Chapter Seven: How Wonderful It Is to Have an Elder Brother Who Can Refine Elixirs

At this moment, Mo Bufan was already nearing the limits of his cultivation. He didn't catch the hint of frustration in Song Yuxuan's words and, gasping for breath, blurted out, "Wife... can you let me climb up first...?"

Although he hadn't seen his wife these past few days, every detail of his daily life was inseparable from her. Given his status as a live-in son-in-law, whenever he saw the vice sect leader before him, the phrase "my lucky wife" instinctively came to mind. Now, with his physical strength at its end, the term slipped out naturally and unthinkingly.

To Mo Bufan, this simple utterance seemed harmless. But to Song Yuxuan, who had been single for five centuries and was utterly clueless about matters of the heart, it sent her pulse racing. At first, she frowned, ready to scold him for being indecent. Yet, seeing his utterly genuine manner, she realized there was nothing indecent about it—if anything, it was the very opposite.

For a brief moment, her heartstrings were plucked by this commonplace address that felt oddly fresh to her immortal ears.

Mo Bufan, oblivious to the thoughts swirling in the mind of the silly girl before him, saw that she wasn't giving way. The flow of blood in his body was already being affected; the absorption of the pill he'd just swallowed was being severely hindered. With a sigh, his trembling legs somehow carried him around Song Yuxuan, and he continued clambering toward the mountaintop.

Song Yuxuan frowned, momentarily forgetting to stop him.

She then noticed the disciples lurking around the Tianyu Peak, peeking out to watch the spectacle. With a flick of her sleeve, she released a surge of energy, sweeping them all off the peak's grounds.

She had originally come here to scold Mo Bufan for causing such a commotion and disturbing the disciples' cultivation, but now she found herself clearing the way for him.

Of course, Mo Bufan himself had no intention of making a scene. But as the current focus of attention, any small deviation in his behavior could draw eyes. Even if cultivators weren't busybodies, a little drama could still stir interest.

Skirting around Song Yuxuan, Mo Bufan spent a full quarter of an hour before finally hauling himself up to the little courtyard at the mountaintop.

By now, he was soaked to the bone, both legs numb as if dead. He set the stone down and collapsed beside it like a lifeless dog, using the last of his strength to toss another "Golden Wind Jade Dew Pill" into his mouth before settling in to catch his breath.

Now, at the peak of blood circulation, not a moment of this effect could be wasted!

While Mo Bufan was still panting, Song Yuxuan appeared before him again, repeating her earlier question: "What exactly are you doing?"

Mo Bufan glanced up at her, too exhausted to think, and simply grinned, "What else? Cultivating, of course."

"You... cultivate like this?" Song Yuxuan looked utterly bewildered. In her five centuries of life, she'd seen countless cultivation methods—never one like this.

Recovering a bit of strength from the pill, Mo Bufan managed to prop himself up against the stone. Recalling what Song Yuchen had said to him before, he tested the waters with a sly chuckle, "If I don’t cultivate like this, how else should I cultivate?"

Song Yuxuan, seeing his attitude, frowned further, clearly annoyed.

Seeing her displeasure, Mo Bufan managed a wry smile. "Then how do you think I should cultivate? Practice breathing techniques and meditate?"

Song Yuxuan was stumped for a moment. She knew well enough the state of his body. After a brief pause, she finally spoke, "To be honest with you, your constitution really isn't suited to cultivation. No matter how hard you try, it probably won’t amount to much."

"I know. Second Senior Brother told me long ago," Mo Bufan sighed. "But if I don't at least try, how can I be sure it's useless? Besides, if I do succeed, wouldn't that be good for you too? At least no one would say your husband is a good-for-nothing."

Song Yuxuan blinked in surprise. "You're working this hard just for that?"

---

At that moment, Mo Bufan was deeply absorbed in feeling the effects of the medicine coursing through his veins and didn't have time to answer. Nor did he have the energy to continue chatting, so he remained silent.

Song Yuxuan immediately took his silence as tacit agreement.

The two were quiet for a long while before Song Yuxuan finally spoke again. "You really don't need to do this. The two of us are from different worlds—I'm immortal, you're mortal. No matter how hard you try, nothing will come of it. You should think about yourself..."

"Hmm?" Mo Bufan muttered with a strange look. "Why do these lines sound so familiar?"

"What lines?" Song Yuxuan, interrupted, looked at him curiously.

Mo Bufan's mind flashed back to all those tragic novels he'd read in his previous life, where there was always a female character saying something like this to the protagonist, which would trigger his hidden potential and send him soaring...

He didn't feel that sort of deep suffering himself, so he simply curled his lips. "No famous lines—just thinking about the obstacles on the road to genius."

Song Yuxuan felt like she couldn't carry on the conversation any longer. His thoughts seemed to run on a completely different track, stubbornly fixated on cultivation. She sighed. "Fine, then keep cultivating. If you run into any trouble, feel free to come to me. I'll do what I can to help."

With a wave of her hand, she activated the protective formation around Tianyu Peak, ensuring neither Mo Bufan would disturb the other disciples nor would they disturb him.

At that moment, her gaze fell upon the pill bottle in Mo Bufan's hand: Golden Wind Jade Dew Pill!

Wait, that name sounded familiar. Wasn't that the pill Fourth Senior Sister always ate whenever she complained Second Senior Brother wasn't up to snuff?

"So that's it! This fellow! All this talk about cultivation, but it was all for that...!" In an instant, Song Yuxuan was fuming, her beautiful face turning icy cold.

Mo Bufan was just about to thank his wife for her kindness when he looked up and met her bone-chilling gaze. He shuddered, unable to utter a word.

"Shameless! Degenerate!" After holding it in for a long moment, Song Yuxuan finally spat out those words, then turned and stormed off, destroying her own training ground and leaving the dumbfounded Mo Bufan standing there.

"Shameless? Degenerate?" Mo Bufan was completely bewildered. "How am I shameless? How am I degenerate? A woman's heart is truly unfathomable—how can she flip moods like this!"

...

Back at her training ground, Song Yuxuan's anger still hadn't abated. She seethed, thinking about that shameless man and his little bottle of pills, never expecting that all his desperate efforts were for that.

After all these years, the first man to have any formal connection to her turned out to be such a one. Her anger was mixed with embarrassment; how could a man go to such lengths for such a thing?

She knew his body was poor at absorbing spiritual energy and medicinal effects and understood that accelerating his blood flow could help with absorption.

But those pills... they must have been given by her senior brothers. She would certainly not let them off the hook.

---

With a thought, Song Yuxuan sent messages to several of her senior sisters and the partners of her senior brothers, exposing her unscrupulous senior brothers' misdeeds.

As a result, over the next few months, many of the male elders in the Celestial Profound Sect suffered greatly!

...

On the other side, Mo Bufan quickly put the episode with his wife out of mind, throwing himself back into desperate cultivation. Only after a day of training his body would he spare a moment for breathing exercises.

This time, he abandoned his old "Heaven's Evolution Technique," instead choosing a new method from the scripture vault—"Black Tortoise Technique"—which suited him better and resulted in purer spiritual energy.

Unfortunately, progress was slow. At least, slower than his previous leaps through the first three levels of the Enlightenment Realm. After a whole month, he barely sensed the possibility of breaking through to the fourth level.

Of course, this was by no means slow, but Mo Bufan was far from satisfied.

Now, another problem arose—he had run out of body-tempering pills!

His reliance on pills for cultivation was heavy; without them, breaking through would be nearly impossible.

"Looks like I'll have to visit Senior Brother Gai Nie tomorrow," Mo Bufan sighed. "But who knows if he'll actually help me?"

The next morning, after breakfast, Mo Bufan rode his crane straight to Qingyun Peak, where Gai Nie resided.

He arrived without hindrance, and before he could even call out, Gai Nie appeared in the air before him, beaming. "Brother-in-law! I knew you'd come. Out of pills, are you?"

Mo Bufan was caught off guard by Gai Nie's expression but immediately felt reassured—getting pills this time should be no problem. He clasped his hands respectfully. "Greetings, Senior Brother Gai Nie. Nothing escapes your sharp eyes!"

Gai Nie chuckled. "Save your flattery. Honestly, I’m moved by your determination. For... well, for our little junior sister, you give it your all. Don't worry, I’ll help you as much as I can."

With that, he grabbed Mo Bufan and led him toward his alchemy workshop.

Hearing this, Mo Bufan instantly understood the implication. After all, his senior brothers' motives in giving him pills had always been less than pure, and his reckless use of them only confirmed their suspicions. He forced an awkward smile.

But seeing how satisfied Gai Nie was with the situation—so satisfied he was touched—Mo Bufan realized he’d have to play along to get those body-tempering pills.

"If only Second Senior Brother were as diligent as you, I'd have several more nephews by now. But that lazy guy hardly takes the pills I give him, so I always end up getting scolded by Fourth Senior Sister!" Gai Nie rambled on.

Mo Bufan watched his senior brother's look of exasperation, feeling a bit embarrassed. Then, an idea sparked. He sighed and said, "Actually, Second Senior Brother isn't so bad. But do you believe in love at first sight, Senior Brother?"