After delivering the pills to Yaoshan Sect, Qin Zhou prepared to return to Ping City.

“Village Chief, we won’t be accompanying you back.”

Baixing, now the head of Yuanqing Mountain Sect and overseeing sect affairs, couldn’t linger long in the lower realm. Lu Wu also seemed to have his own plans.

Qin Zhou made no attempt to persuade them, simply replying, “Very well.”

“We’ll see you off here.” Qin Zhou summoned Tunfeng, the striking black-and-white steed.

The two watched as Tunfeng carried Qin Zhou away.

Silence settled once more. Baixing glanced at his master and asked, “Master, do you not wish to accompany Grandmaster?”

Lu Wu replied, “Why should I follow the Village Chief?”

“As you said, Grandmaster raised you.”

“True. But I am no longer a youth. It makes no sense for me to return with the village chief.” Lu Wu turned and strode toward the provincial capital.

Baixing followed, his eyes holding an unyielding stubbornness. “But I’m over a thousand years old and still by your side. And I’ll continue to follow you forever.”

Just as I do now.

“You’re different,” Lu Wu sighed softly. “You’re my only disciple, raised from childhood. You and I, me and the village chief—we’re not the same.”

“How are we different?” Baixing couldn’t help but press for an answer.

Lu Wu smiled softly. “The village chief has hundreds of ‘disciples’ like me. I’m past the age of following him around learning alchemy. As for you, you have only me as your master, and I have only you as my disciple. Naturally, I must take you everywhere.”

These words left Baixing at a loss for how to respond. They sounded comforting, yet they weren’t what he truly desired.

Baixing sighed. “Then, Master mustn’t take any more disciples. I’d be jealous.”

“Alright.” Lu Wu agreed without hesitation.

“Master said the Grandmaster had over a hundred disciples. When Master was young, did you ever feel jealous of your fellow disciples?” Baixing asked tentatively. “Did you ever feel jealous that the Grandmaster treated them better?”

Lu Wu pondered. “Jealous… not really. The village chief treated everyone well.” As for that one special person… that indulgence was simply beyond jealousy.

“When I was just twenty, the Village Chief had a furnace forged for me,” Lu Wu recalled. “That furnace was cast from meteorite iron. Even now, it remains a top-tier alchemy furnace capable of refining sixth-tier elixirs.”

Nowadays, sects and clans serve as the foundational pillars for cultivators, yet which sect could match the Village Chief’s generosity?

“My furnace was also personally commissioned by the Master, who asked Third Uncle to forge it for me,” Baixing nodded.

Lu Wu said innocently, “Baixing, your master doesn’t know how to forge artifacts, so I had to rely on your Third Uncle’s hands…”

“…Master, I’m not blaming you.” Baixing thought of something and asked, “So does that mean Third Uncle’s forging skills were also taught by the Grandmaster?”

“Indeed,” Lu Wu smiled. “But Third Brother’s forging, much like my pill refinement, hasn’t reached half the Village Chief’s level.”

Hearing his master belittle himself so, Baixing felt a heavy ache in his heart.

“Master, it’s not your fault you couldn’t refine a sixth-tier Soul-Stabilizing Pill… It’s because the furnace Grandmaster gave you broke… The Soul-Restoring Grass is inherently overbearing; an ordinary alchemy furnace simply couldn’t withstand it…”

Lu Wu looked at him gently. “If it can’t be refined, it can’t be refined.”

“Baixing, I couldn’t save Shisi, just as I couldn’t save the other disciples.” Lu Wu lifted his gaze to the sky. Though the heavens were clear, the sunlight couldn’t pierce through the fog that hung heavily.

“The problem lies with me, not the furnace.”

Baixing fell silent.

He offered no reply.

After a long while, Baixing said, “Master, let’s return. When we have time, we’ll come visit Grandmaster again.“

”Alright.”

 ━━ 🐈‍⬛ ━━

Qin Zhou returned to Ping City, but neither Shisi nor Chen San was there.

After refining the Soul-Stabilizing Pill, Shisi insisted on returning to the upper realm to recuperate. Chen San had likely gone back to the city as well.

So, Qin Zhou took his fruit seeds and headed straight for the back mountain.

He began planting with single-minded focus.

From sunset to dawn, he planted until the entire mountain was finally covered in fields.

When Wen Jue found him, Qin Zhou was just about to take a break.

So Wen Jue arrived just as Qin Zhou was about to carry his tools back, his pant legs still rolled up to his calves, his feet still caked with mud.

He truly looked every inch the farmer.

“Finished planting?” Wen Jue surveyed the hillside dotted with small mounds, surprise evident. Last time he’d visited, this much hadn’t been planted.

“Yeah, just need to water it.” Qin Zhou nodded.

The two walked toward the village entrance, one ahead, the other behind.

“How are the mount and the Cosmos Bag working out?”

“They’re useful.”

Wen Jue silently nodded. He had suspected that although Tunfeng was difficult to tame, it shouldn’t be a match for Qin Zhou.

“I was away for half a month, and you’ve expanded your fields considerably. It seems your business in the provincial capital is going well?”

“It’s going reasonably well.”

So for the past half-month, Qin Zhou had been busy farming and making money? His cultivation hadn’t advanced at all.

“If you expand these fields further, I’ll collect rent! Payable every seven days!” Wen Jue declared with righteous indignation. “You haven’t forgotten, have you? The deed to this village belongs to me.”

At least seven days—that meant one more round of skipping squares.

Qin Zhou halted in his tracks, unable to resist turning back. “Who demands rent every seven days for houses and fields?”

“This Lord. Got a problem with that?”

Qin Zhou shook his head gently. “No, I’ll pay it when I get back.”

Wen Jue: “…I’m not that money-grubbing Wen from the past. Your business hasn’t made much yet, right? There’s no rush.”

“No, I’m paying you with some food.”

Wen Jue: ?

When the sixth-tier Core Stabilizing Pill was placed before him, even Wen Jue froze momentarily. It came in a small box wrapped in velvet cloth, exuding an enticing fragrance.

True, he had mentioned last time that he wanted Qin Zhou to refine some sugar-coated pills for him.

But he hadn’t specified a sixth-tier Core Stabilizing Pill.

This was sixth-tier.

Both in taste and efficacy, it was worlds apart from fifth-tier pills. With seventh-tier pill ingredients nearly extinct, the sixth-tier was already top-tier.

Such a pill would be fought over with people going bankrupt in the cultivation world, yet he gave it away as if it were nothing.

“Is this a return gift for the mount and the Cosmos Bag?” Wen Jue frowned and asked.

Qin Zhou was standing in the courtyard, drawing water to wash himself. “No.”

Wen Jue ran out holding the box, pressing, “Then what is it?”

“Sugar bean balls.”

Wen Jue felt the box burning his hands, its heat seeming to seep into his very soul.

Wen Jue wasn’t inexperienced. He’d even consumed seventh-tier pills, let alone sixth-tier ones.

But treating sixth-tier pills like candy… that was only during those years when the old man spoiled him rotten. Times had changed. Even back then, sixth-tier pills weren’t particularly rare.

“Who treats a single pill like candy?” Wen Jue turned his head away. It felt too precious to accept.

“There’s more after you finish this one,” Qin Zhou replied honestly.

The White Crane Tears given by Shisi had yielded a small batch after one furnace’s worth of refinement. He hadn’t given them all to Wen Jue, fearing he might overindulge. No matter how potent, pills were still medicine.

Wen Jue’s gaze grew complex. “Can’t you tell I don’t want to take it?”

Qin Zhou lifted his head at this. “Why not?”

Wen Jue: “…Aren’t you trying to make money? Do you realize these sixth-tier Core Stabilizing Pills could make those ignorant upper realm fools sell everything they own to snatch them up?”

“Oh.”

Oh my ass!

Just as Wen Jue opened his mouth to speak, Qin Zhou shot him a piercing glance. “So do you want it or not?”

“What if I don’t?”

“If I don’t… someone else will.”

Wen Jue stared in disbelief. “You’re giving it to me, only to take it back and give it to someone else?”

Qin Zhou chuckled inwardly. “Then do you still want it?”

“…Yes!” Wen Jue stuffed the box into his breast pocket and turned to leave. Listening closely, one could hear the gritted teeth and clenched jaw behind that “yes.”

Qin Zhou smiled faintly.

 ━━ 🐈‍⬛ ━━

Back in his room, Wen Jue ran his fingers over the pill box, deep in thought.

After a long while, he still didn’t hear Qin Zhou’s voice from outside.

He pushed open the window to take a look.

The courtyard was empty.

Had he gone off to tend the fields again?

Wen Jue tucked the box into his bosom and headed outside.

Just as he stepped into the outer room, he saw Qin Zhou. He lay on the daybed, which seemed a bit too short for him. His legs were slightly curled as he slept deeply.

Gazing at the person sleeping so soundly on the soft bed, Wen Jue instinctively quieted his voice and gently lowered his raised foot.

Approaching the daybed, Wen Jue’s lips moved.

He sleeps so soundly.

Wen Jue studied Qin Zhou’s sleeping face intently.

Ever since entering the Immortal Gate and becoming a cultivator, Qin Zhou’s features had grown even more refined than when he first began. His beauty wasn’t the type of youthful, delicate handsomeness. Instead, his appearance mirrored his character—steady and enduringly pleasing.

If his cultivation advanced further, who knew how many cultivators this temperament and appearance would captivate? Wen Jue chuckled softly to himself.

His fingers slipped unconsciously, landing on Qin Zhou’s face.

He gently poked the cheek.

No reaction.

Heh.

Wen Jue’s playful mood surged.

“Last time you touched this one’s face to your heart’s content. This one is merely returning the favor…” Muttering silent words, his slender, knuckle-defined fingers already traced the tip of Qin Zhou’s nose.

Like outlining a sketch, his touch glided to his brow, to his eyes, finally resting upon the peak of his lips.

The sleeper seemed to sense something, his brow furrowing slightly.

Wen Jue: !

He looked again. Still asleep.

“Strange. Why am I flustered?” He pressed his lips together lightly.

Frowning? Why frown? Don’t frown.

Then he raised his hand, feigning force but actually poking Qin Zhou’s brow very gently.

Qin Zhou stirred, his brow slowly relaxing.

Still not waking.

Just how defenseless was he around this man?

Wen Jue resolved to stop teasing him. Listening to Qin Zhou’s steady breathing, he felt a bit at a loss.

He hadn’t slept for days or nights.

To work oneself to exhaustion till falling asleep while farming—that was quite something.

Well, so be it.

Wen Jue straightened up and tiptoed out.

His handsome reflection caught in the well. Wen Jue glanced at it briefly before pulling out a bucket to draw water.

“It’s because… he gave me those candy bean balls.”

 ━━ 🐈‍⬛ ━━

Qin Zhou had actually woken up.

Though he felt no guardedness toward Wen Jue, the last time he’d fed him the Marrow Cleansing Pill had nearly sent him to the other side. Even he didn’t want to go through that again.

Besides, the touch of his fingertips was icy cold, the warmth on his face like tiny snowflakes in winter.

Ice-cold, yet tinged with a faint tingling sensation.

Qin Zhou awoke but didn’t rise immediately. Only now, belatedly, did his heart begin to race.

After waiting a while, calming his emotions, Qin Zhou pushed open the door.

Wen Jue was nowhere to be seen in the courtyard.

Gone too was the bucket by the well, used for drawing water.

With just one glance, Qin Zhou understood what he had gone to do.

So, he wrapped himself in his clothes and returned indoors.

None of his children was bad.

The most cherished one was also the quietest behind closed doors.

There was nothing wrong with him, except that he made the sound of Qin Zhou’s restless heartbeat seem especially abnormal.