Door Panel

"Right now, you need to buy a medicinal cauldron, and you also need to prepare a large amount of materials. I've already picked out the formulas suitable for starting off and practicing. Take it slowly."

Yao Lao was sorting through a stack of brownish-yellow papers, faint Soul Power fluctuations covering them.

These medicinal formulas were far from simple. Each one required an alchemist to carefully record it, using Soul Power to engrave the information inside.

Not only was the process complicated, their lifespan would not be very long either. Every reading caused a certain amount of wear to the information, and over time, mistakes and confusion would appear.

Ah... pity I don't have many materials on hand right now. Otherwise, I could repair them a little.

Yao Lao stroked his beard, somewhat irritated.

Though these formulas were all for low-tier medicinal pills, they were the essence left behind after thousands of years of selection, already perfected to the point where nothing more could be improved.

Every original copy was a rare collectible.

"Be careful when you use them. Right now, there are no conditions for making copies."

"Understood, Master!"

Xiao Yan gently received them, not even daring to breathe too loudly.

"...There's no need to be that careful." Yao Lao's eyelids twitched.

He was tiptoeing around like a thief.

Xiao Yan gave an embarrassed laugh, then soon found he could not really laugh anymore.

"Don't be in such a hurry to leave. I'm not done yet~"

Yao Lao rummaged through the Naring again and summoned a massive, heavy, pitch-black object. It fell through the air with a thud and sank deep into the ground.

Just looking at it gave Xiao Yan a strange feeling of difficulty breathing.

"This object was originally meteorite iron from beyond the heavens. After I gave it a little Sacrificial Refining, it became this." Yao Lao motioned with his chin. "I named it the 'Xuan Heavy Ruler.' It has the effect of suppressing Dou Qi, which makes it quite suitable for you."

Xiao Yan reached out. The moment his fingertip touched the ruler's surface, the circulation of Dou Qi within his body began to decline rapidly. No matter how he urged it on, it moved as slowly as a crawling turtle.

Hiss... it's much heavier than I imagined.

An inexplicable premonition told him that his carefree, happy days had completely come to an end.

Unfortunately, in the next instant, his premonition began to come true.

Xiao Yan's private little courtyard.

Ever since he had moved, a certain someone had been spending less and less time at home. Staying out all night had even become common.

Xun Er sat on the steps in front of the door, waiting bitterly.

"Ling Ying... do you think brother Xiao Yan will come back today?"

"Uh."

The black mist guarding beside her was silent for a long while. How would he know something like that? She might as well run to the Back Mountain and ask the person himself.

"He spends less and less time at home. All day long, he just runs to the Back Mountain, day after day." Xun Er had not expected him to say anything anyway. She sighed faintly to herself and picked at the grass growing between the bricks.

Just look at how desolate this courtyard had become. The grass was already higher than her ankles.

Ling Ying: ...

Miss was clearly only in her teens, yet somehow she had acquired the air of a resentful wife shut away in the inner chambers.

Someone who did not know better might think she was a Tianshan Child Elder.

"He's here."

The black mist suddenly trembled, then naturally melted into the darkness.

The next second, a dark figure turned in from outside the courtyard gate, its outline visible under the moonlight.

"Brother Xiao Yan?"

Xun Er's eyes lit up. She got to her feet, hurriedly patted her clothes a few times, and rushed over. "Why did you cultivate until so late... uh?"

The figure was familiar, but the outline was unfamiliar.

Under the moonlight, Xiao Yan was carrying an entire wide, pitch-black rectangular slab on his back. Even from a dozen steps away, a strange feeling came from it.

The young girl blinked, then somewhat hesitantly raised her hand and pointed. "Brother, what you're carrying is... a door panel?"

"More... more or less... I guess..."

The youth answered as if he were out of breath, as though he were about to pant his lungs out.

"Brother Xiao Yan! Are you all right?!"

Xun Er's expression tightened, and she pounced close in an instant.

Xiao Yan's current appearance was wretched to the extreme. His black fitted outfit was wrinkled and covered in mud and bits of grass.

The Dou Qi within his body was nowhere to be found, so thin it was almost impossible to sense.

In that instant, the young girl's gaze became somewhat dangerous.

Not good!

Ling Ying, hidden in the darkness, could not have widened his eyes any further.

No—didn't this kid's Dou Qi recover? If you pull something like this, I've basically gone and reported false military intelligence...

I'm done for.

Still, though—the ruler on his back was rather strange.

Ling Ying could naturally tell that the Xuan Heavy Ruler was anything but ordinary, yet even with his Soul Power, he had failed to uncover its details.

It doesn't look like something that could appear in a backwater like the Jia Ma Empire...

"I'm fine... I can... walk by myself." Xiao Yan waved his hand weakly.

If it had only been the Xuan Heavy Ruler, that would have been one thing.

Probably because Yao Lao had seen that the makeup of his Dou Qi was complicated and that the Xuan Heavy Ruler could not fully suppress it, he had even specially added two pairs of bracelets for him.

Who the hell knew where he had pulled this Magic Gadget out from? The moment it was put on, it was a perfect case of two plus two making more than five, almost sealing away all of his strength.

You didn't bring this out from some prison, did you?!

Huff... huff... This damn thing is seriously beyond the syllabus... It wasn't in the original at all!

Every time Xiao Yan lifted his foot now, it was torture. When his foot came down, it landed with a resounding weight.

Wearing the whole set on his body—this really was trying to work him to death.

"I'll help you lift it."

Seeing how difficult Xiao Yan's movements were, Xun Er frowned and reached out to lift the Black Ruler.

"Huh? Xun Er, don't—"

"Bang!"

With a tremendous crash, dust and smoke filled the courtyard, and a shallow pit was smashed into the ground. The bluestone path, naturally, died a glorious death.

Xun Er drew back both hands, at a complete loss. "Brother! I—I..."

The instant she touched that iron thing, her hands inexplicably lost all strength, and she could only let go by instinct.

"How is it? You're not hurt, are you?"

Xiao Yan took hold of her wrist, closed his palm around it, and rubbed it. "Does anywhere hurt? This thing didn't scrape you, did it?"

"Brother Xiao Yan..."

The little girl, who barely reached half the height of the Black Ruler, drooped her face. "I'm... I'm sorry..."

"What are you talking about?"

Xiao Yan tapped her on the head. "What's there to be sorry for? If you hurt yourself, then you'd need to apologize, all right!"

"Oh..."

Xun Er twisted her fingers together and answered in a low voice.

"Hey~"

Xiao Yan rubbed Xun Er's head again, then strained to lift the heavy ruler and carry it on his back. "If you really feel bad about it, then remember this from now on: before you do anything, ask a few more questions. If you don't know anything and just rush in to help, you can end up making things worse."

"Making things worse..." Xun Er repeated softly, raising a hand to touch her head.

Those two rubs just now had left the top of her head a mess.

"Xun Er will remember!"

"Mm."

Xiao Yan nodded seriously. "As long as you remember."

Just then, a wave of spiritual fluctuation suddenly came over. Xiao Yan's body went out of control for an instant, and he abruptly raised his head to look toward a certain corner.

"This is?!"

"Heh heh... No need to be surprised. I was the one who acted. Consider it a warning."

Yao Lao's voice came at just the right moment. "There's a rat hiding in this courtyard. If I hadn't carefully swept through the corners just now, I wouldn't have discovered him. I simply don't know what a fellow of such a realm is hiding here for."

A rat?

Xiao Yan froze for a moment, then understood exactly who Yao Lao was talking about.

Rare attribute, concealment specialist, servant of Gu Yuan, number one and even the only Dou Emperor in the entire Ancient Clan—Ling Ying! As for the next chapter, there'll be an explanation later on (though it's after a dozen or so chapters, but you'll most likely give up before you get there).