He closed the panel.
Xiao Ce steadied his breathing, rose, and pushed open the door.
He had cultivated for a full day and night. It had been dark when he entered seclusion, and it was no different when he emerged.
Deep into the night, the courtyard was silent. Xiao Yi Xian in the room next door had also fallen asleep, and no light shone from her room.
An inexplicable loneliness came over Xiao Ce. With a soft sigh, he was just about to close the door again when he suddenly heard a faint sound by his feet.
He looked down and saw Qing Lin sitting at the doorway, curled up with her eyes closed.
"Qing Lin?" Xiao Ce called.
The girl's eyelids twitched slightly before slowly opening, a hazy mist veiling her eyes. "Y-Young Master Xiao Ce."
She immediately stood up and apologized timidly. "I'm sorry, Young Master. I was just too sleepy.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"
Xiao Ce reached out and stroked Qing Lin's head, frowning slightly. "Who told you to wait here?"
Seemingly afraid that Xiao Ce would misunderstand, Qing Lin immediately said, "No one ordered me to. Big Sister Xiao Yi Xian even told me to go rest.
"It was my own decision. I was worried that you wouldn't have anyone to attend to you after you came out of seclusion, Young Master, and that you would be hungry and uncomfortable. That's why I waited here."
A tender part of Xiao Ce's heart was touched. His tone softened considerably, though it remained firm. "You're my maid. If I haven't told you to wait here, you don't need to.
"If you catch a chill and fall ill, how will you attend to me?"
"So go get some rest, right this instant!"
Xiao Ce's words were forceful, but all Qing Lin heard in them was concern. Before she knew it, tears were streaming from the corners of her eyes.
"Y-Young Master, why are you so good to me?" Qing Lin's voice was slightly choked. Her reddened eyes stirred pity while lending her a different sort of allure.
Her Snake-People Tribe bloodline gave her the same distinctive charm as the Snake-People. Even at her young age, she was still captivating.
Xiao Ce chose to tell a small lie. "I used to have little talent for cultivation, and the people in my clan were always mocking me.
"You remind me of those days, so I don't want you to be bullied and ostracized like I was."
Qing Lin nodded slightly. Though her own circumstances were miserable, she still looked pained for Xiao Ce when she heard him speak of his past.
"All right, go rest. Get a good night's sleep and attend to me during the day in top form," Xiao Ce said.
This time, Qing Lin did not refuse. She turned and left, her swaying waist holding a strange allure, like a beautiful serpent woman twisting her waist seductively, deliberately enticing others.
The Snake-People bloodline really is terrifying, Xiao Ce thought.
Withdrawing his gaze, Xiao Ce breathed in the cold courtyard air, his mind clearing completely.
He returned to his room and sat cross-legged on the Green Lotus Seat. The Emperor Flame within him transformed into the Fallen Heart Flame, producing heart fire to help him constantly temper his Dou Qi and improve his cultivation.
He opened the panel, looked at the single deployment available on it, and spoke in his mind.
System, begin deployment!
[Yes. Beginning deployment.] [Random identity: a farmer's son.] [Random timeline: one hundred thousand years ago.] [Deployment begins.]
As several notifications popped up, the scene before Xiao Ce's eyes changed in an instant.
The text gradually faded away, and a child wrapped in old cloth appeared in the scene.
[Year one: you were born into a farming household in Yishan City, a small city on the outskirts of the Suiyun Empire, on the fringes of the Northwest Continent. Your parents were both ordinary farmers, one at the third stage of Dou Qi and the other at the fourth stage of Dou Qi. They were not in love and merely lived together to get by, but they were reasonably responsible toward you.] [Year two: you ate and slept well, growing larger than other children your age. Under your parents' guidance, you began learning the language of this era.] [Year three: having grown considerably, you began cultivating for the first time. You discovered that your cultivation talent was terrible, even worse than your original body's.] [Year four: to speed up your cultivation, you searched for medicinal herbs according to the memories in your mind. After searching for half a year, you barely managed to gather one set of ingredients, ground them into a paste, and soaked them in water for external use. Although the ingredients were low-grade, your careful formulation still improved the speed of your Dou Qi cultivation.] [Year five: despite your efforts to hide it, your preparation of medicinal ingredients was still exposed when your parents came home to fetch food. You initially intended to bluff your way through, but after hesitating, you chose to confess. You told your parents that this was a medicinal formula you had picked up and that it could increase the speed of Dou Qi cultivation. Your parents were shocked. At first, they did not believe you and thought you were talking nonsense, until you brought out the medicinal liquid you had prepared and let them try it. After trying it, your parents discovered that it actually worked and were overjoyed. They demanded that you hand over the formula, saying that it was inappropriate for a child to hold something so valuable. You had no choice but to give them the formula. Your parents began preparing medicinal liquid with the formula and selling it. Sensing that something was wrong, you told them to be cautious and stop selling it, or at least move somewhere else after every sale. Your parents ignored your advice, saying that a child knew nothing, and took it completely lightly.] [Year six: thanks to the medicinal liquid, your parents soon became extremely wealthy figures in Yishan City. Your meals improved considerably as a result, and you had more resources to improve yourself, but you grew increasingly uneasy. You began secretly stashing away gold coins for emergencies and advising your parents more frequently. Your parents continued to ignore you. With gold in their hands, they soon found lovers and spent every night enjoying themselves, no longer bothering with you. You gave up on them completely, lamenting that not all parents were as responsible as Xiao Zhan, and did not plan a way out for yourself. In the latter half of the year, after spending some time entangled with their lovers, your parents divulged the formula. The next day, they died gruesome deaths in the residence, one after the other, the causes unknown. But immediately afterward, both the Wang Family and the Li Family in Yishan City began selling medicinal liquid. As though you had anticipated this, you simply packed your luggage and left Yishan City with some gold coins. You truly felt little for your parents in this life, but they were blood relatives after all. You swore to avenge them, then went to the neighboring Bangshui City.]
[Year thirteen: thanks to the formula, the Wang Family and the Li Family became famously wealthy families in the Suiyun Empire. They even formed marriage alliances with a Dou Wang family, completely turning their fortunes around. That same year, the Wang Family and the Li Family were slaughtered to the last member, and the Dou Wang family allied to them by marriage began selling medicinal liquid. You felt somewhat wistful that a formula you created in the future had actually stirred up such a storm. Over the years, you had updated the formula several times, lowering its cost and strengthening its effects. You dared not imagine how much of a sensation it would cause if it leaked. Fortunately, however, your cultivation had already reached the ninth stage of Dou Qi, and you no longer needed to prepare medicinal liquid.] [Year fourteen: you constantly honed yourself, consolidating your Dou Qi. Once you felt that everything about you had reached perfection, you successfully broke through to Dou Zhe. At the same time, you learned a piece of terrible news: your Dou Qi attribute was merely the most ordinary fire, without any Wood Qi mixed into it. You felt as though you had been struck by lightning, because this meant that you lacked the talent to become an Alchemist!]
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