Arrangement

Houses without people are always more prone to falling into disrepair.

Although Gu Fan has only been gone for a few years, there are still many places in the ancestral home that need repair.

Over the next few days, Gu Fan and Hou Ying and her son settled down here, and Gu Fan personally repaired the house bit by bit.

Bringing Hou Ying and her son back to Lin'an was Gu Fan's choice, and after a brief hesitation, Madam Sun nodded in agreement.

With Gu Fan, a male member of the family, present, the mother and son would not be bullied even when he was not at home.

Leaving some money enough for the two of them to live on, and sending Hou Ying to a private school in the city to study, would complete the transaction.

In return, Hou Ying and her son are required to look after Gu Fan's ancestral home, as a way to preserve some of his memories in the mortal world.

Gu Fan's parents' graves are located five miles outside the city, and they are already overgrown with weeds.

Gu Fan did not use fire magic, but personally repaired the area around the grave bit by bit.

After the repairs were completed, Gu Fan arranged the offerings in front of the tombstone.

"Dear Parents, your child has been granted a divine destiny..."

Gu Fan sat there for a long time, recounting the events that had occurred over the years, one by one.

He also mentioned his friends in the sect, such as Meng Wei, Long Ying, and Chen Suzhen, seemingly to reassure his parents that he was not alone.

As dusk fell, Gu Fan got up and left, leaving behind a long, thin shadow against the backdrop of the evening glow.

In the early morning, Gu Fan sat cross-legged in the courtyard, gazing at the red sun on the horizon and gathering a wisp of spiritual energy.

Hou Ying hid in the distance, staring at Gu Fan with wide eyes, not daring to go forward and disturb him.

He had seen this scene many times, but he was still extremely curious.

For Hou Ying, the events of the past few days have been truly dramatic.

His mother suddenly fell ill, as if the pillar of the sky had collapsed. He rushed around seeking medical help, but in his despair, he was fortunate to meet Gu Fan.

Although he had no spiritual root, Hou Ying was not discouraged. In his view, being by his mother's side was already a wonderful thing.

Now he not only doesn't have to endure the carpenter's beatings and scoldings, but he can also go to school and doesn't have to worry about making a living. Such a scene has only appeared in his dreams.

As the sun gradually rose, Gu Fan swallowed and refined the last bit of spiritual energy, then exhaled a long breath.

The path to immortality is long and arduous, but every bit of progress brings him joy.

Turning his head, he saw Hou Ying and beckoned her. Hou Ying then jogged over.

"Tell your mother I'm leaving." Gu Fan's first words stunned Hou Ying.

He knew, of course, that Gu Fan wouldn't stay here forever, but this sudden turn of events was completely unexpected, leaving him feeling empty inside.

"Brother Gu, could you stay a little longer?" Hou Ying asked in a low voice.

Gu Fan chuckled and shook his head, saying, "I still have a lot of things to do."

Hou Ying nodded upon hearing this and said nothing more.

The atmosphere fell silent for a moment.

"Speaking of which, are you really not disappointed that you can't cultivate immortality?"

After a moment, Gu Fan broke the silence and asked curiously.

Hou Ying looked up upon hearing this, pondered for a moment, and nodded, saying, "Indeed, there's no regret."

Why is that?

During Gu Fan's cultivation these past few days, especially when he demonstrated his fire technique that day, Hou Ying's curiosity was almost overflowing.

Hou Ying looked at Gu Fan and said slowly, "When I was an apprentice, my master always talked about what would happen after I became an apprentice, but he mostly beat and scolded me on a daily basis. I thought to myself, instead of talking about what would happen after I became an apprentice, I should just give me a pancake to eat on a daily basis."

"According to my mother, there were supposed to be cultivators in my family, but now I'm the only one left."

"I just want to stay by my mother's side, that's enough."

Hou Ying spoke sincerely, and Gu Fan, seeing the light in his eyes, felt a pang of melancholy.

"Well said."

Gu Fan gave a word of praise, took the money pouch from his waist, put it in Hou Ying's hand, and then walked out the door.

Hou Ying knew she couldn't keep Gu Fan, so she could only stand there and silently shed tears.

Gu Fan went straight out of the city, found a secluded place, released the white jade boat from his storage bag, and leisurely rode away on the clouds.

On his way back home, he traveled by horse-drawn carriage for nearly two months to take care of Hou Ying and her son.

Now, sailing on the white jade boat, returning to the sect will be much faster.

Gu Fan left in the height of summer and returned in autumn.

On Lingxi Peak, the peach tree leaves have turned slightly yellow, carrying a desolate air.

Back in the familiar courtyard, Gu Fan washed away the dust and sat under a tree, pondering the wooden plaque in his hand.

According to the location indicated on the wooden sign, it was only a dozen miles from the coast, so the possibility of encountering a sea monster was not high.

Most of those ferocious monsters live in the deep sea area, and if they get close to the coast, the disciples of the Lingxiao Sect will go to subdue them.

The location indicated by the wooden sign was clearly underwater. However, Gu Fan's fire-based techniques and spells were suppressed, making him quite limited after diving underwater. The only way to resolve this was to rely on the talisman.

However, the power of a first-grade low-level spirit talisman is still limited. After thinking it over, Gu Fan decided to try drawing mid-grade spirit talismans first, and then explore after accumulating a batch of spirit talismans.

And so, Gu Fan plunged back into the cycle of drawing talismans and cultivating.

Time flies, and several days have passed in the blink of an eye.

On this day, Gu Fan had just finished drawing a water shield talisman and was closing his eyes to meditate.

Upon his return, his first attempt was to draw mid-grade spirit talismans, but mid-grade spirit talismans involve half as many runes as low-grade spirit talismans.

After trying several times, Gu Fan found that the success rate was really low.

During the drawing process, it is necessary to maintain the mana at the strength of two rune elements, and the requirements for controlling the divine sense are even higher.

If that were all, Gu Fan could still overcome it with the Myriad Manifestations Eye, but the spiritual energy contained in the mid-grade talisman seemed to have reached the upper limit of the low-grade talisman paper's capacity, making it extremely easy to be damaged.

Gu Fan planned to first draw a batch of low-grade spirit talismans to earn merit points, then exchange them for high-grade talisman paper before attempting to draw mid-grade spirit talismans.

Based on the current situation, it seems that drawing a second-tier spirit talisman would require the outer bark of spirit wood or the hide of a demon beast as talisman paper.

After finishing his meditation, Gu Fan was about to draw another talisman when there was a knock on the door.

Gu Fan put down the talisman brush, stepped forward and opened the door, where he saw Meng Wei's smiling face.

"Senior brother, is there some good news?" Gu Fan asked teasingly as he let Meng Wei in.

As Meng Wei entered the courtyard, he exclaimed in admiration, "Junior Brother has already reached the third level of Qi Refining. I truly envy him."

"You flatter me, senior brother," Gu Fan said, rubbing his nose with a slightly embarrassed expression.

Meng Wei's "Qingyang Jade Scroll" is a high-grade wood-type cultivation technique, but what he cultivates is not wood-type magic power, but rather lightning generated from wood, thus producing lightning-type magic power.

When transitioning from the early to the middle stage, one needs to gather and refine the Qianyang Thunder Qi before breaking through to the next realm.

The Qianyang Thunder Qi is extremely strong and yang; if one is not careful, it may explode in the dantian.

Meng Wei spent a great deal of time refining the Qianyang Thunder Qi through painstaking effort.

Fortunately, having overcome this hurdle, there are no more bottlenecks before Foundation Establishment. There are still five years until the next sect competition. If Meng Wei wants to compete for the Foundation Establishment Pill, he needs to improve his cultivation as much as possible within five years.

Therefore, in the past year, Gu Fan and Meng Wei have only met a few times, as Meng Wei has spent most of his time on the road hunting demons.

Gu Fan thought Meng Wei had come to catch up with him, but to his surprise, Meng Wei said with a smile, "Our Uncle Chen has come out of seclusion, and I've come to invite you to share in the joy."

Gu Fan was taken aback. After nearly two years apart, Chen Suzhen had finally emerged from seclusion.