Hai Bodong: Not Picking a Fight! He Came for Me?

A woman draped in gauze led Xiao Yan to the back of a Thick-winged Bird, her hips swaying as she walked. A wooden cabin had been built there, divided into several compartments.

Everyone staying there was an alchemist. At first, they looked at Xiao Yan's young face with faint amusement. Then their gazes fell on the three gold stars on his chest, and they turned red-faced and speechless with shock.

"My lord, if the journey gets lonely, you can ring the bell and summon us to serve you..." the woman said with a smile.

Before she could finish, Xiao Yi Xian stepped in front of Xiao Yan and shot the maid a fierce glare with her violet eyes.

"Then I'll take my leave." The maid gave Xiao Yi Xian an odd look, envy growing in her eyes. A servant who received this much affection? How...

Xiao Yi Xian had no idea what the maid thought of her, or that she had somehow become Xiao Yan's slave. She simply planted her hands on her hips and puffed out her chest.

Compared with the woman's ample curves, though, her own modest chest was... nothing to show off.

"Hey, she hadn't finished. Serve me how?" Xiao Yan smacked his lips, wanting to hear more.

"Do you really not know, or are you pretending?" Xiao Yi Xian rolled her eyes at him. She sat lightly on a stool and began sorting through the poisonous herbs she had bought in Black Rock City.

With Xiao Yan's Netherworld Poison Flame, she no longer needed to eat poison. But poison was also one of her means of attack, a trump card she could not abandon.

Xiao Yan dropped onto the bed and leaned back. The room was quite comfortable. It even had expensive Heart-Clearing Grass. Each stalk sold for ten thousand gold coins outside, yet a dozen or so had been stuck around the room as though money were no object.

Next...

His Eldest Brother and Second Brother.

His memories of his two elder brothers were hazy. He only remembered that his Second Brother always wore a bright grin and never acted serious, while his Eldest Brother had a gentle smile and deep, unreadable eyes.

"Might as well refine some pills while I'm here..."

Xiao Yan took a deep breath and brought out the Furnace. Fire serpents surged as he refined one Three-Rank Spirit Link Meridian-Penetrating Pill after another. The fragrance spread, leaving the alchemists in the neighboring rooms looking as if they had seen a ghost in broad daylight.

Pill refining consumed enormous amounts of Dou Qi and stamina. They had to rest half a day after refining even a first- or second-rank pill. Who would dare keep refining without sleep like Xiao Yan? That was asking for death.

"Hum..."

Another day passed.

Xiao Yan placed the finished Spirit Link Meridian-Penetrating Pills into a Jade Bottle and let out a long breath. He had broken through again.

Seven-star Dou Shi.

He felt thin streams of energy moving through his meridians, steadily nourishing them. And with the Eight-Nine Arcane Arts reaching its second transformation, his body seemed to have been tempered over and over, growing ever tougher.

Now his body alone had two layers of protection.

The first was the Vajra Art, which protected him from the outside.

The second was the protective Astral Qi inherent to the Eight-Nine Arcane Arts. Those faint wisps of white energy were invisible and unlike Dou Qi, yet they nourished his body. By his reckoning, this might be the secret to sanctifying the flesh.

A glint flashed through Xiao Yan's eyes.

The Vajra Art would carry him through the early stages. Once the Eight-Nine Arcane Arts came into its own, his body would truly be invincible.

After reaching the third transformation, he could refine Qi into spirit and begin cultivating Soul Perception. That was the most important ability for an alchemist. As things stood, he had not cultivated it in the slightest; he refined pills purely through his control of Qi Fire.

Once his Divine Sense improved, his skill at pill refining would soar again.

That was why he was in no hurry to ask the Old Lord for a Soul Perception cultivation method. The Eight-Nine Arcane Arts covered it all.

The more he cultivated, the more he appreciated the art's profundity.

It seemed to encompass everything under heaven: master one art, and gain ten thousand.

It would also lay a solid foundation for using divine abilities such as the Heaven-and-Earth Manifestation and the Seventy-Two Transformations in the future.

"Awake?"

Xiao Yi Xian lay slumped over the table, watching Xiao Yan with a listless expression. The moment he finally stopped, heat flickered in her pale violet eyes, and she hurried over. "You have no idea how much effort I've spent guarding you these past few days. Those people nearby were practically drooling when they saw you refining Three-Rank pills. If I hadn't stopped them, they would have barged in long ago."

"Then stop bothering me."

Xiao Yan tossed her a Jade Bottle, his tone mild.

"Hehe, not bad!" Xiao Yi Xian flashed her little fangs in a radiant smile. She opened the bottle as carefully as if it held a treasure, then pinched a pale purple pill between her fingers. She swallowed, her eyes almost glued to it.

She glanced back at Xiao Yan and gave a proud little snort.

At least you know what's good for you!

The Pill Pellets were made from poisonous herbs tempered with Netherworld Poison Flame. For her, they were gentler than the flame's pure toxicity and helped suppress it. They also tasted sweeter.

What happened to this woman...?

Xiao Yan looked at her strangely. Where did my cool, aloof Xiao Yi Xian go?

She was becoming more and more like Zi Yan.

Then again, it made sense. When he met Xiao Yi Xian again in the original story, she was already twenty-five or twenty-six, a mature woman who had fought her way through the Poison Sect and nearly died. Now she was barely sixteen. She had not been through all that, and she had yet to mature.

"Whoosh..."

A breeze blew outside, and the whole cabin began to tilt. They were clearly descending.

"Let's go. I can't be bothered with those people."

Xiao Yan put away the Furnace, grabbed Xiao Yi Xian by the back of her collar, and stepped out. As the nearby alchemists stared open-mouthed, a pair of pale golden wings trembled behind him. He became a streak of light and flew down toward land.

Xiao Yan spotted an old-fashioned shop.

His eyes lifted, and delight flashed through them. Besides the Fragmented Map of the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame, there was also Ice Emperor Hai Bodong.

"A Three-Rank Alchemist?"

Inside the shop, a white-haired old man wearing a monocle was bent over a map, studying it closely. He slowly raised his head, surprise and disbelief flashing through his eyes.

And judging by his age... the boy was not even twenty.

Even he found it hard to believe. Since when had the Jia Ma Empire produced such a prodigy? Or had some top power outside the empire sent one of its talents out to gain experience?

Either way, he could not afford to offend him lightly.

Hai Bodong narrowed his eyes, a sharp gleam passing through them.

He did not believe anyone would be foolish enough to wander around impersonating a Three-Rank Alchemist. The material of that black gauze did not look fake, either.

"May I ask what you've come to buy?"

Seeing the young man casually survey the maps in the shop, Hai Bodong smiled.

"I want to buy three things."

Xiao Yan raised three fingers, speaking as though it were nothing of importance.

"First, a map of the Tagor Desert."

"Of course. I have maps of every kind here," Hai Bodong said with a smile.

"Second, a Fragmented Map."

Hai Bodong froze. His eyes narrowed, and his fingertips tapped lightly against the counter. He said nothing.

"Third." Xiao Yan broke into a brilliant smile.

"Three years of Ice Emperor Hai Bodong's services."