Chapter 38: Eldest Senior Brother

  Ming Fan was explaining to Gan Ping in a roundabout way, while Gan Ping was observing the decorations inside the hall and understanding the relationship between them. It turned out that there were no outer door disciples in this Earth Fire Hall, only more than a dozen servant disciples who helped with chores. The Earth Fire Hall had its own restrictions, so it didn't need to be swept or cleaned, making Gan Ping's task here relatively easy. After entering the Earth Fire Hall, there were only a few rooms for servant disciples to practice in the back hall, and if you wanted to go to the fire room, you would have to go down a long staircase to a series of rooms below.

  The Earth Fire Temple is the place where the entire sect refines elixirs, with a total of sixteen layers spiraling down towards the center of the earth. The deeper you go, the better the quality of the earth fire, and of course, the more spirit stones are required to be collected. Those people outside only hope to enter the first layer. All the rooms in the Earth Fire Temple are shared with the Heaven's Workshop Temple. On the other side of the Heaven's Workshop Temple, there is also a small patch of earth fire, but its quality can't compare to this place. Usually, when refining equipment materials, because many materials are needed for equipment refinement, the disciples of the Heaven's Workshop Temple complete it in their own temple and then come to the Earth Fire Temple to refine it. In the Earth Fire Temple, there are many furnaces that are left empty all year round for the Heaven's Workshop Temple, just in case they need them. As for the elders of the Earth Fire Temple refining elixirs, it's not so troublesome. The materials needed are few and the output is large. A few elders can refine all the low-grade spirit elixirs needed by the entire sect in a few days, and then they close themselves off to study elixir formulas, ignoring worldly affairs.

  In the usual days, there was nothing big in the Earth Fire Temple. Every day, there were disciples coming to use the earth fire, and they were received by the lower servant disciples. Two statues of strange beasts sat outside the door, so no one dared to make trouble. As a result, the elders in the temple were all carefree and at ease, and the servant disciples below were also very relaxed. The elixirs refined by the elders had to be sent to the Executive Law Temple for unified distribution, but if someone came to use the earth fire, it was managed by these servant disciples. Therefore, none of the inner and outer door disciples who had requests dared to be unreasonable to the people in the Earth Fire Temple.

  Ming Fan looked at Gan Ping, who was staring blankly, and said with a smug expression: "Our Earth Fire Temple is the best among all the temples in terms of treatment for registered disciples. We can roam freely every day and don't have to curry favor with others when we go out. Compared to other registered disciples, our lives are simply divine! You have no idea how those brothers in the Heaven's Workshop Temple suffer, moving materials for refining equipment every day!" Gan Ping had already lost interest in Ming Fan's chatter.

  I thought I had arrived at a place with great prospects, where I could start from the basics and gradually cultivate myself to find a way to rescue Ling'er and wake her up. But unexpectedly, after entering the Miao Cheng Sect, I ended up doing menial chores as a disciple, only receiving a thin book on "Guiding Qi". Now, I've somehow ended up here in the Huo Yue Hall, on duty, where one could say it's leisurely and carefree, but if you put it bluntly, it's simply idling away until death! What's the difference between this and spending my whole life in retirement? This is absolutely not the life Gan Ping wants.

  Gan Ping clenched his fists tightly, making a silent vow to himself that no matter the environment around him, he would strive to cultivate himself. He recalled the moment when he saved Ling'er's soul in Xiao Yue City, and how he was attacked by Qing without being able to fight back. If only he had surpassed Qing's abilities by far, he could have easily defeated him with just a wave of his sleeve. Ling'er wouldn't have suffered such a terrible fate. His life would ultimately be controlled by himself, and the best way to achieve this goal was to become stronger. With great power as his backing, no one would be able to toy with him at will.

  On the way, Ming Fan didn't show any unusual behavior, but kept talking to Gan Ping about some things in the sect. It seemed that being in the Fire Temple with just a dozen or so servants had made Ming Fan, who liked lively scenes, feel stifled. Seeing Gan Ping, he poured out all his words at once. Gan Ping looked at Ming Fan's non-stop opening and closing mouth, speechless. He was telling a story about the inner sect disciples fighting over the female disciple of the Azure Peak. Gan Ping hadn't expected that cultivators would also be jealous and petty, and the person in front of him was being so gossipy. Even Huo'er covered its ears with its small monkey paws, unable to bear the incessant chatter piercing its brain. Along the way, Ming Fan's mouth never stopped moving.

  Just as Gan Ping felt dizzy, a low voice came from afar: "Ming Fan, what are you making such a fuss about? Is it also your place to discuss the affairs of inner disciples?" Upon hearing this voice, Ming Fan's mouth, which had been speaking rapidly, suddenly stopped, causing Gan Ping to worry that he might have bitten his tongue. Ming Fan hastily bowed towards a tall and thin figure in the distance, saying: "Big Brother Master, I've brought Gan Ping here."

  Gan Ping only then saw clearly the man who appeared not far away. The man was in his twenties, tall and thin with a dark complexion, and had a serious expression all along. Gan Ping hastily imitated Ming Fan's gesture and bowed: "Greetings, senior brother." The man looked at the two of them, nodded slightly, and said: "You're quite knowledgeable about etiquette. Come, follow me to get the token, then let Ming Fan take you around to familiarize yourself with the Earth Fire Temple." After finishing speaking, he turned around and walked away without paying attention to the two, who hastily followed him.

  Even with Master Brother walking ahead, Ming Fan's mouth didn't stop, whispering to Gan Ping: "This is Master Brother Gu Senran. As servants and disciples, we don't have names given by others, so only when we become formal disciples can our masters give us names. The outside guys are the Xuan generation, but don't look at Master Brother's gloomy face, he's actually very kind. Right now, he's also a servant disciple, and we all think Master Brother will definitely become an outer door disciple, and then go to the main peak to learn Taoist techniques."

  He said that the senior brother who was walking in front of him coughed heavily twice, and Gan Ping looked at Ming Fan with a smile, shrinking his neck and no longer speaking. He looked towards the back of Senior Brother Gu's figure in front of him. It is very clear that this Senior Brother Gu is now only at the peak of the initial stage of Qi refining, but he is not young anymore. Any disciple standing outside has the strength of mid-stage Qi refining, and they are also much younger. It seems that this senior brother's talent is not good, and what Ming Fan said was just his own imagination.

  Three people entered a room, Gan Ping looked around and found that there was only one desk and a meditation mat, not even a bed. It seemed that every day Master's brother was busy with the affairs of the temple, and when he had nothing to do, he would cultivate. This kind of hard work was not something ordinary people could achieve, and Gan Ping couldn't help but admire Master's brother from the bottom of his heart. Gu Xunran walked over to the desk, picked up a token, and handed it to Gan Ping, saying: "From now on, you are a disciple of this Earth Fire Temple. Later, I will let Ming Fan take you to meet the other brothers, then go to the seventh floor Dan room to manage the furnace fire. You must be careful and cautious, don't be careless." Gan Ping repeatedly responded with "yes".

  Master Gu continued to instruct a few more sentences, entrusting Gan Ping with some matters of attention, before letting the two out. As soon as they left the door, Gan Ping noticed that Ming Fan's gaze kept sweeping over him, and couldn't help but feel a little strange. He turned his head to look at him and asked: "Ming Fan Shixiong, why are you looking at me like this?" Ming Fan looked at Gan Ping with some surprise, and suddenly came out with a sentence: "Have you offended someone?" Gan Ping was startled, where did this come from?

  Chapter Thirty-Nine: Enlightenment

  Coming out of Master Brother Gu Senran, Ming Fan's eyes looked at Gan Ping quite unnaturally, and then he blurted out this sentence, startling Gan Ping, who hurriedly asked: "What does this mean?" Ming Fan glanced at him and said: "Isn't it simple? In our Earth Fire Temple, the workload is the lightest, and no one has to do anything. The temple also has restrictions in place, so we don't even need to sweep the floor. At most, we just run errands for the senior teachers who are refining pills, sending them things, very leisurely. But as soon as you arrived, Master Brother let you go to the seventh layer of the Earth Fire Temple to manage the furnace fire. The Earth Fire Temple has sixteen layers in total, and the first five layers are relatively ordinary flames. From the fifth layer down, each layer is extremely fiery, and only the senior teachers can go down to the last three layers. You, a newly entered disciple, directly went to the seventh layer to manage the pill furnace - isn't that torture?"

  Ming Fan thought that Gan Ping would say something profound, but instead he heard these lazy words and couldn't help but burst out laughing. "Ming Fan, you're overthinking," he said with a smile. "Gan Ping has just entered the sect, how could he have offended anyone? It's probably because some elder needs someone to watch the dan furnace that I was sent here. Besides, being close to the dan furnace can also help me learn some alchemy techniques, which would be beneficial for myself." Ming Fan had grown accustomed to laziness and thought this was a punishment. Gan Ping secretly sighed in his heart, thinking that life in the Earth Fire Temple was indeed very comfortable, causing Ming Fan, a disciple who served as an attendant, to lose his motivation to progress. He wondered how many other disciples shared the same thoughts, but he himself remained determined to advance on the path of cultivation, lest he be ridiculed.

  Ming Fan thought for a moment, then stopped paying attention to these things. After all, it had nothing to do with him, so why bother worrying about it. He led Gan Ping to the quarters of the junior disciples in the Earth Fire Temple, found an empty room for him to put down his belongings, and then took him to meet the other on-duty disciples.

  In the morning, Gan Ping followed Ming Fan to tour the entire Earth Fire Temple and saw all the disciples in the temple. As expected, the highest among the servant disciples in this temple was indeed Master Gu Senran, while the rest of the disciples were only at the Qi Refining Initial Stage, around middle level cultivation. It seemed that the comfortable days in the Earth Fire Temple weren't good for their cultivation after all.

  Because Master Big Brother said that after Gan Ping's affairs were settled, he would go to the seventh floor of the Earth Fire Temple to guard the stove fire. Although Ming Fan advised him to go again tomorrow, Gan Ping still decided to report today. He put Huo Er on his shoulder and walked along the winding path towards the underground, occasionally passing by a few outer door disciples who didn't pay attention to Gan Ping's servant attire.

  Gan Ping looked around curiously at the decorations, the long and winding corridor was empty, this corridor spiralled downwards, on the top of every few dozen steps a moonstone was inlaid to illuminate it, so although it was underground it was as bright as daylight. The doors on both sides were tightly closed, and from time to time some noise came out, presumably those disciples who borrowed the fire room were refining elixirs or magical treasures.

  Gan Ping looked at the door numbers above and walked forward, earlier he had learned from Ming Fan that the first ten floors of the Earth Fire Temple were ranked by heavenly stems, the first floor's number one room was Jia Yi, and so on, Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding, Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren, Gui, the tenth floor. He himself was going to the seventh floor, Geng layer, only Master didn't explain which number he was going to in the Geng layer, however, as one went down the Earth Fire Temple became narrower and narrower, presumably when one arrived at the seventh floor there wouldn't be many rooms left.

  All the way, Gan Ping came to the seventh floor with a lot of random thoughts. As expected, as Ming Fan said, after passing the third floor, the firepower increased significantly, and by the time he reached the sixth floor, the flames were overwhelming, and it felt like his clothes, hair, and everything would be scorched. Fortunately, Gan Ping was a fire spirit body, so he had a subtle sense of familiarity with this intense fire attribute power. As for Huo Er, it was obvious how happy she was from her joyful appearance as she danced on Gan Ping's shoulders.

  "This is only the sixth layer, if it were to reach the tenth layer, wouldn't it be like a raging fire in the sky? As for the last layer, it must be close to the heart of the earth's fire, and it must be extremely terrifying." Gān Píng thought as he arrived at the seventh layer, where a large "gēng" character appeared before his eyes. This gēng character was written by someone unknown, with dragon-like strokes that seemed like a jumping flame. Gān Píng looked at it and felt that it contained a hint of fire attribute heavenly rules, so he concentrated to observe it. For a moment, a magnificent flame seemed to emerge from the character, shooting into Gān Píng's brain, and the surrounding dense fire attribute spiritual energy immediately gathered towards him. The Fēng Yuán Zhěn Tǐ True Method in Gān Píng's body quickly operated, and a faint dragon aura was emitted from his body, but fortunately, this dragon clan secret method was very secretive, and the aura only leaked out for a moment before being retracted back into his body.

  The abnormal spiritual energy also alarmed others, and the door of the house with the number three on the left was opened. An old man in ordinary clothes walked out, and if Gan Ping were awake at this time, he would have recognized him as the Wuyan elder from yesterday. The Wuyan elder saw Gan Ping standing in the middle of the corridor, his eyes slightly closed, and the mysterious power of the law flew down from the "Geng" character on his head, surrounding the child's body, and with each breath, the fire attribute spiritual energy surged, actually merging with him. Even the Mihuo monkey on his shoulder looked solemn and stern, with the fire attribute spiritual energy surging between its paws. It was using the Mihuo monkey's innate ability to control fire to deliver these energies into Gan Ping's body in an orderly manner. The Wuyan elder couldn't help but praise, "He is indeed a born spiritual beast."

  "Originally, I was going to bring this disciple into the Dan House to borrow the power of the Mihuo Monkey by his side. But I didn't expect that this child is also extraordinary! Yesterday, I heard Tanming say that this child's bones are extraordinary, and his soul is solid, making him a good material for cultivation. Today, seeing him in person, he indeed has a different aura, and can even understand the profundity of the third-generation ancestor's handwritten words. It seems that his comprehension ability is also top-notch! And having such a spiritual beast by his side, his fortune is indeed deep! Thinking of this, Wuyan Elder's heart moved, "Could it be that the great calamity of heaven and earth will be resolved on this child after a hundred years?" Thinking of this, he shook his head again, "This child is still young, even if we cultivate him with all our might, in a hundred years, at most, he'll only have the cultivation of a pseudo-Dan. But if it's after another hundred years, he'll definitely be a great talent of our sect! Unfortunately, those senior elders are guarding the ancestral teachings and won't take him in as a disciple. Otherwise, with this child's qualifications and fortune, he would surely enter the inner circle, and might even become a robe-wearing disciple. For now, he can only mix around in the Earth Fire Temple, but it seems that this child has some affinity for the fire rules, perhaps I can teach him one or two things."

  The old man's eyes sparkled as he gazed at Gan Ping, who was in a meditative state. He didn't disturb him, but with each breath of fire attribute spiritual energy that Gan Ping exhaled, the joyful light in his eyes flickered once. Finally, as if seeing a treasure, his gaze on Gan Ping became extremely fiery. "Prodigy, prodigy! With just an entry-level stance, you've grasped the profound understanding of our three ancestors' cultivation, which was hidden within the words. I thought that at your young age, you would have fainted long ago, but unexpectedly, you're fine. Now is the time to comprehend and integrate that understanding... it seems you're about to wake up."

  Gan Ping's divine soul had long since absorbed the fragments of two powerful Yuan Shen masters, and his divine soul was incredibly strong. The profound understanding and enlightenment that was hidden in a single word was instantly grasped by him, so how could he have fainted? When he opened his eyes, he couldn't help but be startled, an old man was staring at him from not far away, the light in his eyes was even more intimidating than the flames beside him. Looking at that gaze made Gan Ping think of the wild wolf he had met for the first time on the edge of Ju Tian Ridge, their gazes were equally fierce and crazy, as if they wanted to swallow him whole. He involuntarily took a step back, adopting a defensive posture.

  He felt embarrassed and quickly coughed twice, withdrawing his gaze and putting on a dignified air. It was only then that Gan Ping realized the old man with wolf-like eyes in front of him was actually Wu Yun, the elder from the grand hall yesterday. Although Xuan Yang's voice had been very soft, Gan Ping's keen senses had already picked up on the old man's name. He hastily stepped forward and bowed, "Disciple Gan Ping, greetings Elder." Wu Yun stroked his beard and nodded, feeling increasingly delighted as he looked at Gan Ping. This young man was exceptionally talented, with a solid foundation in spiritual energy, and possessed an extraordinary understanding that was not common among ordinary people. Moreover, he was neither arrogant nor servile, knowing when to yield and when to stand firm, truly a rare gem of exceptional quality. If he could recruit him as his disciple, Wu Yun was certain he would be able to pass on all his knowledge and make it flourish. And so, he had already made up his mind in secret.