On the riverbank, the boy crouched alone, holding a pitch-black ring.
"Honestly, I really want to beat you to death."
"Back on the Dou Qi Continent, you sucked my Dou Qi dry and turned me from a genius into trash."
"I accepted that!"
"But damn it, I transmigrated to the Douluo Continent, and you still followed me here for dear life. What the hell is that about!?"
"Are you some ghost haunting me to death!?"
Faced with Xiao Yan's hostile gaze, Yao Lao felt somewhat ashamed.
He smiled awkwardly. "Little fellow, there's no need to be so furious."
"Isn't it just three years of Dou Qi and level-ten Innate Soul Power? I'll repay you for every bit of it in the future!"
Xiao Yan's mouth twitched. Suppressing his anger, he said, "Repay me? I'll be dead in a month!"
Suddenly, Xiao Yan's expression softened. He rubbed his hands and smiled. "Could it be that you have a way to save me?"
"Under normal circumstances, you certainly would die."
"Then what the hell are you talking about!?"
Yao Lao choked on his own spit and smiled apologetically. "That's only under normal circumstances. There are abnormal circumstances too."
Xiao Yan's eyes shifted, a glimmer appearing in them.
"How so!?"
Yao Lao stroked his beard as he stood, looking every bit an immortal sage.
"As I see it, this Douluo Continent is, in essence, no different from our Dou Qi Continent!"
"One cultivates Dou Qi, the other Soul Power. In essence, they're the same!"
"Stop!"
Xiao Yan looked up and said speechlessly, "Could you have some respect for the one month I have left? Make a long story short, and a short story even shorter. Just tell me what I should do!"
"Get stronger!"
Yao Lao said categorically, "The poison in you isn't even fit to carry my Bone Spirit Cold Flame's shoes."
"The only reason I can't save you is that your body is still too weak to withstand the baptism of my Heavenly Flame."
"As long as you're strong enough, my Heavenly Flame can enter your body and obliterate the poison!"
Xiao Yan's eyes flickered, and a trace of hope appeared.
"How strong do I need to be?"
Yao Lao blinked and said vaguely, "At least a Soul Scholar, which means a level-ten Soul Master!"
Seeing how uncertain Yao Lao looked, Xiao Yan felt like he was about to cough up blood.
"Help me reach Soul Scholar within a month and drive out the poison."
"Then we'll call it even for you draining me dry before. How about it?" Xiao Yan asked tentatively.
"Is surviving all you want?"
"Don't you want to get stronger? Don't you want to make that Tang San pay his blood debt in blood?"
Xiao Yan rolled his eyes and sneered without speaking.
"Hmm? Don't tell me you don't yearn to become an expert?"
"Now that I know why my Soul Power disappeared, I believe my talent will let me surpass Tang San."
"When that happens, I'll naturally have my revenge."
Yao Lao shook his head and said softly, "You underestimate that child named Tang San far too much."
"Your talent is indeed exceptional, but that Tang San is no ordinary person either."
"That child's origins are probably like ours."
Xiao Yan's pupils contracted. "He's from the Dou Qi Continent too?" he asked in disbelief.
"No." Yao Lao shook his head.
"It couldn't be such a coincidence. I'd guess he's from another world."
Yao Lao suddenly smiled. "You're already ten levels behind him. Catching up to him would be hard enough, so how could surpassing him be easy!?"
"When all's said and done, isn't it all your fault, you old bastard!?" Xiao Yan's face darkened again, and he could barely stop himself from cursing.
Yao Lao spread his hands.
After a long while, Xiao Yan sighed. "After saying all that, I suppose you must have a way?"
"Naturally."
"Go on, then. What are your conditions?" Xiao Yan knew the old fellow must have been aiming for this from the start.
"Take me as your master!"
"After all these years, I've come to know that you're a kindhearted child. So I truly do intend to take you as my final disciple."
Yao Lao spoke sincerely, leaving Xiao Yan a little unaccustomed to it for a moment.
All that buildup
just to take me as your disciple?
"A master for a day is a father for life!" Yao Lao saw through the little scheme in Xiao Yan's heart and immediately put an end to his plan to take revenge once he had learned his skills.
"So you're saying you want to be my dad?" Xiao Yan curled his lip helplessly.
"If that's how you want to think of it, I don't mind." Yao Lao smiled and rubbed his hands.
In the end, Xiao Yan respectfully performed the ceremony to take the old man before him as his master.
He observed every formality. Although Xiao Yan was usually free-spirited, he didn't treat the occasion carelessly.
"You're sincere in taking me as your disciple, and I'm sincere in accepting you as my master!"
Xiao Yan knelt on the ground and paid Yao Lao several deep obeisances.
Yao Lao helped him up and nodded in satisfaction, a touch of warmth appearing in his eyes.
"To think that I, Yao Chen, would come to another world and finally gain a disciple!"
He pulled Xiao Yan up and laughed. "From now on, whether it's Zhang San, Tang San, Wang Da, or Li Si, they're all dogshit!"
"I'll make sure you become someone whose name goes down in the annals of the Douluo Continent's history!"
His mouth twitched.
If Yao Lao's origins hadn't been so mysterious, Xiao Yan would have thought he'd taken a lunatic as his master.
Drawing a small breath of cold air, Xiao Yan shook his blackened palm. "Never mind going down in history or that dogshit Tang San for now."
"Your good disciple only has twenty-nine days and twenty hours left to live."
"No matter!"
The smile slowly faded from Yao Lao's face, and he said solemnly:
"Do you know your master's background!?"
"A juicer? Or a vampire?"
"Pah!"
"I'll give you a hint. The world calls me Yao Lao." Yao Lao stroked his beard, putting on the air of an otherworldly expert.
"Yao Lao, so you were a fake medicine peddler all along!"
Xiao Yan slapped his thigh!
"How come you little brat can't say a single nice thing?" Yao Lao was speechless.
"Let me tell you, your master is an alchemist!"
Hearing this, Xiao Yan froze.
People on the Douluo Continent might not have had any concept of alchemists.
But on the Dou Qi Continent...
Alchemists were gold among men, walking hot commodities.
"You're actually an alchemist!?"
An alchemist made medicine!
Didn't that mean he could cure the deadly poison in Xiao Yan's body!?
Xiao Yan's shocked and ecstatic expression pleased Yao Lao greatly.
The old man twirled his beard and smiled. "The real thing, guaranteed. I cheat neither young nor old!"
"What tier of alchemist are you? Are you confident you can cure the poison that little thief Tang San used?" Xiao Yan asked uncertainly.
The lousy old man in front of him clearly looked thoroughly shady.
How did he look anything like an alchemist!?
"What tier? Hehe, I can't remember." Yao Lao said casually, "Anyway, the poison in you is child's play."
Xiao Yan jumped for joy.
But then he frowned again.
"Didn't you tell me earlier that I'd die if I didn't reach level-ten Soul Scholar within a month?"
Yao Lao scratched his head. "Did I say that!?"
"You old bastard!"
"So you were setting a trap for me from the start!"
Looking at the furious Xiao Yan, Yao Lao chuckled. "I was just afraid you wouldn't accept me as your father and master."