63 Feng Huang

Feng Huang

"Ugh, I'm covered in this impure blood again." Xue Bai muttered in disgust.

Since the cheat code was rather explosive, after every breakthrough Xue Bai made in the Blood Exchange Realm using it, he would have his skin covered in blackish blood filled with impurities. 

This happened because of the Blood Ignition Pill. Though all of the blood within his body would be ignited, the pure blood within his body was hard to ignite and release, which means that the only thing that would be secreted out of his pores would be the impure blood.

Not wanting to walk around covered in stench-filled impurities, Xue Bai decided to take a bath.

"Xiao'er, are you back yet?" Xue Bai yelled out his window.

"Yes, Young Master, I'm here!" Xiao'er responded from the courtyard.

She had been back for about 10 minutes, but as Xue Bai was still breaking through, she sat by the pond and waited for him to exit himself. But once her young master spoke her name, she replied.

"Xiao'er, prepare a bath for me. I broke through again." Xue Bai ordered.

Quick to comply, Xiao'er readied Xue Bai's bath. And soon enough, Xiao'er announced it was ready. Then, grabbing a set of clothes to change into, Xue Bai left his room.

Going into his bathroom, Xue Bai saw Xiao'er sprinkle some crushed medicinal herbs into the bath water as she waited for him to arrive.

"Thanks, Xiao'er. You can go now." Xue Bai spoke with a smile.

Waving the maid off, Xue Bai jumped in the now-ready bathtub and began to cleanse himself of all the impurities attached to his skin.

—

As Xue Bai was home, taking a bath, back in the Huo Clan, Huo Chen received a letter branded with the symbol of Duke Xue. 

As Xue Bai was home, showering, back in the Huo Clan, Huo Ming received a letter branded with the symbol of Duke Xue. However, surprisingly, it wasn't addressed to him, the Marquis, and the head of the Huo clan, but rather to his son.

Huo Ming was undoubtedly confused by this, but since he didn't dare open a letter that wasn't for him, he took it to his son.

Huo Long's Courtyard

"Long'er a letter for you came from the dukedom. It also has Duke Xue's symbol on it." Huo Ming spoke as he entered the courtyard of his only son.

Huo Ming seemed to have aged at least ten years since the last time Xue Bai saw him. His face was haggard, and there were streaks of gray appearing in his hair and beard.

After Huo Long first awakened his Martial Veins, Huo Ming thought that it was finally time for their Huo Clan to rise once again. And for two years, it seemed so. 

But when the devastating news came that his only son, his pride and joy, Huo Long, had his dantian shattered and his Martial Veins crippled, everything came toppling down.

The business partners Huo Ming managed to make had started to back out of their deals, even at the cost of the penalty. The allies he had made in preparation for a fight with the Xia and Huang Clans abandoned him for the enemies they had promised to fight against.

And his cousins, who had long forgotten about the patriarch's seat, were all now looking at it like a pack of hyenas.

Huo Ming wanted everything to be a dream, one that he wanted to wake up from, but after Huo Long came home from Wushen Academy with compensation in hand, Huo Ming was forced to accept reality.

Seeing his son try and look brave and calm even after having his future destroyed almost broke Huo Ming, but he kept it together. And for the past week, he had been trying to get his son out of his courtyard, but to no avail.

Until today came around when he received a letter from the dukedom branded with Duke Xue's personal seal.

Huo Long, hearing his father call him, came out of his bedroom, soot covering his face.

"Father, I couldn't hear you. What did you say?" Huo Long asked as he wiped the soot off his face with a white handkerchief.

Seeing the soot on his son's face, Huo Ming's heart clenched.

"Long'er, you don't have to work so hard anymore. Being an alchemist without having any Spiritual Qi is something that maybe only the gods above can do. In this life, Father will take care of you. So you don't have to worry about that anymore." Huo Ming spoke caringly as he used his Spiritual Qi to help clean the soot off of Huo Long's face.

Huo Long wanted to stop his father, but the soot was really hard to get off without Spiritual Qi, so he let him do it. But after his face was cleaned up, he moved away and repeated his question.

"Father, why did you call me? I didn't hear your words earlier."

"You received a letter from the dukedom." Huo Ming answered as he pulled the letter out of his robes.

After taking it and seeing the snowflake symbol, Huo Long was confused. "Father, why would Duke Xue send me a letter? I never even met the Duke, let alone got associated with him. So why would I get a letter?"

However, Huo Ming was just as confused and just shrugged his shoulders in reply to his son's question.

"I don't know, Long'er. I am the messenger here. Since it says your name, I don't dare to open it myself." Huo Ming answered as he left the courtyard.

Just looking at his son's pitiful circumstances made Huo Ming age twice as fast, and he didn't want to stay any longer.

However, Huo Long didn't open the letter but instead stood in silence, waiting for his father to walk away further. And after hearing his father walk far enough, Huo Long turned on his courtyard's noise-canceling and camouflage formations.

Over the years, Xue Bai had given the Huo Clan blueprints for many different formations, with the noise-canceling and camouflage formations being two of them.

After feeling secure enough, Huo Long faintly called out, "Master, is this letter safe to open?"

And shockingly, instead of his question fading in the air, an illusory figure formed from the discrete-looking ring on his finger like a cloud of smoke.

The figure was of a young woman who had a mesmerizing beauty that seemed even to seduce the soul. But besides her face, which would bring empires to ruin, the next thing someone would notice was her red-colored hair, or rather, her flame-colored hair.

Instead of having normal hair, her red hair seemed to be engulfed in a flame that would never burn out.

The woman was none other than Huo Long's master, Feng Huang. He had discovered her in a weakened state while traveling home from Wushen Academy.

While in a carriage, Huo Long heard an earth-shattering sound come a few hundred meters away from him. Thinking it to be a treasure that could help his situation, he jumped out of his carriage and ran towards the site of impact.

But instead of any natural treasure, Huo Long was met with a simple-looking iron ring. Thinking that even the heavens themselves were playing with Huo Long's life, he went to throw the ring as far as he could, but when he bent down to pick it up, Huo Long realized that he couldn't pick it up.

Not convinced, Huo Long went to try once more, but before he could, Feng Huang manifested herself in front of him. And after hearing her story, Huo Long thought he had found a person similar to himself. It was then that Feng Huang offered to teach Huo Long cultivation and how to fix his situation.

Though he was skeptical at first after Feng Huang nearly incinerated the entire forest he was in, Huo Long hurriedly kneeled down and accepted her as a master.

Through her teachings in the past week, though Huo Long had yet to fix his cultivation problem, he had learned the basics of alchemy and had begun concocting. That's why he was covered in soot almost the entire day.

He was a newbie, after all, so failures were impossible to avoid. And the soot on Huo Long's face was the mark of those failures. It was just that Huo Ming didn't think that Huo Long had any success in between the failures that created the misunderstanding.

As Feng Huang fully manifested, she raised her fair hand and levitated the letter near her, where she then inspected it with her Soul Sense. As a remnant soul, Feng Huang long lost her access to Spiritual Sense and was forced to use the soul version, Soul Sense, something only available to Soul Fusion Realm cultivators and above.

Giving the letter a quick sweep, Feng Huang deemed it safe and handed it back to Huo Long.

"Long'er, you mentioned this Duke Xue to me before, isn't your friend his son? Maybe the letter could be from him." As Huo Long opened the letter, Feng Huang imputed from the side.

Agreeing with her guess, Huo Long spoke in a melancholy tone, "Most likely. Duke Xue is a powerhouse that not even Father could meet. His sending me a letter would be like the Emperor inviting a beggar to the palace."

"Long'er, now that you are my Feng Huang's disciple, Duke Xue is nothing. You'll grow into something that can't be contained in this tiny mortal world. Give yourself ten years, and you'll be stronger than anyone on this tiny continent." Feng Huang spoke as she saw Huo Long suddenly become sad.

Even though Feng Huang had constantly taught Immortal Realm-level alchemy techniques to Huo Long, it was almost like playing music to a cow. Huo Long knew nothing about alchemy and merely thought that the skills he was learning were commonplace.

And even if Feng Huang tried to say otherwise, Huo Long would pick them up at heaven-defying speeds and reply with his same melancholy voice, 'If they were from the legendary Immortal Realm, how could a cripple trash like me learn them so fast?'

It made Feng Huang angry to no end, but she couldn't do anything about it until she could help the boy cultivate once again.

"Yes, I know, Master. You've mentioned this countless times already." Huo Long said as he finally unsealed the letter and found Xue Bai's words within.

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