Medicine Elder

Late at night, the stars dotted the sky.

Knock, knock! Someone knocked on the door.

Xiao Le, still upset over being unable to acquire a bloodline or blood spirit, brightened at once and hurried over to open it.

At the door stood Xiao Yan in fitted black clothes, wearing a mysterious expression.

"Brother." Xiao Le opened the door and ushered Xiao Yan inside.

The moment Xiao Yan entered, he mysteriously locked the door and pulled Xiao Le farther into the room.

"Xiao Le, don't panic at anything that happens next, and you can't let anyone else know—not even Father, not for now." Xiao Yan looked at Xiao Le seriously.

Xiao Le hurriedly promised, vaguely guessing what Xiao Yan was about to do.

"Medicine Elder, come out!" Xiao Yan called to his finger.

Anyone else might have thought Xiao Yan was crazy, but Xiao Le knew he was summoning Medicine Elder. He had not expected Xiao Yan to trust him so much that he was willing to share Medicine Elder with him.

A translucent, illusory figure slowly rose from the ring on Xiao Yan's finger. With white hair and an elegant robe, he carried himself with a certain carefree grace.

Medicine Elder carefully examined the person before him, though the surprise in his eyes vanished in an instant.

"Xiao Le, this is the teacher I recently took as my master, Medicine Elder," Xiao Yan introduced him.

"Medicine Elder!" Xiao Le hurriedly bowed respectfully.

Medicine Elder looked at the two brothers before him with growing surprise. At last, he nodded and said, "Not bad. Both your talent and temperament are quite good. Xiao Yan has always praised you to me, and it seems he was right. From now on, I'll train both you and Xiao Yan together. Are you willing?"

Xiao Le did not need Xiao Yan to signal him. He knew that having someone like another teacher to guide him would make his path of cultivation much smoother.

Xiao Le immediately bowed in thanks. "Thank you, Medicine Elder!"

To think that after falling into such dire straits, he had encountered two such promising seedlings. Medicine Elder looked at the brothers before him with great satisfaction.

After explaining the arrangements for tomorrow's training and the medicinal ingredients the two brothers needed to prepare, Medicine Elder sent them off to rest.

Xiao Le did not hurry to cultivate. Instead, he looked over today's gains: a dazzling array of cultivation techniques and battle skills, quite a few magic beast core fragments, and all kinds of magic beast bloodlines.

There was still one function of his cheat that he had not tried: sacrifice. He wondered what benefits it had.

Xiao Le tried sacrificing a first-tier magic beast core spiritual energy fragment entry.

The entry gave off a dazzling light and actually shattered, leaving behind a pale blue starlight mote. He had no idea what it was for.

Could it replace the energy needed to download entries?

With that thought, Xiao Le left his room, hid not far from the patrolling guards, and chose a useful entry to download.

[Basic Saber Technique], white entry.

Sure enough, the starlight mote released a white starlight mote. Perhaps because its own quality was far above white, it seemed to suffer almost no consumption at all.

[Basic Saber Technique] had downloaded successfully, without consuming even a trace of Xiao Le's battle qi. He was overjoyed.

He hurried back to his room and sacrificed all the cultivation techniques, battle skills, bloodlines, beast souls, and magic beast core fragments one by one. He only kept five high-grade Yellow-class cultivation techniques, five high-grade Yellow-class battle skills, five high-grade Xuan-class cultivation techniques, and eight high-grade Xuan-class battle skills—the items left behind by those five third-tier magic beast cores.

Xiao Le also kept the bloodlines and beast souls he had stripped from those five third-tier magic beast cores.

After working for a long time, Xiao Le's only gain was that pale green starlight mote. It should be enough to download a pale green entry.

Early the next morning, Xiao Yan knocked on Xiao Le's door. Having stayed awake all night in excitement, Xiao Le felt utterly weak when he got up.

"Xiao Le, do you have any money?" The first thing Xiao Yan did upon seeing him was ask for money. Seemingly realizing how abrupt that was, he explained, "Medicine Elder prepared a medicinal elixir for us. It can assist our battle qi cultivation, but we need medicinal ingredients..."

Xiao Le shook his head. "I don't have a single coin left on me, but I do have some magic beast cores. There are twenty-one cores here, including four wood-attributed ones. Oh, right, Xun'er has money. She'll definitely lend it to you!"

Xiao Yan stared dumbfoundedly at the twenty-one magic beast cores. He suspected Xiao Le had robbed the Mittel Auction House to obtain such a huge number of cores.

Left with no other choice, Xiao Yan went to find Xiao Xun'er. Everyone in the Xiao Family knew she was wealthy. Before leaving, Xiao Yan took ten magic beast cores and left eleven for Xiao Le.

Xiao Le had no intention of being a third wheel, so he let Xiao Yan make the preparations alone while he went back to sleep.

It was nearly noon when Xiao Yan finally woke Xiao Le. After quickly washing up and eating a little to fill his stomach, they headed for the back mountain.

Few people ever came to the back mountain, making it a perfect place for Xiao Yan and Xiao Le. Seeing Medicine Elder appear like a ghost, Xiao Le could not help but complain inwardly.

"Today, I'll let you see what an alchemist is capable of."

As Medicine Elder spoke, pale white flames rose from his palm. They were exceptionally eerie; despite being flames, Xiao Le felt cold.

Looking at those pale flames, Xiao Le could not help but feel a surge of heat in his heart. This was the eleventh-ranked Heavenly Flame on the Heavenly Flame Ranking.

Xiao Yan took out the prepared medicinal ingredients, and Medicine Elder directly tossed both the ingredients and the wood-attributed magic beast cores Xiao Le had given Xiao Yan into the flames.

The flames churned, yet the medicinal ingredients were not burned away. Instead, they slowly turned into powders and medicinal liquids of various colors, while bits of residue and ash fell away. Then Medicine Elder formed hand seals, bringing the medicinal powder and liquid into contact. In the blink of an eye, they fused together. No one knew how much time passed.

Medicine Elder waved his hand and withdrew the flames. A stream of medicinal liquid like a jade-green ribbon fell into his palm, and he then poured it into a jade bottle.

Medicine Elder looked at the jade-green liquid and fell into reminiscence. After a long while, he said, "This is Foundation-Building Elixir, an elixir I created myself. It is ranked second-grade and can assist battle qi cultivation, stabilize one's foundation, and nourish the meridians. Dilute it in water, then soak in it while cultivating."

Medicine Elder was rather proud of himself. After all, this was the only cultivation-assisting elixir on the Battle Qi Continent that those at the Battle Qi stage could use, at least publicly.

"What if we pour this medicinal liquid into the hot spring on the back mountain?" Xiao Le suggested.

Speaking of the hot spring, there was someone he had to mention: Xiao Yu, the second beauty of the Xiao Family. She was also the only girl Xiao Le had ever snatched away from Xiao Yan—no, rescued. Back then, at the hot spring in this very cave, Xiao Le had seen those legs hailed as the finest on the Battle Qi Continent.

"There's a hot spring? Perfect!" Xiao Yan clapped his hands in delight.

Mist rose like steam, making the place seem like an immortal realm.

Looking at the hot spring, roughly ten feet wide, Medicine Elder nodded in approval. "Not bad. Judging by its depth, one entire bottle can be poured in. I'll also set up a spirit-locking restriction. Given enough time, this place might even become part of your Xiao Family's foundation."

Medicine Elder did not waste words. He directly poured an entire bottle of Foundation-Building Elixir into it. Before long, the clear spring water turned a translucent jade-green, and a refreshing fragrance wafted over them.

"Alright, get in. I'll place a restriction here to confine and seal the medicinal essence, preventing it from dispersing." With that, Medicine Elder began forming hand seals and setting up the formation.

Xiao Yan and Xiao Le did not hesitate. They stripped naked and jumped into the hot spring. Warmth enveloped their bodies, and it felt incredibly comfortable.

Xiao Le was not someone who only knew how to enjoy himself. He immediately formed hand seals, began refining the medicinal liquid, and drew in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.