I didn't expect that I was the heartthrob.

"Rude!"

"As expected, these are small sects that don't know the rules!" The disciples of Tianyan Sect began to whisper to each other again. Gu Lan glanced at them and saw Lingyao in the crowd.

Humph, this guy is really interesting. Before, they were brothers in Qianji Sect, but now that he has become a disciple of Tianyan Sect, he just stands by and watches the fun of things as if it has nothing to do with him.

That's right, she is a direct disciple, there is no need for her to stand up for outsiders and avoid getting herself into trouble.

Seeing that everyone was still not quiet, Gu Lan's temples were throbbing with nerves, and he wanted to roar at them like a lion, but thinking that this would only treat the symptoms and not the root cause, he took a deep breath and said, "Your Tianyan Sect is a big sect after all, and you point fingers at others when they come to pick some immortal herbs. If you tell others about it, it will really make people laugh. If you are not ashamed, I will spread the news tomorrow, how about it?"

Glancing sideways at the disciples, Gu Lan rolled his eyes and said, "I see who is so tactless and still yelling over there. I can't deal with you any more."

Humph, in terms of shamelessness, she has nothing to be ashamed of. Instead, it is those stingy disciples of Tianyan Sect who are embarrassed. When the news gets out, let’s see how they can hold their heads up in front of other sects.

Normally they just pinch them as much as they can, regardless of their spiritual energy, not allowing them to develop, and they are so stingy even with the magic grass.

Shameless! Gu Lan expressed contempt.

"Senior Sister..." A hesitant voice suddenly came from the crowd.

Lingyao saw Gu Lan scolding like a shrew, and she had been listening attentively. Seeing that she was gradually gaining the upper hand, she stepped forward to act as a peacemaker and held Gu Lan, "Senior sister, calm down. They didn't mean it. It would be bad if you spread it out and hurt the harmony."

Gu Lan looked at Lingyao's pitiful appearance and thought to himself, she is indeed a charmer, with a graceful figure and lovely eyes. Who wouldn't be moved by her?

"Whether it's unintentional or not, everyone has their own thoughts!" Gu Lan shook off her hand.

What was she trying to do by trying to get close to him now? Wasn't it just to show off in front of the Tianyan Sect disciples? By the way, she wanted to win him over so that she could use him in the future. But this was a different time, and she was no longer that fool!

Gu Lan in the book is a soft-hearted person. As long as someone is nice to her, she would be like a fool who would give her heart to others. But the modern Gu Lan is different. She won't fall for it.

If he really cared about Qianji Sect, why did he hide in the crowd without saying a word? Why did he let his three junior brothers be insulted like that? Now he came up to me and showed me his courtesy.

Lingyao felt a little embarrassed when she saw Gu Lan avoiding her. She didn't know how she had offended Gu Lan and felt a little helpless.

Wasn't Gu Lan like this before? In the past, no matter how outrageous she had done, as long as she held Gu Lan and said something nice, Gu Lan would never get angry, and would even kindly comfort her.

But now Gu Lan...why does she feel that she is a little cold and hostile towards me?

"Senior Sister, have you established your foundation?" Lingyao felt Gu Lan's advancement and couldn't help but sigh, "It's really not easy."

"It's not easy." Gu Lan continued, "Please don't call me Senior Sister from now on, Fellow Daoist Lingyao. After all, you are a direct disciple of Tianyan Sect, and you are no longer a member of Qianji Sect. If you continue to call me Senior Sister, wouldn't that be a slap in the face of Tianyan Sect?"

After hearing what Gu Lan said, Lingyao thought about it and realized that this was the truth. She couldn't help but look at the other fellow disciples around her and found that they were just watching from afar and had no intention of getting closer. She suddenly realized that this was indeed inappropriate.

After Nene said okay, Lingyao left as expected.

Gu Lan sneered. If you really care, you won’t care what Tianyan Sect thinks of you!

Gu Lan wanted to scold his three junior brothers, but gave up when he saw how pitiful they looked.

On the way back to Qianjimen, Gu Lan scolded several junior brothers, asking them to have some backbone in the future and not go to Tianyanzong again. The three junior brothers nodded. They were very admiring of their senior sister when they saw her like that just now.

How could the senior sister dare to speak like that before! Seeing the senior sister's momentum just now, the disciples of Tianyan Sect were shocked and their faces turned red. It was really relieved.

When they arrived at Qianji Gate, the four of them changed their mood. Afraid that their junior brother would worry, they forced a smile and handed the spiritual herbs to him.

Gu Lan has now established her foundation, but she still needs to seize the time to practice. Moreover, she cannot just practice by herself, she also has to urge several junior brothers to practice together. She has to earn spirit stones for her junior brothers.

Before going down the mountain, Gu Lan asked around and found out that talismans were rather scarce. As the saying goes, scarcity makes things valuable, so he might as well try drawing talismans to earn spirit stones.

Gu Lan is an illustrator in modern times. She thinks that drawing talismans should be easier. Moreover, all you need to draw talismans is a pen and cinnabar, unlike the expensive materials required for the cultivation of instruments and elixirs.

Those materials were extremely valuable. They were poor and could not afford any of them. Even the furnace they used to repair the alchemy equipment was picked up from other people's discarded items.

Very pitiful.

There is only one old senior guarding the library. He usually lives in a small room on the roof and rarely shows up. He is the only one who calls him when Gu Lan and the others need a book but can't find it. Only then will he go down to the attic and instruct them to climb the ladder to get it. Then he will return to the roof and never ask any more questions.

"Senior, do you have the talisman book?" Gu Lan shouted.

"senior?"

Gu Lan called out three or five times before the senior poked his head out, a pair of long white eyebrows floating down first.

"What do you want that thing for? You don't have any talismans."

"Is there?" Gu Lan continued to ask without further explanation.

The senior shrank his head back, not knowing what he bumped into. Gu Lan only heard a rustling sound, something was knocked over, and then a thin book was thrown down.

Gu Lan reached out and caught it.

"Collection of Talismans"?

After receiving the book, Gu Lan decided to take a look first, so she found a place in the library and sat cross-legged to read carefully. Because of her identity as an illustrator, she did not find it difficult to look at these talismans. Others might not know where to start, but Gu Lan seemed to be born to draw talismans, and she could find each starting stroke accurately. Not only that, as she was looking at it, she suddenly felt that the talisman in front of her shook like water ripples.

She saw a golden hand suspended in the air. The tip of the pen slowly fell into the air, generating golden ripples. Then the hand seemed to have consciousness. Whenever Gu Lan looked at a talisman, it would slowly draw it in front of Gu Lan. For some difficult talismans, it would even stop and wait for Gu Lan.

An unknown amount of time had passed before Gu Lan felt his eyes sore and his neck stiff. He had finished reading a book called "A Collection of Talismans" and the hand stopped. It tapped three times in the air, and before Gu Lan could understand what it meant, the hand suddenly disappeared like ripples on water.

Gu Lan was in a daze, the sound of birds rang in her ears. A ray of sunlight shone obliquely on the windowsill, hitting half of her cheek, making her feel warm.

It's daybreak.

She came here yesterday evening, so she read this thin book "Compendium of Talismans" all night?

"Have you remembered everything?" The senior had sat down on the other side of Gu Lan without her knowing when, and leaned over to look at her.

Seeing a big face appear in front of him, Gu Lan was startled and leaned back. Upon closer inspection, he found that it was the senior who was in charge of the library.

His long eyebrows fluttered in the wind like a swimming dragon. His golden eyes were embedded in his young face, looking at Gu Lan with joy.

Gu Lan thought the senior was an old man, but unexpectedly he was a middle-aged man in his thirties or forties.

After listening to the senior's question, Gu Lan reviewed it and replied, "I remember everything."

The senior stroked his nonexistent beard and pondered for a moment, "Are you planning to abandon the sword and cultivate talismans?"

Gu Lan stood up and was about to hand the book to her senior. When she stood up, she began to feel dizzy, and then blood gushed out of her nose. Gu Lan wiped her nose carelessly, and her hands were covered with blood. Gu Lan took out a towel and wiped the blood off her hands. Her nose was full of the smell of rust. It seemed that she worked too hard last night.

"No way, I am still a sword cultivator. Thank you for the book, senior. I have already learned everything. I will return the book to you. I will take my leave now." Gu Lan stood up, staggered for a while, and held on to the window frame before he could stand firm. Then he left the library.

The senior looked at Gu Lan, who was walking lightly like a ghost, and became thoughtful.

Last night, there was a sudden fluctuation of spiritual energy in the library. He leaned out to see and found that Gu Lan's body was shining with golden light and had been in meditation for quite a while. He thought that this child was also suitable for talisman cultivation, otherwise why would the talisman respond? And the talismans in the whole book were responding.

Gu Lan naturally didn’t know, she just wanted to go back and have a good sleep.

When he returned to the yard, he saw several fellow apprentices surrounding the younger junior apprentice and shouting. Gu Lan walked closer and saw that the younger junior apprentice had actually refined several colorful pills.

Second Junior Brother Xu Fengxi was stunned when he took a black pill from the bowl. It was a Qi-refining pill! This was the first pill that Junior Brother had refined that was beyond the Qi-refining stage!

"Look, Senior Sister!" Xu Fengxi saw Gu Lan standing next to him and asked eagerly and pleasantly, "Senior Sister, is this the Heqi Pill?"

Third Junior Brother Xue Hao, who was busy flipping through the alchemy book, finally turned to that page and said with certainty, "It's the Qi-combining pill. It seems that Junior Brother has established his foundation at some point."

Laying the foundation?

However, Gu Lan could not sense the aura of his junior brother. Just like before, he could not find out anything about his junior brother, which meant that it was difficult to determine what level his junior brother was at now.

Gu Lan shook his head, and everyone understood.

What is going on with this situation, Junior Brother?

When I asked the master about this, he just said with sleepy eyes that everyone has their own fate and that was the end of it.

No one answered their questions.

Everyone looked at the junior brother worriedly. Although he could make pills, if his level didn't get higher, he wouldn't be able to practice Taoism in this life.

A hundred years later, the junior brother can only wait to die of old age.

"It's okay. We will find a way to help our junior brother in the future."

The three fellow apprentices nodded.

"Senior Sister, where did you go last night?" The careful Fourth Junior Brother Meng Xin asked worriedly when he saw the Senior Sister's unsteady steps and deep dark circles under her eyes.

"The library." Gu Lan replied simply, "I'm going to sleep for a while, you guys should go practice quickly."

After saying this, Gu Lan was about to leave. At this time, his junior brother came over and handed the pill to Gu Lan.

There was also worry hidden in the little junior brother's big black eyes, but he didn't speak, otherwise he would have spoken.

"Is it for me?"

The junior brother nodded, and Gu Lan touched his head, "Go and have a rest. Give some of these pills to the other senior brothers."

The junior fellow apprentice did as he was told. Xu Fengxi and the two junior fellow apprentices took the elixirs that suited them, and left the Heqi Pill for Gu Lan.

Gu Lan took the pill and swallowed it. Seeing that she was really tired, everyone dispersed.

Gu Lan, who originally wanted to fall asleep, took the Qi-integrating pill and all his fatigue disappeared, and he felt refreshed.

Now that her tiredness was gone, Gu Lan decided not to sleep. She found a brush and cinnabar, cut out a few pieces of talisman paper, and decided to put her knowledge into practice.

Draw a talisman!

The Qianji Sect does not have any talisman practitioners, nor does it have special talisman paper. It only has ordinary paper. Talismans can also be drawn on this ordinary paper, but they are not as effective as those on special talisman paper.

If you want to buy talisman paper, you have to go down the mountain, and talisman paper is very expensive. Gu Lan is a poor guy, where would he get the spiritual stones to buy that thing.

It's fine as long as it can be used. Besides, all the independent cultivators are poor nowadays, they shouldn't look down on her for being poor.

What a pity, ideas are full of hope, but reality is very skinny. After setting up the stall for most of the day, no one came to Gu Lan's stall to take a look at her talismans.

Next to Gu Lan was a man selling calligraphy and paintings. Their stalls were deserted, but the stall next door selling pancakes was packed with customers.

The two poor ghosts huddled together and shed tears of envy.

"Is this a talisman?"

A pair of slender and pale hands with distinct joints reached out.

Gu Lan followed the hands and looked at the person who came.

He was a man who was a little too handsome. He was wearing a blue gown and a light golden gauze blouse that gently caressed his black hair in the breeze.

The man had very handsome eyebrows and eyes. He did not look at Gu Lan, but stared at the talisman paper in his hand that did not look like a talisman paper.

His eyes slightly opened, and he looked at it in disbelief, seeing that what was pinched between his fingertips was actually a talisman.