Chapter 86: Challenge

Li Mo’s ice-blue eyes were fixed on Yun Ruoyan, travelling down her face and onto the qilin beads on her left hand. He reached out and slowly touched the beads before making an expression of astonishment. He’d known that human furnaces had extreme talent for cultivation, but it wasn’t until he actually met one that he realized just how shocking they were.

The night he handed the bracelet to Yun Ruoyan, he’d used a drop of beastkin blood to crack open one of the beads and release some of the qilin’s fire-attuned spiritual energy. He had expected that this amount of energy would take Yun Ruoyan quite a while to digest, but, not ten days later, she had completely consumed it all.

What Qiuqiu didn’t tell Li Mo was that Yun Ruoyan had taken only a single day and night to absorb the remnants of the qilin’s energy. If he ever found out about this, even he wouldn’t be able to maintain his famed icy facade.

Li Mo was already very pleased with Yun Ruoyan. If she kept up her rate of cultivation, he would be able to start cultivating with her as a couple . Glancing once more at the sleeping beauty, Li Mo’s lips curled up. He couldn’t help but think back to what had happened by the secluded pond during the flower-viewing party.

Li Mo was really quite looking forward to cultivating together with her. He grinned once more before turning back to the qilin beads. When the qilin core was first sealed within the beads, the Beast King had used his own blood as the seal. To break the seal, therefore, also required the Beast King’s blood.

As the Beast King’s son, Li Mo was naturally able to break the seal with his blood. The more blood he used, the larger the crack, and the more potent the resulting spiritual energy from the qilin. With the remnants of the energy, the bead would reseal itself once more.

Li Mo made a shallow cut on his finger with his long fingernails, dripping two drops of blood on the qilin beads. The beads began to glow a dull red before the light and blood vanished once more.

Qiuqiu didn’t know that Yun Ruoyan was a human furnace, and naturally didn’t understand what Li Mo was doing. However, it didn’t try to ask, knowing that any attempts would be futile.

Li Mo’s threat to Qiuqiu was quite effective. At least before he demonstrated clear killing intent toward Yun Ruoyan again, Qiuqiu wouldn’t reveal his identity to her.

Once again, fireflies invaded Yun Ruoyan’s dream. They seemed to be attracted to her, dancing all around her, as she smiled as happily as a child.

“Miss, Miss, are you awake?”

Peony’s voice, accompanied by sharp raps at the door, suddenly jolted Yun Ruoyan awake. She sat straight up and squinted at the bright light streaming in through the windows.

She knew that she had overslept. Blearily, she sighed and asked, “What time is it?”

Peony, still standing outside her room, responded, “It’s still morning, Miss, but you’re usually already cultivating by this point.

Yun Ruoyan got off the bed, put on a jacket, and quickly applied a gauze patch on her face, since she didn’t have the time to make a fake birthmark.

“Miss, you look wonderful today.”

Yun Ruoyan opened the doors to her room, and Peony walked in with a washbasin.

“When don’t I look wonderful?” Yun Ruoyan smiled.

“No, it’s true. You look especially radiant today, Miss,” Peony assured her. When she walked in, it was almost as if Yun Ruoyan’s face was glowing with a gentle warmth, as if her skin were made of moonstones.

Yun Ruoyan smiled again before pouring herself a little tea.

“Did you have sweet dreams last night, Mistress?” Peony set the washbasin on the table before turning to Yun Ruoyan. “As soon as I reached the door, I heard your laughter. I thought that you were awake and tried to call out to you, but you never responded! Only then did I realize that you were simply laughing in your sleep.”

Yun Ruoyan hesitated for a moment before recalling her firefly-fuelled dreams. This wasn’t the first time that she’d encountered it, either. When was the last time?

While she tried to sift through her memories, Qiuqiu called out to her. “Mistress, quickly check your spiritual vortex.”

Yun Ruoyan immediately hurried Peony outside and told her to make sure not to let anyone in. Although Peony wasn’t formally trained in cultivation, her years of experience in the Yun household had left her with some information about the basics. Combining this with her understanding of Yun Ruoyan’s reclusive habits, she naturally followed Yun Ruoyan’s orders and stood outside her cottage as a guard.

To Yun Ruoyan’s spiritual senses, her spiritual vortex was a layer of dense, white fog. Recently, with her pillmaster training and the qilin beads, a dull red patch had begun to appear. Today, however, the red patch was positively vibrant, and it had almost doubled in size.

“Qiuqiu, can you see how my fire-attuned spiritual energy has grown? It’s incredible!” Yun Ruoyan exclaimed to Qiuqiu. “I’d been worried these last few days that my fire attunement is still too impure, and that it would be exceedingly difficult for me to condense a spiritual flame. I can’t believe that such a large change happened overnight!”

Afraid that Yun Ruoyan would suspect something, Qiuqiu immediately explained, “That’s how cultivation is sometimes. You might think that you’ve hit a plateau, but you’re actually just brewing and saving up energy for a breakthrough. As long as you put in the requisite work, you’re sure to have a commensurate reward.”

Yun Ruoyan nodded agreeably. These last few days, she had spent essentially all her time trying to enhance and purify her fire-attuned spiritual energy. She wanted to become a pillmaster as quickly as possible in order to help out the Lins.

“Mistress, it’s worth trying to condense spiritual fire again,” Qiuqiu reminded her.

Yun Ruoyan nodded once more. She sat cross-legged in bed, her palms clasped together. Wisps of red fog emanated from her dantian and through her body before condensing outside her palms. The last time she’d tried to condense a spiritual flame, this entire process had taken two whole hours. This time, she managed to do so in no more than fifteen minutes.

The pure fire-attuned spiritual energy revolved rapidly between Yun Ruoyan’s palms, forming a miniaturized vortex. It revolved faster and faster, until a tiny orange tendril erupted into flame in the eye of the vortex.

Looking at that small flame, Yun Ruoyan excitedly shouted, “I’ve done it, I’ve finally done it!”

The person she most wanted to share her victory with was, undoubtedly, Lin Zainan.

When Yun Ruoyan rushed to the Lin family, she saw that there were two half-breed flaming steeds by the main entrance. Half-breed horses referred to the offspring of a magical beast with a common horse, docile enough that one didn’t need to be a beast tamer to train them, and fast enough that they could travel a thousand miles in a day.

Yun Ruoyan could count the number of people in the capital wealthy enough to possess such steeds with her fingers.

The servants by the gate told Yun Ruoyan that there were two people who would come to the Lin estate daily at around this time. As to exactly why they were here, however, the servants didn’t know.

As Yun Ruoyan entered the yard, she found the housekeeper Lin Bo, who told her that Lin Zainan was entertaining guests in the main reception chamber. Although she was curious, she wasn’t formally considered a member of the Lin family, and it would be impolite for her to barge in on their conversation.

She was heading toward the backyard to find Lin Qingchen and Lin Qingxue when an exasperated male voice emerged from the reception chamber.

“Elder Lin, we’ve travelled more than a thousand miles to get here, all the way from the Yue kingdom. Won’t you show us any courtesy?”

Yun Ruoyan couldn’t help but stop dead in her tracks as she pricked up her ears. Her grandfather’s cold voice came next.

“I’ve stated, once and again, that I won’t be selling you any pills. Do you intend on snatching them from me?!”

“Our young master has always been an admirer of your work, Elder Lin. He has long wanted to study under you, but the Lin family doesn’t take any disciples from outside the family. Please, won’t you sell us some of your pills so our young master may research them?” the traveler, a middle-aged man, asked earnestly. “The young master and I have sought you out four days in a row, but you refused our visit each time. Now that we’ve finally had a chance to speak with you in person, you reject us once and again! The Lins are some of the most well-known pillmasters on the continent. Won’t you sell us even a few mid-grade pills?”

“Even if you won’t sell me any pills, I wouldn’t dare to insist, Elder Lin,” a gray-clad youth spoke up from the middle-aged man’s side. “Would you be willing to give me a few pointers instead?”

“I regret to disappoint you, Young Master Wang, but my failing health has prevented me from making pills of late. I’m afraid I wouldn’t be able to provide you with any helpful pointers.” Lin Zainan stood up from his seat and gestured toward the door. “Please return.”

“Elder Lin, are you sure you want to show such gross disrespect to the merchant coalition of the four kingdoms?” the middle-aged man retorted, seeing that Lin Zainan didn’t intend to back down. “Do you think the Lin family’s still in its golden age?”

Lin Zainan slammed a palm down on the table. “The Wang family of the Yue kingdom, is it? You dare challenge my authority in my house? Do you think the Lins are easy to bully because there’s no one left to defend the family?”

“Elder Lin, please calm down.” The youth stood up. His tone was respectful, but his mannerisms dripped with pride and haughtiness. “Since childhood, I’ve been engrossed in the art of pillmaking. During my visit to the Li kingdom, I’ve approached many other famed pillmasters, only to find that their reputations were ill-deserved. Elder Lin, as one of the most famous pillmasters of the Li kingdom, I’m sure you won’t let me down.”

“What do you mean?”

“Since you won’t sell me any pills, Elder Lin, nor will you give me any pointers, then my only recourse is to challenge you as a pillmaster. Dare you accept my challenge, Elder Lin?”

Lin Zainan blinked. The youth was no more than eighteen, so what had given him the confidence to be so haughty and domineering?

Seeing that he had Lin Zainan’s full attention, the youth continued, “Not long ago, I became a fifth-rank pillmaster. I know my cultivation’s still far too low to mean anything to you, Elder Lin, but I’d still like to challenge you. Elder Lin, will you give me a chance to learn from my defeat?”

Lin Zainan glanced at the youth impassively, but his inner thoughts were in turmoil. This young scion from the Wang family was truly a pillmaking genius, one that would appear once in a hundred years.

Lin Zainan had immersed himself in pillmaking for decades, but he had only ever been a peak fifth-rank pillmaster. This youth, on the other hand, had already become a fifth-rank pillmaster at such a tender age, displaying his frightening prowess.

The middle-aged man smiled in pride. “My young master has spent the last year travelling across the four kingdoms in search of opponents. If he meets his match in you, Elder Lin, it wouldn’t have been a waste of our time.”

Lin Zainan frowned, his forehead clenching. If he had had his peak fifth-rank pillmaster cultivation, giving this arrogant youth a lesson would be nothing. With his current third-rank cultivation, however, he wouldn’t be a match.

Was his name to be ruined at the hands of this impertinent brat today?!

1. By having sex.