Chapter 251: A Wanderer Thinks of Home

The smile on Lan Yan’s face, who had been exposed by Xing, gradually faded. She had originally thought that Qin Haoxuan would not know what a Variant Seed was, but she had never expected this creature, Xing, to be so knowledgeable as to actually know of them.

Seeing Qin Haoxuan’s astonished expression, Xing continued to lecture him. “And a cultivator with a Variant Seed is a great tonic for an ordinary cultivator! For example, you are a weak seed. If an expert were to use a special technique to extract the Variant Seed from a cultivator and fuse it with your own, your colorless weak seed would become a full seed, and it’s even very likely to become a colored seed!”

“Then what about fusing a weak seed with a Purple Seed? Would it create an immortal seed even stronger than a Purple Seed?” Qin Haoxuan’s mouth hung open in astonishment. For a Variant Seed cultivator to have this kind of use, how miserable must their life be in the dog-eat-dog world of cultivation!

Xing sneered. “It’s impossible to succeed, and the Purple Seed would also explode and die. The heavens are sometimes very fair; it’s impossible for all the good things to be gathered in one person. However, a Variant Seed has another use. When a Spirit Tree Realm cultivator reaches the great completion of their realm and is unable to break through to the Dao Fruit Realm, as long as they capture a Variant Seed cultivator and set up a special great array, they have a chance to break through. But very few people in this world know how to set up that great array; it has been lost since the immortal-demon war.”

“That great array has been lost, and Variant Seeds are very rare; it’s impossible to capture a large batch to study slowly. But a Variant Seed has another very practical use. If a cultivator is seriously injured, as long as they still have a breath left, they can set up a formation to draw the blood of a Variant Seed into their own body and quickly recover from their injuries.”

Qin Haoxuan’s eyes went wide. A Variant Seed cultivator actually had so many uses. To many cultivators, they were no different from a heavenly treasure. No wonder the Mountain Hermit Yunhe had captured Lan Yan. The formation he had been setting up that day must have been to use her to heal his injuries. One could imagine how dangerous it was for a Variant Seed cultivator in the cultivation world.

Lan Yan’s face grew even uglier, and she even let out a cold snort.

After recovering from his shock and seeing her ugly expression, Qin Haoxuan quickly shot Xing a look to stop him from talking, so as not to further provoke her. Xing tactfully shut his mouth.

Qin Haoxuan’s lips moved nervously, and he finally managed to string together a few words of comfort. “Lan Yan, don’t be sad… people in the past may not have found a way for Variant Seed cultivators to live past a hundred, but they will surely find one in the future. You’re not even twenty yet; you still have time!”

Lan Yan let out a cold snort, an expression of disdain on her face, as if she didn’t care at all. But from the faint glint of tears in her eyes and the subtle sadness in her gaze, Qin Haoxuan could see that her disdain was just an act. If she were just a mortal, not living past a hundred would be normal. But she was a cultivator, and a Variant Seed at that, with far greater potential than his own. An ordinary person could live for several hundred years after reaching a certain realm, but now she could not live past one hundred. How cruel was that?

Once a cultivator reached the Dao Fruit Realm, their lifespan could be as long as several hundred years. But a cultivator with a Variant Seed, no matter how hard they tried, could not live past one hundred. For a cultivator who yearned for a long life, this was how cruel it was.

Lan Yan was a stubborn girl. After hearing his comfort, she let out a disdainful snort. “So what if my life is not over a hundred? As long as I live freely and brilliantly, what’s the use of living so long?” With that, she turned and walked out of the tent, saying as she went, “It’s a bit stuffy. I’m going out for a walk.”

Her lovely back, in Qin Haoxuan’s eyes, was incredibly bleak and forlorn. He blamed himself for listening to Xing’s talk about the wonders of the Variant Seed and forgetting her feelings, bringing up her sad past. Normally, she was a difficult but cute and seemingly carefree girl. He could never have imagined that her fate was so tragic.

After she had left, he asked Xing, “Is there really no way for a Variant Seed to live past a hundred?”

Xing nodded with great certainty. “None.”

Qin Haoxuan sighed softly, not knowing what to say. He was just a small cultivator himself. From the information she had occasionally revealed, her family’s sect was very powerful, yet even they could not save her. What could a small cultivator like him possibly do? He chased after her. The only thing he could do now was to use his clumsy words to comfort this girl who was stubborn on the outside but fragile on the inside. After all, he was the one who had made her sad.

The weather tonight was very good, with a bright moon and sparse stars. The earth was sprinkled with a thin layer of moonlight, like it was covered in a light veil, giving it a special kind of romance. The mountain wind was chilly, but for cultivators like them, it was nothing.

After leaving the tent, Lan Yan had been walking west. She knew he was following, but this stubborn girl wouldn’t even turn her head. Her shadow was drawn long under the moonlight. Occasionally, as she passed a tent, the light from within would disrupt the rhythm of her shadow, and it would briefly intertwine with his before quickly separating again.

She walked all the way to a hillside. This was the small market where the Taichu disciples usually traded. It was bustling during the day, but now there was no one here. The contrast made it feel especially desolate. Lan Yan found a patch of grass and sat down, looking up at the bright crescent moon.

Qin Haoxuan sat beside her in silence.

Lan Yan sighed softly, as if speaking to him, and also as if talking to herself. “I used to always want to leave home and wander. I thought I wouldn’t miss home after I left, but now I really miss it.” As she spoke, she looked at him earnestly. Under the moonlight, his facial lines were still resolute, but they had an extra softness. Lan Yan, who had been about to speak, was briefly lost in thought.

In these past few months, having experienced countless slaughters and deaths, a transcendent aura naturally emanated from him. It was the calmness of seeing through the mortal world, of seeing through life and death, and also the burning passion of cherishing life, family, and friendship.

Qin Haoxuan nodded silently. Her words fell on his ears with an extra layer of desolation. His own home was in the Soaring Dragon Nation, but hers was on the other side of the Star Sea. With her current cultivation realm, it was simply impossible for her to cross it and return home.

“My strength is still very weak right now. I have no way of sending you home,” he said slowly. “How did you get here from the other side of the Star Sea?”

“I came here on a Star Cloud Cart, but my cart is broken and can’t fly now.” As she spoke, a cold mountain wind blew, and she couldn’t help but move a little closer to him.

“A Star Cloud Cart?” Qin Haoxuan was taken aback. He had never heard of such a thing. “Can it be repaired?”

Lan Yan nodded. “It will take a lot of spirit stones.”

His eyes lit up. If spirit stones could repair it, he wouldn’t mind giving her some to help her go home. “How many? How many spirit stones to repair it?”

“Ten million low third-grade spirit stones,” she said expectantly. But when she saw the slightly bitter expression on his face, her eyes grew dim again. “Ten million is a very large number for you. It’s normal for you not to give them to me. Don’t think too much about it; I won’t blame you.”

Ten million! He was startled. He had originally thought that with his two hundred thousand low third-grade spirit stones, he was already very rich. He never expected that just to repair her cart would cost ten million. Seeing the dimness in her eyes, he quickly shook his head. “It’s not that I’m reluctant, but that I don’t have that many right now. But don’t worry, I will do my best to earn the spirit stones so you can repair your cart. I just don’t know how long it will take.”

She looked at him with some surprise. In their time together, she knew that he was a man of his word. Ten million was an absolute fortune for him. She had originally thought he wouldn’t help her, but she never expected him to agree in one go.

“Thank you,” she said, her voice unusually gentle. There was a hint of reliance in her eyes as she looked at him. “I’m a little tired. Can I lean on your shoulder?”

Before he could answer, she had already leaned on his shoulder. A faint, girlish fragrance wafted into his nose, and for a moment, his heart pounded like a deer.

Leaning on his shoulder, she closed her eyes and quietly enjoyed the cool moonlight and the tranquil mountain scenery. She leaned for a while, and as if she felt his shoulder was too hard and uncomfortable, she directly lifted his arm and then lay in his arms.

Thump, thump, thump…

He could hear her heartbeat. At this moment… it was not a feeling of love between a man and a woman, but an indescribable feeling. It was probably more of pity… For a cultivator who, no matter how hard they tried, no matter how they broke through, could not live past a hundred… “pitiful” was not enough to describe it.

However, he soon discovered that she was silently sobbing, her small shoulders shaking. Although she was being very careful, how could she hide it from him, who was holding her? After crying for who knows how long, she gradually fell asleep. His embrace was very warm, giving this homesick wanderer a brief moment of comfort.

Time passed. Qin Haoxuan looked at the girl in his arms, and thinking of the sadness in her eyes when she missed her home, he couldn’t help but think of his own hometown, his own parents. The emotions of a wanderer are easily contagious. Just now, only she had been homesick, but now it had spread to him, and the homesickness that had been buried deep in his heart erupted with a surge.

“I should go home and see them too. See my father, see my mother…” This vague idea was born in his heart and immediately became firm, making him impatient to realize it.

The next day, he went directly to the registration office. At this time, only the elder was there. He was very surprised to see him arrive. Shouldn’t this be the time to go out and hunt rogue cultivators?

“Elder, I would like to ask for a leave of absence for a period of time,” he said, looking at him with great earnestness. “Please approve my request.”

A disciple of the Taichu Sect could not leave at will. Even in the current situation, one could not leave privately. One had to report to a sect elder; otherwise, it was very likely to be treated as desertion. Not only would one’s name be removed from the sect’s records, but one might also be put on a wanted list. Of course, the situation where he had been separated from the main group after being persecuted by Master Chi Lian was an exception. After all, the Night Parade of a Hundred Ghosts that he had unleashed that night had caught even Deputy Hall Master Ximen Sheng off guard. To be separated in such a situation was understandable.