"I regret it now. Hand over the reward or whatever," Xuan Yi said to Xiao Tian as she walked.
"So eager? Well... then you find a place. You know where the inns are around here."
Xuan Yi heard him and was full of questions. "What do you mean?"
"Aren't you going to keep me? Of course I'll pay with my body. You're getting a good deal," Xiao Tian said mischievously, putting an arm around her waist.
"Scram!" She pinched him hard and quickly walked off toward Xiao Ling and Xiao Meng.
It took a full half day, but the group finally entered the inner domain of Holy Pill City. Compared with the outer domain, the inner domain was far quieter. Only forces connected with the Pill Tower, or high-level Alchemists, were generally allowed to reside there, so its quality was beyond comparison with the outer domain.
What drew the most attention in the inner domain was the black giant tower, nearly three hundred meters tall, soaring into the clouds like a towering peak and giving a sense of majestic grandeur. When one looked up, the top was out of sight, and the tower's peak was shrouded in mist, which made it look exceptionally mysterious.
"Wow, is this the Pill Tower? It's so tall..." Xiao Ling's eyes widened as she stared at the giant tower.
Xiao Meng took hold of Xiao Tian. "Daddy, let's build a giant tower like this too. Then we can touch the clouds from the top whenever we like."
Xiao Tian knew she was talking about the Boundless Heaven Divine Palace. "All right. I'll build one for you, and you can live on the very top floor."
"Great, great! Then Xiao Ling and I will live on the top floor, and when we wake up we can touch the clouds." Xiao Meng's eyes curved into a smile, as if she had thought of something fun.
"You don't have to wait until later. I can take you to experience it now," Xuan Yi said softly, stroking the heads of her two little darlings. Then she looked at Xiao Tian. "A Grade 7 Alchemist can generally be assessed at one of the Pill Tower's branch towers, but for Grade 8 and above, the assessment can only be done here, at the main tower."
"No problem. It's the same to me wherever I'm assessed."
"In that case, let's go in. I'll have someone arrange things." Xuan Yi nodded. She would be showing only a portion of her alchemy strength this time, so there was no chance of failure.
"Then let's go quickly!" Xiao Ling, hearing they were going into the Pill Tower, could not help tugging at Xuan Yi's skirt.
"Okay."
Entering the Pill Tower normally required strict scrutiny, but with Xuan Yi leading and showing her token, no inspection was needed. They walked straight into the tower with a green light all the way.
Inside, the space was even vaster, clearly several times larger than it looked from outside. It had obviously been expanded by a Dou Sheng into something like a small world. The whole Pill Tower was filled with the rich fragrance of pills.
Xiao Ling and Xiao Meng stayed close beside Xuan Yi. They made no exclamations, only looked around with curiosity, showing something of the manner of well-bred young ladies. Though the two loved to play, they were well-behaved and polite on important occasions.
Xuan Yi led them straight up to the higher floors. Just as they reached the top floor, two old men appeared out of thin air a short way ahead of them.
One of them, standing slightly in front, wore white and had a full head of white hair, yet his face was as rosy as a baby's. Not a trace of aura leaked from his body, and he looked like an extremely ordinary old man. The other was rather dark-skinned, with a taut face and eyes like lightning, and he gave a stern impression of a man who did not smile easily.
"Who are you?" Xiao Ling and Xiao Meng stood in front of Xuan Yi and eyed the new arrivals warily. They sensed a powerful strength in them.
Sensing their instinctive reaction, Xuan Yi smiled and thought, They weren't raised in vain. She reached out and picked them up. "It's all right, nothing to worry about. They're our own people."
"Mother Xuan Yi, who are they?" Xiao Ling and Xiao Meng still looked warily at the two old men.
The two old men were both startled by what Xiao Ling said. The white-robed old man's calm face changed slightly, and a flicker of surprise crossed his eyes. His gaze fell on Xuan Yi, then swept over the two little girls in her arms. He raised an eyebrow and spoke with a half-smile.
"Mother Xuan Yi?"
His voice was slightly aged and gentle, but it carried a hint of barely concealed astonishment.
"Yes, there's a good boy. Haha." Xuan Yi naturally picked up the old man's words and ran with them.
His face darkened. He felt as if he had been taken advantage of. But he was not angry, and even felt a little joy. Xuan Yi's present manner reminded him of her youth, when she had been just as relaxed and cheerful. Later she had grown melancholy and was no longer her old self, but her state of mind and her temperament had plainly returned to what they once were.
The dark-skinned, stern-faced old man, on the other hand, raised his brows, and his gaze turned sharp and fixed on Xuan Yi. His lips were tightly pursed, and after a long moment, he spoke in a deep voice, full of disbelief. "You... when did you have children? And they're already this old?"
Xuan Yi smiled faintly, unbothered by their surprise. She gently patted the two little girls in her arms and said softly, "What, is it not allowed?"
The white-robed old man's gaze swept back and forth between Xuan Yi and the girls, and his eyes grew even more doubtful. He stepped forward slowly, his tone carrying a note of inquiry and curiosity. "Your primal yin is still intact, so they clearly aren't your children. You haven't done something like stealing children, have you? But the talent of these two little girls is indeed extraordinary."
The old man also sensed the Dou Huang aura of the two girls and was quite surprised. To be a Dou Huang before the age of four, how terrifying their talent must be.
"All right, let's not talk about that anymore. I'll introduce you." Xuan Yi pointed at Xiao Tian, who stood quietly where he was, her eyes full of an obscure, boundless love as she looked at him. "This is Xiao Tian. He saved me this time. Otherwise, I might not have been able to come back."
The white-robed old man was shrewd and discerning and had always been good at reading expressions. He saw the trace of love in her eyes and the slight joy in her voice as she introduced Xiao Tian, and he seemed to understand something. His expression turned a little strange, as if he had discovered something incredible.
Xuan Yi looked down at the two girls in her arms again. "These are Xiao Ling and Xiao Meng, Xiao Tian's own daughters."
Hearing this, the old man narrowed his eyes and looked at Xiao Tian. If his daughters' talent was so strong, then Xiao Tian, as their father, would certainly not have poor talent himself.