A month's time quietly slipped away.
Under Zhou Fan’s diligent guidance, Jiang Qingzhi successfully guided Qi into her body, officially becoming a Qi Training Stage First Level Cultivator.
During this month, besides accompanying the two girls, Zhou Fan also visited Murong Qing and Xiao Huan several times.
After not seeing him for many days, the master and servant pair greatly missed Zhou Fan's exquisite medical skills.
However, since Jiang Linfeng had only passed away two months ago and was still in the mourning period, Zhou Fan did not have in-depth interactions with these two; even with Jiang Qingzhi, he only adopted other means.
Qi Training Stage First Level to Qi Training Stage Third Level are collectively referred to as Qi Training Early Stage; Cultivators at this stage can already perceive the attributes of the Spiritual Qi they absorb.
Jiang Qingzhi was no exception; in her perception while absorbing Spiritual Qi, she could clearly detect that most of the Spiritual Qi she absorbed was Wood-attribute Spiritual Qi, while the remaining small portion was Metal, Water, Fire, and Earth-attribute Spiritual Qi.
This indicates that Jiang Qingzhi possesses Five Elements Spiritual Roots, but among them, only the Wood-attribute Spiritual Root has the best Aptitude, reaching the Mortal Grade, while the Aptitude of the other Spiritual Roots likely did not even reach the Low Grade.
This is a normal situation in the Cultivation World; the vast majority of people with Spiritual Root Aptitude possess all Five Elements, because the Human Race belongs to the Innate Dao Body, and most people possess Five Elements, just with an uneven distribution.
Aside from the very few individuals who possess complete Five Elements Spiritual Roots with evenly distributed Aptitude, most Cultivators will only Cultivate Cultivation Techniques that match their highest Aptitude Spiritual Root, as this leads to the fastest progress.
Jiang Qingzhi belongs to the type where only the Wood Element is prominent among the Five Elements, and can be categorized as a Mortal Grade Wood Spiritual Root.
Zhou Fan plans to have Jiang Qingzhi continue Cultivating "Xuan Yuan Gong" in the Qi Training Stage, and then have her switch to a suitable Wood-attribute Cultivation Technique for Jiang Qingzhi once he finds one in the Cultivation World.
Jiang Qingzhi naturally had no objections to this, but seeing her husband about to leave again, she felt quite attached and reluctant, so she pestered Zhou Fan for several days.
Zhou Fan could only passively enjoy it, saying: "This spy who infiltrated the Kang Wang Residence is really tight-lipped, truly worthy of being a Wood Spiritual Root possessor."
After staying in the Kang Wang Residence for over a month, Zhou Fan left Jiang Qingzhi with a hundred Spirit Stones, enough for Jiang Qingzhi to assist her Cultivation with Spirit Stones every day.
He then bid farewell to the four women of the Kang Wang Residence and returned to Luoyun Temple on his sword.
Upon entering Luoyun Temple, Zhou Fan was pulled into a small dark room by the deeply missed Fu Fu Jie, who meticulously interrogated him about what he had been doing for so long outside.
Zhou Fan naturally told the truth; he lived a life of integrity, and when it was time to be frank, he would naturally be frank about his relationships and actions.
Fu Fu Jie was jealous again, and it took Zhou Fan three days to appease her.
After appeasing Fu Fu Jie, Zhou Fan returned to his small courtyard, only to find Pei Yu Han, the Empress Dowager of Daqian, standing tightly wrapped at the main gate of the courtyard.
Looking at Pei Yu Han's aloof and unapproachable expression, as well as her tall and well-endowed older sister-like figure, she truly held the Empress Dowager's demeanor.
But when Zhou Fan thought of Pei Yu Han's personality, which was in stark contrast to her appearance, he felt a little like laughing.
When he was less than a hundred meters from the Empress Dowager, Zhou Fan suddenly felt playful; he recited a spell, and soon cast the Invisibility Spell he had just learned, which was not long ago.
His entire person, along with his clothes, was hidden in the air, appearing flawless to Mortals.
Then Zhou Fan tiptoed to Pei Yu Han, the Empress Dowager, and poked her majestic little face with his finger.
"Who? Who's there?"
Suddenly touched by someone, the inherently sensitive Pei Yu Han raised her hand to cover her face, her pretty face frosty, her Phoenix eyes darting around, trying to find out what had just touched her.
Seeing this, Zhou Fan found it even more amusing and rubbed Pei Yu Han's little face again.
"Audacious scoundrel! Come out quickly for this Empress!"
After a show of bluster, Pei Yu Han guessed that she might have encountered Immortal techniques, so she quickly turned and entered Zhou Fan's courtyard, while also taking out the Thousand-Mile Sound Transmission Talisman Zhou Fan had given her and sending a distress transmission to Zhou Fan.
Zhou Fan naturally would not be blocked outside by his courtyard's Formation, but after entering the courtyard, Zhou Fan saw that the Empress Dowager had already sent a sound transmission, so he dispelled the Invisibility Spell and appeared in front of Pei Yu Han as if teleporting.
Pei Yu Han was at this moment utterly bewildered by the two invisible touches; now seeing the Divine Ability-wielding Zhou Fan finally return, she couldn't bother to ask him why he returned so quickly and hurriedly told Zhou Fan about the strange incident she encountered.
Upon hearing this, Zhou Fan merely extended a hand, poked and rubbed the same spot on Pei Empress Dowager's face, and then asked in a serious tone.
"Did that scoundrel commit the act like this?"
Pei Yu Han, feeling the exact same touch and temperature as before, instantly knew that she had been tricked by this bad man in front of her.
She pouted her cherry lips and turned her head away, clearly angered by Zhou Fan.
Seeing this, Zhou Fan merely took out a talisman in the style of a peace charm from his Storage Pouch and handed it to Pei Yu Han, saying gently.
"Yu Han, don't be angry. This is a protective talisman I specially made for you."
"You wear it daily, no need to activate it actively; as long as there is an abnormal Spiritual Qi fluctuation near you, it will automatically break invisibility and simultaneously form a protective shield around you that can withstand attacks of Qi Refining Late Stage strength."
"At that time, you can contact me with the Thousand-Mile Sound Transmission Talisman from within the protective shield, and I will definitely arrive in the fastest time possible."
Listening to Zhou Fan's refreshing words and that intimate "Yu Han," most of the anger in Pei Yu Han's heart dissipated.
But she didn't want Zhou Fan to think she was an easily fooled woman, so she coldly questioned: "Is this protective talisman really specially made for me? Do others not have it?"
"Of course it's specially made for you; absolutely no one else has it."
Zhou Fan swore solemnly, but this was a lie.
This protective talisman is engraved with Invisibility-Breaking, Detection, and Protection spells, and its material is not ordinary; it can already be classified as a top-tier Low Grade Magical Artifact.
Although Zhou Fan learned a lot of knowledge about the hundred arts of Cultivation in his youth, he had never actually practiced them, so he currently did not possess such Artifact Refining technology.
And this protective talisman was actually inventory from the Luoyun Temple treasury.
Hundreds of years ago, Luoyun Temple had an abbot who was extremely keen on Artifact Refining; during her tenure, she refined dozens of Low Grade Magical Artifacts and placed them in the Luoyun Temple treasury.
This protective talisman was her work, and there were four more of the same style.
Because Zhou Fan wanted these five protective talismans, Shen Yufu used her contributions from serving as abbot for many years to exchange all five of these protective talismans from the treasury.
One was given to Fu Fu Jie, one to Jiang Qingzhi, one to Yaya, one to Murong Qing and Xiao Huan, and the last one was now given to Pei Yu Han.
Zhou Fan actually wanted to diligently practice one of the hundred arts of Cultivation and become self-sufficient, but the system informed him that after his offspring are born, the rewards he receives are highly likely to be related to the hundred arts of Cultivation.
Therefore, Zhou Fan could only let his good friends use others' Magical Artifacts first, and then switch to his own family's property after his offspring are born.