Tang Yan said nothing as Tang Ling's curses thundered down on him. He knew that for all the fury blazing in the old man's voice, his grandfather cherished him. His father had vanished years ago; he had no uncles, no brothers. As the only heir the Tang Family had left, he was everything to old Tang Ling, rage or no rage.
His own thoughts had already wandered elsewhere. His Dantian was crippled. True, he knew the formula for a Meridian-Restoring Pill, but among the nine ranks of Alchemy Dao that pill sat at the sixth. In all of Tingxiang Kingdom even fourth-rank Alchemists could be counted on one hand. Who was he supposed to find to refine a sixth-rank pill?
And after that, how was he to cultivate at all?
Without the strength to guard himself, a man in this martial world would be ground down until not even dregs remained.
Tang Ling, for his part, was baffled. On any ordinary day, if the boy had been bullied like this, he'd have come storming in with his fur on end, begging his grandfather to go take revenge. Why was he so meek today?
What surprised him even more was the boy's appearance. Normally the brat dressed garish and slovenly, and no amount of scolding had ever changed it. Today his clothes were plain and neat. Had he actually turned over a new leaf, or what?
And that stance-though the boy kept his eyes lowered and gave no answer, head bowed, his back was straight as a spear shaft. There was even a faint air of bearing about him.
"You're lucky Uncle Mo got there in time. Any later and that little beast from the Liu Family might have seized the chance to put you in the ground. From now on you watch yourself, and no more stirring up trouble. Cause trouble again and I'll see to you with the family rod! Now get out!"
Seeing his grandson still silent, Tang Ling couldn't make out what was going through the boy's head. The Dantian was ruined, yes, but the boy had never wanted to cultivate to begin with, and Tang Ling had never expected him to amount to anything on the martial path. He asked only that the boy live out his days in peace and carry on the Tang Family line.
"The young master is a little different today." The old steward, silent until now, suddenly spoke.
Old Master Tang nodded and let out a sigh. "Hard to say whether it's just my imagination. Maybe it's only because he's barely recovered from a serious illness. No telling what he'll be like in a few days. But if he really has changed, then find him a few teachers, let him study commerce and strategy. If he turns out to have a head for business, that's a road of his own."
......
Tang Yan knew nothing of what passed between Old Master Tang and Uncle Mo. He trudged the whole way back wrapped in gloom. He'd barely crossed into this world, and already his Dantian was scrap. A hell-tier opening if there ever was one.
His thoughts drifted to the Heaven and Earth Creation Cauldron. If the cauldron still existed, he could simply lean on it and cultivate from nothing all over again. Unfortunately the Creation Cauldron had fared even worse than he had-blown to ash, gone without a trace.
He had no True Qi to drive the Alchemical Flame and refine pills, but Tang Yan was not a man who could sit idle. He turned and made for the library pavilion. He badly needed to learn how this world worked-above all about its medicinal herbs, the very foundation of alchemy.
A few books in, the corners of his mouth lifted on their own. This world's culture was nothing like Huaxia's, yet the names of its herbs, their properties, their effects-they were nearly identical.
Even so, he worked through every page, fixing the differences firmly in mind. When at last he glanced out the window the sun had already set. His stomach growled in protest; he gave a small laugh and headed back to his own courtyard.
After the dinner Xiaocui had prepared, Tang Yan sat on the bed and carefully sorted through his situation.
He truly did have the luck of nine lives. A forced breakthrough had blown the Heaven and Earth Creation Cauldron to pieces, and somehow his soul had still crossed into another world to live a second time.
Still, the circumstances he'd inherited along with this body were a headache all their own.
First, the boy's father had vanished ten years ago, and the body's former owner had been an idle, ignorant wastrel. The Tang Family might be a great house of Yun City, but if he himself had no strength, then the day his grandfather closed his eyes would likely be the day the Tang Family fell.
"I can't just sit here waiting to die. I have to get my strength back, whatever it takes." Tang Yan frowned, hesitated a moment, then decided to test it-whether his soul crossing over might have worked some small miracle and left him able to cultivate again.
He folded his legs on the bed, settled his mind, steadied his spirit and held his breath, trying to slip into meditation.
Five minutes-no response from his Dantian.
A quarter of an hour-no response from his Dantian.
A full shichen-still no response from his Dantian.
In his last life, as a ninth-rank Alchemist, Tang Yan had often kept vigil before the cauldron for ten days or half a month at a stretch while refining pills. His mental fortitude was iron. Yet with his Dantian dead silent for half a day, even he began to chafe.
How the hell was anyone supposed to cultivate like this?
Just as he was on the verge of giving up, a vast and achingly familiar aura erupted out of his Sea of Consciousness.
Tang Yan's mind jolted hard. That aura-it was the Heaven and Earth Creation Cauldron!
He calmed himself at once and sank his full awareness into his Sea of Consciousness. There, a half-transparent Pill Cauldron turned slowly within the void.
"The Supreme Alchemy Scripture: seize the creation of Heaven and Earth, refine the supreme essence. The cultivator must first scatter the power of his Dantian-break it, then forge it anew-and so forge the Supreme Alchemy Scripture." A deep, heavy voice rolled out from within the cauldron. On its heels, a vast and tangled flood of knowledge poured into Tang Yan's mind.
It was a long while before he finished digesting it all, and when he did, his heart surged like a rising sea.
In his last life, even with his Alchemy Dao honed to perfection, refining pills had always demanded the aid of a Pill Cauldron. But by the Supreme Alchemy Scripture passed down from the Heaven and Earth Creation Cauldron, once a man cultivated to a certain height he could become the cauldron himself, refining pills from his own body-and to even greater effect.
"Marvelous. Truly marvelous," Tang Yan praised inwardly.
It was just as he'd suspected the moment he woke: the final secret of the Heaven and Earth Creation Cauldron was to refine the Cauldron Spirit, and the ultimate aim of the cultivation was Human-cauldron unity.
In his past life he had never grasped the true method of wielding the Heaven and Earth Creation Cauldron. In this one, his very fate had fallen perfectly into step with the Supreme Alchemy Scripture. Call it timing, call it destiny.
And so Tang Yan set to cultivating, sinking breath by breath into meditation. With the monstrous experience of his former life, and a body whose root and bone were sound to begin with, before long a warm thread of energy began to gather low in his belly.
......
"Master, the young master didn't go out today. He went into the library pavilion instead." That night, in Old Master Tang's study, the head steward Uncle Mo reported in a low voice.
"What?" Old Master Tang's brows shot up. He asked quickly, "That boy spent the whole day in the library?"
"Just so."
At Uncle Mo's confirmation, a strange look crossed Old Master Tang's face. It was some time before he spoke. "That boy never trained in martial arts, and whenever I told him to read he'd be asleep before he got through a single page. Now he sits in the library all day? Does the boy even know his characters? Or does he just sleep sounder in there? Bring me the books he read today, quick!"
Uncle Mo gave a wry smile and opened the chest he'd readied in advance, holding it out. "The young master read a great deal today!"
"Complete Compendium of Medicines, A Detailed Treatise on Medicinal Materials, A Detailed Account of the Continent's Terrain, Two Thousand Years of Tingxiang Kingdom History..." Seeing the titles, the strange look on Old Master Tang's face only deepened. "Has the boy truly changed his nature?"
"From the day the young master was born until now, every book he's read put together wouldn't add up to what he read today. Perhaps he really has turned over a new leaf," Uncle Mo offered, half in congratulation.
"Bullshit. That brat's got a whole bed's worth of spring-palace albums and lewd romances stuffed underneath. He's read plenty!" Old Master Tang snorted, the anger plain in it, then went on. "Still-books like these don't fit that little bastard's nature at all. Watch him another two days!"47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBL7ElT6VFL
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