But very soon, Xu Fan realized something was starting to go wrong.
No matter what hobby Xu Fan suggested—whether it was music, chess, calligraphy, painting, poetry, or literature—Ji Hanyue would happily accept it, always smiling as she earnestly learned from him.
The problem was… Xu Fan suddenly discovered that by the end of the day, the time he spent with Ji Hanyue had actually increased.
Before, after paying his respects three times a day, Xu Fan would have some free time. But now, with this new “plan,” Ji Hanyue would barge in without warning all the time, constantly scheming ways to run to Xu Fan’s cave residence every single day.
“Fan’er, is my grip on the brush wrong?”
“Don’t just stand there and talk—come here. Use your hands and help me adjust my posture.”
“Fan’er? What do you mean, you refuse?”
Seeing Ji Hanyue’s unfriendly, half-smiling, threatening look, Xu Fan shivered all over. He could only brace himself and lightly place his fingers on Ji Hanyue’s fair wrist. “Master, actually, your grip can be steadier. The so-called ‘fingers firm, palm hollow; wrist level, elbow suspended’ means… uh… Master, could you move your other hand off my waist first?”
Still, although there were some small mishaps, the final outcome left Xu Fan quite satisfied.
Under his guidance, Ji Hanyue truly developed a few hobbies—especially calligraphy and painting.
Xu Fan never taught Ji Hanyue how to paint.
But her talent in that area was shockingly terrifying. She seemed to comprehend the essence of the Dao of Painting without needing a teacher at all. With a casual sweep of brush and ink, she could create a small spiritual world on the scroll itself.
Every blade of grass and every tree she painted came alive under her brush, as if the strokes held divine power. With only a slight activation, those painted things could step out of the scroll into reality.
Watching Ji Hanyue paint so seriously, as if she had no time to bother with him anymore, Xu Fan secretly felt delighted.
Could this plan actually succeed?
Of course, Xu Fan didn’t have the bad habit of celebrating too early. So he remained calm on the surface, while casually testing the waters. “Master, should I go down to the market at the foot of the mountain and buy you some brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones?”
Ji Hanyue’s long, ink-black hair fell gently over her shoulders, concealing the faintly meaningful curve at her lips. Without even turning her head, she replied softly, “Go. Remember to come back early.”
Xu Fan couldn’t see her expression, but he was so excited he almost laughed out loud.
After so long, this was the first time Master had willingly let him go outside the sect!
This was undoubtedly a good start!
Xu Fan picked out brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones, but no matter what he did, he couldn’t suppress the smile in his eyes.
Next, he only needed to gradually raise Master’s tolerance threshold. Then she would slowly realize that he wasn’t that important. Given enough time, even if he suddenly died, maybe it wouldn’t be such a big deal…
After buying the calligraphy supplies, Xu Fan rubbed his hands excitedly. He planned to wander around outside the sect first, testing where Ji Hanyue’s bottom line truly was.
But what puzzled Xu Fan was this—today, the Supreme Void Immortal Mountain seemed unusually vast. In the past, the journey to the sect gate took less than half an hour, but now he had walked for more than an hour and still hadn’t seen the mountain gate.
With Ji Hanyue stationed here, he ruled out the possibility of an enemy attack. He muttered, “Something feels off… Did the sect expand while I was gone?”
With that thought, he formed a sword art seal with his fingers, rose into the air, and flew toward another direction.
Fortunately, this time he quickly flew out of the sect.
What lay ahead was an endless forest stretching as far as the eye could see, a vast blue sky clear and spotless, and a boundless ocean as blue as freshly washed silk. Everything looked like a newly awakened world painted into existence, brimming with vibrant life—like it had just opened its eyes after a long sleep.
Seeing such scenery instantly lifted Xu Fan’s mood, but he didn’t forget his purpose. “Even if the plan is going far more smoothly than expected, Master probably won’t just let me leave. She might be secretly watching me from somewhere right now. I need to hurry back…”
He pondered silently. “But since I finally got out, I can’t just do nothing. I should find a place to set up a teleportation formation. That way, I can use it as a base point for fast teleportation later, and I can keep testing Master’s tolerance threshold…”
With that, he began surveying the surroundings.
Whether by coincidence or not, Xu Fan noticed a distinctive mountain range not far away—rolling ups and downs, extremely recognizable. His heart immediately leapt with joy.
Xu Fan grinned, a faint smile appearing at the corners of his mouth. “Heaven is truly helping me! This mountain range has such obvious rises and falls—one glance and you’ll remember it. It couldn’t be more perfect as a teleportation base point!”
His robes fluttering, Xu Fan rode his flying sword and landed swiftly on the mountaintop. After sweeping the area with his divine sense and finding nothing suspicious, he began to set up the formation.
He took out several teleportation formation flags of different colors and placed them in an extremely concealed corner on the mountaintop, arranging them in the pattern of the celestial stars across the heavens. After that, he set up several concealment formations in succession, then finally nodded in satisfaction.
These days, under Ji Hanyue’s guidance, Xu Fan had successfully broken through into the Nascent Soul Realm. Coupled with some formation experience left in his mind from previous lives, even a sect master-level Heaven Ascension Realm cultivator wouldn’t be able to detect anything abnormal here.
“Fan’er, how long are you planning to play around?”
At that moment, Ji Hanyue’s voice suddenly sounded right beside Xu Fan’s ear. He jolted in fright and hurriedly replied with exaggerated eagerness, “Master, I’m coming back right away to stay with you. Please wait just a little—”
Before he could finish, Ji Hanyue’s slightly reproachful voice sounded again, “I don’t want to wait that long. Just stand steady in a moment.”
Xu Fan blinked.
So Master planned to use her Half-God Realm divine power to pull him directly back into the sect?
But would she tear open a spatial passage, or use that power of “speaking reality into existence” to teleport him back?
Still… what did she mean by telling him to stand steady?
But before Xu Fan could think further, the world around him suddenly changed!
He felt the ground beneath his feet shake violently. All the surrounding vegetation bent over like it was being crushed by a raging wind. Countless rocks rolled down the mountain with loud rustling sounds, the roar resembling a massive earthquake!
And the cause of this phenomenon was even more shocking—this mountain range, which looked firmly rooted deep underground, was now rising upward as if it had come alive, giving the impression it was about to surge straight into the sky!
Wasn’t he supposed to return to the sect by going east? Why was he flying upward into the sky?!
But when he lowered his head, he saw something even more absurd!
Those falling碎石 didn’t even hit the ground—in midair they turned into several drops of round, pitch-black ink, then quickly dissipated into nothing.
Wait… ink?!
Where did ink come from?!
Xu Fan suddenly recalled that before he left, Ji Hanyue had seemed to be painting something nonstop. His expression instantly stiffened.
A terrible feeling surged in his chest. His eyelids twitched wildly as he stiffly raised his head like a puppet.
In the sky that had been pure blue just moments ago, there was now a hazy silhouette shrouded in clouds and mist. And that silhouette was resting her chin on her hand, smiling as she stared at him without blinking, as if she were simply waiting for him to return!
I’m done for!
Xu Fan was on the verge of tears—when exactly had Ji Hanyue sent him into a painting?!
A few breaths later, inside the Supreme Void Immortal Mountain.
Ji Hanyue, dressed in a deep-purple, body-hugging dress, lovingly helped Xu Fan straighten his slightly messy hair, her voice full of tender reproach. “Fan’er, you really aren’t obedient. You promised you were only going to buy brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones for your master, but you wandered outside without even telling me. I almost didn’t have enough time to finish drawing some things.”
“Fan’er, next time you want to go somewhere, you need to tell me first. That way I can paint it more realistically, understand?”
Breathing in Ji Hanyue’s extremely alluring fragrance, seeing the small formation flags he had left behind inside the scroll, and feeling her gentle, delicate movements, Xu Fan suddenly felt something was seriously wrong.
But at least there was one thing to be thankful for—
He had still brought the brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones back.
Xu Fan silently encouraged himself: That proves Master actually does trust me to wander outside alone. She just didn’t want me going too far, so she used great divine power to pull me into the painting halfway.
So next time, he only needed to follow the original plan and slowly test her bottom line…
But in the very next moment, Ji Hanyue casually tossed all the brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones he brought back into the painting again, and said unhurriedly, “Fan’er, the brushes and ink drawn from paintings aren’t good to use. Next time, I’ll take you to buy some higher-quality ones. And while we’re at it, I’ll take you out to relax a little…”
Xu Fan suddenly realized—
Things seemed seriously not good.
…