It Came Alive

Hanyu retreated all the way back to the spot where he had first fallen to the bottom of the cliff before sitting down cross-legged.

The Glazed Bottle had finally quieted down, and a mysterious yellow aura continuously spewed from its mouth, enveloping the bottle's body.

Visible to the naked eye, every wisp of aura would enter the bottle as soon as it touched the surface, only to be absorbed after being spewed out again.

After Hanyu sat there blankly for an hour, the Glazed Bottle finally ceased its absorption and instead retracted all the remaining aura scattered outside.

Pfft!

It was as if the bottle had let out a satisfied burp, spitting out a mass of mysterious yellow energy from its mouth. The energy mass rose into his mind and instantly bloomed, transforming into wisps of flames.

Soon, the flames converged into a sea of fire, burning fiercely.

It's over, my brain is on fire.

Hanyu's expression shifted, his heart filled with panic.

He jumped up, intending to put out the fire, but immediately froze in place.

How does one put out a fire inside their own skull? Pour water into his brain to extinguish it?

The sea of fire completely engulfed the Glazed Bottle, continuously tempering it.

Hanyu suddenly lost focus as a profound sensation completely connected him to the Glazed Bottle.

Suddenly, a milky, childish voice rang out with a start beside his ear.

"I was suffocating! You idiot, it took you over a year to revive me!"

Hanyu was horrified, wondering if his brain had been scorched into hallucinations; the Glazed Bottle had actually come to life! It was talking!

"You're the one who's hallucinating."

Hanyu was stunned; this thing could actually hear his inner thoughts—what a terrifying ability.

"I am Little Glazed, the Artifact Spirit of the Glazed Bottle."

The milky, childish voice spoke...

A full hour later, Hanyu's face was dark as ink.

He felt the urge to destroy the Glazed Bottle all over again.

"So, you're saying that before you revived, the one pill a day was just the Glazed Bottle absorbing the side effects of the person taking it to speed up your recovery?"

The kicker was that it was all for nothing; in the Artifact Spirit's view, the Glazed Bottle was merely producing pills randomly based on its internal rules, so absurd pills for breast enhancement, beauty, lactation, or virility provided absolutely no energy feedback.

Hanyu's tears almost fell in frustration; heaven knows how he had survived this past year trying to get rid of these ridiculous, useless pills—sometimes, in order to give them away, he hadn't even spared the elderly.

Does this mean he can finally be free of this life?

"Not quite. If no energy feedback is received for a long time, I will fall back into a deep slumber, and you might have to face an even hungrier Glazed Bottle then."

Hanyu imagined the scene of the Glazed Bottle continuously firing off pills in his mind, his lips trembling; just thinking about it made him shudder...

"However, now that I've revived, you can produce pills three times a day, or not at all. It's best to produce them among cultivators, and the returns from a Child of Destiny like Xiao Shui are the highest."

"So, Hanyu, let's go and fleece Young Master Xiao again!" Little Glazed was particularly excited when mentioning Young Master Xiao, and there was a sense of sharpening a blade in that milky, childish voice.

"Is that really a good idea?"

Hanyu hesitated; it felt a bit excessive to keep targeting the same person.

"Then do you want his Fire Element Supernatural Power or not?"

Wang Xuanbei was carried out of the Xiao Mansion. Zhang Kui and the weeping Qiu Susu placed him onto the carriage they had purchased.

At this moment, there was no trace of his former high-spirited demeanor; his white robes were riddled with holes from the fire, most of his hair had been singed off, and he looked charred black, with only half a life left in him.

"Let's go!"

Zhang Kui sighed, preparing to crack the whip and depart.

"Wait... wait..."

Inside the carriage, Wang Xuanbei spoke in a voice as thin as a thread.

"Send... a message... back... I cannot accept this."

Lu Dayou's expression was strange, his thick brows knitting together.

"What did you say? The little brat from the Xiao family beat the Tianshui Sect's head disciple into a cripple?"

Did he wake up too abruptly this morning? Or was he hallucinating from overindulgence last night? He really needed to show some restraint.

The Prefectural Guard repeated with certainty, "That disciple was carried out with only half a life left from the burns; half the city must have seen it."

It wasn't a dream?

Lu Dayou's face remained filled with disbelief. Wasn't the Xiao family in business? Since when did they produce a cultivator, and right under his own nose, no less?

He had seen the Xiao brat himself; the boy was truly ordinary. Could it be that he had been acting like a pig to eat a tiger all along?

"It is said that an apothecary entered the Xiao Mansion today, and after Young Master Xiao took one of his pills, he dealt with the Tianshui Sect disciple."

That was even more absurd than the Xiao family heir beating up a Tianshui Sect disciple.

"Impossible."

Lu Dayou flatly rejected the notion.

The Prefectural Guard kept his head bowed and said, "The entire Xiao family witnessed the Young Master Xiao consuming the medicine with their own eyes."

Lu Dayou was left dumbstruck; could it be that his group of bottom-tier Prefects had been detached from the cultivation world for so long that the changes in the realm had reached such a rapid pace?

Since when had cultivators become so worthless? If a single pill could replace years of bitter cultivation, then wouldn't he, who had been painstakingly guarding a prefecture while waiting for a breakthrough, be nothing more than a joke?

The Prefectural Guard glanced up at his dazed superior and quietly retreated.

In the end, Hanyu could not resist the temptation of the Fire Element Supernatural Power and snuck back into the city, only to run headlong into Qiu Susu, who was standing blankly in the street, looking utterly soul-lost.

Qiu Susu seemed as if she had lost her spirit, her heart a tangled mess of conflicting emotions.

The figure of Xiao Shui appeared at the end of the street, and upon seeing Qiu Susu, he approached with a complex expression on his face.

A Bronze Certificate and a letter appeared in his hands simultaneously.

The Bronze Certificate had been forged fifteen years ago, imprinted with the marriage contract, while the letter was a Divorce Letter personally signed by the head of the Xiao family.

The engagement had been set in the name of the family fifteen years ago, and fifteen years later, it was being annulled in the name of the family once again.

When Qiu Susu took the Bronze Certificate and the Divorce Letter, her expression was incredibly complicated, her heart churning with mixed feelings.

She had indeed obtained what she wanted, but she did not seem as happy as she had imagined.

The Senior Brother she admired most was still lying there half-dead; he did not seem so powerful anymore, either.

"Brother Xiao..."

Qiu Susu stopped, words failing her.

Xiao Shui frowned deeply; he had never felt such disgust for a person in his life, especially since this person had nearly become his partner—the mere thought of it made him want to retch.

"From now on, you had best call me Young Master Xiao!"

Xiao Shui interrupted her with a dark face and walked away without looking back.

Qiu Susu could only stand there, clutching the two items, her smile looking more wretched than tears.

Hanyu watched this drama unfold from the shadows, feeling a surge of immense satisfaction.

"This is far more interesting than those storytellers rambling on about slaying demons every day—starting with a broken engagement and ending with a slap to the face."

"I wonder, if I gave that woman a pill to boost her strength, would she force herself on her old flame, or would she turn the tables and slap him back?"

Hanyu suddenly developed a wicked sense of humor.

"Is there a possibility that the two of them might team up to beat you to death?"

A voice suddenly asked from behind him.

"That's impossible."

Hanyu blurted out without thinking, but a moment later, he froze. He turned his head to see a middle-aged man dressed in sky-blue brocade staring at him with a strange look in his eyes...

I had a deep dream after pulling an all-nighter; all you reader brothers turned into level 15 Jiang Ziya, flying all over the sky, waving your staves and canonizing me as a god!