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Chapter 15: The Brewing Storm
Lan Chang'an's five-year agreement with Mu Maode had already expired.
After becoming a first-rank talisman master, Lan Chang'an planned to discuss the terms with the Mu family.
However, half a month passed and neither Mu Maode nor the Mu family elders made a statement.
But on this day,
Mu Xiuyun's maid came with word that the young lady had invited him out to discuss the talisman dao.
The location was the Willow Pavilion by Fenyue Lake.
"Miss My has invited me?"
To be honest, Lan Chang'an did not want to get too close to Mu Xiuyun.
Especially a private rendezvous between a lone man and lone woman could easily arouse suspicion.
...
Half an hour later.
Lan Chang'an arrived at the willow-shaded shores of Fenyue Lake, where a nearly overhanging pavilion building came into view.
"So this is the Willow Pavilion?" Lan Chang'an glanced at the plaque.
"Master Lan, please go up to the third floor."
A crisp, melodious girl's voice drifted down from the pavilion above.
The third floor of the pavilion was like a sky garden, facing the brilliant waves of Fenyue Lake.
Lan Chang'an had thought this would be a private tryst but the facts proved he had thought too much. Besides the plainly-dressed, gentle and elegant Mu Xiuyun, there was also a blue-robed young lady with an exquisite melon-seed face, willow brows and almond eyes, with a charming, radiant beauty.
Lan Chang'an felt she looked familiar.
He soon recalled that this was the red-robed girl beside Mu Xiuyun the first time he went to Nine September Building.
"This is Mu Yinglan, you've met her before." Mu Xiuyun smiled and introduced her.
Lan Chang'an had heard Li Ergou talk about Mu Yinglan.
This girl had quite a reputation. Among the Mu family's young female disciples with spiritual roots, her looks and bearing were second only to Mu Xiuyun.
"Master Lan." Mu Yinglan gave a curtsy, her voice soft and gentle.
"Miss Mu."
Lan Chang'an returned the courtesy, feeling puzzled in his heart.
The last time they met, two or three years ago, Mu Yinglan had not shown him a good attitude. This time, it was as if she was a different person.
Dressed up elegantly, gentle and charming.
Noticing Lan Chang'an's probing gaze, Mu Yinglan's fair face blushed slightly.
However, she was not the type to be a little housewife, her bright eyes boldly looked towards Lan Chang'an.
Meeting again today, her attitude was completely different.
Mu Yinglan's almond eyes brightened.
Not only was Lan Chang'an handsome, but he had a special temperament - aloof and serene, making people feel comfortable.
In recent days, after pressure from the family elders and persuasion from her senior sister Xiuyun, Mu Yinglan had reluctantly agreed.
Seeing him today, she felt he was not bad at all.
Although his cultivation was not outstanding, as a young talisman master he was handsome and refined, truly talented and attractive.
"Master Lan, I left an ancient talisman manual downstairs, I'll come back up shortly."
Mu Xiuyun apologized and hurried downstairs.
Left alone were just Lan Chang'an and Mu Yinglan.
Even if Lan Chang'an was slow, he should understand now.
"Master Lan, Yinglan will brew tea for you."
Mu Yinglan smiled sweetly, her fair skin and long legs gliding gracefully as she busied herself.
Lan Chang'an wanted to say something but stopped, until Mu Yinglan brought him a cup of clear tea with an expectant look on her face.
Blowing away the steam, Lan Chang'an took a light sip.
"Master Lan, how do you maintain yourself so well? Do you have a secret method?"
Mu Yinglan asked curiously, blinking her eyes.
Lab Chang'an was in his twenties but still had the appearance of a youth, his skin translucent and flawless.
Among cultivators, some possessed age-defying arts, a topic of great interest to female cultivators.
"Perhaps it's because my state of mind is good, and I cultivate a wood-type skill?"
Lan Chang'an was well-prepared for such questions.
This was not the mundane world - having an ageless appearance was not strange in the cultivation world, so he did not need to worry about being taken for dissection.
Besides longevity pills, many techniques had age-defying effects, especially wood-type techniques.
The relatively common Ancient Wood Technique was about 70-80% similar to the Ancient Trees Evergreen Technique.
For nourishing life and preserving youth, their power was mediocre.
Even if Lan Chang'an deliberately exuded mana, the feeling he gave off was just that of an ordinary wood-type technique.
Mu Yinglan's bright eyes sparkled, intending to use this topic for deeper conversation.
"Miss Mu, please excuse me, I have an urgent matter."
Lan Chang'an smiled apologetically and hurriedly left.
"Urgent matter?"
Mu Yinglan was stunned.
Her pretty face immediately flushed red, her bosom heaving irregularly.
Lan Chang'an had obviously made an excuse to leave.
"This Lan fellow! Who does he think he is looking down on? I did you a favor by coming here!"
Mu Yinglan was deeply angered.
She had originally looked down on Lan Chang'an.
Only after pressure from the family and Lan Chang'an becoming a talisman master did she reluctantly agree to Senior Sister Xiuyun's matchmaking attempt.
Her immensely proud temper flared up!
Crash!
The tea cup shattered, the table and chairs splintered into pieces.
Hearing the noise from downstairs, Lan Chang'an quickened his pace and fled from the Willow Pavilion in a flash.
"Why? Does he not wish to marry a Mu family girl?"
The plainly-dressed Mu Xiuyun stood at the second-floor window, pondering in puzzlement.
At Lan Chang'an's age and potential, there was little hope for the Foundation Establishment. As an orphan, he should not be so averse to marrying into the family. He might look down on mortal women, but Mu Yinglan had a spiritual root and great looks, with no lack of pursuers.
If he married Mu Yinglan, Lan Chang'an could receive nurturing from the family - techniques, pills, guidance from the elders - his future would be smooth sailing.
"Sister Xiuyun, it's not that this girl didn't cooperate. That Lan fellow must not be interested in women."
Mu Yinglan came over fuming.
"Not interested in women?"
Mu Xiuyun was astonished. Could this be the real reason?
But recalling her two or three encounters with Lan Chang'an,
When facing her, he would occasionally reveal a subtle appreciation for beauty. 𝚏𝚛ee𝐰𝗲𝚋n𝐨𝘃𝗲l.𝐜𝐨m
As a woman, she had a keen intuition about this.
"He pisses me off! That Lan is older than me but has lower cultivation, yet he dares insult me like this."
Mu Yinglan could barely swallow her resentment, growing more upset the more she thought about it.
"Don't do anything rash!"
Mu Xiuyun's starry eyes narrowed in warning.
Mu Yinglan was at the fourth layer of Qi-Refining. If she was bent on revenge, Lan Chang'an would likely suffer.
"I'm not that stupid! Lan Chang'an is a first-rank talisman master. If I make a move against him, the elders will severely punish me."
"I, Mu Yinglan, vow to find a man ten times stronger than him, so he can only look up to him in the future!"
...
"The Mu family really went to great lengths to try recruiting me as a son-in-law."
Returning to his courtyard residence, Lan Chang'an felt somewhat wry amusement.
The Mu family's "matchmaking" efforts had ended in failure.
Fortunately, the Mu family did not insist forcefully. After all, a twisted melon is not sweet.
Several days later,
Family head Mu Maode personally summoned Lan Chang'an for half an hour of discussion.
The two sides smoothly reached an agreement.
Going forward, Lan Chang'an would not marry a Mu family girl, but could still enjoy the normal treatment of a family member.
He would receive a certain quota of spirit rice, pills, and other supplies each year.
Of course, he would have to fulfill obligations by refining a certain number of talisman papers for the Mu family annually.
The Mu family would provide the materials, and with Lan Chang'an's attainments in the talisman dao, he could only profit in this deal.
In this way, Lan Chang'an officially took up residence at Fenyue Mountain Villa, beginning a new phase of his cultivation journey.
...
Three years flashed by in the blink of an eye.
Inside the private courtyard.
The Evergreen mana within Lan Chang'an circulated through his limbs and body, carrying an endless, azure aura of renewal.
"Eight years."
Lan Chang'an felt amazed at how quickly time had passed - he had been with the Mu family for eight years already.
Through these years of observation.
In the cycle of the seasons, the power of the Evergreen Technique was growing, but at an extremely slow pace.
At least, it was slightly stronger than common skills like the Origin-Opening Scripture or Earth Rock Scripture.
It really did seem that the longer one lived, the stronger one's spiritual power became!
In the last three years of cultivation, Lan Chang'an had crossed over half of the third layer of Qi-Refining. He estimated that in another year, he would reach the peak of the third layer. During the Qi-Refining stage, he had no bottlenecks to overcome.
Cultivating to the peak of the third layer was equivalent to the time required to break into the fourth layer of Qi-Refining, in other words, going from the third to the fourth layer would take four years of time.
Meanwhile, Li Ergou next door had reached the peak of the third layer half a year ago, the reason he had not broken through was because of the existence of the bottleneck.
Going from the third to the fourth layer, entering the middle stage of Qi-Refining, was a major hurdle.
With Li Ergou's ordinary talent, how easy could it be to break through?
Either he had to slowly grind away over time, or rely on bottleneck-breaking pills, such bottleneck pills were quite rare in the Mu family and required to exchange for them.
merit contributions
...
"Big brother Lan, let's go hunt some birds!" Li Ergou shouted from outside in the early evening.
"Why are you hollering so happily? You haven't caught a single bird these past few days." Lan Chang'an teased. Since he had nothing to do anyway,
"Alright, I'll go play around with you today."
"Awesome! With Big brother Lan on the hunt, we're sure to bag something tonight." Li Ergou was overjoyed.
The "birds" they spoke of referred to a type of "fish hawk" that had recently been plaguing Fenyue Lake.
These fish hawks were semi-spirit beasts cultivated in later ages, specialized in eating the spirit fish of Fenyue Lake. They had caused the spirit fish population in the lake to sharply decline. Rumor had it that these fish hawks were products of the "Beast Taming Zhou family".
In his eight years of cultivation with the Mu family, Lan Chang'an sensed a sign of coming instability. This stemmed from the enmity between the Mu family and the Zheng family. Ten years ago, the two cultivation family had come to blows over the ownership of a first-grade purple copper mine, with both sides' Foundation Establishment patriarchs being injured.
Later, one of the seven major families, the Beast Taming Zhou family intervened to mediate a truce, having the two family's split the discovered purple copper mine.
As the arbitrator, the Beast Taming Zhou family took 30% of the proceeds.
Some time ago.
Underneath the first-rank purple copper mine, it was suspected that the accompanying "purple heart copper" was found, which is an excellent material for refining top-grade magic weapons.
The two families, at peace for years, took up arms again and deployed more personnel to the mine region.
Over the past two years, at some unknown cost, the Zheng family had secured support from one branch of the Beast Taming Zhou family, selling many of their spirit beasts. The fish hawks were one such product.
Although the fish hawks did not threaten Qi-Refining cultivators, with their ability to fly and dive underwater, they secretly hunted the spirit fish of Fenyue Lake every night.
The Zheng family employed such tricks in an attempt to divert the Mu family's attention to the rear areas. Their true goal was still the "purple heart copper" from the mines.
To counter the harassment from the fish hawks, the Mu family issued a bounty for family members who killed the fish hawks in exchange for contribution points.
Li Ergou struggled to accumulate contribution points to exchange for bottleneck-breaking pills. That was why he actively went "bird hunting".
...
"The accompanying purple heart copper, the fish hawk harassment...the conflict between the Mu and Zheng family may escalate."
On the way to Fenyue Lake, Lan Chang'an's gaze was deep.
"Let's wait and see! A relaxed, harmonious place for cultivation like the Mu family is not easy to find."
"If the Mu family's Foundation Establishment patriarchs cannot withstand it, or are killed, I will definitely have to run away."
Li Ergou remained unaware that his most trusted Big Brother Lan Chang'an beside him was contemplating a plan to flee.