Volume 1, Chapter 484 – Nature

This period of seclusion for Shi Lan was much longer than before. In the blink of an eye, more than a year had passed.

She had used only two months to repair the injuries within her body. All the remaining time had been spent cultivating.

Starting over half a year ago, she had stopped directly swallowing immortal herbs. Instead, she handed the various immortal herbs over to the alchemy masters within the Tianyan Sect and had them refined into all kinds of supreme-grade immortal pills for cultivation.

Immortal herbs were exceptionally difficult to grow, often requiring tens of thousands of years to mature. Such extravagant conduct was something even the strongest experts of the Emperor Dao would not dare imagine.

Shi Lan felt no pain whatsoever over such enormous consumption. There was no need to be frugal with resources in this respect. Strengthening herself as quickly as possible was the true path.

With an unending supply of immortal pills to nourish her, the speed of her cultivation no longer stagnated in the slightest. Before long, she had pushed the Yuqing Creation Art into the mid-stage of the sixth layer without encountering any obstacles, her foundation firm and stable.

If she were to fight that newly advanced Demon Emperor of the Divine Phoenix clan within Huang Ze’s mausoleum again now, she would not need to rely on the power of immortal herbs at all and could still defeat it in battle.

Compared with the leap in her cultivation, Shi Lan’s progress in martial skills was even greater. Within the system’s virtual space, she had already spent more than twenty years.

During those twenty-odd years, she cast aside all distractions and devoted herself wholeheartedly to the study of Martial Dao techniques. Apart from the few divine abilities and killing secret arts she already cultivated, she had also selected several powerful techniques for self-protection from among the divine abilities and secret arts stripped from the Sword Emperor’s Dao fruit.

The three techniques, Demon-Sealing Sword Finger, Great Sage Veiling-the-Moon Step, and Thunder-Rending Slash, were all peak eight-star top-tier divine abilities, second only to Emperor arts.

These three techniques were extremely difficult to cultivate. Even with Shi Lan cultivating day and night without rest, more than twenty years had only barely been enough for her to bring them to the level of minor accomplishment.

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The most precious thing obtained from the Sword Emperor’s legacy was still the nine-star Tianluo Sword Scripture. However, after giving that scripture a rough read, Shi Lan found that the Sword Emperor’s imprint within it was far too heavy. For her, it was better not to cultivate it.

The Divine Phoenix Undying Scripture, which stood on the same level as the Tianluo Sword Scripture, likewise contained many powerful secret arts. But for Shi Lan, there was a rather awkward limitation. The Divine Phoenix blood within her body was not pure. Most of it had even already been assimilated by her Innate Spiritual Blood.

If she wanted to cultivate the secret arts within it, she had to find a way to increase the concentration of the Divine Phoenix bloodline in her body. This was not to turn herself into a Divine Phoenix, but to improve the quality of her Divine Phoenix blood.

If she could obtain all the essence blood of an Emperor-level Divine Phoenix, it would be enough to support her in using most of the Divine Phoenix secret arts.

…

…

In the central region of the Tianyan Sect’s mountain gate, beside the statue that stood nearly a hundred li tall, there rose a solitary peak.

Atop the mountain was Shi Lan’s newly built residence. A vigorous Fulong Tree towered on the summit, and beneath the tree stood one figure while another sat.

The one standing was a middle-aged scholar around forty years old, dressed in a sky-blue Confucian robe, with a jade belt and ornaments at his waist. His long hair was tied up with meticulous neatness, and a vast righteous aura seemed to flow through his deep eyes.

Sitting before him was a white-haired girl not yet twenty. Her snow-like hair trailed loosely across the ground. Though disorderly, it was spotless, reflecting a crystalline divine radiance.

She held an ancient book in her hands, flipping through it lightly. Although her expression looked highly focused, there was not the slightest trace of focus in her clear bright eyes. The divine light within them was scattered, making it obvious that her thoughts were nowhere near the book.

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The scholar coughed twice helplessly, calling the girl’s wandering thoughts back.

“Mister Su, is class over?!”

Tianbai suddenly looked up and sprang to her feet. At some point, the ancient book in her hand had already flown off to the side. Divine light shone brilliantly in her eyes, full of delight.

“Miss Tianbai, forgive me for speaking bluntly, but if you continue reading like this, even another hundred years of study would be in vain.”

Su Yangbing let out a sigh. If not for the fact that Li Canglan had offered a truly generous price, he really would not have been willing to teach a student like Tianbai.

Unlike students whose aspirations lay elsewhere, Tianbai’s way of thinking was simply far too different from that of ordinary people.

In her eyes, the world had only black and white, and that was difficult to reverse. The ideas commonly spoken of in the human world simply did not work in her mind.

The four words propriety, righteousness, integrity, and shame carried no weight whatsoever in her understanding.

Even if she was currently standing obediently before him and respectfully calling him teacher according to the proper etiquette between teacher and student, that was only because she did not want to disappoint the lofty Sect Master of the Tianyan Sect, not because she truly respected him.

Su Yangbing saw this point with perfect clarity. To reverse such an innate nature would be difficult without ten years or even a hundred years of patient effort.

Hearing her teacher’s words, Tianbai gazed toward the statue not far away, and a trace of worry surfaced between her brows. Just as Su Yangbing had said, whether she studied or not did not really matter to her. She was only worried that Shi Lan might be disappointed because of it.

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“Tianbai.”

A soft call came from not far away. At some point, a figure in white robes was already standing beneath the Fulong Tree.

Su Yangbing’s gaze swept over, and he felt as if he were looking at a waning moon, with gentle clear light mixed with an inexplicably dazzling sharpness.

He had never met Shi Lan before, but the statue stood not far away, and this face was not unfamiliar to him.

Upon first meeting her, she was more or less what he had imagined. She did not seem particularly approachable.

Su Yangbing lowered his gaze and silently bowed. Beside him, Tianbai had already darted out, stomping the ancient book tossed to the side deep into the layers of fallen leaves.

“Your Excellency!”

Shi Lan’s gaze dimmed slightly. She patted Tianbai on the head, then bent down, picked up the ancient book from among the leaves, and handed it to Su Yangbing.

“These past days, I’ve troubled you, Mister.”

She had already been standing there for a while, and she had seen Tianbai’s behavior with her own eyes.

Shi Lan naturally understood the saying that while rivers and mountains may change, a person’s nature is hard to alter. She had never intended that in such a short period of time, Tianbai would undergo any huge transformation.

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There was plenty of time ahead.

Tianbai would eventually gain wisdom. There was no need to rush it.

“You overpraise me, Sect Master.”

Su Yangbing hurriedly accepted the ancient book, unable to help feeling somewhat flattered and overwhelmed. Shi Lan’s tone was unexpectedly gentle, quite unlike the impression her outward appearance gave people.

“For the next few days, I will be taking Tianbai on a long journey. There is no need for you to come, Mister. Once I return, I will have Canglan send you word.”

Li Canglan had deliberated for a long time before choosing Su Yangbing for this role. Upon first meeting him, Shi Lan’s impression of him was not bad. He was more than qualified to serve as Tianbai’s teacher.

…

Shi Lan did not ask about Tianbai’s studies. After seeing Su Yangbing off, she went directly to another spirit peak.

No disciples of the Tianyan Sect lived on this mountain. There were only four native beings from the Qiongluo Realm. Aside from Chi Junyu and that white tiger, only two of the surviving rune masters were willing to join Shi Lan’s command.

Shi Lan was already satisfied with that. After all, they were four combatants equivalent to the Human Emperor level. In the Lingyang Realm, that was enough to suppress the vast majority of second-grade powers.