Xu Yan would never admit it. He denied it, saying, "The green tea I mentioned is actually a kind of tea. You can tell from the name. I was laughing because you actually mistook tea for a medicinal herb."
With that, he paid no mind to the woman's reaction. Carrying the bowl and spoon, he left the inner hall and went to sample the tea.
In the outer hall, Su Jiuer was lying on the table. Seeing that Xu Yan had only just come out of the inner hall, she was a little angry.
She cursed that old monster Xu Yan in her heart for being shameless in his old age, letting lust cloud his judgment and getting completely bewitched by a woman.
Xu Yan, of course, had no idea what Su Jiuer was thinking. He sat down at the table and said, "Little Fox, hasn't it been a while since I painted in the shop? I'll paint something today."
As he spoke, he fetched his painting supplies and began to paint.
Dao charm welled up from the painting. When Su Jiuer felt it, her anger vanished in an instant, and she began to greedily absorb the Dao charm.
She had a feeling that, cleansed by the Dao charm, she would undergo an extraordinary transformation.
An hour later, Xu Yan finished the painting.
He had painted it very slowly. It showed an injured woman lying in a medicinal herb garden, surrounded by all kinds of flowers and plants, every one of them a medicinal herb.
Seeing that Xu Yan had spent so long painting so earnestly, only to paint that woman of unknown origins, Su Jiuer was instantly furious.
And when she saw the satisfied look on Xu Yan's face, she grew even angrier. She went to the other side of the table and lay down, not wanting to look at him.
Xu Yan naturally noticed what Su Jiuer was doing. "Little Fox, don't you usually like watching me paint? Why are you acting so strangely today?"
He set down his brush and picked up the painting. He had meant to put it in the outer hall, but then remembered that the woman's origins were unknown and her identity was surely no ordinary one, so he abandoned the idea.
But the painting was already finished, and it represented his hard work. He couldn't very well destroy it.
After thinking it over, Xu Yan decided to hang it in the inner hall.
The inner hall was simply furnished. It contained only a bed and a few small pieces of furniture, along with a chessboard, a zither, brushes, ink, paper, and an inkstone.
He hadn't bought any of these things. The system had rewarded them to him when he improved his experience and skills in those areas.
The woman lying on the bed stared at the painting Xu Yan had hung, her eyes full of astonishment.
The painting actually contained Dao charm!
The woman asked Xu Yan, "Did you paint this?"
She was struggling to calm herself. It was simply inconceivable that a painting imbued with Dao charm would appear in a place like this.
"Of course I painted it. Is there a problem?" Xu Yan glanced at her and answered coolly.
He had a habit of painting anything new or interesting that happened or that he came across. Otherwise, he wouldn't have bothered painting this woman just for the sake of painting her.
The woman stared at Xu Yan, her gaze uncertain. "What's your name?"
If the man before her had truly painted this, then he was very likely a hidden master.
Of course, she had encountered paintings imbued with Dao charm before.
But the Dao charm in that painting had been no match for the Dao charm radiating from this one. And the painter of that work was already a mighty figure with the power to reach heaven and earth, revered as the Sage of Painting.
Could this man's painting actually surpass the Sage of Painting's?
Xu Yan frowned. "My name is Xu Yan."
He thought this woman was rather talkative. Why not just focus on recovering from her injuries instead of asking so many questions? Once she healed, they would have nothing more to do with each other anyway.
"I want to take you as my master!"
The woman stared at Xu Yan for several seconds before suddenly speaking.
Her exquisitely beautiful face was utterly serious. She didn't look like she was joking at all.
Xu Yan said, "Don't joke like that. I'm just a mortal. I can't take you as my disciple."
As soon as the woman said she wanted to take him as her master, he thought of Judi, who had challenged him at Qin Yudie's birthday banquet.
Judi had been arrogant, but after seeing his painting, he had wanted to take Xu Yan as his master. Now this woman had also asked to become his disciple after seeing his painting.
Could his paintings really have some kind of bewitching power that made people want to take him as their master?
Hearing Xu Yan's words only made the woman more certain that he was a hidden master. Otherwise, even if he wanted to reject her, there would be no need to call himself a mortal.
So she said again, "Who says a mortal can't take disciples? I want to take a 'mortal' like you as my master!"
"Miss, I won't take you as my disciple. Please don't bring it up again," Xu Yan said coldly.
Then he walked out of the inner hall.
The woman remained alone in the inner hall, gazing at the painting Xu Yan had made. It depicted her.
She sensed the powerful Dao charm within it and tried to comprehend and refine it.
Without realizing it, her body also began to recover its vitality.
It was nearly dusk that afternoon when Jiang Li arrived.
He wasn't in as good a state as usual. He seemed distracted, and he cleaned much more slowly than he had in the previous few days.
Seeing Jiang Li like this, Xu Yan asked, "What's wrong? Did something happen at home again?"
With Jiang Li's current physical condition, he could handle twice the work without worrying about being bullied again. Unless something had happened at home, he should have been fine.
Jiang Li shook his head. "I heard that the Tianren Sect will be recruiting disciples in a few days."
He was torn. He wanted to pursue cultivation and become a powerful cultivator, but he also wanted to stay by his mother's side and take care of her.
Time passed quickly in the world of cultivators. A single retreat could last dozens of years.
His mother was a mortal and had only a few decades left to live.
If he became a cultivator, went into seclusion, and came back to find that his mother had passed away, he wouldn't be able to bear it.
Hearing Jiang Li's words, Xu Yan immediately understood what was troubling him. "You want to go, but you can't bear to leave your mother behind, right?"
Many people faced this dilemma before becoming cultivators. Cultivators lived longer than mortals.
Once they began cultivating, they were likely to watch their family and companions grow old and die, while they went on living alone in the world.
This was a choice everyone had to make, and the first hurdle on the path of cultivation.
Jiang Li nodded. "Divine Doctor Xu, do you think I should take the Tianren Sect's disciple test and become a cultivator, or stay home and take care of my mother?"
He was lost. As a hot-blooded young man, becoming a cultivator was his dream. He even dreamed about what it would be like to become one.
But his mother was his only family. If he left her, who would take care of her?
For now, his mother could still look after herself. But in another ten or twenty years, she would be old and need someone to care for her.
And after he became a cultivator and joined the Tianren Sect, he might not have time to come home every day to take care of her.
Jiang Li was a filial person, and that was precisely why he was so conflicted.
This was a choice between his dreams and honoring his mother!
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