No matter how humbly Liu Mingchuan begged and pleaded, Chu Lan had no intention of letting him go.
Liu Mingchuan’s terrified eyes reflected the figure of Chu Lan.
The flawed Spirit Sword in Chu Lan’s hand descended straight toward Liu Mingchuan.
Liu Mingchuan’s fate was without question; he became fertilizer for the spiritual herbs.
"Well, although Liu Mingchuan was only at the Body Spirit Realm First Layer, his flesh and blood are more than enough to serve as fertilizer for the Yunxiang Grass."
"Now, let's try practicing this sword martial art."
Chu Lan took out the manual for the Mystic Shadow Light-Splitting Sword.
To practice this sword martial art, one needed to coordinate with the Flowing Light Breathing Technique.
When inhaling, one must draw a semicircle with the sword; when exhaling, execute a sudden, straight thrust. This cultivates the rhythm for instantaneous sword qi deployment.
Following these instructions, Chu Lan picked up the flawed Spirit Sword and began his initial practice.
While Chu Lan was cultivating, a full day passed in the outside world.
The Liu Family discovered that Liu Mingchuan was missing.
However, someone had once seen Liu Mingchuan meeting with Chu Lan.
Therefore, the Liu Family immediately concluded that Liu Mingchuan's disappearance must be related to the Chu Family.
Liu Hui, the head of the Liu Family, led a group of people straight to the Chu Family residence.
"Chu Tianxiong, get your ass out here!"
Liu Hui's voice was majestic, echoing throughout the vast Chu Family estate.
Hearing the commotion, Chu Tianxiong came out. Seeing that Liu Hui had brought so many people, his expression instantly sank, but he quickly forced a change of expression.
"Master Liu, what wind blew you all the way here?"
"Don't sit there grinning at me, Chu Tianxiong."
Liu Hui did not give Chu Tianxiong the slightest bit of pleasantness.
This caused Chu Tianxiong to lose face, but he dared not show his anger in the slightest.
In recent years, ever since Chu Lan's father passed away, the Chu Family had been on a downward spiral.
Their overall strength was now completely incomparable to the Liu Family.
Not to mention that Liu Hui's daughter, Liu Yemei, was now a disciple of the Backing Mountain Sect.
They were even less someone the current Chu Family could afford to provoke.
"Where is Chu Lan?"
Liu Hui said coldly, "Go summon Chu Lan here right now!"
Hearing this, Chu Tianxiong's heart sank, and he inwardly cursed, "That good-for-nothing Chu Lan, what kind of trouble has he stirred up this time?"
"Master Liu, we are currently looking for Chu Lan ourselves."
After saying this, Chu Tianxiong immediately asked, "Did Chu Lan do something?"
"My son is missing, and Chu Lan did it!"
Liu Hui roared angrily, "Chu Tianxiong, I'm warning you, if my son doesn't come back, I will wipe out your Chu Family!"
"Rest assured, Master Liu, our Chu Family will definitely find Chu Lan as soon as possible!"
Chu Tianxiong gave his guarantee.
"Good. Remember your words. If you can't find him, your Chu Family can be erased from Luoyang City!"
With those words, Liu Hui left with the rest of the Liu Family.
Once Liu Hui departed, Chu Tianxiong's expression darkened, and he shouted loudly, "Send out everyone in the Chu Family who can breathe to search for Chu Lan!"
"In a city as large as Luoyang City, can't you even find a useless good-for-nothing?"
Meanwhile, inside the Divine Desolation Pagoda, a year of cultivation had passed.
Chu Lan had already mastered the first three levels of the Mystic Shadow Light-Splitting Sword, currently reaching the initial success stage, with only a hair's breadth remaining before achieving major success.
"Mystic Grade sword techniques are indeed difficult to learn," Chu Lan muttered to himself. "Coupled with my lack of foundation in sword techniques, it certainly consumed a lot of my time."
"However, with this as a foundation, practicing other sword martial arts in the future should be much easier."
Being able to cultivate a Mystic Grade martial art to initial success within a year inside the Divine Desolation Pagoda was already an extraordinarily high level of talent.
For ordinary people cultivating Mystic Grade techniques, a year wouldn't even guarantee successful entry-level comprehension, let alone initial success.
Looking at the flawed Spirit Sword in his hand, Chu Lan said, "Once I hand the Yunxiang Grass over to Bai Lingyi, I'll head into the Hundred Thousand Li Great Mountains to find a fierce beast and test the power of the Mystic Shadow Light-Splitting Sword."
"Besides, my current cultivation has reached the Vein Spirit Realm First Layer. Encountering a Vein Spirit Realm fierce beast should allow me to easily cut it down."
During the year in the Divine Desolation Pagoda, Chu Lan hadn't solely focused on practicing the Mystic Shadow Light-Splitting Sword; he had also been cultivating with the Pulse-Opening Pill.
If he had dedicated the entire year solely to the Mystic Shadow Light-Splitting Sword, he probably could have reached the stage of major success.
Chu Lan immediately stood up and harvested the fully matured Yunxiang Grass.
"Not bad. Using Liu Mingchuan's flesh and blood as fertilizer allowed the quality of this batch of Yunxiang Grass to match the previous one."
Emerging from the Divine Desolation Pagoda, Chu Lan immediately took the Yunxiang Grass and rushed to Qingyun Market.
At that moment, Bai Lingyi had been waiting for a long time in a private room at Qingyun Market.
Meanwhile, as Chu Lan walked down the street, he was quickly spotted by members of the Chu Family.
The Chu Family had mobilized almost everyone to search for Chu Lan.
Naturally, it was easy for them to spot him.
"Quickly block Chu Lan!"
One of them called out.
The others immediately swarmed forward.
Seeing this, Chu Lan raised an eyebrow. "Ah, the Chu Family."
He didn't actually hold any deep-seated hatred toward the other members of the Chu Family.
Therefore, Chu Lan spoke up, "Get lost if you don't want to die."
"Hahaha, Chu Lan, you really are arrogant. You mere good-for-nothing, how dare you speak so wildly to us?"
In their eyes, Chu Lan was still the waste whose dantian had been crippled.
"It seems you are all quite eager to die. Then I'll grant your wish!"
As Chu Lan uttered these words, a murderous gleam flashed in his eyes.
The Chu Family members instantly felt a chill run through them, and a sense of fear toward Chu Lan arose in their hearts.
Wait, why were they scared?
He was just a useless wastrel; any one of them could kill him with a flick of a finger.
Before these people could make a move, Chu Lan struck first.
The cultivation of the Vein Spirit Realm First Layer erupted.
Detecting this terrifying cultivation base, the expressions of the Chu Family members instantly changed.
"Oh no!"
"He's at the Vein Spirit Realm First Layer!"
"How... how is that possible? Wasn't his dantian crippled?!"
Even though this baffled them completely, their absolute first reaction was to run.
"Do you think you can escape?"
Chu Lan sneered. "Since you've come, don't even think about leaving!"
With a sudden lunge, Chu Lan rushed right in front of them, and before they could even react, he struck them down and killed them.
At the same time, Chu Lan collected all of their corpses into the Divine Desolation Pagoda.
How could he possibly let so much flesh and blood fertilizer go to waste?
With this brief episode behind him, Chu Lan arrived at Qingyun Market and was escorted by a waiter to the second-floor private room.
"Fellow Daoist, you've arrived!" Bai Lingyi said. "Is the Yunxiang Grass ready?"
Chu Lan nodded and motioned for Bai Lingyi to take out her storage ring.
Then, Chu Lan transferred the Yunxiang Grass from the Divine Desolation Pagoda directly into the storage ring.
Bai Lingyi took the storage ring and swept her divine sense across its interior. The Yunxiang Grass inside matched the quality of the previous batch perfectly.
"Thank you, Fellow Daoist."
Bai Lingyi looked at Chu Lan, her eyes filled with gratitude.
She then asked, "Fellow Daoist, when will the next batch of Yunxiang Grass be available?"
Chu Lan pondered for a moment. "Yunxiang Grass can be grown at any time, but to match the quality of this batch, it will probably take a little longer."
Bai Lingyi nodded. "Very well. Whenever Fellow Daoist has them, feel free to come find me."
With these Yunxiang Grass plants now in hand, her grandfather's condition could be temporarily alleviated for a while, so there was no particular urgency for more.
"If there's nothing else, I'll be leaving first."
Chu Lan stood up. As he descended from the second-floor private room and prepared to leave, a furious voice rang out.
"Chu Lan, I've finally found you!"