The Way of the Sword (BL)

Chapter 4: The injured cultivator

(...)

Song Yan felt his heart beating too fast and his gaze became wary. He stopped behind a nearby tree and looked back at the male silhouette. The man's silhouette loosely rested on a firm wooden log, which strangely, despite the "great calamity", was a mysterious log of simple-looking wood. 

Song Yan always thought that log was strange, but he never discovered anything different about it. It looked like a simple wooden log, but it so far was not affected by time and climate and remained unchanged. 

At last, the silhouette of the man's body lying on that log slides slowly down till he's sitting down on the ground. With this, even the murderous aura disappears little by little, but the smell of blood is still strong and Song Yan worried that it would soon start attracting the demonic beasts, prowling in for a juicy feast. 

Song Yan still waited a few minutes before finally accumulating enough courage to approach the man. He thought that this man might have had something to do with his family and knew of this place, otherwise, how would he know that the great wooden log was the only solid foundation remaining intact amongst these ruins? 

He took a deep breath and moved forward towards the shattered mansion of the Song Family. His footsteps were as light as the wind as he was using a mysterious technique of shadow steps to move silently without a trace. With each step, his heartbeat a little faster! There was increasing nervousness and anxiety because he hoped that this stranger may be able to solve some mysteries in his short life of which he remembered even lesser. 

When he reached the man, the scent of blood became even stronger. The man was tall, broad-shouldered, his long hair bound with a silver harpoon. But even though he was able to make out all these details, Song Yan could not distinguish the features of his face. He felt as if there was some power blocking his sight on the face of this man.

Song Yan felt a cold shiver pass through his spine. At that moment he realized that this man was very powerful! So powerful that his mortal eyes could not see through the power of this man. He seemed unconscious, so Song Yan decided to pull away from this dangerous stranger. But just as he was about to move, a strong hand gripped his slender wrist, barring him from moving away! Song Yan's heart almost skipped a few beats and a little fear crept into his heart. He cursed himself because of his curiosity, and the fact that he had let down his guard leaving caution aside. 

"A child ..." the man's voice was hoarse and tired, but there was still lucidity in his tone. Song Yan could feel the surprise echoing in this man's tone. However, Song Yan did not say anything, keeping silent and all the while his heart pounded with nervousness.

Then Song Yan waited for the man to speak, but that man said nothing else. He just let Song Yan's wrist go and lay back on the log, showing a little disdain and indifference in his attitude.

Song Yan did not care about that. After all, in front of a specialist, a small hunger-starved child like him was just too insignificant. Now being free of the man's hold, Song Yan was about to walk away. But before he could depart, this man began to spit blood that smelled of rot, as if his flesh were rotting.

Song Yan frowned and hesitated a little, before drawing two fat pills with intense aromas from his interspatial ring. One of the pills was a blue color with a slightly silver glow, while the other pill was a green color having a slight golden glow.

As the mysterious man breathed deeply, his body trembled with pain. The man could feel the poison corroding his body. He did not mourn or fear death, but he found it a bit pathetic to die so close and at the same time away from the members of his sect, who were making the selections in a close-by village.

The poison was very powerful and painful, but his heart did not shake, and his mind was clear enough. The cultivation he practiced was very powerful; if it were not so, he would not have been able to escape the claws of the devils especially after being infected by poison so potent!

While he thought fate was pathetic, he felt the child approach him again. His indifferent gaze focused on the child, who seemed to be poor and severely underfed.

This child's skin was very yellow, a sickly yellow, and his brown hair was limp and weak as if at any moment it would be undone. But despite all these, the child's eyes were very soft and had a gentle glow and right now those eyes were filled with a little fear, anxiety, and insecurity.

The child took a deep breath as if gathering courage, and then approached him while extending his thin arms. His little delicate hand gripped his big, callused hand.

The mysterious man felt the small, warm hand in his large one and for some reason, his heart softened as if this fragile hand could give him comfort, which was rather strange since his Dao focused on eliminating all feelings. However, it would not be bad to have someone holding his hand, thought this powerful man just for a few seconds until he felt the child leave two round things in his hand and withdrew the small hand from his.

When the heat of that fragile hand went away, he felt a little strange. Not sadness or anxiety, but a strange emptiness, a feeling of loss.

"Great man, if you die, do not die on my family property", Song Yan said, sighing and looking around the destroyed mansion. This was the only place that held his life's sole memories! Memories of who he was and proof that he was loved unconditionally. Despite the destruction that was around him, for Song Yan, this place brought warmth to his heart.

Soon after Song Yan turned and left since it was now up to the strange man to heal with the two life-saving pills that he had left in his hands.

"Father! Mother! I am cultivating positive karma, as you had asked me to. I only hope that this karma will not come back to bite me in the future", thought Song Yan, offering a brief prayer to his deceased parents. 

The mysterious man felt Song Yan leaving, so he analyzed the two-round pills in his hold with his powerful consciousness.

"That. That is a Revitalizing silver-grade pill and a 1000-grade Gold-healing pill?!!". The man was shocked by those two pills now lying in his hands.

In the same way that martial techniques, breathing techniques, and cultivation techniques have degrees; this also applies to other professions and areas of study, such as alchemy, pharmacy, blacksmithing and formations among other areas that exist in this world. 

Alchemy divides the pills into four levels: common pills, spirit pills, immortal pills, and transcendent pills. The common pill has a bronze glow faintly permeating the pill. The spirit pill glows with a soft silver glow. The immortal pill glows with a faint glow of gold and the transcendent pill has a soft rainbow glow.

The quality of the pills increases according to the intensity of the gloss that the pills emit, the stronger the shine. The higher the quality of the materials, the greater the effectiveness of the medication.

For each degree of the pill, a specialized alchemist is needed. The Dao of Alchemy is divided into 5 official degrees: 1st Yellow Degree; 2nd Gray Degree; 3rd Black Degree; 4th Red Degree and the 5th & highest being the White Degree alchemists.

These are the official hierarchies, but within each degree, there is a kind of sub-degree too, which makes a big difference when talking about the quality of the pills. These sub-degrees are divided into 4 levels: First is the Fire Mastery, second is the Domain of Yin and Yang, third is Vitality and fourth is the Natural Energy.

Fire Mastery level, as the name implies, refers to mastering the spiritual fire or a mysterious fire, so as to not blow apart the cauldron and simultaneously being able to manipulate the number of pills each ingredient can make. At this level, the most common pills are those for Refining Qi, Qi Absorption and Nourishing Dantians Roots.

The domain of Yin and Yang is the incorporation of Dao into the pills, meaning pills that help in incorporating the increase of power of some element or the physical strength of the cultivator.

Vitality level is when it is possible to feel a spiritual pulse from within the pill. Usually, these pills have purposes related to the restoration of body members such as bone and organ development.

And finally, a Natural Energy level is one that is able to heal or strengthen any type of soul damage such as pills that can fix a broken soul or heal poisoned souls.

The pill that the man was holding was a Spirit level pill, made by a Degree 3 (a black degree) alchemist, who reached the peak of the Natural Energy level. The second pill in his hands was an Immortal level pill, made by a red degree alchemist, who produced the pill in the early stages of the Natural Energy level.

A Spirit pill like that can be sold at an auction for 5,000,000 gold coins (5 million) which equals 5 large purple gold coins. And the Immortal pill that he held could be sold at an auction for 100,000,000 (100 million) gold coins, that is if someone is foolish enough to sell such a pill in the first place! 

A single Spirit pill can purchase the service of a team of Aurore Core Realm cultivators! While the Immortal pill can not only make a team of Rising Soul Realm cultivators but even a single cultivator of the Immortal Realm offers his services!

Who was this little boy? 

How did he have these items on his body? 

And why did he give it to me? 

Does he know that these are precious and rare items? 

These were the thoughts of the mysterious man as he consumed the pills and sat in a lotus pose to begin his healing meditation. Soon he would be cured of all the wounds, including the Devil's poison! 

However, the mysterious man was worried if he would ever be able to find his savior. And even if he did, how could he eliminate such an immense debt, because karma like this would be very difficult to reciprocate. He imagined that the child did not know the value of these pills or worse, that this was some inheritance left for the child! And now the child had nothing left for himself! 

Probably this man would be even further shocked if he discovered that this child had many more such pills with him and even some of the much higher levels than the ones he had just consumed! In addition, those high-level pills that could knock down realms were just worthless pills in the eyes of the boy. 

Unfortunately, or maybe, fortunately, this child yet had no access to these top-level pills. Such pills possess a consciousness and are then sealed in jade boxes, only to be accessed when martial cultivation or cultivation of alchemy reaches a particular realm or degree, such as the Rising Soul Realms and the Red Degree Alchemist.

The man worries about repaying the favor to the little boy. And on the contrary, the child prays in his mind never to meet this man again! He does not want to get involved in any matter that this man with the smell of blood could drag him into in the future.

However, fate is a shameless motherfucker!