Chapter 2: Calamity and Fortune are Fickle
There was only one path towards the clan school at the top of the mountain. All the other paths had layers of control; without orders from above, it was the death penalty to enter from other routes.
During the walk up the path, Yao Chen was smoothly and quickly moving his Dou Qi throughout his body. Without a Qi method, the only way to do this was to use the Flame Foundation Skill to continuously maneuver the Dou Qi. At the moment, Yao Chen had a feeling that he was on the verge of advancing to the seven star Dou Zhe class.
This kind of feeling felt fantastic, but even with this kind of feeling, to actually advance was not such a simple matter. The Flame Foundation Skill was an outstanding technique that allowed the Yao clan disciples to stand above outsiders, allowing these disciples to be more sensitive when refining pills and to increase their Spiritual Perception, giving them many advantages when refining pills. While it had many benefits, its weak point was also very noticeable. If you were to use the Flame Foundation Skill to practice Dou Qi, every single advancement (including stars) would require an enormous price in precious materials.
It was only natural that with such a huge consumption came many benefits that made it worthwhile; at the time of advancement, one would absorb the precious materials' energy, and as a result, the spirit's sensitivity, the body's fire-wood attribute, as well as the Dou Qi's control and toughness would all receive a qualitative increase.
Within the Yao clan, around 70% of the clan members specialized in refining pills. Just randomly grabbing a group of Iron Guards would give you a number of tier 2 or tier 3 alchemists. Other than the fact that most of the clan members had fire-wood attributes, the effect of practicing the Flame Foundation Skill since childhood also had contributions to the number of alchemists.
Amongst his schoolmates at the school, Yao Chen would not be considered the most outstanding, however with a bit of a struggle he could manage to squeeze into the top ten. But just a couple of bad performances might cause him to fall down in rank.
Every grade at the clan school had almost one hundred disciples, and it had five grades, so there were almost five hundred disciples. Yao Chen's ranking was not considered remarkable, but it was high enough that the elders would not easily abandon their hopes for him.
Although the disciples were mostly from families that were either in poor conditions or had comparatively low talent, the clan school was run by elders who would not dare to slack off. The elders conscientiously followed the clan guidelines to teach every single disciple.
Today's lesson was a method on refining pills. In comparison, everyone was already very familiar with the Flame Foundation Skill, so when they saw that it was the teacher for refining pills, everyone's attention was immediately focused on him.
Yao Chen's eyes were brightly lit with attention; when it came to methods to refine pills, he was not entirely unfamiliar. His father could refine pills, and his family had a medicinal cauldron that his father attached great importance to. Every time Yao Chen saw that medicinal cauldron, his heart would have an urge to try it. His father told him that this was his innate talent due to the Yao clan's nature in his blood and veins. He even laughed, boasting that Yao Chen had an innate talent as an alchemist. Currently he was still very young; when he became older he would need skills, and work to make a living. If he studied pill refining methods he could become an instructor at the clan school.
The lesson on pill refining lasted for the entire session. A whole new world was opening before Yao Chen's eyes, all kinds of materials, their effects on flames, how they cause different kinds of reactions and have different kinds of mergers, and how they could have all kinds of uses and take form as medicinal pills.
The person in charge of teaching the lesson on the basics of pill refining was the head elder of the school, Yao Lan. Alchemy was the school's most important topic. Yao Lan already had ten years of experience when it came to teaching juniors the basics and would be unashamed to be called the clan's number one teacher. There was a saying that even the clan's sixth or even seventh tier alchemists were still inferior to him when it came to teaching the basics.
If a person was extremely powerful, it would only mean that person was extremely gifted; however if you managed to teach and raise an extremely powerful person that would be another matter. This was also the reason why Yao Huo did not just teach Yao Chen himself, and instead waited for the clan school's arrangements.
In the end he was right to do so; Yao Chen had an extremely large interest in alchemy, and under elder Yao Lan's teachings his mind started to become full of unlimited thoughts… Blood Stopping Pill, Blood Replenishment Pill….
"Ok, today's alchemy lessons will stop here, don't bite off more than you can chew. Once everyone returns home today, those of you who are able to can attempt to refine a Blood Stopping Pill. Bring it with you tomorrow; I will check your pills and give you some pointers.
Elder Yao Lan kindly laughed, this year's group of disciples had some pretty good saplings within it. Although in terms of Dou Qi they might not be able to compare to the talents within the direct bloodline who had access to abundant resources, but if they were to take the path of the alchemist then their innate gifts would not be much inferior. This path could lead them to a bright future. Comparing to all the elders within the clan, Yao Lan would only classify as being on the lowest level. However whenever he looked at these outstanding saplings, he felt that his sacrifice to be a clan school teacher was extremely worth it.
In the case that these disciples eventually obtained a high position in the clan in command of many strong practitioners, even if they never called him their master, he would always be the clan school's elder, and he would still think of them as giving his life meaning.
"Elder, why can the Cold Attribute Grass and the Seven Flames Grass combine together? Looking from their medical properties shouldn't they cancel each other out?" Yao Chen raised his and asked a question out of nowhere.
"Haha, Yao Chen, Yao Huo's son, right? To raise this question means that you were really listening to me and remembered what I said. Having a good memory as a foundation is a must for any successful alchemist. While the Cold Attribute Grass and Seven Flames Grass' properties mutually clash, our Yao clan has a special method to let them form an alternative merger… that's as far as I'll say about this, tomorrow I will precisely describe this situation. After everyone goes home you should carefully think about this problem. Tomorrow I will question you about it."
Nodding his head, Yao Lan was very satisfied. Originally he had actually been planning on bringing up this question before Yao Chen asked it. Now that he had a student who would actually ask it, it was even more true that with the right conditions, success will come naturally. After all, where water flows, a canal will naturally form.
As expected, there were several disciples who were innately talented who were originally staying quiet, but now they were blazing with a competitive spirit. With this competitiveness it was only naturally that their progress would be faster. Actually, Yao Chen was paying no attention to this competitiveness; his whole mind was completely focused on this completely new world of alchemy. He was completely unfocused on the following lesson on Dou Qi as he suffered, waiting to go home. When evening finally arrived and class ended, he quickly dashed home.
"Brother Chen, where are you going? We already said that we were going to go see what the Demon clan's little princess looks like…."
The fatty Luo Shu stretched out his hands as attempted to stop Yao Chen; that morning they had heard the news that the Sacred Demon of the Demon clan was bringing the Demon clan's little princess to pay a visit to the Yao clan. Apparently they came for some medicine. The depth of the Sacred Demon's strength was extremely tyrannical, but Yao Shu wasn't interested in that, he was much more interested in the demon clan's little princess. Had she shed her demonic nature or was her appearance more like a demonic beast? At the moment, Yao Chen's heart was completely focused on alchemy, he had long since forgotten about some Demon clan's little princess.
After he arrived home and greeted his mother, he immediately ran into the alchemy room in his house. After all, Yao Huo was a fourth tier alchemist, and although this rank would not be considered high in the clan, it was in no way weak. The alchemy room was always filled with many medicinal ingredients, sufficient to refine most medicinal pills of the third tier and below.
Previously he had not understood anything about alchemy, he had only learnt to recognize some medicinal ingredients from following around his father. Now with elder Yao Lan's teachings, Yao Chen was very impatient to start using his own hands to refine medicinal pills.
However he still did not forget to do his daily exercises, so he did his normal practice inside the alchemy room, completing three revolutions of his Dou Qi before switching over and igniting the medicinal cauldron. Returning to his original thoughts, he grabbed a bunch of different medicinal ingredients. Yao Chen's goal was to refine a Blood Stopping Pill which was the assignment given by elder Yao Lan. The first tier Blood Stopping Pill was one of the most common healing medicinal pills; other than major arteries being cut off and causing extreme blood flow, all other bleeding situations could be effectively and quickly resolved with this Blood Stopping Pill.
The Blood Stopping Pill was a very basic medicinal pill. The refining process was not completed; the important thing to note was that the refining flame required Dou Qi to control it, and using a 6 star Dou Zhe's strength was a bit difficult. Yao Chen had to completely exhaust all of his energy before he managed to refine one pill.
A whole furnace of medicinal ingredients resulted in just one pill, and the pill's colour had a couple black traces. It was very noticeable that the pill's toxicity was much too high. He didn't even need elder Yao Lan's appraisal to know that this pill was failure. Yao Chen blankly tried to carefully think back on the more obvious mistakes he had just made. Subsequently he sat back down cross legged and meditated, slowly recuperating his missing Dou Qi.
An hour's meditation later, his Dou Qi had finally recovered enough. Without another moment's hesitation, Yao Chen threw in a second batch of medicinal ingredients into the cauldron, revolving his Dou Qi to start refining. The ingredients for a first tier pill were not valuable in the Yao clan so Yao Chen was able to refine to his heart's content. This time the refinement was clearly more skillful, however there were still some obvious errors and deviations. The medicinal cauldron emitted a banging noise, opening and releasing three Blood Stopping Pills. In the midst of the pills' red color were some faint strands of black which were clearly some toxic elements, but compared to the first time the improvement was way too much. Yao Chen's eyes were bright as he operated his body's last remaining Dou Qi to very carefully move the medicinal pills from the cauldron into a porcelain bottle.
Yao Chen still wasn't satisfied with just that. Once again, he sat down cross legged and meditated to recover his Dou Qi. To him, the process of refining pills was way too fascinating. Feeling the medicinal pill under the control of his Dou Qi as it slowly took shape inside the medicinal cauldron was a truly fantastic feeling.
However, just when he was about to start his third refinement, his mother's voice came from outside.
"Yao Chen, time for dinner."
"Ok."
"Where's Luo Shu?"
"Ah, he went to go see the Demon clan's little princess."
Only now did Yao Chen remember his agreement with the fatty.
Yao Qing let out a laugh, so young but he still knew to go see beautiful women, the kids have really grown up, "How come you didn't go?"
"I forgot." Yao Chen scratched his head as he simple-mindedly replied.
This really gave Yao Qing a feeling of not knowing whether to be worried or happy, 13 years old was exactly when boys first awaken their love for girls, how could he actually manage to forget this kind of thing?
However, temporarily not needing to deal with girls could have him more energy for training, which was also a correct road.
"Mom, I'm done eating, I'm going to go practice… training."
Yao Chen finished eating with lightning speed, completely cleaning his plate. Just the time it took to speak a few sentences meant that he had less time for refining. Standing up, he disappeared like a wisp of smoke into the alchemy room.
This time Yao Qing really did get nervous. It seemed like his emotional IQ was extremely low? Apparently Yao Huo would have to talk to him less about training and more about what men should talk about.
To put it briefly, the whole reason why she ended up marrying him was all because of his clever tongue and he should really pass on this strong point to his son. If they don't prepare early then they'll be afraid of the future… after all, planning ahead and covering yourself before rain is fundamentally necessary. In the Yao clan, all the good girls were taken very early; if you were late you could only settle for some uglier ones.[i]
On his seventh refinement of pills, Yao Chen had already lost interest in the Blood Stopping Pill. He had already produced two batches of completely perfect Blood Stopping Pills meaning it was no longer challenging to him. The Energy Recovering Pill….
Suddenly, Yao Chen's mind thought of a medicinal formula that he had seen in his father's records of medicinal formulas. It could recover Dou Qi in a short period of time! Recover Dou Qi…. currently the main thing restraining his alchemy's efficiency was that he only had the Dou Qi of a six star Dou Zhe. If he could rapidly recover his Dou Qi, he would have even more time to practice his refining. Therefore his number one priority should be the Energy Recovering Pill!
After thinking about it, he prompty took action. He quickly meditated and adjusted himself. The Energy Recovering Pill's formula was run through his mind one more time.
Yao Chen had an exceptional memory. His ability to remember everything that passed by his eyes was one of the most basic abilities of any alchemist. For some people, this was an acquired talent that occurred when one's spiritual cultivation increased their Spiritual Perception; their ability to remember would naturally increase. However some people just innately had this ability. [ii]
As expected, his first batch of Energy Recovery Pills was a failure. Furthermore, it was a complete and total failure; he was unable to even condense the pill into a solid form. All of his failures were tossed aside, making a pile of medicinal waste.
Looking at the pile of medicinal waste, Yao Chen's whole body felt dumbfounded. He couldn't understand what went wrong; it felt like every step he took, he made an error. Other people, when faced with such a complete failure would let the problem go for a period of time before trying again. However, Yao Chen was not this kind of person. Instead, his body was filled with persistence, as "thumpthumpthump" as soon as his Dou Qi recovered he ran to the side and got more medicinal ingredients for the Blood Stopping Pill. "Puchi…."
Compared to a pill explosion occurring during condensing, this time no pill formed at all. Bursts of black smoke were being emitted from the top of the medicinal cauldron… Even the medicinal dregs were gone, only leaving an acrid, disgusting smell.
"Cough, cough…."
Yao Chen loudly coughed, he immediately activated the room's ventilation mechanism, causing black smoke to drift outside. His failure this time did not dissuade Yao Chen, but instead increased his thirst for success.
So it was this step that he did wrong, or to be more precise he had done it correctly but the degree to which he did it was insufficient.
Currently, Yao Chen was unaware but while a normal Energy Recovering Pill was only a first tier medicinal pill, the formula in his father's recordings had been improved and had entered the second tier. There was no way that the present him who had only just learned some introductory fundamentals to alchemy was capable of refining this pill. In addition, among the many steps to refine this pill were some that Yao Huo had not gone into extreme detail about how to perform them. Basically it was impossible for Yao Chen to succeed.
After refining till midnight, his body's Dou Qi would not longer recover and he felt that he could no longer catch his breath. Only at this time did Yao Chen finally let go of his obsession with refining pills. He had already over drafted his spirit and his perception towards the medicinal ingredients was already starting to feel vague and fuzzy.
With great difficulty, Yao Chen, who had greatly wasted many medicinal ingredients, had to helplessly stop and go shower. After which he ate one of the Body Refining Pills that his father frequently prepared for him. He lay down in bed, and as soon as his head touched the pillow he entered a very deep sleep.
However even in that deep sleep, Yao Chen's fingers were still faintly moving, as a slight trace of Dou Qi also came out of his body, and his movements made it clear that even in his dreams he was refining pills.
The second morning, Yao Chen didn't bring his completed Blood Stopping Pills. In his opinion, his refinement of the Energy Recovery Pill had been a complete failure, to the point where it was no longer about how many impurities were left in it, and instead he did not even manage to form the pill once.
Yao Lan was originally paying great attention to Yao Chen. Considering he had brought up the question of why the Cold Attribute Grass and Seven Flames Grass were able to merge, he should be very talented; maybe even the most talented within his class.
However when he saw that Yao Chen did not bring a Blood Stopping Pill, he became rather disappointed. Yao Chen's father Yao Huo was also one of the clan school's graduates and Yao Lan still faintly remembered that his talent as an alchemist was very outstanding. However, it was a pity that his talent in Dou Qi training was insufficient, and he did not manage to obtain any of the clan's precious resources, and without many resources he was overlooked and neglected. Although it was slightly unfortunate, the Yao clan had many rarely seen talents, and to overlook one was not a big harm; later on even more talents would appear.
Even if Yao Huo had been neglected, his family should still have an alchemy room and Yao Chen should still be able to refine a Blood Stopping Pill.
"A perfect pill, how many times did it take you to succeed?"
At the moment, Yao Lan had begun appraising everyone's pill, the first person was Yao Tong, who was the most talented in the class in terms of Dou Qi and was a seven star Dou Zhe. In fact, he had even selected a Qi method for him to practice in the future. "Elder, it took 3 times," Yao Tong respectfully replied.
"Not bad." Yao Lan lightly nodded his head. He did not have any more praises, and his gaze roved about.
"30% toxicity is barely passable. You should tighten your control, and at the time to separate impurities you should pay more attention to the temperature."
Basically all of the students had refined a batch of medicinal pills, even the worst one still brought a dark and swarthy failure of a pill. "Yao Chen, what about you?"
Ultimately, elder Yao Lan stood in front of Yao Chen. Although Yao Chen had not taken out any pill, but the caring Yao Lan couldn't help to ask him. Yao Chen lowered his head and replied, "I failed."
To Yao Chen, the Blood Stopping Pill and the Energy Recovery Pill were the same rank; rather than reporting success, if he reported his failure the elder might be able to give him a method to fix his failure.
"Where is the failure of the pill then, I'll help you figure out the reason." Yao Lan laughed, encouragingly saying, "Failure is not to be feared, you should only be afraid of losing confidence."
Yao Chen lowered his head even more, "Elder, I couldn't make the pill take shape."
"…." Yao Lan immediately become dumbfounded. This… how could this be possible? The pill didn't take shape? In his mind, Yao Chen talent in alchemy should be at least decent from his understanding. At the very least he shouldn't be much worse than Yao Huo in his youth.
"Cough, not to worry, don't lose faith, there will come a time when success comes naturally." Yao Lan lightly coughed as he encouraged. He switched topics to starting today's lesson on alchemy.
They were still on the introductory basics such as various medicinal ingredients' properties, how those ingredients react with another, remembering what occurs when basic ingredients merge, controlling the medicinal cauldron's temperature, using Dou Qi to control the materials inside the cauldron, how the pill takes form….
Although the clan school's elder on alchemy, Yao Lan, was only a fifth tier alchemist, if one were to discuss his ability to teach the fundamentals to children there would be hardly anyone in the entire Yao clan who was his equal. He had the ability to take the countless combinations that could appear from all of nature's blessings and explain it in a simple and clear way so that the children could easily absorb it.
At the beginning, Yao Chen was still feeling shameful about yesterday's failure, but listening to the lesson, he felt enlightened with pure knowledge[iii]. So there was actually such a method… so there's actually a way to decrease the expenditure of Dou Qi… and there's Dou Techniques to increase your control…. Assuming that someone had these techniques, the difficulty of refining would definitely decrease by not just a little bit, and in addition the pill's success rate would also increase by a lot. In the afternoon when the clan school just ended, Yao Chen was yet again burning with anxiousness as he dashed back home, itching to continue his alchemy.
This time, the fatty Yao Shu didn't even have time to completely spread out his arms or say anything before Yao Chen dashed off, slipping past him like the wind….
How did it turn out like this? How could the agreement to go see the little princess be so bluntly forgotten about? In reality, the princess ended up being extremely beautiful, and he had even managed to exchange words with her. He had also told her that today he would bring his friend to see her again… now this meant he had to break his promise….
But then again, meeting up with the princess on his own could also be pretty good, hehehe….
Yao Chen rushed home. His mother wasn't home but she left a note saying that she had left to go pick some herbs. Dinner had already been prepared during breakfast; it only needed to be put into a pot and heated.
This didn't cause Yao Chen any problems; he ate a couple mouthfuls and once again ran into the alchemy room, prepared his father's cauldron, and once again started to work on the Energy Recovery Pill. Using the new techniques really did make a huge difference. The cauldron's temperature shot up very quickly, but its drain on his Dou Qi was decreased by a lot. The medicinal ingredients were merging very smoothly inside.
With everything going smoothly, Yao Chen had a kind of intuition that this time his pill might actually be perfect, and under his Spiritual Perception he could also tell that the pill was really smoothly advancing in a perfect manner.
At the very last refining step, the medicinal cauldron suddenly started to emit a blood colored glow. The blood red glow seeped into the interior, and immediately started to contaminate the flames temperature. The glow appeared to act like Dou Qi, and entered into the merging medicinal ingredients. "BOOM…."
A huge booming noise! A cauldron explosion! CRACK! Yao Chen's face turned completely white, the enormous force of the cauldron explosion slammed onto Yao Chen, sending him flying into the wall. "Cough, cough, cough…."
After violently coughing a couple of times, Yao Chen felt that his body internal organs were unwell, so he swallowed a couple of yesterday's Blood Stopping Pills. The pill turned into a refreshing medicinal strength which seeped into his internal organs. Only then did he start to feel better. Yao Chen promptly ran back to the medicinal cauldron. This was one of his dad's most beloved possessions; right now he could only hope that the previous cauldron explosion didn't damage it.
However with just a glance, Yao Chen's previously pale face turned ashen. The medicinal cauldron had many shockingly deep cracks in it.
It's over....
This time he really was asking to be beat.
If one were to ask Lao Shu what he had most admired about Yao Chen, it was the fact that he had never had to have been hit by his father….
And actually, Yao Shu was the kind of kid that if you didn't hit him once within three days, he would start being disobedient, doing things like climbing up the roof and ripping off tiles. [iv]
Looking at the extremely deep cracks in the medicinal cauldron, Yao Chen could only numbly repeat "it's over, it's over."
However, for some unknown reason, other than feeling worried about being beat, a kind of ominous feeling starting rising in his heart. A rumbling noise!
Right at this moment, a burst of booming noises came from the plaza. Even with the alchemy room's sound proofing, there was no way to stop the very clear noise.
Yao Chen's heart violently jumped, as the ominous feeling became even stronger. He fixed himself up a bit and then very quickly climbed out of the mess and ran towards the sound.
As soon as he left the house he heard bursts of noisy, hoarse shouting. Running to the plaza, he saw a bunch of people grouped around each other.
"Yao Chen came out." "Yao Chen…."
Everyone who saw Yao Chen suddenly became quiet. The group of people unconsciously split open to form a path.
Rumbling….
Little Yao Chen's heart felt cold. His body was quiet as he weakly and slowly walked over. The ominous feeling gave him an image of a reality that he wanted to see the least.
Father, gentle, funny, the one who often caused his whole family to start laughing, that father who frequently lifted him onto his shoulder, that father….
At the moment, his father's face was completely pale, and his whole body was covered in blood as he lay on the ground with his eyes tightly shut. Luo Bing and all of his father's other brothers all had grief-stricken faces as they either walked or sat to the side where the held their heads and pulled their hair.
"Chen-er… we encountered…."
Luo Bing bit his lips. He couldn't form any words at the moment. As an Iron Guard, he had to accomplish many of the clan's missions, so he had to have preparations to sacrifice his life. He was prepared for such a thing long ago. But in the wake of such a cruel calamity, it really caused everyone to not know what to do, especially when they looked at Yao Chen's young and immature face.
"Looking at the wounds, it's clearly the work of the Hall of Souls…."
"Hush, this kind of thing can't be casually said."
"Sigh, what a pity. With Yao Huo's talent he should have become an alchemist, but he insisted on being an Iron Guard, this time he really got it."
"Looking at the wounds, even if he manages to survive with his life, in the future he'll end up being a cripple…."
"Shut up! What are you guys saying!" Yao Huo's brother immediately jumped, angrily stamping on the earth, creating a rumbling noise as they looked at that group of people.
"Don't be angry at us, it's not like we have any bad intentions. That's right, Yao Chen, where is your mother?"
"Right, right, right, where is Yao Qing?" This group of gossipers were all neighbours who lived nearby. Promptly realizing that their words were out of place, they stepped back a couple steps and swiftly changed the topic.
Yao Chen's whole body trembled. His father's body was lying on the ground. The sight of his blood…filled him with terror.
"Cough…."
Suddenly, Yao Huo's body shuddered, and his tightly closed eyes opened.
"Old Luo…."
"Old Huo, I'm here, right here."
"This familiar smell, did we arrive home?"
"Uh-huh, we arrived…."
"Hehe, Chen-er?
"DAD!" Hearing his dad call him, Yao Chen's tears finally fell, dripping all the way to the ground.
"Are you scared? A real man's tears… cannot easily fall."
"But, the blood… there's a lot of blood…."
Yao Chen promptly collected himself. His hand grabbed onto his dad, and only then did he notice that his father's pupils seemed to have no reaction. "Dad, your eyes-"
"It's just temporary blindness, not a big deal."
Yao Huo's cheek trembled slightly. To his side, Luo Bing could no longer control the pain in his heart. Two streams of tears rolled down his face. He knew, considering the extent of Yao Huo's injuries, to even be able to survive would be considered a miracle. Right now, every word that he said must bring him such an intense pain that he should only be able to speak short, intermittent sentences, and that would be with great difficulty. But every word that he said to Yao Chen was forced out in an extremely clear and coherent manner.
"Yao Huo, you should go rest…."
"I'm fine." Yao Huo laughed it off as he held Yao Chen's cheek. Yao Chen felt his father's hand gently stroke his cheek and tried very hard to hold back his tears.
"Dad… you're going to get better, right?"
"Hehe…." "Yao Qing's returned!"
Suddenly, a shout came out from outside the ring of people. The group opened up another path. Yao Chen lifted his head and saw his mom was still wearing her plain clothes and the herb basket as she ran over as fast as she could.
"Huo-ge[v]!"
"Hehe, letting you see my sorry appearance at the moment is really making me lose face as a man."
"You should stop talking, who did this!"
Yao Qing lifted her head and looked at Luo Bing.
"It was a surprise raid. The enemy used three kinds of techniques, which came from the Soul Clan, the Demon Clan, and the Gu clan.[vi] We don't know who it was."
Luo Bing had already bit through his lip. The thing he hated the most was that they didn't even have a target to take revenge on. The lucky thing was that they had all managed to return. But looking at his good brother laying on the ground in pain, he would have rather have had it been him who was injured.
"It's ok, let it go. I don't want to lie on this ground the whole time, cough…."
Yao Huo put on a smiling face. He grabbed Yao Qing and faintly shook his head. There was no point in making things hard on his brothers when they had no way to fix any part of this situation.
Taking a deep breath, Yao Qing nodded her head. Seeing this, Luo Bing carefully picked up Yao Huo and with great care he gently carried him into his bedroom.
Yao Huo laughed lightly, "It's not like I'm a porcelain doll… don't be worried, after a few days I'll be a strong, muscular man again. It's fine, you should go home now."
Seeing Yao Huo's smiling expression, Luo Bing squeezed out a smile that didn't make his face look much better than when he was crying. He and the rest of the people all left. As soon as they left, too streams of water rolled down Yao Qing's face. "I'll go ask an elder to come treat your injuries."
"Already… saw him…or…" Yao Huo lightly shook his head, "Or I wouldn't be here talking with you."
Yao Qing reached out her hand and grabbed his wrist to try and find out what was wrong with him. In just a few short moments, she let out a breath of air. It was his internal organs that were the most seriously injured. "I'll go refine some healing medicine for you. Yao Chen can help and give me a hand."
"Mom…" Yao Chen just foolishly stood by the door. When he heard that his mom wanted to refine medicine, he immediately became embarrassed and at a complete loss. His family only had one medicinal cauldron, and it was the one he had just caused a cauldron explosion in. It was now basically just a garbage pot.
"Go."
"Mom, I didn't do it on purpose… I accidentally broke dad's cauldron while refining. I didn't do it on purpose, I really didn't do it on purpose." Yao Chen reported through clenched teeth.
Yao Qing processed what she had just heard. The medicinal cauldron was broken? The thought of it flashed into her mind. Her cheeks started to turn red, her throat felt like something was blocking it, her body was trembling slightly, and black spots started to appear in her eyesight.
"What… what did you say?" Yao Chen lowered his head. He had never thought for a second that he would ever feel this kind of regret. "Just now a cauldron explosion occurred while I was refining… the cauldron cracked."
"You-" Pow! Yao Qing's slap landed on Yao Chen's face. However the one that was hurt the most was her. Looking at the handprint left on his face, Yao Qing was in a daze as she didn't even know why she had extended her arm. However….
Looking at Yao Huo who had always been strong and protected her, and yet was now feebly lying in bed, her heart became a complete mess. It was actually her who was the most embarrassed and didn't know what to do. Just before when everyone was around, she had put on a fake expression so that everyone wouldn't see how weak she felt. On the bed, Yao Huo started coughing again, "Qing-mei[vii], it's just a medicinal cauldron. The child is innocent, I'm ok."
"But that's your favourite…."
Yao Qing tried to grab for justification, but her heart knew that regardless she should not have raised her hand against her child. Although she didn't know how he had managed to crack a third tier medicinal cauldron, she was very clear about the fact that her child would not be the kind of person to naughtily just play and break things. In fact, in the past she had been worried about Yao Chen concentrating too much on training and not having enough interest in romance. If refining caused the cauldron explosion, then it could only be said that the medicinal cauldron had reached the end of its lifespan.
"Qing-er, I… ugh."
Yao Huo was laughing at how wife and child were so at a loss, but just when he was about to console them, a strange force violently burst from his chest and entered his body. A hidden force that had been suspended caused his originally stabilizing injury to completely break out. Blood violently shot out onto the bed.
"Huo-ge! What happened to you?"
"I… Dual Yin Life Chasing Palm…" Yao Huo squeezed out these words from his clenched teeth. By this point he could no longer control it and passed out.
[i] Where I wrote ugly the author's words literally translates to crooked melons leak dates, as in the fruit. The expression somehow means ugly.
[ii] The author uses Houtian to describe people who need to acquire the talent of memory and Xiantian for people who innately have the talent. You can look on wuxiaworld glossary for a more descriptive explanation of Houtian and Xiantian.
[iii] Expression used by author here is something about cream on head, but means to be enlightened.
[iv] Expression is three days without a beating and the child will climb the roof and rip off the tiles. English equivalent is spare the rod, spoil the child, which didn't really sound good in this context.
[v] Ge refers to brother. Sometimes girls call their boyfriends or husbands that. Going to keep spouse relationship as -ge, but then friends are also sometimes called brothers, so friends will be translated as brother.
[vi] Soul=Hun, Demon=Yao, and Gu=Ancient.
[vii] Mei refers to sister. Less common, but I guess it's cute for husbands to respond that way.