[You learned that Xiao Yan had been slain, and felt bereft.
Xiao Huo was merely a friend you had made. Though you got along well, you could not be considered particularly close.
But Xiao Yan was different. You had raised him yourself and taught him cultivation methods. He was no different from your own son.
That bond meant that even after years apart, your affection for each other had not diminished in the slightest.
You had always known that Xiao Yan was different from Xiao Huo. Though he also loved battle, he was extremely cautious. Even with hatred buried in his heart, he would never seek revenge before he was strong enough.
You had never imagined that he would seek revenge just after breaking through to Early Six-Star Dou Sheng. It was completely unlike him.
But the dead were dead. No matter how grief-stricken or disbelieving you were, you could not change the outcome.
From the day you learned of Xiao Yan's death, you changed completely. Every trace of your laid-back attitude vanished, and you committed yourself to a single goal: avenging Xiao Yan!
You began forging artifacts like mad, refusing yourself even a moment to catch your breath, trading the finished artifacts for medicinal ingredients and all manner of natural treasures that could improve your cultivation.
Like you, after learning of his father Xiao Yan's death, Xiao Yan began cultivating and studying alchemy like a man possessed.]
[Year 101: With resources piled upon resources, you broke through to Mid-Stage One-Star Dou Saint, while Xiao Yan broke through to five-revolution Dou Zun. This came from the vast quantities of pills and natural treasures you had absorbed.
You even took out some ninth-grade pill formulas from your memory to trade with a ninth-grade Xuan Dan alchemist, securing a chance to have him refine a ninth-grade Xuan Dan for you. You would have to prepare the ingredients yourself.
You began gathering the ingredients needed to refine a ninth-grade Xuan Dan.
At the same time, you spared no effort in nurturing Xiao Yan. Rather than spend vast resources hiring someone else to refine pills, you might as well nurture an alchemist of your own.
Xiao Yan did you proud. Not only did his cultivation steadily improve, but his alchemy did not fall behind at all. He made progress in every respect.]
[Year 102: You broke through to late-stage one-star Dou Sheng. Your constant artifact forging also improved your Artifact Refining skills.
Xiao Yan broke through to six-revolution Dou Zun.]
[Year 105: By continually absorbing and digesting resources, you broke through to Two-Star Dou Saint.
Xiao Yan broke through to nine-revolution Dou Zun, reaching the pinnacle of the Dou Zun realm.
You searched for a Bodhi Seed for him but failed to find one. Taking another path, you obtained some bodhi body transformation saliva and used heavenly flames to refine a Bodhi Seed from it. Though it contained many impurities, it could still be used to refine a pill.
Xiao Yan used the Bodhi Seed you gave him to refine a Bodhi Pill.
Xiao Yan took the Bodhi Pill and entered seclusion.]
[Year 106: Xiao Yan emerged from seclusion, having broken through to Half-Saint.
You finished gathering the pill ingredients and found that ninth-grade Xuan Dan alchemist, having him refine a ninth-grade Xuan Dan.
The refinement went smoothly, and you obtained a ninth-grade Xuan Dan. The alchemist took all the remaining ingredients.
You wanted an alchemist of your own more than ever.
At the end of the year, you swallowed the ninth-grade Xuan Dan. Relying on your terrifying control over fire, you forcibly refined this lowest-quality ninth-grade Xuan Dan bit by bit with fire cloud water flame.]
[Year 107: You remained in seclusion, refining the ninth-grade Xuan Dan.]
[Year 108: You continued refining the ninth-grade Xuan Dan in seclusion.
Xiao Yan broke through to Intermediate Half-Saint and attempted to refine a Ninth-Grade Treasure Pill. He succeeded, using the Heavenly Demon Puppet to withstand the black devil lightning.
He took the Ninth-Grade Treasure Pill, breaking through to high-level Half-Saint and increasing his chances of breaking through to Dou Sheng.
While you were in seclusion, he began refining pills for others in exchange for resources.]
[Year 109: You finally digested and absorbed the medicinal power of the ninth-grade Xuan Dan. Your strength improved in every respect, and your cultivation broke through to Early-Stage Three-Star Dou Sheng without the slightest instability. At the same time, your soul power broke through to the Heaven Realm late stage.
When you emerged from seclusion, Xiao Yan was refining a Ninth-Grade Treasure Pill. Seeing you emerge distracted him slightly, and he nearly failed. You stepped in to help stabilize the process, and the pill finally took shape.
He showed you the resources he had earned by refining pills during your seclusion, and was thoroughly satisfied after receiving your praise.
Xiao Yan took a pill and entered seclusion to absorb its medicinal power.
You began taking over from Xiao Yan, forging artifacts to obtain resources for the two of you.]
[Year 110: Through your and Xiao Yan's tireless efforts, your names spread far across the continent.
You might not have been the best at Artifact Refining and alchemy, but you were the hardest-working and most relentless in driving yourselves.
At the end of the year, you took a new pill formula and ingredients to that ninth-grade Xuan Dan alchemist again, hoping he would refine another pill for you. He agreed.
The first attempt at refining the ninth-grade Xuan Dan failed, but the second succeeded. The alchemist took the one remaining set of ingredients, and more than half your wealth was gone again.
At the end of the year, Xiao Yan emerged from seclusion, having broken through to Dou Sheng in one leap. More confident in refining Ninth-Grade Treasure Pills, he took over from you in obtaining resources for you both.
You swallowed the ninth-grade Xuan Dan and entered seclusion again.]
[Year 111: While refining pills for others to obtain resources, Xiao Yan also refined a Ninth-Grade Treasure Pill for himself.
You remained in seclusion, digesting the ninth-grade Xuan Dan.]
[Year 112: You successfully digested the ninth-grade Xuan Dan, raising your cultivation by one star to become a Four-Star Dou Sheng, entering the ranks of mid-level Dou Sheng.
You took over from Xiao Yan, letting him enter seclusion to swallow his pill, absorb and digest it, and improve his cultivation.
You stopped forging Ninth-Grade Treasure Artifacts and began forging Ninth-Grade Mystic Artifacts equivalent to Ninth-Grade Treasure Artifacts instead.
You prepared the materials and began forging. Your first attempt ended in failure.
Gritting your teeth, you still emptied your coffers for a second attempt. You finally succeeded, completely exhausting your Dou Qi and soul power, and spent a full three months recuperating.
At the end of the year, you sold the Ninth-Grade Mystic Artifact you had forged to an Emperor Clan in exchange for many resources, becoming wealthy again.
Gritting your teeth, you used these resources to forge another Ninth-Grade Mystic Artifact, succeeding on the first attempt.
Your talent for forging was that terrifying. As long as you successfully forged an artifact of a given grade, you could quickly establish yourself at that level.
You sold your second Ninth-Grade Mystic Artifact to the same Emperor Clan, obtaining many more resources.]
[Year 113: Xiao Yan emerged from seclusion, having broken through to late-stage one-star Dou Sheng, only a step away from Two-Star Dou Saint.
With no pills to absorb, you took your resources to that ninth-grade Xuan Dan alchemist again. Refining pills several times in just a few years had left him utterly exhausted. Even with ingredients delivered to his door, he refused outright.
He said that only you and Xiao Yan were so absurd. Your lifespans were clearly so long, yet you insisted on being this impatient.
Helpless, you could only approach the Emperor Clan to which you had sold Ninth-Grade Mystic Artifacts and have them act as intermediaries, putting you in touch with a new ninth-grade Xuan Dan alchemist.
You provided the ingredients and his fee. This ninth-grade Xuan Dan alchemist made three attempts before barely managing to complete the ninth-grade Xuan Dan.
You left with the ninth-grade Xuan Dan, but did not choose to absorb it yourself.
You understood that you had to find a way to nurture Xiao Yan into a ninth-grade Xuan Dan alchemist.
What Xiao Yan lacked now was neither his Fire Control Technique nor his alchemy, but the most fundamental thing: cultivation.
As long as he digested this ninth-grade Xuan Dan, he could definitely break through to a higher star level. Then, perhaps he would be able to refine ninth-grade Xuan Dan, and neither of you would need to commission others to refine pills anymore.
After learning your thoughts, Xiao Yan did not refuse the ninth-grade Xuan Dan. He accepted it and entered seclusion to absorb it.]
[Year 114: After Xiao Yan entered seclusion, you did not remain idle either. You forged another two Ninth-Grade Mystic Artifacts, working yourself like a beast of burden.]
[Year 115: You felt a deep exhaustion in your soul and decided to travel for a while.
You entered a secret realm and happened to obtain one portion each of darkness and light origins. Encountering such fine materials, you immediately began forging within the secret realm and produced two Ninth-Grade Mystic Artifacts.
You sold these two Ninth-Grade Mystic Artifacts to an Emperor Clan, obtaining many more resources.
The member of the Emperor Clan who handled the exchange asked why you worked so hard. Raising your cultivation with such eagerness for quick results was not a good thing.
You merely shook your head and said nothing more.]
[Year 116: Xiao Yan emerged from seclusion, having broken through to Mid-Stage Three-Star Dou Saint, while his soul power reached the Heaven Realm middle stage.
Your cultivation also naturally broke through to mid-stage Four-Star Dou Sheng.
Xiao Yan still lacked the foundation to refine ninth-grade Xuan Dan. Not only was his cultivation somewhat lacking, but his soul power was also insufficient.
For this reason, you had no choice but to take ingredients to the ninth-grade Xuan Dan alchemist again to have him refine a ninth-grade Xuan Dan.
This time, he used two sets of ingredients to refine one ninth-grade Xuan Dan and took the remaining set. Your wealth suffered another considerable loss.
You gave the ninth-grade Xuan Dan to Xiao Yan and had him enter seclusion again.
Enduring his boredom and frustration, Xiao Yan did not refuse and silently returned to seclusion.
You also felt somewhat stifled.
You had paid too much to raise your cultivation quickly, and both of you were showing signs of mental collapse.
You felt that you both needed a rest.]
[Year 117: Xiao Yan emerged from seclusion, having broken through to mid-stage Four-Star Dou Sheng, while his soul realm reached the Heaven Realm late stage. He was now in no way inferior to you.
After emerging, he moved to start refining pills again without a second thought, but you stopped him.
Looking puzzled, he asked what had happened.
You told Xiao Yan that you could not forget about revenge, but neither could you be too impatient. You both needed a proper rest.
Xiao Yan would not listen and still wanted to keep refining pills.
You sternly asked whether he would no longer listen to you, and he had no choice but to compromise.
You began traveling the continent.
Concealing your identities, you visited places throughout the continent, no longer pushing yourselves, and completely relaxed.]
[Year 118: During your travels with little Yan, you encountered the current chief of the Ancient Void Dragon Clan, a powerful late-stage Nine-Star Dou Sheng.
You visited Dragon Island as guests. As a Ninth-Grade Artifact Refiner and a Ninth-Grade Alchemist, you were treated with great respect.
You stayed on Ancient Dragon Island and made a deal with the Ancient Void Dragon Clan. They would give you half their resources to have you forge artifacts and refine pills for them.
Of course, it was mainly pills. The Ancient Void Dragon Clan relied on their powerful bodies and did not depend on artifacts.]
[Year 122: After finishing the pills for the Ancient Void Dragon Clan, you and Xiao Yan left Ancient Dragon Island with half the clan's resources and returned to the Flame Flame Sect.
Many years earlier, the Flame Flame Sect had already become your faction without anyone realizing it.
Of course, you did not acknowledge this. You merely lived there, still considering yourself an ordinary elder. You did nothing for the Flame Flame Sect, and the Flame Flame Sect never asked anything of you.
However, by relying on your and Xiao Yan's reputations, the Flame Flame Sect still gained considerable benefits. Both its sect master and supreme elder broke through to Half-Saint.
After returning to the Flame Flame Sect, you and Xiao Yan collected yourselves and resumed your life of relentless striving.
By now, Xiao Yan was a ninth-grade Xuan Dan alchemist in every sense.
You had also made great strides as a Ninth-Grade Mystic Artifact Refiner. Now, the only thing preventing you from becoming a Ninth-Grade Gold Artifact Refiner was your cultivation.
For this reason, Xiao Yan chose to first use the resources to refine ninth-grade Xuan Dan for you to improve your cultivation.
You had no objection to this choice.
Xiao Yan refined three ninth-grade Xuan Dan for you, leaving himself utterly exhausted.
You entered seclusion with the three ninth-grade Xuan Dan.]
[Year 125: You fully absorbed the three ninth-grade Xuan Dan, stabilizing your cultivation at early-stage Seven-Star Dou Saint and becoming a high-level Dou Sheng. In the process, your soul power also naturally broke through to Heaven Realm great perfection.
You now felt you could even forge Ninth-Grade Gold Artifacts, but your confidence was limited. You might even burn through the last of your strength just as you succeeded, as you had in the deployment before last. You chose to play it safe and continued forging Ninth-Grade Mystic Artifacts to improve your Artifact Refining skills instead.
During your years in seclusion, Xiao Yan had not remained idle either. He continued refining pills for others on the continent in exchange for resources, then refined those resources into pills in turn. He had now also saved up three ninth-grade Xuan Dan for himself.
After you emerged from seclusion, he took his turn as usual, entering seclusion with the three ninth-grade Xuan Dan.
You resumed forging Ninth-Grade Mystic Artifacts to gather resources for you both.
You often marveled that being born in a good era made improving one's cultivation much easier.
Your and Xiao Yan's rapid improvements in cultivation essentially relied on your Artifact Refining and alchemy skills, desperately refining pills to earn resources.
This model was only feasible in the current era, with its terrifying abundance of resources. In later ages, even with such powerful Artifact Refining and alchemy skills, there would be no resources for you to work with.
It would be nothing like this era, where resources were abundant enough to nurture several Dou Di.
The Dou Di who had killed Xiao Yan was merely one of the most unremarkable among them. Judging by star levels, he might only have been a mid-stage one-star Dou Di.
Once you and Xiao Yan both broke through to Dou Di, you could join forces and definitely slay that Dou Di on the spot!]
[Year 126: You forged several more Ninth-Grade Mystic Artifacts in exchange for resources.
On an otherwise ordinary morning, fluctuations of an immensely powerful aura suddenly came from the room where Xiao Yan was in seclusion.
As though he had swallowed the very finest Ninth Grade Golden Pill, Xiao Yan's cultivation broke straight through to Early-Stage Nine-Star Dou Sheng.
He emerged and met your eyes. Both of you looked utterly bewildered.
Just as you were puzzling over this, two very familiar figures appeared. They were actually Xiao Yan and Hu Yue'er.
What shocked you and Xiao Yan was that not only was Xiao Yan alive, but he had actually reached Dou Di cultivation!]
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