Volume 1 Volume 6 Chapter 34

Volume 6 Chapter 34: Return to the Southern Wasteland (Part 2)

Xu Qingfan understood very well what Little Green represented to Ting’er.

During Ting’er’s loneliest times, it was Little Green who accompanied her. In fact, before Ting’er’s bond with Xu Qingfan was resolved, Little Green was the one Ting’er valued and felt closest to.

Even now, because both Xu Qingfan and Ting’er were people who tended to hide their emotions and were somewhat reserved, whenever Ting’er had worries, she would still go to Little Green, sit beside it, and softly whisper for a long time instead of talking to Xu Qingfan.

Therefore, in this situation, asking Ting’er to take a spirit pet was like asking her to share her feelings for Xu Qingfan with someone else, which was equally hard to accept.

But Xu Qingfan needed Ting’er to choose an ancient demon beast egg as her future spirit pet, just like Zhang Ningmei and Bai Yu did. The current cultivation world was not like the peaceful times before. Back then, Ting’er, with her Real Golden Core Stage cultivation, was considered a strong person. But now, chaos was rising, and many hidden experts were emerging, and even Xu Qingfan felt overwhelmed being part of it. It was even harder for Ting’er. Especially as the cultivation world would continue to fall into chaos, among the battles of cultivators, even those at the Real Golden Core Stage had little ability to protect themselves.

Although Xu Qingfan tried in every way to protect Ting’er and prevented her from participating in the dangerous activities of the Righteous Alliance over the years, the future is uncertain for anyone to predict. With an ancient demon beast protecting her, at least Ting’er’s dangers in the future would be reduced.

Ting’er spoke softly, but her expression was full of determination; it was clear she regarded Little Green as her only spirit pet and did not want to accept another.

"This child is truly too stubborn; this personality may be good for cultivating immortality, but in other aspects, stubbornness often affects reason and can lead to trouble."

Xu Qingfan smiled bitterly and shook his head, thinking hard about how to persuade Ting’er.

After a moment, Xu Qingfan carefully chose his words and said slowly, "Ting’er, do you want to come with me on adventures in the future?"

A light flashed in Ting’er’s eyes, and she nodded.

In an enticing tone, Xu Qingfan asked again, "Do you think that with your current strength, you can help me? You must know that the enemies I will face are at least as strong as I am, while your current strength is far beneath mine. This means that if you want to come on adventures with me, you need to be strong enough to help, otherwise, it will not only be unhelpful but will also require me to help you constantly, which could hold me back."

Upon hearing Xu Qingfan’s words, a look of sadness crossed Ting’er’s eyes. Since she began cultivating, she has always worked very hard, at least much harder than Xu Qingfan, who needs long breaks after each retreat. At first, Ting’er worked hard to seek revenge against Xu Qingfan, but later she put in effort to be of help to him. However, Ting’er was frustrated to find that despite her hard work and Xu Qingfan often praising her talent, the gap between her and Xu Qingfan still hadn’t narrowed; instead, it felt increasingly distant.

Watching the changes in Ting’er’s expression, Xu Qingfan suddenly felt as if he was tricking a little girl with sweet words, but he kept a calm demeanor and continued, "I have already agreed that you could join me on adventures in the future, but the condition is that you must reach a level of strength that can help me. With your current pace of cultivation, it’s hard to say how long it will take to reach that level. The only way is to find a powerful spirit pet. It can connect with your heart, and together you can unleash many secrets. Then you will have sufficient strength to join me. However, Little Green, if you take it along, it cannot withstand even a casual attack from the enemy; it would simply be sending you to your doom."

Upon hearing Xu Qingfan’s words, Ting’er had a complicated look in her eyes, clearly battling with two thoughts in her mind. Finally, Ting’er turned her head with guilt to look at Little Green, who was still sleeping soundly outside, carefree and happy. Then she walked towards the five demon beast eggs in front of Xu Qingfan and began to feel with her eyes closed.

Meanwhile, Xu Qing followed Ting’er’s gaze and glanced at Little Green outside the house. Suddenly, he felt a small stir in his heart. Little Green had been extremely loyal to Ting’er since it was young, and their closeness was no less than that of a real spirit pet. Over the years, Little Green’s hatred towards Xu Qingfan had faded a lot—at least it wouldn’t always be thinking about how to kill Xu Qingfan anymore.

In this situation, letting it be a guardian spirit pet, sleeping all day and wasting food would be a shame. If it could also improve its strength a bit, Ting’er could say she had a powerful spirit pet, which would be a great help.

The Blue-eyed Cloud-hoofed Beast is said to be a relative of the ancient beast, Taotie. However, among the ancient beast’s inner pills that Xu Qingfan had, the one belonging to the Taotie demon beast was the majority.

While Xu Qingfan was lost in thought, Ting’er, through her feelings, finally found the demon beast egg suitable for her. This egg was the smallest of the seven demon beast eggs, its color snow white and very cute.

Although it was small and adorable, Xu Qingfan had sensed that this egg contained the strongest energy when he got it. Originally, Xu Qingfan planned to give this egg to Jin Qinghan, but he never expected it would end up with Ting’er.

On the other side, Bai Yu noticed that the egg Ting’er chose was much smaller than his own, and his feeling of self-pity improved greatly.

"This one."

After Ting’er picked her spirit pet egg, she instinctively looked at Little Green outside the yard, then walked in front of Xu Qingfan, opened her hand to show her spirit pet egg, and softly said.

Xu Qingfan nodded and took the remaining four demon beast eggs. He turned to Bai Yu and Zhang Ningmei and said, "Alright, it’s settled. I believe you both understand how to hatch and recover your spirit pets. Now, let’s begin hatching and see what kind of ancient beasts you have chosen."

After Bai Yu and Zhang Ningmei each picked their spirit pet eggs, they eagerly asked about what they had chosen, which made Xu Qingfan feel a bit awkward because he knew nothing about it.

At this point, Xu Qingfan paused and said to Ting’er, "Ting’er, stay here. I have something to give you."

After Xu Qingfan finished speaking, Zhang Ningmei and Bai Yu each bowed deeply to Xu Qingfan and then hurried back to their rooms to hatch their spirit pets, leaving only Ting’er, who looked at Xu Qingfan in confusion, not knowing what else was coming.

Then, Xu Qingfan flipped his right sleeve, and eleven small green orbs appeared in his hand. He handed them to Ting’er and said, "These are the inner cores of the young Taotie. After you finish hatching your spirit pet, feed them to Little Green and see what happens. Don’t worry; with these, Little Green will not blame you."

As he spoke, Xu Qingfan wondered if Little Green would evolve into a new Taotie after eating so many cores, given its Taotie bloodline. If that happened, Ting’er would have two ancient demon beasts guarding her, making her truly invincible once they both grew strong.

Meanwhile, Ting’er was confused about Xu Qingfan’s actions and was about to ask when she suddenly heard two harsh "quack quack" sounds. Then, with a flash of black light, Little Black darted towards Xu Qingfan’s right hand holding the inner cores, trying to snatch them away. To Little Black, all the inner cores Xu Qingfan had should belong to it, and now he was giving them to another demon beast, especially one like Little Green that it looked down upon, which made it furious. Ignoring Xu Qingfan’s attempts to stop it, Little Black tried to forcefully take them back.

Seeing Little Black’s actions, Xu Qingfan smirked slightly. He lowered his right hand to avoid Little Black’s sneak attack and waved his left hand to bring Little Gold back to his shoulder. After all, Xu Qingfan was Little Black’s owner, so it dared not resist and had to obediently return to Xu Qingfan’s shoulder, glaring resentfully at Little Green, who only knew how to eat, sleep, and steal its things.

Ting’er, puzzled, put away the eleven inner cores. She then bowed to Xu Qingfan and left his room to go hatch her spirit pet.

"You have already eaten more than ten of these inner dan, and you haven’t shown any changes. What’s wrong with giving Little Green a few? Besides, the remaining twenty inner dan are all yours, so why be so stingy?"

After Ting’er left, Xu Qingfan scolded with a laugh, while Little Black was still angry with Xu Qingfan, turning away from him and glaring bitterly at Little Green outside the window.

Xu Qingfan shook his head; hatching a spirit pet probably takes three to five days, and the egg might be an ancient demon beast, so it would take even longer to refine. Xu Qingfan had to wait for the results, and a few days were too short for him to do anything, so he found himself with nothing to do.

After sitting in the room for a moment and reflecting on his experiences in the Southern Wasteland, Xu Qingfan suddenly stood up and flew out toward Jin Qinghan’s courtyard.

Xu Qingfan had just returned to "Ronghua Mountain" that day, spending a lot of time dealing with the congratulatory visits from cultivators and reporting the fabricated reasons for his journey to the sect leader. According to their agreement, he also had to report the true story of the trip to Mr. Liu and Zhang Hualing later.

At this moment, he suddenly remembered that since his return, he had met Li Yuhan, Lv Qingshang, and Wang Zegang, but he had not seen Jin Qinghan or Dongfang Qingling. He intended to talk to Jin Qinghan and give him an ancient demon beast egg.

He did not know whether it was intentional or not, but no one had mentioned Jin Qinghan’s disappearance to him since Xu Qingfan returned.