being expelled from the sect for offending you! Now since you have sent Su Li back, there would be a vacant position around you. Why not take me away? I will definitely do better than her!”
Hearing her words, Fan Zisang didn’t get angry but laughed.
He didn’t have to lower himself to the same level as a child hundreds of years younger than him. But Li Yuehuan obviously had some contradiction with his junior sister apprentice. And he was worried that he had no way to get close to his junior sister apprentice…
However, why did she call her “Su Li” instead of “Su Yue”? He kept this back in his mind, for he knew it was not a proper time to ask about this for the moment. He remained calm.
Seeing the smile on Fan Zisang’s face, Li Yuehuan was sure that her statement was right. As she tried to hold down her ecstasy and was just about to continue slandering Su Li, Huang rushed in front of Fan Zisang and knelt.
“Please forgive her, Immortal! If Li has ever offended you, it’s all my fault. I didn’t teach her well as her grandfather. She is still so young, and you don’t have to lower yourself to the same level as her!”
Saying this, Huang was about to kowtow. Fan Zisang noticed Su Li’s frown and waved his hand immediately to stop Huang.
Huang found out that he couldn’t kneel anymore, which horrified him much more. What kind of mistakes did Su Li make so that this immortal refused to accept his apology?
At this time, Fan Zisang finally uttered with a gentle voice, “Calm down, elderly man.”
Then, he turned to stare at Li Yuehuan, whose face was brimming over with expectations, and his smile faded, “Little girl, who gave you the courage to talk about my junior sister apprentice?”
Hearing this, Li Yuehuan realized that something went wrong. She looked pale and shivered, “Hasn’t Su Li…”
Fan Zisang had no intention to continue the conversation with her. So, he raised his head and said to those villagers aloud, “Get dismissed. We are here merely to accompany my junior sister apprentice to go home and visit her family.”
With this to be said, his gentle gaze became sharp and piercing. He stared at Li Yuehuan and said word for word, “Junior Sister Apprentice Su has been accepted as a disciple by my master, Immortal Huoyun, a Mount Head of Huajian Sect. Considering your unawareness, I will let you go. If I find anyone dares to slander her in the future, there will be no mercy but severe punishment waiting for him!”…