Naming Yaoxin

The Black-Corner Region, the Sacred City.

When Han Feng appeared above the Sacred City with Xiao Yi Xian and Qing Lin, the city below showed not the slightest bit of commotion.

Only a gaze after a gaze of respectful regard came from everywhere throughout the city.

The city walls towered into the clouds, cast entirely from obsidian, and were carved with intricate array-formation lines. The streets within the city were wide and neat, and teams of law enforcers dressed in dark-iron armor patrolled back and forth with steady auras and orderly paces.

This was entirely different from any town they had seen before.

There was no clamor, no chaos, only a blood-and-iron order that penetrated to the marrow of the bone.

Xiao Yi Xian and Qing Lin both stared in a daze.

They could not imagine that on the chaotic land of the Black-Corner Region, such a majestic city actually still existed.

Han Feng brought the two of them and landed in the plaza of the City Lord's Mansion.

A middle-aged man wearing dark-iron heavy armor, whose aura was as steady as a mountain, had already knelt on one knee, waiting respectfully for a long time.

He was precisely the chief law enforcement officer of the Sacred City, Mo Shan.

"Welcome the City Lord back to the city."

"Get up." Han Feng waved a hand, his tone casual.

He pointed behind him at the two little lasses who were still somewhat constrained.

"Go, find two clean maidservants to come over, take them to bathe and change clothes, and prepare some light food."

"Yes!"

Mo Shan did not ask a single extra question, immediately stood up, and respectfully withdrew to make arrangements.

Before long, two properly dressed maidservants walked over and bowed gently and softly to Xiao Yi Xian and Qing Lin.

"Two misses, please follow us."

Qing Lin was somewhat frightened, instinctively gripping the corner of Xiao Yi Xian's clothing tightly.

Xiao Yi Xian was also somewhat unaccustomed to it, but she still plucked up her courage, nodded to Han Feng, and then pulled Qing Lin along, following the maidservants toward the back hall.

Watching their departing backs, Han Feng instructed Mo Shan.

"Go to the medicine treasury, take a hundred-year Warm Jade Grass, Earth-Core Spirit Marrow, and also Seven-Leaf Lotus, and prepare a medicinal bath."

"Obey." Mo Shan received the order once more and left.

The first thing Han Feng did for them was to condition their bodies.

Xiao Yi Xian had lived with poison for years on end, and the Calamity Poison Body within her constantly absorbed and accumulated virulent poisons. The poison Dou Qi scoured and eroded the inner walls of her meridians year after year, which would leave permanent damage if left for a long time.

As for Qing Lin, she had suffered from hunger and malnutrition since childhood, and her physical foundation was terribly weak.

Without laying the foundation properly, what was the point of talking about cultivation.

One hour later.

When the two lasses appeared before Han Feng once again, they were like different people.

Xiao Yi Xian had changed into a moon-white long dress, and her long, pitch-black, and straight hair, once washed, draped behind her like a waterfall. Her face, washed clean of dust, appeared even paler and more exquisite, and those purplish-gray eyes were like gems draped in a thin layer of mist, cold and aloof yet revealing a trace of otherworldly etherealness.

She stood there, gentle and graceful, like a snow lotus quietly blooming amidst the mortal world.

As for Qing Lin beside her, she also underwent a massive change.

Having changed into a light-green short skirt, she was no longer that filthy little waif. Her small face had been washed completely clean, revealing the somewhat delicate contours of her features, and although those emerald-green eyes still carried cowardice, they were also bright and sparkling, as if hiding starlight.

She still instinctively hid her left hand behind her, but her entire person was clearly much more spirited.

"How does it feel?" Han Feng asked.

"Very... very comfortable." Xiao Yi Xian answered softly.

She could sense that the medicinal bath just now had made her body relax in a way it never had before.

Han Feng nodded and pointed at a stone stool nearby.

"Sit. Starting today, you don't need to think about anything else for now; nursing your bodies is the first step."

He looked at the white-dressed maiden before him who was still somewhat constrained, and asked casually, "You've always been called Xiao Yi Xian; do you not have a name of your own?"

The maiden was stunned for a moment, lowered her head, and shook it gently.

"I don't remember; perhaps... there never was one." Her voice was very soft, carrying a trace of loneliness that even she herself had not perceived.

"Since the past has passed, you might as well be reborn right now."

Han Feng looked at her, pondered for a moment, and spoke. "A poem says: 'The peach blossoms are brilliant and vibrant, glowing with their splendor.' From now on, you shall be called Yaoxin, the xin of warmth."

"Yaoxin..."

The maiden chewed on this unfamiliar name, and within those purplish-gray eyes, it was as if mist was rising.

For thirteen years, this was the first time she possessed a name that truly belonged to her own.

Not a code name, not an appellation.

It was her name.

"Yaoxin... Thank you... Thank you." Her voice carried a trace of trembling, her eye sockets instantly turning red.

Qing Lin watched from the side, a trace of envy also appearing on her small face, but more than that was happiness for her new friend.

"Alright, sit down." Han Feng did not mind her emotional fluctuations and spoke once more.

For the next half-month, he did not teach them any cultivation methods, only using various gentle heavenly treasures every day to concoct medicinal meals and medicinal baths for them.

Nourished by the pure medicinal strength, the sickly pallor on Yaoxin's face gradually gained a hint of color.

Qing Lin's change was even greater; sufficient food and medicinal strength caused her thin, small body to develop rapidly, her originally sallow skin turned fair, and she had also grown a bit taller.

The foundations of the two had finally stabilized.

Seeing them step onto the right track, Han Feng finally had a modicum of leisure, and he thought of his opportunistic junior brother far away in the Jia Ma Empire, his heart stirring.

Although he was clear on the general trajectory of the plot, seeing with his own eyes would naturally be more reassuring.

"It's time to go over and take a look."

After giving instructions to Yaoxin and Qing Lin, telling them to continue recuperating their bodies, Han Feng's figure quietly vanished from the Sacred City.

The Jia Ma Empire, Wu Tan City.

Han Feng's figure appeared above this large border city.

He restrained all his aura, walking step by step down the street like an ordinary mortal.

Wu Tan City truly lived up to its reputation as one of the large cities of the Jia Ma Empire, bustling with popularity. Even though it was the scorching sun, the crowds on the main street were still surging, and shouts to peddle and call out to buyers rose one after another, filled with the warmth of human habitation.

Han Feng merely strolled about idly, yet his soul power was like an invisible large net, slowly covering the entire city.

He quickly found his target for this trip within the largest marketplace in the city.

That was a black-robed youth who looked to be around eleven or twelve years old. Although his face still carried a trace of childishness, an unyielding composure and arrogance incongruous with his age emanated between his brows.

He was wandering aimlessly among the various stalls out of sheer boredom, seemingly searching for something.

And not far behind him, two chattering little lasses were also following.

One wore a luxurious light-purple dress, her temperament ethereal, like a little princess surrounded by a myriad of stars. That pair of lively eyes of hers was stuck almost unceasingly to the black-robed youth's back.

The other wore a pink dress and possessed pretty features, but within the gaze she directed at the black-robed youth, there was a trace of undisguised worship and ingratiation.

Han Feng's divine sense swept lightly over the black-robed youth.

The next moment, the corners of his mouth hooked into a playful smile.

"Dou Zhe..."

An eleven-year-old Dou Zhe.

This talent, viewed across the entire continent, could be considered outstanding in talent.

It seemed this was him.

That Son of Destiny who shouldered great fortune and was destined to stir the winds and clouds of the continent in the future—his opportunistic junior brother, Xiao Yan.

And those two behind him would presumably be the Ancient Clan's daughter Gu Xun'er, or rather Xiao Xun'er, as well as the passerby Xiao Mei.