After finishing all his matches for the day, Lin Ju'an walked nervously toward Ji Mofan's courtyard.
He used to stay only on the mountainside of Yuncang Mountain, which was the area for inner disciples.
The last time he climbed to the top of the mountain was when he joined the Sword Sect and climbed those 999 steps to participate in the first round of trials at the recruitment conference.
Back then, he was just an ordinary child who didn't even know how to draw qi into his body, but now he can easily fly up using his lightness skill.
It's really unbelievable when I think about it now.
Lin Ju'an was lost in thought as he walked until he arrived at the small courtyard of Ji Mo Fan, which was surrounded by bamboo forest.
The simple, even rudimentary, bamboo house was hidden among the bamboo leaves, with no courtyard wall, only a hastily constructed fence covered with evening glory vines. Thus, the courtyard could be seen from a distance, and Lin Ju'an, with his sharp eyes, spotted a dark blue figure within.
"Senior Brother, I'm here..."
He stopped in his tracks.
There was more than one person in the small courtyard in the bamboo grove.
Ji Mofan was still wearing the same dark blue wide-sleeved robe he had just worn. He was now somewhat disheveled, supporting himself on the ground with one hand, and it seemed that he had just tried to get up before he spoke.
His movement revealed that there was another person underneath him.
It was their sickly young sect leader.
Lin Ju'an felt a sudden jolt in his heart.
He was just defending Ji Mofan, thinking that he wasn't like those frivolous guys!
How did I end up witnessing him and the young sect leader getting into a physical altercation?
So... what was his purpose in asking me to come here...?
Lin Ju'an instinctively gripped the sword at his waist.
His current cultivation level is only at the mid-stage of the Golden Core realm. If he were to truly reach the point where he had no choice but to face Ji Mofan one-on-one...
Although he doesn't want to admit it, he probably really doesn't have a single penny to his name.
Even if he detonates his inner core, it might not necessarily cause much damage to Ji Mofan, after all, they are a whole realm apart.
Qi Fengyu's face turned bright red, whether from embarrassment, anger, or anxiety, he didn't know. Seeing someone approaching, he frantically tried to get up. In the end, he accidentally touched his own hair, pulling it and letting out a muffled groan.
"Senior brother, please help me up..." He reached out a hand to Ji Mofan with tears in his eyes.
Ji Mofan didn't reach out, but casually released a burst of spiritual energy, grabbed him by the back of the neck, and violently lifted him off the ground.
Qi Fengyu looked hurt, "Senior Brother..."
“Xiao Yu, you’re not young anymore, you should know what’s important.” Ji Mo Fan didn’t want to listen to his feigned pitifulness and nonsense, so he interrupted him directly, “I don’t want to hear those words again.”
"Senior Brother, you never used to treat me like this... You used to be so gentle..." Qi Fengyu's eyes shimmered with a faint light, as if tears were welling up within them.
Hearing him recount the past, Ji Mo Fan's patience was completely exhausted.
This time, he didn't even bother to speak, simply pointing towards the door, his intention to see the guest out was crystal clear.
Qi Fengyu bit her lower lip in grievance, staring at him for a while with teary eyes.
Finally, feeling wronged, she ran away.
Lin Ju'an: ......
Oh no, did he stumble upon something terrible? Is he going to be silenced tomorrow?
He always felt that this scene was just like the kind of storybook where a scumbag who sleeps with a girl and then refuses to take responsibility, and the innocent girl in the story, what should they do!
“Junior Brother Lin, right?” Ji Mofan suddenly called out to him.
Unlike his tone when he spoke to Qi Fengyu earlier, which was like frozen soil, his voice now sounded like a river that had just thawed in early spring.
The cool air was imbued with a strong sense of vitality.
"Yes, Senior Brother, my name is Lin Ju'an, and I am an inner disciple under Elder Yan Shiqi." Putting aside any impure thoughts, Lin Ju'an obediently lowered his head and bowed.
"You've mastered the Cloud Cang Sword Technique to the seventh level?" Ji Mo Fan didn't pay much attention to his attitude, assuming it was just his personality. "Perform it completely so I can see."
Lin Ju'an's movements were inevitably somewhat stiff when he drew his sword.
His sword energy stagnated, and his movements became sluggish. He himself felt that he was performing terribly.
Ji Mo Fan frowned as expected, "Stop!"
Lin Ju'an immediately stopped in his tracks.
Holding a sword in one hand and the other behind his back, he was standing on a bamboo stake on the water's surface, maintaining his balance on only one foot.
"Your hand posture is wrong." Ji Mofan lightly touched the ground with his toes, flew to a bamboo stake next to him, and raised his hand to grasp his wrist.
Lin Ju'an's hand trembled, and he lost his balance, falling directly from the bamboo stake into the water.
Jimo Fan: ...?
He was somewhat bewildered. He looked down at Lin Ju'an, who was sitting in the shallow water, soaking wet, and then looked down at his own hands.
When did his skill become so strong? With a light grip, he can directly defeat a cultivator in the mid-stage of the Golden Core realm, leaving him utterly powerless.
Lin Ju'an struggled to his feet from the water in a very disheveled state, coughed twice, and leaped back onto the bamboo stake.
"I'm sorry, Senior Brother, I was lost in thought." Water dripped down his hair, blurring his facial features.
Ji Mofan looked up at his face, his gaze lingering for a few seconds.
“Your face is smudged,” he reminded her.
Lin Ju'an was stunned for a moment, then belatedly wiped his face.
Oh no, the disguise he used to make himself look ugly was washed away by the water.
Lin Ju-an used to attract countless criticisms and troubles because of his excessively beautiful face.
At one point, they even considered tearing the culprit to shreds to solve the problem at its root.
What he hated most was depending on others for survival, and this water elemental root was simply the biggest misfortune he had ever encountered in his life.
Why him, and not someone else!
Even if he only has mixed spiritual roots, it would be fine for him to work as an ordinary handyman with the senior sister who took him in and brought him back to the Yun Cang Sword Sect!
“Junior Brother Lin, you are strong enough to protect yourself,” Ji Mofan said. “There is no need to suppress your own brilliance just because of the existence of evil people.”
"I don't think this is a good thing," Lin Ju'an muttered to himself, looking down.
Ji Mofan suddenly reached out his hand in front of him.
Lin Ju'an instantly resembled a cat with its fur standing on end, leaning back warily with his eyes wide open, even turning his hand holding the sword hilt halfway around, adopting a very defensive posture of resistance.
But Ji Mofan did not encounter him.
The hand stopped a few inches away from him, and Ji Mofan made a hand seal in mid-air.
A cool breeze, stirred by spiritual energy, swept over his entire body from top to bottom. As the energy from the ice-elemental spiritual root dissipated, he felt a warming sensation return.
Ji Mofan helped him dry his clothes.
"How can you practice swordsmanship when you're soaked?" Ji Mofan's expression remained as gentle as ever. He calmly withdrew his hands, crossed them, and tucked them into his wide sleeves.
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