Xiao Yan breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness, it was only a "hallucination"...
"Girl, honestly, there's really no need to go to the mountain out back. Just hang a 'Training, do not disturb' sign on your door. Would anyone really barge in while you're cultivating?"
Apothecary lay on his side in midair, speaking rather lazily.
"Then you could soak in the medicinal bath as soon as you finish training, and the effects would be even better. Unlike now, when you waste all that time on the trip back."
"Hmm..." Xiao Yan hesitated too.
After all, the best time to cultivate was the stretch between finishing her "special training" and recovering. Wasting it on the road did seem like a shame.
If soaking in the medicinal bath immediately after a beating gave her the full effect, then waiting until she got home to start cultivating probably left her with only about ninety percent.
The difference might not be enormous, but she couldn't take those beatings for nothing, could she?
Maybe I should just turn my bedroom into a "cultivation room" and "gym" and train indoors from now on?
For those at the Dou Qi stage, cultivating indoors was actually quite common.
After all, cultivating Dou Qi only required a quiet, stable environment. The requirements in other respects weren't particularly demanding.
So, for many younger clan members, their bedrooms were their "cultivation rooms."
Then... why not "follow the crowd," cultivate Dou Qi at home, and go to the mountain out back for everything else?
No, the Xiao Clan still isn't safe enough.
Xiao Yan's eyes shifted as she thought of a solution-
Carry the wooden "medicinal bath" tub around in a Storage Ring. Wouldn't that save her from running back and forth too?
Her Storage Ring wasn't large enough, but Apothecary's ring had more than enough room for a wooden tub. Since anything stored in a Storage Ring came out exactly as it had gone in, this was perfectly feasible.
It was such a simple solution, yet she hadn't thought of it before. That really was an oversight.
Apothecary was awestruck by Xiao Yan's idea, declaring, "A brand-new brain that's never been used before really does work wonders."
The two once again enjoyed a round of tender mentorship and filial devotion.
And so, Xiao Yan went to the mountain out back to cultivate during the day, then dragged her exhausted body home at night with her Dou Qi completely depleted. After washing up, she fell into bed and went straight to sleep.
Her cultivation was also advancing at a somewhat "terrifying" pace.
As people discovered that Xiao Yan's talent had not only returned but surpassed what it had once been, and that she cultivated with tremendous dedication, the discordant voices within the Xiao Clan gradually faded away.
Though Xiao Yan didn't particularly care what other people said anyway.
Seeing Xiao Yan work so hard at cultivating, Xiao Zhan felt both gratified and a pang of heartache at how mature she had become.
He wanted to sell off some of the family's assets to buy Xiao Yan a Mystic Rank fire-attribute cultivation method for her to use after breaking through to Dou Zhe.
To that end, he had spent plenty of time wrangling with the Three Great Elders. It was only right for the clan to "invest" in a genius, but Xiao Yan did, after all, have a history of getting her "account banned."
So, although Xiao Yan's cultivation was now shooting up, the Three Great Elders weren't entirely supportive-though they weren't entirely opposed either.
After all, going from third-stage to fifth-stage Dou Qi in a single month was a talent practically unheard of. She was bound to become a Dou Emperor in the future, perhaps even something beyond that.
When that day came, the Xiao Clan would enjoy the blessing of "one person ascending to heaven, and even their chickens and dogs rising with them."
If they could only confirm that Xiao Yan wouldn't lose her cultivation a second time, the three elders would even dig into their own coffin funds to invest in her.
So the main issue was "uncertainty."
Still, buying a Mystic Rank cultivation method at auction would benefit the whole clan in the long term. Any clan member could use it, so even if Xiao Yan's "account" got "banned" again, the investment wouldn't be entirely money thrown into the water.
Thus, Xiao Zhan's proposal didn't meet with particularly strong resistance.
However, which assets to sell and how much money to raise all needed to be discussed together, with some rules and limits laid out.
Besides, in a place like Wutan City, Mystic Rank fire-attribute cultivation methods weren't available just because you wanted one. They would have to try their luck in other cities.
Of course, Xiao Yan knew nothing about any of this yet.
With her talent restored, Xiao Yan was busy cultivating, while Xiao Xun'er had always possessed considerable talent herself. Both of them therefore had things to do.
Still, every ten days or fortnight, the two would occasionally take a day "off" together to eat, eat, eat and shop, shop, shop in Wutan City.
Nearly another half year passed in this peaceful fashion.
With Apothecary's pills and medicinal baths, Xiao Yan's cultivation had already reached the peak of Seventh Stage Dou Qi, even with her desperately suppressing it using her soul power.
That was only because the pills Apothecary refined were generally the kind that built and strengthened her foundation.
Otherwise, if any of them directly increased cultivation, Xiao Yan would probably already have become a Dou Zhe.
All one could say was that, although pills couldn't normally be used during the Dou Qi stage, with a sufficiently strong physique as a foundation like Xiao Yan's, pills were practically an attack from a higher dimension against that stage.
Xiao Yan no longer took whippings now. Instead, she had begun practicing the high-level Mystic Rank Dou Technique, "Eight Extremes Collapse," tempering her body in the process of training the technique.
Everything proceeded in an orderly fashion. In another few months, once Xiao Yan broke through to Dou Zhe, Apothecary would teach her alchemy and let her choose a cultivation method.
Then, one day, an "uninvited guest" arrived at the Xiao Clan, who was also an old acquaintance... ahem, an honored guest.
This "honored guest" was none other than Nalan Jie, the pillar upon which the Nalan Family stood, and an old friend of Xiao Yan's grandfather, Xiao Lin.
In fact, Nalan Jie had learned about the broken engagement as soon as Nalan Yan returned to the Nalan Family after visiting the Xiao Clan to call it off.
Or, to put it another way, the engagement had been broken with his tacit approval and the encouragement of a Misty Cloud Sect Deacon.
How could Nalan Jie not have known what Nalan Yan's act of "breaking the engagement" would bring upon the Xiao Clan and Xiao Yan, or that it would leave Xiao Yan and Xiao Zhan's dignity trampled into the dirt?
But the Xiao Clan now lacked even a single Dou Ling, and Xiao Yan had lost her talent and become a "cripple." The Xiao Clan's future could be seen at a glance-
It had none.
Meanwhile, Nalan Yan was the Misty Cloud Sect's chief disciple, and his grandfather was the Jia Ma Empire's Lionheart Marshal. To put it bluntly, even marrying a princess of the Jia Ma Empire wasn't beyond his reach.
In that case, why marry a "decorative vase"?
What the Nalan Family needed was a marriage alliance with someone of "matching status," someone who could help the family climb another level, not an exercise in "poverty relief."
But his old friend was dead, and Nalan Jie couldn't bring himself to lose face by "breaking the engagement." He simply turned a blind eye to Nalan Yan's actions.
As for the Xiao Clan... so what if he offended them?
There were no eternal friends, only eternal interests.
But now, it seemed the matter had become rather difficult to resolve. Xiao Yan's talent had returned, and it far exceeded what it had been before.
That meant he had to reconsider the possible future consequences of "breaking the engagement."
If he couldn't ease relations with the Xiao Clan and properly resolve the "lingering issues" from before, there might be "no end to the troubles to come."
Never mind anything else. If Xiao Yan really did become a Dou Emperor someday, or even a legendary Dou Zong Stronghold, then...
However, although Nalan Jie intended to ease relations between the two families, today's matter didn't seem likely to go smoothly...
Since the book is still in its free period, I won't post a separate chapter for this and will just put it after the main text. These are only my personal views, and I ask everyone to discuss them rationally.
Regarding the portrayal of Nalan Jie above, some readers may disagree and feel that I've made this character, who values loyalty and affection, a little too heartless.
But in my view, Nalan Jie isn't really someone who "treasures affection and loyalty."
After all, in the original work, even if he hadn't "tacitly approved" of breaking the engagement, and Nalan Yanran had simply used the Misty Cloud Sect's influence to go there and break it herself...
After Nalan Jie learned what Nalan Yanran had done, he neither made any gesture toward the Xiao Clan nor provided any meaningful compensation.
Of course, there may have been tacit approval, but the original text didn't make it particularly clear. And if there was, that would only make him even more of a character who presented one face outwardly while hiding another within.
Furthermore, there was a debt of gratitude between Nalan Jie and Xiao Yan's grandfather, yet he forced that relationship onto the younger generation. His granddaughter didn't want this "arranged marriage," but he still clung desperately to his pride. All of this made the impression he gave rather contradictory.
So, personally, I think the portrayal here is fairly consistent with Nalan Jie's characterization.
Besides, this character isn't particularly important. He's a supporting character with even less page time than Nalan Yan, so if his characterization falls apart, it falls apart... ahem, don't yell at me, don't yell at me.
As I've said before, this story includes some secondary interpretations, and it will inevitably be influenced by the author's own subjective views. That makes it difficult to suit every reader's tastes perfectly, so I ask for your understanding.
You can simply treat this book as a "parallel world" rather than confining it to the label of "fanfiction." That way, everything will suddenly become much clearer.
That's all, then. Coo, coo, coo~~
Before you continue