Junior Sister is skilled in subduing demons.

Chapter 19 Elder Fan's Thoughts
Anzhi saved the snake and also received Fan Jin's forgiveness.

"Snake Baby, thank goodness I didn't linger outside today, otherwise you would have withered away." Anzhi sprinkled water droplets on the spirit snake's body and said, "I really don't know what I would do if you were gone."

The spirit snake thoroughly enjoyed Anzhi's massage: "Master, I think I've figured it out. Old Man Fan really treats you well. He probably wants to take you as his disciple. All seven of his disciples died in a battle, so in the Sanqing Palace, everyone treats him fairly well on the surface, but not so well in secret, because every elder has someone to inherit his mantle, except him."

"Ah!" Anzhi exclaimed in surprise, "All seven disciples have died in battle! What kind of monster were we fighting?"

The spirit snake recalled the battle at Sanqing Mountain forty years ago...

Forty years ago, Fan Jin, already middle-aged, was the pillar of the Sanqing Palace, ranking after the eldest brother, Daoist Yuxu. He not only made the Sanqing Palace famous, but also trained seven very powerful disciples.

However, forty years ago, the eighth-tier demon lord Liu Hong invaded Sanqing Mountain. Fan Jin led his seven disciples to fight for three days and three nights. In the end, because they did not receive follow-up support from magical artifacts, all seven disciples died. After that, he never recovered.

After hearing the story, Anzhi felt a mix of emotions. It was indeed a tragedy: "Just like when they fought the cat demon at Yujing Peak, if it weren't for the blessing of the Buddha's dust, Ke Dasheng and the others would have been worn down to death."

"If it weren't for the demon-binding rope last night, do you think it would have been easy to capture the cat demon?" The spirit snake agreed.

Anzhi felt somewhat guilty towards Fan Jin: "He's been so good to me, yet I've caused him trouble."

……

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hanxing Pond.

A bright moon is reflected in Hanxing Pond, and the ripples on the water sway with the wind. The four characters "Subduing Demons and Superior Minister" are carved on the wall of the giant rock in the northwest.

Fan Jin stood quietly by the pond, leaning on his cane, his mood as turbulent as the water's surface.

Hanxing Pond is the largest pond in Sanqing Mountain, and together with Jingyi Pond and Qinghua Pond, they are known as the "Three Ponds of Shaohua".

Just as the serpent had predicted, Fan Jin was now very lonely. Whenever he saw the other elders with their disciples and followers running around, while he was waiting to die in this peaceful place of Sanqing, he felt really bad.

It wasn't until Luo Ling brought An Zhi to this nursing home that things started to look promising. So even though she knew what An Zhi was doing all day, she still secretly supported and complied with his wishes.

Anzhi is easygoing and very clever. Moreover, judging from his pleading for the snake today and revealing everything he knew, Anzhi is also a person who values ​​loyalty and righteousness. This made Fan Jin even more certain that he had not misjudged him.

He slowly turned and sat down on the steps of Hanxing Pond, stirring the water with his cane, his heart still feeling empty.

"Elder."

Suddenly, Anzhi's voice came from across Hanxing Pond, and she jogged over to Fan Jin's side.

"I've been looking for you for so long. The senior brother at the gate said you came to Hanxing Pond. Hehe, why aren't you resting so late?" Anzhi showed an innocent and cute smile: "Thank you so much for today."

“When you get old, you can’t sleep at night, so you want to go for a walk.” Fan Jin said, then got up to head back home.

"Elder, please accept me as your disciple. I want to be your apprentice." Anzhi helped Fan Jin up.

Fan Jin was stunned again. This young girl's every decision and action exceeded his imagination. He had just been thinking about this.

"Hehe, I don't accept female disciples," Fan Jin said with a smile.

“Why not? I want to be your apprentice. Look, even the Jade Flower Sword has recognized me, why won’t you?” An Zhi said slyly. “If I become your apprentice, we can take care of each other in the future.”

Fan Jin stopped and looked at the tall pavilions of the blessed land in the distance. In fact, he had already thought about how to handle this matter. He would not take Shen Anzhi as his disciple, but he would give Shen Anzhi his way, after all, Anzhi was very good.

"Heh, forget about becoming my apprentice, you'll die young." Fan Jin couldn't let go of the deaths of his seven apprentices back then, ultimately because he hadn't protected them well.

“I’m not afraid,” An Zhi said firmly.

Fan Jin looked at An Zhi awkwardly and said, "But I'm scared."

After saying this, Fan Jin leaned on his cane and walked towards the blessed land.

An Zhi was stunned for a moment, then quickly jogged over and helped him up. ...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The matter ended there. The entire Sanqing Palace was still focused on finding the outside expert who had vanquished the demon spirit in the training ground behind the mountain and killed the cat demon in the bamboo forest. But after that incident, the expert seemed to have disappeared without a trace.

Life went on like this. An Zhiming spent his time in Sanqing Fudi chopping wood or cleaning. Occasionally, Luo Ling would come over to cause trouble, or tease the turtles and fish in the pond. He had a very leisurely life.

She was secretly circulating her spiritual energy to digest the demon seal from before, and receiving some breathing guidance from Fan Jin. Even more secretly, she had the spirit snake take her into a dream to cultivate with her ancestor, Meng Hong.

And so, a month passed.

On this day, the elders were invited by Elder Taiqing to the Sanqing Hall for a meeting. The core of the meeting was a plea for help from the villagers at the foot of the mountain. A demon had appeared in Jiangxin Village, and the Sanqing disciples were asked to go and quell the demon.

This was a good opportunity to go down the mountain for training, and after consulting with Anzhi, Fan Jin brought him to the main hall.

"According to the arrangement of our senior brother, the sect leader, we must send a capable assistant down the mountain to subdue the demon this time, otherwise the reputation of our Sanqing Palace will really be ruined," Elder Taiqing said in front of everyone.

As soon as he finished speaking, whispers broke out among the people below the hall. This must have been done by Elder Taiqing's disciple.

Anzhi remained standing near the door, and Fan Jin, as usual, fell asleep while sitting.

"I'm so worried! How can this old man fall asleep anywhere?" With such a big matter at hand, Fan Jin actually fell asleep sitting down, which made An Zhi so anxious that he almost ran up to wake him up.

Perhaps it had already been decided beforehand, Luo Ling stood in the middle looking at everyone with a smug expression.

"Based on the decision of our elders, it has been decided that Luo Ling, a female disciple of the Sanqing Palace, will descend the mountain to subdue demons for training." Elder Taiqing solemnly announced the outcome of this matter to everyone.

Obviously, the result was as expected, and no one reacted at all; on the contrary, they were congratulating each other.

"I disagree!"

Suddenly Fan Jin woke up with a yawn, which put An Zhi's mind at ease.

Fan Jin's words immediately put Elder Taiqing in an awkward position. He cursed inwardly, "This old guy was sleeping, why did he suddenly have to give his opinion?" So he said awkwardly, "Senior brother, this was a decision we made together with our sect leader."

Fan Jin had long harbored resentment towards these elders, who felt he was too old and only nominally addressed matters to him. However, he wanted to advocate for Anzhi: "I recommend Shen Anzhi, a disciple of my Sanqing Blessed Land, to descend the mountain."

Shen Anzhi! Everyone was astonished, not expecting Fan Jin to push this person out. Their eyes all turned to the door.

Luo Ling was so angry that she gritted her teeth.

“Senior brother, Shen Anzhi is still just a nominal disciple; he doesn’t even have the qualifications,” Elder Taiqing said.

Fan Jin didn't speak, but slowly got up with his cane: "If you don't let her go, I'll go find Senior Brother Yuxu."

"You!" Elder Taiqing was speechless for a moment in the face of Fan Jin's shameless behavior.

"Elders, Shen Anzhi isn't even a Spirit Master yet. Last time, he got second to last place in the training ground assessment in the back mountain. Letting him go down the mountain will not only be difficult to convince everyone, but more importantly, if he messes things up, it will damage the reputation of the Sanqing Palace." Upon seeing this, Luo Ling immediately stood up and began to criticize Shen Anzhi, determined to suppress him.

“I think Senior Sister makes sense. We have plenty of capable people on the mountain. How can we send someone without qualifications down the mountain to subdue demons? That would be a joke.”

"Hahaha, who knows, I might get fucked by a demon as soon as I get down the mountain, hahahaha."

“Shen Anzhi is just a cleaner and servant to Uncle Fan in the blessed land, so it’s understandable that Uncle Fan feels this way.”

……

In the hall, everyone voiced their doubts, which helped Elder Taiqing, who was already embarrassed, to save some face. He said to Fan Jin, "Senior Brother, you, you listen to this, it's not that I don't want to, it's that everyone..."

(End of this chapter)