Phoniex Requiem
Chapter 57: The King of Slayers

Chapter 57: The King of Slayers

"What's the problem?" Yun Ruoyan half-smiled as she looked towards Pei Ziao. "If you don't think this secret is worth it, forget it!" He made it look like he was going to leave.

"Wait wait!" Pei Ziao hurriedly called out. "Deal!"

But then, still worried, he added, "What if you still reveal this secret even after I brought you these two things?"

Yun Ruoyan turned around and said carefully, "I promise, if you find out that I have violated the terms of our agreement, then I will remain single until my deathbed!"

For a woman, especially a woman in this era, marrying into a good family is paramount. Yun Ruoyan's oath was far fiercer than the standard oath about being struck by lightning!

Pei Ziao was instantly satisfied with his words, but Yun Ruoyan's words were very precise. When I kill you, this oath will be canceled immediately!

The sharp fanged tiger's fangs were not with him, but were instead kept temporarily in the Lin family. Yun Ruoyan was about to hand over the fangs after returning from Minghuang mountain, and, for a top grade pill, as it was so precious, Yun Ruoyan had to go alone to Pei residence to claim it.

“Sister Ziao, are we going to let him utilize us like that?” After Yun Ruoyan left, Yi Qianying appeared from a corner.

Pei Ziao sighed, saying, "This secret is very important to Pei, and I have no choice but to fulfill his request."

"But would he keep a secret just because of that?" Yi Qianying looked at Pei Ziao grimly. “Again, there is only one group of people who can really keep a secret.”

Pei Ziao turned his head towards Yi Qianying, looking at himself in his eyes. "Sister Ziao, for you, I'm willing to do anything, as long as you don't forget the promise you made to me."

...****************...

At night, Yun Ruoyan sat on her bed as she began pillmaster training following Lin Zainan's manual.

According to the manual, spiritual power is a direct result of condensation of spiritual energy, and spiritual energy itself consists of five main elements, gold, wood, water, fire, and earth.

The first step to pillmaster training is to be able to sense the main fire element in one's spiritual energy, and the instructions the manuals for this purpose are short and concise, with your heart, feel your soul. There's nothing more.

Yun Ruoyan closed her eyes as she tried to do what the manual suggested, but nothing seemed to be happening, and she could not help but begin to feel frustrated.

“Mistress, don't forget your grandfather's instructions! Keep trying, and don't expect to do it straight away.” Qiuqiu could feel Yun Ruoyan's irritation growing, and quickly reminded her of her grandfather's words.

Yun Ruoyan sighed deeply to calm herself down before asking, "Qiuqiu, do you have a method to speed this up?"

"Mrs! Hurrying is not the right way of doing things, and all the methods on this continent that boast such quick results all have an immoral or unethical component.”

"But how long will it take me to see results at this rate?" His grandfather had spent three whole years before he could detect the main element of fire in his own spiritual energy, and then another two years before he could finally condense the spiritual fire as a result.

If he were to imitate his achievements, then Yun Ruoyan would only be able to concoct pills after a full five years!

“Unless there is an opportunity, there is no way to speed this up,” concluded Qiuqiu.

Such an opportunity arose, for example, when Yun Ruoyan discovered the phoenix bezoar and managed to cleanse her body of the poison. With Qiuqiu's help, he achieved an unimaginable feat of rising three ranks in a matter of days, but this kind of opportunity was not something that could be sought for granted.

“Qiuqiu, don't you have an incredible cultivation technique for pill experts?”

“Only blademasters rely heavily on cultivation techniques. For pillmaster and forgemaster, the most important thing is talent and opportunity.”

Cultivation as a swordsman was simply a foundation; doing so would allow a cultivator to form a spiritual vortex within their body, to purify the quality and amount of spiritual energy a cultivator could possess, but to convert that spiritual energy into a form that could be applied to forging or pill making was a matter of talent. Even those who were not intrinsically talented would be able to achieve more by consuming the spiritual herbs and monster cores of fire-aligned savage beasts.

But doing so would cause impurities in a cultivator's spiritual energy, meaning such a technique was only used when one had no other choice.

Qiuqiu's words completely dispelled Yun Ruoyan's notion of taking a shortcut.

“Patience, patience, patience.” As if trying to hypnotize himself, he repeated this one word over and over again, before closing his eyes and trying to feel the flames once more.

“I don't have any techniques to improve your pillmaster cultivation quickly, but I have a manual for making pills.” Just as Yun Ruoyan was thinking that Qiuqiu had fallen asleep, she suddenly said this sentence.

“What manual?” Yun Ruoyan immediately opened her eyes. "Is it high quality?"

"Yes of course. You are unlikely to find a suitable one for it across the continent, ” Qiuqiu replied proudly.

"Hurry up, show me!" Yun Ruoyan hurriedly closed her eyes and jumped into the pocket dimension of the bracelet.

"Quick-forward!" This time, it was not Qiuqiu who was circling around Yun Ruoyan, but rather the opposite.

Qiuqiu began to regret his sudden statement, but, unable to deal with Yun Ruoyan's abuse, finally agreeing with one provision, he could only see, but not flip through, the book.

This meant that Qiuqiu would lift the book in front of Yun Ruoyan, but he was unable to touch or read it.

"Why?"

All Yun Ruoyan could see was that the book cover was black, and there were four large, blood-red characters imprinted on it: The Dominion of Poison.

Even the cover seemed to promise strength.

“Currently, you can't touch this book, let alone read it!” Qiuqiu. “Only when you reach your grandfather's level can you even start pondering pills and recipes here. But are you sure you want to make poison? After all, they're used to hurting other people, and I'm not sure your grandfather would approve of it.”

In his past life, Yun Ruoyan had died from Yi Qianying's poison. Since Yi Qianying was able to concoct a powder that could deal with magical beasts, she likely also had skill with poison, so she learned how to make poison would help her ward off it.

“Nobody else needs to know about this. I will not be lenient towards those who have hurt me and those who plan to harm me, even if I have to use immoral techniques.”.

“As long as you feel comfortable with your choice, Mistress.”

After this interlude, Yun Ruoyan continued to encourage herself. "If I can't be impatient, then there's nothing but practice, practice, practice."

He was about to close his eyes and continue his sensing when he suddenly heard a commotion by the window.

“The person is here again,” Qiuqiu yawns in heart.

Yun Ruoyan did not need to ask to find out who was meant. He simply stretched out his hand and applied a lotus leaf gauze on his face.

Since applying the ointment to her face for a long time made her uncomfortable, she would always try to wash it before going to bed whenever she could.

As a result, the lotus leaf gauze was very useful, and Yun Ruoyan even considered letting it go even when she was sleeping.

“Oh, you've learned how to improve your appearance.” Li Qianhan slipped in through the window once more, and this was the first thing he said as he jumped in.

Yun Ruoyan imitated his tone. “As for you, however, you showed no improvement at all. My first impression of you was as a thief, and many times, you just reinforced this impression. If you have the guts, next time try to get in through the front door. ”

But Li Qianhan did not step forward, and simply leaned against the window sill. “It wasn't difficult, but I'm afraid it will cause problems for everyone involved. Why do something unnecessary when your window is wide open for me?”

The implication that there would be a commotion made Yun Ruoyan even more certain about her status as a noble.

"Who is 'Li San'?" He asked directly.

"Eh?" Li Qianhan looked at Yun Ruoyan. "How do you know my nickname?"

"You're Li San ?!" Yun Ruoyan originally thought that Li San was the man who had kissed her, but he was instead the young man standing before her! "You are the third prince of the Li kingdom, Li Qianhan?"

"That's right!" Li Qianhan did not seem angry at all as his identity was revealed. Instead, his expression was one of joy. “A high-achieving and carefree third prince, Li Qianhan, is at your service. Now tell me, how do you guess?"

Yun Ruoyan frowned as she threw one of the bottles she left at her. "Why did the bottle of medicine he gave me say your name?"

Li Qianhan looked once before he started beating his own forehead with his fan. “Why am I so careless to give you these bottles with my name as a gift? If Uncle finds out, he'll chop off my head!”

The prize! Uncle!

Yun Ruoyan immediately explained two important sentences. It seemed like this antidote was not given by that person, but rather by Li Qianhan himself as a gift, and that person was none other than Li Qianhan's uncle!

As soon as those words came out of his mouth, he immediately realized that he was speaking wrong, and his fan instead started slapping his mouth.

"Now that you've brought it up, why don't you tell me everything?"

“I didn't say anything, anything! If she asks about that, tell her that you guessed it yourself!” Li Qianhan jumped out the window and disappeared in a gust of wind.

"Uncle ..." Yun Ruoyan stared out the empty window as she pondered the implications.

If Yun Ruoyan had not mistakenly remembered, there was a funeral last year for one of the three emperor's brothers, and the other was even older than her own father. Then, the mysterious stranger could only be the remaining brother.

“That can't be him, can it?!” Yun Ruoyan could not help but become a little cold. This last elder brother was named Li Mo, the youngest son of the previous emperor, a legendary figure in his own right.

He was said to have a talent for pill making and summoning, and both talents were equipped with extremely high cultivation.

Having just one talent alone was already an enormous source of spiritual energy, but possessing two talents simultaneously and an impressive cultivation besides that. Yun Ruoyan did not even dare to imagine the prowess of this person.

Apparently, this was not even his most frightening feature. What made him scary was how much he enjoyed killing.

He first entered the battlefield at the age of ten, and became a general at the age of fifteen. When he was seventeen, he quelled the beastkin rebellion.

Under his command, all fifty thousand beastkin slaves who ended up in captivity were killed, coloring the river bordering the Li kingdom. Apparently, the smell of the blood produced was so strong that one could even smell it in the capital, carried far inland by the northern wind.

It was from then on that the beast skin lost the power to resist human domination, and Li Mo's nickname as the Slaying King began to spread.

Yun Ruoyan recalled the stranger's face once again, a glowing black sphere that shone with killing intent, and she could only shudder.