If only it were the latter, Xiao Yan, although he considered himself a genius, paled in comparison to Nalan Yanran, who was already a Dou Spirit powerhouse. Moreover, he had never met Nalan Yanran and had no idea what she looked like. If she turned out to be an ugly woman who couldn’t find a husband, wouldn’t he be at a loss?

Xu Zong suddenly felt his nose itch and took a few deep breaths to suppress it.

“I’m going to collect medicinal herbs. Xiao Yan, you should learn from Master Yao!”

With the transaction completed, Xu Zong had no intention of staying long and walked towards the door.

“I understand, Master.”

Xiao Yan respectfully replied.

“…Do you think you can disrespect me just because I’m young?”

Xu Zong stopped in his tracks, rolled up his sleeves, and squinted at Xiao Yan, his gaze becoming dangerous.

“Uh, I just thought, since I have two teachers, there should be a difference in how I address them!”

Xiao Yan smiled awkwardly and unconsciously rubbed the back of his head.

“Then call me Teacher Xu.”

Xu Zong smiled slightly, but it was a sinister smile.

“Call me ‘Little Teacher’ again, and I’ll beat the shit out of you. I’ll teach you what it means to respect your teacher!”

Xiao Yan immediately sucked in a breath of cold air and shook his head repeatedly, indicating that he would never dare to do so again.

Satisfied, Xu Zong nodded and left the Xiao family.

“Phew!”

Xiao Yan let out a sigh of relief, feeling a sense of fear in his heart.

Beating the shit out of someone was too harsh!

How could a girl like Little Teacher speak so recklessly?

“This little girl’s talent is truly extraordinary.”

Yao Chen floated in mid-air and sighed when he sensed that Xu Zong had left the Xiao family.

“She’s only fifteen or sixteen years old, yet she has already reached the Dou Huang realm and her soul has reached the Spirit grade. Even among the ancient clans, there is no such monstrous talent… In the future, there will probably be an extraordinary figure rising.”

Fifteen or sixteen years old?

Xiao Yan was amazed. Little Teacher seemed to be around the same age as him.

A thought suddenly crossed his mind, and he became inexplicably confident.

He remembered that his fiancée, Nalan Yanran, was also fifteen years old.

Look, we’re both fifteen years old. Isn’t my Little Teacher much stronger than my fiancée?

There was no need to fear someone like Nalan Yanran!

“Your father is here, I’ll leave first!”

Suddenly, Yao Chen’s expression changed, and his illusory body returned to the black and simple ring in his hand.

“Yan’er, are you in the room?”

Before long, Xiao Zhan’s voice came from outside the door.

“Father, are you looking for me?”

Xiao Yan opened the door and saw Xiao Zhan, whose luxurious clothes were somewhat disheveled. He couldn’t help but feel guilty.

It was because of his test with Little Teacher that his father had suffered.

“Yan’er, there’s something I need to apologize to you for.”

Xiao Zhan looked even more ashamed when he saw Xiao Yan.

“The engagement between you and the Nalan family’s daughter, I’m afraid it can’t be maintained anymore!”

With a long sigh, Xiao Zhan informed Xiao Yan of what had happened in the hall just now.

With this difficulty, the engagement between the two families could no longer continue, otherwise the Xiao family might face the disaster of annihilation!

“I have no problem with that!”

Xiao Yan readily agreed.

He had never met Nalan Yanran and only knew of her reputation as a genius. At the age of fifteen, she was already a Dou Spirit powerhouse. Honestly, if he had such a wife, he would be quite overwhelmed!

“As long as you understand. Sigh, it’s my fault for not being able to withstand the pressure from outsiders.”

Xiao Zhan sighed with a sense of loss, hunched his back, and left Xiao Yan’s room.

“Kid, your fiancée is already a Dou Spirit powerhouse at the age of fifteen?”

After Xiao Zhan left, Yao Chen emerged from the ring again, quite curious.

“That’s what I heard.”

Xiao Yan nodded, but he didn’t know much about it either.

“A fifteen-year-old Dou Spirit powerhouse is rare even in this remote northwest region… But compared to that little girl, she is still weaker. I didn’t expect such a genius to exist in this remote place.”

Yao Chen sighed for a while and then began to teach Xiao Yan the path of cultivating Dou Qi.

Of course, he had no intention of stopping Xiao Yan from cultivating his soul. Although Xiao Yan didn’t fully understand these soul cultivation techniques, he could tell that they were not some evil techniques that devoured souls. They would only bring benefits to Xiao Yan.

On the other side.

“Young Master, do you still need me to take action?”

Outside the city of Wutan, a black-robed figure respectfully accompanied Xu Zong.

“No need, you can return to the sect.”

Xu Zong waved his hand and sent him away. This person was an elder from the inner sect of the Cloud Mist Sect and came from the Black Horn Domain, so Xu Zong had brought him here to act.

“By the way, after you go back, remember to ask Master to collect these medicinal herbs.”

Xu Zong showed him several medicinal herbs listed in the prescription.

“Yes, Young Master!”

The person respectfully agreed and took note of them before leaving.

………

“Miss!”

In the imperial capital of the Gamma Empire, at the Nalan Mansion.

As soon as Xu Zong returned to the mansion, the servants immediately bowed respectfully.

“Is Father here?”

“He is, he is.”

Xu Zong immediately went to find Nalan Su, the current patriarch of the Nalan family.

He appeared to be a gentleman with an imposing aura, but his personality was similar to Nalan Jie’s. Both of them prioritized the interests of the family above all else.”Yanran, when did you come back?”

Upon seeing Xu Zong’s return, a brilliant smile spread across Nalan Su’s face.

Nowadays, in the entire Gama Empire, who didn’t know about his daughter Nalan Yanran’s genius? Thanks to her, even though Nalan Jie was poisoned, the Nalan family’s reputation remained undiminished. Every day, distinguished guests visited, and the family business was thriving.

“I have a pill to refine, I need some medicinal materials.”

Xu Zong listed several medicinal materials recorded in the Life Origin Pill.

“No problem, I’ll mobilize the family’s resources to collect them!”

Nalan Su patted his chest and agreed.

Nalan Yanran was undoubtedly the core figure of the family. The strength of the Nalan family depended on her. Her needs were naturally met as soon as possible. Although the materials she requested were rare, they were not extremely precious.

“By the way, Yanran, there’s something I want to discuss with you. About the childhood engagement your grandfather arranged, I think we should negotiate with the Xiao family. The Nalan family cannot accept a useless son-in-law—”

“I have my own plans for this matter, father, you don’t need to interfere.”

Nalan Su was interrupted by Xu Zong before he could finish his sentence.

“Also, in a while, someone will come to treat grandfather’s poison. That’s it, I have things to do, I’m leaving.”

As soon as she finished speaking, Xu Zong quickly left the Nalan residence.

“Yanran!”

Nalan Su chased after her, but she was nowhere to be seen, causing him to sigh.

The reason he brought up the childhood engagement with the Xiao family was that many families had recently proposed marriage. He wanted his daughter to break off the engagement with the useless Xiao family member and choose a future husband from among the heirs of these families. This would be more beneficial for the future development of the family. However, she disappeared in the blink of an eye.

After leaving the Nalan residence, Xu Zong plunged into the Beast Mountain Range.

Two months later.

“Huh, I wonder if these will be enough?”

Xu Zong flew out of the Beast Mountain Range. In her storage ring, there was a small pile of fourth and fifth rank fire attribute beast cores, and even two sixth rank ones. According to the pill recipe, the Life Origin Pill refined with the beast core of the same attribute as the core was the most suitable.

She returned to the Cloud Mist Sect and the Nalan residence, took all the collected medicinal materials, and brought a Nalan family elder back to the Xiao family in Wu Tan City.

Under Xu Zong’s instruction, the elder did not confront the Xiao family directly, but entered the Xiao family in a low-key manner and had a private discussion with the patriarch, Xiao Zhan.

When the two came out of the room, both had satisfied smiles on their faces.

“Patriarch Xiao, we have an agreement, right?”

“Of course, let’s just pretend this matter never existed!”

With that, both parties were overjoyed.

Xu Zong, who had been paying attention to the development here, nodded secretly.

In the original story, Nalan Yanran was indeed arrogant. She could have broken off the engagement quietly, but she chose to make it public, causing Xiao Zhan and Xiao Yan to lose face. In fact, if they had discussed it privately, the Xiao family might not have dared to accept a young sect master from the Cloud Mist Sect as their daughter-in-law. The entire Xiao family might have been swallowed up.

In Xiao Yan’s hut.

“Do you want to exhaust me?”

Yao Lao’s eyes almost popped out when he saw the pile of medicinal materials and beast cores that Xu Zong took out from her storage ring.

“Better safe than sorry, please help me refine a few more furnaces!”

Xu Zong said with a grin.

“Dream on, at most one furnace!”

Yao Chen was so angry that he took enough materials for one furnace from the pile and walked away.

“What a pity.”

Seeing this, Xu Zong looked distressed.

“I also have information about an Exotic Fire, the 19th ranked Green Lotus Core Flame. It seems I can only share this information with others!”

Yao Chen turned around and flew back, his face tense.

“Are you serious?”

“Couldn’t be more serious!”

Xu Zong swore solemnly.

“…Young lady, being too shrewd won’t get you married!”

Yao Chen was torn for a while, sighed deeply, picked up all the materials on the ground, and went to refine the pills.

“Alright!”

Xu Zong was overjoyed and finally let Yao Chen go.

From this, it can be seen that alchemists have a lot of wool to shear, and it can be sheared for a long time!

(End of Chapter)