16 Unease

A little before noon, Lin Tao and Ji Yun entered the Obsidian Forest. However, they did not head towards the Floral Lake. They traveled in the general direction of the burrow, carefully observing their surroundings.

By the time they located the burrow, they each held a spirit beast corpse. They had killed the two spirit beasts, each possessing the strength of a rank 6 spirit warrior, with ease. Only based on their slightly hurried breathing would one be able to tell the children had just been engaged in a battle. The two children had spent much more time locating the burrow than hunting the two spirit beasts.

"This should be the burrow master was referring to, right?" Ji Yun stared at the hole with uncertainty. The children would not have taken so much time to find the burrow if their master had given good instructions.

"It should be. Besides, it shouldn't be too much of an issue if we found the wrong one. We can just blame it on master's terrible instructions. 'Just look for a burrow under a thorned hucklebush that's around 50 meters from the Floral Lake,' he said. Clearly, its master's fault for being so vague," replied Lin Tao, not attempting at all to hide his annoyance.

After tossing the spirit beast corpses into the hole, the young pair made their way towards the Floral Lake.

Just before the Floral Lake had come into sight, a gentle voice greeted the young pair, "This guardian spirit offers her greetings."

"Granny, your recuperation must be going well! The range your voice can reach must have expanded. When you first spoke to me, we were about 5 meters closer to the lake," Ji Yun cheerfully waved her hand at the air in greeting.

"You're quite observant, little one."

"I don't possess talent as an array master for nothing! Naturally, I should be observant, especially in regards to distances and ranges of things." Ji Yun's voice was tinged with pride.

"Speaking of which, who's teaching you about arrays?"

Ji Yun let out a sheepish laugh, "At the moment, no one is. Master isn't an array master, so I need to wait until I enter the intermediate section of Royal Sun Academy before I can advance my studies on arrays. For now, I'm just training the basic foundations of array masters. Also, I only recently became a spirit master, so I still have much to learn as a spirit master too."

"I see… Little Tao, how's you alchemy studies progressing?"

"I do not have a master that teaches me alchemy. I have been learning from books. Currently, I can only make rank 1 pills."

"You say only rank 1 pills, but isn't that already amazing! Who else your age can refine rank 1 pills with your success rate!" Ji Yun reprimanded Lin Tao for not appreciating his own talents.

Bai Lian sighed to herself, 'Note to self, avoidance is not a good strategy for dealing with things you don't like.' She had no clue what was considered talented.

If she had not been so adamant about avoiding matters regarding cultivation in her past life, she would not be so lacking in information in her current life. She only knew the most basic of information regarding spirit masters.

"Your talent is not bad. I guess you can be considered worthy of being considered my disciple."

"What about me?" Ji Yun pouted.

"I couldn't be any happier. It is my great fortune to be able to have such a cute disciple. Otherwise, I would be stuck teaching that uncute brat alone without anything to ease my poor mind."

Ji Yun beamed upon hearing the guardian spirit's response. Lin Tao ignored the guardian spirit's verbal jab at him and stared worryingly at Ji Yun, 'She already has a tendency to start kissing up to you whenever she wants something. Her bad habits won't worsen after spending more time with that granny, right?'

Lin Tao cleared his mind as he recalled the matter he had been wanting to inquiring about since the morning training session with Shui Renshu. "Hey granny, why must we toss spirit beast corpses into that specific burrow?"

"Your master hadn't told you why?"

"He told us to just do it and if we had questions, we should bring it to you," Ji Yun chumed in.

'So he wants me to be the one to make up the story. How lazy. That old fox should be capable of easily coming up with a random reason,' Bai Lian sighed to herself.

With no hesitation, the gentle voice sounded in the minds of the two children, "That burrow is special. After being injured in that great war ages ago, I had been trapped in a deep slumber. Upon awakening from my slumber countless generations later, that burrow was the first thing I had noticed. There's an ancient demonic artifact in that burrow that absorbs the dark qi within corpses and converts it into an energy beneficial to spirits. However, it would be dangerous for the two of you to come in contact with it since it's demonic. Do you two remember the tree next to the burrow? That tree was where I first encountered my sworn sister, the spirit of light. I surmised that the burrow must have been dug by my dear sister. She had always held great contempt for demons, but for my sake, she must have forced herself to put her hatred aside in order to prepare that artifact for me."

The two children were slightly surprised. The guardian spirit's voice had always been very gentle. They did not think her voice could have been capable of becoming even warmer.

"The bond between you and the Goddess of Light must have truly been deep," marveled Ji Yun.

"Why of course. We were sworn sisters after all." Pride was quite evident in the gentle voice as Bai Lian recalled her glorious past, despite its nonexistence.

Lin Tao slightly frowned. He could not detect any traces of lying from the guardian spirit. However, deep down he could not bring himself to truly believe he was speaking with a legendary guardian spirit. 'Is it because she teased me that I have an inner bias against her and can't bring myself to acknowledge her being so great in the past? She doesn't seem to be lying, nor does she hold any ill intent towards us, but…'

He pushed his unease to the back of his mind, "I see… Thanks for answering my question, granny. I don't have any other inquiries, so you can begin teaching us."

Bai Lian noticed Lin Tao's inner turmoil, 'Did the old fox teach him how to train his guts? This will be troublesome.'

"I plan on first teaching you young ones the recipes to my special medicines. They can be made even without medical knowledge. Afterwards, I will truly begin passing my medical knowledge upon the two of you."

"Isn't it usually the other way around?" Lin Tao's face revealed confusion. For the typical alchemist, before one would try refining pills, they would already have an extensive understanding of herbs and medicine. After all, if they did not have a deep understanding of the properties of the herbs they are using, they would be unable to refine a good pill.

"My special medicines can really be made by anyone as long as they know the proper techniques and procedures. Also, it would be more beneficial to learn the recipes first since my medicines can be sold for a lot of money. Isn't it better to start earning money sooner?"

"Why would a guardian spirit like you be interested in making money?" Lin Tao narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

"It's for the two of you, silly. Having plenty of money will only benefit your cultivation. I trust you will spend the money wisely. Ah and it would truly be troublesome if you wish to buy a good thank you gift in the future, but lack the money."

"Granny, how—" Ji Yun was interrupted by a gentle voice before she could finish her sentence.

"Since I'm now teaching the two of you, you children should be referring to me as master." Although Bai Lian had gotten use to being an elderly granny, she still did not like her new age. 'Now these two will stop reminding me of my old age everytime they refer to me.'

"Ah you're right! Master, how should we go about selling the medicines? These special medicines have not been sold since the death of that Bai girl. Would—"

The gentle voice interjected once more, "No need for worry, Little Yun. I have already thought things through. We can talk in more detail after you two can properly make my special medicines. For today, you children only need to focus on mastering the medicine brewing techniques I'll be teaching."