Chapter 2: Calamity and Fortune are Fickle
There was only one path towards the clan school at the top of the mountain. All the other paths had layers of restrictions; without orders from above, it was the death penalty to enter from other routes.
During the walk up the path, Yao Chen was smoothly moving his swift Dou Qi throughout his whole body. Without a Qi Method, the only way to do this was to use the Flame Foundation Skill to continuously manoeuvre the Dou Qi. At the moment, Yao Chen had a feeling that he was on the verge of advancing to the seven star Dou Zhe class.
This kind of feeling felt fantastic, but even with kind of feeling, to actually advance was not such a simple matter. The Flame Foundation Skill was an outstanding technique that allowed the Yao clan disciples to stand above outsiders. It allowed Yao clan disciples to be more sensitive when refining pills and increased their Spiritual Perception, giving them many advantages when refining pills. While it had many benefits, its weak point was also very noticeable. If you were to use the Flame Foundation Skill to practice Dou Qi, every single advancement would require a high price in precious materials.
It was only natural that such a huge consumption would be worth it; at the time of advancement, one would absorb the precious materials energy, and as a result, the spirit’s perception, the body’s fire-wood attribute, as well as the Dou Qi’s control and toughness would all receive a qualitative lift.
Within the Yao clan, around 70% of the clan members specialized in refining pills. Just randomly grabbing a group of Iron Guards would give you a number of tier two or tier three alchemists. Other than the fact that most of the clan members had fire-wood attributes, the effect of practicing the Flame Foundation Skill since childhood also had contributions to the large number of alchemists.
Amongst his schoolmates at the school, Yao Chen would not be considered the most outstanding, however with a bit of a struggle he could manage to squeeze into the top ten. But just a couple of bad performances might cause him to fall down in rank.
Every grade at the clan school had almost one hundred disciples. It had a total of five grades, so there were nearly five hundred disciples. Yao Chen’s ranking was not considered remarkable, but it was high enough that the elders would not easily abandon their hopes for him.
Although the disciples were mostly from families that were either in poor conditions or had comparatively low talent, the clan school was run by elders who would not dare to slack off. The elders conscientiously followed the rules to teach every single disciple.
Today’s lesson was a method on refining pills. In comparison, everyone was already very familiar and bored with the Flame Foundation Skill, so they become much more excited when they saw it was the elder for refining.
Yao Chen’s eyes were brightly lit with attention; he was not completely unfamiliar with the process of refining pills. His father could refine pills, and his family had a medicinal cauldron that his father attached great importance to. Every time Yao Chen saw that medicinal cauldron, his heart would have an itching to try it. His father told him that this was his innate talent due to the Yao clan’s nature in his blood and veins. He even laughed, boasting that Yao Chen had an innate talent as an alchemist. Currently he was still very young; when he became older he would need skills and work to make a living. If he studied pill refining methods he could become an instructor at the clan school in the future.
The lesson on pill refining lasted for the entire session. A whole new world was opening before Yao Chen’s eyes: all kinds of materials, their effects on flames, how they caused different kinds of reactions and had different kinds of mergers, and how they could have all kinds of uses and take form as medicinal pills.
The person in charge of teaching the lesson on the basics of pill refining was the head elder of the school, Yao Lan. Alchemy was the school’s most important topic. Yao Lan already had ten years of experience when it came to teaching juniors the basics and would be unashamed to be called the clan’s number one teacher. There was a common opinion that even the clan’s sixth or even seventh tier alchemists were still inferior to him when it came to teaching the basics.
If a person was extremely powerful, it would only mean that that person was extremely gifted; however if you managed to teach and raise an extremely powerful person that would be another matter. This was also the reason why Yao Huo did not just teach Yao Chen himself and instead waited for the clan school’s arrangements.
In the end he was right to do so; Yao Chen had an extremely large interest in alchemy, and under elder Yao Lan’s teachings his mind started to become full of unlimited thoughts… Blood Clotting Pill, Blood Replenishment Pill….
“Ok, today’s alchemy lessons will stop here; don’t bite off more than you can chew. Once everyone returns home today, those of you who are able to can attempt to refine a Blood Clotting Pill. Bring it with you tomorrow; I will check your pills and give you some pointers.”
Elder Yao Lan kindly smiled. This year’s group of disciples had some pretty good saplings within it. Although in terms of Dou Qi they might not be able to compare to the talents within the main bloodline who had access to abundant resources, if they were to take the path of alchemy then their innate gifts would not be much inferior. This path could lead them to a bright future. In reality, as a clan school elder, Yao Lan belonged to the lowest level of elders in the clan. However whenever he looked at these outstanding saplings, he felt that his sacrifice to be a clan school teacher was extremely worth it.
Even if they never called him their master, he would always be the clan school’s elder, and in the case that any of these disciples eventually obtained a high position in the clan in command of many strong practitioners, he would still think of that as giving his life meaning.
“Elder, why can the Cold Attribute Grass and the Seven Flames Grass combine together? Looking from their medical properties, shouldn’t they cancel each other out?” Yao Chen raised his hand and asked a question out of nowhere.
“Haha, Yao Chen, Yao Huo’s son, right? To raise this question means that you were really listening to me and remembered what I said. Having a good memory as a foundation is a must for any successful alchemist. While the Cold Attribute Grass and Seven Flames Grass’s properties mutually clash, our Yao clan has a special method to let them form an alternative merger… that’s as far as I’ll say about this. Tomorrow I will precisely describe the situation. After everyone goes home you should carefully think about this problem. Tomorrow I will question you about it.”
Nodding his head, Yao Lan was very satisfied. Originally he had actually been planning on bringing up this question before Yao Chen asked it. Now that he had a student who would actually ask it, it was even more true that with the right conditions, success will come naturally. After all, where water flows, a canal will naturally form.
As expected, there were several disciples who were innately talented who were originally staying quiet, but now they were blazing with a competitive spirit. With this competitiveness it was only naturally that their progress would be faster. Actually, Yao Chen was paying no attention to this competitiveness; his whole mind was completely focused on this completely new world of alchemy. He was completely unfocused on the following lesson on Dou Qi as he suffered, waiting to go home. When evening finally arrived and class ended, he quickly dashed home.
“Brother Chen, where are you going? We already said that we were going to go see what the demon clan’s little princess looks like….”
The little fat kid Luo Shu stretched out his hands and attempted to stop Yao Chen; that morning they had heard the news that the Demon Saint of the demon clan was bringing the demon clan’s little princess to pay a visit to the Yao clan. The rumor was that they came for some medicine. The strength of the Demon Saint was extremely tyrannical, but Yao Shu wasn’t interested in that. He was much more interested in the demon clan’s little princess. Had she shed her demonic nature or was her appearance more like a demonic beast? But at the moment, Yao Chen’s heart was completely focused on alchemy and so he had long since forgotten about some little princess from the demon clan.
After he arrived home and greeted his mother, he immediately ran into the alchemy room in his house. After all, Yao Huo was a fourth tier alchemist, and although this rank would not be considered high in the clan, it was in no way weak. The alchemy room was always filled with many medical ingredients that were sufficient to refine most medicinal pills of the third tier and below.
Previously he had not understood anything about alchemy and he only learnt to recognize some medical ingredients from following around his father. Now with elder Yao Lan’s teachings, Yao Chen was very impatient to start using his own hands to refine medical pills.
However he still did not forget to do his daily exercises. He first did his normal practice inside the alchemy room, completing three revolutions of his Dou Qi before igniting the medical cauldron. Returning to his original thoughts, he grabbed a bunch of different medicinal ingredients. Yao Chen’s goal was to refine a Blood Clotting Pill which was the assignment given by elder Yao Lan. The first tier Blood Clotting Pill was one of the most common healing medicinal pills; other than major arteries being severed and causing extreme blood flow, all other bleeding situations could be effectively and quickly resolved with this Blood Clotting Pill.
The Blood Clotting Pill was a very basic medical pill. The refining process was not complicated; the main thing to note was that the flame for refining required Dou Qi to control it, and using a 6 star Dou Zhe’s strength was a bit difficult. Yao Chen exhausted all of his energy before managing to refine just one pill.
A whole furnace of medical ingredients had resulted in just one pill, and the pill’s colour had black traces. It was very noticeable that the pill’s toxicity was much too high. He didn’t even need elder Yao Lan’s appraisal to know that this pill was a failure. Yao Chen blankly tried to carefully think back on the more obvious mistakes he had just made. Subsequently he sat back down cross-legged and meditated, slowly recuperating his missing Dou Qi.
An hour’s meditation later, his Dou Qi had finally recovered enough. Without a moment’s hesitation, Yao Chen threw in another batch of medical ingredients into the cauldron, revolving his Dou Qi to start refining. The ingredients for a first tier pill were not valuable in the Yao clan so Yao Chen was able to refine to his heart’s content. This time the refinement was clearly more skilled, however there were still some clear errors and deviations. The medicinal cauldron emitted a banging noise, opening and releasing three Blood Clotting Pills. In the midst of the pills’ red color were some faint strands of black which were clearly some toxic elements, but compared to the first time, the improvement was very great. Yao Chen’s eyes were also bright as he operated his body’s last remaining Dou Qi to very carefully move the medical pills from the cauldron into a porcelain bottle.
Yao Chen still wasn’t satisfied with just that. Once again, he sat down cross-legged and meditated to recover his Dou Qi. The process of refining pills was way too fascinating to him. Feeling the medicinal pill under the control of his Dou Qi as it slowly took shape inside the medicinal cauldron was a truly fantastic feeling.
However just when he was about to start his third refinement, his mother’s voice came from outside.
“Yao Chen, time for dinner.”
“Ok.”
“Where’s Luo Shu?”
“Ah, he went to go see the demon clan’s little princess.”
Only now did Yao Chen remember his agreement with Fatty Luo.
Yao Qing let out a laugh; so young but he still knew to go see beautiful women, the kids have really grown up. “How come you didn’t go?”
“I forgot.” Yao Chen scratched his head as he simple-mindedly replied.
This really gave Yao Qing a feeling of not knowing whether to be worried or happy. Thirteen years old was exactly when boys first awaken their love for girls; how could he actually manage to forget this kind of thing?
However, temporarily not needing to deal with girls could have him more energy for training, which was also a correct road.
“Mom, I’m done eating. I’m going to go practice… training.”
Yao Chen finished eating with lightning speed, completely cleaning his plate. Just the time it took to speak a few sentences meant that he had less time for refining. Standing up, he disappeared like a wisp of smoke into the alchemy room.
This time Yao Qing really did get nervous. Didn’t it seem like his emotional IQ was extremely low? Apparently Yao Huo would have to talk to him less about training and more about what men should talk about.
To briefly describe it, the whole reason why she had married him was all because of his clever tongue, and he should really pass on this strong point to his son. If they didn’t prepare early then maybe in the future they wouldn’t have a proper daughter-in-law. In the Yao clan, all the good girls were taken very early; if you were late you could only settle for some uglier ones.
After seven refinements, Yao Chen had already lost interest in the Blood Clotting Pill. He had produced two batches of completely perfect Blood Clotting Pills, meaning it was no longer challenging to him. But the Energy Recovering Pill….
Suddenly Yao Chen thought of a medicinal formula that he had seen in his father’s records of medicinal formulas. It could recover Dou Qi in a short period of time! Recover Dou Qi…. Currently the main thing restraining his alchemy’s efficiency was that he only had the Dou Qi of a six star Dou Zhe. If he could rapidly recover his Dou Qi, he would have even more time to practice his refining. Therefore his number one priority should be the Energy Recovering Pill!
He promptly jumped into action. He first meditated and adjusted himself. The Energy Recovering Pill’s formula was run through his mind one more time.
Yao Chen had an exceptional memory. His ability to remember everything that passed by his eyes was one of the most basic abilities of any alchemist. For some people this was an acquired talent that occurred when one’s spiritual cultivation increased their Spiritual Perception; their ability to remember things would naturally increase. However some people just innately had this ability.
As expected, his first batch of Energy Recovery Pills was a failure. Furthermore, it was a complete and total failure; he was unable to even condense the pill into a solid form. The ruined medicinal ingredients were thrown into a pile of medicinal waste.
Yao Chen felt dumbfounded looking at that pile of medicinal waste. He couldn’t understand what went wrong; it felt like every step he took, he made an error.
Other people, when faced with such a complete failure, would let the problem go for a period of time before trying again. However, Yao Chen was not this kind of person. Instead, he was filled with persistence. As soon as his Dou Qi recovered he ran to the side and got more medical ingredients for the Energy Recovery Pill.
Puff….
Compared to a pill explosion occurring during condensing, there was no condensing of the pill at all. Bursts of black smoke were being emitted from the top of the medicinal cauldron…. Even the medicinal dregs were gone this time, only leaving an acrid, disgusting smell.
“Cough, cough….”
Yao Chen loudly coughed. He immediately activated the room’s ventilation mechanism, causing black smoke to drift outside. His failure this time did not dissuade Yao Chen, but instead increased his thirst for success.
So it was this step that he did wrong, or to be more precise he had done it correctly but the degree to which he did it was insufficient.
Currently, Yao Chen was unaware of this, but while a normal Energy Recovering Pill was only a first tier medicinal pill, the formula in his father’s recordings had been improved and had entered the second tier. There was no way that the present him who had only just learned some introductory fundamentals to alchemy was capable of refining this pill. In addition, among the many steps to refine this pill were some that Yao Huo had not gone into extreme detail about how to perform them in his notebook. Basically it was impossible for Yao Chen to succeed.
After refining till midnight, his body’s Dou Qi would no longer recover and he felt that he could no longer catch his breath. Only at this time did Yao Chen finally let go of his obsession with refining pills. He had already overdrafted his spirit and his perception towards the medicinal ingredients was already starting to feel vague and fuzzy.
With great difficulty, Yao Chen, who had greatly wasted many medicinal ingredients, had to helplessly stop and go shower. After which he ate one of the Body Refining Pills that his father frequently prepared for him. He lay down in bed, and as soon as his head touched the pillow he entered a very deep sleep.
However even in that deep sleep Yao Chen’s fingers were still faintly moving. A slight trace of Dou Qi came out of his body, and his movements made it clear that even in his dreams he was refining pills.
The second morning, Yao Chen didn’t bring his completed Blood Clotting Pills. In his opinion, his refinement of the Energy Recovery Pill had been such a complete failure that it was no longer about how many impurities were left in it. Instead he did not even manage to form the pill even once.
Yao Lan was paying great attention to Yao Chen. Considering he had brought up the question of why the Cold Attribute Grass and Seven Flames Grass were able to merge, he should be very talented, maybe even the most talented within his class.
However he became a bit disappointed when he saw that Yao Chen did not bring a Blood Clotting Pill. Yao Chen’s father Yao Huo was also one of the clan school’s graduates and Yao Lan still faintly remembered that his talent as an alchemist was very outstanding. However, it was a pity that his talent in Dou Qi training was insufficient and he did not manage to obtain any of the clan’s precious resources. Without those resources he was overlooked and neglected. Although it was slightly unfortunate, the Yao clan had many rarely seen talents, and to overlook one was not a big harm to them; later on even more talents would appear.
Even if Yao Huo had been neglected, his family should still have an alchemy room, so Yao Chen should still be able to refine a Blood Clotting Pill.
“A perfect pill. How many triesdid it take you?”
At the moment, Yao Lan had begun appraising everyone’s pill. The first person was Yao Tong, who was the most talented in the class in terms of Dou Qi and was a seven star Dou Zhe. In fact, he had even selected a foundation building technique to train with. “Elder, it took 3 times,” Yao Tong respectfully replied.
“Not bad.” Yao Lan lightly nodded his head. He did not have any more praises moved on.
“30% toxicity is just passable. You should tighten your control, and at the time you should pay more attention to the temperature to reduce impurities.”
Basically all of the students had refined a batch of medicinal pills, and even the worst one still brought a dark and swarthy failure of a pill. “Yao Chen, what about you?”
Elder Yao Lan finally ended up in front of Yao Chen. Although Yao Chen had not taken out any pill, but the caring Yao Lan couldn’t help but to ask him. Yao Chen lowered his head and replied, “I failed.”
To Yao Chen, the Blood Clotting Pill and the Energy Recovery Pill were the same rank, so rather than reporting success, if he reported his failure the elder might be able to give him a method to fix his failure.
“Where is the failure of the pill then? I’ll help you figure out the reason.” Yao Lan laughed, encouragingly saying, “Failure is not to be feared. You should only be scared of losing confidence.”
Yao Chen lowered his head even more, “Elder, I couldn’t make the pill take shape.”
“….” Yao Lan immediately become dumbfounded. This… how could this be possible? The pill didn’t take shape? In his mind, Yao Chen talent in alchemy should be at least decent from his understanding. At the very least he shouldn’t be much worse than Yao Huo in his youth.
“Cough, not to worry, don’t lose faith, there will come a time when success comes naturally.” Yao Lan lightly coughed as he encouraged. He switched topics to starting today’s lesson on alchemy.
They were still on the introductory basics such as various medicinal ingredients’ properties, how those ingredients react with another, remembering what occurs when basic ingredients merge, controlling the medicinal cauldron’s temperature, using Dou Qi to control the materials inside the cauldron, how the pill takes form….
Although the clan school’s elder on alchemy, Yao Lan, was only a fifth tier alchemist, if one were to discuss the ability to teach the fundamentals to children then there would be hardly anyone in the entire Yao clan who were his equal. He had the ability to take the countless combinations that could appear from all of nature’s blessings and explain it in a simple and clear way so that the children could easily absorb it.
At the beginning Yao Chen was still feeling shameful about yesterday’s failure, but as he listened to the lesson he started to feel enlightened. So there was actually such a method… so there was actually a way to decrease the expenditure of Dou Qi… and there were Dou Techniques to increase your control…. The difficulty of refining would definitely decrease by not just a little bit if someone had these techniques, and in addition, the success rate of the refinement would also increase by a lot.
In the afternoon when the clan school had just ended, Yao Chen was yet again burning with anxiousness. He immediately dashed back home, itching to continue his alchemy.
This time the little fat kid Luo Shu didn’t even have time to completely spread out his arms or say anything before Yao Chen dashed off, slipping past him like the wind….
How did it turn out like this? How could the agreement to go see the little princess be so bluntly forgotten about? In reality, the princess ended up being extremely beautiful, and he had even managed to exchange words with her. He had also told her that today he would bring his friend to see her again…. Now this meant he had to break his promise….
But then again, just meeting up with princess on his own could also be pretty good, hehehe….
Yao Chen rushed home. His mother wasn’t home but she left a note saying that she had left to go pick some herbs. Dinner had already been prepared during breakfast; it only needed to be put into a pot and heated.
This didn’t cause Yao Chen any problems. He ate a couple mouthfuls before running into the alchemy room. He prepared his father’s cauldron and once again started to work on refining the Energy Recovery Pill. Using the new techniques really did make a huge difference. The cauldron’s temperature shot up very quickly, but the drain on his Dou Qi was decreased by a lot. The medicinal ingredients were merging very smoothly inside.
With everything going smoothly, Yao Chen had a kind of intuition that this time his pill might actually be perfect, and under the perception of his spirit he could also tell that the pill was really smoothly advancing in a perfect manner.
He had refined like this all the way to the last step when the medicinal cauldron suddenly started to emit a blood-colored glow. The blood-red glow seeped into the interior and immediately started to contaminate the flame’s temperature. The glow appeared to act like Dou Qi and entered into the merging medical ingredients. BOOM…!
A huge booming noise! A cauldron explosion! CRACK! Yao Chen’s face turned completely white as the enormous force of the cauldron explosion slammed onto him, sending him flying into the wall. “Cough, cough, cough….”
After violently coughing a couple of times, Yao Chen felt that his body internal organs were unwell, so he swallowed a couple of yesterday’s Blood Clotting Pills. The pill turned into a refreshing medical strength which seeped into his internal organs. Only then did he start to feel better. Yao Chen promptly ran back to the medicinal cauldron. This was one of his dad’s most beloved possessions; right now he could only hope that the previous cauldron explosion didn’t damage it.
However with just a glance, Yao Chen’s previously pale face turned ashen. The medicinal cauldron had many shockingly deep cracks in it.
It’s over....
This time he really was asking to be beat.
If one were to ask Luo Shu what he had most admired about Yao Chen, it was the fact that he had never had to have been hit by his father….
That was because Luo Shu was the kind of disobedient child that if you didn’t hit him at least once within three days, he would start being mischievous, climbing up the roof and ripping off tiles.
Looking at the extremely deep cracks in the medicinal cauldron, Yao Chen could only numbly repeat “it’s over, it’s over.”
However, for some unknown reason, other than feeling worried about being punished by his parents, a kind of ominous feeling starting rising in his heart…. A rumbling noise suddenly came from outside!
Right at this moment, a burst of booming noises came from the plaza. Even with the alchemy room’s sound-proofing, there was no way to stop the very clear noise.
Yao Chen’s heart violently jumped, his ominous feeling becoming even stronger. He fixed himself up a bit and then very quickly climbed out of the mess and ran towards the sound.
As soon as he left the house he heard a bunch of noisy, hoarse shouting. Running to the plaza, he saw a bunch of people grouped around each other.
“Yao Chen came out.”
“Yao Chen….”
Everyone who saw Yao Chen suddenly became quiet. The group of people unconsciously split open to form a path.
Rumble….
Little Yao Chen’s heart turned cold. His body was quiet as he weakly and slowly walked over. The ominous feeling gave him an image of the reality that he wanted to see the least.
His father: gentle, funny, the one who often caused his whole family to start laughing, that father who frequently raised him onto his shoulder, that father….
At the moment, his father’s face was completely pale, and his whole body was covered in blood as he lay on the ground with his eyes tightly shut. Luo Bing and all of his father’s other brothers all had grief-stricken faces as they either walked or sat to the side where they held their heads and pulled their hair.
“Chen-er… we encountered….”
Luo Bing bit his lips. He couldn’t form any words at the moment. As an Iron Guard, he had to accomplish many of the clan’s missions. He had to be prepared to sacrifice his life. And he had been prepared for such a thing long ago. But in the wake of such a cruel calamity, it really caused everyone to not know what to do, especially when they looked at Yao Chen’s young and immature face.
“Looking at the wounds, it’s clearly the work of the Hall of Souls….”
“Hush, this kind of thing can’t be casually said.”
“Sigh, what a pity. With Yao Huo’s talent he should have become an alchemist, but he insisted on being an Iron Guard. This time he really got it.”
“Looking at the wounds, even if he manages to survive with his life, in the future he’ll end up being a cripple….”
“Shut up! What are you guys saying!” Yao Huo’s brothers immediately jumped, angrily stamping on the ground as they glared at that group of people.
“Don’t be angry at us; it’s not like we have any bad intentions. That’s right, where is your mother Yao Chen?”
“Right, right, right, where is Yao Qing?” This group of gossipers were all neighbours who lived nearby. Promptly realizing that their words were out of place, they stepped back a couple steps and swiftly changed the topic.
Yao Chen’s whole body trembled. His father’s body was lying on the ground. The sight of his blood…. It filled him with terror.
“Cough….”
Suddenly, Yao Huo’s body shuddered, and his tightly closed eyes opened.
“Old Luo….”
“Old Huo, I’m here, right here.”
“This familiar smell... did we arrive home?”
“Uh-huh, we’re home...”
“Hehe, Chen-er?
“DAD!” Hearing his dad call him, Yao Chen’s tears finally fell, dripping all the way to the ground.
“Are you scared? A real man’s tears… cannot fall easily.”
“But, the blood… there’s a lot of blood….”
Yao Chen promptly collected himself. His hand grabbed onto his dad, and only then did he notice that his father’s pupils seemed to have no reaction. “Dad, your eyes-”
“It’s just temporary blindness, not a big deal.”
Yao Huo’s cheek trembled slightly. To his side, Luo Bing could no longer control the pain in his heart. Two streams of tears rolled down his face. He knew that considering the extent of Yao Huo’s injuries, to even be able to survive would be considered a miracle. Right now, every word that he said must bring him such an intense pain that he should only be able to speak short, intermittent sentences, and that would be with great difficulty. But every word that he said to Yao Chen was forced out in an extremely clear and coherent manner.
“Yao Huo, you should go rest….”
“I’m fine.” Yao Huo laughed it off as he held Yao Chen’s cheek. Yao Chen felt his father’s hand gently stroke his cheek and tried very hard to hold back his tears.
“Dad… you’re going to get better, right?”
“Hehe….”
“Yao Qing’s returned!”
Suddenly, a shout came out from outside the ring of people. The group opened up another path. Yao Chen lifted his head and saw his mom was still wearing her plain clothes and the herb basket as she ran over as fast as she could.
“Huo-ge!”
“Hehe, letting you see my sorry appearance at the moment is really making me lose face as a man.”
“You should stop talking. Who did this?!”
Yao Qing lifted her head and looked at Luo Bing.
“It was a surprise raid. The enemy used three kinds of techniques which came from the Hun clan, the demon clan, and the Gu clan. We don’t know who it was.”
Luo Bing had already bit through his lip. The thing he hated the most was that they didn’t even have a target to take revenge on. The lucky thing was that they had all managed to return. But looking at his good brother laying on the ground in pain, he would have rather have had it been him who was injured.
“It’s ok, let it go. I don’t want to lie on this ground the whole time, cough….”
Yao Huo put on a smiling face. He grabbed Yao Qing and faintly shook his head. There was no point in making things hard on his brothers when they had no way to fix any part of this situation.
Taking a deep breath, Yao Qing nodded her head. Seeing this, Luo Bing carefully picked up Yao Huo and with great care he gently carried him into his bedroom.
Yao Huo laughed lightly, “It’s not like I’m a porcelain doll… don’t be worried, after a few days I’ll be a strong, muscular man again. It’s fine, you should go home now.”
Seeing Yao Huo’s smiling expression, Luo Bing squeezed out a smile that didn’t make his face look much better than when he was crying. He and the rest of the people all left. As soon as they left, two streams of tears rolled down Yao Qing’s face. “I’ll go ask an elder to come treat your injuries.”
“Already… saw him…or…” Yao Huo lightly shook his head, “Or I wouldn’t be here talking with you.”
Yao Qing reached out her hand and grabbed his wrist to try and find out what was wrong with him. In just a few short moments, she let out a breath of air. It was his internal organs that were the most seriously injured. “I’ll go refine some healing medicine for you. Yao Chen can help and give me a hand.”
“Mom…” Yao Chen just foolishly stood by the door. When he heard that his mom wanted to refine medicine, he immediately became embarrassed and at a complete loss. His family only had one medicinal cauldron, and it was the one he had just caused a cauldron explosion in. It was now basically just a garbage pot.
“Go.”
“Mom, I didn’t do it on purpose…. I accidentally broke dad’s cauldron while refining. I didn’t do it on purpose, I really didn’t do it on purpose.” Yao Chen reported through clenched teeth.
Yao Qing processed what she had just heard. The medicinal cauldron was broken? The thought of it flashed across her mind. Her cheeks started to turn red, her throat felt like something was blocking it, her body was trembling slightly, and black spots started to appear in her eyesight.
“What… what did you say?”
Yao Chen lowered his head. He had never thought for a second that he would ever feel this kind of regret. “Just now a cauldron explosion occurred while I was refining… and the cauldron cracked.”
“You-” Yao Qing’s slap landed on Yao Chen’s face. However the one that was hurt the most was her. Looking at the handprint left on his face, Yao Qing was in a daze as she didn’t even know why she had extended her arm. However….
Looking at Yao Huo who had always been strong and protected her, and yet was now feebly lying in bed, her heart became a complete mess. It was actually her who was the most embarrassed and didn’t know what to do. Just before when everyone was around, she had put on a fake expression so that everyone wouldn’t see how weak she felt. On the bed, Yao Huo started coughing again, “Qing-mei , it’s just a medicinal cauldron. The child is innocent, I’m ok.”
“But that’s your favourite….”
Yao Qing tried to grab for justification, but her heart knew that regardless she should not have raised her hand against her child. Although she didn’t know how he had managed to crack a third grade medicinal cauldron, she was very clear about the fact that her child would not be the kind of person to naughtily just play and break things. In fact, in the past she had been worried about Yao Chen concentrating too much on training and not having enough interest in romance. If refining caused the cauldron explosion, then it could only be said that the medicinal cauldron had reached the end of its lifespan.
“Qing-er, I… ugh-!”
Yao Huo was laughing at how his wife and child were so at a loss, but just when he was about to console them, a strange force violently burst from his chest and entered his body. A hidden force that had been suspended caused his originally stabilizing injury to completely break out. Blood violently shot out onto the bed.
“Huo-ge! What happened to you?”
“I… Dual Yin Life Chasing Palm…” Yao Huo squeezed out these words from his clenched teeth. By this point he could no longer control it and passed out.
Chapter 2: Calamity and Fortune are Fickle
There was only one path towards the clan school at the top of the mountain. All the other paths had layers of restrictions; without orders from above, it was the death penalty to enter from other routes.
During the walk up the path, Yao Chen was smoothly moving his swift Dou Qi throughout his whole body. Without a Qi Method, the only way to do this was to use the Flame Foundation Skill to continuously manoeuvre the Dou Qi. At the moment, Yao Chen had a feeling that he was on the verge of advancing to the seven star Dou Zhe class.
This kind of feeling felt fantastic, but even with kind of feeling, to actually advance was not such a simple matter. The Flame Foundation Skill was an outstanding technique that allowed the Yao clan disciples to stand above outsiders. It allowed Yao clan disciples to be more sensitive when refining pills and increased their Spiritual Perception, giving them many advantages when refining pills. While it had many benefits, its weak point was also very noticeable. If you were to use the Flame Foundation Skill to practice Dou Qi, every single advancement would require a high price in precious materials.
It was only natural that such a huge consumption would be worth it; at the time of advancement, one would absorb the precious materials energy, and as a result, the spirit’s perception, the body’s fire-wood attribute, as well as the Dou Qi’s control and toughness would all receive a qualitative lift.
Within the Yao clan, around 70% of the clan members specialized in refining pills. Just randomly grabbing a group of Iron Guards would give you a number of tier two or tier three alchemists. Other than the fact that most of the clan members had fire-wood attributes, the effect of practicing the Flame Foundation Skill since childhood also had contributions to the large number of alchemists.
Amongst his schoolmates at the school, Yao Chen would not be considered the most outstanding, however with a bit of a struggle he could manage to squeeze into the top ten. But just a couple of bad performances might cause him to fall down in rank.
Every grade at the clan school had almost one hundred disciples. It had a total of five grades, so there were nearly five hundred disciples. Yao Chen’s ranking was not considered remarkable, but it was high enough that the elders would not easily abandon their hopes for him.
Although the disciples were mostly from families that were either in poor conditions or had comparatively low talent, the clan school was run by elders who would not dare to slack off. The elders conscientiously followed the rules to teach every single disciple.
Today’s lesson was a method on refining pills. In comparison, everyone was already very familiar and bored with the Flame Foundation Skill, so they become much more excited when they saw it was the elder for refining.
Yao Chen’s eyes were brightly lit with attention; he was not completely unfamiliar with the process of refining pills. His father could refine pills, and his family had a medicinal cauldron that his father attached great importance to. Every time Yao Chen saw that medicinal cauldron, his heart would have an itching to try it. His father told him that this was his innate talent due to the Yao clan’s nature in his blood and veins. He even laughed, boasting that Yao Chen had an innate talent as an alchemist. Currently he was still very young; when he became older he would need skills and work to make a living. If he studied pill refining methods he could become an instructor at the clan school in the future.
The lesson on pill refining lasted for the entire session. A whole new world was opening before Yao Chen’s eyes: all kinds of materials, their effects on flames, how they caused different kinds of reactions and had different kinds of mergers, and how they could have all kinds of uses and take form as medicinal pills.
The person in charge of teaching the lesson on the basics of pill refining was the head elder of the school, Yao Lan. Alchemy was the school’s most important topic. Yao Lan already had ten years of experience when it came to teaching juniors the basics and would be unashamed to be called the clan’s number one teacher. There was a common opinion that even the clan’s sixth or even seventh tier alchemists were still inferior to him when it came to teaching the basics.
If a person was extremely powerful, it would only mean that that person was extremely gifted; however if you managed to teach and raise an extremely powerful person that would be another matter. This was also the reason why Yao Huo did not just teach Yao Chen himself and instead waited for the clan school’s arrangements.
In the end he was right to do so; Yao Chen had an extremely large interest in alchemy, and under elder Yao Lan’s teachings his mind started to become full of unlimited thoughts… Blood Clotting Pill, Blood Replenishment Pill….
“Ok, today’s alchemy lessons will stop here; don’t bite off more than you can chew. Once everyone returns home today, those of you who are able to can attempt to refine a Blood Clotting Pill. Bring it with you tomorrow; I will check your pills and give you some pointers.”
Elder Yao Lan kindly smiled. This year’s group of disciples had some pretty good saplings within it. Although in terms of Dou Qi they might not be able to compare to the talents within the main bloodline who had access to abundant resources, if they were to take the path of alchemy then their innate gifts would not be much inferior. This path could lead them to a bright future. In reality, as a clan school elder, Yao Lan belonged to the lowest level of elders in the clan. However whenever he looked at these outstanding saplings, he felt that his sacrifice to be a clan school teacher was extremely worth it.
Even if they never called him their master, he would always be the clan school’s elder, and in the case that any of these disciples eventually obtained a high position in the clan in command of many strong practitioners, he would still think of that as giving his life meaning.
“Elder, why can the Cold Attribute Grass and the Seven Flames Grass combine together? Looking from their medical properties, shouldn’t they cancel each other out?” Yao Chen raised his hand and asked a question out of nowhere.
“Haha, Yao Chen, Yao Huo’s son, right? To raise this question means that you were really listening to me and remembered what I said. Having a good memory as a foundation is a must for any successful alchemist. While the Cold Attribute Grass and Seven Flames Grass’s properties mutually clash, our Yao clan has a special method to let them form an alternative merger… that’s as far as I’ll say about this. Tomorrow I will precisely describe the situation. After everyone goes home you should carefully think about this problem. Tomorrow I will question you about it.”
Nodding his head, Yao Lan was very satisfied. Originally he had actually been planning on bringing up this question before Yao Chen asked it. Now that he had a student who would actually ask it, it was even more true that with the right conditions, success will come naturally. After all, where water flows, a canal will naturally form.
As expected, there were several disciples who were innately talented who were originally staying quiet, but now they were blazing with a competitive spirit. With this competitiveness it was only naturally that their progress would be faster. Actually, Yao Chen was paying no attention to this competitiveness; his whole mind was completely focused on this completely new world of alchemy. He was completely unfocused on the following lesson on Dou Qi as he suffered, waiting to go home. When evening finally arrived and class ended, he quickly dashed home.
“Brother Chen, where are you going? We already said that we were going to go see what the demon clan’s little princess looks like….”
The little fat kid Luo Shu stretched out his hands and attempted to stop Yao Chen; that morning they had heard the news that the Demon Saint of the demon clan was bringing the demon clan’s little princess to pay a visit to the Yao clan. The rumor was that they came for some medicine. The strength of the Demon Saint was extremely tyrannical, but Yao Shu wasn’t interested in that. He was much more interested in the demon clan’s little princess. Had she shed her demonic nature or was her appearance more like a demonic beast? But at the moment, Yao Chen’s heart was completely focused on alchemy and so he had long since forgotten about some little princess from the demon clan.
After he arrived home and greeted his mother, he immediately ran into the alchemy room in his house. After all, Yao Huo was a fourth tier alchemist, and although this rank would not be considered high in the clan, it was in no way weak. The alchemy room was always filled with many medical ingredients that were sufficient to refine most medicinal pills of the third tier and below.
Previously he had not understood anything about alchemy and he only learnt to recognize some medical ingredients from following around his father. Now with elder Yao Lan’s teachings, Yao Chen was very impatient to start using his own hands to refine medical pills.
However he still did not forget to do his daily exercises. He first did his normal practice inside the alchemy room, completing three revolutions of his Dou Qi before igniting the medical cauldron. Returning to his original thoughts, he grabbed a bunch of different medicinal ingredients. Yao Chen’s goal was to refine a Blood Clotting Pill which was the assignment given by elder Yao Lan. The first tier Blood Clotting Pill was one of the most common healing medicinal pills; other than major arteries being severed and causing extreme blood flow, all other bleeding situations could be effectively and quickly resolved with this Blood Clotting Pill.
The Blood Clotting Pill was a very basic medical pill. The refining process was not complicated; the main thing to note was that the flame for refining required Dou Qi to control it, and using a 6 star Dou Zhe’s strength was a bit difficult. Yao Chen exhausted all of his energy before managing to refine just one pill.
A whole furnace of medical ingredients had resulted in just one pill, and the pill’s colour had black traces. It was very noticeable that the pill’s toxicity was much too high. He didn’t even need elder Yao Lan’s appraisal to know that this pill was a failure. Yao Chen blankly tried to carefully think back on the more obvious mistakes he had just made. Subsequently he sat back down cross-legged and meditated, slowly recuperating his missing Dou Qi.
An hour’s meditation later, his Dou Qi had finally recovered enough. Without a moment’s hesitation, Yao Chen threw in another batch of medical ingredients into the cauldron, revolving his Dou Qi to start refining. The ingredients for a first tier pill were not valuable in the Yao clan so Yao Chen was able to refine to his heart’s content. This time the refinement was clearly more skilled, however there were still some clear errors and deviations. The medicinal cauldron emitted a banging noise, opening and releasing three Blood Clotting Pills. In the midst of the pills’ red color were some faint strands of black which were clearly some toxic elements, but compared to the first time, the improvement was very great. Yao Chen’s eyes were also bright as he operated his body’s last remaining Dou Qi to very carefully move the medical pills from the cauldron into a porcelain bottle.
Yao Chen still wasn’t satisfied with just that. Once again, he sat down cross-legged and meditated to recover his Dou Qi. The process of refining pills was way too fascinating to him. Feeling the medicinal pill under the control of his Dou Qi as it slowly took shape inside the medicinal cauldron was a truly fantastic feeling.
However just when he was about to start his third refinement, his mother’s voice came from outside.
“Yao Chen, time for dinner.”
“Ok.”
“Where’s Luo Shu?”
“Ah, he went to go see the demon clan’s little princess.”
Only now did Yao Chen remember his agreement with Fatty Luo.
Yao Qing let out a laugh; so young but he still knew to go see beautiful women, the kids have really grown up. “How come you didn’t go?”
“I forgot.” Yao Chen scratched his head as he simple-mindedly replied.
This really gave Yao Qing a feeling of not knowing whether to be worried or happy. Thirteen years old was exactly when boys first awaken their love for girls; how could he actually manage to forget this kind of thing?
However, temporarily not needing to deal with girls could have him more energy for training, which was also a correct road.
“Mom, I’m done eating. I’m going to go practice… training.”
Yao Chen finished eating with lightning speed, completely cleaning his plate. Just the time it took to speak a few sentences meant that he had less time for refining. Standing up, he disappeared like a wisp of smoke into the alchemy room.
This time Yao Qing really did get nervous. Didn’t it seem like his emotional IQ was extremely low? Apparently Yao Huo would have to talk to him less about training and more about what men should talk about.
To briefly describe it, the whole reason why she had married him was all because of his clever tongue, and he should really pass on this strong point to his son. If they didn’t prepare early then maybe in the future they wouldn’t have a proper daughter-in-law. In the Yao clan, all the good girls were taken very early; if you were late you could only settle for some uglier ones.
After seven refinements, Yao Chen had already lost interest in the Blood Clotting Pill. He had produced two batches of completely perfect Blood Clotting Pills, meaning it was no longer challenging to him. But the Energy Recovering Pill….
Suddenly Yao Chen thought of a medicinal formula that he had seen in his father’s records of medicinal formulas. It could recover Dou Qi in a short period of time! Recover Dou Qi…. Currently the main thing restraining his alchemy’s efficiency was that he only had the Dou Qi of a six star Dou Zhe. If he could rapidly recover his Dou Qi, he would have even more time to practice his refining. Therefore his number one priority should be the Energy Recovering Pill!
He promptly jumped into action. He first meditated and adjusted himself. The Energy Recovering Pill’s formula was run through his mind one more time.
Yao Chen had an exceptional memory. His ability to remember everything that passed by his eyes was one of the most basic abilities of any alchemist. For some people this was an acquired talent that occurred when one’s spiritual cultivation increased their Spiritual Perception; their ability to remember things would naturally increase. However some people just innately had this ability.
As expected, his first batch of Energy Recovery Pills was a failure. Furthermore, it was a complete and total failure; he was unable to even condense the pill into a solid form. The ruined medicinal ingredients were thrown into a pile of medicinal waste.
Yao Chen felt dumbfounded looking at that pile of medicinal waste. He couldn’t understand what went wrong; it felt like every step he took, he made an error.
Other people, when faced with such a complete failure, would let the problem go for a period of time before trying again. However, Yao Chen was not this kind of person. Instead, he was filled with persistence. As soon as his Dou Qi recovered he ran to the side and got more medical ingredients for the Energy Recovery Pill.
Puff….
Compared to a pill explosion occurring during condensing, there was no condensing of the pill at all. Bursts of black smoke were being emitted from the top of the medicinal cauldron…. Even the medicinal dregs were gone this time, only leaving an acrid, disgusting smell.
“Cough, cough….”
Yao Chen loudly coughed. He immediately activated the room’s ventilation mechanism, causing black smoke to drift outside. His failure this time did not dissuade Yao Chen, but instead increased his thirst for success.
So it was this step that he did wrong, or to be more precise he had done it correctly but the degree to which he did it was insufficient.
Currently, Yao Chen was unaware of this, but while a normal Energy Recovering Pill was only a first tier medicinal pill, the formula in his father’s recordings had been improved and had entered the second tier. There was no way that the present him who had only just learned some introductory fundamentals to alchemy was capable of refining this pill. In addition, among the many steps to refine this pill were some that Yao Huo had not gone into extreme detail about how to perform them in his notebook. Basically it was impossible for Yao Chen to succeed.
After refining till midnight, his body’s Dou Qi would no longer recover and he felt that he could no longer catch his breath. Only at this time did Yao Chen finally let go of his obsession with refining pills. He had already overdrafted his spirit and his perception towards the medicinal ingredients was already starting to feel vague and fuzzy.
With great difficulty, Yao Chen, who had greatly wasted many medicinal ingredients, had to helplessly stop and go shower. After which he ate one of the Body Refining Pills that his father frequently prepared for him. He lay down in bed, and as soon as his head touched the pillow he entered a very deep sleep.
However even in that deep sleep Yao Chen’s fingers were still faintly moving. A slight trace of Dou Qi came out of his body, and his movements made it clear that even in his dreams he was refining pills.
The second morning, Yao Chen didn’t bring his completed Blood Clotting Pills. In his opinion, his refinement of the Energy Recovery Pill had been such a complete failure that it was no longer about how many impurities were left in it. Instead he did not even manage to form the pill even once.
Yao Lan was paying great attention to Yao Chen. Considering he had brought up the question of why the Cold Attribute Grass and Seven Flames Grass were able to merge, he should be very talented, maybe even the most talented within his class.
However he became a bit disappointed when he saw that Yao Chen did not bring a Blood Clotting Pill. Yao Chen’s father Yao Huo was also one of the clan school’s graduates and Yao Lan still faintly remembered that his talent as an alchemist was very outstanding. However, it was a pity that his talent in Dou Qi training was insufficient and he did not manage to obtain any of the clan’s precious resources. Without those resources he was overlooked and neglected. Although it was slightly unfortunate, the Yao clan had many rarely seen talents, and to overlook one was not a big harm to them; later on even more talents would appear.
Even if Yao Huo had been neglected, his family should still have an alchemy room, so Yao Chen should still be able to refine a Blood Clotting Pill.
“A perfect pill. How many triesdid it take you?”
At the moment, Yao Lan had begun appraising everyone’s pill. The first person was Yao Tong, who was the most talented in the class in terms of Dou Qi and was a seven star Dou Zhe. In fact, he had even selected a foundation building technique to train with. “Elder, it took 3 times,” Yao Tong respectfully replied.
“Not bad.” Yao Lan lightly nodded his head. He did not have any more praises moved on.
“30% toxicity is just passable. You should tighten your control, and at the time you should pay more attention to the temperature to reduce impurities.”
Basically all of the students had refined a batch of medicinal pills, and even the worst one still brought a dark and swarthy failure of a pill. “Yao Chen, what about you?”
Elder Yao Lan finally ended up in front of Yao Chen. Although Yao Chen had not taken out any pill, but the caring Yao Lan couldn’t help but to ask him. Yao Chen lowered his head and replied, “I failed.”
To Yao Chen, the Blood Clotting Pill and the Energy Recovery Pill were the same rank, so rather than reporting success, if he reported his failure the elder might be able to give him a method to fix his failure.
“Where is the failure of the pill then? I’ll help you figure out the reason.” Yao Lan laughed, encouragingly saying, “Failure is not to be feared. You should only be scared of losing confidence.”
Yao Chen lowered his head even more, “Elder, I couldn’t make the pill take shape.”
“….” Yao Lan immediately become dumbfounded. This… how could this be possible? The pill didn’t take shape? In his mind, Yao Chen talent in alchemy should be at least decent from his understanding. At the very least he shouldn’t be much worse than Yao Huo in his youth.
“Cough, not to worry, don’t lose faith, there will come a time when success comes naturally.” Yao Lan lightly coughed as he encouraged. He switched topics to starting today’s lesson on alchemy.
They were still on the introductory basics such as various medicinal ingredients’ properties, how those ingredients react with another, remembering what occurs when basic ingredients merge, controlling the medicinal cauldron’s temperature, using Dou Qi to control the materials inside the cauldron, how the pill takes form….
Although the clan school’s elder on alchemy, Yao Lan, was only a fifth tier alchemist, if one were to discuss the ability to teach the fundamentals to children then there would be hardly anyone in the entire Yao clan who were his equal. He had the ability to take the countless combinations that could appear from all of nature’s blessings and explain it in a simple and clear way so that the children could easily absorb it.
At the beginning Yao Chen was still feeling shameful about yesterday’s failure, but as he listened to the lesson he started to feel enlightened. So there was actually such a method… so there was actually a way to decrease the expenditure of Dou Qi… and there were Dou Techniques to increase your control…. The difficulty of refining would definitely decrease by not just a little bit if someone had these techniques, and in addition, the success rate of the refinement would also increase by a lot.
In the afternoon when the clan school had just ended, Yao Chen was yet again burning with anxiousness. He immediately dashed back home, itching to continue his alchemy.
This time the little fat kid Luo Shu didn’t even have time to completely spread out his arms or say anything before Yao Chen dashed off, slipping past him like the wind….
How did it turn out like this? How could the agreement to go see the little princess be so bluntly forgotten about? In reality, the princess ended up being extremely beautiful, and he had even managed to exchange words with her. He had also told her that today he would bring his friend to see her again…. Now this meant he had to break his promise….
But then again, just meeting up with princess on his own could also be pretty good, hehehe….
Yao Chen rushed home. His mother wasn’t home but she left a note saying that she had left to go pick some herbs. Dinner had already been prepared during breakfast; it only needed to be put into a pot and heated.
This didn’t cause Yao Chen any problems. He ate a couple mouthfuls before running into the alchemy room. He prepared his father’s cauldron and once again started to work on refining the Energy Recovery Pill. Using the new techniques really did make a huge difference. The cauldron’s temperature shot up very quickly, but the drain on his Dou Qi was decreased by a lot. The medicinal ingredients were merging very smoothly inside.
With everything going smoothly, Yao Chen had a kind of intuition that this time his pill might actually be perfect, and under the perception of his spirit he could also tell that the pill was really smoothly advancing in a perfect manner.
He had refined like this all the way to the last step when the medicinal cauldron suddenly started to emit a blood-colored glow. The blood-red glow seeped into the interior and immediately started to contaminate the flame’s temperature. The glow appeared to act like Dou Qi and entered into the merging medical ingredients. BOOM…!
A huge booming noise! A cauldron explosion! CRACK! Yao Chen’s face turned completely white as the enormous force of the cauldron explosion slammed onto him, sending him flying into the wall. “Cough, cough, cough….”
After violently coughing a couple of times, Yao Chen felt that his body internal organs were unwell, so he swallowed a couple of yesterday’s Blood Clotting Pills. The pill turned into a refreshing medical strength which seeped into his internal organs. Only then did he start to feel better. Yao Chen promptly ran back to the medicinal cauldron. This was one of his dad’s most beloved possessions; right now he could only hope that the previous cauldron explosion didn’t damage it.
However with just a glance, Yao Chen’s previously pale face turned ashen. The medicinal cauldron had many shockingly deep cracks in it.
It’s over....
This time he really was asking to be beat.
If one were to ask Luo Shu what he had most admired about Yao Chen, it was the fact that he had never had to have been hit by his father….
That was because Luo Shu was the kind of disobedient child that if you didn’t hit him at least once within three days, he would start being mischievous, climbing up the roof and ripping off tiles.
Looking at the extremely deep cracks in the medicinal cauldron, Yao Chen could only numbly repeat “it’s over, it’s over.”
However, for some unknown reason, other than feeling worried about being punished by his parents, a kind of ominous feeling starting rising in his heart…. A rumbling noise suddenly came from outside!
Right at this moment, a burst of booming noises came from the plaza. Even with the alchemy room’s sound-proofing, there was no way to stop the very clear noise.
Yao Chen’s heart violently jumped, his ominous feeling becoming even stronger. He fixed himself up a bit and then very quickly climbed out of the mess and ran towards the sound.
As soon as he left the house he heard a bunch of noisy, hoarse shouting. Running to the plaza, he saw a bunch of people grouped around each other.
“Yao Chen came out.”
“Yao Chen….”
Everyone who saw Yao Chen suddenly became quiet. The group of people unconsciously split open to form a path.
Rumble….
Little Yao Chen’s heart turned cold. His body was quiet as he weakly and slowly walked over. The ominous feeling gave him an image of the reality that he wanted to see the least.
His father: gentle, funny, the one who often caused his whole family to start laughing, that father who frequently raised him onto his shoulder, that father….
At the moment, his father’s face was completely pale, and his whole body was covered in blood as he lay on the ground with his eyes tightly shut. Luo Bing and all of his father’s other brothers all had grief-stricken faces as they either walked or sat to the side where they held their heads and pulled their hair.
“Chen-er… we encountered….”
Luo Bing bit his lips. He couldn’t form any words at the moment. As an Iron Guard, he had to accomplish many of the clan’s missions. He had to be prepared to sacrifice his life. And he had been prepared for such a thing long ago. But in the wake of such a cruel calamity, it really caused everyone to not know what to do, especially when they looked at Yao Chen’s young and immature face.
“Looking at the wounds, it’s clearly the work of the Hall of Souls….”
“Hush, this kind of thing can’t be casually said.”
“Sigh, what a pity. With Yao Huo’s talent he should have become an alchemist, but he insisted on being an Iron Guard. This time he really got it.”
“Looking at the wounds, even if he manages to survive with his life, in the future he’ll end up being a cripple….”
“Shut up! What are you guys saying!” Yao Huo’s brothers immediately jumped, angrily stamping on the ground as they glared at that group of people.
“Don’t be angry at us; it’s not like we have any bad intentions. That’s right, where is your mother Yao Chen?”
“Right, right, right, where is Yao Qing?” This group of gossipers were all neighbours who lived nearby. Promptly realizing that their words were out of place, they stepped back a couple steps and swiftly changed the topic.
Yao Chen’s whole body trembled. His father’s body was lying on the ground. The sight of his blood…. It filled him with terror.
“Cough….”
Suddenly, Yao Huo’s body shuddered, and his tightly closed eyes opened.
“Old Luo….”
“Old Huo, I’m here, right here.”
“This familiar smell... did we arrive home?”
“Uh-huh, we’re home...”
“Hehe, Chen-er?
“DAD!” Hearing his dad call him, Yao Chen’s tears finally fell, dripping all the way to the ground.
“Are you scared? A real man’s tears… cannot fall easily.”
“But, the blood… there’s a lot of blood….”
Yao Chen promptly collected himself. His hand grabbed onto his dad, and only then did he notice that his father’s pupils seemed to have no reaction. “Dad, your eyes-”
“It’s just temporary blindness, not a big deal.”
Yao Huo’s cheek trembled slightly. To his side, Luo Bing could no longer control the pain in his heart. Two streams of tears rolled down his face. He knew that considering the extent of Yao Huo’s injuries, to even be able to survive would be considered a miracle. Right now, every word that he said must bring him such an intense pain that he should only be able to speak short, intermittent sentences, and that would be with great difficulty. But every word that he said to Yao Chen was forced out in an extremely clear and coherent manner.
“Yao Huo, you should go rest….”
“I’m fine.” Yao Huo laughed it off as he held Yao Chen’s cheek. Yao Chen felt his father’s hand gently stroke his cheek and tried very hard to hold back his tears.
“Dad… you’re going to get better, right?”
“Hehe….”
“Yao Qing’s returned!”
Suddenly, a shout came out from outside the ring of people. The group opened up another path. Yao Chen lifted his head and saw his mom was still wearing her plain clothes and the herb basket as she ran over as fast as she could.
“Huo-ge!”
“Hehe, letting you see my sorry appearance at the moment is really making me lose face as a man.”
“You should stop talking. Who did this?!”
Yao Qing lifted her head and looked at Luo Bing.
“It was a surprise raid. The enemy used three kinds of techniques which came from the Hun clan, the demon clan, and the Gu clan. We don’t know who it was.”
Luo Bing had already bit through his lip. The thing he hated the most was that they didn’t even have a target to take revenge on. The lucky thing was that they had all managed to return. But looking at his good brother laying on the ground in pain, he would have rather have had it been him who was injured.
“It’s ok, let it go. I don’t want to lie on this ground the whole time, cough….”
Yao Huo put on a smiling face. He grabbed Yao Qing and faintly shook his head. There was no point in making things hard on his brothers when they had no way to fix any part of this situation.
Taking a deep breath, Yao Qing nodded her head. Seeing this, Luo Bing carefully picked up Yao Huo and with great care he gently carried him into his bedroom.
Yao Huo laughed lightly, “It’s not like I’m a porcelain doll… don’t be worried, after a few days I’ll be a strong, muscular man again. It’s fine, you should go home now.”
Seeing Yao Huo’s smiling expression, Luo Bing squeezed out a smile that didn’t make his face look much better than when he was crying. He and the rest of the people all left. As soon as they left, two streams of tears rolled down Yao Qing’s face. “I’ll go ask an elder to come treat your injuries.”
“Already… saw him…or…” Yao Huo lightly shook his head, “Or I wouldn’t be here talking with you.”
Yao Qing reached out her hand and grabbed his wrist to try and find out what was wrong with him. In just a few short moments, she let out a breath of air. It was his internal organs that were the most seriously injured. “I’ll go refine some healing medicine for you. Yao Chen can help and give me a hand.”
“Mom…” Yao Chen just foolishly stood by the door. When he heard that his mom wanted to refine medicine, he immediately became embarrassed and at a complete loss. His family only had one medicinal cauldron, and it was the one he had just caused a cauldron explosion in. It was now basically just a garbage pot.
“Go.”
“Mom, I didn’t do it on purpose…. I accidentally broke dad’s cauldron while refining. I didn’t do it on purpose, I really didn’t do it on purpose.” Yao Chen reported through clenched teeth.
Yao Qing processed what she had just heard. The medicinal cauldron was broken? The thought of it flashed across her mind. Her cheeks started to turn red, her throat felt like something was blocking it, her body was trembling slightly, and black spots started to appear in her eyesight.
“What… what did you say?”
Yao Chen lowered his head. He had never thought for a second that he would ever feel this kind of regret. “Just now a cauldron explosion occurred while I was refining… and the cauldron cracked.”
“You-” Yao Qing’s slap landed on Yao Chen’s face. However the one that was hurt the most was her. Looking at the handprint left on his face, Yao Qing was in a daze as she didn’t even know why she had extended her arm. However….
Looking at Yao Huo who had always been strong and protected her, and yet was now feebly lying in bed, her heart became a complete mess. It was actually her who was the most embarrassed and didn’t know what to do. Just before when everyone was around, she had put on a fake expression so that everyone wouldn’t see how weak she felt. On the bed, Yao Huo started coughing again, “Qing-mei , it’s just a medicinal cauldron. The child is innocent, I’m ok.”
“But that’s your favourite….”
Yao Qing tried to grab for justification, but her heart knew that regardless she should not have raised her hand against her child. Although she didn’t know how he had managed to crack a third grade medicinal cauldron, she was very clear about the fact that her child would not be the kind of person to naughtily just play and break things. In fact, in the past she had been worried about Yao Chen concentrating too much on training and not having enough interest in romance. If refining caused the cauldron explosion, then it could only be said that the medicinal cauldron had reached the end of its lifespan.
“Qing-er, I… ugh-!”
Yao Huo was laughing at how his wife and child were so at a loss, but just when he was about to console them, a strange force violently burst from his chest and entered his body. A hidden force that had been suspended caused his originally stabilizing injury to completely break out. Blood violently shot out onto the bed.
“Huo-ge! What happened to you?”
“I… Dual Yin Life Chasing Palm…” Yao Huo squeezed out these words from his clenched teeth. By this point he could no longer control it and passed out.
