Half an hour later.
In the forest's medicinal field.
Spring's warmth merged harmoniously, with insects and butterflies fluttering about. A gentle breeze stirred ripples across the sea of flowers, bringing forth the fragrant scent of freshly turned soil.
Chunwa and Qiuchan opened their small mouths slightly, their forms freezing like a pair of scarecrows.
Their two little faces grew as stiff as tender white porcelain, and their four pupils locked in astonishment like glass marbles.
One stared directly at Xiao Ran, while the other looked blankly at the medicinal field, actually harboring a sense that the world had undergone great changes, that people and things were no longer the same...
Xiao Ran was still that same Xiao Ran, appearing completely useless aside from his handsome looks.
Yet the medicinal field was no longer the medicinal field of the morning.
The weeds in the ten mu of medicinal plots had been cleared away, clean to the point where not a single insect remained.
All pests had been manually driven away by Xiao Ran.
He had even picked out and released one by one the beneficial insects—such as hoverflies, leaf-mining hoverflies, and nine-spotted ladybugs—that Chunwa and Qiuchan had caught and mixed into the piles of pests.
If pests were easy to recognize, stray spirit herbs were not nearly so simple.
Hundred Herbs Peak possessed rich spiritual energy, and weeds grew there as handsome as spirit herbs. Coupled with long-term artificial selection, the weeds that managed to survive today were all stray spirit herbs with appearances extremely similar to actual spirit herbs.
Even so, they were completely swept up by Xiao Ran.
Even the cold barnyard grass, which hid extremely deeply and bore a striking similarity to cold spirit herbs, was dug out by him entirely.
Could this be what Master meant by weeding without leaving roots? The mu of wasteland on the western side of the medicinal field was even more exaggerated! Xiao Ran employed a fifth high-level farming method unknown to Chunwa and Qiuchan—the Mountain Moving Cart Method—turning up all the deep soil composting and red stone earthworms in the wasteland.
He had even dredged the underground drainage channels, routing the mountain's sole underground cool water source into the wasteland to spare the two little girls the daily chore of carrying water...
In a mere half hour, Xiao Ran had not only completed a full day's workload for the two little girls, but the quality of its completion was so high that they were left gaping and utterly incapable of evaluation!
The two little girls' minds were completely blank.
Qiuchan suddenly remembered something, and abruptly turned her head to say,
"Wa-wa, didn't you just say that if Junior Brother helped weed, you would consider marrying him when you grew up?"
Chunwa instantly grew startled and flustered.
"Ev-even if he knows how to weed, I still can't marry him when I grow up... Af-after all... I'm a frog!"
East of Hundred Herbs Peak, Purple Maple Cliff.
Sensing the time was getting late, Lingzhou Yue turned and stepped into the maple forest, only to find that the medicinal field within had already been put in good order by Xiao Ran.
Though she had spent decades studying herb-cultivation and pill-refining on Hundred Herbs Peak, when it came to tending a medicinal field she was as superficial as a steamed bun shop owner who didn't understand famous paintings, simply feeling that Xiao Ran had arranged the fields neatly.
Alas, the person herself lacked culture, so a single "terrific" sufficed for everything!
"My disciple is terrific, isn't he?"
She took a swig of turbid wine, boasting thus before True Person Yinyue.
This single phrase granted Xiao Ran two filial piety points back in the medicinal field.
Congratulations to the host for obtaining 2 filial piety points! Total: 30 filial piety points.
As expected, helping Master show filial piety to her Senior Uncle was also an indirect way of showing filial piety to Master.
Xiao Ran felt quite gratified, considering his bowed-head farming labor well worth the ox-like exhaustion.
Such a fertile medicinal field!
It seemed he would need to help Senior Uncle farm more often in the future...
"Master?"
Lingzhou Yue, striding boldly through the maple forest while drinking heavily, suddenly paused in realization that True Person Yinyue was not following behind her, but instead stood frozen at the edge of the maple cliff.
Her tender, alluring gaze pierced straight through the maple forest, locked firmly upon Xiao Ran in the medicinal field.
Lingzhou Yue felt something was amiss.
Her master was not one prone to lust; even though Xiao Ran was handsome, it shouldn't warrant such a rapt gaze. "Master, what's wrong with you?"
True Person Yinyue looked deeper still.
Until Lingzhou Yue turned back and secretly pinched True Person Yinyue's completely fat-free belly.
"Master!"
Only then did True Person Yinyue snap abruptly back to her senses, suddenly putting on a stern face as she declared:
"This time regarding the Wraith incident and the apprentice recruitment, the Disciplinary Elder will surely make a fuss and cause major trouble for Sword-Wielding Peak. You might have to change disciples."
Lingzhou Yue was baffled: "Master, why did you suddenly bring that up?"
True Person Yinyue's expression softened before she forcefully re-established her masterly airs.
"I mean... can you cede this disciple of yours to your master?"
"Pfft—"
Lingzhou Yue spat a mouthful of cheap wine straight onto True Person Yinyue's chest.
Never had she imagined that the precious master she had spent decades following in cultivation without ever successfully capturing would actually be conquered by a newly accepted disciple?
Was her own appearance not pretty enough? Or was her chest too large, making Master jealous? No, no...
Master was not that kind of person! Lingzhou Yue turned her head sharply.
Could it have been Xiao Ran's cultivation prowess that conquered her pill-god master?
This fellow not only knew how to build houses, but could farm too?
Did I randomly pick up a god? Even while harboring a deep love for her master, such an indispensable domestic-travel-essential disciple could not simply be handed over to someone else!
Let alone giving him to Master—if she did, would Master still have any room in her heart for her...
"I'm sorry, Master, but this disciple of mine is far too useless. He will be nothing more than a mortal all his life, and cannot be allowed to ruin Master."
True Person Yinyue cared not a whit.
"Did he or did he not just say he wanted a hundred Ten Year Life Extension Pills?"
Lingzhou Yue grabbed her delicate shoulders directly, speaking with the heavy air of alcohol:
"No—way!"
Among the peaks of Zongzhi Mountain, the thickest and tallest was the Main Peak.
The Main Peak was the residence of the sect master and the place where sect official business was handled.
At the peak stood a sword pavilion, built from bluestone and piercing straight into the clouds.
The pavilion's form was long like a sword, thin like a sword, sharp like a sword.
When the wind rose, it emitted a whistling sword howl that washed over the entire sect, filling the disciples with awe and vigilance.
The Sword Pavilion was precisely the power center of Zongzhi Mountain, the Affairs Pavilion.
The top floor of the Affairs Pavilion was the venue for the Elder Council.
The Elder Council was the highest-level administrative meeting within the gate, as well as the resolution center of Zongzhi Mountain.
Only the sect master, elders, and various direct disciples were qualified to attend the Elder Council.
Hundreds of lecturing instructors, a dozen or so chief instructors, and over a dozen subsidiary sect masters within the gate lacked the qualifications to attend.
The time of the meeting was drawing near.
The attendees had not yet all arrived.
Lingzhou Yue and True Person Yinyue, the beautiful master-disciple pair known as the Peerless Twin Moons, were chatting idly in the front hall.
Unlike their usual chat atmosphere, today any topic Lingzhou Yue brought up was forcibly steered back toward Xiao Ran by True Person Yinyue, who insisted that Xiao Ran needed to undergo a body dissection as soon as possible...
As for Chunwa and Qiuchan, True Person Yinyue had demanded they follow closely behind Xiao Ran throughout to act as tour guides for this newcomer.
Treating the task like a perfunctory chore, the two little girls introduced Xiao Ran to the sect master, the Sword-Tempering Elder, the Sword-Wielding Elder, the Alchemy Elder, and the Disciplinary Elder, along with their respective direct disciples.
Among them, the Disciplinary Elder was detested the most!
Taking advantage of the Disciplinary Elder's absence, the two little girls bared their teeth and spent a large amount of time describing the Disciplinary Elder's unpardonable wicked deeds.
Xiao Ran didn't listen closely either.
Immersed within the magnificent and spacious Hall of Affairs, Xiao Ran felt his entire being floating, while inevitably feeling somewhat nervous.
Looking around, he unexpectedly discovered that—
The Hall of Affairs had its dome upheld by five giant pillars. Its four walls lacked windows, enclosed instead by four rows of stone swords serving as a fence, ringing the hall within.
Intricate red and blue spirit runes were engraved upon the stone sword fence, their arrangement and outlines faintly radiating a certain profound sense of the Great Dao being simple.
He stopped and stared for a long time.
Even with his maxed-out architectural vision, it was difficult to pick out any obvious flaws in these four rows of sword hedges.
Room for improvement remained only in a few harmless, minor details.
Suddenly!
An old man with a stooped figure, dim eyes, and a sword case strapped to his back suddenly appeared a mere foot away before him.
At the age of a centenarian, he was at death's door, as if his life were sustained only by a faint spark deep within his pupils.
Xiao Ran was startled.
Yet the old man spoke first.
"Who are you."
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