The person who yelled those words was Yao Yun whose complexion was icy cold as his eyes glared arrows at Yao Chen.
To publicly question the clan elders could be considered to be extremely disrespectful, but he was currently ninth place, an extremely painful situation that was just one name away from obtaining the qualifications for the Medicine Competition. If anyone else was in such a situation they would also find it very difficult to keep their calm, let alone Yao Yun who had never been a magnanimous person. Currently he regarded Yao Chen as his mortal enemy.
Although it was disrespectful, the elder Yao Lan’s expression didn’t have any change, and he only indifferently replied, “This time’s Great Competition rankings were completed by elder Yao Wanhuo. If anyone doesn’t accept the rankings, they can go take it up with elder Yao Wanhuo.”
Elder Yao Wanhuo. Immediately everyone became subdued.
Yao Wanhuo was the First Elder within the Yao clan, and he was known as being extremely strict and impartial. If the rankings were set by elder Yao Wanhuo then there would be no one who would dare to challenge it.
Yao Yun evidently was still not satisfied, but he also didn’t dare to speak again. To challenge the clan school elders might only be a small matter, but with elder Yao Wanhuo involved now, he didn’t dare commit an offense against such a figure.
The crowd gradually scattered. Yao Chen respectfully turned down any invitations. Right now there was nothing more important to him than returning home.
No words were spoken on the road home. The normally chatty Luo Shu was seldom as completely silent as he was now. Yao Chen’s heart was surging, and the closer he got, the faster his footsteps.
Under the trees of the alleyway’s entrance, a beautiful figure, simple and elegant, was currently turning her head as she looked all around.
“Mom.”
Yao Chen’s eyes lit up. Not knowing why, his nose started to trickle and his eyes felt wet. Before obtaining first place at the Great Competition Yao Chen had felt that any rank was fine as long as he could get the qualifications for the Medicine Competition. However, now looking at his mother’s hopeful expression, he felt that there were many words that he wanted to say to her.
Yao Chen rushed over to his mom, opening his mouth and wanting to say something. But suddenly the many words he wanted to say disappeared, and he only said, “I’m back.”
“Let’s go home.”
Yao Qing smiled, her eyes seemed to contain such tenderness that they could forgive all living things.
“Aunt Qing, brother Chen got first place, aunt Qing, you didn’t see, the peoples’ faces at the time, haha, two words: wonderfully marvellous. Aunt Qing… what are we eating tonight?” Finally Luo Shu erupted with words.
“What, brother Chen, it was first place, ah, how can you be so calm? At least let’s have an extra snack, right.”
Passing through the familiar lane, they arrived at the front of their home which currently had many decorations on it. Luo Shu’s father and older brother were busy adding to them when they saw them arrive. Stopping their work, they walked over.
“Yao Chen, not bad, obtaining first place in the clan school’s Great Competition. It’s just like during those days… haha, in any case, you haven’t lowered your father’s reputation.”
Luo Bing earnestly patted Yao Chen’s shoulder a couple times; his eyes seemed to flicker, which should be due to recalling memories of Yao Chen’s father’s past. However, his eyes shifted slightly again, landing on the fat Luo Shu, causing Luo Bing’s faint smile to turn into a bitter laugh. Thinking back to the past when he and Yao Huo were a well regarded pair in the clan school, and then seeing Luo Shu, ah… Luo Shu, why couldn’t he work a bit harder?
Luo Shu withdrew a bit as he seemed to understand his father’s expression. Nobody understood one’s son better than his father, and in the same way no one understood one’s father better than his son. If he still didn’t change the subject at this time then he would be asking for a scolding. He promptly called out, “Aunt Qing, isn’t it true that it would only be appropriate to have a banquet today to properly celebrate brother Chen’s first place?”
Luo Bing shook his head. This son simply couldn’t be saved. Fortunately there was still the older Luo Shan who had some good potential. “Just stop it. Using these little tricks is fine. If only you could use a bit of these smarts on training….”
Although they said it was to celebrate, in reality it was a just a simple family dinner except with a couple more dishes and wine. The two families sat at the table, laughing and talking, all encouraging Yao Chen.
These words were mostly trivial repetitions, but Yao Chen didn’t find them irritating; each one of them was remembered in his heart. Of course no matter how many words they spoke, there was no way they would bring up the events from two years ago.
Although they lifted the alcohol restriction, but in reality Yao Chen only drank three cups before he distanced himself from the wine.
There was still one month left before the Medicine Competition. It was possible to describe that as a long time, but at the same time you could say that it was a short time. The time he had was running out. If he wanted to show off at the Medicine Competition, then Yao Chen couldn’t waste any time on things not involving training.
After drinking and eating to their hearts’ content, Luo Bing brought his two sons to say goodbye and left. Yao Qing quickly cleaned up the table. Turning her head to look at Yao Chen, she gently said, “Chen-er, although first place is good, but… remember your father’s teachings; if an arrow is shot, it must stand out. You mustn’t become complacent.”
“Chen-er understands. Mother, I’m going to go train right now.”
“Ok, wait a minute.” Yao Qing nodded her head, holding back Yao Chen who was about to go to the training room. Muttering to herself, she said, “One month’s time… if you only use the regular amount of medicine, it might not be enough to let you advance to Dou Shi. And if you don’t become a Dou Shi, no matter how great of an alchemist you are, it will be almost impossible for you to stand out in the Medicine Competition.”
“Mother?”
Yao Chen narrowed his eyes. Time was tight, but if he was extremely ruthless to himself then there was still a chance for him to promote from Dou Zhe to Dou Shi in this one month’s time.
“From today onwards, increase the amount of medicine in the bath by 10%.” Yao Qing bit her lip as she heartlessly spoke.
If he increased the amount of medicine by 10%, then the pain during the bath would increase by 100%.
Yao Chen laughed, energetically nodding his head. Actually, he didn’t need his mother’s suggestion; he had already been planning on increasing the amount of medicine.
Activating the mechanism, he arrived at the training room. The bath basin was already boiling from the geothermal energy. The water this time wasn’t Xian Dew, instead it was some other kind of medicinal water. Yao Chen picked up the medicinal ingredients from the side. Carefully measuring out the amount, he threw them into the water. The water immediately started to ripple and boil as threads of purple smoke started to rise. It gave off a pungent smell as it rapidly filled the entire room.
All Yao Chen had to do was take a smell of the medicine’s odor in order for his body to unconsciously tremble in a kind of instinctual response.
This kind of medicinal water was different from the marrow cleansing bone carving bath. The marrow cleansing bone carving mixture would only make you feel itchy in your mind. But the current kind of medicinal water would actually cause pain. Even if someone habitually bathed in the water and was psychologically accustomed to it, the body would instinctively form an extremely large resistance towards it.
Yao Chen took a deep breath; taking off his clothes, he took out a light green medicinal pill and put it in his mouth. It tasted extremely bitter as the taste spread through his whole body, a bitterness that could cause a dead person to come back to life. But Yao Chen was already used to it as he continued chewing. Although the pill could be taken with just a swallow, but this kind of pill required you to bite it open and chew it into pieces in order to fully maximize the pill’s efficiency.
To refine this kind of medicine required extremely expensive medicinal ingredients. To Yao Chen’s family, it was an extremely large cost, so instead most of these medicinal ingredients were all picked by his mother. Even if it was so bitter as to cause death, Yao Chen would still consider it to taste sweet.
Several minutes later the medicinal pill had completely dissolved in his mouth, and only then did Yao Chen jump into the medicinal bath.
He heard a kind of blank booming noise, and the medicinal bath seemed to come alive. The lazy waves rushed towards Yao Chen and dug into his body. Yao Chen immediately swallowed the chewed-up pill, causing it to immediately turn into medicinal strength that rushed throughout his body. It acted as a magnet as it pulled the medicinal bath’s medicinal energy in.
“Waaa ahhh aaahhhhh….”
This kind of pain from the medicinal bath wasn’t something that could be endured over and over. Furthermore, even if Yao Chen might have been able to endure it before, compared to previous times he had even added in 10% more medicinal ingredients in addition to using a different bath water. So now Yao Chen could no longer resist it and let out a miserable scream.
Pain, this was a pain that couldn’t even be compared to being stabbed through the heart by ten thousand arrows.
The worst part about the situation wasn’t that the pain was hard to endure, but more importantly, even with all the pain, Yao Chen still had to remain cool and calm-minded. The piercing pain continued to wrack his body as medicinal energy started to unravel. It joined his Dou Qi, traveling throughout his whole body, the five major organs, the four limbs, the brain, the Dantian… even now it still wasn’t considered over. He still had to circulate his Dou Qi in order to match it with the medicinal strength in order to strengthen his body.
An unknown amount of time passed by when suddenly a booming noise rang out. A spiritual flame appeared in front of his body. Yao Chen had already grown accustomed to the pain and was no longer screaming. At the moment, his Dou Qi was pouring into the spiritual flame. Within the flame were threads of medicinal energy that were undergoing the spiritual flame’s catalysis and being refined into something similar to Dou Qi, a similar but different kind of bizarre energy. Channelling into Yao Chen’s body, it didn’t enter his Dantian, but instead penetrated deeply throughout his muscles and bones, and afterwards it descended into a hibernation-like silence.
At this time, Yao Chen was trying to control the huge energy that had entered into his muscles and bones, however all his urging seemed to be like rock thrown into the ocean, with no visible effect. Contrary to what one might expect, the energy ended up causing Yao Chen even more pain. His eyesight started to turn black as he his consciousness started to fade under the pain. Yao Chen promptly gave up on trying to control the energy, collecting himself and guarding himself from losing consciousness. He focused on continuing to absorb the medicinal energy. If he were to actually lose consciousness, then this time’s medicinal bath would basically be wasted. With his family’s current situation, it was not forgivable to have any kind of waste.
The medicinal bath’s deep color gradually started to lighten until it eventually became the same color as clear water. Yao Chen stretched and took a couple deep breaths. Only now did the pain finally fade away. But a sea of oily sweat started to seep out of his pores, causing Yao Chen to feel extremely thirsty.
To the side were five huge jugs of water. Yao Chen took one and ended up chugging the whole thing down to the last drop. When the water entered his body, it actually caused even more sweat to come out, and so he grabbed another jug and drank it all in one chug as well. However, even after this one, even more sweat came out again, so he grabbed the third, the fourth, and only after the fifth one did the sweat stop. However, sweating this much also was actually extremely tiring for the body, so he entered a state of complete exhaustion. Yao Chen’s vision was turning black, so he quickly got out of the basin, put on his clothes and lay down on the training room’s stone bed. After doing three revolutions with his Triple Flower Agglomerating Flame Technique, his Dou Qi quietly entered every part of his meridians as he faintly felt the border between nine star Dou Zhe and Dou Shi.
Although there was only a hair breadth’s difference to advance to the Dou Shi class, it was precisely this small line that was extremely difficult to push past. Not only was that original boundary there, but two years ago his mother had put a seal on his strength which was also difficult to break through. At this time, Yao Chen’s Dou Qi was revolving throughout his body. It formed the shape of a cyclone, but this cyclone seemed extremely unstable as it intermittently appeared and dissipated. It was as if it was illusionary; its shape could not be maintained.
An unknown amount of time passed, and Yao Chen could no longer continue enduring. He finally felt his head turn extremely sluggish and he completely lost consciousness. Although he was unconscious, Yao Chen’s body instinctually continued to revolve his Dou Qi using the Triple Flower Agglomerating Flame Technique, passing it through his body bit by bit. During that process, the Triple Flower Agglomerating Flame Technique seemed to undergo some small changes. Although it didn’t seem to increase his strength, but when it come to delicately controlling strength, the Triple Flower Agglomerating Flame’s fire type Dou Qi ended up pairing with his Spiritual Perception, increasing his control.
The night quietly passed.
Early in the morning, fresh new air entered the stone training room from air vents, bringing a faint morning dew flavor. Yao Chen’s eyes fluttered and he slowly awoke. Opening his eyes, his only sensation was of hunger similar to a beast’s, and from his stomach come a loud growling noise. Although his body felt weak due to hunger, his mind felt completely full.
He got out of bed, used a bucket of water as a shower, changed his clothes, and walked out of the training room.
Arriving at the couryard, he saw his mother had already left earlier and the table was prepared with rich foods.
Yao Chen rushed to the table, and like a wolf he ravenously devoured the food till the table was completely empty. Only then did he realize there was a note on the table.
Without even reading it, Yao Chen knew that his mother had gone to the mountains behind the clan to pick medicinal herbs. If Yao Chen relied solely on what the clan provided for his training then it would be far from enough. And over these two years they had decreased the amount of medicinal ingredients given to Yao Chen by over half. Most of the medicinal ingredients they now had were all handpicked by his mother, and it was because of this that no matter how painful the medicinal bath was, Yao Chen continued to endure it.
Every time his mother would go pick herbs, she would stay out for several days. Yao Chen felt a twinge of worry, but he quickly put that aside. A man couldn’t be indecisive; since he was already aware of how much his mother had bitterly worked, only by training as if his life depended on it could he repay her even the tiniest bit.
Just as Yao Chen was thinking about his training for the next couple days, the fatty yelled from outside. “Brother Chen, aunt Qing, I’m here.”
Luo Shu’s face turned green upon seeing the current situation which did not look good. Puckering his lips, he said, “Brother… brother Chen, did aunt Qing go out?”
Yao Chen laughingly nodded, saying, “During this period of time, I’m afraid you’ll have control yourself a bit better.”
Luo Shu entire face turned from green to an ashen color as he blankly nodded his head.
“I got it… I guess I’ll go home and eat some buns?”
“Haha, this is the dried meat my mother left for you. As long as you aren’t greedy it should be enough for you to eat.”
“It’s still aunt Qing who treats me best, hehe. Brother Chen, I’m going home.” Luo Shu grabbed the jar of dried meat, and extremely happily rushed back home. If he was late even a bit then he might not even have buns to eat at home.
Yao Chen shook his head. Putting his heart back in order, he closed the door before preparing to once again return to the training room. Not even the slightest amount of time could be wasted right now. Not only did he have to advance to Dou Shi within this month, he also had to stabilize himself at that level. There couldn’t be even slightest error when refining pills, and other than his Spiritual Perception, being able to maintain a steady level of Dou Qi was an absolute must.
Although the medicinal bath could be considered a shortcut, at the same time it was a double-edged sword. If he currently didn’t have the medicinal bath’s medicinal energy to help him, then the Triple Flower Agglomerating Flame’s training would be infuriatingly slow. Circling the Dou Qi would only be used to strengthen the foundation, and not the slightest amount of it would be used on attacking the next level.
Ten cycles later, Yao Chen took a deep breath and laughed somewhat bitterly. Although having a stable foundation was a good thing, but at the same time it increased the pressure and difficulty of breaking through to the next level. Actually, advancing levels was ‘a first break then build’ kind of situation, in which the old Dou Qi was broken down and molded to make new Dou Qi. If your foundation was extremely sturdy, then to break down the old foundation would require a much greater amount of energy and strength. Naturally the benefits of having a good foundation before the breakthrough were also extremely good. It was a kind of equal exchange. If you wanted to obtain more strength, then you had to put in twice the amount of effort.
This kind of hardship was long ago expected by Yao Chen and he was not worried. These two years of using the medicinal bath had caused his body to store a frightening amount of energy. And in reality, not even Yao Chen was aware of just how strong that energy was; he only had a vague perception. In order to break through the barrier to Dou Shi, all he needed was to guide just a bit of the energy inside him out, which would allow him to break down his Dantian’s current Dou Qi along with the seal that his mother left from two years, and remold it into the Dou Shi’s cyclone.
He had already made this kind of attempt many times, and not once had he succeeded. However, now he absolutely had to succeed within this month.
If he was hungry he would eat a Soldier Grain Pill; if he was thirsty he would drink spring water. Anything else that his body required, such as expelling waste, were all resolved with the Clearing Miasma Pill. For an entire half a month, Yao Chen continued to stay within the medicinal bath without the slightest feeling of being unable to endure. An alchemist’s most important trait was actually not the Spiritual Perception, but having the patience to endure. If you couldn’t endure loneliness and dullness, then as an alchemist, no matter how talented you were, even till the end of your days your accomplishments would be extremely limited.
During this half a month, his mother had returned only once to make more of the medicinal bath’s powder, and she left without even saying one word to Yao Chen who was stuck deep in secluded training.
Footnote:
In BTTH, Dou Zhes have a Dou Qi cyclone while Dou Shis have a kind of liquid storage of Dou Qi, an inconsistency with the statement here that he was trying to form a Dou Shi’s cyclone.