Volume 1 Volume 6 Chapter 33

Volume 6 Chapter 33: Return to the Southern Wasteland (Part 1)

After leaving the black giant mountain and returning to the Righteous Alliance’s main base "Ronghua Mountain," Xu Qingfan spent a whole month.

Then it sparked another wave of excitement.

He had been completely missing for five months. After Li Yuhan and the others returned to the Righteous Alliance and reported their experiences in the Southern Wasteland to Zhang Hualing, who then told Mr. Liu, everyone thought Xu Qingfan was dead.

Especially since Mr. Liu himself had personally gone deep into the Southern Wasteland three times but still couldn’t find Xu Qingfan.

Originally, the Jiuhua clan and Mr. Liu wanted to keep Xu Qingfan’s death a secret. After all, Xu Qingfan’s journey into the Southern Wasteland was a private decision. However, after Xu Qingfan went missing for three whole months, others began to have questions. Reluctantly, Jiuhua and Mr. Liu had to admit Xu Qingfan’s death.

Of course, the official statement was that Xu Qingfan went deep into the Southern Wasteland to investigate why the Southern Wasteland demon beasts suddenly attacked the prosperous Middle-earth. In fact, this wasn’t a lie.

Because of the last incident where Xu Qingfan came back to life, Immortal Zizhen was very cautious this time. It took another two months to announce Xu Qingfan’s death to the Righteous Alliance’s cultivators, waiting until there was no news of Xu Qingfan. Due to last time’s shadow, the clever Immortal Zizhen did not use Xu Qingfan’s death this time to create heroes and raise morale, handling everything quietly.

But even so, it still caused a stir. After all, Xu Qingfan was a little icon of the Righteous Alliance. Many cultivators who had been saved by Xu Qingfan or had respect for him rushed to Jiuhua to pay their respects.

However, Xu Qingfan clearly did not want to give Zizhen the spotlight. Just the day after Immortal Zizhen announced Xu Qingfan’s death, while everyone was paying tribute to Xu Qingfan’s grave, Xu Qingfan returned.

Looking at Xu Qingfan, who reported about the journey to the Southern Wasteland, Immortal Zizhen made a secret decision: even if he saw this guy’s corpse in the future, he would let it sit there for two or three years, making sure he wouldn’t come back to life before announcing the news of his death.

After reporting the ridiculous reasons for entering the Southern Wasteland that Mr. Liu had taught him to the masters and sect leaders of the Righteous Alliance, Xu Qingfan finally returned to his courtyard.

Waiting for him were three disciples who had truly believed Xu Qingfan was dead and were filled with despair.

As he pushed open the courtyard door, the three disciples stood side by side in front of him. Zhang Ningmei smiled, Bai Yu was delighted, and Ting’er walked straight up to Xu Qingfan, looked up at her uncle, and said softly but firmly, "Uncle, I want to be with you in the future."

Regardless of how much trouble it might bring Xu Qingfan to take Ting’er along in future actions, at that moment, seeing Zhang Ningmei and Bai Yu’s reactions and hearing Ting’er’s seemingly cold but full of concern words, Xu Qingfan felt a warm feeling in his heart.

After comforting the three disciples, Xu Qingfan returned to his room. After thinking of something, he called the three disciples back in, smiling as he placed seven ancient demon beast eggs in front of him, and said, "You three don’t have spirit pets yet, do you? These are some demon beast eggs I collected in the Southern Wasteland, all descendants of ancient wild beasts, full of potential. Once they grow, they will help you greatly. You can each choose one egg from these seven to be your spirit beast."

Hearing Xu Qingfan’s words, Zhang Ningmei and Bai Yu both showed joyful expressions, but the difference was that Zhang Ningmei deeply understood the meaning of the words "ancient wild beast" and knew how to control her emotions. Her joy quickly faded, and she bowed respectfully to Xu Qingfan in thanks.

Bai Yu, on the other hand, could not tell the difference between an ancient wild beast and a regular demon beast; he was just excited about having a spirit pet. Lacking the ability to control his emotions, he nearly jumped up when he heard Xu Qingfan’s words.

To know, in order to take a demon beast as a spirit pet, one must first obtain a demon beast egg. However, demon beasts care deeply for their offspring, and their eggs are rarely seen outside. Therefore, in the cultivation world, there are only a few cultivators who have spirit pets.

Seven demon beast eggs were of different sizes and colors. Bai Yu and Zhang Ningmei gathered in front of these seven demon beast eggs, carefully choosing among them, looking hesitant and clearly unsure which one to pick.

"Don’t choose based on appearance. Close your eyes and carefully feel the Spirit Qi waves coming from these demon beast eggs. See which one resonates with you the most."

Xu Qingfan was guiding from the side.

After hearing Xu Qingfan’s words, Bai Yu and Zhang Ningmei both closed their eyes and began to sense. After a moment, they found their targets. Bai Yu’s demon beast egg was about the size of a fist, pale white with gray spots. Zhang Ningmei’s demon beast egg was the largest among them, three times bigger than an adult’s head, and it was light yellow.

Looking at Zhang Ningmei’s demon beast egg and then at his own, Bai Yu felt a little disheartened. In fact, he had wanted to choose the egg in Zhang Ningmei’s hands but was interrupted by Xu Qingfan’s sudden remark. His principle for selecting a demon beast egg was the bigger, the better, because the larger the egg, the larger the demon beast that would hatch from it. When he walked with his "spirit pet," he would look more impressive. But he didn’t expect that the one he liked would end up being Zhang Ningmei’s, while he got a small one.

Bai Yu couldn’t help but imagine a scary scene: Zhang Ningmei walking ahead with a giant fierce dog, ten times taller than him, showing off, while he trailed behind with a little mouse, feeling embarrassed.

Just as Bai Yu was feeling sorry for his demon beast egg, Xu Qingfan noticed that Ting’er was quietly watching the younger martial sisters choose their spirit pets without stepping forward. He curiously asked, "Ting’er, why aren’t you choosing?"

Ting’er turned her eyes toward the outside, where Little Green, the Blue-eyed Cloud-hoofed Beast, was peacefully sleeping, looking sweet as if it were having a nice dream. It seemed to be dreaming of chasing Xu Qingfan or Bai Yu; either way, it disliked both of them.

After a while, Ting’er turned her gaze back and softly said, "Little Green."

To say the least, Little Green had almost grown up playing with Ting’er. Their bond was very close, and Little Green was always loyal to Ting’er, ready to help at any time. However, when Ting’er got Little Green, Little Green was already born but could not connect with Ting’er’s spirit. Little Green was not Ting’er’s spirit pet. Moreover, with Little Green being a powerful demon beast, it could not help Ting’er in the future and would only become a burden.

But Ting’er treated Little Green as her spirit pet.

Xu Qingfan frowned, thinking about how to persuade Ting’er.