"Your last stroke's spiritual power was a little hollow. That's why a good talisman dropped to a lower grade."
"Master, I tried to keep the output even. The final stroke felt unstable."
"Mhm. Good. At least you've identified the problem."
Jian Dan had Xue Ru bring the finished talisman over, examined it, then corrected her gently,"You honest child, drawing with spiritual power doesn't mean you should pour out everything you've got."
"Wouldn't that make the talisman stronger?" mXue Ru blinked, confused.
"That's for attack talismans. This is the most basic Dust-Cleansing Talisman. It doesn't need that much power." Jian Dan smiled as she explained.
Realization dawned on Xue Ru. She returned to the jade table, took up the brush, calmed her breath, and began again.
"Zūnshàng, Wei Zhengrong requests an audience." Ting Fenglai announced to Jian Dan.
Jian Dan nodded. "Let him in."
"Zūnshàng, news just in. Du Yanran is hiding in the Ziyu Mountain Range."
"Oh? She's got legs."
"Since word of her space spread, she's been hunted not only by Yin Yang Gate but by other cultivators as well. She's been fleeing in a sorry state. But every so often, the Hua clan loses her trail, then picks it up again."
"If nothing unexpected is happening, she's hiding inside the space."
"What you said matches our Intelligence Hall's guess."
"Good. Keep watching. Report any movement to me immediately."
"Yes, Zūnshàng."
As they finished speaking, Xue Ru came over holding her new talisman for Jian Dan to see.
"Master, this time I did it. It's an upper-grade Dust-Cleansing Talisman."
Sure enough, the power was even and the final stroke clean. It was a first-grade upper-grade talisman.
"Not bad. Keep going. When you can produce a hundred first-grade upper-grade Dust-Cleansing Talismans in a row, we'll move on to the next type." Jian Dan set the assignment without delay.
"Yes, Master!" Xue Ru crisply handed the successful talisman to her elder brother.
Wei Zhengrong's eyes crinkled in a smile as he put it away, eager to show their parents later. Then he happily took his leave from Tian Yue Peak.
Xue Ru returned to her practice. After dismissing her attendants, Jian Dan tore open space and left Tianyue Peak.
Ziyu Mountain Range
Du Yanran had fled here with a purpose. She knew that in her last life, a certain heaven-and-earth treasure had emerged in these mountains, stirring the beasts to riot.
She wanted to arrive early and store the Shouyuan Fruit in the Yulan Space, a safeguard for herself. Whether for her own use or to trade later, it would benefit her.
Du Yanran stopped by a pool, netted a good number of silver-tailed fish, and put them into her storage bracelet. She planned to use them to lure away the guardian beast before leaving the water's edge.
Suddenly, without warning, her scalp prickled. Her instincts screamed. She flashed to one side, ready to enter her space, but her body froze as if bound. She couldn't move. The next instant, Jian Dan appeared before her.
Shock flashed through Du Yanran's eyes, then she ground out, "Jian Dan."
Jian Dan didn't react to having her identity called out. She glanced at Du Yanran and asked with a smile, "How's the space I gave you? Using it well?"
A storm broke in Du Yanran's heart. So it was as she'd suspected. Jian Dan had also been reborn. No wonder every road since she entered the cultivation world had gone wrong.
Every opportunity she knew, Jian Dan knew. Every move she made, Jian Dan saw through.
Jian Dan didn't care about her reaction. She lifted a hand, and the magnolia pendant Du Yanran had already bound as master flew back into her palm.
"No, it's mine!"
Madness flickered in Du Yanran's eyes. She knew that once Jian Dan reclaimed the space pendant, every hunter would close in and she'd have nowhere to hide.
"How is it yours? You swapped the jewelry I left with you for safekeeping and claimed it. That makes it yours?"
Jian Dan's tone was lightly mocking.
Black qi boiled on Du Yanran's brow. Her eyes went red. Jian Dan knew she was losing control. But Du Yanran's body couldn't move an inch, much less strike. If looks could kill, Jian Dan would have died a hundred times.
Right in front of her, Jian Dan flicked her sleeve and shattered the magnolia pendant.
Du Yanran's divine sense, forcefully severed, snapped. Blood spurted from her lips. She still couldn't move.
Jian Dan turned her jade-like hand. The folding fan appeared between her fingers. She fanned herself lazily, gave Du Yanran a smile, said nothing more, then turned and vanished.
"No! Don't you dare leave!"
Du Yanran snapped out of it at the sound of the pendant breaking, roared, and rushed forward, only to claw a handful of shattered fragments. Her shout startled a few low-level birds and beasts and drew in several higher-level beasts, all following the scent of the Shouyuan Fruit toward her position.
As soon as she could move again, Du Yanran ignored the blood at her lips and dashed after Jian Dan. But with her early Divine Transformation cultivation, how could she catch Jian Dan at Unity stage?
Hatred burned deeper in her eyes, nearly turning them crimson. Those were her opportunities. Why should Jian Dan take them?
She'd already forgotten that across two lifetimes, every cultivation chance she'd had was given by Jian Dan. Now Jian Dan took them back, and it was only right. Cause and effect moved in cycles. There was a number to all things.
In her last life, Jian Dan had been naïve to the malice beneath the surface. She handed over her chances, fed Du Yanran's ambition, and was cannon fodder in the end. In this life, they both returned and Du Yanran still tried to swap out Jian Dan's magnolia pendant.
If Du Yanran had been truly smart, she would have either replaced Jian Dan completely from the beginning or stayed far away. Maybe she wouldn't be this miserable now.
When she ascended to the Immortal Realm, she was killed right by the Huaxian Pool by the Jian clan's first-generation Patriarch. She should have understood then. What isn't yours shouldn't be taken.
Back in the lower world, when cultivators appeared in the end of dharma ending era, the Heavenly Dao wouldn't allow one side to dominate. Balance had to be kept. Neither woman could crush the other.
Both later entered the cultivation world. But Jian Dan's arrangements slowly dismantled Du Yanran's support, one piece at a time, forcing her onto a path utterly different from before.
The result: Du Yanran's road grew narrower and narrower. She could no longer rival Jian Dan. Even her boundless hatred had nowhere to go.
While Du Yanran was still raging, a team from Yin Yang Gate was already moving toward her. Jian Dan, meanwhile, arrived at the Shouyuan Fruit tree. She "negotiated" amiably with the guardian beast and traded Shouyuan Pills for the Shouyuan Fruit tree. Then she planted it directly in her space and tore through space to leave the Ziyu Mountain Range.
All told, Jian Dan spent less than half an hour. She returned to Heavenly Sword Sect and resumed guiding Mao Dou and Zong Fan.
After visiting their junior sister the day before yesterday and discovering she had reached the eighth level of Qi Refining, Mao Dou and Zong Fan felt the pressure. They trained even harder.
Jian Dan understood perfectly. She called the two over and explained, "Steady wins. Don't disrupt your rhythm. Xue Ru advanced so quickly because her brother found her a stroke of fortune. That's why her cultivation soared."