Battle Through the Heavens Prequel – The Legend of Yao Lao - BestLightNovel.com
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Chapter 2
There was only one path leading to the clan’s school situated on the summit, with the other paths being heavily sealed and promising only death to all trespa.s.sers.
Yao Chen walked swiftly, with his dou qi circulating in his body. Without any techniques of his own, he could only circulate his dou qi throughout his body in accordance with the most basic flame foundation skill; At this moment, he had a premonition of leveling up to a 7 starred dou zhe.
This feeling of premonition was intriguing, but it was still only just a feeling as leveling up was not an easy thing to do after all. The flame foundation skill is a marvelous skill that allowed the descendants of the medicine tribe to surpa.s.s the pract.i.tioners of the outside world, and allowed them to possess a sensitivity towards pill refining in addition to have beneficial effects for training one's spiritual perception.However, with such benefits, the flaws of the skill was apparent as well, with each successive level of dou qi cultivated using the flame foundation skill requiring vast amounts of resources.
Naturally, the consumption of said resources are worthwhile as during the process of levelling up, drawing on the resources consumed,one’s spiritual perception, affinity towards the flame and wood elements as well as the toughness and control over dou qi would soar.
In the medicine tribe, 70 percent of the tribesmen were predisposed towards pill refining with any random person drawn from the tribe being a grade 2 or 3 receptarier. Discounting the fact that the majority of the tribesmen were of the flame and wood elements, an important reason for this was the fact that they cultivated in the flame foundation skill since young.
Amongst the clan’s young, Yao Chen could not be considered the most outstanding, though he could barely be considered amongst the top 10, he could slip out of the ranking with one misstep.
Every batch of the clan’s school has about 100 students, with 5 batches of students in total amounting to close to 500 students. Yao Chen’s ranking, while not particularly eye-catching, was also not bad enough for the elders to give up on him.
Although most of the student’s families had financial difficulties, or had weak talent, the elders of the school responsible for educating them did not slacken off and taught them all conscientiously in accordance with the clan’s regulations.
The basics of pill refining were being taught in school today, and the instructor had everyone’s rapt attention. Yao Chen was not unfamiliar with pill refining as his father was able to refine pills as well, and his house had a pill cauldron that his father deeply treasured that would set his heart racing and fill him with an urge to try refining whenever he laid eyes on it. His father said that this was an inborn trait that members of the clan possessed and a natural talent in its own right, and even praised Yao Chen, saying that he had the natural apt.i.tude to be a receptarier. However, he was still too young and should focus on his cultivation with the basics of pill refining to be taught in school.
Pill refining was taught the entire day and a whole new world was revealed before Yao Chen’s eyes;Different ingredients and materials under processing by flame would have different reactions, and with varying combinations would produce myriad pills with different effects.
Pill refining was of the utmost importance to the clan and the instructor responsible for the basics of pill refining was the chief elder Yao Lan who had decades of experience.With regards to teaching many students at once, Yao Lan was the undisputed best in the clan, and it could even be said that the grade 6 and 7 receptariers of the clan, were his inferiors when it came to personal instruction of the basics.
If one was strong, it could be attributed to talent and inborn gifts, but producing an outstanding student was an entirely different matter altogether, and it is due to this that Yao Huo did not teach Yao Chen personally but left it to the clan’s instructors.
The result of him doing so was successful and Yao Chen, under the tutelage of Yao Lan, had great interest in pill refining, and thoughts of countless pills like the blood stopping pill, blood replenis.h.i.+ng pill were floating in his mind…
“Alright, let’s not bite off more than we can chew, that’s it for today. Everyone go home and try your hands at the blood stopping pill and bring it tomorrow. I’ll evaluate it and give everyone some pointers.”
Elder Yao Lan smiled affably; There were a few good seedlings in this batch of students.While they may not equal those geniuses of the main line of descent who had abundant cultivation resources in terms of dou qi, they were roughly equal in terms of pill refining, with a bright future ahead of them.Though he may be ranked last amongst the great elders of the clan,whenever he looked at these outstanding seedlings, he would feel that his sacrifice was worth it.Even if in the end, these students of his grew up into outstanding figures in the clan never once called his teacher, he would always be the elder of the school, and this gave him purpose and meaning in his life.
“Elder, why can the primal frost gra.s.s and the seven fire gra.s.s be combined together? Don’t their medicinal properties counteract each other ?” Yao Chen raised his hand and asked suddenly.
“Ahh Yao Huo’s child right ? Not bad, being able to ask this question proves that you remembered what i said just now. Memorisation is the most fundamental requirement of being a receptarier; Though the properties of the primal frost gra.s.s and seven fire gra.s.s counteract each other, our medicine clan has a special method of combining the both of them. As for the crux of the matter, that is something i will be going through tomorrow. Go home and ponder on this question everyone, i will be asking questioning you on this matter tomorrow.”
Yao Lan nodded his head in satisfaction, as he would have raised this question himself if Yao Chen did not. As expected, he could see the eyes of a few talented students light up with a desire not to be outdone after all, only with compet.i.tion and rivals, could one’s rate of improvement increase. Yao Chen did not concern himself with thought of compet.i.tion or rivals as he was engrossed in this new world of pill refining and muddled his way through the following cla.s.s on dou qi and finally finished the school day when evening came and he rushed his way back home.
“Brother Chen, where are you going? We were going to see what the little princess from the demon clan looked like..”
The little fatty Luo Shu stretched his hands out but was unable to grasps Yao Chen.They heard about the sacred demon of the demon clan bringing the little demon princess to the medicine tribe, apparently to ask for some pills. The mighty sacred demon did not interest little fatty the slightest, but the little demon princess on the other hand sounded alluring, what would she look like? Had her demon characteristics receded yet, or would she still look like a demon beast? Yao Chen had his thoughts fully focused on pill refining and had long since forgotten about the demon princess.
As he reached home, he greeted his mother and rushed into his father’s pill refining room. Yao Huo was a grade 4 receptarier, and while he could not be considered particularly strong in the clan, he was definitely not weak either. In the room were plenty medicinal ingredients, more than sufficient to refine a pill that was of the 3rd grade and below.
In the past when he knew nothing about refining, he simply stuck to his father and learnt about various medicinal herbs. Now with the instruction of Yao Lan, Yao Chen could not wait to try his hand at pill refining.
However, Yao Chen did not ignore his daily basic training and after circulating his dou qi for a while, he opened the cauldron and grabbed some medicinal herbs.Yao Chen’s goal was the blood stopping pill, which was also the request set by Yao Lan. With the exception of a major artery be severed leading to major blood loss, the grade 1 blood stopping pill was able to quickly staunch blood loss and is one of the most common medical pills for external wounds.
The blood stopping pill was a basic pill that was not tough to refine, with the major requirement simply being the flame used for refining had to be supported by dou qi. With the power of a 6 starred dou zhe, it was barely possible and Yao Chen was only able to refine one pill after giving it all he had.
The single pill that he refined using a cauldron full of ingredients, had dull colouring indicative of heavy side effects being a failure was something that even Yao Chen knew without having Yao Lan point it out to him.[T/L Note: I’m going with side effects for now, though i’m open to any better translations for 副毒]
Yao Chen carefully thought about the obvious mistakes he made while refining the pill and sat down to meditate, recovering his dou qi.
After an hour, when his dou qi had recovered, Yao Chen grabbed a some ingredients, threw it into the cauldron and started refining once again. Refining a grade 1 pill did not cost much in the medicine clan and Yao Chen was able to carry on refining without thinking too much. This time round, the refining went a lot more smoothly though there were still some areas that still needed work. With a resounding bang, the cauldron opened and 3 pills were refined. The pills were red in colour with a few specks black indicative of undesirable side effects, though it was obviously better than the first attempt. Yao Chen’s eyes lit up, and circulating his dou qi, lifted the pills from the cauldron and carefully placed them in a bottle.
Yao Chen was not satisfied and sat down once more to meditate, recovering his dou qi. The process of refining, where he could feel the pill slowly taking shape under the guidance of his dou qi was extremely interesting to him.However, he was unable to attempt his third refining when his mother’s voice sounded out.
“Yao Chen , it’s dinner time”
“OK”
“Where’s Luo Shu?”
“He went to look at the little demon princess”
This was when Yao Chen remembered his promise with Luo Shu to go look at the princess.
Yao Qing was pleased. The kids were growing up, going off to sneak peaks at beautiful girls.
“Why didn’t you go?”
“I forgot”
Yao Chen scratched his head and answered truthfully.
Yao Qing did not know whether to be pleased or displeased. Her son was 13 years of age, and should be interested in the opposite s.e.x, how could he have forgotten about his promise….?Although this could be a good thing, as he could concentrate on his cultivation without being distracted by girls.
“Mom, i’m finished eating, i’ll go...practice now”
This was the first time Yao Chen ate so quickly. In the time it took for a few sentences to be spoken, he cleaned his plate and went back into the pill refining room.
Yao Qing was starting to be worried,was Yao Chen’s interest in girls a little too low? Looks like she should have a talk with Yao Huo and have the two of them talk about “manly” stuff and not matters related to cultivation for once.[TN: Manly stuff being girls, birds & bees, etc]
After all, she married Yao Huo in no small part due to that mouth of his.She felt that he should at least pa.s.s on that mouth of his to his son. After all , one had to be prepared for the future, and in the medicine clan good girls had to be taken early otherwise, if one is late in doing so, he would only be left with the leftovers.
At this point of time, Yao Chen had yet to experience the good points of girls, from his point who view, girls simply liked to make a big fuss out of nothing and were just plain annoying and irritating. Of course, his mom was different.
Pill refining was so much more interesting! In the pill refining room, once Yao Chen’s dou qi had recovered, he would immediately grab a bunch of ingredients and start refining the blood stopping pills, which each attempt being better than the previous.
On his seventh attempt, Yao Chen lost interest in the blood stopping pill since his previous 2 attempts were already perfect and had ceased being a challenge to him.
Suddenly, a pill formula appeared in Yao Chen’s mind. This formula was something that he once saw in his father notes and was something that could recover dou qi in a short period of time!
Currently, the only thing constraining his pill refining was his 6 starred dou zhe’s dou qi. If he was able to recover his dou qi more quickly, he would have more time available to refine pills.
His first goal should be the qi recovering pill!
Once he thought of this, Yao Chen immediately sprang into action and started preparing himself, and once again ran through the formula for the qi recovering pill, confirming it once more.
Yao Chen possessed photographic memory, which was something that all receptariers possessed. The only difference being that some people obtained it later in life when their spiritual perception was of sufficient strength while others were born with it.
As expected, the first attempted failed, and failed thoroughly with not even the shape of the pill being formed, and all the ingredients reduced to dregs.
Yao Chen was stunned looking at the pile of medicinal dregs, and was little unsure of what happened as it seemed as if he had made mistakes in every step of the pill refining process. A normal person would take a break before trying again when faced with this sort of failure but Yao Chen was different. He gritted his teeth, recovered his dou qi, grabbed another set ingredients and attempted refining the pill again.
*Fizzle*….
kencephalonkencephalon January 2016 edited February 2016
Chapter 2 - Cont'd
This attempt was another utter failure with not even any medicinal dregs being formed as black smoke billowed out of the cauldron and the room was left with a sharp stench from the failed attempt.
“Cough cough…”
Yao Chen coughed heavily as he opened the ventilation mechanisms installed in the room, driving the black smoke out.This time around, Yao Chen was a little disappointed, though his thirst for success did not diminish due to his failure but intensified instead.
What did i do wrong? Or rather, what did i do correctly, but not to a sufficient extent..?
Yao Chen did not know that while the qi recovering pill was ordinarily a grade 1 pill, the formula for the pill that he saw in his father’s notes was a modified version that was grade 2 in rank ! The modified pill formula was not something that a novice who has only learnt the basics would be able to refine as several steps in the process were methods that were unique to Yao Huo, and without careful instruction from him, the refining would never succeed.
Yao Chen only stopped refining late at night when his dou qi was depleted beyond recovery,and was exhausted to the point where his spiritual sensitivity was dulled and if he were to forcefully continue, he would only be wasting the medical ingredients. He took a shower, ate the body refining pill that his father specially prepared for him and laid down on his bed, falling asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow. Although he was sound asleep, his finger continued twitching as strands of dou qi continues moving in front of his body, as he continued refining pills even in his sleep.
The next morning, Yao Chen did not bring the blood stopping pill that he successfully refined to school with him . From his point of view,though he may have successfully refined the blood stopping pill, he failed utterly when it came to the qi recovering pill as he could not even let the pill take shape, much less remove the harmful side effects.
Yao Lan originally paid much attention to Yao Chen because being able to raise questions regarding the combination of the primal frost gra.s.s and seven fire gra.s.s was indicative of natural talent, and that he may very well be the most talented in this batch of students.As such, he was disappointed when Yao Chen failed to bring the blood stopping pill.
Yao Chen’s father, Yao Huo was also a former student of the school and Yao Lan had some recollections of him.Back then, Yao Huo, who had considerable talent in pill refining, but unfortunately had mediocre talent in cultivation was unable to secure the usage of the clan’s resources, and was never able to make his talent bloom. While this was unfortunate, the medicine clan has never been short on talent, and there for every person who’s talent was unable to bloom, there was one who succeeded.
However, regardless of how his talent was unable to blossom, Yao Huo’s house should have a pill refining room , and Yao Chen should have been able to attempt refining a blood stopping pill.
“A perfect pill. How many attempts did this take you?”
Yao Lan started his appraisal of the pills; The first to be appraised - Yao Tong, the best in dou qi cultivation in the current batch of students, was a 7 starred dou zhe who had already chosen a skill for the latter part of his cultivation foundation.
“It took me 3 attempts elder .”
Yao Tong replied courteously.
“Not bad.”
Yao Lan nodded his head slightly and without any further words of praise, s.h.i.+fted his gaze to the next student.
“30 percent of the side effects are left, pa.s.sable. You need to strengthen your control and pay attention to the temperature when filtering.”
Basically all the students brought a pill, with even the worst amongst them bringing a swarthy trash pill.”
“Yao Chen, what about you?”
Finally, Yao Lan stood in front of Yao Chen. Although Yao Chen had not produced a pill, Yao Lan could not help but ask out of concern.
“I failed….”
To Yao Chen, since both the blood stopping pill and the dou qi recovering pill were grade 1 pills, he might as well report the failure instead of the success and see if the elder had any means of rectifying his failure.
“Failed? Where is the pill? I’ll help you find out the reason for the failure”
Yao Lan smiled and said encouragingly.
“There is nothing scary about failure. What’s truly terrifying is losing your confidence”
Yao Chen lowered his head.
“Elder, the pill failed to take shape”
“........”
Yao Lan was shocked; How could it have failed to take shape? His gut told him that Yao Chen’s talent should be pretty good, at least comparable to Yao Huo’s back then.
“Ahh… It’s ok, don’t give up, you’ll eventually succeed”
Yao Lan coughed lightly, gave a few more words of encouragement and proceeded with the day’s lessons on elementary pill refining. The lesson on elementary pill refining included cla.s.sifying medical properties, understanding the combination of the different properties, memorising the various reactions during combination, temperature control of the cauldron, how to use dou qi to control ingredients in the midst of reacting, how to make the pill take shape…..
Though the school’s elder Yao Lan was only a grade 5 receptarier, there were precious few people in the clan who could match him when it came to teaching the basics to children as he was able to simplify complex concepts and make it easy for the children to absorb.
Originally, Yao Chen was still embarra.s.sed about his failure the previous day, but as the lesson went on, he gradually put it out of his mind.So it could actually be done this way; There actually existed methods to reduce the leakage of dou qi, techniques and skills for control that would make the refining process easier when used, and increase the likelihood of the pill taking shape.
In the afternoon when cla.s.ses were over, Yao Chen anxiously rushed home, and could barely wait to start his pill refining.
The little fatty Luo Shu had just raised his hand and was not even able to utter a word before Yao Chen rushed out like a gust of wind.
What happened? How could the previous agreement between the both of them to go look at the little demon princess be so easily forgotten? Furthermore, the princess was very pretty, and he had even managed to speak to the princess, promising that he would bring his friend to go visit her. Wouldn’t this cause him to break his promise..?
Although, seeing the princess alone wasn’t a bad thing at all….. hue hue hue..
As Yao Chen reached home, he found a note left by his mother telling him that she went out picking medicine and that dinner has already been prepared and all he had to do was warm it up.Yao Chen didn’t take the trouble to do so and simply had a few bites to eat before rus.h.i.+ng into the pill refining room to continue his refining of the qi recovering pill. The new methods he learnt were of great use, and the temperature of the pill cauldron rose quickly, greatly reducing the leakage of dou qi, and the combination of the various ingredients in the cauldron proceeded smoothly.
With everything proceeding so smoothly, Yao Chen had a feeling that he may have a perfect pill refined this time round! It was not just a mere feeling, even with his spiritual perception, he could feel that the refining was proceeding smoothly in the direction of a perfect pill.
Just as the refining was entering its last stages, a blood coloured light suddenly appeared on top of the cauldron and as the light descended, it tainted the ingredients that were currently being processed into a pill by the fierce flames and dou qi.
BOOOOMMMM!!!!!
With a huge bang, the cauldron exploded ! Yao Chen’s face grew pale as the force from the explosion blew him backwards where he collided with the wall.
“Cough cough cough...”
Coughing fiercely, Yao Chen could feel that his innards were in disarray and hurriedly took out the blood stopping pills that he refined and swallowed them. He felt better when the pills covered his innards in cool medical essence, and he rushed forward to the cauldron. The cauldron was something that his father treasured and he fervently hoped that the explosion didn’t damage the cauldron.
However, with just a look, Yao Chen’s face ashen face grew even paler; There were several deep cracks that were extremely eye - catching on the cauldron.
I’m finished…
This time, i’m going to be beaten for sure….
What Luo Shu admired most about Yao Chen was that he had never once been beaten by his father, while he could scarcely go three days without being beaten.
Yao Chen’s heart chilled as he looked at the deep cracks on the cauldron. However, strangely enough,apart from a sense of fear towards being beaten, an uneasy feeling of premonition came over him…
kencephalonkencephalon January 2016
Chapter 2 - Cont'd
At this moment, a huge sounded came from the courtyard; The sound was so loud that not even the soundproofing in the refining room could block it out, and it was clearly heard by Yao Chen.
Yao Chen’s heart jumped as the uneasy feeling in his heart grew stronger .He composed himself, got to his feet and rushed out towards the courtyard.
Just as he stepped out, he heard several loud and hoa.r.s.e cries resounding from the courtyard, and when he rushed into the courtyard, he saw a group of people gathered.
“Yao Chen came out...”
“Yao Chen…”
The group of people quieted down when they saw Yao Chen and unconsciously opened a path for him.
Yao Chen’s heart chilled as he made his way forward, his footsteps barely registering in his mind as he made his way forward, the uneasy premonition in his heart coalesced into a reality that he never wished to see.
His father, gentle and humorous, who always made everyone laugh, the father who would carry him on his shoulders….. was now lying on the ground with his eyes closed and his face pale and ashen. Uncle Luo Bing, together with a group of his father’s friends were kneeling and sitting in a corner with their faces contorted in pain, clutching their hair and cradling their faces…
“Yao Chen...we…. we met .....”
Luo Bing bit his lips, unable to utter another word.As a guard, they had to be prepared for sacrifices as they undertook missions for the clan. This was something they all understood and prepared for and yet, when this cruel reality came knocking, they were rendered impotent, not knowing what to do, especially when faced with Yao Chen’s young face.
“Judging from the injuries, this should be the work of the soul hall..”
“Shhh, words like this cannot be spoken lightly”
“Ahh, what a pity. Yao Huo’s talent lay in pill refining but he just had to go be a guard. Now look what happened..”
“From his injuries, even if he were to survive, he would be crippled…”
“b.a.s.t.a.r.dS!!! WHAT ARE YOU SAYING!!!”
With a loud bang, Yao Huo’s brothers lept to their feet and charged at the group of onlookers.
[T/L Note: Brothers figuratively speaking i.e friends, not real brothers]
“Don’t be ras.h.!.+, we meant neither harm nor ill will! Right, Yao Chen, where’s your mother?”
“That’s right, where’s Yao Qing?” This group of onlookers were neighbours who lived nearby, and as they realised what they said was inappropriate, they hurriedly changed the topic.
Yao Chen’s body trembled as he looked as his father’s body..the colour of blood ...was terrifying!
“Cough..”
Suddenly, Yao Huo opened his eyes.
“Old Luo…”
“Old Huo, i’m here..”
“This smell is familiar….are we home..?”
“Yes, yes we are.”
“Ahh, Chen-er?”
“DAD!!”
Hearing his father call for him, the floodgates in Yao Chen’s eyes opened and tears gushed out as he ran to his father.
“Are you afraid..? Men don’t cry”
“But.. blood… there’s so much blood”
“Men aren’t afraid of blood. Come, let me touch you”
Yao Chen hurriedly moved closer and his tiny hands grasped his father tightly. It was at this moment when he realised that his father’s eyes were unresponsive.
“Dad, your eyes..”
“I’m just unable to see temporarily, it’s nothing serious”
As Yao Huo’s spoke, Luo Bing who was by the side was unable to bear the agony in his heart, with two streams of tears flowing down his cheeks. He knew that Yao Huo’s injuries were severe and that it could be considered a miracle that he made it back alive and every word he spoke must be bringing him unimaginable agony. He should be barely be able to speak, yet every word spoken to Yao Chen was articulated clearly.
“Old Huo, you should rest..”
“I’m alright..”
Yao Huo smiled as he stroked his son’s face. Yao Chen struggled to hold his tears back as he felt his father gently caressing his face.
“Dad..you’ll be fine...right?”
“Ahh, Yao Qing’s back.”
Suddenly someone shouted from the periphery as everyone hurriedly made room for her to pa.s.s.
Yao Chen raised his head and saw his mother, who was dressed simply throw down his medicine basket and rushed over”
“Husband!!”
“Ahh… I’m embarra.s.sed to have let you see me in this sorry state..”
“Don’t say anything more. Who did this!!”
Yao Qing lifted her head and looked at Luo Bing.
“We aren’t sure either. It was a sneak attack. The opponent used three different methods belonging to the soul tribe,the ancient tribe and the demon tribe.”
Luo Bing had already bitten through his lips. What was most hateful was that they didn’t even have a target for vengeance.However, luckily everyone was able to make it back...only seeing his good friend lying in such agony, he would rather it was himself that was injured.
“Alright, you can disperse now, i don’t wish to remain lying on the ground. Cough….”
Yao Huo smiled as he held onto Yao Qing and gently shook his head. Nothing was going to be solved by troubling his friends further.
Yao Qing took a deep breath and nodded. Luo Bing, taking note of the situation, carefully scooped Yao Huo into his arms and carried him into the bedroom.
Yao Huo smiled softly.
“I’m not a porcelain doll… Relax, i’ll be fit as a fiddle in a few days time. You can relax and go home”
Seeing the smile on Yao Huo’s face, Luo Bing forced an ugly smile that was scarcely better than crying and bid his farewells.
When everyone had left, two streams of tears immediately appeared on Yao Qing’s face.
“I’ll get the elder to treat you.”
“I’ve…..already seen him….else…”
Yao Huo shook his head lightly
“Else… i wouldn’t be here talking right now”
Yao Qing placed her hand on Yao Huo’s wrist and took his pulse and sighed.
“Severe internal injuries?I’ll refine some injury treating pills for you. Yao Chen, give me a hand”
“Mom….”
Yao Chen stood dully by the door. He was at a loss when he heard that his mother was going to refine some pills as they only had one pill cauldron at home, and he had wrecked it earlier while practicing.
“Go.”
“Mom, i didn’t mean it… i accidentally wrecked dad’s cauldron… i didn’t mean it, i really didn’t mean it.”
Yao Chen said reluctantly.
Yao Qing froze. The cauldron is spoilt? As the thought of this raced through her mind, she felt her cheeks flush with anger and her throat felt blocked by a foreign object as she shook.
“You...You...What did you say…?”
Yao Chen lowered his head; He had never regretted his actions as much as he did now.
“I was practicing my refining just now when i exploded the cauldron …… and cracked it”
“ YOU!!!!! ”
Smack!
Yao Qing’s palm landed on Yao Chen’s face, though she felt the pain in her heart. She stared at her hand, as she didn’t know what came over her and why she had extended her hand but…
Looking at Yao Huo, who had always been strong, who had always been protecting her, who was now lying on the bed had shaken her heart.She was the one who was really at a loss and didn’t know what to do.Her calm demeanor just now was only an act to prevent others from seeing how shaken and fragile she really was.
Lying on the bed, Yao Huo coughed.
“Wife, It’s just a cauldron, i’ll be fine. The child is innocent”
“But...That’s your favourite..”
Yao Qing tried to find a reason for her actions but knew deep in her heart that regardless of what happened, she should not have laid hands on her child.Although she did not know how he cracked a 3rd grade cauldron, she knew her son best and was sure that he did not do it out of mischief.After all, in the past she was worried that her son placed too much attention on pill refining and neglected affairs of the heart; If the cauldron exploded, it only meant that the cauldron had reached its limit.
“Qing-er, I ….urgh”
Yao Huo smiled, he could feel his wife’s confusion and was about to placate her when suddenly, a bizarre force erupted forth from his chest and entered his body, aggravating the injuries that had begun to stabilize and he spit out a mouthful of blood onto the bed.
“Husband!! What happened !?”
“I….Dual Yin Life Chasing Palm….”
Yao Huo forced the words from his lips and, reaching his limits, fainted.
There was only one path leading to the clan’s school situated on the summit, with the other paths being heavily sealed and promising only death to all trespa.s.sers.
Yao Chen walked swiftly, with his dou qi circulating in his body. Without any techniques of his own, he could only circulate his dou qi throughout his body in accordance with the most basic flame foundation skill; At this moment, he had a premonition of leveling up to a 7 starred dou zhe.
This feeling of premonition was intriguing, but it was still only just a feeling as leveling up was not an easy thing to do after all. The flame foundation skill is a marvelous skill that allowed the descendants of the medicine tribe to surpa.s.s the pract.i.tioners of the outside world, and allowed them to possess a sensitivity towards pill refining in addition to have beneficial effects for training one's spiritual perception.However, with such benefits, the flaws of the skill was apparent as well, with each successive level of dou qi cultivated using the flame foundation skill requiring vast amounts of resources.
Naturally, the consumption of said resources are worthwhile as during the process of levelling up, drawing on the resources consumed,one’s spiritual perception, affinity towards the flame and wood elements as well as the toughness and control over dou qi would soar.
In the medicine tribe, 70 percent of the tribesmen were predisposed towards pill refining with any random person drawn from the tribe being a grade 2 or 3 receptarier. Discounting the fact that the majority of the tribesmen were of the flame and wood elements, an important reason for this was the fact that they cultivated in the flame foundation skill since young.
Amongst the clan’s young, Yao Chen could not be considered the most outstanding, though he could barely be considered amongst the top 10, he could slip out of the ranking with one misstep.
Every batch of the clan’s school has about 100 students, with 5 batches of students in total amounting to close to 500 students. Yao Chen’s ranking, while not particularly eye-catching, was also not bad enough for the elders to give up on him.
Although most of the student’s families had financial difficulties, or had weak talent, the elders of the school responsible for educating them did not slacken off and taught them all conscientiously in accordance with the clan’s regulations.
The basics of pill refining were being taught in school today, and the instructor had everyone’s rapt attention. Yao Chen was not unfamiliar with pill refining as his father was able to refine pills as well, and his house had a pill cauldron that his father deeply treasured that would set his heart racing and fill him with an urge to try refining whenever he laid eyes on it. His father said that this was an inborn trait that members of the clan possessed and a natural talent in its own right, and even praised Yao Chen, saying that he had the natural apt.i.tude to be a receptarier. However, he was still too young and should focus on his cultivation with the basics of pill refining to be taught in school.
Pill refining was taught the entire day and a whole new world was revealed before Yao Chen’s eyes;Different ingredients and materials under processing by flame would have different reactions, and with varying combinations would produce myriad pills with different effects.
Pill refining was of the utmost importance to the clan and the instructor responsible for the basics of pill refining was the chief elder Yao Lan who had decades of experience.With regards to teaching many students at once, Yao Lan was the undisputed best in the clan, and it could even be said that the grade 6 and 7 receptariers of the clan, were his inferiors when it came to personal instruction of the basics.
If one was strong, it could be attributed to talent and inborn gifts, but producing an outstanding student was an entirely different matter altogether, and it is due to this that Yao Huo did not teach Yao Chen personally but left it to the clan’s instructors.
The result of him doing so was successful and Yao Chen, under the tutelage of Yao Lan, had great interest in pill refining, and thoughts of countless pills like the blood stopping pill, blood replenis.h.i.+ng pill were floating in his mind…
“Alright, let’s not bite off more than we can chew, that’s it for today. Everyone go home and try your hands at the blood stopping pill and bring it tomorrow. I’ll evaluate it and give everyone some pointers.”
Elder Yao Lan smiled affably; There were a few good seedlings in this batch of students.While they may not equal those geniuses of the main line of descent who had abundant cultivation resources in terms of dou qi, they were roughly equal in terms of pill refining, with a bright future ahead of them.Though he may be ranked last amongst the great elders of the clan,whenever he looked at these outstanding seedlings, he would feel that his sacrifice was worth it.Even if in the end, these students of his grew up into outstanding figures in the clan never once called his teacher, he would always be the elder of the school, and this gave him purpose and meaning in his life.
“Elder, why can the primal frost gra.s.s and the seven fire gra.s.s be combined together? Don’t their medicinal properties counteract each other ?” Yao Chen raised his hand and asked suddenly.
“Ahh Yao Huo’s child right ? Not bad, being able to ask this question proves that you remembered what i said just now. Memorisation is the most fundamental requirement of being a receptarier; Though the properties of the primal frost gra.s.s and seven fire gra.s.s counteract each other, our medicine clan has a special method of combining the both of them. As for the crux of the matter, that is something i will be going through tomorrow. Go home and ponder on this question everyone, i will be asking questioning you on this matter tomorrow.”
Yao Lan nodded his head in satisfaction, as he would have raised this question himself if Yao Chen did not. As expected, he could see the eyes of a few talented students light up with a desire not to be outdone after all, only with compet.i.tion and rivals, could one’s rate of improvement increase. Yao Chen did not concern himself with thought of compet.i.tion or rivals as he was engrossed in this new world of pill refining and muddled his way through the following cla.s.s on dou qi and finally finished the school day when evening came and he rushed his way back home.
“Brother Chen, where are you going? We were going to see what the little princess from the demon clan looked like..”
The little fatty Luo Shu stretched his hands out but was unable to grasps Yao Chen.They heard about the sacred demon of the demon clan bringing the little demon princess to the medicine tribe, apparently to ask for some pills. The mighty sacred demon did not interest little fatty the slightest, but the little demon princess on the other hand sounded alluring, what would she look like? Had her demon characteristics receded yet, or would she still look like a demon beast? Yao Chen had his thoughts fully focused on pill refining and had long since forgotten about the demon princess.
As he reached home, he greeted his mother and rushed into his father’s pill refining room. Yao Huo was a grade 4 receptarier, and while he could not be considered particularly strong in the clan, he was definitely not weak either. In the room were plenty medicinal ingredients, more than sufficient to refine a pill that was of the 3rd grade and below.
In the past when he knew nothing about refining, he simply stuck to his father and learnt about various medicinal herbs. Now with the instruction of Yao Lan, Yao Chen could not wait to try his hand at pill refining.
However, Yao Chen did not ignore his daily basic training and after circulating his dou qi for a while, he opened the cauldron and grabbed some medicinal herbs.Yao Chen’s goal was the blood stopping pill, which was also the request set by Yao Lan. With the exception of a major artery be severed leading to major blood loss, the grade 1 blood stopping pill was able to quickly staunch blood loss and is one of the most common medical pills for external wounds.
The blood stopping pill was a basic pill that was not tough to refine, with the major requirement simply being the flame used for refining had to be supported by dou qi. With the power of a 6 starred dou zhe, it was barely possible and Yao Chen was only able to refine one pill after giving it all he had.
The single pill that he refined using a cauldron full of ingredients, had dull colouring indicative of heavy side effects being a failure was something that even Yao Chen knew without having Yao Lan point it out to him.[T/L Note: I’m going with side effects for now, though i’m open to any better translations for 副毒]
Yao Chen carefully thought about the obvious mistakes he made while refining the pill and sat down to meditate, recovering his dou qi.
After an hour, when his dou qi had recovered, Yao Chen grabbed a some ingredients, threw it into the cauldron and started refining once again. Refining a grade 1 pill did not cost much in the medicine clan and Yao Chen was able to carry on refining without thinking too much. This time round, the refining went a lot more smoothly though there were still some areas that still needed work. With a resounding bang, the cauldron opened and 3 pills were refined. The pills were red in colour with a few specks black indicative of undesirable side effects, though it was obviously better than the first attempt. Yao Chen’s eyes lit up, and circulating his dou qi, lifted the pills from the cauldron and carefully placed them in a bottle.
Yao Chen was not satisfied and sat down once more to meditate, recovering his dou qi. The process of refining, where he could feel the pill slowly taking shape under the guidance of his dou qi was extremely interesting to him.However, he was unable to attempt his third refining when his mother’s voice sounded out.
“Yao Chen , it’s dinner time”
“OK”
“Where’s Luo Shu?”
“He went to look at the little demon princess”
This was when Yao Chen remembered his promise with Luo Shu to go look at the princess.
Yao Qing was pleased. The kids were growing up, going off to sneak peaks at beautiful girls.
“Why didn’t you go?”
“I forgot”
Yao Chen scratched his head and answered truthfully.
Yao Qing did not know whether to be pleased or displeased. Her son was 13 years of age, and should be interested in the opposite s.e.x, how could he have forgotten about his promise….?Although this could be a good thing, as he could concentrate on his cultivation without being distracted by girls.
“Mom, i’m finished eating, i’ll go...practice now”
This was the first time Yao Chen ate so quickly. In the time it took for a few sentences to be spoken, he cleaned his plate and went back into the pill refining room.
Yao Qing was starting to be worried,was Yao Chen’s interest in girls a little too low? Looks like she should have a talk with Yao Huo and have the two of them talk about “manly” stuff and not matters related to cultivation for once.[TN: Manly stuff being girls, birds & bees, etc]
After all, she married Yao Huo in no small part due to that mouth of his.She felt that he should at least pa.s.s on that mouth of his to his son. After all , one had to be prepared for the future, and in the medicine clan good girls had to be taken early otherwise, if one is late in doing so, he would only be left with the leftovers.
At this point of time, Yao Chen had yet to experience the good points of girls, from his point who view, girls simply liked to make a big fuss out of nothing and were just plain annoying and irritating. Of course, his mom was different.
Pill refining was so much more interesting! In the pill refining room, once Yao Chen’s dou qi had recovered, he would immediately grab a bunch of ingredients and start refining the blood stopping pills, which each attempt being better than the previous.
On his seventh attempt, Yao Chen lost interest in the blood stopping pill since his previous 2 attempts were already perfect and had ceased being a challenge to him.
Suddenly, a pill formula appeared in Yao Chen’s mind. This formula was something that he once saw in his father notes and was something that could recover dou qi in a short period of time!
Currently, the only thing constraining his pill refining was his 6 starred dou zhe’s dou qi. If he was able to recover his dou qi more quickly, he would have more time available to refine pills.
His first goal should be the qi recovering pill!
Once he thought of this, Yao Chen immediately sprang into action and started preparing himself, and once again ran through the formula for the qi recovering pill, confirming it once more.
Yao Chen possessed photographic memory, which was something that all receptariers possessed. The only difference being that some people obtained it later in life when their spiritual perception was of sufficient strength while others were born with it.
As expected, the first attempted failed, and failed thoroughly with not even the shape of the pill being formed, and all the ingredients reduced to dregs.
Yao Chen was stunned looking at the pile of medicinal dregs, and was little unsure of what happened as it seemed as if he had made mistakes in every step of the pill refining process. A normal person would take a break before trying again when faced with this sort of failure but Yao Chen was different. He gritted his teeth, recovered his dou qi, grabbed another set ingredients and attempted refining the pill again.
*Fizzle*….
kencephalonkencephalon January 2016 edited February 2016
Chapter 2 - Cont'd
This attempt was another utter failure with not even any medicinal dregs being formed as black smoke billowed out of the cauldron and the room was left with a sharp stench from the failed attempt.
“Cough cough…”
Yao Chen coughed heavily as he opened the ventilation mechanisms installed in the room, driving the black smoke out.This time around, Yao Chen was a little disappointed, though his thirst for success did not diminish due to his failure but intensified instead.
What did i do wrong? Or rather, what did i do correctly, but not to a sufficient extent..?
Yao Chen did not know that while the qi recovering pill was ordinarily a grade 1 pill, the formula for the pill that he saw in his father’s notes was a modified version that was grade 2 in rank ! The modified pill formula was not something that a novice who has only learnt the basics would be able to refine as several steps in the process were methods that were unique to Yao Huo, and without careful instruction from him, the refining would never succeed.
Yao Chen only stopped refining late at night when his dou qi was depleted beyond recovery,and was exhausted to the point where his spiritual sensitivity was dulled and if he were to forcefully continue, he would only be wasting the medical ingredients. He took a shower, ate the body refining pill that his father specially prepared for him and laid down on his bed, falling asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow. Although he was sound asleep, his finger continued twitching as strands of dou qi continues moving in front of his body, as he continued refining pills even in his sleep.
The next morning, Yao Chen did not bring the blood stopping pill that he successfully refined to school with him . From his point of view,though he may have successfully refined the blood stopping pill, he failed utterly when it came to the qi recovering pill as he could not even let the pill take shape, much less remove the harmful side effects.
Yao Lan originally paid much attention to Yao Chen because being able to raise questions regarding the combination of the primal frost gra.s.s and seven fire gra.s.s was indicative of natural talent, and that he may very well be the most talented in this batch of students.As such, he was disappointed when Yao Chen failed to bring the blood stopping pill.
Yao Chen’s father, Yao Huo was also a former student of the school and Yao Lan had some recollections of him.Back then, Yao Huo, who had considerable talent in pill refining, but unfortunately had mediocre talent in cultivation was unable to secure the usage of the clan’s resources, and was never able to make his talent bloom. While this was unfortunate, the medicine clan has never been short on talent, and there for every person who’s talent was unable to bloom, there was one who succeeded.
However, regardless of how his talent was unable to blossom, Yao Huo’s house should have a pill refining room , and Yao Chen should have been able to attempt refining a blood stopping pill.
“A perfect pill. How many attempts did this take you?”
Yao Lan started his appraisal of the pills; The first to be appraised - Yao Tong, the best in dou qi cultivation in the current batch of students, was a 7 starred dou zhe who had already chosen a skill for the latter part of his cultivation foundation.
“It took me 3 attempts elder .”
Yao Tong replied courteously.
“Not bad.”
Yao Lan nodded his head slightly and without any further words of praise, s.h.i.+fted his gaze to the next student.
“30 percent of the side effects are left, pa.s.sable. You need to strengthen your control and pay attention to the temperature when filtering.”
Basically all the students brought a pill, with even the worst amongst them bringing a swarthy trash pill.”
“Yao Chen, what about you?”
Finally, Yao Lan stood in front of Yao Chen. Although Yao Chen had not produced a pill, Yao Lan could not help but ask out of concern.
“I failed….”
To Yao Chen, since both the blood stopping pill and the dou qi recovering pill were grade 1 pills, he might as well report the failure instead of the success and see if the elder had any means of rectifying his failure.
“Failed? Where is the pill? I’ll help you find out the reason for the failure”
Yao Lan smiled and said encouragingly.
“There is nothing scary about failure. What’s truly terrifying is losing your confidence”
Yao Chen lowered his head.
“Elder, the pill failed to take shape”
“........”
Yao Lan was shocked; How could it have failed to take shape? His gut told him that Yao Chen’s talent should be pretty good, at least comparable to Yao Huo’s back then.
“Ahh… It’s ok, don’t give up, you’ll eventually succeed”
Yao Lan coughed lightly, gave a few more words of encouragement and proceeded with the day’s lessons on elementary pill refining. The lesson on elementary pill refining included cla.s.sifying medical properties, understanding the combination of the different properties, memorising the various reactions during combination, temperature control of the cauldron, how to use dou qi to control ingredients in the midst of reacting, how to make the pill take shape…..
Though the school’s elder Yao Lan was only a grade 5 receptarier, there were precious few people in the clan who could match him when it came to teaching the basics to children as he was able to simplify complex concepts and make it easy for the children to absorb.
Originally, Yao Chen was still embarra.s.sed about his failure the previous day, but as the lesson went on, he gradually put it out of his mind.So it could actually be done this way; There actually existed methods to reduce the leakage of dou qi, techniques and skills for control that would make the refining process easier when used, and increase the likelihood of the pill taking shape.
In the afternoon when cla.s.ses were over, Yao Chen anxiously rushed home, and could barely wait to start his pill refining.
The little fatty Luo Shu had just raised his hand and was not even able to utter a word before Yao Chen rushed out like a gust of wind.
What happened? How could the previous agreement between the both of them to go look at the little demon princess be so easily forgotten? Furthermore, the princess was very pretty, and he had even managed to speak to the princess, promising that he would bring his friend to go visit her. Wouldn’t this cause him to break his promise..?
Although, seeing the princess alone wasn’t a bad thing at all….. hue hue hue..
As Yao Chen reached home, he found a note left by his mother telling him that she went out picking medicine and that dinner has already been prepared and all he had to do was warm it up.Yao Chen didn’t take the trouble to do so and simply had a few bites to eat before rus.h.i.+ng into the pill refining room to continue his refining of the qi recovering pill. The new methods he learnt were of great use, and the temperature of the pill cauldron rose quickly, greatly reducing the leakage of dou qi, and the combination of the various ingredients in the cauldron proceeded smoothly.
With everything proceeding so smoothly, Yao Chen had a feeling that he may have a perfect pill refined this time round! It was not just a mere feeling, even with his spiritual perception, he could feel that the refining was proceeding smoothly in the direction of a perfect pill.
Just as the refining was entering its last stages, a blood coloured light suddenly appeared on top of the cauldron and as the light descended, it tainted the ingredients that were currently being processed into a pill by the fierce flames and dou qi.
BOOOOMMMM!!!!!
With a huge bang, the cauldron exploded ! Yao Chen’s face grew pale as the force from the explosion blew him backwards where he collided with the wall.
“Cough cough cough...”
Coughing fiercely, Yao Chen could feel that his innards were in disarray and hurriedly took out the blood stopping pills that he refined and swallowed them. He felt better when the pills covered his innards in cool medical essence, and he rushed forward to the cauldron. The cauldron was something that his father treasured and he fervently hoped that the explosion didn’t damage the cauldron.
However, with just a look, Yao Chen’s face ashen face grew even paler; There were several deep cracks that were extremely eye - catching on the cauldron.
I’m finished…
This time, i’m going to be beaten for sure….
What Luo Shu admired most about Yao Chen was that he had never once been beaten by his father, while he could scarcely go three days without being beaten.
Yao Chen’s heart chilled as he looked at the deep cracks on the cauldron. However, strangely enough,apart from a sense of fear towards being beaten, an uneasy feeling of premonition came over him…
kencephalonkencephalon January 2016
Chapter 2 - Cont'd
At this moment, a huge sounded came from the courtyard; The sound was so loud that not even the soundproofing in the refining room could block it out, and it was clearly heard by Yao Chen.
Yao Chen’s heart jumped as the uneasy feeling in his heart grew stronger .He composed himself, got to his feet and rushed out towards the courtyard.
Just as he stepped out, he heard several loud and hoa.r.s.e cries resounding from the courtyard, and when he rushed into the courtyard, he saw a group of people gathered.
“Yao Chen came out...”
“Yao Chen…”
The group of people quieted down when they saw Yao Chen and unconsciously opened a path for him.
Yao Chen’s heart chilled as he made his way forward, his footsteps barely registering in his mind as he made his way forward, the uneasy premonition in his heart coalesced into a reality that he never wished to see.
His father, gentle and humorous, who always made everyone laugh, the father who would carry him on his shoulders….. was now lying on the ground with his eyes closed and his face pale and ashen. Uncle Luo Bing, together with a group of his father’s friends were kneeling and sitting in a corner with their faces contorted in pain, clutching their hair and cradling their faces…
“Yao Chen...we…. we met .....”
Luo Bing bit his lips, unable to utter another word.As a guard, they had to be prepared for sacrifices as they undertook missions for the clan. This was something they all understood and prepared for and yet, when this cruel reality came knocking, they were rendered impotent, not knowing what to do, especially when faced with Yao Chen’s young face.
“Judging from the injuries, this should be the work of the soul hall..”
“Shhh, words like this cannot be spoken lightly”
“Ahh, what a pity. Yao Huo’s talent lay in pill refining but he just had to go be a guard. Now look what happened..”
“From his injuries, even if he were to survive, he would be crippled…”
“b.a.s.t.a.r.dS!!! WHAT ARE YOU SAYING!!!”
With a loud bang, Yao Huo’s brothers lept to their feet and charged at the group of onlookers.
[T/L Note: Brothers figuratively speaking i.e friends, not real brothers]
“Don’t be ras.h.!.+, we meant neither harm nor ill will! Right, Yao Chen, where’s your mother?”
“That’s right, where’s Yao Qing?” This group of onlookers were neighbours who lived nearby, and as they realised what they said was inappropriate, they hurriedly changed the topic.
Yao Chen’s body trembled as he looked as his father’s body..the colour of blood ...was terrifying!
“Cough..”
Suddenly, Yao Huo opened his eyes.
“Old Luo…”
“Old Huo, i’m here..”
“This smell is familiar….are we home..?”
“Yes, yes we are.”
“Ahh, Chen-er?”
“DAD!!”
Hearing his father call for him, the floodgates in Yao Chen’s eyes opened and tears gushed out as he ran to his father.
“Are you afraid..? Men don’t cry”
“But.. blood… there’s so much blood”
“Men aren’t afraid of blood. Come, let me touch you”
Yao Chen hurriedly moved closer and his tiny hands grasped his father tightly. It was at this moment when he realised that his father’s eyes were unresponsive.
“Dad, your eyes..”
“I’m just unable to see temporarily, it’s nothing serious”
As Yao Huo’s spoke, Luo Bing who was by the side was unable to bear the agony in his heart, with two streams of tears flowing down his cheeks. He knew that Yao Huo’s injuries were severe and that it could be considered a miracle that he made it back alive and every word he spoke must be bringing him unimaginable agony. He should be barely be able to speak, yet every word spoken to Yao Chen was articulated clearly.
“Old Huo, you should rest..”
“I’m alright..”
Yao Huo smiled as he stroked his son’s face. Yao Chen struggled to hold his tears back as he felt his father gently caressing his face.
“Dad..you’ll be fine...right?”
“Ahh, Yao Qing’s back.”
Suddenly someone shouted from the periphery as everyone hurriedly made room for her to pa.s.s.
Yao Chen raised his head and saw his mother, who was dressed simply throw down his medicine basket and rushed over”
“Husband!!”
“Ahh… I’m embarra.s.sed to have let you see me in this sorry state..”
“Don’t say anything more. Who did this!!”
Yao Qing lifted her head and looked at Luo Bing.
“We aren’t sure either. It was a sneak attack. The opponent used three different methods belonging to the soul tribe,the ancient tribe and the demon tribe.”
Luo Bing had already bitten through his lips. What was most hateful was that they didn’t even have a target for vengeance.However, luckily everyone was able to make it back...only seeing his good friend lying in such agony, he would rather it was himself that was injured.
“Alright, you can disperse now, i don’t wish to remain lying on the ground. Cough….”
Yao Huo smiled as he held onto Yao Qing and gently shook his head. Nothing was going to be solved by troubling his friends further.
Yao Qing took a deep breath and nodded. Luo Bing, taking note of the situation, carefully scooped Yao Huo into his arms and carried him into the bedroom.
Yao Huo smiled softly.
“I’m not a porcelain doll… Relax, i’ll be fit as a fiddle in a few days time. You can relax and go home”
Seeing the smile on Yao Huo’s face, Luo Bing forced an ugly smile that was scarcely better than crying and bid his farewells.
When everyone had left, two streams of tears immediately appeared on Yao Qing’s face.
“I’ll get the elder to treat you.”
“I’ve…..already seen him….else…”
Yao Huo shook his head lightly
“Else… i wouldn’t be here talking right now”
Yao Qing placed her hand on Yao Huo’s wrist and took his pulse and sighed.
“Severe internal injuries?I’ll refine some injury treating pills for you. Yao Chen, give me a hand”
“Mom….”
Yao Chen stood dully by the door. He was at a loss when he heard that his mother was going to refine some pills as they only had one pill cauldron at home, and he had wrecked it earlier while practicing.
“Go.”
“Mom, i didn’t mean it… i accidentally wrecked dad’s cauldron… i didn’t mean it, i really didn’t mean it.”
Yao Chen said reluctantly.
Yao Qing froze. The cauldron is spoilt? As the thought of this raced through her mind, she felt her cheeks flush with anger and her throat felt blocked by a foreign object as she shook.
“You...You...What did you say…?”
Yao Chen lowered his head; He had never regretted his actions as much as he did now.
“I was practicing my refining just now when i exploded the cauldron …… and cracked it”
“ YOU!!!!! ”
Smack!
Yao Qing’s palm landed on Yao Chen’s face, though she felt the pain in her heart. She stared at her hand, as she didn’t know what came over her and why she had extended her hand but…
Looking at Yao Huo, who had always been strong, who had always been protecting her, who was now lying on the bed had shaken her heart.She was the one who was really at a loss and didn’t know what to do.Her calm demeanor just now was only an act to prevent others from seeing how shaken and fragile she really was.
Lying on the bed, Yao Huo coughed.
“Wife, It’s just a cauldron, i’ll be fine. The child is innocent”
“But...That’s your favourite..”
Yao Qing tried to find a reason for her actions but knew deep in her heart that regardless of what happened, she should not have laid hands on her child.Although she did not know how he cracked a 3rd grade cauldron, she knew her son best and was sure that he did not do it out of mischief.After all, in the past she was worried that her son placed too much attention on pill refining and neglected affairs of the heart; If the cauldron exploded, it only meant that the cauldron had reached its limit.
“Qing-er, I ….urgh”
Yao Huo smiled, he could feel his wife’s confusion and was about to placate her when suddenly, a bizarre force erupted forth from his chest and entered his body, aggravating the injuries that had begun to stabilize and he spit out a mouthful of blood onto the bed.
“Husband!! What happened !?”
“I….Dual Yin Life Chasing Palm….”
Yao Huo forced the words from his lips and, reaching his limits, fainted.
