Senior Brother Is Critically Ill

As Ning Sujin's weak voice echoed out, Li Ji'an initially only felt the soft warmth on his lips. Now, however, it was tinged with a clear, hot moisture and slipperiness.

"Sister Jin, I..." He tried to explain, but as soon as he spoke, the sensation intensified.

Ning Sujin's eyes widened instantly. Color rushed to her face, which had only just regained a trace of vitality, turning it bright red.

Realizing their situation, neither of them spoke again, waiting for the effects of the medicine to wear off.

It wasn't until the early hours of the morning that their faces finally parted, Ning Sujin turning her head to the side with all her might.

Li Ji'an could finally move his neck.

"Before the Immortal Master appeared, I sensed it once on my own, and it was still a dire omen. I don't know if there's been any change since the Immortal Master descended," Ning Sujin said, directly addressing Li Ji'an's greatest concern in an attempt to ease the awkwardness.

Li Ji'an nodded slowly.

Ning Sujin's ability to sense things only worked at close range, so it was normal that she couldn't sense anything now.

However, since the so-called Immortal Master was merely a cultivator, and they needed flying ships to travel between mortal realms, they likely didn't possess the power to alter one's fate.

Ning Yutan's dire omen had most likely not changed.

In that case, her following the Immortal Master to the cultivation world was the root of the dire omen.

"Is the crisis from the cultivation world, or is it a crisis brought by that Immortal Master?" Li Ji'an didn't know, and a sense of apprehension crept into his heart regarding this path of cultivation.

"Sister Jin, can you foresee the fortune or misfortune if you were to become an Immortal Seed?"

Ning Sujin shook her head. "I can only foresee things that are certain to happen, and the time span varies depending on the event."

"After this incident, the Emperor will likely set much higher requirements for the next Immortal Ceremony. We'll need at least perfected Organ Refining to have a chance. Whether we can become Immortal Seeds in this lifetime is still unknown."

Li Ji'an smiled knowingly, sensing Ning Sujin's attitude toward the Emperor had clearly changed.

Having personally witnessed her demeanor in front of the Immortal Master, their majestic authority and image naturally crumbled.

Especially since the initial message the Imperial Family conveyed to the world was that the Immortal Masters protected their Zhao Imperial Clan, and the Emperor was enfeoffed by an Immortal Master. Disobeying the Imperial Family was akin to defying the celestial beings.

"Man proposes, God disposes!" Li Ji'an wasn't focused on whether he could become an Immortal Seed in this world. He casually replied with a sentence full of positive energy.

"What are your thoughts on the Immortal Master?" Having received Li Ji'an's encouragement, Ning Sujin no longer worried about the Immortal Ceremony ten years later. She couldn't help but ask about the Immortal Master she had seen.

Li Ji'an pondered for a moment, then threw out a bait: "Perhaps similar to a Martial Path expert."

"You think so too?" Ning Sujin's beautiful eyes suddenly narrowed, and she looked at Li Ji'an with surprise, as if seeing a kindred spirit.

"Why do you think so?" Li Ji'an was also curious about her reasoning, as she wasn't like him, having transmigrated from the modern world and read too many stories about cultivators.

"Over a hundred years ago, Immortal Masters descended, yet the natural disasters that should have occurred never ceased. Those who did evil still did evil, and those who suffered still suffered. I never saw the Immortal Masters strike down evildoers with divine lightning... Besides coming from an unknown origin, being able to fly and burrow, and controlling treasures, how are they any different from mortals?" Ning Sujin stated directly.

Li Ji'an looked at Ning Sujin with increased admiration.

"So that's why you proactively taught Yutan your movement techniques before? You believe mortal martial arts can contend with Immortal Masters and overcome danger?"

Ning Sujin nodded slowly.

A clever woman!

The next morning, the effects of the medicine had almost completely dissipated.

Ning Sujin forced herself to sit up, finally moving away from Li Ji'an's chest.

However, as she prepared to get up from his body, her lower half was unexpectedly blocked by something hard, and her already unstable footing caused her to sit back down.

"Hiss~" Li Ji'an felt like his bones were about to break and involuntarily gasped, sitting up instinctively.

Ning Sujin was also painfully poked, feeling as though she might split open. She lurched forward, falling back into Li Ji'an's embrace.

Their eyes met for a moment, and Ning Sujin reacted.

"Pah! Beast!" Her face instantly turned crimson, and she spat at him before shoving Li Ji'an away with a slap, stumbling out of the compartment.

"..." Li Ji'an gave a wry smile. It wasn't his fault. It was purely a physiological reaction. After all, while his mental age was considerable, his body was in its prime.

Having already seen "immortals" and having a general idea, coupled with Ning Sujin's "fortune and misfortune avoidance" as a safeguard, Li Ji'an spent the following days cultivating wholeheartedly, just as before.

Thanks to the Immortal Master's dissatisfaction with the current batch of Immortal Seeds, the Immortal Palace greatly increased its investment in promising talents like them.

Regardless of how the outside world was exploited and oppressed, Li Ji'an truly had abundant resources within the Immortal Palace.

Two years later, Li Ji'an reached Blood Transformation Perfection.

"I have fully grasped the essence of the Blood Transformation realm. Even if my Bone Structure doesn't improve in the next life, I can shorten the time by thirty percent," Li Ji'an said, his face beaming with joy after carefully sensing his condition for a while.

As soon as he finished his practice, familiar footsteps could be heard from outside the door.

"Brother Li, your letter." Zhao Yunsheng, who had been confirmed to have no significant martial talent and was still under house arrest in the Immortal Palace, enjoyed visiting Li Ji'an the most.

"Here's the puzzle lock you asked me to make. Take it to play with." Li Ji'an handed the puzzle lock, which Xiao Yunsheng had been pestering him for for days, to him as he took the letter.

Xiao Yunsheng had no martial talent or ambition, but he loved carpentry. Coincidentally, Li Ji'an had been experimenting with controlling Vital Energy and Blood to stimulate it during his cultivation breaks, so he made it for him.

"Is this the ingenious mechanism you mentioned? Thank you, Brother Li." Xiao Yunsheng was overjoyed.

After watching Xiao Yunsheng leave, Li Ji'an opened the letter.

"Hmm? It's not Senior Brother's handwriting? This is bad..." Seeing Qingyun's handwriting on the envelope, Li Ji'an had a bad feeling.

As expected, the letter contained bad news: Senior Brother Liu Deshan was ill.

He was so ill he couldn't hold a brush, so he had Qingyun write for him.

"Senior Brother is... just about to turn sixty, and he won't make it?" Although he had lived through three lives and understood the need to accept the death of loved ones, the second person closest to him in his past life was about to pass away, leaving Li Ji'an with a sense of melancholy.

In the letter, Liu Deshan spoke most about his past life's "Li Jichang," reminiscing about the hardships and cherishing the memories of yesteryear.

One by one, each sincere account was still vivid in Li Ji'an's memory.

At the end of the letter, he mentioned that he hadn't been able to see "Li Jichang" off in his final moments and had always regretted it, hoping to see Li Ji'an one last time before he passed.

However, his considerate nature, always thinking of others, added a caveat: it was understandable if it was inconvenient or would affect his immortal path.

He folded the letter with a heavy heart and slowly walked to the bookshelf. Just as he was about to place it back, he paused, took the letter out again, returned to his desk, and carefully unfolded and smoothed out the paper...

The next morning, Li Ji'an arrived at the female student dormitory area and waited quietly.

"Is the Imperial Son-in-law here to see Princess Wenjin again?"

"Imperial Son-in-law, our Princess has had a dark cloud over her face all day today. Be careful of the family rules."

"Could it be that Princess Wenjin really set the family rules for the Imperial Son-in-law? Requiring a daily greeting?"

As the female students gradually emerged, the usual teasing remarks filled the air.

A year ago, Prince Yun, using the excuse of suppressing a rebellion in the northwest, defied the imperial decree to enter the capital alone. He then used the same reason to refuse to hand over command of the northwestern army, causing the relationship between the Emperor and Prince Yun to freeze.

Three months later, Duke Dingguo, who had been secretly investigating Prince Yun since the incident at the Immortal Codex, became a key figure in the Emperor and Prince Yun's covert conflict due to his consistently tough stance against Prince Yun, defeating many two-faced officials in the palace and gaining significant favor.

Ning Sujin, a prospective Immortal Seed, and Ning Yutan, who had already ascended to the Immortal Realm, were both granted princess titles by the Emperor.

Since Ning Sujin always traveled with Li Ji'an, and Li Ji'an often sought her out for fortune-telling, it naturally led to some gossip.