After dinner, night fell quickly. Xuan Lang lit candles in the rooms on both sides, instantly illuminating the surroundings. The small courtyard became the only splash of color in the suburban night.
After returning in the afternoon, during their free time, Li Jian had even taught Xuan Lang a set of introductory sword forms. There weren’t many moves, but Xuan Lang learned exceptionally fast, and every single posture was executed with utmost precision making Li Jian almost suspect that the boy had already studied them before.
Using the excuse that he needed to practice a bit more and didn’t want to disturb Li Jian’s rest, Xuan Lang hugged his quilt and headed off toward the adjacent room.
Since when did one need to hug a quilt to practice the sword?
It was clearly an intentional attempt to evade him and go sleep in the neighboring room instead.
Fortunately, while running errands to purchase supplies that afternoon, Li Jian had conveniently bought a comfortable soft couch, which had been placed right in the side room. It served perfectly as a bed for Xuan Lang and fit the situation nicely.
Leaning against the windowsill, Li Jian watched the cool moonlight spill through the lattice window, casting a silvery sheen over his dark hair.
Closing his eyes slightly, he sat cross-legged in meditation while mentally reviewing the system documentation left behind in his mind.
The notes spanned only a brief single page, outlining his assigned tasks in a manner akin to a book’s table of contents displaying merely a task title, leaving him to figure out everything else on his own.
Li Jian’s primary task was to verify the identity of Immortal Lord Shiyuan and successfully escort him into the Chengchi Sect for cultivation.
As for verifying his identity, Li Jian had already confirmed it long ago: Xuan Lang matched every single criterion listed in the documents perfectly, with no one else fitting the profile quite as well.
A white-robed immortal lord, breathtaking in appearance, a naturally gifted sword cultivator, and a practitioner of the ruthless path.
Although he harbored some doubts regarding the “ruthless path” aspect, Xuan Lang hadn’t formally begun his cultivation journey yet, and extending a helping hand to shelter him temporarily posed no problem at all.
That left just the final condition. According to the system, the immortal lord possessed the world’s rarest, purest lightning spirit root, granting him the extraordinary capability of summoning heavenly thunder.
Verifying this particular trait, however, promised to be somewhat challenging.
With the bright sun hanging high overhead and the weather being exceptionally scorching, he wondered if the young immortal lord’s pure lightning spirit root could somehow come in handy.
Having slept soundly through the night, Li Jian resolved to find a way to put it to the test.
When Li Jian stepped out of his room the following morning, Xuan Lang was already practicing his swordsmanship in the courtyard. Seeing him emerge, Xuan Lang put away the bamboo branch Li Jian had casually snapped off for him from the roadside, carefully placing it to one side.
“Immortal Elder, would you like some breakfast?”
The youth looked at him with bright, glistening eyes. With Li Jian’s sharp senses enhanced by the original owner’s cultivation level he could perceive sounds even while asleep, meaning he had known all along that Xuan Lang had risen early and had already been practicing for quite a while.
Li Jian was about to nod when a thought crossed his mind, prompting him to say instead, “We can skip the trouble of breakfast. I actually have a small matter that I might need your help with.”
“Please speak, Immortal Elder. I will do my utmost.”
As the youth walked toward him, his slender, upturned outer eye corners lifted slightly and his dark eyes gleamed. A sudden illusion washed over Li Jian, as if he were summoning a large, tail-wagging canine bounding in his direction.
Li Jian stated, “It’s nothing too urgent. Last night, while refining a batch of medicinal pills, I discovered I was missing a crucial ingredient—a rather rare component. It requires powder from mountain rock that has been struck by heavenly thunder and tempered by fire.”
The youth listened with intense concentration, his brow knitting slightly as he evidently found the request (thorny).
Observing Xuan Lang’s expression, Li Jian felt as though his fabrication was growing increasingly absurd after all, he had never laid eyes on such an item himself.
He added, “However, observing the celestial phenomena, the recent weather doesn’t look like it will bring any thunderstorms anytime soon. If we cannot secure that ingredient, all the rare treasures used previously will go to waste.”
Noticing Li Jian’s expression of mild regret, Xuan Lang deliberated before asking, “Then… is there anything I can do to help?”
Leaning forward, Li Jian closed the distance between them quite abruptly and said, “I probed your spiritual root using my spiritual energy and vaguely sensed that you seem to possess a pure lightning spirit root. If you can summon heavenly thunder, perhaps it might work.”
A pure lightning spirit root…
Xuan Lang naturally didn’t believe such a claim, knowing very well what his own constitution was like.
He knew he possessed no such thing, and that Li Jian must have made a misjudgment. Yet, gazing into Li Jian’s eyes, he found himself unable to offer any rebuttal.
The two of them sat opposite each other at the stone table. Li Jian rested his forearms on the stone surface, leaning forward so that half his torso hung over, his lilac robes spilling across the table and accentuating the fairness of his complexion.
At such close quarters, Xuan Lang felt as though he could see his own reflection mirrored perfectly within Li Jian’s amber pupils dark, brimming with eager anticipation, and touched by a faint, bright radiance of morning light.
That reflection hardly resembled his true self.
Prior to this, Xuan Lang’s world had been gloomy and dark; he viewed himself as a monster ground down into the dust, utterly incompatible with the rest of the world. He harbored an insecure belief that he had no business existing in this universe, and that his very existence was a mistake.
Yet, reflected in Li Jian’s eyes, Xuan Lang saw a version of himself filled with brilliant light, stripped of all dark shadows and standing tall beneath the open sky.
Prompted by that gaze, Xuan Lang found himself inexplicably agreeing to the request.
As long as Li Jian said he could do it, he was willing to give it a try.
Directly behind the courtyard where Xuan Lang lived lay a continuous chain of towering mountains, their slopes blanketed in dense green foliage with roots disappearing into the mist. After searching around for quite a while, Li Jian finally located a relatively suitable spot amidst the peaks.
Hidden deep within the mountain range and entirely devoid of human presence, this location offered absolute safety, ensuring that even if Xuan Lang genuinely summoned heavenly thunder, they needn’t worry about being discovered.
“The terrain here is exceptionally ideal. Let’s use this spot.”
Xuan Lang had followed closely behind the entire way. Turning around, Li Jian nodded to him.
Above their heads, brilliant daylight beamed down through the dense canopy of trees, casting dappled patches of light like scattered seals across the mountain terrain.
Reaching into his cosmos sack, Li Jian produced a sword—a pure white silver blade that shimmered with fluorescent radiance under the sunlight, looking both exquisite and spiritually charged.
This was the original owner’s personal sword, which Li Jian had fished out from the sack the other day. Reasoning that summoning heavenly thunder would be easiest with a sword, he figured it played directly to the youth’s strengths.
Standing beside him, the slender young immortal lord accepted the sword. The silver-white glow of the blade flashed instantly across his profile, vanishing faster than one could catch.
“Begin,” Li Jian instructed.
“Alright.” Gripping the hilt tightly, Xuan Lang looked somewhat nervous.
Assuming the boy was worried about failing to succeed and disappointing him, Li Jian offered words of encouragement: “Don’t worry, it doesn’t matter if you can’t summon heavenly thunder just perform to the best of your ability.”
Since it was the young immortal lord’s first time harnessing his innate talent without proper instruction, feeling nervous was entirely natural; Li Jian understood this completely.
Yet he had little choice. Given his own cultivation level, he lacked the means to casually inspect another person’s spiritual root, forcing him to rely on this roundabout method of verification.
To ensure mission completion and secure his reward, Li Jian had no choice but to temporarily put the young immortal lord through some trouble.
Of course, Li Jian wasn’t the sort of client-overlord who only knew how to bark orders. As a seasoned corporate veteran, he understood all too well how difficult an employee’s job could be; therefore, he even taught Xuan Lang a sword-manipulation incantation to help him adapt more quickly.
Crossing his arms, Li Jian took a step back, prepared to sit back and watch Xuan Lang slowly duke it out with the massive boulder before them. Reducing a rock of that scale into fine powder would undoubtedly require a tremendous amount of effort.
Li Jian even experienced a fleeting pang of regret that he hadn’t brought along a comfortable recliner to lounge on while waiting. Who knew how long this might take?
Narrowing his eyes slightly as he prepared to lean back against a tree trunk behind him to assume a comfortable resting posture, he was suddenly startled by a deafening boom that rang out right as Xuan Lang’s low incantation concluded.
The sheer shockwave blew Li Jian backward. The sturdy mountain rock before them shattered violently beneath a gale-force blast, erupting into a crackling sound of searing flames and billowing smoke.
Moving with blinding speed, Li Jian lunged forward and hauled Xuan Lang back out of the danger zone. Shards of stone exploded and rained down from midair, carrying blistering sparks that ignited patches of fire wherever they landed.
A sudden gust of wind swept through, and the flames instantly spread across the surrounding mountain terrain with a momentum that threatened to consume everything in their path.
Damn it, this is utterly absurd.
Forget that he had only arrived a few days ago; even after decades of cultivation, the original owner had never witnessed such an outrageously gifted prodigy!
He believed it now he completely believed it. If this person wasn’t a descended immortal lord, he would gladly declare himself the bottom!
Before Li Jian could even finish cursing, he had already pulled Xuan Lang onto the surface of the silver sword. Directing the long sword to soar into midair, he watched as the young immortal lord looked up at him with a flustered expression, lowering his gaze submissively as if he had committed a grave error.
“I’m sorry, Immortal Elder, I…”
He had exercised considerable restraint, yet he still managed to stir up trouble.
With a sweeping gesture of his hand, Li Jian offered reassurance: “It’s fine, thankfully it wasn’t real heavenly thunder the fire isn’t spreading too wildly…”
Before the words had even faded, the cluster of trees ringing their immediate perimeter was scorched dry and collapsed with a resounding crash, the wildfire surging outward to engulf the perimeter.
An awkward, embarrassed smile tugged at the corner of Li Jian’s lips, making the young immortal lord feel even more self-reproachful.
Wasting no time, Li Jian reached into his cosmos sack to retrieve several paper talismans. Gathering spiritual energy at his fingertips, he tapped lightly against the talismans, sending them flashing through the air to deploy a barrier encircling the burning patch of woodland.
Pure white streams of spiritual light dispersed within the barrier. Although the fire wasn’t overwhelmingly massive, Li Jian still had to expend a fair amount of effort to extinguish it completely.
Only after every single spark died out did Li Jian land his sword on the ground. Waving away the lingering clouds of smoke, he raised a hand to lightly cough against the dust.
Standing nearby amidst the charred remains of fallen timber, Xuan Lang lowered his head and spoke in a soft voice, “Immortal Elder, did I cause trouble for you?”
Scanning his surroundings, Li Jian saw that the boulder struck by Xuan Lang had been blasted into countless fragments. It had indeed been struck by thunder-like force and tempered by fire into powder, though the intensity of the blaze had left the powder slightly charred.
“Not at all, how could you have?” Pointing at the concave indentation within the mountain rock, Li Jian smiled, “Your blast happened to uncover the exact material I needed; if anything, I should thank you for your help.”
“Immortal Elder is merely teasing me.” Xuan Lang offered a hand to steady Li Jian as the two gathered their things and descended the mountain.
Though young in years, he lacked neither discernment nor experience, particularly after enduring years within the Qi family estate where he learned to distinguish genuine words from polite pretense.
He suspected that’s remarks were fabricated, as the logic sounded rather far-fetched; yet gazing into’s eyes which reflected the daylight and his own figure with utter sincerity he found himself doubting his doubts.
Tilting his head, Li Jian mused, “Why would I jest? You performed admirably, and praise is naturally due.”
He genuinely believed the young immortal lord possessed extraordinary natural talent, hence his casual praise. Besides, navigating the jianghu required keeping one’s words sweet to ensure smooth operations.
“……Thank you.” Xuan Lang visibly relaxed. “It has been a long time since anyone spoke to me like that.”
Li Jian’s footsteps faltered. It appeared he had accidentally touched upon a sorrowful chapter in the young immortal lord’s life.
The servants of the Qi family had mentioned that Xuan Lang lost his parents at a tender age, which was why he came to depend upon the Qi family. Coupled with the poor treatment he received from everyone in the household especially Qi Jingyao’s constant bullying—it made sense that he hadn’t heard words of praise in a very long time.
Lifting his hand with a dignified air, Li Jian patted the boy’s shoulder. “No matter. From now on, leave such words to me; whatever you wish for, I shall help you attain.”
Turning his head sideways, Xuan Lang stared straight at Li Jian.
The brilliant daylight bathing the young man’s figure cast a golden halo around him, rendering him even more dazzling than the divine statues enshrined within temples.
He truly was a deity sent down from the heavens to save him, Xuan Lang thought to himself.