Chapter 23 Lost Deep within the Mountains
Half a month later.
Deep within the mountains, Yao Chen and Feng Xian had completely shaken off any pursuers. But at the same time they had become completely lost.
Feng Xian was looking at Yao Chen in a daze. He had finally recognized Yao Chen; wasn't he that beggar he had treated to a meal that day?
But at this time he also bitterly laughed inside. It appeared his small act of kindness had truly sowed a great karma for him. Otherwise how could a skilled alchemist like Yao Chen choose to help the Feng family in their time of crisis?
However… in the end, the Feng family had implicated him.
Suddenly Yao Chen stopped. Another mouthful of black blood was spit from his mouth and his expression froze slightly. Sitting down, he had to consume several medicinal pills before once more suppressing the green seed in his chest.
"You… are you ok?" Feng Xian nervously asked. That Dou Wang's killing blow had repeatedly flared up over this half a month, and the times their pursuers had almost caught them before were also because of the aura it was emitting from Yao Chen's body.
"I'm fine." Yao Chen smiled indifferently. The wood attribute energy wasn't necessarily completely a bad thing for him. Although it wreaked havoc in his body, with the Triple Flower Agglomerating Flame Technique constantly refining the green seed it also let him absorb a great deal of the wood element's life energy for his own, making his body more powerful.
Originally Yao Chen had burnt through his potential. Only through two years of nourishment and the medicinal bath had he recovered. But he was still a bit away from a complete recovery. He would need to continue the medicinal bath for years before reaching the state he should have been at.
Now with the seed in his body, it let this process shorten. The life energy refined from it was hundreds of times more effective than the medicinal bath.
The only drawback was that there was a very real possibility he would at some point be unable to block the seed's destructive power, and at that time he would die for sure.
But without breaking something down, you couldn't rebuild something better. Yao Chen no longer continued to place much thought onto this danger. Without paying a price, how could he get revenge?
At this time he was sitting lotus style against a large tree, his hands lightly touching the ground. A great deal of green mist was slowly spit out from every single one of his pores. This was the nature qi from the green seed. The surroundings plants were all affected and began to wildly grow. This was the wood element's rapid growth ability, but this kind of growth wasn't a good thing, but a completely destructive one!
In just a moment that wildly growing vegetation used up all its vitality and withered away.
A red light appeared over Yao Chen's face. This was the Triple Flower Agglomerating Flame Technique's Dou Flame. He suppressed the destructive energy trying to destroy his body while refining the seed's nature qi, slowly expelling that destructive energy out of his body while keeping the vigorous life energy.
This energy had come from a Dou Wang expert, so it was extremely vast to Yao Chen. At the same time, the green seed's wood element secrets were also gradually revealed to Yao Chen under the Triple Flower Agglomerating Flame Technique's refining. This was a kind of essence energy that was the core of the Mu family's techniques.
Another mouthful of black blood was spit of his mouth, but this time he smiled as it also contained a couple green strands in it. That was a sign that the seed had begun to be refined apart. If he continued like this then it should be completely refined into life energy in just a few more days. Perhaps in just a short time he would be able to break out of the Dou Shi realm and become a true Da Dou Shi, no longer requiring the Violet Flame Pill or the Peak flame Pill to forcefully increase his power.
Yao Chen stood up and looked at the worried Feng Xian, smiling. "Let's go."
"Yes."
Feng Xian nodded respectfully.
"I'm younger than you, so there's no need to be so courteous." Yao Chen patted Feng Xian's shoulders. "We're both people who have been sunk down from the heavens. In the future we can call each other brother."
"I…." Feng Xian opened his mouth, not expecting Yao Chen to say something like this. Truthfully his goal had always been very pure - he wanted to wait around as protection for Yao Chen until his wounds were healed and then return to Peak Martial City…
"You want to return to Peak Martial City, I know. However I want to tell you a story, a story about a declining branch family of the Yao clan. A story about how a Yao clan disciple was expelled out of the clan…"
An hour later, Feng Xian had finished listening to Yao Chen's tale. His mouth was wide open and he was in a daze. "You're from the Yao clan…"
"Yes, my name is Yao Chen and I am the disciple in the story, the one expelled from the clan. I have a deep hatred and great enmity towards the punishment hall's chief, Yao Wangui. Yao Wangui's father is one of the most powerful and influential elders within the clan."
Feng Xian gulped. Such an enmity was something that could never be repaid.
"However I won't give up. As long as I'm alive, there's hope. There will come a day when I will definitely accomplish something that seems absolutely impossible now. Feng Xian, brother Xian, I hope you can become part of my strength, and I will become part of your strength. It's just a Dou Wang- this enmity can easily be repaid in less than ten years."
Just a Dou Wang?!
Hearing this, Feng Xian suddenly laughed, "What do you mean just a Dou Wang??? You… are nothing more than a Da Dou Shi!"
For a poor person without many resources to advance just from Da Dou Shi to Dou Ling was already like trying to cross a huge chasm, let alone Dou Wang!
But Yao Chen actually smiled slightly. "I'm just a Dou Shi. Right now I'm only around four or five star."
Feng Xian looked at Yao Chen with complete disbelief. Yao Chen was just a five star Dou Shi?!
To be able to survive a Dou Wang's attack required at least a Dou Ling's strength! That meant that even with a powerful medicinal pill that could temporarily let your break through classes, you required at least a Da Dou Shi's strength! Only then could you survive in the face of a Dou Wang's attack.
"You… how can you be a Dou Shi?"
"I'm an alchemist, so believe me."
Yao Chen took a deep breath. A person fleeing for his own life only had to care about himself. But now that he was dragging Feng Xian along with him, a fool who actually wanted to die, the difficulty in fleeing would increase a hundredfold now. He was extremely solemn, his mood becoming more reserved. When people became destitute they would change, and only through change could they progress.
Feng Xian looked at Yao Chen, his heart still filled with doubt. But now he had pushed it down. He might as well take each step one at a time. And it wasn't as if he actually WANTED to die, it was just that so much had happened and all he could think about was living and dying with his family. He was unwilling to greedily stay alive while the rest of his family went through this tribulation. Part of it was also that the opponent had a Dou Wang expert so he had also lost any hope of revenge. If there really was a chance of revenge, how could he possibly treat his life as nothing?
"What do you want to do now?"
Feng Xian subconsciously asked Yao Chen.
Yao Chen didn't have any set plans, however seeing his bewildered expression, Yao Chen knew he had to take charge. After thinking for just a moment he said, "Right now we're lost in the mountains. If we continue in the direction of the rising sun then we'll eventually get out. We can also collect some medicinal ingredients to refine into pills along the way.
Time did not wait. Like a shooting star, another month passed.
With a goal in his mind, a person could achieve things even he could not imagine. On their journey, Yao Chen and Feng Xian collected many medicinal ingredients, as well as encountering quite a few Magical Beasts that were guarding them. They ended up in several battles over the medicinal ingredients, and in quite a few them, life and death had been balanced upon a needle. But they both managed to staunchly survive. Those continuous battles also increased the speed at which Yao Chen refined the green seed.
Feng Xian also advanced during these battles at a surprising pace. The extermination of his family had actually opened his talent and after each battle, along with Yao Chen's medicinal pills, he advanced at a shocking pace.
But in comparison, Yao Chen's advancements were absolutely crazy. With the energy drawn from the green seed, the life energy in his body became more and more abundant and his strength rose accordingly, letting him reach the peak of a nine star Dou Shi.
Actually, Yao Chen's physical body, meridians, and Dantian had all already reached the level of peak Da Dou Shi with the effect of countless medicinal baths. Now that he was supplying his body with the energy it needed, it not only completely healed the burnt away potential from two years ago, it even let him advance continuously.
"I'm about to breakthrough to Da Dou Shi."
Yao Chen suddenly stopped.
Feng Xian's face tightened. There were many variables when breaking through a major class. Some people could succeed in one go without a hitch, but the majority would run into all sorts of troubles.
"I'll help protect you."
Feng Xian took a deep breath and firmed his resolve.
Yao Chen closed his eyes for a moment. His face scrunched and then he opened his eyes again. "Uh… there's no need."
"What?"
"I've already succeeding in breaking through. Right now I have the strength of a one star Da Dou Shi."
Feng Xian stumbled and almost fell. "What?!"
"Did you not hear me?"
"I heard you, but how is that possible?!" How could someone advance from nine star Dou Shi to Da Dou Shi with just a slight jolt?
No matter how smoothly it went, how could it be that easy?!
"It wasn't like it was that hard."
Yao Chem smiled indifferently. He had taken the Violet Flame Pill to gain the Da Dou Shi's class so many times that it was no longer a strange realm for him. Now that he had enough energy, it was natural for him to advance like that. It was as natural to him as when a baby is born and starts to breath.
It wasn't hard?! That was crazy in Feng Xian's mind.
"Let's go."
Yao Chen thought about it and turned, walking towards a different direction."
"Wait, where are we going?"
"Now we can go get that Monkey Germ Seven Star Wood."
"There's a Seven Star Snake there… Can you beat it now?" Feng Xian felt as if he was falling behind on what was going on. Could it be that just after advancing to Da Dou Shi he had the confidence to beat a Magical Beast that he wasn't even a match for before?
"Can't beat it; the Seven Star Snake is a peak Dou Ling Magical Beast."
"Then…"
"Go wait somewhere safe. If I can't beat it, don't worry. As long as I can run then it's fine."
Yao Chen laughed. Oftentimes strength wasn't just a contest of head on force, but was a mix of all kinds of factors. Sometimes it wasn't required to fight an opponent head on. As long as you could cope with their attacks, you could reach your target, and using the least amount of energy obtain the greatest profit.
After he advanced, the two of them became able to harvest an ever wider range of medicinal ingredients, many amongst them rare and high grade ones.
Yao Chen didn't hold any of them back, and as soon as he got them he would refine the medicinal ingredients into pills. The pill formulas he used were all from his branch family. After all, his branch had an ancestor whose name had been carved onto the Clan Monument. Although they had declined, all kinds of pill formulas had been passed on. At this kind of time, Yao Chen didn't even care about his success rate. If he failed the refinement then he gained a rich experience. If he succeeded then he would have a life saving trump card during battle.
Perhaps he was infected with Yao Chen's spirit, but with the assistance of the medicinal pills and the constant fights with Magical Beasts, Feng Xian had continuously advanced, reaching the nine star Dou Shi realm in just two months.
"I seemed to have grabbed onto something."
After a battle, the two of them were walking out of a Magical Beast's territory with a couple more medicinal ingredients. Feng Xian spit out some blood, his body showing signs of also advancing to Da Dou Shi.
If you didn't quickly advance while fighting constantly then the only result would be your death.
"Why do I feel like we keep going deeper into the mountains? A month ago we could still see signs of humans, but now there's fewer and fewer signs of trails." Feng Xian wiped the blood of his mouth. Taking a couple healing medicinal pills from Yao Chen, he once more expressed his opinion that they were lost. "Did we go the wrong way?"
"I don't know, but even so, we should keep going forward."
Yao Chen smiled bitterly, however they hadn't run into any troubles in any case. Over these two months he had become a three star Da Dou Shi, and most importantly, after constantly refining medicine on his own, his alchemy art slowly transformed to become one that only he understood. It could be said his alchemy technique had already distanced itself from the Yao clan's foundation to become one that was entirely his unique to himself. Of course it was still in its fledgling state, but each powerful alchemist had their own kind of alchemy that suited only themselves.
As for Feng Xian, he might appear to be lacking in comparison, but if placed in the rest of the world, to be able to reach the point of being about to advance to Da Dou Shi in just two months was a speed that would make him a genius amongst geniuses.
At this time, over half a year had passed since the tragedy of the Feng family, while Yao Chen had left the Yao clan for almost a year. Deep within the mountains, the two of them mutually supported each other, building a true brotherly camaraderie.
In order to help Feng Xian advance to Da Dou Shi, Yao Chen used his full effort. The medicinal pills the clan school's elder had given to him were plentiful and not stingy in the slightest. It allowed him to save much time and effort, and he prepared medicinal baths for Feng Xian many times.
Feng Xian's innate talent was actually only acceptable and not top class. However with Yao Chen's help, his innate gifts changed; his meridians, his Dou Qi, and all his potential slowly became stronger under the effect of the medicinal baths.
Feng Xian could also sense that his innate talent changing. A couple of his family's techniques that he couldn't understand before were all mastered by him now skillfully and easily. He was very clear on the fact that this was all only because of Yao Chen's help. In fact, he began to listen and obey everything that Yao Chen's said on default.
Another month passed and their clothes had become rags due to the continuous battles, making them look like savages. Eventually they had to use tree bark and leaves to make new clothes.
"Do you feel that recently the Magical Beasts we face have become stronger and stronger? And we seem to be running into more and more beasts that have already gained intelligence?" Yao Chen frowned and felt that something was wrong.
"I dunno… I'm a bit hungry." Feng Xian had nothing to say. In terms of experience in the wild, he had even less experience than Yao Chen.
"It's about time for us to find somewhere to stay the night." Yao Chen looked up at the sky and nodded. "Let's find a place and then eat."
There were many dangers during the night deep in the forest. Many terrifying Magical Beasts would prowl during the night, and fighting at nighttime wasn't suitable for humans.
After searching for a short time they found a cave on the side of a cliff. It was very quiet, and beside the cave was a cold pool.
Yao Chen laughed, "We can start the medicinal bath again."
It wasn't easy to take the medicinal bath deep within the mountain forests. First of all they had to find a water source, which wasn't common. Furthermore the medicinal baths required a great deal of time to prepare them, especially a couple medicinal waters which required to stew for several days before being used.
With a cave, they could stay for several days.
Feng Xian nodded, also agreeing that it would be good to rest for a while.
After eating, the two of them set up alarm mechanisms all around the cave before starting to prepare the medicinal bath.
Yao Chen started to refine the medicinal pills required for the bath while Feng Xian divided the new medicinal ingredients they had gathered and prepared them in order for the bath. Due to a lack of tools used for collecting and storing medicinal ingredients, the pills had to be refined as quickly as possible or the ingredients' medicinal nature would quickly fade. If that happened, the quality of the medicinal pills refined from them would sharply fall and a precious treasure would become trash.
Yao Chen quickly refinished refining the pills required for the medicinal bath and switched to refining other pills. He didn't have exact portions of medicinal ingredients to use, but he also wasn't following the pills formulas he was used to exactly. He used his bold imagination to perform all kinds of tests, completely surpassing what he had learned before. Through these experiments of his, his alchemy gradually transformed…
Everytime he started refining, Yao Chen's alchemy skill would quickly rise. Even in the Yao clan there couldn't possibly this many medicinal ingredients for you to experiment with. If someone in the clan wanted to get enough medicinal ingredients for experiments like he was doing, they probably had to become at least a fifth tier alchemist before they would let them do so.
As for Yao Chen's current level, he hovered between refining third tier and fourth tier medicinal pills. But in terms of the standard, he was most likely only between a second and third tier alchemist. It was only with the help of the various alchemy secrets passed down in his family that he managed to refine pills that were higher tier than his level. In fact, refining medicine above his level was already a normal state for him.
A whole day passed as he experimented with alchemy. Feng Xian wasn't idle during this time. He continuously used a warm flame to heat two stoves of medicinal water, continuously adding the medicinal bath's powders to them and occasionally adding in more water. The medicinal bath this time required a full day and night of simmering the medicinal liquid. Only then could you enter with the corresponding medicinal pills.
Yao Chen now finished up with the last medicinal ingredient and a burst of black smoke rose into the air. That precious medicinal ingredient hadn't managed to be refined into a pill, but he had created a green colored poison pill. Scraping off a trace and examining the nature of it, he found it had an extremely dense cold poison. Within fifteen minutes it could kill someone from shivers.
Yao Chen sighed. Originally he had wanted to refine a pill to resolve accidental flare-ups. He hadn't expected to end up forming a cold poison ball.
"Have you finished refining? Shouldn't we start the medicinal bath?" Feng Xian was looking forward to the medicinal bath, as every time he could clearly feel his innate talent changing and his body becoming stronger. Although his Dou Qi's class didn't advance, his body had already entered into a higher level.
Yao Chen stretched as he was tired, but that kind of exhausted state was actually perfect for this medicinal bath. Nodding his head, he took out two pills that complemented the medicinal bath. "Let's start."
The two of them began to circulate their Dou Qi. Sitting within the roiling medicine bath, their Dou Qi blocked the high temperature of the water, but the medicinal energy continuously flowed into their Dou Qi. Then the energy followed their Dou Qi to enter their meridians, Dantians, and throughout their body.
With the invasion of the medicinal energy came an intense pain from the deepest part of their bones. It was as if each inch of their bones was being crushed.
Yao Chen and Feng Xian had already experienced such a medicinal bath before, so they didn't even let out a sound at this point.
But, this was just the beginning!
Following the intense pain deep within their bones came a terrifying pain of having their very soul torn apart! It was as never-ending blows continuously struck them to their core. This was such a profound pain that it simply could not be ignored and could not be withstood. All you could hope to do was endure, endure, and endure some more. If you were unable to entire, then you would blow up; and not just your body would explode, but even your mind would disintegrate!
"AHHH… hmph, this pain is nothing! Like a light drizzle!"
"Surrender? How could I surrender at such a weak level!"
Feng Xian was angrily shouting, doing his best to resist. But while he was putting in his full effort, he inadvertently glanced at Yao Chen and almost really did explode…
Yao Chen was just calmly sitting in the water, his Dou Qi swirling in an extremely organized way and consciously absorbing the medicinal energy from the bath.
"You… it doesn't hurt?"
"It hurts."
Yao Chen blinked and coolly responded.
"Then why aren't you screaming?" Feng Xian grabbed his head painfully.
"Why do I have to scream?"
"Cause it hurts!"
"Ah, I'm already used to it."
"Used to it… what crap! It's so painful I want to die!!!"
No matter how many times he experienced it, Feng Xian could not understand how Yao Chen could be so indifferent to the pain. A pain that could practically kill him was as normal and nothing to Yao Chen as an evening meal. He even doubted whether Yao Chen was even human. Could it be that he was Magical Beast in human form?
The medicinal fragrance spread throughout the forest with the wind, becoming fainter the further it travelled. However, just below this breeze was a pangolin-armored small demon crawling forward. Its huge nose was pointed to the air, sniffing constantly, and the extremely faint medicinal fragrance could not escape from his nose. With just a couple sniffs it detected several precious medicinal ingredients within the smell.
"Medicinal ingredients that were refined together into a medicinal pill… an alchemist! I must tell master!"
The pangolin-armored demon was strong and began to dig into the ground. Using its innate strength, it disappeared into the ground in an instant.
Fifty miles from there was a huge mountain. At its foot were countless medicinal fields with all kinds of medicinal ingredients planted into it. Spiritual energy was extremely dense, and a strange kind of energy restricted it to the fields, not letting the slightest amount of it escape. It was obvious an expert had set up some kind of Dou Formation that could bind spiritual energy, allowing the medicinal ingredients to be nourished by the energy.
A bit higher up the mountain were humans doing manual labor, constructing a huge palace. By carefully looking you would be able to tell that these humans were all cultivators that were Da Dou Shi! And now they were enslaved, doing the work of ordinary people. And despite that there was no one who seemed to be overseeing them at the moment, not one of these experts tried to escape.
A fishy wind suddenly blew over and a distinct Dou Qi flowed over. A huge demonic bear appeared, and roared at them. It seemed as if it was about to charge at those builders when suddenly the sound a whip stopped him. A pretty little girl suddenly appeared on the huge bear's head and she chided, "Stupid bear, these people are ours. If you dare mess around, tonight's dinner will be bear claws! If you mess around too much then it will bear guts! Get lost!"
The huge bear shook his head and retreated a couple steps.
The little girl fell to the ground and waved her hand towards one of the human Da Dou Shis. "Don't be afraid, I'll protect you guys. Right, as long as you build me a huge palace I will definitely make sure to reward you guys and send you back to some human city. This has already been agreed upon."
The humans squeezed out an unhappy smile. Why did they have to capture experts like them to build such a palace? It would have been better to gather some ordinary people who were used to building things. That would also increase the speed. But considering that the last time someone said something they were crushed flat by the huge bear, they could all only smile back and not allow the slightest resentment to appear on their face.
"Excellent! Oh? Little Armor is back. You guys continue."
The little demon girl jumped up and clawed at the sky. When she touched the Dou Formation's net, a Yin-Yang symbol appeared and spun. The pangolin-armored demon appeared wriggling out of it.
"Where are the medicinal ingredients?" She spread her hands at the demon, wanting something.
The pangolin shook his head and was slapped by the little demon girl. "If you haven't got the medicine then why have you returned!?"
It was a bit brutal, but everyone knew that Demon Valley's little demon master had been in a bad mood recently. For some reason she had actually went out to capture a couple human experts to build a house. A house! They were demons, and demons had to live in a demonic cave to get demonic energy! What house?!
Moreover she always took human shape recently and always spoke the human race's language which was unlike her. But no one dared contradict her at this time.
"An alchemist! I found an alchemist!" The pangolin demon quickly reported with the human tongue.
As expected the little demon girl immediately became joyful and waved her hand. "Quick bring me over to capture… no, invite him over."