Weapon Refining Can't Save (Slaughter Through) Battle Through the Heavens, but Weapon Refining Can! Please Follow!

"Dou Qi Stage One!"

On a bright, sunny morning in Qingshan Town, a stone monument capable of measuring Dou Qi stood in the open space inside a clinic. A handsome, steadfast young boy stared at the single mark displayed on it, his eyes filled with delight. "Dou Qi! I have Dou Qi now!"

In the inner courtyard filled with flowers and plants, a white-clad girl who was airing various herbs rolled her eyes helplessly at the boy beside the Dou Qi monument, who looked ready to start jumping around. Curling her lips, she said, "Lin! Stop shouting! You're already this old, and Dou Qi Stage One gets you excited? Even the most ordinary children in Qingshan Town have higher cultivation than you! Aren't you embarrassed?"

Jiang Lin looked toward the girl beneath the eaves, scratched his head with a smile, then called to the middle-aged man watching the show from another pavilion, his expression gentle and composed. "Mr. Yao! I can cultivate Dou Qi now!"

Although Jiang Lin was already a spirited ten-year-old boy, he had only begun to touch upon Dou Qi half a year ago.

Successfully achieving Dou Qi Enters Body in half a year—this kind of talent could not exactly be called poor, but it was extremely ordinary!

Mr. Yao, the owner of Myriad Medicine Hall upstairs, merely smiled faintly and gently blessed him. "There's no need to demand too much of yourself. On the path of cultivation, being happy is enough."

"Ha ha ha! Thank you for your guidance, Mr. Yao!" Jiang Lin immediately thanked his lifesaver with a grin. Ignoring the eye rolls from the other assistants in Myriad Medicine Hall, he promptly ran toward a side courtyard behind the pavilion.

"Mr. Yao, aren't you going to rein him in?" After spreading the cleaned herbs beneath the sunlight, the white-clad girl helplessly raised her head toward Mr. Yao, the owner of Myriad Medicine Hall, who was upstairs drinking tea while supervising the work.

"Xian'er, everyone has something they like. You enjoy working with herbs, but that doesn't mean everyone else likes it," Mr. Yao said unhurriedly. Looking toward the Monster Mountain Range beyond the town, the scene of first meeting that boy seemed to emerge in his eyes.

"What's your name?" Mr. Yao, carrying a basket on his back, looked at the ragged boy before him in a valley. The boy's eyes were bright and clear, but Mr. Yao understood that it was not the clear foolishness of someone his age. It was a kind of clarity that transcended his years.

"Lin Jiang Lin."

"Don't be nervous. Actually, I knew your mother." Looking at the vegetable plots and herb gardens in the valley, Mr. Yao sighed softly to himself, understanding how this child had survived all these years.

"Your mother was a mysterious and powerful Alchemist. Sometimes, she bought some basic herbs from me," Mr. Yao explained, hoping to dispel the boy's wariness.

Mr. Yao was not lying. He truly knew the boy's mother, and part of Myriad Medicine Hall's prosperity was connected to the boy's Alchemist mother.

"I received a Blood Ginseng of decent age and wanted to bring it to your mother."

"I've heard of you. You're Mr. Yao. But Mother left three years ago."

"I know. I saw the note she left for me on the road." Mr. Yao looked at Jiang Lin with a complicated expression. That note should have been left three years ago, yet he had only found it now. Fortunately, the child of his benefactor had not starved to death in the valley.

"Your mother told you to leave with me. It won't remain safe in these mountains forever." To make his argument more convincing, Mr. Yao took a pale yellow jade ring from his robes and handed it to Jiang Lin. It was indeed a keepsake from Jiang Lin's mother, left to Mr. Yao along with that letter.

"...Mr. Yao, do you know who is hunting them?"

"If I knew... I wouldn't be here." Mr. Yao looked at the solemn boy before him and sighed softly inside.

The ignorant feared nothing. Perhaps that described him.

Clearly, this family had run into enormous trouble, yet he was still recklessly throwing himself into it.

"Your mother said you had great talent for alchemy. But she didn't want you to follow the old path of an Alchemist in the future." Mr. Yao did not understand why someone with the talent to become an Alchemist would choose not to use it. Countless people in this world would weep and kneel for the chance to become an Alchemist.

Still, Mr. Yao chose to respect the decision of the benefactor who had recognized his worth.

Alchemist talent might be a once-in-a-lifetime blessing to others, but to this family hunted by enemies, perhaps it was a disaster? Mr. Yao thought silently.

"...I understand, Mr. Yao. Do you want the books about alchemy in the wooden house?" Jiang Lin pointed toward a cave in the valley, where some basic books for Alchemists were hidden. At the same time, there were traces of Jiang Lin's other experiments.

At his words, a trace of struggle flashed through Mr. Yao's eyes. In the end, he shook his head. "Forget it. Neither Xian'er nor I have the talent to become Alchemists. If heaven does not grant it and one insists on pursuing it, disaster will eventually follow. Just take the herbs inside. From now on, follow me and become a doctor. I'll teach you to cultivate Dou Qi and let you live out your life in peace. That will count as repaying your mother's kindness."

"Is that so... Then burn them." Jiang Lin looked at the traces of activity throughout the valley. Hesitation flashed through his eyes, but in the end, his expression hardened with resolve.

"...Why?" Mr. Yao was greatly startled.

"To make a complete and thorough break with the past."

It was difficult to imagine such words coming from a nine-year-old child.

But what Mr. Yao had not expected even more were Jiang Lin's final words to him.

At the time, Mr. Yao had asked, "Aren't you afraid you'll regret it?"

Jiang Lin shook his head. "No."

"Mother was always so kind. Father too, though I've never seen him."

"But during the three years I lived in the valley, I finished the books Mother left behind. Between the black ink on white pages, I saw only two words, no matter how I read them: eat people."

"This was a world where the strong preyed on the weak. The lofty status of an Alchemist meant they were destined to be preyed upon."

"Just like Mother. When danger came, no one cared whether she was an Alchemist."

"So..."

"Alchemy can't save the world, but Weapon Refining can!"

Alchemy can't save the world, but Weapon Refining can... Mr. Yao smiled faintly as he looked at Xiao Yi Xian, who was sulking beside him upstairs. "Let the boy make a fuss. Who knows? Maybe he really does have talent in that area. At such a young age, his blacksmithing skills are already no worse than those old masters in town."

"You just spoil him!" Xiao Yi Xian pouted, glared at Mr. Yao, then went downstairs to Open Door and begin seeing patients. She could already handle minor illnesses and aches on her own; when she encountered difficult or unusual cases, she sought Mr. Yao.

Meanwhile, Jiang Lin entered his private forging room and began an entirely new attempt at Weapon Refining.

"Next step: Dou Qi weapons..."

"Or rather, Yellow-grade low-tier weapons!"