However, the first time she saw Li Zhaoyan, Zhao Min herself was momentarily stunned. In her memory, Li Zhaoyan was still a little girl of a few years old.
When she had called her "Mother" earlier, she had felt a sense of disorientation, wondering whose grown daughter had wandered in.
This was the tragedy of cultivators. Their lifespans were long, but most of those years were spent on cultivation, leaving very little time to accompany their loved ones.
Now, Zhao Min suddenly had an epiphany. She understood her parents' situation back then. They had forced her to cultivate so hard, firstly, to make her strong as quickly as possible, and secondly, so that she could accompany them through the years.
Thinking back on her own willfulness back then, she now felt a sense of guilt.
As she spoke to Li Zhaoyan, she couldn't help but think of her past self, and a hint of gentleness appeared in her eyes. However, once she stabilized her realm and came out of seclusion, she would definitely have to discipline her.
What Zhao Min didn't know was that the things Li Zhaoyan had been up to these years were far beyond her imagination.
Not only had she caused a ruckus on Little Bamboo Peak, but the disciples of the other four peaks were also complaining incessantly. The places where Li Zhaoyan had been were either earth-shattering or left barren.
Yet, Li Zhaoyan never used her position to bully others. She just loved to tinker with all sorts of things she found interesting: formations, alchemy, Gu-insect raising, beast rearing, and so on.
If she had just enjoyed studying them, it would have been fine. But in her passion, she didn't follow the existing pill formulas and procedures. Instead, she was often unconventional, seemingly filled with an endless supply of bizarre ideas...
Thus, exploding formation plates and pill cauldrons became a common occurrence, and the explosions grew more powerful each time. Occasionally, strange spirit beasts that had never been seen before would appear by her side.
These spirit beasts included flying birds with a thousand legs, rabbits covered in sores, and long snakes covered in eyes, to name a few.
"Father? Right, right, right, and him, my old man. He fought foreign cultivators alone, slaying demons and killing Buddhas..."
"That's enough! What 'fought alone'? Were your grandfather and Old Ancestor Mo just standing in the sky watching for fun? And slaying demons and killing Buddhas? Your father isn't that powerful. Everything is because he is cautious in his actions, which is why he has been able to walk further on the path of cultivation. Many of those who were killed had higher cultivation than your father. It's not uncommon for them to die because of carelessness. This is a point you must remember!"
Zhao Min frowned. She found Li Zhaoyan's character to be somewhat flippant!
And... and what was this "him, my old man"? To speak of Li Yan like that... she herself was older than Li Yan.
"Oh!"
Li Zhaoyan also noticed the change in Zhao Min's expression. Since she was little, she had feared Zhao Min the most.
Everyone else doted on her, but this mother of hers would truly punish her, and in a way that terrified her.
"By the way, Mother, where did Father go? I've never seen him. At first, people said he was in seclusion, but later Grandfather told me that Father might have gone out. In the sect, I've only heard people talk about him, but I've never seen what he looks like!"
Li Zhaoyan instantly became obedient. When she was little, whenever Zhao Min was displeased, if she cried out that she wanted to see her father, Zhao Min's punishment would be much lighter.
"He... he should be back soon!"
Hearing this, Zhao Min didn't answer. Instead, her gaze drifted past the courtyard, as if she could see through the restriction to a place far, far away. The gentleness in her eyes deepened...
Li Yan had told her a rough timeline. By her calculations, it should be about time for his return.
'I just wonder if Senior Sister Ying will return with him? What kind of expression will you have when you see Yan'er?'
Zhao Min thought to herself...
Next, after exchanging a few more words with Li Zhaoyan, she sent her off to cultivate.
This time, Li Zhaoyan immediately and obediently went to cultivate without a second word, but a bad feeling rose in her heart.
Seeing Li Zhaoyan go to cultivate, Zhao Min then left alone. However, she did not immediately go into seclusion to stabilize her realm.
She had a feeling that Li Zhaoyan might not have told her everything. A mother knows her daughter best. Even though they hadn't seen each other for years, she still had this feeling.
After leaving the courtyard, she first went to the main hall, where Wei Chituo was stationed. The moment he saw Zhao Min, the burly Wei Chituo's face showed a look of grievance...
A quarter of an hour later, Zhao Min walked out with a frosty expression and flew off into the air.
Another half an hour later, Li Wuyi walked out of his own courtyard. Facing Zhao Min, who was slowly walking out from the side, he wore a fawning smile and kept muttering something.
Zhao Min paid no attention to Li Wuyi's muttering. She simply gave a slight bow to the side and then flew directly to Wei Zhongran's place, leaving behind a wryly smiling Li Wuyi...
That night, Li Zhaoyan, who was "obediently" cultivating at home while inwardly hoping for her mother to quickly enter seclusion, received a piece of news that left her dumbfounded.
From now on, all the spirit stones she spent could only be collected according to the quota for the sect's Foundation Establishment cultivators. Any extra would have to be earned by herself.
This news was delivered directly to her by Zhao Min, who stood before her with a face as cold as frost.
"Then... then... what about all my experiments... my research?"
Li Zhaoyan looked aggrieved. Without the spirit stones from her uncle, aunt, and grandfather, how would she have the spirit stones to buy materials and raise spirit beasts?
"However many spirit stones you earn is how many you can spend. Your father used to do missions in the spirit plant garden! The sect has missions, and each peak has a mission hall!" Zhao Min said in an icy tone.
Then, without waiting for Li Zhaoyan to retort, Zhao Min flicked her sleeve and swept her away towards her own seclusion cave. At the same time, a voice as cold as ice sounded.
"For now, you don't need to go out for training either. You can accompany me in seclusion!"
"No, Mother... Mother... Mother..."
Li Zhaoyan's mournful cries echoed above Little Bamboo Peak, but then, there was no more sound.
Wei Chituo stood in his courtyard and let out a long sigh of relief.
"You cursed Li Wuyi, let's see what reason you have to deduct my spirit stones in the future..."
Wei Zhongran heard the voice from the sky, sighed deeply, and then rubbed his forehead in distress...
"I told you, you should treat Yan'er the same as Fuge and Lichou. Now look, Yan'er is going to receive an even greater punishment!" Miao Wangqing said with a look of dissatisfaction, looking at the crestfallen Li Wuyi!
From then on, Little Bamboo Peak, and indeed the entire Malevolent Spirit Sect, lost a beautiful sight, as well as the sound of incessant explosions and the sight of strange spirit beasts running amok...
The Wood Flow Sect, the closest sect under the jurisdiction of the Malevolent Spirit Sect. In a forbidden valley behind the sect, this was the place where the Sect Master, Bai Rou, had been in seclusion for years. Apart from Tang Yuniang, no one else dared to come here.
Bai Rou had rarely appeared in the sect before. After Tang Yuniang successfully formed her core, Bai Rou appeared even less before the disciples, spending almost all her days cultivating and researching the art of puppetry.
At this moment, in front of a cliff in the valley, a completely black ancient ape stood there.
The ancient ape's long arms were slightly bent, hanging down almost to the height of its body, touching the ground. Its wrinkled face held a pair of fierce eyes that glowed with a red light. Its thick lips were slightly curled up, revealing sharp, interlocking teeth that glinted with a cold, solid light.
At this moment, it leaned against the cliff. In front of it, ten strange beasts shaped like crocodiles were spread out in a line, forming a semi-circle that surrounded the black ancient ape.
Layers of faint green, wispy light flickered on the bodies of these crocodile beasts. Each one emanated a powerful might, all of them possessing the formidable aura of the Golden Core stage.
Suddenly, they opened their massive mouths, and balls of dazzling green light shot out. Then, beams of light carrying the power to shake mountains all shot towards the black ancient ape in front.
The black ancient ape's eyes glowed with red light, yet it remained motionless, as steady as an abyss or a pavilion.
Instantly, these beams of light all struck its body.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!..."
In a continuous series of explosions, the black ancient ape was instantly submerged in a sky-full of soaring green light.
The entire valley immediately shook, with sand and stones flying. The ground cracked, and the surrounding formation restrictions flashed wildly with light, emitting cracking sounds as if on the verge of shattering.
As this sound shook the restrictions, it caused the earth for hundreds of li around to tremble continuously. Various demonic beasts were scared into shivering.
They either trembled all over, prostrating themselves on the ground, or immediately scrambled into nearby caves or rock crevices.
The disciples of the Wood Flow Sect in the front only raised their heads or paused for a moment upon hearing the loud noises from the forbidden area in the back mountain. Then, they went back to their own business.
Over the years, all the disciples had grown accustomed to the various strange noises from the forbidden area in the back mountain.
From initial fear to later suspicion, and all sorts of speculations about the sounds...
By now, no one talked about it anymore. They all knew that the Supreme Elder was practicing her puppet arts again.
The more intense the vibrations from the back mountain, the more at ease they felt. In the Wood Flow Sect, there was a pillar of stability who brought peace of mind to them all.
That was a terrifying existence who had once fought several peers to a standstill at the Nascent Soul Formation ceremony of a Malevolent Spirit Sect ancestor, emerging completely unscathed.
In the valley, the explosions lasted for a full thirty breaths. As the green beams of light continued to shoot across the sky, a towering figure suddenly walked out slowly from the green light. It was the tall ancient ape with eyes glowing red.
The moment it walked out, it continued to let the beams of green light explode on its body and head. It was like a majestic beast from ancient times, unmoved by these heaven-shaking attacks.
It slowly raised a long arm, extended an index finger, seemingly slow yet fast.
The moment it raised its arm, a speck of red light appeared on the tip of its index finger. The red speck seemed as if it could be extinguished at any moment.
But as it pointed its finger, that speck of red light suddenly radiated outwards in a fan shape. The next moment, it pierced through the tide of green light coming from the front and landed on the ten crocodile-shaped demonic beasts.
"Hiss... hiss... hiss..."
In a series of light green hisses, the ten Golden Core-level crocodile-shaped demonic beasts, with their massive bodies, flashed strangely on the ground and then vanished without a trace.
And where they had been prostrated, ten large, dark pits remained, from which wisps of green smoke still rose into the air.
At the same time, the red glow on the black ancient ape's finger also disappeared, and then the red light in its eyes gradually faded...
"Whoosh!"
A zhang-sized hole suddenly split open on the chest of the huge black ancient ape. What flowed out was not blood, but a white figure that flashed out and landed on the ground.
She wore a moon-white robe, her hair tied up high, revealing a slender, graceful neck and a beautiful, refined face. A pair of intelligent eyes held a hint of weariness. It was Bai Rou.
But her gaze at this moment was fixed on the ten large pits on the ground. She seemed to be pondering, as if dissatisfied with the power of her earlier attack.
A moment later, with a flip of her hand, a book with a faint, multi-colored cover appeared in her hand. It was the notebook of cultivation insights from Shuang Qingqing and her master that Li Yan had returned to her.
She quickly flipped to a certain page and then stared at several lines of text, her refined face filled with contemplation...
After a long while, Bai Rou's motionless figure finally stirred. When she raised her head, the booklet in her hand had already disappeared.
The contemplative look in her eyes also gradually faded, replaced by clarity. She looked at the ten black holes lined up at her feet and frowned.
"The consumption is too great. Ten third-rank demonic beast-level puppets, gone in an instant. I'll have to ask Yuniang later how the batch of materials I had her purchase is coming along. And the sect's income in recent years..."
The ten crocodile-shaped beasts from before were ten Golden Core-level puppets she had refined. Even in the Malevolent Spirit Sect, no one could easily refine even one of these. Yet here, ten had appeared at once.
But even these powerful puppets were instantly reduced to nothingness by a single finger from the black ancient ape. Bai Rou, however, only felt it was a pity.
If the Malevolent Spirit Sect knew what had happened here, they would surely be deeply moved and alarmed. The Nascent Soul Old Ancestors would personally make a trip.
The black ancient ape behind Bai Rou was the one she had finally selected after refining countless identical puppets, one that had finally reached the level of a "Thousand Luo Ancient Ape."
That was after she had painstakingly studied the Revolving Stars of the Northern Dipper Formation and spent a huge sum of spirit stones to finally purchase a piece of "Thousand Luo Stone," ultimately completing the refinement of this puppet herself.
She had become almost obsessed with refining a "Thousand Luo Ancient Ape." In her room, shrunken ancient apes were arranged in jade boxes, a secret known only to her...
After comprehending the insights from Shuang Qingqing's handbook, Bai Rou had been continuously trying to enhance the power of this puppet over the years, finally enabling it to reach the terrifying might of an Initial-stage Nascent Soul.
But even so, Bai Rou was still not satisfied. Her goal was to raise the puppet's power to the Late-stage Nascent Soul, the peak that a cultivator in this realm could reach.
To outsiders, this was simply a joke. After all, her cultivation was only at the Mid-stage Golden Core. To realize such an idea was undoubtedly a fool's dream.
But the secret arts of the Tianli Clan could achieve this. The key was how Bai Rou would construct the formation within the puppet's body, to squeeze out every bit of spiritual energy from each spirit stone.
And in the process of its operation, to minimize the loss of spiritual energy as much as possible...
Therefore, in recent years, Bai Rou had been studying the Revolving Stars of the Northern Dipper Formation. Now, she was even attempting to modify this already very complete formation to achieve her ideas. This was an extremely bold move.
She had detected that during the operation of this formation, about thirty percent of the circulating spiritual energy would be lost. If this thirty percent of spiritual energy could be preserved, it would not be a simple addition, but would increase the puppet's power exponentially.
After her eyes regained their clarity, Bai Rou turned and walked towards the black ancient ape behind her. The towering, mountain-like black ancient ape stood there motionless.
When Bai Rou walked up to it, her delicate, petite figure only reached the ankle of the transformed ancient ape, like an ant.
She then leaned against the thick right leg of the black ancient ape and sat down, her eyes staring blankly for a moment...
Under the setting sun, the valley was half in sunlight and half in shadow, half warm and half cool. The red sunlight scattered on the cliff face above, reflecting a sunset glow. In the shadows below, a gentle breeze seemed to blow...
In the sky, there were white clouds in the distance, like a continuous range of white mountains, or like the hometown of one's childhood, or like the embrace of lovers...
Bai Rou just watched quietly, seemingly unconcerned with the changing light and shadow in the sunlit half of the valley, nor with the distant white mountain ranges that had transformed into bizarrely shaped giant beasts...
'How long has he been gone? Ten years, twenty years? Or thirty? There has been no news. He is no longer that naive junior brother, and I have returned to the Wood Flow Sect... He is a Nascent Soul cultivator who roams the four seas, while I am just a Golden Core cultivator from a small sect...'
Lost in thought, she raised her head. Looking up along the thick leg of the ancient ape, she saw the familiar, yet no longer familiar facial contours of the black ancient ape, ferocious yet warm.
For a moment, she remembered the scene in the market, where she was holding a miniature version of this puppet, feeling lost and helpless, when the young man appeared in the crowd!
As the crowd parted, the young man in a dark green robe walked slowly towards her...