Chapter 33: Lin Fan

Inside the Fuxiu Courtyard!

Ye Qingxuan finished his daily cultivation for the day and prepared to head to the market to handle the medicinal pills he had refined over the past year.

After deactivating the restriction formations of his small courtyard, Ye Qingxuan stepped outside and departed the Fuxiu Courtyard directly by flying on his sword.

Not long after Ye Qingxuan left, a refined and elegant young man dressed in blue arrived outside Ye Qingxuan's courtyard, standing quietly in wait.

However, Ye Qingxuan was unaware of all this.

After leaving the Fuxiu Courtyard, he skillfully flew his sword to a teleportation array and took it to the market within the Xuantian Sect.

This time, Ye Qingxuan did not look for the young couple, Hong Miaomiao and Bai Qingyun, because they had already gone out together to perform a sect mission.

Thus, Ye Qingxuan did not waste any time on the way and headed straight for the Treasure Pavilion.

Upon arriving at the Treasure Pavilion, Ye Qingxuan walked into a small private room by himself.

After pushing open the door to the private room, Ye Qingxuan saw Bai Wenyang lying on a lounge chair, sipping tea.

Seeing this, Ye Qingxuan joked

"Senior Brother, the benefits of this team leader position are quite good, aren't they? Hahaha!"

Shortly after advancing to the Purple Mansion Realm, Bai Wenyang had passed the Treasure Pavilion's performance assessment and successfully promoted to the position of team leader, which came with a higher level of benefits and perks.

"Hahaha, not at all! Not at all! Please, sit, Junior Brother!"

Seeing Ye Qingxuan's arrival, Bai Wenyang stood up and laughed heartily as he pulled Ye Qingxuan down to sit.

After pouring a cup of tea for Ye Qingxuan, Bai Wenyang said with a light smile

"Junior Brother, your cultivation's stability and perseverance over these years have truly earned my admiration!"

Having known each other for many years, Bai Wenyang already understood the state of the junior brother before him.

Almost every day, it was the same unshakeable routine of cultivation and pill refining, day after day, without interruption!

Such steadfastness and the mental fortitude to endure loneliness were qualities Bai Wenyang felt he lacked!

Therefore, despite his junior brother's mediocre talent, Bai Wenyang still held him in high regard.

Ye Qingxuan ignored Bai Wenyang's words and pulled an unrefined, unowned storage bag from his robe, tossing it directly to Bai Wenyang

"Here, these are the pills from this time."

Bai Wenyang took the storage bag nonchalantly and probed it with his divine sense, only to cry out in shock

"Holy crap, so many?"

Then, Bai Wenyang looked at Ye Qingxuan with disbelief and asked hesitantly

"Are these all the pills you refined this year, Junior Brother?"

The corners of Ye Qingxuan's mouth curled up slightly as he nodded

"I was in a good rhythm with the refining lately, so I just happened to make a little extra."

He wasn't lying. Ever since breaking through to the late stage of the Qi Refining Realm and switching to a top-grade spiritual tool-level pill furnace, his speed in refining Spirit-Boosting Pills had indeed increased significantly, and the yield per batch had stabilized at ten pills.

Consequently, in the following years, the number of Spirit-Boosting Pills Ye Qingxuan refined annually had basically surpassed three thousand.

But upon hearing this, Bai Wenyang rolled his eyes and said incredulously

"You call this 'a little extra'? This is a direct doubling!"

In a normal year, the amount of Spirit-Boosting Pills Ye Qingxuan gave him was only about a thousand; but this time, there were a full three thousand four hundred Spirit-Boosting Pills in the storage bag.

What he didn't know was that this included the portion that originally belonged to Hong Miaomiao, which was why there were so many this time.

However, these pills were indeed all refined by Ye Qingxuan himself within the year.

Seeing that Bai Wenyang didn't believe him, Ye Qingxuan said nothing, instead suppressing the smugness on his face and pretending to be calm as he sipped his tea.

Helpless, Bai Wenyang could only ask tentatively once more

"Did you really refine these all by yourself?"

"Yes!"

Ye Qingxuan had no intention of hiding it. Since he was bound by a Dao Oath, Bai Wenyang could not reveal any information related to the pills anyway.

Besides, this feeling seemed quite pleasant...

He could treat it as a form of diversion during his cultivation!

While Ye Qingxuan felt comfortable, Bai Wenyang felt distressed. His junior brother's talent for pill refining was simply beyond his imagination.

This talent was absolutely at a monstrous level, but since he couldn't speak of it, he could only keep it bottled up in his heart, which was quite agonizing.

Especially seeing Ye Qingxuan's feigned indifference, Bai Wenyang felt a surge of irritation. He pulled out a storage bag and tossed it to Ye Qingxuan, saying

"Go! Go! Go! Just looking at you makes me annoyed now."

Out of sight, out of mind—Bai Wenyang expressed that he didn't want to see Ye Qingxuan at all right now.

Ye Qingxuan took the storage bag and specifically weighed the spirit stones inside it in front of Bai Wenyang, smiling lightly

"Then this Junior Brother shall take his leave first, hahaha!"

With that, he turned and left gracefully.

After Ye Qingxuan left, Bai Wenyang sat quietly in the private room for a moment before suddenly sighing and shaking his head in regret

"Sigh, what a pity!"

With Ye Qingxuan's cultivation talent, his ceiling for pill refining would inevitably be greatly limited.

What Bai Wenyang found regrettable was his good friendship with this junior brother, and equally regrettable was Ye Qingxuan's monstrous talent for pill refining.

After leaving the Treasure Pavilion, Ye Qingxuan did not linger in the market but prepared to return directly to the Fuxiu Courtyard.

Although there were many good things in the market, Ye Qingxuan mostly couldn't afford the high-grade ones, and the low-grade ones were not what he urgently needed.

It was better to wait until he had saved enough spirit stones to come back and purchase truly high-quality items.

After teleporting to the array near the Fuxiu Courtyard, Ye Qingxuan once again flew on his sword toward the courtyard.

The straight-line distance from this teleportation array to the Fuxiu Courtyard was not far, but it was separated by layers of mountain peaks.

While flying high in the sky, just as he was approaching the airspace above his small courtyard, Ye Qingxuan spotted a young man standing outside his gate.

Filled with doubt, Ye Qingxuan descended quickly and arrived at the entrance of his courtyard.

Before he could ask anything, the young man spoke first.

"Junior Brother Ye, it really isn't easy to get a meeting with you!"

This Junior Brother Ye lived a secluded life, and during cultivation, he even activated restriction formations to block out external disturbances.

If he hadn't set up an observation formation outside Ye Qingxuan's courtyard to detect when Ye Qingxuan went out and come early to wait, he might not have seen him at all.

Hearing the young man's words, Ye Qingxuan's brow twitched, and he asked curiously

"And you are?"

Hearing the question, the young man smiled slightly and then spoke

"I am Lin Fan. Please forgive my intrusion, Junior Brother!"

"Lin Fan?"

Ye Qingxuan repeated the name in his mind, recalling the information Su Daobin had previously told him.

"This Lin Fan obtained a slot to inherit an ancestor's blessed land; I wonder what grade of blessed land he is inheriting?"

As many thoughts flashed through his mind, Ye Qingxuan spoke

"So it is Senior Brother Lin. May I ask what business brings you to see me?"

"It is nothing major. I have reached the perfection of Qi Refining and will soon be leaving the Fuxiu Courtyard to inherit my blessed land. Before I leave, I wish to host a banquet for my fellow junior brothers. I wonder if Junior Brother Ye has the time?"

Hearing Lin Fan's words, Ye Qingxuan's attention shifted to Lin Fan's cultivation level.

"Perfection of Qi Refining!"

Lin Fan was one of those who had entered in the same batch as him, and he had already reached the perfection of Qi Refining. It seemed Lin Fan was one of the few in the Fuxiu Courtyard who possessed a dual-element spiritual root.

Was the gap in spiritual roots really this large?

He had spent countless pills and time, yet now, even Lin Fan, who only had a dual-element spiritual root slightly superior to his own talent, had a cultivation level far exceeding his?

Ye Qingxuan took a deep breath, his desire for the blessed land's ability to increase spiritual roots becoming even more intense.

In truth, what Ye Qingxuan did not know was that since Lin Fan had obtained the slot to inherit an ancestor's blessed land, he naturally had the support of a great power behind him.

In reality, the resources Lin Fan had consumed were not less than his own; in fact, they were even more.

Therefore, it was perfectly normal for Lin Fan's cultivation to surpass his.

Ye Qingxuan's thoughts were many. Although Lin Fan's appearance was a provocation, it did not shake his resolve; instead, it ignited his fighting spirit.

Temporary progress meant nothing; only reaching the end counted as victory.

Coming back to his senses, Ye Qingxuan asked

"When?"

Seeing that Ye Qingxuan did not directly refuse, the smile on Lin Fan's face grew even wider as he stated the time and place

"Three days from now, in the evening, at the central plaza within the Fuxiu Courtyard!"

After considering the time and place for a moment, Ye Qingxuan agreed.

"Fine! In three days, I will certainly be there!"

Currently, the remaining reserve disciples of the Fuxiu Courtyard were basically just his fellow disciples from the same entry batch.

Since it wouldn't take much time anyway, it would be good to take this opportunity to see these fellow disciples!