After Ya Fei left, Xia Kong was alone in the pavilion.
He sat quietly for a long time, sorting through and piecing together all the information Ya Fei had gathered over the past half month. Little by little, the whole truth of the past, buried beneath the years, came into focus before him.
Back then, his adoptive father had been an ordinary mercenary who made a living traveling between Wutan City and the Magical Beast Mountain Range. A chance encounter during a night of indulgence had brought him together with Xia Kong's adoptive mother. Perhaps he had coveted her beauty, or perhaps he had taken pity on her. He had risked intervening and helped her escape the Ao Ba Family's control.
To conceal his adoptive mother's identity, the two had not only hidden right under their pursuers' noses by settling in Wutan City, but had also deliberately adopted a baby elsewhere as a cover.
Yet no one had expected that this casually adopted child would awaken considerable talent for cultivation. That very talent had instead drawn the Ao Ba Family's attention, giving them the idea of taking him in as a live-in son-in-law.
When the long-absent sense of danger returned, his adoptive father had planned to leave Wutan City for good with his adoptive mother. Perhaps they had believed that, though the adopted child would have a hard life if left behind, he would at least survive. Perhaps they had known they would never return from this journey. And so they had abandoned the original owner of his body.
In the end, the secret had come to light. His adoptive mother's identity had been exposed, and the Ao Ba Family had exacted a brutal reckoning. The original owner of his body had also fallen completely within their web of surveillance.
Presumably, the Ao Ba Family had intended to abduct him as soon as he successfully broke through to Dou Zhe and formed his dou qi vortex. After all, not everyone could cross that threshold smoothly. If he failed to break through, he would still be nothing but trash. It was precisely this waiting period that had given Xia Kong, who had transmigrated into this world, a sliver of hope for survival.
Truly, the world was fickle, and fate made fools of people.
A cold glint flashed in Xia Kong's eyes.
Ao Ba Family, just you wait.
His current strength was nowhere near enough to contend with the Ao Ba Family, and he had no Heaven Tier Dou Technique that could summon a god to possess him. Acting rashly would only startle the snake in the grass and invite disaster. He suppressed the vicious anger in his heart, refrained from any impulsive action, and turned his full attention back to cultivation and honing his Dou Techniques.
Once my cultivation truly reaches its full potential... heh heh heh, Oba Pa, you'd better be ready for the judgment coming your way.
At that same moment, inside the Ao Ba Family's mansion.
Oba Pa, who was enjoying himself in bed, suddenly shuddered all over. His piglike bulk instantly broke out in cold sweat. He felt as though a venomous snake lurking in the dark had fixed its sinister gaze on him. A bone-piercing chill burrowed straight into his marrow, and his body wilted on the spot, all its virility gone.
Meanwhile, in a courtyard of the Xiao Clan.
Xiao Yan sat cross-legged in a huge wooden tub, his body submerged in Foundation Establishment Spirit Liquid personally refined by Yao Lao. The mist rising from the liquid made his cultivation considerably smoother.
Besides soaking in Foundation Establishment Spirit Liquid, Xiao Yan would pause his cultivation every so often, reach for a level-one white radish on the jade platter beside him-the Spicy Jade, as the outside world called it-and take a few bites.
Foundation Establishment Spirit Liquid worked from the outside inward, stimulating the body to absorb and refine dou qi. Spicy Jade's medicinal effects worked in precisely the opposite direction, nourishing and encouraging the growth of dou qi from the inside outward. Rather than conflicting, the two complemented each other, producing the remarkable effect of one plus one being greater than two.
An ethereal soul figure with white hair and a youthful face hovered in midair. He was none other than Venerable Yao, Yao Chen, a Nine-Turn Peak Dou Zun and an Eighth Grade Peak grandmaster alchemist. Watching Xiao Yan's progress, he stroked his beard, his eyes filled with approval.
"Good, very good. Your father has certainly gone to great lengths for you."
Xiao Yan slowly ended his cultivation and let out a long breath of stale air. Naturally, he would remember his father's love and care, but at this moment, another very important matter concerned him more.
Xiao Yan looked up at the teacher of mysterious origins before him and asked with a measure of solemnity.
"Teacher, have you really never heard of this white radish-the Spicy Jade-at all?"
Yao Lao smiled faintly. "Indeed, I have never seen it before. But the Dou Qi Continent is vast and boundless, and what I know amounts to no more than a tenth or two of it. What is so strange about encountering a few wondrous medicinal ingredients I have never heard of?"
Clearly, Yao Lao had not taken Xiao Yan's concern to heart. Even if Spicy Jade could assist in cultivating dou qi, it was hardly worth mentioning to Venerable Yao, whose name had once resounded throughout the Dou Qi Continent.
"Enough. Your cultivation is still weak. There is no need to trouble yourself with so many distractions. Focusing on cultivation is the proper path."
"Hehe, your student will remember your teachings."
Xiao Yan set aside his doubts about Spicy Jade for the time being. His eyes shifted, and another idea came to him.
"Teacher, I heard Father say that a single Spicy Jade can sell for as much as forty thousand gold coins at the Mittel Auction House. The Foundation Establishment Spirit Liquid you refine has similar effects, so why don't we sell it at the auction house too? We'd reap ten thousandfold returns on a tiny investment. Then we'd never have to worry about scraping together the money for medicinal ingredients again."
"You little rascal. Do you want this old man to become your drudge, refining pills to make a living?"
Yao Lao used his soul power to form a small wooden stick and struck Xiao Yan on the head with a smack.
The resulting clang certainly sounded painful, but it also proved that this was a good, solid head.
Xiao Yan ducked his neck, a sly look appearing on his face. "Teacher, could you really bear to watch me lose to Nalan Yanran three years from now and let outsiders think your ability to teach a disciple is inferior to that of a mere Dou Emperor?"
"You brat, you even dare use that to needle this old man. First, find a way to scrape together the funds for a single batch of spirit liquid!"
Hearing the hint of concession in Yao Lao's words, delight had only just appeared on Xiao Yan's face when the thought of his utterly empty purse turned it into bitter dismay.
"Heh heh... that little girlfriend of yours has quite a background. I imagine her coffers are rather full as well."
Watching Xiao Yan's embarrassed expression, Yao Lao gave a teasing smile like a mischievous old child.
The corners of Xiao Yan's mouth twitched. He had no answer.
Utterly unwilling, yet left with no other option, Xiao Yan ultimately took the path others mockingly called "living off a woman," obtaining his first startup funds for selling Foundation Establishment Spirit Liquid from Xiao Xun'er.
Afterward, batch after batch of Foundation Establishment Spirit Liquid flowed into the Mittel Auction House. Inevitably, this affected the Spicy Jade business Xia Kong had entrusted to Ya Fei.
With a bottle of Foundation Establishment Spirit Liquid in hand, Ya Fei made a special trip to see Xia Kong and discuss a response.
Xia Kong had long anticipated this day and had already prepared twenty level-one potatoes to hand over to Ya Fei.
The potatoes had stronger medicinal properties and produced relatively noticeable improvements in the cultivation of Dou Zhe and even Dou Shi. The moment they entered the market, countless cultivators flocked to them. Their final auction prices were a cut above those of Spicy Jade, firmly stabilizing his position in the market.
Through this, Xia Kong also accumulated a large quantity of gold coins.
Time hurried by, and nearly a year passed in the blink of an eye.
Xia Kong was now a youth approaching sixteen.
Over that year, his cultivation had advanced by leaps and bounds from Four-Star Dou Zhe, firmly reaching Five-Star Dou Master.
Of his four Dou Techniques, he had brought the High Yellow Tier Scorching Wood Palm, Low Black Tier Wood Hardening, and Mid Black Tier Green Leaf Wandering Steps all to Proficiency. He had also begun mastering the remaining High Xuan Tier Blossom Sword Cluster scroll, reaching Initial Insight.
Meanwhile, his farm space had upgraded once again to LV3. Its area had expanded to nearly two hundred square meters, and the pavilion at its center had become more refined and elegant. Ten more plots had become available for cultivation, bringing the total to thirty.
After the farm space upgraded to LV3, it unlocked two new level-three crops: level-three cucumbers, which had the remarkable effects of detoxifying the body and increasing its resistance to poison, and level-three blueberries, which had wondrous healing effects and could be used both internally and externally. Level-three seeds cost 50 gold coins, mature produce could be sold back for 500 gold coins, and the crops required 10 days to mature.
Clearly, these two spiritual plants currently offered limited help in improving Xia Kong's own strength. He had only grown one complete round of them, harvesting 30 of each and storing them in his backpack as reserves and to add variety to his daily meals.
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