章節 23: Yi Yun’s Elixir Refinement
"So I can refine the desolate bone?" asked Yi Yun.
Lian Chengyu made a silent acknowledgement. It was so pitiful seeing a person live a life where he was so happy to be sent to his death.
"Thank you Young Master." Yi Yun was very happy. This was not faked, for he was truly happy. He had originally thought Lian Chengyu would go crazy and pat him a few more times after seeing him alive to ensure his death.
Although Lian Chengyu's methods would not harm Yi Yun, it would result in many implications.
Lian Chengyu might have mistaken it for an error for failing to kill Yi Yun the first time, but he would realize it if there was a second time. For Yi Yun, that was not good news.
Yi Yun's goal to refine the desolate bone was fulfilled by Lian Chengyu.
Refining the desolate bone gave Yi Yun time to breathe. Yi Yun's strength increased exponentially, so things would no longer be the same in two months!
"Yun-er, why aren't you coming home to eat?" Jiang Xiaorou had finished preparing the meal and had come out to look for Yi Yun. But she saw Yi Yun speaking to Lian Chengyu the moment she came out the door.
Jiang Xiaorou instantaneously felt worried. Lian Chengyu had previously harmed Yi Yun grievously, and had almost taken his life!
She walked over quickly, afraid that Lian Chengyu would harm Yi Yun.
Although Jiang Xiaorou hated Lian Chengyu to the bone, she knew she could not lose decorum with him.
"I see, it's Young Master Lian." Jiang Xiaorou smiled wryly after seeing Lian Chengyu as she pulled Yi Yun behind her.
"Oh? Jiang Xiaorou, I'll remember you." Noticing Jiang Xiaorou's actions, Lian Chengyu frowned. This girl was still hostile towards himself!
Lian Chengyu disliked having the poor plebeians of the Lian tribal clan show any disrespect to him. It was a result of an inferiority complex within him under all the larger powers, so he aimed to establish his authority among the poor who could not compare to himself.
But Jiang Xiaorou was considered a woman he admired, so he was more tolerant of her. He would slowly tame her.
Lian Chengyu left. Although he admired Jiang Xiaorou, he did not give her any attention, nor say one word more to her. He was an elite. He was like an emperor who only visited, but never chased. He just needed to wait for Jiang Xiaorou to reach a desperate situation and get Zhao Tiezhu to deal with her.
Jiang Xiaorou looked at Lian Chengyu's back as she clenched Yi Yun's small hands, "Yun-er what was going on?"
"Nothing, Sis Xiaorou. You don't have to worry," answered Yi Yun.
Yi Yun was the one who told Jiang Xiaorou that Lian Chengyu had hurt him. Since Yi Yun assured her, Jiang Xiaorou eased up. These few days, she began to vaguely feel that her brother was no longer the mere child he was. He had his own ideas.
But Jiang Xiaorou began to think before she felt something amiss, "Yun-er, you can't be thinking of refining the desolate bone? You can't go to that place!"
Yi Yun looked at Jiang Xiaorou in surprise. Jiang Xiaorou's keen intuition was surprising. Though she didn't know what mysteries the refinement process had, she had figured that it was a dangerous job.
Yi Yun thought it over before saying softly, "Sis Xiaorou, I'm not as weak as you think. Having come back from the dead, I think I'm different from the past… Don't you remember me climbing up the twenty-meter-tall cliffs a few days ago?"
With Yi Yun saying that, Jiang Xiaorou recalled. She was astonished at Yi Yun's speed while he climbed up the cliff, but she accepted it because Yi Yun liked to climb and pick herbs since he was young.
Thinking it through, Yi Yun was indeed more agile. He was much better at scaling cliffs than most of the members of the warrior preparation camp.
With that in mind, Jiang Xiaorou felt reassured. Her brother was indeed different.
Sometimes, surviving a fatal situation could result in great fortune. Jiang Xiaorou had heard of people who were struck by lightning, and not only did they not die, they also obtained special abilities.
Could Yun-er be in a similar situation?
That night, Yi Yun as a new hire was brought to the grain-sunning grounds.
Wooden fences surrounded the grain-sunning grounds. Because of the "typhoid" incident, the wooden fences increased, preventing anyone from the outside to see in.
There were about thirty people split into two shifts involved in the refinement of the desolate bone.
Yi Yun was assigned the night shift. There were about a dozen people for the night shift. Although these people were not as fit as the men from the warrior preparation camp, they were all large in size. Among them, Yi Yun was like a little chicken among swans. His height only reached their chests.
Seeing Yi Yun, the men were shocked. The reason for the stares was obvious, how did such a thin child get selected to refine the desolate bone?
Besides his strength, his height was so short that even he could not reach the mouth of the cauldron while standing on a stool. How would he be able to add the "Li Fire Water" into the cauldron?
"Lad, are you kidding me? A person like you can refine the bone?"
"What can you do with your little body? Your legs aren't even thicker than the firewood!"
All the men had strong views upon seeing Yi Yun. Yi Yun would be given a piece of bacon for not doing any work. They were unhappy about that.
Yi Yun did not bother speaking, and he sat by the pile of firewood, allowing them to speak as they wished.
"Time for porridge!" A man from the warrior preparation camp brought out a bucket of porridge. There was food provided for those who refined the desolate bone. This was a welfare the upper echelon gave to ensure the smooth refinement of the desolate bone. Only after eating would they have the strength to work.
Upon hearing that the porridge arrived, the men's eyes lit up and ran towards it.
With a brouhaha, the bucket of porridge was wiped empty. With Yi Yun at the back, together with how these people struggled and fought for the food, there was already none left for him.
Yi Yun felt helpless. The phrase—bad surroundings make bad civilians—had its logic. It wasn't because the people in bad surroundings were immoral, but being moral did not ensure their survival.
"Time to work! Work time!" The guys from the warrior preparation camp shouted.
A few men walked towards the big cauldron. It was time to replace the day shift.
Yi Yun straggled at the back. He walked slowly as he stared at the cauldron.
In the eyes of others, Yi Yun looked stunned by the huge bronze cauldron that was being licked by the purple flames. Indeed, the cauldron was huge. Yi Yun's height did not even reach the second handle of the cauldron.
In fact, Yi Yun's vision was filled with faint points of light. It looked like flying fireflies dancing in the night.
Such a mystical power! This was the energy of the desolate bone, and it was the legendary—Power of Desolates!
This endless stream of light dots excited Yi Yun. Previously, the Purple Crystal had absorbed some of the desolate bone's energy, but he was standing far away, preventing him from absorbing much. It was unlike today, where he was in close contact with the desolate bone.
In comparison, the Purple Jade ginseng and the Black Fungus were incomparable to this. Like a person who was accustomed to eating plain food and seeing a lavish meal, Yi Yun was extremely excited.
This was like a thief entering an emperor's tomb, or a weasel sneaking into a chicken coop!
All the energy of the desolate bone belonged to him.
"Kid, what are you idling for? Chop the firewood!" shouted a man before landing an axe in front of Yi Yun.
Yi Yun was awakened from his sluggish state, and happily proceeded to chop wood.
"This lad has a brain problem!" swore the man. He also began busying himself. He and the others were in charge of chopping the firewood.
The firewood was the key to the fire source. It was extremely strong and heavy. A few strongmen had to work hard before they could cut up the purple firewood.
These men worked hard, because if they did well, they could be promoted to foreman, getting more bacon and food.
Yi Yun, though happy, did not get carried away. He knew the desolate bones refinement had something to do with the "typhoid" break out!
He wanted to investigate the cause of the typhoid breakout thoroughly. If the Purple Crystal could not resolve it, then no matter how great the rewards, Yi Yun would only run.
So as Yi Yun chopped the firewood without much purpose, he was carefully observing the red-hot bronze cauldron.
Slowly, Yi Yun realized the problem.
From the big cauldron two differently colored light dots flew out.
The first was purple in color. It was part of the primary stream. It flew around aimlessly, and Yi Yun realized that if he focused, these light dots would fly towards him.
With the Purple Crystal merged with Yi Yun's heart, Yi Yun felt that he could now control the amount the Purple Crystal absorbed ever since he had broken through to the second level of Mortal Blood.
He could choose if he wanted to absorb it or not.
The other light dot was another color, icy blue…
章節 24: Frost Toxin
These cold-blue light dots accounted for a small proportion, but it made Yi Yun feel a mysterious bone-biting chill.
Yi Yun was familiar with this chilling feeling. He had felt it when he passed by the refinement area while descending the mountain. He remembered it clearly because it was just after his breakthrough into the Vigor realm.
The cold-blue light dots floated in the sky like specters.
Occasionally a light dot would leave the cauldron and dance in the air randomly before entering one of the men's bodies.
Just like snowflakes falling into the water, these light dots would then disappear.
Yi Yun could not detect the light dot after that; the light dot had been absorbed by one of the men's body.
Yi Yun's heart skipped a beat. He vaguely understood that the cold-blue light dots were the cause of the typhoid fever epidemic.
He quietly observed for a while and realized that the cold-blue light dots would randomly fly out of the cauldron before entering the bodies of the men. The men were busy chopping wood, and did not notice a thing.
Yi Yun was more assured of his speculation. The purplish-red energy would not fly into the bodies of people. On the contrary, they would remain in the "Li Fire Water".
It was apparent that the desolate bone had two forms of energy, the purplish-red energy was beneficial to a person, causing a person to transform and allowing a person to break through. On the other hand, the cold-blue energy was an invisible killing force!
The energy was toxic. Although it sounded iffy, it wasn't out of the ordinary.
On Earth, there were plenty of energies that had "toxicity". One such example was the Sun. It was only after being filtered through the ozone was the sunlight able to give life to Earth. Humans would have died from the direct sunlight bearing down on them.
On Earth, the most frightening elements had "toxic" energy, such as radioactive Polonium. It killed Arafat, who used to appear often on the news.
If one were to use Polonium to kill, a gram would be sufficient to kill millions. A few hundred grams was enough to kill all life on Earth, making it much stronger than the common "poisonous" items.
In Yi Yun's opinion, the blue light dots were similar in nature to energy, and using "toxic" to describe it may have been inaccurate. However, it was sufficient to understand them as having the capability to kill.
Just like on Earth, being exposed to radiation will cause cancer, ulcers and various illnesses. In the vast wilderness, absorbing the desolate bone's chill toxin would cause "typhoid", resulting in deaths.
"Then wouldn't I be in danger by being here?" thought Yi Yun. He wasn't guarding a cauldron; he was guarding a nuclear reactor!
Thinking carefully, there were plenty of things that were completely different from Earth, but there were similarities.
In terms of energy, the strongest energy on Earth could create atomic bombs or provide nuclear energy.
But in this world, the strongest energy was used to create the strongest experts!
These experts could topple the mountains and overturn the seas. A flip of hand would destroy a city!
These two forms of energy could result in terrible destruction. If not used properly, it would be toxic to the common people!
Thankfully, Yi Yun controlled the treasure that could harness the energy in this world—Purple Crystal.
"But can the Purple Crystal deal with this energy…" Yi Yun tried using the Purple Crystal to absorb the blue light dots. Since he could see the blue light dots, he should be able to absorb them with the Purple Crystal…
As Yi Yun prepared to absorb the first blue light dot, Yi Yun breathed in deeply and reached out his hand carefully. His heart raced, but he finally rationalized that even if the Purple Crystal could not absorb the form of energy, he wouldn't die immediately from one light dot.
The blue light dot entered Yi Yun's body.
Yi Yun felt it clearly. The light dot flew into his fingertips like an ice crystal, and then entered his bloodstream.
"It's so cold!" This was Yi Yun's first thought. It was like having a huge piece of ice stuffed down his collar during winter.
It was weird that he felt it so profoundly, but the other men did not feel it at all. Their bodies were not as fit as him, so they shouldn't be able to resist the cold as much.
It seems they have slow reactionary speeds, and are not able to feel the biting cold. However, their bodies will not lie; once the frost toxin invades them, they will slowly lose their strength. If not for the red pill that was given to them from the Lian tribal clan's upper echelon, they would already be dead?
Yi Yun traced the blue light dot that entered his body. It was eventually absorbed and dissolved by the Purple Crystal into energy that mixed into Yi Yun's blood.
When the energy flowed through Yi Yun's body, that biting chill had already disappeared, and it gave Yi Yun a cool refreshing feeling.
It was comfortable as if he was soaking in aquatic springs.
This made Yi Yun more curious. What sort of treasure was the Purple Crystal? It could absorb all forms of energy, even harmful energy like the blue light dots from the desolate bone and the Yuan Qi Lian Chengyu had used on him. The Purple Crystal would reduce those forms of energy to the purest form of energy to nourish his body.
Yi Yun was not aware of the fact that in the vast wilderness, many desolate bones contained toxic energies. The Frost Python desolate bone's toxin was one of the lowest grades. A low level Desolate Heaven Master could easily dissolve the toxicity. Hence, a toxicity of this level was nothing to the Purple Crystal.
After really absorbing it, Yi Yun realized the effect was not significant.
The Purple Crystal could indeed absorb the blue light dots, but the absorbing speed was extremely slow, far more difficult than absorbing the purplish-red light dots.
"Kid, what are you doing!"
Yi Yun was carefully researching the differences between the two types of energy when he heard a man shout at him. In the eyes of others, Yi Yun was just idling.
One of the men who wanted to be the "foreman" of the group naturally could not stand Yi Yun's laziness.
"Uh…" Yi Yun replied with a smile, "Sorry uncle, this axe is too heavy…"
"Hmph!"
With a 'I knew you wouldn't amount to much' look, the man responded, "I really don't know what the top brass were thinking, to send a kid to refine the desolate bone, holding me back! The useless kid I have, Da Tou is about the same age as you. His strength is twice yours!"
Not to mention Yi Yun's age, but even among his peers, the past Yi Yun's body was extremely thin and lacked strength.
In the vast wilderness, the people worshiped the strong. They were proud of the big and tall men who had dark rough skin.
A handsome person like Yi Yun who had smooth skin was considered "ridden with ills". Such a person was not popular.
"I'm really sorry uncle. I didn't only hold you back; I even hit your balls. I'll work hard in the future." Yi Yun was still smiling. The man was good at doing hard labor, but his reaction was slow. He had not realized what Yi Yun had just said. He only grunted before returning to work while swearing.
Yi Yun began to split the firewood at an adequate pace. To avoid trouble, he increased his speed by a tiny bit. It took him five minutes of hard work, amounting to ten chops to split a piece of firewood.
He had to stay in line with his status.
At the same time, no one noticed that the purplish-red energy churning in the cauldron was flying towards Yi Yun.
As for the cold-blue energy, Yi Yun also absorbed as much as he could. He felt that if he could absorb the blue energy, the men around him would not die.
Unfortunately, the Purple Crystal was not highly effective in absorbing the blue energy. Small amounts of energy were still entering the bodies of the men around him.
Yi Yun had mixed feelings seeing this. Although these people weren't pleasant, they did not deserve to die. However, he was unable to save them.
If he revealed the truth, the men would not only disbelieve him, they might even report him as rumor mongering to Lian Chengyu for a reward of bacon.
These people were definitely capable of doing that. Yi Yun's situation would have been terrible if that happened.
In the vast wilderness, the weak had to accept their own suffering. There was no other way around it.
Just like pigs, cattle, and sheep, they did nothing wrong, but were kept in captivity and slaughtered by humans.
The only reason was their weakness. And in the vast wilderness, being weak was a fault! Being weak made you unable to decide your own fate. Being weak allowed you to be trampled on…
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