After that day, Ji Lanruo completely changed her previous laid-back attitude and began seriously learning from Ji Yang.
She studied everything.
Thus, more than a decade passed.
Many events in between were skipped over by the jade tablet.
The two young girls who had been following them, Ji Xinran and Ji Xinyue, gradually grew up and blossomed into beautiful young ladies.
However, Ji Lanruo still guarded against Ji Xinran and Ji Xinyue as strictly as before, keeping them from getting too close to Ji Yang.
Watching his disciple Ji Lanruo, Ji Yang could only shake his head, but he found it hard to say anything.
As Ji Xinran and Ji Xinyue grew older, they became exceptionally curious about romance, harboring an unbridled range of ideas about love.
They often cornered Ji Yang and asked him about some rather explosive love stories.
This went so far that Ji Yang muttered to himself about whether he should recruit more disciples.
Of course, this proposal was flatly rejected by Ji Lanruo in harsh terms.
And it wasn’t just Ji Lanruo—even Ji Xinran and Ji Xinyue, the obedient disciples he had raised from childhood, turned rebellious and stopped listening to him.
Ever since Ji Yang started thinking about taking in new disciples, Ji Lanruo, whose hair had already turned black again, began dyeing it and dressing up once more.
The other two disciples also started imitating her.
Ding Nan found it quite pleasing to the eye; the three girls looked like characters straight out of a manga, very cute.
But perhaps due to a difference in mindset, Ji Yang himself, as their master, felt troubled and helpless about his three rebellious disciples.
Although Ding Nan had never been a master to anyone or had the experience of watching others grow up, he could understand Ji Yang’s troubles and helplessness.
Not to mention Ji Lanruo—Ji Xinran and Ji Xinyue’s overwhelming curiosity was simply outrageous.
Ding Nan found it outrageous and had a hard time understanding their thoughts.
The scenes were intermittent; judging by the notes and experiment records flashing by, they were clearly meant to inform later generations.
Ji Yang had been researching how to break the curse on him.
Unfortunately, Ding Nan, lacking knowledge and background in alchemy, couldn’t understand Ji Yang’s operations at all.
The only thing he understood was that Ji Yang had made pills that only treated the symptoms, providing portable medicine to suppress the curse.
As a result, he could normally recover to the Golden Core Stage and briefly reach the Nascent Soul Stage without worsening his condition.
However, until Ji Yang found a way to completely cure the curse, reaching the Spirit Transformation Stage was hopeless.
The year Ji Yang turned over eighty.
Ji Xinyue and Ji Xinran had completely shed their childishness, becoming mature and steady.
They often wore cold, expressionless faces, making it impossible to tell what they were thinking.
Both had reached the Great Perfection of the Foundation Building Stage.
Ji Lanruo’s strength had broken through to the Golden Core Stage.
The year Ji Yang turned over one hundred twenty, Ji Xinran and Ji Xinyue also formed their golden cores, achieving the Golden Core Stage, while Ji Lanruo finally broke through to the Nascent Soul Stage.
The large formation under the Xishan Sect was complete, all foundations laid, and construction of the Xixin Hall, the center of the formation, had begun.
It seemed everything was getting better.
But unfortunately, Ji Yang himself wasn’t doing well.
Ji Yang fell ill.
Due to the suppression of his cultivation, without nourishment from spiritual qi, Ji Yang’s lifespan was greatly reduced.
Foundation Building Stage cultivators lived around two to four hundred years, and Ji Yang began to age gradually.
Although he maintained a youthful appearance as a cultivator nourished by spiritual qi, his blood and qi started to decline.
From being able to turn an ox into meatballs with one punch to now having less strength than an ox, the contrast was truly too great.
Ji Lanruo and the others could only fret helplessly.
After all, their master had found no solution in his lifetime, and the three of them hadn’t even fully mastered the knowledge he had imparted.
However, Ji Yang didn’t seem afraid of death.
Since Ji Lanruo became a Nascent Soul Stage cultivator, he acted like an elderly man strolling in the park—fishing, playing with birds, painting, calm and composed, no longer studying the cure for the curse.
Ding Nan didn’t know what Ji Yang was thinking, but he knew that even the calmest person facing death would have trouble eating and sleeping.
Judging by how well Ji Yang ate and slept, it seemed he had truly come to terms with it.
But Ji Lanruo and the others couldn’t let go.
They thought Ji Yang had given up and felt deeply saddened.
So they took over all of Ji Yang’s past experimental data and began researching the curse on him, with Ji Yang cooperating.
The result was exactly as Ji Yang had thought—they couldn’t solve the curse.
Couldn’t find a way, gave up, or accepted it?
Ji Lanruo and the others felt somewhat dejected.
Ji Yang’s physical condition worsened.
He had black hair befitting a young man, but one day, white hair appeared.
Just a few strands, but they stood out conspicuously on his head.
Ji Lanruo, Ji Xinyue, and Ji Xinran, his three good disciples, all looked as if they had seen something terrifying.
One night, Ji Yang was reading by lamplight in his thatched wooden cottage.
He was still studying seriously, reading books on formations—specifically, one that detailed a divination technique called the Fate Seeking Art.
The door was knocked.
“Come in,” Ji Yang said instinctively.
The door opened.
Suddenly, Ji Yang felt slender, fair fingers wrap around his ribs, hugging him.
“Master…”
The warmth of the embrace, Ji Lanruo’s orchid-like fragrance, and the softness of her body gave Ji Yang a jolt.
Ji Yang turned his head but didn’t see Ji Lanruo; he could only smell and feel her breath.
Ji Yang had never been alone with Ji Lanruo before, but since his health had declined, she had been doing nothing for a long time.
He had relaxed, grown too comfortable, and let his guard down.
He thought she had stopped being suspicious and plotting against him—but now…
Ji Yang tried to steady his mind and said slowly, “Lanruo, you should know about my condition.”
Ji Lanruo was silent for a long moment, but still didn’t let go.
Instead, her arms tightened around him like a pair of steel pincers.
“Mm, I know.”
“Then let go.”
“Master, do you remember our promise?”
“Promise? What promise?” Ji Yang was puzzled.
Ding Nan was also puzzled.
When had Ji Yang made a promise with Ji Lanruo?
“You said that if I caught up to you, you would become my husband.”
“Huh?”
“Ha?”
Both Ji Yang and Ding Nan were dumbfounded, suddenly recalling a casual conversation from earlier, back when the Xishan Sect only had Ji Lanruo, during their time alone together.
“I only said you’d never catch up to me in your life! When did I ever agree to be your husband?!”
“Master, I am already at the Nascent Soul Stage.”
With that, her hands loosened.
“???”
Before Ji Yang could react, his head spun, and he suddenly found himself seated on the edge of the bed, his limbs locked.
Without his strength, Ji Yang had no power to resist.
Before him stood Ji Lanruo, elegant, mature, and full of charm.
She gazed at Ji Yang now, appraising him with a quiet but bold look, licking her lips.
“What are you doing? I am your mas—”
Ji Lanruo didn’t let him finish.
She leaned down and took away his ability to speak.