Chapter 4.2

The jade pool was the only source of natural pool water that Luoxia Peak had. Originally, it was just an ordinary hot spring, but after being discovered by the original host later on, he had set up a spiritual stone enchantment at all four corners of the pool. This allowed the spiritual energy in the sky and the ground to converge, and after thousands of years of collecting nourishing spiritual energy, the pool gradually developed miraculous effects.

The jade pool’s water could not only cure common external injuries, but it simultaneously had an effect that allowed one to concentrate their jing energy, making it especially suitable for closed-door cultivation.

Fan Yuan estimated that the hour should’ve been up, so he took a set of clothes to the jade pool to find Moran. With his current cultivation, it was extremely easy to find a mortal child. He located the boy’s small and thin figure within a moment.

There was a thin layer of water vapour veiling the surface of the pool. The thin and frail boy was currently lying on the jade steps of the pool, sleeping lightly. His pale cheeks were steamed into a slight pink, and the corners of his mouth were gently tucked up. Who knew who he saw in his dreams.

Such an unguarded appearance really made people feel tender pity.

Fan Yuan didn’t wake Moran up, and instead gently wrapped him in clothes. He carefully carried him in his arms and slowly headed towards Snowless Hall with light movements, afraid of startling the boy awake.

He reminded himself in his heart that he was now Immortal Luoxia, Lin Yuan, ​​whereas the one in his arms was the son of fate in this world. The boy was the reincarnation of Immortal Xuantian, Lin Xuantian—the man the original host had loved and remembered for thousands of years. Even though the man had entered the cycle of reincarnation, Lin Yuan couldn’t forget his Senior Brother. The original host’s purpose of coming to Xuan Tian sect to cultivate was simply to protect the painstaking efforts that man had spent a lifetime putting in for the sect.

Although Fan Yuan couldn’t feel the same feelings of deep love that the original host had, when faced with this kind of child that made one feel such pity, he couldn’t sit aside and watch either. To the best of his own ability, he hoped to give this child the happiest childhood possible, until the day when he could face the world independently.

*******************

The next day, Snowless Hall.

Fan Yuan sat elegantly in his seat, holding the white spirit fox in his arms as he gently stroked the fox’s fur with his fingers. The little fox mewled in comfort and arched in his arms. This was a beautiful image of one man and one fox getting along harmoniously, like an intricately-drawn ink painting.

This fox was the spirit pet that the original host had raised in his first life. At the beginning, it was merely a white fox that had gained spiritual wisdom. Who would’ve thought that after reincarnating for hundreds of years, Lin Yuan would return to Xuan Tian sect once again and realise that this white fox had always been waiting for him in Luoxia Peak? In this life, other than his Senior Brother, this fox was the most important to him.

Fan Yuan placated his beloved pet as he looked up and saw an incomparably obedient Xu Moran standing in the middle of the hall. Seeing that the boy was currently staring at the spirit fox in his arms, he couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow and ask, “You like this fox?”

Xu Moran was a little shy as he said, “So it’s a fox ah. In the past, this disciple raised a hybrid dog at home and it looked similar to shizun’s fox. It was extremely close to me, but unfortunately it fell sick and died. Even now I still think of it and feel a little sad.”

Fan Yuan looked at the fox in his arms and then at his pitiful disciple. After a pause, he said, “This fox is different from ordinary ones. It’s a demon cultivator that has been cultivating for thousands of years. ”

After speaking, he put the white fox down. Once the spirit fox landed, it turned into a human figure that was clad in a blue silk dress. Her artful smile was extremely sweet and her beautiful gaze was full of hope. She directed a curtsey towards Xu Moran and said, “I am Immortal Luoxia’s spiritual pet. My name is Bi Yi.”

Xu Moran seemed to be quite surprised. He blankly gave a nod, “My name is Xu Moran.”

Bi Yi’s lips curved up in smile but she didn’t answer, and she silently retreated to stand behind Fan Yuan.

Fan Yuan said, “Since Moran will be reminded of unhappy matters upon seeing your original body, in the future, you will maintain a human form in front of him.”

As compared to maintaining a human form, using their own original ones were much more comfortable for demon cultivators. Bi Yi slightly frowned in displeasure. However, her master’s orders had to be obeyed, so she could only respond with a vague sound reluctantly.

For a while, the gaze she used when looking at Xu Moran was, as a result, not so friendly anymore. Yet, Xu Moran looked as if he didn’t see anything, only staring at his shizun with a face of gratitude.

Fan Yuan saw that within Moran’s bright and spirited eyes, they were completely filled with his reflection. Fan Yuan suddenly got the oddest feeling that he was currently being stared at by a puppy.

Fan Yuan quickly expelled this weird idea from his mind and pointed to a colourful glass ball in the center of the hall. He hooked his lips up slightly and said, “This is the five-coloured pearl that tests the qualifications of a cultivator. Put your hands on it and release your spiritual consciousness. Afterwards, condense your spiritual consciousness and introduce it into the five-coloured pearl, and you will be able to instantly see what your qualifications are.”

Xu Moran quickly did as he said and put his hands on the orb. He closed his eyes and silently released his spiritual consciousness, and after a long time he finally opened his eyes. He witnessed a brilliant array of lights circulating within the five-coloured pearl as they blended together, mimicking that of a flowing rainbow. The vibrant colours were very beautiful.

However, the colours only slowly circulated for a while and came to a stop. Xu Moran widened his eyes in surprise, unsure of what to do, so he could only look to his shizun for help.

He was surprised, but Fan Yuan was even more surprised than him. The script didn’t say that any problems would occur during the qualification test ah!

Though he was surprised, on the surface he was still the composed Immortal Luoxia. He got up from his seat calmly and appeared beside Xu Moran within the next moment.

Xu Moran was stunned for a moment and quickly returned to normal. He asked pitifully, “Shizun, could it be that I’m a piece of waste without any qualifications?”

Fan Yuan said, “How can this seat’s disciple be a piece of waste? Even if you really do have useless spiritual roots, your master can still help you wash your marrow and re-shape your bones to rebuild your entire body.”

As he spoke he picked up the five-coloured pearl and introduced a trace of his spiritual consciousness. Within a moment, the orb exuded a pure white light—it was his single wind-type spiritual root.

It seemed that the problem did not lie with the five-coloured pearl.

He turned and picked up Xu Moran’s hands, placing them on the pearl once again. Following that, Fan Yuan covered the back of the boy’s hands with his own and slowly recited, “Concentrate your energy to your roots and condense all your thoughts to their origins. Put away all basis of life, and allow nature to course through your body.”

Xu Moran heard what he said and focused on drawing spiritual energy one bit at a time, and proceeded to concentrate his mind on his hands. Fan Yuan released a sliver of his spiritual consciousness to guide Moran’s consciousness into the colourless pearl. Almost immediately, the colourless pearl reacted⁠—it changed to a pale indigo blue, indicating that Moran had a single mutated ice-type spiritual root.

On the surface, Fan Yuan looked shocked for a moment, but he actually let out a sigh of relief in his heart. Turns out that the pearl didn’t work because his disciple didn’t know how to draw and release energy. Fan Yuan felt that he had become too impatient. The male lead was a cultivation prodigy, but now he was just an inexperienced child. Fan Yuan felt that he should have taught him a few more times.

Fan Yuan pulled back his hands and allowed Moran to clearly see the colour displayed on the pearl. He began teaching from the basics, “Cultivation not only relies on luck, but also the cultivator’s root marrow and qualifications. In total, there are five basic attributes, namely wind, fire, water, earth, and thunder. The purer the attributes, the better the cultivation qualifications. On top of these basic attributes, there are some extremely rare mutated ones. For example, your roots are mutated, being none other than the single ice-type spiritual root………”

Fan Yuan spoke seriously while Xu Moran listened carefully beside him. His eyes would inadvertently sweep across Fan Yuan’s slender fingers, and the cool yet gentle touch lingered on the back of his hand. A trace of darkness quickly flashed across Moran’s eyes, so fast that barely anyone could detect it, then his eyes returned to normal.

Fan Yuan turned and asked, “Have you properly remembered what your teacher has said?”

Xu Moran obediently nodded and said, “I’ve remembered it clearly. The colour that appeared for shizun just now was pure white, so shizun has a single wind-type spiritual root, isn’t that right?”

Fan Yuan nodded in satisfaction and commended, “This child is truly teachable. Here are some books on introductory mental cultivation and basic mystical arts, take them and study well. If you don’t understand anything, come ask this teacher or Bi Yi.”

As he spoke, he retrieved a few books from his storage ring and handed it to the child. Though he said it was simple, how could any regular person find such books? Over thousands of years, they were carefully selected from the collection of books amassed by Xuan Tian sect. They contained the most suitable techniques and methods for Moran’s current level of cultivation in the mystical arts and mental cultivation.

Because of this, Fan Yuan had to even interact with the Sect Master for a good, long while. The old thing kept asking him if he had accepted a succeeding disciple, what were his origins, and what his qualifications were.

Fan Yuan was so annoyed that he wanted to cast a wind blade and smash it into the old man. In the end, Fan Yuan had no choice but to conjure a random reason to deceive him to go away. Anyway, the Sect Master wanted to retreat into closed-door cultivation recently, so he probably had no time to come to Luoxia Peak to find out what was going on.

Xu Moran’s mutated ice root couldn’t be made known to others for the time being, otherwise he would have to be revealed publicly. This would directly affect the progression of plot if in his very first great competition after he reached adulthood, Moran wasn’t able to spring into fame with his great achievements.

Seeing Xu Moran take the secret manuals and flip through them curiously, Fan Yuan suddenly said, “Moran, do you know that your ice root is an extremely rare attribute? Throughout the span of thousands of years, there are only two people including yourself.”

Expectedly, Xu Moran asked in amazement, “Dare I ask shizun who the other person is?”

Fan Yuan stared at his face silently, and only after a long while did he slowly reply, “The founding ancestor who formed Xuan Tian sect on this mountain, Immortal Xuantian.”

Xu Moran widened his eyes in surprise, “So it’s actually such an amazing person! Tu’er is truly in awe.”

Fan Yuan’s gaze was distant and his tone slightly indiscernible, “There is no need to be in awe. As long as you listen carefully to my teachings, you will only be better than him in the future. Even if it is breaking into the Great Ascension stage, It’s not difficult. Anyway………you will definitely live longer than him…definitely.”

Actually, the original host didn’t know that Xu Moran was the reincarnation of Lin Xuantian, but the only thing was that the two looked extremely similar as children. Even their rare mutated ice roots were the same. Hence, Lin Yuan inevitably felt empathy and transferred all of his love for Lin Xuantian onto Xu Moran. He did so to make up for his regrets of a thousand years ago as well.

The life of a cultivator was too long. A person always needed something to look forward to, and only then would they not eventually decay over the immeasurable number of years.

Xu Moran wasn’t aware of such things. When he heard his shizun say such words, he only felt that it was odd, scratching his head as he said, “Shizun, Tu’er………”

Fan Yuan gently patted his little head and whispered, “It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand. You just have to obediently remember teacher’s words, that’s all.”

Xu Moran nodded obediently, “Shizun’s words, Moran will definitely heed them carefully. I will remember every word clearly and will not dare to forget them even slightly.”

Fan Yuan’s hand that was patting Moran’s head suddenly stopped. Why was it that he felt his back turn cold when he heard Moran’s words? Then, he saw Xu Moran reveal an obedient and innocent smile at him, and only then did he slightly relax.

He must have been played around by that fellow Yan Rui till he had a mental breakdown, it must have been that.

*******************

Xu Moran was a very well-behaved and obedient disciple that one didn’t need to worry about. Not only did he devote himself to cultivation, he also had excellent qualifications. His speed of cultivation was simply too fast. Within less than three months at Luoxia Peak, the boy could draw energy into his body, and formally broke past the initial stage of practicing qi.

On top of that, no matter what form of mental cultivation, Fan Yuan simply had to explain it once, and Moran would immediately understand. The same went for the mystical arts—within a few days Moran had learnt it himself. This kind of Heaven-defying learning speed dealt a blow to Bi Yi that caused her to feel extremely depressed and inferior. She hid herself in her fox nest and hadn’t come out for several months.

Fan Yuan felt very apologetic about this. He shouldn’t have thrown his disciple at her for the sake of being lazy……

When it came to things like the protagonist’s halo, in the lower plane, it usually manifested in the forms of appearance, power, wealth, fortune, and luck. However, in such an upper plane, it was fully manifested in the form of the male lead’s qualifications and luck.

According to Xu Moran’s current speed of cultivation, when compared to his past life⁠—the mysterious man who only lived on in legends, Immortal Xuantian—Moran was definitely way more OP. Moreover, he had his awesome golden finger shizun with him. Not to mention taking down the flower of the cultivation world, Liu Wenya, even if he wanted to start an imperial harem or go along with a stallion novel plot, it also wasn’t a difficult matter.

Of course, Fan Yuan would not approve! Due to the fact that this was a Mary Sue BG romance novel, the male lead’s OP-ness was for the sake of serving the female lead even better in the future, for the sake of making the female lead’s golden thigh more powerful, for the sake of making the female lead’s life more exciting and glorious! He must prevent some imperial harem from forming! To this end, he had completely isolated all female disciples in sect and didn’t give them any chance to get close to his disciple.

That’s right, that was how one did their duty!

Although he saw his disciple become even more outstanding day after day, as his shizun, Fan Yuan was extremely happy. He even felt a great sense of accomplishment and pride.

However, could the boy take things easy when it came to things like growing taller?! Did this little rascal eat some drugs? Only a few years had passed, yet he had grown so freakin’ fast and was about to catch up with Fan Yuan. It really made this 1.78m tall shizun have! No! Face! Ah!

“Shizun, Tu’er learned the art of sword flying today, can I show it to you?”

Fan Yuan watched as his clueless disciple sprinted over. He waved his sleeve and transported his honourable seat in the Snowless Hall to appear right in front of his very eyes. He then proceeded to calmly sit down⁠—when he sat, he wouldn’t need to compare heights anymore. He really needed to give himself a few praises for being so wise.

With a smile, Fan Yuan nodded towards Xu Moran, “Alright, you may begin ba.”

After several years of interaction, Xu Moran had already discovered that his shizun indulged him to the point that he had no bottom line. Moran recited an incantation and his sword immediately flew over steadily. At the moment when his sword flew out, Moran quickly pulled his shizun to him, holding Fan Yuan by the waist as they flew off on the sword together.

Fan Yuan was caught off guard and dragged onto the sword by Moran. Stinky little rascal, after these two years your guts have become really big ah!! When he was about to reprimand him for two sentences, he saw the little boy’s ingratiating smile, and all of his anger disappeared in an instant.

#Who exactly raised the boy himself and couldn’t bear to hit or scold him _(:з」∠)_#

#So what if he’s grown tall, he definitely doesn’t look better than laozi ╭(╯^╰)╮#

#Why do I have to compare with a man to see who looks better?!#

Ahh…the past week has been extremely tough on me, tons of family emergencies and school issues to manage sorry I haven’t found the time to reply to your comments in the previous chapter ????

On the bright side, it’s my birthday today woohoo!! hope you guys enjoy this chapter ♡