The new year had arrived, and the atmosphere this Spring Festival was even more lively than in previous years. With the addition of Gu Zong and Xuan Tianyi, the Third Medicine Valley was buzzing with excitement. It was rumored that the true inheritor had sworn brotherhood with the valley master, which thrilled the four hundred servant disciples, all worshiping Gu An with adulation.
Xuan Tianyi always wanted to chat with him about Daoist Xunchun, which made him quite distressed.
It wasn’t until dusk that Gu An found an excuse to leave and returned to the Mystic Valley to spend the festival with his junior sister and disciples.
The disciples sat around the table, toasting and exchanging cups, rejoicing in the celebration.
Ye Lan and Zhen Qin began recounting matters of the immortal cultivation world once again.
The number of demons in the land of the Five Dynasties had not decreased due to the actions of various sects, but had, in fact, increased. Moreover, demon cultivators and evil people were also on the rise.
Many believed that the human race was doomed and thought it better to indulge before dying, or to seize treasures through murder and then sail south. In short, both the immortal cultivation world and the common folk were in chaos.
As long as the demon calamity was unresolved, the world would remain in turmoil.
Zhen Qin had once complained why the Mountain God did not take action, but Gu An, pretending he wasn’t the Mountain God, remained silent.
“Didn’t the Mountain God say, why should he protect the human race? If demons worship him, why can’t he support them? The strength of a race ultimately depends on itself, not the favor of immortals,” Ye Lan remarked nonchalantly.
Having been in the Law Enforcement Hall for so long, she had seen too many sins, giving her deep life experiences.
The more evil she had witnessed, the more she cherished Gu An, Zhen Qin, and Xiaochuan.
Many cultivators ended up lonely at the end of their paths. Having companions in life was a blessing.
Gu An listened quietly, occasionally chiming in.
No matter how chaotic the world became, he had no intention of taking it upon himself to save it.
However, he would still occasionally descend from the mountain to relieve suffering, aiding some fated beings without upsetting the grand scheme of things.
After all, he was still unsure of the strength of the Seven Stars Spirit Realm. Even if he knew, he couldn’t protect the continent alone. Doing so would mean that all future calamities befalling the continent would fall on his shoulders, and any enemies targeting the continent would first come after him. The mere thought gave him a headache.
Zhen Qin mentioned Su Han again, saying that Su Han had followed the Nine Nether Thirteen Evil to Tianwei. Recently, Su Han had just absorbed the spiritual power of a Divinity Transformation Realm cultivator, causing a stir in the immortal cultivation world.
The Supreme Sect had also dispatched great cultivators to kill Su Han but ended up being severely injured by the Nine Nether Thirteen Evil.
Gu An thought that the person being merely injured might have been due to the Nine Nether Thirteen Evil considering the face of Sword Venerable Fudao.
The world’s situation was changing, and Gu An only wanted to watch from the sidelines.
His target was the Demon Emperor and the Demon Ancestor.
Once the demon calamity erupted and the world plunged into chaos, he would seize the opportunity to eliminate the Demon Emperor and the Demon Ancestor, eradicating the greatest scourge of the calamity. The remaining demons would serve as grindstones for the world’s cultivators.
The conversation lasted deep into the night, and Ye Lan and Zhen Qin decided to stay in the Mystic Valley and leave the next day.
Ye Lan even came to his pavilion to confide in him.
As they chatted, Ye Lan suddenly blew out the candle in the room.
“Junior Sister, what are you doing?”
“Senior Brother, I fear the calamity may strike at any time and do not wish to have regrets before I die.”
“You again?”
“Senior Brother, though I may not be your Daoist friend, let us cherish the feelings we have now. What say you?”
“Junior Sister, we should not be like this!”
“Senior Brother, I really like you…”
“Stop it!”
“Senior Brother, don’t make me use force!”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Sounds of physical confrontation echoed inside the room.
…
Come morning, Gu An and Ye Lan came downstairs, Gu An walking ahead with a smug expression.
Ye Lan, rubbing her wrist, looked at him with a resentful gaze.
They had fought last night. Ye Lan had tried to use force, but surprisingly could not overpower Gu An. In the end, she was unsuccessful and inevitably felt disappointed.
Yet, thinking of how Gu An had restrained her, a smile tugged at her lips.
“So, Senior Brother likes this sort of thing…” Ye Lan began to understand Gu An a little more.
She quietly rubbed her backside, counting how many times Senior Brother had struck her last night.
After finishing her morning exercises, Ye Lan and Zhen Qin left.
Gu An then sneaked into the Eight Scenic Caves.
As he approached the Green Vine Tree, Jiang Qiong, with her eyes closed, said, “Last night was the Spring Festival, wasn’t it? It was really lively.”
“Yes, I brought you some pastries made by the disciples.”
Gu An responded, squatting down and taking out the pastries and wine.
Jiang Qiong opened her eyes and looked at him, “Do you like your Junior Sister Ye?” she asked.
Gu An replied, “To say I don’t like her at all would be a lie, but I feel I cannot accept her now. It would delay our cultivation.”
“Oh? And why do you think it would cause a delay?” Jiang Qiong asked, intrigued.
“Once someone is in your heart, you can’t help but think of them. If the relationship is confirmed, feelings turn into responsibility, and you’ll consider that person in everything you do. This inevitably affects your cultivation. I’m not afraid of being affected myself, but I hope she can cultivate peacefully without my influence,” Gu An said earnestly.
He spoke from the bottom of his heart.
Ye Lan had poor aptitude and now needed to find a way to cultivate the Primordial Reincarnation Skill to change her extreme lifespan.
Gu An could choose to accompany her for the last hundred years of her life, but he didn’t want her to have only a hundred years now.
“If love lasts forever, why not cherish every moment together?” Gu An raised his wine cup, offering it to Jiang Qiong.
Jiang Qiong looked into his clear eyes, feeling as if she was seeing him for the first time.
This boy still had a romantic heart.
Jiang Qiong asked, “How do you know you’ll definitely live longer than her? What if you die first, and her years of painstaking cultivation lead to a regretful second half of her life? What then?”
Gu An smiled proudly, “To be honest, I now possess two slices of the Medicine Valley, with an endless supply of medicinal herbs. Even if I don’t cultivate much, living a few hundred years just by relying on elixirs isn’t hard.”
“A few hundred years?”
Jiang Qiong found it amusing. This boy’s perspective was really narrow.
But for some reason, the thought of Gu An passing away in a few hundred years while she continued to pursue the elusive immortal path made her inexplicably uneasy.
“Come on, drink! Not drunk, no return!”
Jiang Qiong suddenly said with a stern face.
Gu An immediately raised his cup.
An hour later, when Jiang Qiong still wanted to drink more, Gu An saw things were going awry and found an excuse to leave. But Jiang Qiong pulled him back.
Jiang Qiong began forcefully making him drink. To hide his cultivation level, he had to pretend to be weak against alcohol.
This was Spiritual Wine. If a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator drank too much, they would definitely get drunk.
Eventually, he had to pretend to be drunk, lying on the ground.
Jiang Qiong sat on the ground, looking at Gu An, letting out a breath of relief.
“This boy is clearly a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator. How can he drink so much?” Jiang Qiong thought to herself with a flushed face. She almost couldn’t outdrink Gu An.
If word got out that a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator couldn’t outdrink a Foundation Establishment Realm one, it would be a huge joke.
She just sat there watching Gu An, her thoughts wandering.
Feeling the time pass, Gu An began calculating in his mind.
Three hours later, he got up to leave, having already been drunk once. If Jiang Qiong tried to stop him again, he wouldn’t hesitate to flip out.
After a long while.
Jiang Qiong suddenly squatted in front of Gu An, raising her hand to brush the hair from his face.
Gu An’s heart pounded with tension.
Wait a minute!
This old demon cultivator wouldn’t be greedy for my flesh, would she?
Gu An felt absurd. Why did so many women like him?
Was it simply because he looked handsome?
Hadn’t these female cultivators seen handsome men before?
Jiang Qiong’s low voice came to his ears, “Why does this boy look better and better? It’s really strange…”
After achieving Wandering Immortal status, even though Gu An hid his cultivation, his appearance and demeanor had a transcendent quality to them.
Jiang Qiong thought it was her affection changing his image in her eyes.
“Sigh, what am I thinking? He’s my grand-disciple. Even if I’m a demon cultivator, I can’t act immorally…”
Jiang Qiong withdrew her hand and sat down.
She became silent.
After a while, she suddenly kicked Gu An, hitting his waist.
Gu An cursed inwardly. Why was this woman hitting him?
She kicked him again, and Gu An rolled away, putting distance between them, and shouted, “More drink… What master? I don’t recognize you… You definitely can’t outdrink me…”
Seeing his drunken state, Jiang Qiong couldn’t help but laugh.
After that, Jiang Qiong didn’t act out again.
When the three-hour period ended, Gu An groggily got up, seeing Jiang Qiong meditating. He immediately snuck away.
Though Jiang Qiong didn’t open her eyes, a smile crept onto her lips.
After leaving the Eight Scenic Caves, Gu An went to the Nianchu Cave of Heavenly Phoenix Mountain. After picking some medicinal herbs, he sternly guided Tian Yao’er in her cultivation.
He vented his frustration from Jiang Qiong on Tian Yao’er.
Tian Yao’er didn’t mind though. When Gu An was about to leave, she clung to his arm, trying to pester him further, causing him to quickly vanish on the spot out of fright.
Back at the Third Medicine Valley, Gu An kept pondering a question.
Was it that spring had come and everyone was more prone to emotions, or was he just unlucky?
Why did Ye Lan, Jiang Qiong, and Tian Yao’er all come on to him?
Fortunately, Lu Lingjun only indulged in banter and didn’t actually treat him as a Daoist friend.
These were all traps set by the Heavenly Dao!
The Heavenly Dao wanted him to be ensnared by these women’s affections, dragging him into worldly conflicts. Sooner or later, the three women would encounter various troubles. If he were bound to them, how could he stand idly by?
Intervening more frequently would eventually attract the attention of powerful enemies.
The concept of causality was complicated. The higher his cultivation, the more Gu An respected causation.
The intersections of fate in the mortal world seemed random, but in reality, followed certain laws.
Gu An pondered as he walked toward his pavilion, contemplating the Way of Cause and Effect.
In the distance.
Xiaochuan stood by the wooden fence, watching his spirit dogs playfully fight. His gaze suddenly caught sight of Gu An ascending the stairs.
For some reason, Xiaochuan became lost in thought.
The feeling Gu An gave him was indescribable as if his senior brother could fly away at any moment.
This feeling was quite strange.
He came back to his senses and smiled self-deprecatingly.
“Senior Brother has already sworn brotherhood with Mahayana cultivators. He’s long been a different league from me. I only rely on his care to live. When I pass away, he will still be young…”
Feeling melancholic, Xiaochuan sighed.
He was envious but bore no jealousy towards Gu An, believing his senior brother deserved his current status.
When he died, if there truly were an underworld, he would pray for his senior brother, wishing his immortal path smooth and worry-free.
“Uncle Xiaochuan, the White Spirit Rat is back!”
An Xin suddenly ran over, interrupting his thoughts.