Word Count: 2,950 Words
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"The Shi Clan is gone?!"
Even Xiao Yan could not help but stare. Back when they had been contending for the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame inside the Demon Flame Space, the Shi Clan had sent three people. One of their Elders had even reached the 4-star Dou Saint, which made him somewhat stronger than Yao Wangui.
The Shi Clan's strength far surpassed the Ling Clan's. In terms of pure combat power, they stood a step above the Yao Clan as well. How could a colossal clan like that simply vanish into thin air?
Even with his current cultivation, Xiao Yan found himself unsettled. Is the Hun Clan truly that terrifying…?
In the thousand years since the Xiao Clan's annihilation, every major clash between the Hun Clan and the Gu Clan had ended mostly in the Gu Clan's favor. The Gu Clan had always fielded more high-level Dou Saints too.
'Either the Hun Clan has been hiding far deeper than anyone realized, or there is some other reason entirely.'
Strictly speaking, Xiao Yan was merely the alchemist Hun Tiandi had hired. When it came to the Hun Clan's internal affairs, he truly knew nothing. He had never intended to help the Hun Clan contend for the Tou She Ancient God's Jade either. He was responsible for refining pills, nothing more. Bring me the embryonic pills yourself, and everything else is none of my concern.
"Xiao Yan ge-ge, with the Shi Clan gone, the Gu Clan has surely taken quite a blow as well. I should probably go back and take a look." After hearing everything that had happened over the past two years, even Xun Er's light, ethereal voice carried a trace of wistfulness.
Xiao Yan nodded. He understood well enough. Xun Er had disappeared alongside him for two full years, and her absence must have caused a tremendous disturbance within the Gu Clan. Now that they had escaped the Demon Flame Space, it was only right for her to return, both in reason and in feeling. All the more so with the Shi Clan incident added on top of it.
He took Xun Er's jade hand, his expression grave. "You must be careful. If this really was the work of the Hun Clan, their goal must be the Tou She Ancient God's Jade. If war breaks out, use the connection between the Gold Emperor Incinerating Heavenly Flame and Little Yi to contact me. I'll rush over immediately."
A gentle light flickered through Xun Er's beautiful eyes. She nodded, then rose onto her toes and kissed him. Only after a long while did they finally part, and neither was willing to let go. No matter how long they had been together, Xiao Yan's feelings had never changed, and neither of them had ever grown tired of the other.
"Once the Dou Qi Continent settles down, I'll formally bring you home as my wife."
Xun Er's gaze rippled. She reached out and smoothed the front of his robe, then looked up with a soft smile. "Then Xun Er will wait for that day. Xiao Yan ge-ge must keep his word."
Her fragrant presence faded into the distance, and Xiao Yan sighed inwardly. Their time in the Demon Flame Space had been one of the few stretches in which he had been able to catch his breath.
He also understood that the great tide of the Dou Qi Continent would not change because of him. He was merely a slightly larger boat caught within that current, still unable to defy the direction it flowed.
At present, that current was clearly controlled by the Dou God Clans. Or, more accurately, whether the continent descended into chaos was now decided by Hun Tiandi.
Xiao Yan had met the man before. Hun Tiandi carried himself as gentle and refined, yet where becoming a Dou God was concerned he was a madman through and through. Truly insane. Xiao Yan could say with certainty that if anyone obstructed that path, Hun Tiandi would sooner bring everything crashing down and drag his enemy into mutual destruction with him.
On the matter of becoming a Dou God, Hun Tiandi had left himself no peaceful road. For him there was no middle ground. It was either zero or one.
An Emperor State soul, peak 9-star Dou Saint cultivation, and a colossal Dou God Clan standing behind him. If such a man went mad, no one could withstand him.
"She's gone?" Little Fairy Doctor walked over slowly and stopped beside him.
"Mm. So much has happened these past two years. This isn't the time for romance. The world has turned turbulent." Xiao Yan shook his head helplessly. He finally understood how precious peace truly was.
Even with his current strength, a deep powerlessness had settled in him. There were still things he could not accomplish.
He looked toward the quiet Little Fairy Doctor and took her jade hand as though it were the most natural thing in the world. "What about you? What do you plan to do now?"
Her fingers were warm against his palm. After their time in the Demon Flame Space, she no longer stiffened or turned shy whenever he touched her. At least when no one else was present, she had grown far braver about expressing what she felt.
"I'll settle matters in the Xiao Realm first, then return to Creation Valley. Everything I know about the Woeful Poison Body comes from those who came before me. I want to understand my own constitution better." She smiled gently. "I used to hate my Woeful Poison Body. It brought me so much misery."
"But now I find myself grateful to it. It gave me the ability to remain by your side."
The confession left Xiao Yan slightly stunned. Little Fairy Doctor saw the surprise in his eyes, and a blush spread across her cheeks. This time, though, she did not retreat and watch him in silence from the side. She met his gaze directly.
She no longer had anything to hold her back. She was already his woman.
Little Fairy Doctor opened her arms and slowly drew him close. "I'll wait for you in Creation Valley."
"Mm. I'll come back once everything is handled."
Once he had learned all he needed about the past two years, Xiao Yan bade farewell to his father and the others. He did not remain in the Jia Ma Empire but hurried instead toward the Yellow Springs Mountain Range. Qing Lin's situation had waited long enough, and Cai Lin was there as well.
Now that he had refined the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame, its purifying power could cleanse any form of negative energy.
For a peak 5-star Dou Saint, traveling from the Jia Ma Empire to the Beast Region was effortless. Distance that had once seemed vast now amounted to very little.
…
Within the imperial palace of the Snake-People Tribe, Cai Lin finished dealing with the day's affairs and walked out into the rear garden. She gazed off toward the Demon Flame Plains.
"Sigh." Her beautiful eyes stayed fixed on the direction of the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame, and a deep worry filled them.
"What could make my Queen, whose might shakes the entire Beast Region, sigh like that?"
!?
A clear, familiar laugh rang out without warning. Cai Lin froze. A moment later she spun around. Sunlight poured down from the sky, and a lean figure slowly took shape within her gaze.
Who else could it have been but Xiao Yan?
The worry in her eyes gradually gave way to delight, and the sight of it made Xiao Yan's chest ache. He crossed the distance in a single stride, pulled her roughly into his arms, and kissed her.
At a time like this there was no need for words. Far simpler to seal her lips.
His kiss was a touch roguish, a touch domineering. Blame and indignation flickered through Cai Lin's heart for an instant, then dissolved into the passion of long-buried longing. Her rigid shoulders eased, her fingertips curled into his robe, and she yielded completely, welcoming him back with everything she had held in for so long.
In that quiet, empty courtyard, the husband and wife who had been apart so long poured all their yearning into tenderness. Only when both were slightly out of breath did they part, still reluctant, each still feeling the warmth of the other's breathing.
Cai Lin raised a hand and stroked his cheek, as though confirming she was not dreaming.
But suddenly, her eyes narrowed. Those bewitching, inverted-triangle snake pupils fixed on him without blinking, and the weight of that stare sent a chill crawling up his back.
"There is a faint fragrance on you. And the scent of medicine."
Hiss, hiss, hiss!
That one sentence set Xiao Yan's teeth chattering. It was over. After a year spent with Xun Er and Little Fairy Doctor, their scents had soaked into him!
Just as he stood there helpless, with no idea how to explain himself, salvation arrived. His precious little sweetheart had come to the rescue!
"Daddy!"
A familiar, delighted cry rang out. A small figure carved a graceful arc through the air and shot toward him from far off.
"Hehe, Xiao Xiao has grown quite a bit."
Xiao Yan's heart leapt. He beamed and opened his arms, catching the petite figure firmly against his chest. The little face nestled there was still full of childish innocence and brimming with joy, and warmth flooded through him in a wave.
This was home. No matter what dangers he faced outside, stepping back into this place swept away the weariness in his heart in an instant.
"Hiss!" A streak of seven-colored light shot toward him like an arrow and slammed into his chest.
"Ow, ow!" The impact staggered this peak 5-star Dou Saint of a father back several steps. The culprit, naturally, was Xiao Cai.
Cai Lin watched her two daughters come flying in and could only shoot the little sweetheart in question a flat look. You did that on purpose, didn't you, you little traitor!
Xiao Yan grinned and rubbed his cheek against Xiao Xiao's soft face, savoring this brief taste of family happiness.
"Xiao Yan, you've refined the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame, haven't you?" Only after he had played with his daughters for a good while did Cai Lin finally ask. The matter concerned Qing Lin's Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils, after all.
If the negative power within those pupils could be fully purified, Qing Lin's Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils might even evolve to a higher level.
Xiao Yan nodded. A thought stirred, a soft sound followed, and a fire infant like a small ball of dough plopped down onto his head.
"Yi?"
Little Yi had been summoned out of the Acceptance Soul. It blinked sleepily, surveyed its surroundings once, then sprawled back across Xiao Yan's head and went straight back to sleep.
With Cai Lin's strength, she immediately sensed the wisp of Gold Emperor Incinerating Heavenly Flame inside Little Yi. For a moment she had no idea how to react.
A soul fetus wasn't enough. Now there's a fire fetus? Will there be a poison fetus next?
"Ahem. This is the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame. After I refined it, it gained a spirit and turned out like this." Xiao Yan did not even dare meet her eyes. His head shrank down slightly between his shoulders.
Xiao Xiao, resting nearby, suddenly frowned and stared hard at the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame. For some reason, she sensed that this Heavenly Flame would compete with her for her father's affection.
An enemy!
"Meow~~"
"Hiss~~"
Mao Wu strolled out of the void, sat down beside Xiao Cai like an ordinary black cat, and settled in to watch the spectacle. Perhaps because both took magical beast form, the cat and the little serpent were forever scheming together and wrecking things wherever they went.
Xiao Yan never restricted the freedom of his Heavenly Flames in any case.
Nearly all of them possessed their own spirituality. They normally remained in the Acceptance Soul as independent entities, each asleep, gradually sharpening their intelligence on his Dou Qi and Spiritual Strength.
The Sea Heart Flame was a good example. It had once possessed no intelligence at all, yet now it could take form on its own without any help from him, becoming a blue flood dragon. Once its intelligence grew a little further, releasing it would produce a true flood dragon that no one could tell apart from the real thing.
It was much like the Nine Mysterious Golden Lightning he had once encountered. That thing had looked exactly like a genuine Golden Dragon, and nothing about it betrayed what it truly was.
Fortunately, Cai Lin said nothing in the end. She knew all about Xiao Yan and Xun Er, and even about that small tangled business with Yun Yun long ago. On the Dou Qi Continent, three wives and four concubines were perfectly normal for a man of strength.
More to the point, others were the ones pursuing Xiao Yan, and some of them refused to let go no matter what. Calling him the foremost figure of the younger generation on the Dou Qi Continent was simply stating fact. Even counting the Dou God Clans, among those around thirty years of age, Xiao Yan was the strongest without dispute.
And not only in cultivation. His alchemy stood at the summit as well. If they did not choose him, were they supposed to lower their standards and wrong themselves instead?
Meet Xiao Yan once and your whole life is ruined. The saying was no exaggeration at all.
…
In the end, Xiao Yan followed Cai Lin to a mountain ravine within the Yellow Springs Mountain Range.
"Hiss! Hiss! Hiss!"
The moment he arrived, a chorus of snake cries rang out. A colossal shape rose from the ravine, and it was, without question, the Nine-Headed Heaven Serpent.
The sight of the fire infant lounging on Xiao Yan's head made all eighteen of its snake pupils contract. It stared at him in astonishment.
It had never imagined he could truly refine such a divine treasure!
The Purifying Lotus Demon Flame, like the Bodhisattva Ancient Tree, was one of a kind on the Dou Qi Continent, a thing that had existed since the primordial era. Refining it was as absurd as refining the Bodhisattva Ancient Tree itself!
"Where is Qing Lin?" Xiao Yan asked.
The Nine-Headed Heaven Serpent bristled at that commanding tone, but it also knew that killing it would now cost Xiao Yan a single move. A low hum sounded. Green light shone from the eyes of the central head, and the sealed Qing Lin was slowly drawn forth.
"Peak Half-Saint." Xiao Yan's eyes narrowed. With her Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils and the Dou Qi of so many snake slaves, she should have broken through to Dou Saint long ago.
"Good. There's still time." He formed a hand seal, and the Dou Qi of a peak 5-star Dou Saint erupted like a gale. Little Yi, dozing on his head, opened its eyes at once.
"Peak 5-star Dou Saint… you've surpassed me again." Cai Lin shook her head helplessly. It had taken enormous effort for her to obtain the hidden inheritance of the Heaven Swallowing Python Tribe, and even then her cultivation had only risen to the early 4-star Dou Saint. In two years, Xiao Yan had leapt across two entire stars!
Two stars at the Dou Saint level, no less! An ordinary cultivator might spend several centuries without advancing even one.
Still, Cai Lin did not envy him much. Everyone had their own opportunities. It was only that Xiao Yan's happened to be unusually plentiful.
Perhaps that was simply his fortune.
Just as he prepared to unleash a Heavenly Flame Dou Technique to purify Qing Lin, he remembered the side effects of the Demon Flame. He turned toward the Nine-Headed Heaven Serpent, his expression serious. "Nine-Headed Heaven Serpent, you've done well this time. When we head to Northern Dragon Island later, a share of the Ancient Heaven Serpent essence blood there will go to you."
"You've worked hard enough. Withdraw and rest."
???
The Nine-Headed Heaven Serpent's nine heads tilted in unison. He did not need it standing guard? It raised no objection, though. With Xiao Yan's current strength, its presence made no real difference either way.
Black mist surged. The Nine-Headed Heaven Serpent shrank into a nine-headed black snake barely six feet long, tore open the void, and returned to its own territory.
It had a territory of its own in the Yellow Springs Mountain Range now, a reward Cai Lin had granted it. The Nine-Headed Heaven Serpent had fully revived, and for all anyone knew it might have started a family of its own by this point.
Xiao Yan nodded to Cai Lin. She touched a jade finger to the air, and the seal on Qing Lin's body dissolved.
Qing Lin's cultivation erupted like floodwater through a breached dam in an instant. There was no need for any Bodhisattva Pill. Her realm surged upward and refused to stop. She had absorbed the Dou Qi of countless snake slaves and had enslaved Yao Xiaotian and Yao Ce, two 1-star Dou Saints of the Nine Serene Deep Ground Python Tribe. Nothing could have held back her breakthrough to Dou Saint.
In that same instant, every scrap of rage, resentment, and hatred belonging to the snake slaves bound by the Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils came rushing out at once. Negative emotion of every kind surged toward her, condensing into one evil soul body after another as they lunged to seize her soul.