As the auras of the four people gradually faded into the distance, the cave returned to silence, leaving only the occasional crackle from the campfire.

“Senior…” Su Wan’er said with a hint of a sob in her voice. “This junior… this junior doesn’t know alchemy.”

Lai Li’an picked up a skewer of roasted meat and took a bite.

“What are you afraid of?”

He chewed the meat, his tone muffled, but Su Wan’er heard every single word with absolute clarity.

“There’s still three months.”

Su Wan’er stared at him blankly. Did Senior mean… that he could teach her alchemy in three months?

She opened her mouth, wanting to say it was impossible. How could alchemy be crash-coursed? It required years and months of accumulated experience. What could three months possibly be enough for?

However, as the words reached her lips, she swallowed them back down. When it came to Senior, the word “impossible” seemed to simply not exist.

Su Wan’er took a deep breath and nodded vigorously.

“Mm!”

Lai Li’an kept his head down and continued eating his meat, but his mind was frantically calculating.

Three months. To teach alchemy to someone who had never even touched an Alchemy Cauldron, and even have her participate in the Cangwu Realm’s most prestigious Alchemy Conference.

He didn’t even know alchemy himself. Although the Scripture of the Eternal Alchemy God was in his mind, that thing operated automatically. Would merely dictating the text to Su Wan’er really work?

Forget it, he would just take it one step at a time.

Outside the cave, Meng Qiuran and the other three walked a certain distance before stopping in unison.

The four of them remained silent for a good while.

“Senior Brother Meng,” Ye Shuang’s voice was a bit erratic. “That Senior said he let Fellow Daoist Su participate in the Alchemy Conference to let her ‘broaden her horizons’.”

Meng Qiuran nodded.

“Fellow Daoist Su is his disciple,” Ye Shuang added.

Meng Qiuran nodded again.

Ye Shuang took a deep breath. “A Grandmaster Alchemist who refined a Ninth-Grade Pill, attracted Heavenly Punishment, and yet remained completely unscathed, casually eating roast meat as if nothing happened… his disciple is participating in the Alchemy Conference just to ‘broaden her horizons’.”

“That person’s disciple,” Meng Qiuran said with a bitter smile, “most likely possesses alchemy skills that are anything but low. I really know how to find trouble for myself.”

Ye Shuang nodded vigorously. “Definitely! How could that person’s disciple possibly be an ordinary Alchemy Cultivator!”

Li He muttered, “I suddenly feel a bit helpless. Should we just withdraw from the competition?”

The group nodded simultaneously and, with extremely complicated feelings, disappeared into the depths of the mountain forest.

Su Wan’er lowered her head, twisting her skirt with her fingers. “Senior, can I call you… Master?”

As soon as the words left her mouth, she hurriedly waved her hands and added rapidly, “I mean, earlier Senior referred to me as your disciple in front of Fellow Daoist Meng, so… so did I… pass the previous test?”

Her voice grew softer and softer toward the end. Her head was practically buried in her chest, and she didn’t dare to look into Lai Li’an’s eyes at all.

Lai Li’an took a bite of roasted meat and chewed slowly. Test? What test?

He had asked Su Wan’er to go hunting simply because he was hungry. He had been too busy opening up his Spiritual Root to spare a hand. From start to finish, the thought of a test hadn’t even crossed his mind.

But judging from what Su Wan’er was saying, it sounded like she had mentally fabricated an entire “trial” scenario all on her own?

Lai Li’an secretly sighed in his heart. This girl’s imagination was truly the strongest he had ever seen. He didn’t even need to bother making up some profound and unfathomable test; she could completely convince herself all on her own.

But then again, he really did need Su Wan’er to stay by his side.

It wasn’t entirely because of the Fantasy Points. After spending these past few days together, he found it very difficult to treat this little girl as a mere tool anymore.

Lai Li’an did not have a heart of stone. In the three years since he transmigrated, bluffing his way to free food and drinks, he had seen too much of the fickleness of human nature. The more he saw, the more he knew how precious Su Wan’er’s foolish trust was.

To have him just abandon such a girl, to be honest, he couldn’t do it.

“Forget about calling me Master.” Lai Li’an put down the meat skewer, his tone flat.

Su Wan’er’s shoulders trembled slightly, and she lowered her head even further. She shouldn’t have been so presumptuous. What kind of figure was Senior? Letting her follow by his side was already a massive blessing, yet she actually dared to delusionally hope to become his disciple…

“However,” Lai Li’an paused. “You can call me Honored Master.”

Su Wan’er abruptly raised her head, her eyes red and her mouth slightly parted. She looked as if she had been frozen in place.

Lai Li’an looked at her dumbfounded expression, the corners of his mouth curling up subconsciously before he quickly pressed them back down.

He picked up the meat skewer again, his tone still flat: “A Master teaches skills, an Honored Master passes down the Dao. Your mother’s Master was this Venerable. Back then, this Venerable only taught her skills for three years and did not take her as a disciple. You are different.”

He paused, his tone growing a bit heavier, “You have better fortune than she did.”

This was purely Lai Li’an making things up. He didn’t even know what An Zhi looked like, let alone having taught her “three years of skills.”

But as these words fell on Su Wan’er’s ears, they stirred up layers of ripples in her heart. Her mother had followed Honored Master to learn skills for three years, while she… Honored Master wanted to take her as a disciple and pass down his “Dao” to her.

Su Wan’er’s tears fell. With a warmth surging from the depths of her chest, for the first time since her mother’s passing, the Sect’s betrayal, and her long escape to this point, she felt she was no longer just a piece of rootless duckweed.

She knelt up straight and respectfully kowtowed three times.

“Disciple Su Wan’er pays respects to Honored Master.”

This time, there was no hesitation and no apprehension; every single word was spoken with absolute clarity.

Lai Li’an looked at the way her forehead was pressed against the ground and suddenly felt a bit unsettled. He gave a slight nod. “Get up.”

Su Wan’er straightened her body, haphazardly wiped away her tears with her sleeve, and revealed a silly smile. That smile was as clean and pure as the sky after a rain, causing Lai Li’an to involuntarily avert his gaze.

“For the upcoming Alchemy Conference, you need to do your best,” he said casually, his original intention just being to change the subject.

Su Wan’er’s smile instantly froze. Was her Honored Master telling her to work hard and win the competition? This sentence echoed repeatedly in her mind.

Her Honored Master never spoke nonsense. If Honored Master said to “do your best,” it meant he truly hoped she would win.

But… she was a Sword Cultivator who had never even touched an Alchemy Cauldron. What could she possibly use to win against the Cangwu Realm’s top Alchemy Dao Geniuses?

Su Wan’er’s fingers unconsciously gripped her skirt tightly, but quickly, she let go.

Her Honored Master was here.

Three months. Since Honored Master said he could teach her, then he definitely could. Her Honored Master could use a stone pot and Mortal Fire to refine a Pill that attracted heavenly lightning. With such an Honored Master, since he said he would teach her, he would definitely not let her lose.

Su Wan’er took a deep breath, and the light in her eyes began to shine brightly once more.

“Honored Master!” she suddenly became brimming with energy. “When do we start learning Alchemy?”

Lai Li’an paused midway through his bite of roast meat. Start what?

Surely this girl doesn’t actually want to learn alchemy, right?

He glanced at Su Wan’er’s eager face and couldn’t help but smile slightly. This girl had just been crying her eyes out, yet in the blink of an eye, she was fully revived.

Seeing her Honored Master smile, Su Wan’er was a bit puzzled. What was Honored Master smiling at? Did she have grease on her face? She subconsciously raised her hand and wiped the corner of her mouth.

“Wan’er,” Lai Li’an put down his meat skewer. “There is no rush regarding the matter of alchemy. This Venerable will ask you a few questions first.”

Su Wan’er immediately sat up straight. “Please ask, Honored Master.”

Lai Li’an pondered for a moment. His most pressing need right now wasn’t to teach Su Wan’er alchemy, but to first learn how to cultivate himself.

His Spiritual Root had just been awakened, displaying on the System Panel as a “Low-Grade Wood Spiritual Root.” When he first saw those words, he had furiously cursed the system in his heart, but at least it was a real Spiritual Root. With a Spiritual Root, he could finally truly practice those Heaven-Grade Cultivation Techniques.

But the problem was, he didn’t know how!

The Scripture of the Eternal Alchemy God could circulate automatically because the system had directly instilled it into his brain, making it function like an instinct.

But Cultivation Techniques were different. The system had merely stuffed the contents of the Cultivation Technique into his head, like throwing a textbook at him and saying, “Learn it yourself.”

He needed a teacher, and wasn’t there one sitting right in front of him?

Su Wan’er came from an orthodox Sect. From Qi Condensation to Foundation Establishment, her fundamentals were absolutely solid. Having her teach him would be ten thousand times better than blindly fumbling around on his own.

Of course, he couldn’t directly say, “Your Honored Master doesn’t know how, teach your Honored Master.” He had to phrase it differently.

“This Venerable asks you,” Lai Li’an said unhurriedly, “back when you were in the Heavenly Veil Sect, how did you go about Drawing Qi into the Body, and how long did it take you to initiate?”

Su Wan’er paused for a moment. Why was Honored Master asking this?

But she still answered honestly, “Replying to Honored Master, this disciple was personally guided by my mother back then and did not learn it in the Sect. This disciple first sensed the existence of the Spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth, then used a specific breathing method to draw the Spiritual Qi into my meridians, circulating it. From the initial sensing to successfully Drawing Qi into the Body, it took this disciple about three months.”

Three months. Lai Li’an silently noted it in his heart. If someone as talented as Su Wan’er took three months, with his Low-Grade Wood Spiritual Root, it would probably take him at least half a year.

“Mm,” Lai Li’an nodded slightly. “Demonstrate the method for Drawing Qi into the Body again, from beginning to end.”

Su Wan’er blinked, and then it suddenly dawned on her. Honored Master was testing her! Since Honored Master wanted to take her in as a disciple, he naturally had to see if her foundation was solid. Drawing Qi into the Body was the most basic of concepts, but the more basic something was, the more it could reveal a person’s attitude towards cultivation.

Her expression turned solemn, not daring to slack off. She sat down cross-legged, closed her eyes, and began to circulate the method.