[Xiao Yan? You felt astonished, and an extremely strange feeling suddenly arose in your heart.
Perhaps this Xiao Yan was the future Dou Di of the Xiao Clan. You had no idea why such a thought had occurred to you.
You asked Xiao Huo to entrust Xiao Yan to you to raise.
Xiao Huo actually agreed, wild with joy. As it turned out, he had never wanted a child in the first place; he had not had his fill of fun yet. Nothing could be better than your willingness to raise the child, and you also happened to be one of the few people he was willing to trust.
Xiao Huo left you some resources, dressing them up as payment for raising his child.
You began your life as a child-rearer.]
[Year forty-one: Xiao Yan peed all over you, and you spanked him. The child refused to take it lying down and left two piles of poop on your bed in the middle of the night. You could do nothing about it.
You felt that raising a child truly was no easy task, so you set about refining an automatic diaper that could clean itself. It worked wonderfully, and you felt you had discovered the true purpose of artifact refining.]
[Year forty-two: Xiao Huo returned to take a look at Xiao Yan. When he heard Xiao Yan call you Dad, he did not mind at all and took the opportunity to make you Xiao Yan's godfather. With a somewhat strange feeling in your heart, you agreed.]
[Year forty-three: Xiao Yan began trying to cultivate. He had inherited his father Xiao Huo's talent for cultivation and was even more gifted. In just one year, he cultivated Three-Stage Dou Qi, proving himself a genius in every sense.]
[Year forty-four: Your cultivation broke through to five-star Dou Wang, thanks largely to the pills you had obtained through exchanges with the Flame Flame Sect and the payment Xiao Huo had given you.
After your cultivation improved, you attempted to refine a seventh-tier artifact. Your first attempt failed, but you felt that success was not beyond your reach. Unfortunately, you lacked sufficient materials.
At the end of the year, you finished gathering the materials again. Your second attempt at refining a seventh-tier artifact succeeded, and you became a seventh-tier artifact refiner.
Meanwhile, Xiao Yan broke through to the Sixth Stage of Dou Qi.
Your standing in the Flame Flame Sect rose. As one of its only two seventh-tier artifact refiners, your status was second only to the sect master, the supreme elder, and the First Elder, an early eighth-tier Alchemist.]
[Year forty-five: Relying on your astonishing talent for artifact refining, you successfully created the Artifact Formula for a seventh-tier Charged Medicine Cauldron.
At the same time, a sudden idea struck you: replace beast flames with heavenly flames, allowing anyone using a Charged Medicine Cauldron to use Fire Cloud Water Flame when refining pills.
You thought the idea feasible and attempted to refine it many times. After two and a half months, you finally succeeded.
You began selling the heavenly flame version of the Charged Medicine Cauldron, causing a sensation throughout the world of alchemy. Even eighth-tier Alchemists came to buy your Medicine Cauldrons.
With the proceeds from selling Medicine Cauldrons, you found an eighth-tier Alchemist to refine a pill that could improve your talent, and your talent increased.
That same year, Xiao Yan broke through to Ninth Stage Dou Qi.]
[Year forty-six: You had someone refine a dose of Qi Gathering Powder for Xiao Yan, and he successfully broke through to Dou Zhe.
After Xiao Yan broke through to Dou Zhe, you taught him an Early Earth Tier fire-attribute cultivation method.
Your memories did contain cultivation methods above Early Earth Tier, but Xiao Yan could not practice them at present. Early Earth Tier was his limit.
That same year, Xiao Huo returned, having prepared three cultivation methods for Xiao Yan-High Xuan Tier, Early Earth Tier, and Low Heaven Tier-only to learn that you had already prepared one for him.
Xiao Yan, who had become a Dou Zhe at six, possessed truly outstanding talent, terrifying enough to astonish even you. Even more shocked, Xiao Huo sighed that he might have no chance of becoming a Dou Di, but Xiao Yan very well might!
Yet after some hesitation, Xiao Huo still chose not to stay and train Xiao Yan.
Perhaps it was because of his constitution, which grew stronger with every battle, or perhaps it was his naturally belligerent disposition. He could no longer stop; only constant battle could satisfy him.
All you could do was urge him to take care.
You began training Xiao Yan and asked whether he wanted to become an artifact refiner. Xiao Yan declined, having no interest in it, but he asked you to teach him the Fire Control Technique, which would help him in battle. In his bones, he had also inherited some of Xiao Huo's belligerence, though it was not as severe.]
[Year fifty: News of Xiao Huo's death arrived. In order to break through to Half-Saint, he had challenged a Dou Sheng with his cultivation at Nine Revolutions Peak Dou Zun. He was crippled in one move and killed in three.
Your emotions were complicated. All you had confirmed was that Xiao Huo was indeed not the first Dou Di of the Xiao Clan who would establish the clan in the future.
Perhaps Xiao Yan was? Or perhaps Xiao Yan was not either? It did not matter. You did not care.
You focused on improving yourself. Over these years, your cultivation had already risen to Dou Emperor, consuming considerable resources, but thanks to refining artifacts, you were not poor in the least.
Under your training, Xiao Yan's cultivation had also broken through to one-star Dou Ling. He was simply a monster, and you suspected it would take him only a few years to surpass you.
Xiao Yan felt somewhat saddened by Xiao Huo's death, but that was all. In his eyes, you were the one who filled the role of a father.]
[Year fifty-two: Xiao Yan broke through to Dou Emperor. Even with you pouring resources into him without reservation, it was still inconceivable.
Even now, you yourself were merely a Dou Emperor.]
[Year fifty-three: You broke through to Dou Zong. Your rate of advancement was already extremely fast, but Xiao Yan was even more terrifying. In the latter half of the year, he also broke through to Dou Zong, drawing level with your cultivation.
The only advantage you now had over Xiao Yan was your status as a seventh-tier artifact refiner.
By now, both your cultivation and your Fire Control Technique met the requirements for refining eighth-tier artifacts, but without Spirit Realm soul power, you could not refine them.
Artifact refining was like alchemy: the eighth tier was a dividing line. A Spirit Realm soul was necessary to infuse spirituality into the object during refinement.
Fortunately, you had a soul cultivation method in your mind and had been practicing it all along. Your soul power was not far from breaking through to the Spirit Realm.
That same year, Xiao Yan said he wanted to venture out to temper himself. You felt that thirteen was still too young, but his Dou Zong cultivation left you speechless, so you could only agree.]
[Year fifty-five: Your soul power broke through to the Spirit Realm.
You naturally refined an eighth-tier artifact, becoming an eighth-tier artifact refiner.
Your standing in the Flame Flame Sect rose once again, and you became one of its four core members.
You gained something of a name throughout the Central Plains.
That same year, you heard that a monster had appeared in the outside world, someone who often defeated stronger opponents. With cultivation at high-star Dou Zong, he could slay low-star Dou Zun opponents above his level. He was truly terrifying.
After making a few inquiries, you learned that this person was Xiao Yan. You had a feeling that this was just as expected.]
[Year fifty-six: Xiao Yan returned. His cultivation had broken through to Dou Zun-a rate of advancement that made one's scalp prickle.
He said he had merely encountered a few opportunities and gotten lucky.
You had no words in reply.
He brought you a gift, a spirit fruit of an extremely high grade. After eating it, your talent improved once again, making you very happy.
Looking at him, you could not help recalling how he had pooped as a child, and you shook your head with a laugh.
You felt that having a child like him in this life meant you had not lived in vain.
You and Xiao Yan talked about what had happened during your years apart.
Your life had been very ordinary. Aside from refining artifacts, you had created new Artifact Formulas.
By contrast, Xiao Yan's life over the past few years had been extraordinarily colorful. He had experienced many battles, obtained many opportunities, and even had a few romantic interests, though nothing had happened because he was too young.
Among them, one girl named Gu Yue'er stood out. She was also extremely talented and very fond of battle. Both a rival and a friend to Xiao Yan, she got along with him exceptionally well.
You kept feeling that this girl named Gu Yue'er might be the Gu Clan's first Dou Di.
There was no reason, only intuition.]
Before you continue