Everyday Life

"Teacher."

Yun Zimo came to Yun Shan's secluded courtyard and bowed respectfully. Beside them, Nalan Yanran poured tea, then stood obediently at Yun Shan's side.

"Sit. You've paid your respects to your parents, right? Now that you've returned from your travels, you should at least let them know you're safe. You and your father have both broken through to Dou Huang. Our Misty Cloud Sect finally has four Dou Huang experts again."

Yun Zimo nodded. He had already visited his parents yesterday. His father, Yun Yin, had successfully broken through to Dou Huang and emerged from seclusion, while his mother was still engrossed in the study of medicine. Her strength remained at the Dou Ling level.

But after retiring, his parents had actually started urging him to marry and have children. Pressed by them, he'd had no choice but to hurry over to Yun Shan's place.

"Teacher, have you still not managed to break through?"

Yun Zimo was a little puzzled. By all rights, Yun Shan should have been able to break through to Dou Zong long ago.

"Soon, soon."

Yun Shan gave the same old answer, then a jade bottle appeared in front of Yun Zimo.

"Take a look at this. That half-man, half-ghost thing gave it to me. He said it would guarantee a breakthrough to Dou Zong!"

Wu Ying gave it to him?!

Yun Zimo's expression shifted slightly. He gently poured out a pill no larger than the tip of his little finger, its brilliant color shimmering with a lustrous sheen.

What potent medicinal effects! Yun Zimo was startled. Judging by its fragrance and quality, this had to be a top-grade sixth-tier pill, didn't it?!

"Nothing seems wrong with it at first glance..."

Yun Zimo was momentarily lost in thought. The pill looked like a powerful tonic, but he didn't believe anyone from the Soul Hall would be so kind.

"Let's wait for Master Gu He to return and ask him to examine it."

Yun Zimo truly couldn't see what was wrong. Every trade had its specialties, and it was best to leave pills above the sixth tier to an alchemist for inspection.

"I'm thinking of sending that boy Yun Yin to the lowest level of the Gate of Life and Death, to 'pay his respects' to the portraits of our ancestors."

Yun Shan nodded and brought up another matter.

Hearing Yun Shan mention Yun Yin, Yun Zimo thought of this senior brother, the most talented person in the Misty Cloud Sect. He had once served as Yun Zimo's first teacher.

"Senior Brother Yun Yin is carefree and unrestrained. I doubt he wants to spend any more time cultivating."

Yun Zimo put it that way.

Yun Yin disliked cultivation. Though he had followed Yun Yun and listened to Yun Shan's lectures and guidance from childhood, he'd always been all work one day, none the next. Even so, he had reached Peak Dou Wang by now.

Although Yun Yin didn't like cultivating, he was quite adept at dealing with people and managing worldly affairs. He usually carried a wine flask as he went around visiting friends, and handled everything from procurement to logistics for the Misty Cloud Sect. Afraid he'd get into trouble from having too much free time, Yun Shan had given him a post as deputy hall master of the Hall of Law Enforcement, making him lead the Law Enforcement Team on patrol around the sect every few days.

"Once he reaches Dou Huang, I won't meddle anymore. But before then, he needs to at least be able to protect himself on this continent!"

Yun Shan was helpless. No matter what he'd said all these years, Yun Yin had refused to put any effort into cultivation. Now Yun Shan had come to accept it and decided to let him be...

"Yun'er, though she's a Dou Huang expert and the sect master, her personality is still like a child's. She's simple-minded and can't hide what she's thinking. It's only natural she has a bit of a girl's temper..."

Yun Shan seemed to bring it up casually. Yun Zimo sat cross-legged beside him in silence, saying nothing. The breeze swept through the treetops, and rustling leaves occasionally drifted down. Beneath the trees, only Yun Shan's voice, filled with memories, remained...

"Hall Master! I found what's wrong with this!"

Before half a day had passed, Gu He came to Yun Zimo with the jade bottle, unable to hide his blazing fury.

"The person who refined these was utterly vile. Every pill was made using a vengeful spirit as an ingredient. They used human spirits to force the pills up to the seventh tier, but the fierce, resentful energy has become deeply entrenched and is difficult to dispel. Anyone who takes them for a long time will not only become addicted, but will also undergo a drastic change in temperament!"

As Gu He spoke, he summoned the Fire Cloud Water Flame and burned one of the pills. Under the raging Heavenly Flame, wisps of black smoke rose, accompanied by piercing cries of pain.

"There are twelve pills in this bottle, so... so..."

Gu He was so furious he couldn't finish. To a legitimate alchemist like him, a scoundrel like this deserved to be skinned alive, their soul ripped out and purged in the flames of a Heavenly Flame!

"Then at least twelve people were used to make them..."

Yun Zimo sighed. Given the Soul Hall's nature, those twelve people were most likely alchemists or cultivators with exceptionally powerful souls...

What was even more frightening was that this was only one bottle of one kind of pill...

"I... I... I can't let something that desecrates alchemists like this exist!"

Gu He was so enraged that a Heavenly Flame sprang from his palm. He was about to destroy the bottle of pills.

"Master Gu He, wait!"

Yun Zimo quickly stopped him. Setting aside the fact that the pills were worth studying, if Wu Ying suddenly returned and found them destroyed, the Misty Cloud Sect would be finished!

"Even trash can be put to use. We should make the most of it!"

Yun Zimo smiled faintly.

"Even if we destroy these, they can make more. That would only leave these vengeful souls unable to rest in peace. Better to keep them for now, so they can watch us avenge them!"

Gu He hesitated. He knew Yun Zimo wasn't keeping the pills for no reason.

He wrestled with whether he should trust Yun Zimo, but in the end, he handed the pills over.

"Then please keep them safe. I'm afraid I'll lose control and destroy them, so I'd better leave them with you."

After storing them in his Storage Ring, Yun Zimo chatted with Gu He. When the subject turned to Hai Bodong, Gu He spoke with a strange expression.

"Hai Bodong made frost fall over the Snake-Person Tribe's territory. Deep in the desert, where it hadn't rained for years, he transformed a vast area into an oasis. To gather enough fire-attributed energy, he's now taking a Python egg into the underground magma veins, enduring the scorching heat as a two-star Dou Huang..."

Perhaps because Hai Bodong had also helped during the evolution, the higher-ups of the Snake-Person Tribe had, unusually, stopped objecting so strongly to his relationship with Die.

Under the tribal laws Medusa had revised, Die would also become the Snake-Person Tribe's queen, and all her palaces would be built to a queen's standard.

After learning about it, Hai Bodong had no idea what got into him. Using his power as a Dou Huang, he changed the weather and made it rain, repaired the earth's veins, and created an oasis from nothing for Die's palace! He had even volunteered for the task of helping Die emerge, and gone with an elder of the Snake-Person Tribe to a magma lake.

"This is the first time I've seen the Ice Emperor act this way. Years ago, when I caught a glimpse of him from afar, he was always so cold and aloof. Who would've thought he'd also... Heh heh heh..."

As Gu He spoke, he let out a quiet chuckle. He imagined some clumsy display, then pictured Hai Bodong in the role, and found the contrast inexplicably endearing.

Yun Zimo had noticed the same thing: once people fell in love, it seemed their intelligence was cut in half—especially with a love regained after being lost, like Hai Bodong's...

"Big brother!"

While the two were sighing over it, a clear call rang out, and Zi Yan pushed open the door and walked straight in.

"Master Gu He."

Zi Yan was a little boisterous, but after staying at the Misty Cloud Sect for so long, she'd learned some manners. Besides, she genuinely respected Gu He, who kept her supplied with food, so she bowed to him.

"What is it? Have you almost eaten all those pills again?"

Gu He asked. By now, he knew Zi Yan's appetite all too well!

"Hehe, not yet, but I'm almost out..."

Zi Yan giggled. She hadn't come to ask Gu He for snacks today, but since she'd run into him, she might as well get his authorization token and use it to collect next month's supply from the Alchemy Hall!

"..."

Gu He shook his head helplessly. It had only been half a month, and she'd nearly eaten through the Misty Cloud Sect's entire stock for the year. The sect's logistics people had already gone down the mountain several times to buy more.

For some reason, Zi Yan's appetite seemed to be growing by the day. Her stomach was like a bottomless pit; no matter how much she ate, she could always fit more!

"Big brother."

After getting Gu He's authorization token and tucking it away with delight, Zi Yan finally got to the real reason she'd come.

"I'm about to advance!"

Advance?!

Gu He and Yun Zimo were both startled. Zi Yan was currently a Fourth-Order Magical Beast. After advancing, she would surely become a Fifth-Order Magical Beast. Given her monstrous strength and physique, she would inevitably reach the peak of the fifth order if she succeeded. She might even be evenly matched against a Dou Huang!

"With those medicinal meals, plus Master Gu He's pills, I've accumulated enough energy. I don't know what my true form is, but I haven't felt any bottleneck. It seems like I can level up as long as I have enough energy."

Zi Yan blinked and said something that left Gu He and Yun Zimo speechless. How many geniuses had been trapped by cultivation bottlenecks, yet Zi Yan had none at all.

But perhaps the heavens were fair. Each time Zi Yan advanced a rank, she needed an enormous amount of energy. That was a kind of bottleneck too...