Taking a Master

"Heh..." Old Yao let out a soft chuckle. By filling in the blanks himself, he understood why Xiao Yan had continued wearing the ring to cultivate even after discovering that it absorbed his Dou Qi. He also understood where Xiao Yan had gotten the confidence to spout nonsense to the elders of his clan.

All he could say was that young people had limitless imagination.

"That's right, I am the spirit of the ring. You passed my test, so now I can give you a chance to take me as your master and make that well-intentioned lie of yours come true," Old Yao said with a smile.

"Teacher!" Xiao Yan was ecstatic. Damn it, this old man had finally come out. These three years of getting drained hadn't been for nothing.

Old Yao answered with a chuckle. Looking at the excited child before him, he felt as though he had grown much younger.

"Teacher, do you have any Xuan Tier Cultivation Methods or Dou Techniques you don't need? Maybe some worthless Third or Fourth Grade Pills, or divine weapons and sharp artifacts you can't use that are just taking up space?"

Before Old Yao could finish feeling sentimental, Xiao Yan's shameless voice reached his ears, instantly darkening his face.

"You're dreaming!" Old Yao slapped Xiao Yan to the ground. Then, as though he had thought of something, he tossed down a pile of scroll-like "trash."

"Hehe, Master, you're so handsome!" Xiao Yan found a bundle and stuffed everything into it, then happily ran off to find his father.

"Sigh..." Watching Xiao Yan's cheerful appearance, Old Yao sighed and returned to the ring, recalling the blind-eyed life he had once lived.

"Father!"

Xiao Yan kicked open the meeting room doors, ignored the Guard trying to stop him, and directly tossed the bundle into Xiao Zhan's arms.

"I asked my teacher for a whole pile of treasures for the clan to use."

Xiao Zhan looked at Xiao Yan, who stood with his Hands on his hips and grinned foolishly, then opened the bundle with complicated feelings.

"Treasures? That wasn't what you said when you begged me for them," Old Yao could not help mocking Xiao Yan from inside the ring.

"Master, you're so powerful. Anything that slips through your fingers is a treasure to me!" Xiao Yan paid no heed to Old Yao's mockery and continued buttering him up.

"Xuan Tier Advanced Cultivation Method, Earth Fire Art, and its accompanying Dou Technique, Earth Splitting Sky Piercing Strike..."

"Xuan Tier Advanced Cultivation Method, Thousand Adamant Art, and its accompanying Dou Technique, Gale Break..."

Xiao Zhan had only glanced over them twice before spotting two Xuan Tier Advanced Cultivation Methods and their accompanying techniques. The intense excitement made wave after wave of dizziness wash over his mind.

"Xuan Tier Advanced Cultivation Methods and Dou Techniques?!" The Three Great Elders could no longer sit still. One after another, they rushed forward to inspect them closely.

Yet Xiao Zhan put away the bundle, pushed the Three Great Elders aside with trembling Hands, and walked over to Xiao Yan.

"Yan'er, are these Cultivation Methods and Dou Techniques all for our Xiao Family? Won't your teacher be displeased?"

"Don't worry, Father! I can't pass on the Secret Technique for improving Soul Perception Power, but Teacher doesn't care about these Xuan Tier Cultivation Methods and Dou Techniques." Xiao Yan froze for a moment before understanding Xiao Zhan's concerns.

"Hahaha!" Xiao Zhan could no longer suppress the joy in his heart and burst into wild laughter.

The other Three Great Elders also snatched the bundle from Xiao Zhan's hands and laughed wildly along with him.

Xiao Yan looked at the four wildly laughing figures of the Xiao Family and felt as if his ears were about to get pregnant. He wanted to slip away, but Xiao Zhan grabbed him.

"From today onward, my son will be the Young Clan Leader! Do any of you have objections?"

Xiao Zhan's sharp gaze swept across the Three Great Elders. Naturally, they had no reason to refuse and all expressed their agreement.

"The Young Clan Leader is truly a blessing to our Xiao Family!"

"Fuck off. Just now, you were talking about whether to give some resources to your precious grandson, Xiao Ning."

"What do you know? The Young Clan Leader's talent is unparalleled. Even the things he has no use for will be enough for my grandson!"

"Bah! Get out of here. Don't let that ugly face of yours dirty my son's eyes!"

"What do you mean, your son and my grandson? Yan'er is the hope of our entire Xiao Family!"

In the end, Xiao Yan's ears were thoroughly assaulted. By the time he returned to his little nest, all he could hear was buzzing, and nothing sounded very clear.

After resting on the bed for a while, Xiao Yan still struggled to get up. He took out some medicinal powder, mixed it with water, drank it all, and continued cultivating.

"Neither arrogant nor impatient. With such temperament, such talent, and a father like that supporting you, even without me, your life would have been incomparably brilliant."

Old Yao sighed, filled with emotion over this youth who had independently realized how to cultivate his soul—

Even if he had never appeared, Xiao Yan would still have gone to Jia Nan Academy, then to the Central Continent, found the Pill Tower, and steadily grown into a high-level Alchemist.

"How am I supposed to persuade someone like him to cultivate the Flame Mantra? Can the Flame Mantra truly evolve? If it cannot, wouldn't persuading him to learn it be a waste of his original talent?"

Old Yao sat in the ring, despondent and conflicted, his thoughts in turmoil.

"Forget it. When the time comes, I'll explain everything clearly and let him choose for himself!"

The next day, Xiao Zhan entered Xiao Yan's room carrying a low-grade Storage Ring. Amid Xiao Yan's baffled expression, he solemnly stuffed the Storage Ring into Xiao Yan's hand.

"???"

"Take it. Yesterday, I slipped a few Pill Recipes you can use into that pile of trash," Old Yao's voice sounded from the depths of his heart, and only then did Xiao Yan understand what had happened.

After Xiao Zhan left, Old Yao floated out from the ring.

His Soul Power swept lightly over the Storage Ring. When he saw the quantity of Medicinal Herbs prepared inside, Old Yao could not help letting out a soft chuckle.

"The amount of these Medicinal Herbs was calculated at three times the number needed for the pills, just enough for you alone. It seems your father had no intention of seeking any benefits for the clan at all," Old Yao said with a smile.

"Those Xuan Tier Cultivation Methods and Dou Techniques are enough for my family to use for a long time. The clan won't suffer without pills that someone at my level can use, so there's no need for my father to covet such petty gains—he only needs to focus wholeheartedly on nurturing me," Xiao Yan replied.

"But this is limited by his cultivation. With these low-grade pills, my success rate is one hundred percent—just keep using any extra pills yourself."

"Today, I'll show you what I can do and see whether you can directly pick up some of my alchemy techniques."

In the quiet room, Old Yao floated in midair. Without taking out a Medicine Cauldron, he directly summoned a ball of white flame and used the flame itself as a cauldron to refine Pills.

"This is the Bone Spirit Cold Flame, ranked eleventh on the Heavenly Flame Ranking. Even I had to put in quite some effort back then to refine it."

After saying that, Old Yao grabbed a stalk of Purple Leaf Orchid Grass and tossed it into the flames.

"But teacher, aren't you an artifact spirit?" Xiao Yan suddenly asked.

Old Yao's hand jerked, nearly burning the Purple Leaf Orchid Grass straight into ash. He glanced at Xiao Yan and found him secretly laughing, confirming that the brat had heard him boasting about a one-hundred-percent success rate and was waiting to see him make a fool of himself.

"I was just messing with you. Actually, I'm a fallen powerhouse with a whole pile of enemies, all of them lining up to chop you to death," Old Yao said, blowing his beard and glaring.

In truth, Old Yao quite enjoyed this feeling. The long darkness inside the ring had made conversations like this feel especially human to him.