My Daily Cultivation Life with a Clumsy Female Disciple

"What do you mean?" Tushan Youyou looked at Qin Ran. "Are you trying to make me leave?"

Qin Ran stood at the table, gazing through the window behind it at Sword Washing Lake, where emerald lotus leaves and fresh lotus flowers dotted the surface. Li Shiyin was still practicing her swordplay on the lake. Outside the wooden cabin, the old spiritual locust tree bore tender green branches and pure white locust flowers, while Chasing the Wind was searching for locust flowers beneath it.

"War is coming," Qin Ran said softly. "The Hengduan Mountains, the entire Land of Immortal Legacy - chaos is about to break out across the realm. If you don't leave now, you won't be able to leave at all."

"What happened?" Tushan Youyou followed his gaze outside, seeing Dan Peak still peaceful and serene, showing no signs of impending war.

"The Hengduan Mountains have never truly been peaceful. Zhican Valley, perhaps spoiled by constant flattery, truly believes they're the strongest sect and no longer wishes to share power with the Boundless Sword Sect and Dao Sword Sect. They've been stirring up trouble constantly. After they thoroughly destroyed Dan Peak's alchemy traditions, Zhican Valley became undisputedly the strongest in alchemy throughout the Land of Immortal Legacy. So they initially planned to use pills to gradually and secretly weaken the Dao Sword Sect and Boundless Sword Sect's power. But I disrupted that plan.

"So they changed their strategy, allying with the Boundless Sword Sect to isolate the Dao Sword Sect, specifically targeting their next generation of disciples to weaken their future strength. But I discovered that too.

"Now, I've deliberately intensified the conflicts... so war will break out soon. Tomorrow at the earliest, by the end of the month at the latest."

"So..." Tushan Youyou turned her gaze from the window to Qin Ran, "if I understand correctly, you're the one who instigated this conflict?"

"Hmm?" Qin Ran smiled, still looking at Sword Washing Lake. "You could say that."

"If you started the fight, then you should go fight it yourself!" Tushan Youyou demanded. "Why do you have to make me leave? Am I taking up too much space at Dan Peak?"

"Because I'm afraid..." Qin Ran suddenly sighed. "When the three sects go to war, it will affect the entire Hengduan Mountains, even the mortal kingdoms beyond. I can't read the situation anymore; I don't know who will ultimately win.

"I'm panicking, and I want to run away too."

"What?" Tushan Youyou laughed in disbelief. She suddenly remembered her first encounter with Qin Ran - even though he had been enchanted by her, his cowardice kept him from leaving the tree hollow. Sure enough, you're still the same coward, haven't changed a bit. "You create this huge mess, and then you're planning to just walk away and abandon everything?"

"That's why my conscience is troubled," Qin Ran said. "I don't know what the mindset was of those strategists who manipulated affairs during the Spring and Autumn Period. But right now, I feel very uncomfortable, like vengeful spirits might come knocking at my door at night."

Tushan Youyou looked at him, contempt flickering in her eyes, and asked, "Aren't you more frightening than vengeful spirits?

"Even vengeful spirits would help close the door for you when they see you."

"Haha..." Qin Ran laughed heartily at her words, then stood up and walked toward the door, saying, "Alright, I just came to tell you this today. If you want to leave, leave soon."

Tushan Youyou twisted her waist, her eyes following him to the door, and asked, "Didn't you come today to study bedroom arts with me?"

"Watch what you say. You might not be able to beat Shiyin now," Qin Ran said at the doorway, looking back at Tushan Youyou. "That girl is possessive; she might cut you down at any moment. Your death wouldn't matter, but don't drag me into it. I value my life."

With that, he closed the door and left.

Tushan Youyou stared at the door Qin Ran had closed, her eyes - capable of enchanting all beings under heaven - fixed on it for a long while before she murmured to herself: "How many scholars in the world are like you?"

He made her feel afraid, made her unconsciously respectful, made her feel controlled, gave her a sense of submission, made her infatuated and unwilling to leave.

Dan Peak was nice... but what was nice had always been a certain person.

She turned back to look through the window, at Sword Washing Lake, at the woman practicing swordplay on its surface, at the peach blossom grove by the lake, looking for that woman in the grove...

But that woman wasn't in the peach blossom grove. The grove wasn't called Youyou's Peach Blossom Grove.

"I want to fill the mountain with peach blossoms." Thus, someone sighed in this chamber.

Qin Ran left the cave dwelling, jumped back to the waterfall's edge, and walked through the mist along the stream to the small bridge.

Standing at the bridge, he looked back at Chasing the Wind under the old spiritual locust tree, finding that silly child perched on the tree, secretly watching him to see if he had done anything to betray Shiyin.

Annoyed, he lifted his foot, took off his other sock, and threw it at Chasing the Wind.

Crossing the small wooden bridge to the research building, Qin Ran stood below, looking up at this modern structure where every brick and tile had been refined and built by his own hands... this was one of his few remaining modern memories.

He entered the building and found Long Qiqi in the first-floor alchemy room.

The cunning little loli was leaning against an alchemy furnace much taller than herself, studying a pill formula.

"What formula are you studying?" he asked as he walked in.

Long Qiqi glanced at him, continued reading her formula, and replied, "The Annihilation Pill."

"The Annihilation Pill?" Qin Ran walked to Long Qiqi's side, took the formula, scanned it up and down, and pointed out her mistake, "The order of Spirit White Astragalus and Snow-Viewing Flower is reversed."

He asked curiously, "Why are you studying the Annihilation Pill already?"

Long Qiqi took out her little notebook from her storage bag, turned and pressed it against the alchemy furnace to correct the pill-making steps, saying, "Preparing early for Core Formation. The earlier the preparation, the higher the success rate."

Qin Ran held back his laughter as he looked the chubby cunning little loli up and down, saying, "You're only at early Foundation Establishment now, quite far from mid Foundation Establishment. Isn't this preparation a bit too early?"

"My Core Formation is still far off..." Long Qiqi started to say, then suddenly stopped.

But Qin Ran understood. Her Core Formation might be far off, but Zhang Junyi's might not be - with his superior spirit root, he could reach Core Formation in less than ten years at a fast pace.

"But Zhang Junyi won't need the Annihilation Pill, will he?" he questioned.

Long Qiqi became flustered, turning to glare at Qin Ran, "What does it matter to me whether he needs the Annihilation Pill or not? I'm preparing it for myself!"

"Yes, yes, of course..." Qin Ran nodded teasingly.

"Believe what you want!" Long Qiqi turned back huffily, but inexplicably put away the pill-making steps.

Qin Ran stopped teasing the tsundere loli and took out a pill formula from his storage bag, handing it to her, "If you have time, you might as well study this formula instead."

Long Qiqi turned to take the formula, and when she looked at it closely, she saw three large characters on the cover reading "Heaven-Mending Pill," with a line of smaller text below reading "repairs cultivators' innate qualities." She immediately became excited, looked up at Qin Ran, and asked with pursed lips, "There's such a wonderful thing? Why didn't you bring it out earlier?!"

With that, she opened the formula.

The first sentence she saw made her almost lose composure - "This pill is refined using water-method alchemy."

She was a fire-method alchemist!

She held herself back and continued reading, but when she saw the first ingredient, she completely lost it - "Requires a pair of fine-scaled long-tailed sea dragons, sun-dried and finely ground into powder as the pill base."

What on earth is a fine-scaled long-tailed sea dragon?!

She looked up to see Qin Ran standing there with his arms crossed, trying to hold back his laughter, his face full of amusement at her expense.

"You came specifically to make fun of me, didn't you?!" she asked angrily.

"No!" Qin Ran shook his head and said seriously, "I swear, this pill formula is absolutely genuine. I'm not deceiving you at all."

"You swear?" Long Qiqi smiled. "If oaths from someone like you were worth anything, the sun would have risen in the west long ago."

But she still skeptically put away the formula.

"This is a recently acquired formula..." Qin Ran explained to her, "It really is the 'Heaven-Mending Pill,' but it's a formula from the sea region, so all the required ingredients are from the sea.

"What you need to do is simply replace the ingredients in the formula with ones we have here."

Long Qiqi rolled her eyes and asked, "How can I make substitutions when I don't even know what the original ingredients are?"

Qin Ran looked smug, tilted his head to look at her, and smiled, "I know! And I can help you find substitute ingredients."

Ah! Long Qiqi finally understood - this guy was just playing with her like a child.

She didn't want to deal with him anymore and angrily turned around...

"Bang!"

She bumped her head right into the alchemy furnace.

"Ouch! That hurts!" She crouched down again, holding her forehead.

Crouching there, she looked like a tiny ball, both pitiful and adorable.

"Hahaha..." Qin Ran pointed at her and laughed heartlessly.

After a while, he took out a book and poked Long Qiqi's shoulder with its spine, saying, "Help me figure this out, and I'll give you a copy of the Heaven-Mending Pill formula from the Lingnan Region."

"I'd be a fool to believe you again!" Long Qiqi cried.

"How about trusting me one last time?" Qin Ran negotiated.

"No way..."

"Ah! What a pity!" Qin Ran sighed and turned to walk towards the door.

Just as he reached the doorway, a pitiful voice came from beneath the alchemy furnace: "Let me take a look first..."

Qin Ran tossed the book to her.

"Water Spirit Plant Arts?" Long Qiqi looked at the cover, furrowing her brows as she stared at Qin Ran, "Are you really just here to mess with me today? I'm a fire alchemy master! My dantian contains alchemy fire, not water!"

Qin Ran smiled, "I don't need you to study it, I need your help. Be my assistant. I want to conduct some research experiments."

"Assistant?" Long Qiqi flipped through a few pages, hesitantly replied, "Fine!"

"Take a look first, we'll start the experiments in the next few days," Qin Ran said as he left the alchemy room.

Watching Qin Ran's retreating figure, Long Qiqi's brows furrowed deeply. She felt something was off about him today.

Unable to figure it out, she leaned against the alchemy furnace, sat cross-legged, and began reading the "Water Spirit Plant Arts."

After leaving the research building, Qin Ran walked along the stream until he reached the Devouring Demon Willow.

Zhang Junyi was leaning against the tree reading a book about medicinal herbs, with several samples he'd collected from the greenhouse beside him. Liu Xiaoji sat on his shoulder, reading along with him.

"This is the Crane Crown Immortal Grass..." Zhang Junyi explained to Liu Xiaoji, "See how it's drawn in the book, but this is how it actually grows. Dan Peak doesn't have spirit soil, so they don't grow well."

Qin Ran sat down under the Devouring Demon Willow, watching the Phoenix Wing Tiger Head Wasps pushing soil below, going in and out of their nest, apparently expanding their hive.

"Peak... Peak Master..." Zhang Junyi finally noticed Qin Ran and immediately stood up with his book. Seeing the spirit herbs in his hands, he unconsciously tried to hide them behind his back, stammering, "These few are extras that need to be removed. Peak Master, as you said, too many in one nest will affect the growth of other spirit herbs..."

"Hmm! You're learning well," Qin Ran nodded.

Looking up at the nervous Zhang Junyi, he asked kindly, "Has your qi vortex stabilized?"

"Yes, Peak Master!" Zhang Junyi nodded quickly, "Master taught me many methods and experiences that were very helpful."

"Your master indeed has experience!" Qin Ran smiled, "What about the visualization technique? Is it effective? Have you developed your spirit form yet?"

"The visualization technique..." Zhang Junyi looked around cautiously and whispered, "Peak Master, I practice the visualization technique every night, and my spirit form appeared a few days ago."

"Seems you have quite a talent for this," Qin Ran praised, "But don't let your spirit form leave your body too early, or it might get damaged."

"Yes, Peak Master."

Qin Ran looked toward the woman practicing sword by the lake and asked Zhang Junyi, "You said you wanted to destroy Zhican Valley?"

Zhang Junyi was startled, then nodded, "Yes."

After waiting until Li Shiyin finished her sword practice and fell into contemplation, Qin Ran continued, "We might not be able to wait for you."

He sighed, "Zhican Valley is about to attack."

"What?!" Zhang Junyi was shocked, thinking he had misheard.

"Life rarely goes as planned..." Qin Ran stood up, patted Zhang Junyi's shoulder, and smiled, "We can't wait for you to grow up and destroy Zhican Valley in your way."

"Peak Master..." Zhang Junyi was stunned by this sudden news, unable to process it.

"I hope you can contribute something to this war!"

Qin Ran walked forward to the edge of Sword Washing Lake, watching Li Shiyin's beautiful figure as she stood in contemplation, leaving Zhang Junyi with just his back view.

Zhang Junyi stood frozen in place, looking up at Qin Ran's silhouette by the lake.

As he watched, he suddenly noticed Qin Ran's figure becoming transparent. He rubbed his eyes and looked again, but the lakeside was empty except for the woman who had resumed her sword dance. Qin Ran had vanished into thin air before his eyes.

Qin Ran appeared in the underground secret chamber, sitting cross-legged in the center of the teleportation array, still pondering that question: to run or not to run!

Could he really bear to abandon Dan Peak?

Should he risk his life to fight for the Dao Sword Sect?

He closed his eyes, supporting his head with one hand, sensing the condition of his avatar in the Celestial Sea Region, and found that the foolish thing was still drifting aimlessly with the waves.

He suddenly felt relieved, thinking: "It's unreliable.

"It wouldn't be safe even if I went there. Perhaps I should stay here."