บท 44: Fertility Pill

It was late at night in the Divinestone Clan. Alm and Bruno lay on the stone bed in their shared room, eyes closed and tense expressions.

The room's door was firmly closed, sealed with the power of the earth laws emanating from them. "What the hell... that bastard wanted to turn us into breeding bulls?" Alm was visibly disturbed, while Bruno laughed uncontrollably, occasionally provoking.

It took several hours for the commotion to subside, and they could finally fall asleep. However, just before dawn, as light began to break through the darkness, their eyes opened again. With a gesture, the sealed door opened silently.

Without making a sound or any sign of presence, the small figure of Ruri entered the room, approaching Denil gently before he asked her mentaly with his Qi. 'Good job. The patriarch didn't show any sign of suspicion?'

'No sir, I did everything as you taught me,' she mentally replied without making a sound.

'Things are strange in many ways... but anyway,' Alm said in a peculiar manner, leaving Ruri confused.

However, she quickly put that matter behind her mind and began to speak. 'And that guy... Innoa... is inside the innermost part of the clan.'

A curious look appeared on the faces of Alm and Bruno; that bastard was really hard to kill.

'But he is completely moribund and unconscious. His body is terribly weakened...' Ruri spoke, but her face displayed a sadistic satisfaction. 'It seems an extremely painful poison has penetrated deeply into all his meridians.'

Alm and Bruno quickly understood. Innoa almost died fighting the previous ant queen, going to the extreme of sacrificing all his men to defeat her. The poison must have invaded his body at that moment, and although agonizing, it did not pose a fatal threat.

The problem was the point-blank fatal explosion they left for him. In desperation, it forced him to use everything he had stored to survive, and in the end, he succeeded. But he was on the brink of death, and the poison that was once just a nuisance deepened and penetrated his wounded body.

'He is hiding within the clan, and no one from the outside can know about his situation. That's why only a few advisors and trusted servants... slaves like me could help keep him company,' Ruri said with a certain disgust.

Alm and Bruno agreed. An empowered and foolish young master like him would certainly have many enemies on all sides. If the news spread, it wouldn't take long for an assassin to penetrate this pathetic clan and kill him. Innoa should have some emergency communication means with his father in the sect; upon learning of his situation, his father sent an emergency message to the nearby clan. The patriarch must have personally come to rescue Innoa and brought him secretly to the clan.

'Hundreds, if not thousands of crystals are being used to nourish him. But he doesn't wake up and seems to be getting worse slowly. However, he... insists on not dying,' Ruri spoke, unable to hide her disdain. Alm just nodded, but he should have been reprimanding her for not controlling herself. Bruno, on the other hand, internally chuckled, realizing that Alm found her bloodthirsty reaction adorable.

'He won't live much longer. Did his father make any move?' Bruno asked, without expressing many emotions.

Ruri then explained. 'I heard some advisors talking. It seems his father came secretly to the clan shortly after he arrived. But the situation is as you said. Still, the patriarch said just yesterday that Innoa's father seems to have resolved the issue, and some sect elders will come soon. That's why we're spending so much just to keep him.'

Alm and Bruno pondered. A poison, no matter how weak, after deeply penetrating the meridians, was practically a death sentence. Not only the body was corroded, but even the soul was infected. 'To resolve this, only pure Yang natural power is capable of purifying at this level,' Bruno analyzed.

Alm agreed. 'Yes, in this ascending world, it shouldn't be easy to create something of that level. If it exists, it must be firmly guarded by divine beasts with terrifying cultivation for these mortals...' Alm then remembered something and asked, 'Hmm... divine beasts... Yang power... The mission given by the sect people was from an alchemist advisor, right?'

'Yes, a very old alchemist wanting to create some pill... a pill... could it be a Yang fertility pill?' Bruno immediately understood where Alm was going.

'The sect shouldn't have something of that level stored. If they found it, they would have harvested and used it immediately. This guy must be very lucky; his salvation was being harvested by the four elders on another mission.'

Alm seemed incredulous when Bruno continued. 'In the clan records, if there was a single plant with similar characteristics, it was a four-petal Yang lotus. It was recorded only once thousands of years ago; if it appeared once, it might have appeared again. This guy is really lucky...'

Alm pondered the analysis. 'A solid hypothesis... We'll have to check it out personally.'

Ruri stood still, waiting and watching them with bright eyes. She was already familiar with this situation. Her master always interrupted the conversation and got lost in thought for quite some time, as if having an internal dialogue.

Until finally, they looked back at her and asked, 'When are they coming?'

Ruri promptly answered. 'Based on the movements and urgency, it should be today, at the latest.'

'Great,' replied Alm, and his mind began working quickly. However, he soon noticed Ruri's anxious gaze on him. Then, he remembered something.

'Hmm... and today,' Alm recalled the conversation they had in the cave after she reached the third level of the Qi Gathering Realm. He questioned her about her exact age, months, and days, analyzing the evolution of her meridians. Quickly, he concluded that in a few months, she could evolve a bit more.

Alm then took something from his 'inventory' space. It was a small stone that glowed intensely in yellow, but in the next second, it went out, looking like a simple stone found in any soil.

Bruno took charge of the situation, realizing that Alm wasn't very skilled in these matters. "Happy birthday, now you're 11 years old," he said, putting a small chain around the stone and observing Ruri's trembling eyes directed at him.

Next, Bruno placed the small stone around her neck, something so simple and ordinary that if someone saw it, they would feel sorry, thinking she picked any random stone from the ground to use as a necklace.

"I infused almost all the power of the earth laws, which were in the soil nurtured by the grass in the cave. From today, you don't need to come here to contact us if nothing comes up. Use your free time to start the plan, carefully sealing the seventeen runes of the formation underground," explained Bruno.

Bruno sighed as he looked at the necklace. They could have absorbed everything and possibly enhanced the bloodline in their bodies even more. However, surprisingly, Alm insisted they should leave a lifeline for her. Bruno found it excessive, but seeing Alm showing so much care was a good thing. They decided to take only a third of the earth's power, condensing the remainder into a single point in a crude but efficient manner.

"Use your mental power to help keep the earth's laws sealed. This will be your lifeline, capable of creating an impenetrable earth defense once. This is our first and last gift before we leave."

"The plan starts today, so we'll be leaving very soon. Your future is solely in your hands," Bruno said slowly, something Alm didn't have the courage to say. However, turning to Ruri, he saw her trembling gaze and tears streaming down her small face, squeezing his chest. Her expression even shook him.

Bruno let out a heavy sigh, aware that this inevitable moment had arrived. "You can go. You still have work to do. When you reach half of the formation, we'll connect everything to our space, and then we'll rip everything out at the right moment."

Ruri trembled. Her being seemed on the verge of collapsing at any moment. However, Bruno's last words ignited something within her. Taking a deep breath, Ruri forced a sudden stability in her emotions.

She then stood up. "I'm going, sir. I'll work hard to meet your expectations." She bowed and left the room, unable to meet their eyes again.

Silence persisted inside the room, but mentally, a wave of restrained emotions flowed between Alm and Bruno.