Lin Fan saw the way that she reacted and revealed a smile.
However, before he could say anything, Xiao Ming quickly jumped up and shook her head as she said, “I didn’t hear anything! I heard nothing about a sect!”
Then she realized the mistake that she had made and quickly covered her mouth as she looked at Lin Fan with a gaze filled with fear.
The smile that he had on his face was like the smile of a devil in her eyes.
She didn’t know what exactly she had witnessed, but she had clearly heard the words sect being used.
For normal humans like her without any cultivation, sect was a taboo word.
Anything that had to do with a sect would usually spell death for a normal person like her. So of course she didn’t want to get involved in this matter.
All she wanted was to escape this place with her life right now.
Lin Fan shook his head with that same smile before saying, “We’re not going to do anything to you.”
Even though he said this, Xiao Ming still had a wary stance as she looked at him and asked, “Really?”
Lin Fan reached his hand out, which made Xiao Ming flinch back a bit, but then he just simply flicked her on the forehead and said, “What kind of nonsense are you thinking? It’s not like we’re child traffickers.”
Xiao Ming pouted her lips and said, “You never know. There’s plenty of rumours of sects doing things like that.”
Lin Fan didn’t say anything in response to this since he knew that this was the truth.
Even in the novels that he had read, there were cases where sects kidnapped children as disciples and then used them as cultivation furnaces or materials for pills or all kinds of other terrible things. He was certain that this was also the case for this world.
Instead, Lin Fan just said with a smile, “If you want, you can join our sect as well.”
Xiao Ming’s eyes lit up when she heard this before they dimmed again.𝒐𝓋𝓵xt.𝐂𝐎𝐦
It wasn’t that she didn’t trust them since being with them over the past few days told her what kind of people they were. She knew that they wouldn’t do anything that would harm her, or else they would have done it a long time ago.
After all, they were two powerful and rich cultivators and she was nothing more than an orphan in the streets of this random border city. The disparity in status was clear, so there was no need for them to wait.
The reason why her eyes dimmed was because she had other circumstances that prevented her from joining their sect.
So after a long pause, she said with a sigh, “I…can’t join your sect.”
But Lin Fan didn’t accept her rejection as he asked, “What’s wrong? If there’s something that’s holding you back, we can talk about it and discuss this.”
Lin Fan actually really wanted Xiao Ming to join the Love Sect because he could tell that she had talent for cultivation.
When they injected spiritual energy into her, he found that there was already a seed of spiritual energy that formed in her. It could already be said that she was in the Pseudo Qi Gathering Realm, but she just didn’t know how to use that spiritual energy that she had gathered.
Normal people wouldn’t be able to form this kind of seed just from having spiritual energy injected into them, only those that had an affinity for absorbing spiritual energy would be able to form something like this.
At the same time, Lin Fan also noticed that her physique was much stronger than before.
She had not only refined the spiritual energy injected into the seed, but also into her body itself, allowing her to break through as a body refinement cultivator.
Her physique was currently on the same level as someone in the First Qi Gathering Realm.
With these two talents, it was natural that she would become a powerful cultivator in the future if she had the chance to cultivate.
So Lin Fan very much wanted Xiao Ming to join the Love Sect.
After all, he was building this sect, so he would do what he could to make the Love Sect flourish.
Talented future disciples were key in rebuilding the Love Sect, so he didn’t want to give up a talent like Xiao Ming.
Xiao Ming had a difficult look on her face.
A part of her wanted to ask for help, but there was also a part of her that didn’t want to. It wasn’t because she didn’t trust the two of them, but rather because she didn’t want to cause trouble for them.
Her problems were her own problems and she didn’t want to drag anyone else into them.
Even though she was a thief, she still had this bit of pride left.
But before Lin Fan could even say anything, Mu Bao Bao said, “We already said that we want to recruit you to our sect, so you don’t have to worry about anything. If you’re in our sect, you’re family and your problems are our problems.”
Lin Fan couldn’t help revealing a smile when he heard this.
Mu Bao Bao really wasn’t suited to being a sect leader since she was a bit too straightforward sometimes. She needed more depth to be able to compete with other sly foxes, but right now, she didn’t have that.
Still, that was the part of her that Lin Fan found cute.
So Lin Fan took over and said, “Our sect master has already said that she wants you to join our sect, so there’s no going back now. Even if you’re not willing, we’ll bring you into our sect by force.”
Xiao Ming couldn’t help looking at Mu Bao Bao with a surprised look, “She’s the sect master?”
No matter how she looked at it, Mu Bao Bao didn’t seem like a sect master.
Mu Bao Bao looked quite young, she didn’t even seem that much older than Lin Fan.
Of course, that wasn’t just because she was a cultivator, it was also because she had broken through at a very young age. She was actually only two years older than Lin Fan’s current body.
With her cultivation and her age, she could be considered one of the top geniuses of the younger generation.
But she was a sect master.
It wasn’t Xiao Ming’s fault that she was surprised when Lin Fan addressed Mu Bao Bao as “sect master”.
Mu Bao Bao could also see this and was about to pout, but Lin Fan raised a hand to stop her.
Lin Fan turned back to Xiao Ming and said, “That’s right, she’s our sect master.” Then after a pause, he said, “I want to take you as my disciple, do you want to accept that?”
Xiao Ming looked up at Lin Fan with wide eyes and after a moment of hesitation, she gave a nod.
Lin Fan gave a nod back before saying, “Since you’re my disciple, then any problems that you’re facing are a problem of mine. So you shouldn’t worry about anything and just tell us what’s wrong.”
Lin Fan didn’t know why he wanted Xiao Ming as his disciple, but he suddenly had this idea and he quite liked it. Now that he was a Foundation Realm Cultivator, he felt that he should have some disciples.
He had also seen how talented Xiao Ming was, so it would be a waste to let her go like this.
Xiao Ming hesitated again, but she slowly explained her situation.
She belonged to a group of orphans that took care of each other. The first few members of the group had only gathered together to help each other survive, but as they spent more and more time together, they became closer and closer until they were like family.
When she explained this, she even called a few of the others her brothers and sisters.
It was clear that this was a very tight knit group.
They survived by doing odd jobs around the city and pooling their money together. While they lived a poor life, it was still a life that was manageable.
That was until some thugs moved into their neighbourhood and demanded protection money from them. These thugs didn’t care that they were kids and demanded that they pay or leave.
They couldn’t just leave since all of their possessions were there and the thugs wouldn’t let them take anything if they did leave. There were many young children that couldn’t work yet that were also a part of their group, so they would have to abandon them if they did leave.
So Xiao Ming and a few of the other kids started using more unscrupulous methods to earn the money that they needed to pay these thugs.
Still, some of them were injured because of this and they had to take loans to get the money for medicine. All that did was push them further and further into the hole and soon they had no way out.
The gold coins that Lin Fan had paid Xiao Ming over the past few days had helped them a bit, but…Seeing the gold coins actually made the thugs more greedy and they started demanding more and more from Xiao Ming and the other kids.
After hearing this story, Mu Bao Bao took Xiao Ming in her arms and patted her on the head.
Xiao Ming didn’t know why this felt soothing, but she couldn’t help leaning her head against Mu Bao Bao’s chest. At the same time, she looked at Lin Fan with a look that was asking him to solve her problems.
Lin Fan however stood there with a smile on his face.
This was easy for him to solve since this was something that only involved money. Right now, with Yue Lan managing his businesses, money was the one thing that he didn’t lack.
Of course, if those thugs decided not to solve this matter with money, he didn’t have a problem solving this with force.
It would all depend on if the thugs were smart enough.
Lin Fan looked at Xiao Ming and said, “I’ll take care of those problems easily. You don’t need to worry about a thing, it’s not like they can do anything to me.”
Xiao Ming revealed a worried look and said, “But those people are quite strong, some of them are even cul…” Her words were stuck in her throat as she realized who she was talking to.
Right, the one that had just become her master and the sect master of their sect were here, so there wasn’t anything to worry about. After all, they couldn’t have high positions in the sect without having high levels of cultivation…
It was too bad that Xiao Ming didn’t know about what had happened to the Love Sect.