Qin Keqin smiled to Lu Qingyun, "You don't mind if you return to the Heavens Ridge Villa first?"
"What about you, master?" Lu Qingyun asked her curiously.
Qin Keqin chuckled softly, "I'll probably be back in a week's time. In the meantime, I'll be here. You can look for me in this place if you encounter any problem."
Then she gave him a jade token, "Break this token if you need my help urgently. But I have only one left now so use it only in an emergency."
Lu Qingyun looked a little disappointed that he won't be seeing his protege mistress for such a long time.
But he asked, "Master, do you have any instructions for me? I mean since you will be away for a week and I ought to at least have some instructions from you, am I right?"
He thought: Hopefully she isn't going to ask me for a breakthrough in my cultivation realm or else I'll surely be screwed.
Qin Keqin pondered for a while before she chuckled softly, "Right. I've almost forgotten about it."
Then she smiled wryly as she lifted her a finger up, "One. Don't get into any unnecessary fights..."
"Two. If you meet with any evil cultivators, it is alright to help to get rid of them to uphold the good name of our Heavens Ridge Villa." She lifted two fingers up as she said.
"Three. Respect your elders and juniors in the cultivation sect. Exercise goodwill toward everyone in the cultivation sect and don't mess around or to bully the others."
"Four. If you meet anyone that dares to insult our Heavens Ridge Villa, remember to uphold the good name of our cultivation sect and don't allow anyone to sulken our reputation."
Then she chickled softly, "That four main rules are the rules of our Heavens Ridge Villa. Now, this is my rule for you."
"One. Just follow rule number one and three. Rule number two and four are not important to follow."
"Two. Don't get into any duel, not even a friendly duel. Don't make any friends or any enemies."
"Three. In the case that you have to get into an unavoidable fight, surrender if you meet the same realm or higher cultivator. Only fight if your opponent is of a lower realm than you. If you can fight an opponent in a group, then do so. Never solo an opponent."
"Four. This is the most important. If you meet with an extremely tricky situation, remember not to tell them who your master is and never reveal my hideout."
Lu Qingyun: ...
He just got stunned by the third and the four rule.
Qin Keqin chuckled as she said to him, "Now you can leave."
And so, Lu Qingyun had left to return to the Heavens Ridge Villa alone while Qin Keqin continued to stay in the Heavenly Lotus Teahouse.
Along the way, he was constantly thinking of her. No matter how hard he tried, he could not put her away from his mind. At the same time, she had left him with many mysteries.
One. She had given him a divine sword in such a casual manner. In the Nine Celestial Fraternity, a single divine sword could even spark a war between the many celestial cultivation sects to gain ownership over it. It was not only extremely precious but also extremely prestigious to own one. As a lowly cultivator, he felt that he did not deserve to own one and with his current strength, he could not even protect his divine sword.
Two. She even had two sisters who were saintesses. This alone was an astonishing enough. Although there were hundreds of cultivation sects in the Heavenly Fragrance Holy Land, it was said that there were only less than 100 seventh realm saints and saintesses around.
The Heavenly Fragrance Holy Land was actually among the smallest of the ten cultivation holy lands in the Nine Celestial Fraternity so the numbers of high level celestial cultivators were not as plentiful as the other holy lands.
Seventh realm sacred saints were all lofty existences without equal in the Nine Celestial Fraternity.
He had actually imagined them to be all aloof, haughty and crazy about cultivation as they aimed to ascend as immortals. However the two saintesses that he had seen did not seem to be interested in cultivating at all.
Where are they from? And where is Qin Keqin from?
When he had reached his abode, he saw that the place was lit but there was no sight of Lie Xingyuan.
"Xingyuan, are you there?" He called out for her name.
There was no reply.
Lu Qingyun was a little anxious, "She isn't back yet? But the lamps are all lit…"
He quickly moved around the place until he came to her room. Seeing that there was light inside and that the door was ajar, he pushed it open.
He was startled to see Lie Xingyuan lying feverish on her bed and she was muttering incoherently, "Sect leader, don't…punish me…"
She was shivering and her bed was damp with her cold sweat.
It seemed that she got a bad fright in the day and now she was sick.
Lu Qingyun quickly examined her pulses and forehead before he rushed out to boil medicine. She had a high fever and was in a critical condition.
He had practiced herbalism with his old master and he had plenty of medical herbs with him. In no time he had gathered all the necessary herbs and was boiling the medicine.
However the fire was boiling too slow and there was too many herbs involved. He was already boiling seven pots of medicine at the same time.
The herbs had to be boiled properly for its toxicity to be removed before it could be brewed into medicine. After that, he had to mix the medicine together to brew together again. Only then will it be the most effective.
But now, all the pots were boiling too slowly…
All of a sudden he had an idea and he called out loudly, "Yan'Er, are you there? I need your help."
With a flash of light, the spirit form of a little girl had appeared in front of him.
Yan'Er was giggling, "Master, I am so bored inside. Your inner spiritual sea is so cramped. Yan'Er feels so happy to be out."
Lu Qingyun smiled weakly; his inner spiritual sea was like a small pond because he was only a first realm cultivator.
He quickly stated his request, "Yan'Er, I need your help. Can you help me to boil these medicines? I need your fire to speed up the boiling."
Yan'Er was the spiritual flame of the ninth rank golden roc. Naturally her flames were not ordinary at all.
She had immediately shot out golden flames and immediately all seven pots were quickly boiled.
When Lu Qingyun saw it, he was greatly astonished. Yan'Er had accomplished the work very fast like a fifth realm expert.
All of a sudden Lu Qingyun was also feeling dizzy.
It was because Yan'Er and him were linked together. Yan'Er was his spiritual flame and she was tapping into his spiritual sea for her strength; she could only grow stronger if he was stronger.
It was a good thing that he had taken plenty of the Heavenly Lotus Tea today or else he would be completely exhausted by Yan'Er.
He forced himself to focus and with great diligent, he began to mix the medicine pots together. "Yan'Er, help me to boil this too."
Yan'Er released her golden flames and in an instant the medicine pot was completely boiled.
Lu Qingyun was smiling weakly. This was too actually way too fast. He used to spend hours of hard work just to boil medicines in the past but Yan'Er was able to boil the medicine in an instant. This was too exaggerating.
Yan'Er said cutely, "Master, your spiritual sea is emptied now."
Lu Qingyun handled the boiled pot with care as he wrapped a wet towel over the handle, "That is already good enough. Thank you Yan'Er."
As he quickly carried the medicine pot to Lie Xingyuan's room, Yan'Er curiously floated behind him.
When he had reached Lie Xingyuan's room, he quickly emptied the medicine pot into a bowl. Once the bowl was full, he quickly took it over to her and started to cool the hot medicine by blowing over it.
Yan'Er floated around Lie Xingyuan and said, "This is not the big sister that I have seen the last time. Who is this big sister?"
Lu Qingyun smiled weakly, "This is Sister Lie Xingyuan."
He had forgotten to ask Yan'Er to return to his inner spiritual sea but luckily Lie Xingyuan was too feverish to open her eyes.
As he continued to blow on the bowl to cool it enough for Lie Xingyuan to take a sip, Yan'Er said. "Master, why is that you got another spirit entity in your inner sea?"
Lu Qingyun said without paying her much attention as he continued to cool the bowl that was in his hand, "It is not possible. It is well-known that every cultivator can have only one spirit entity in their inner sea in their entire life time. Since I have Yan'Er already, I can no longer have another."
Yan'Er said cutely, not fully understanding. "It is only a spirit seed now. Maybe it will grow into a spirit entity in the future."
Lu Qingyun was lifting Lie Xingyuan upright so that he could feed her the bowl of medicine. He was not paying to what Yan'Er was saying and was fully focused on attending to Lie Xingyuan.
When he was done, he had fallen into a deep sleep, fully exhausted by the drain of his inner sea.
In the mean time, Yan'Er was back into Lu Qingyun's inner spiritual sea and she was examining the spirit seed that was inside.
She muttered curiously as she examined the spirit seed with her spirit sense, "The fire essence that is in this spirit seed is stronger than me. What are you called? Mm, so you are the Annihilating God Seed?"
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Author Note:
1. Your spirit stones are crucial for motivations and releases. Thank you all in advance, many love! ლ(⌒▽⌒ლ)