Meanwhile, in Xiao Yan's room.
Xiao Yan lay sprawled on the bed, limbs splayed. The clothes on his back were soaked with sweat and clung stickily to his skin, but he had no strength left to move.
The agonizing pain that had erupted from his dantian earlier had nearly finished him off. He had thought he was about to explode into pieces, yet somehow he had gritted his teeth and survived.
Now that he had recovered a little, he tried circulating the Dou Qi inside him.
It felt completely different from before. The energy flowing through his meridians was thick and solid.
"Holy shit, Whitebeard, you're fucking amazing!"
He had thought swallowing the Qi Gathering Powder would, at best, restore him to the fourth or fifth stage of Dou Qi. Instead, he had reached the peak of the eighth stage.
Yao Chen's soul drifted out of the ring, his upper body floating in midair, his beard practically curling up toward the heavens.
With his arms folded across his chest, he watched Xiao Yan sprawled on the bed, unwilling to move even a finger, and grinned even more smugly. "Gurararara!
I told you, if I've taken you as my son, you must have talent.
Forget surviving it-an ordinary person would have exploded into a mist of blood the moment the Qi Gathering Powder entered their body."
Xiao Yan rolled his eyes.
"So I should thank you for not getting me killed?"
"Of course I deserve some credit. Luckily, my soul had recovered enough for me to protect your meridians. Now stop lying around."
Yao Chen's soul floated to the head of the bed, and he looked down at Xiao Yan. "Hurry up, get up and catch your breath. Next, you're learning alchemy from me."
Xiao Yan nearly choked. "I just crawled back from the gates of hell! At least let me catch my breath!"
"What do you need to catch your breath for? Strike while the iron is hot. The sooner you start learning alchemy, the better."
Yao Chen spoke with the unquestioning confidence of an old father, as though letting Xiao Yan stay in bed instead of studying would be a monstrous sin.
"You're more invested in this than I am."
"Naturally. You're my son."
"Fuck off."
Despite his swearing, Xiao Yan still sat up on the bed.
He crossed his legs and leaned his back against the bedpost.
Whitebeard really had laid his heart bare for him, teaching him everything without holding anything back.
But when he remembered what Yao Chen had told him earlier, his brows knitted again.
Yao Chen had told him that his own disciple had betrayed him back then. His physical body was gone, leaving only this wisp of a remnant soul huddled inside the ring, clinging to life.
Who knew where that treacherous disciple was hiding now? But his cultivation was at least at the Dou Emperor level, and he might even have reached the threshold of Dou Zong.
Xiao Yan rubbed his temples, feeling an ache deep inside his skull.
Had this master and adoptive father of his dug him a massive pit?
Whitebeard was sincere about taking him as a disciple, sure, but weren't his enemies a little too high-level?
He was a nobody who had not even become a Dou Zhe yet, and his future enemies started at Dou Emperor or Dou Zong?
Xiao Yan sighed, suddenly feeling a much heavier burden on his shoulders.
Seeing his bitter, troubled expression, Yao Chen asked, "What, scared?"
"Not scared. I just feel like the pressure's a little much."
"Pressure is exactly what you need."
Yao Chen's voice suddenly grew more serious, much of his joking manner fading. "How can you get stronger without pressure?"
Xiao Yan fell silent.
He remembered how, a few days earlier in the hall, Xiao Long had torn into Nalan Yanran in front of everyone, venting all the anger Xiao Yan should have had to swallow.
He remembered that old bastard, the First Elder, scheming to give the Qi Gathering Powder to Xiao Ning, and how one word from his brother had secured it for him instead.
Xiao Yan drew a deep breath and straightened his back. "I'll learn! Right now!"
"Wait, don't start yet!"
"Didn't you say it was urgent?"
"But how are you going to learn without any money?"
"Uh..."
Xiao Long had just seen Xun'er off when his little brother Xiao Yan came calling. "What's up?"
"Brother, uh... I've been wanting to learn alchemy lately. Could you lend me some money?"
Xiao Long paused at Xiao Yan's words, then realized what was going on.
In the original story, Xiao Xun'er had provided Xiao Yan's starting funds. But in this life, his little brother and Xun'er barely had anything to do with each other.
Xiao Yan's cultivation had regressed over the years, and his pockets were cleaner than his face. Where would he get the money to buy medicinal ingredients for practice?
A green jade card appeared in his hand, and he tossed it into Xiao Yan's arms. "There's about fifty thousand gold coins in there. That should last you a while, right?"
Xiao Yan hurriedly caught the jade card, looked down at it, then looked back up at his brother, his eyes round as saucers. "Fifty thousand? Brother, where did you get that much money?"
He knew how much his brother received as a monthly allowance from the clan. It amounted to only a few hundred gold coins a year. He could save until the year of the monkey and the month of the horse and still never reach that sum.
Xiao Long leaned against the doorframe with his arms folded and said casually, "Killed magical beasts and sold the spoils."
He really wasn't lying.
After becoming a Dou Zhe at nine, the boost from the Twelve Talismans had let his explosive power brush the threshold of a Da Dou Shi.
Killing the Tier 2 Magical Beasts in the Magical Beast Mountain Range had been as easy as chopping melons and slicing vegetables.
Things had become even more absurd after he obtained the Rainbow Stone. He could control shadows to pin those magical beasts down and grind them into the dirt.
The shadow-transformed magical beasts could neither die nor tire. Sometimes, when he couldn't be bothered to act himself, he simply sent a pack of shadow magical beasts out to clear the area, wiping out every magical beast in a whole stretch of land.
It was fair to say that much of Wutan City's supply of magical beast materials came from him.
Xiao Yan gripped the jade card, his palm feeling a little hot.
During these three years of declining cultivation, the clan peers who had once fawned over him now took detours whenever they saw him.
Even his monthly allowance had been squeezed and docked several times by the Second Elder. It had been a long time since he had carried so much money.
He wanted to thank his brother, but saying that felt too sentimental.
In the end, he simply tucked the jade card into his robe and nodded firmly. "All right, Brother. Consider this a loan. I'll pay you back with interest."
"Oh, give it a rest. Learn alchemy properly first."
"By the way, Little Yanzi,"
Xiao Long stopped Xiao Yan as he was about to leave. "Since you're going to become an alchemist, keep an eye out for a way to deal with the Woeful Poison Body. I have a friend..."
Xiao Yan had never even heard of the Woeful Poison Body, but he nodded anyway. "Sure. I'll remember."
Even as he answered aloud, he was already communicating mentally with the person inside the ring.
Old man, what's a Woeful Poison Body? Have you heard of it?
Yao Chen's voice soon rang out in his mind. Oh, I actually do know about that!
Xiao Yan froze. He had only asked in passing and hadn't expected an answer.
You really know?
Of course.
Back when your father roamed the continent, what strange and unusual things hadn't I seen?
The Woeful Poison Body is an innate poisonous constitution. It releases toxins from childhood, and the stronger the constitution grows, the fiercer the poison becomes. In the end, it either poisons others to death or kills its owner.
I have a Poison Pill Method that can resolve it, but I can't quite remember it right now!
Old man, why are you so unreliable?
Oh, come on! I'm nothing but a soul now, and my soul power has been greatly weakened. It's a miracle I'm still alive! Once I've recovered for a while, I should be able to remember!
Xiao Yan had thought he could help Xiao Long, only for Whitebeard to prove unreliable at this very moment.
"What's wrong?"
Xiao Long knew Xiao Yan was probably asking Yao Chen, but he still had to pretend otherwise.
"Uh, Brother, don't worry. I'll look into it! I think I remember seeing a record of it somewhere."
Xiao Long was surprised. He had expected Yao Chen to tell Xiao Yan outright. Had Yao Chen not yet become willing to lay his heart bare?
He could only nod. "All right!"
After Xiao Yan left.
Xiao Long stroked his chin. It seemed he would still have to rely on the Bittersweet Tree.
Mostly, he didn't want to see Xiao Yi Xian become the Poison Sect's sect leader again, as she had in the original story.
In the original course of events, Xiao Yi Xian had left the Magical Beast Mountain Range.
In the Chu Yun Empire, the tragedy of her childhood had repeated itself.
It was that tragedy that had truly set her on the path to becoming the Heavenly Poison Maiden.
But now that she was Xiao Long's friend, he naturally didn't want Xiao Yi Xian to suffer through all that pain again.
As for any covetous feelings toward Xiao Yi Xian.
The same words still applied: when a flower was blooming so beautifully, wouldn't failing to appreciate it make him seem utterly blind to romance?
Before you continue