Sorting Through His Own Remains

Xiao Yan woke in a patch of grass, his head still heavy and muddled. After struggling to climb to his feet, the first thing he saw was a sword.

Covered in blood, Yun Yun held her slender sword against Xiao Yan's throat.

The slightest suspicious movement from him would spill his blood right there.

"Weren't you dead? Why did you suddenly appear again?" Yun Yun's voice was filled with fear, her eyes fixed on Xiao Yan in a fierce glare.

From her perspective, just after they had finished dividing the spoils, a powerful expert had suddenly laid down a massive formation and killed the man before her with a single palm strike.

She, too, had been gravely injured by the shock waves. If not for a protective talisman her master, Yun Shan, had given her, she would already have descended to the nine springs.

Yet barely five minutes later, a spatial passage had suddenly appeared and dumped this supposedly dead man out.

Yun Yun was utterly bewildered. If the man before her was alive, then whose was that heap of mashed flesh on the ground nearby?

"Look, beautiful, without Dou Qi supporting it, that sword can't hurt me." Xiao Yan's hand, wreathed in black flames, closed around Yun Yun's sword, and a mocking smile appeared on his face.

Then Yun Yun's entire blade rapidly melted into a puddle of molten iron, leaving only the bare hilt in her hand.

Xiao Yan had seen through Yun Yun's fierce facade at a glance. Having spent a hundred years in the memory space, he possessed insight and powers of observation far beyond those of ordinary people. This woman was covered in blood and unsteady on her feet. Clearly, her injuries were already so severe that she could no longer use Dou Qi to recover.

Sure enough, once her true condition was exposed, Yun Yun fell helplessly to the ground. She could no longer force herself to hold on. Bloody froth appeared at the corners of her mouth, a clear sign that her lungs had been severely injured.

Xiao Yan sighed softly, then turned toward the place where he had died earlier.

As for why he had been in the "Netherworld" moments ago, only to return to the Mortal World immediately after losing consciousness, he could not puzzle it out no matter how hard he thought. In the end, he could only attribute it to the Nihility Devouring Flame.

Presumably, this Origin Flame, which seldom cared to acknowledge him, had finally been moved by his resolve.

Xiao Yan completely ignored the discrepancy in time. Wasn't it common knowledge that time flowed differently in the Netherworld and the Mortal World?

Coming up beside the heap of mashed flesh, Xiao Yan found it truly difficult to accept that this gruesome sight had once been him.

Fighting back the urge to vomit, Xiao Yan rummaged through the mashed flesh and finally found two rings. One was the Black Ring containing Yao Chen; the other was the top-grade Storage Ring Hun Tiandi had given him.

He had no idea what material these two rings were made from. Even under such a terrifying attack, neither had suffered the slightest damage.

"Yao Lao?" Xiao Yan tried to use his soul power to communicate with Yao Lao inside the Black Ring.

But Yao Lao's soul within the Black Ring was frighteningly weak, like a candle flame in the wind that could go out at any moment.

Xiao Yan hurriedly fed Dou Qi and soul power into the Black Ring, barely managing to pull Yao Lao back from the brink of dissolution. Yet Yao Lao did not wake. This seemed to be some kind of protective mechanism.

The Black Ring was protecting Yao Lao.

As for when he would wake, that was entirely unknown.

Xiao Yan took a thin cord from his Storage Ring, threaded it through the Black Ring, and hung it around his neck again. He decided that once he left this place, he would immediately seek a way to revive Yao Lao.

Nothing inside the Storage Ring was missing. That was the only piece of good news.

As for the two beast flames he had previously devoured and fused, there was no trace of them to be found in the mashed flesh.

Xiao Yan guessed that these two beast flames had been far too low-ranked to withstand an attack from such a powerful expert. As he died, both flames had been annihilated by the attack as well.

"Great. There goes my ultimate move, Buddha's Fury Fire Lotus." Xiao Yan sighed regretfully.

Having finished gathering his own "remains," Xiao Yan set off to check whether Xiao Yi Xian was all right. But before he had gone very far, he finally turned back.

Xiao Yan walked up beside Yun Yun and looked at the voluptuous female Dou Emperor. Her once serene, tranquil face was covered in blood, and her eyes remained fixed on him, filled with pleading and a desperate desire to live.

"Ah, you're really lucky you ran into me. I happen to be an alchemist. But let's get this straight first: if I can't save you, don't blame me once you're down below." Xiao Yan sighed softly, then took various pills from his Storage Ring and began treating Yun Yun's injuries.

But Xiao Yan was only a First-Rank Alchemist. The good healing pills in his Storage Ring had all been refined by Yao Lao, and there were few of them to begin with. They could barely keep Yun Yun alive.

As for the healing medicines he had refined himself, they were completely useless for someone of Yun Yun's level.

There was nothing he could do about that, though. Whether she lived or died was entirely in heaven's hands.

"Wait here for a bit. I'm going to find someone. I'll be back soon." After giving Yun Yun's injuries some basic treatment, Xiao Yan turned and left again, leaving her where she lay.

Compared with saving Yun Yun, a woman he did not know, confirming Xiao Yi Xian's safety mattered far more to Xiao Yan.

Xiao Yan first went to the Amethyst Winged Lion King's lair. The lair, where the purple spirit stone should have been, was now completely empty. Xiao Yi Xian was not there.

Then he went to the cave where they had stayed before. To his surprise, the formation they had previously set up had already been removed, and Qing Lin had vanished as well. Only everyday belongings scattered across the floor proved that anyone had ever been there.

Xiao Yan walked to the stone bed, looked at the rumpled bedding, and slipped a hand beneath it. It was still warm. They must not have left very long ago.

Xiao Yan rushed out of the cave and shouted into the surroundings, "Senior sister?! Hun Xian'er! Qing Lin!"

There was no response. Only then did he finally confirm that Xiao Yi Xian had left.

Still, thinking about it, that was perfectly normal. He had been slapped to death, and the attacker was an expert they could not possibly afford to provoke. Getting out without hesitation was what any normal person would think to do.

"I remember Hun Miesheng saying the Hun Clan could bring people back from the dead. I wonder if they'll come looking for what's left of my soul. If they find out I've come back to life, that'll be interesting." Xiao Yan gave a self-mocking remark.

Once he had confirmed that Xiao Yi Xian was at least safe, he returned to the valley and scooped up Yun Yun, who had completely lost consciousness. Then he unfurled his Eagle Wings behind him and flew back to the cave where they had been hiding.

After placing Yun Yun on the stone bed, Xiao Yan began examining her injuries in detail.

"Hardly a single part of her body is intact. This is awful. There's no way first-rank pills alone can save her." After examining Yun Yun's injuries, Xiao Yan could not help marveling that an expert at the Dou Emperor realm had already undergone an evolution in the very level of their life. An ordinary human with injuries this severe would have been cold long ago.

Xiao Yan took a Pill Furnace from his Storage Ring. Then, relying on the medicinal knowledge Yao Lao had taught him, he selected quite a few medicinal herbs he thought might be useful from a large pile.

He intended to refine some higher-grade healing medicine, but without a pill formula, he could only feel his own way forward.

Whether she lived or died, he would leave it to heaven.