After questioning Dragonflame Daoist, Jiang Yan had his answer and could finally set his mind at ease.
When he returned, Muling Daoist Boy had also come back from testing the cloud.
Jiang Yan gave him the waist token and told him to collect a few more Lishi, naming them after Niu Da and the others while he was at it.
Once those arrangements were made, Jiang Yan returned to his room to cultivate. Whatever happened, his daily cultivation could never be neglected.
He could not nurture a slothful heart; one day of idleness would linger in his thoughts for a hundred days.
With the Fire-Walking Cloud, Muling Daoist Boy could travel much faster, and he soon brought back four more Lishi.
Two had also been grafted with ox hooves, while the other two each had a pair of bear legs grafted onto their bodies.
Following Jiang Yan's instructions, he gave each of them a name.
Once the Lishi had names, Muling assigned them to fill the vacancies left by Niu Da and the others, sending them outside the courtyard to dig the pond.
In the days that followed, Jiang Yan never went out even once, spending every day tucked away at home cultivating.
Speaking of which, apart from Dragonflame Daoist, none of the Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters he knew seemed particularly inclined to move about.
Whether it was Daoist Ying Leng or his two senior brothers, Fenghuo and Liaoyuan, Jiang Yan had only met each of them once.
Even their master, Blowing Fire High Person, spent all day in seclusion.
Now that Jiang Yan had joined them, he seemed to be doing the same. Who knew whether Dragonflame Daoist would feel lonely?
Immersed in cultivation, time flew by, and half a month passed in the blink of an eye.